Dogfight_Sequence
 

Hi all again!
Its been a while sience I last posted something here so I thought I'd share what I've been working on for the past couple of weeks.
The models I did about a year ago but I've redone the shaders and some of the textures. Anyway this is shots from cut 1 out of 2 so I just thought I'd get some feedback share some tipps!
Some of the elements are still rendering as I type so this isnt the whole bit. I'll hopefully post updates tomorrow and a playblast...
Everything is made in Maya and renderd with Mentalray and Maya's Renderer. I did a shot brakedown just to show you the different layers in comp, follow the link and theres a higher res version of it. I'll post full res links tomorrow aswell.

Hope you'll enjoy, C&C are always welcomed!
Take care
/Chris

http://www.absentdrone.com/WIP_Dogfight/Still_0001.jpg
http://www.absentdrone.com/WIP_Dogfight/Still_0003.jpg
http://www.absentdrone.com/WIP_Dogfight/Still_0004.jpg
http://www.absentdrone.com/WIP_Dogfi...oment_HDRI.jpg
http://www.absentdrone.com/WIP_Dogfight/Ren_Wire.jpg
http://www.absentdrone.com/WIP_Dogfi...site_thumb.jpg
Composite 1024