I used the pen tool on after effects to create the feathered “cloud” effect at the top of the ship but I think I was done, for now anyway. I was happy with my outcome.
compositing
Compositing attempt #3
I know I said that I was going to photoshop a spaceship above the Cavehill but I don’t know, I wasn’t feeling it anymore. I instead wanted to go up to the Belfast Castle and get a nice shot of Belfast from there, there’s nicer surrounding etc up there.
I didn’t know what to go for, I was getting nice shots but not the one I knew I wanted, I hadn’t seen it in my camera roll yet and I needed the right shot before the sun set, I didn’t want to lose that pink glow in the sky. Then I sat up my tri-pod and camera, timed it, and I sat in front of it, staring out into the sky’s abyss.
This is my Image, now I just have to put my Spaceship in it and boom! I’m sitting up at Belfast Castle staring at the spaceship I modelled on my Macbook Pro.
Alright so I wanted to make the spaceship fit into the scene, it needed the correct lighting to make it realistic and I needed it to look realistic. I used point lights first, took the ink dropper, borrowed the colour from the clouds (I’ll give it back someday) and played about with the intensity and exposure til I got something I was content with. Before I did the lighting on the model above however, I took the 3 main colours I could see in the photo, the greys, the pink and the neutral white barrier between the two. I took each colour did an AI-Fog on maya using each colour and tried to see if I could layer the 3 separate images on photoshop, just to see how that would look. Not as good mind you but sure, we live and we learn, try and fail, don’t fail to try.
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- pink fog
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- grey fog
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- white fog
After playing about with the attributes on photoshop, testing the different layers (multiply, overlay, screen etc) this is was the best thing I could come up with. Yea it works but… I prefer the other one I think. And if I take that and do my render passes of the image I could adjust whatever I need to and find something particularly nice!
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- beauty
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- direct_diffuse
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- indirect_diffuse
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- N
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- occulsion
- Beauty
- Direct_Diffuse
- Indirect_Diffuse
- Direct_Specular
- Indirect_Specular
- Occlusion
- SSS
- N
- ID
I took my render passes and layered them on photoshop, Cassie kindly informed me about what would be the best way to layer them, what order and what blending modes to use.
Compositing attempt #2
Okay so, I took the same video but wanted to make it a wee bit better, so I textured the ship, re rendered different footage of it, and had it rotating 180 and “warping” into the distance.
I didn’t know how to create the light for the engines. Do I recreate fire and do a simulation? pair it with the spaceship? Do I do it in After Effects or do I use lighting tricks? I chose to do lighting, I connected 4 blue point lights to each engine, key framed them for take off and parented them to the ship. I think it looked well enough, it’s better than nothing anyway, gives it that bit of extra depth to the composite.
I did the same thing I did in the original composite, 3d-tracking, layered footage and BAM, another attempt at compositing. I wish I could of added sound but I just didn’t really have the time, I can come back in a later stage and add some for my showreel or something.
I edited the ship on After Effects by using the pen tool to create a mask over the ship > inverted it > and feathered it as much as I needed to, to get that cloudy effect over the ship, so that it wasn’t poppin’ too much.
Compositing attempt #1
So I went out today, I took my tripod with me and I took a video of the cathedral. After watching videos on after effects about 3-D tracking I wanted to try it myself so I rendered a video of the spaceship and overlaid it on top of my footage on after affects. I thought a video would of been easier to try first rather than a still image. I thought that I might as well try compositing rather than just testing out my good photoshop collage skills. I took the video onto after affects, did the 3d-tracking of the video, set a null object to one of the trackers and paired the null object to the render of my spaceship and voila, my first very basic attempt at composting.
Modelling The “Venator Class Star Destroyer”
Straight in; First I set up my image planes so that they were all the same size then I modelled out the basic shape of the ship; the ships foundations, my base.
God DAMN! this thing is fidgety. I don’t mind it though haha And I’m enjoying just chilling here, chippin’ away at this model.
> So I added the rectangular bridge down the middle and the “gun” things at the back, I’m actual not sure what they are? Here’s a diagram of the ship below. I’m Inserting insert loops and extruding faces inwards to get those engraved features on the ship, nothing to it.
Panels
I added the panels on top of the the ship, added some mini guns and now this thing is really starting to come together, its rather simple, you could model this ship if you only knew the basics of modelling, I know you could. It looks intimidating, there’s a lot on it and you don’t know where to start but you just have to break it down into sections in your mind. Tackle it slowly and persistently.
The dreaded “side of the ship”
I tackled this part next because I knew if I left it til last it would take me longer to do, I was excited for the engines and I just wanted to get this horrible tedious task over with, especially after doing those panels. I broke it down into its 5 faces it has each side and tackled it 1 at a time. Looking at my references models and also having some impromptu artistic freedom with it.
IT IS DONE! Praise Jeebus
I finished the side of the model finally, it took me a little over an hour but I got it done quicker than I thought I might have. Especially in regards to being a distracted procrastinator at times, even more so with a task I don’t really want to do.
It was coming together nicely and I didn’t want to stop, even though it was 2:30 in the morning and I was that sorta tired where your vision goes blurry? And sometimes your eyes will just lose focus? haha
Literal Nightmares occurring!
Literal Nightmare! I did the engines, they were looking good, then I accidentally deleted them without seeing that I had, did too many steps forward and couldn’t return to undo my mistake. I spent an hour doing them! Defeated, sad, drained and exhausted I went to bed and did them the next morning.
The engines
I modelled the bit the middle that separates the engines on either side and then I moved swiftly on to RE-… modelling the engines the next morning. *sigh* It didn’t take me as long the second time and after they were finished I didn’t care anymore, whats done is done. And the engines were done… again.
Time to Mirror It
I slapped a basic Light Grey & Red Lambert on the ship and now it’s ready for compositing I think! Lets give it a go
“Eoin have you picked a Third Project yet?”
“Ehh… compositing?”
- Compositing
- Rigging
- Modelling
- UV Mapping
- Concept Art
- Topology
- Essay?
For ages I didn’t know what to choose! We had so many options and how was I to just pick one? Who would do an essay btw?.. Anyways, I didn’t know what to choose. I was pretty set on modelling the first few weeks, its the thing I love most, just like drawing I think its kinda like 2nd nature to me at this point, the thing I ultimately practiced most in the end. So pick modelling right? “It’s quite obvious dude, you love modelling”. Yea I know but I love it so much that I want to get better, regardless and while I’m just practicing, testing my limits and progressing with more challenging models I can learn how to do compositing and incorporate my “beautiful models” into my photography. Modelling, Photography & Composting. They sorta go hand in hand right? I didn’t wanna take a quick risk and dive into something that half way through doing I would regret picking, I wanted to consider my next right move as an Animator
And take this question “What do you want to do for your third project?” seriously..
I didn’t give Alec my answer for 3 weeks until I was sure that what I was choosing was the right move, something that I would want to continue to pursue, growing to love it, not resent it. And I was pretty certain that I wanted to do Composting // VFX; I had a good feeling about it.
Zombies
For the first 3 weeks when I was chillin on the fence swinging my legs while everyone else was crackin on with their projects I had the Idea of modelling a zombie for my “modelling project” that I was going to do at the time. I was going to get Z-Brush an model a head torso and extending hand, kind of like a bust. Only because I was starting the new season of Walking Dead mind you, talk about “being influenced”. I then considered that I could still do it, that I could model the bust and have it extend its head and arm out of a dark alley way or something? But, I don’t know, it was my first Idea and I thought that I could perhaps come up with something better.
Running low on time
I was so engrossed in the BBC project I’m doing that I was completely neglecting this project all together. I had to come up with something and just start it. I was out with friends the other day and we were going hikes up the Cavehill, when we got to the top of the Hill on this beautiful clear day you could see all of North Belfast, my home for 20 years. It just looked so open, you could see the whole city as far back as curve of the earth and the big white exposed sky… the whole city vulnerable to an Alien attack. A sky so big it could accommodate a giant spaceship. A spaceship that I could model and have floating above the city.
The next day while I was suppose to be focusing on BBC because my group needed me to, during our lecture and my lunch break I sat and doodled some spaceships before going home… to draw more spaceships. I wanted to get a feel of the shape I was going for, Circular,? Spherical? Rectangular? I didn’t know what I wanted at this point, I had just came up with the Idea of a spaceship. The day I was at Cavehill staring over the city, these are the 3 ships that popped into my head, as quickly as the entered my brain and left, I drew them. Scribbled them rather, all ships that I’m sure my subconscious brain has seen on TV before, like I’m pretty sure the bottom one is the ship from district 9 right?
Contextual Image Research
I did some contextual research on other spaceships, models, ideation of shape and colour etc. I looked on different websites by simply typing in anything to do with spaceships on google images, Artstaion, Deviant Art etc. Searching concept designs for specific games or movies such as Mass Effect, Dead Space, Alien Isolation, District 9, Promethus and even the giant minstrel in Arrival, that was actually quite stunning mind you.
Arrival 2016
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- star trek
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- prometheus
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- mass effect
dead space
More Sketches
Do you ever get when you can’t do work? I was just sitting in front of my sketchbook doodling spiderman, distracted about everything and I just couldn’t pick out a single thought. I needed to start this project and do some concepts of what I was going to model, just to break it down in a drawing before I model it, but I couldn’t summon the energy to begin drawing complicated spaceships.
Because of all the hype around the new Star Wars episode 7 (The reinterpretation of A New Hope) and my LOOVEEEE for Star Wars I did a few Star Wars concepts in my sketchbook
Sketches is the only word, it was a composting project not a concept art project so I didn’t want to whip out the cintiq and start recreating scenes in space. I needed to crack on with the project and I had chose to model a Venator Class Star Destroyer
duckinthesobriety 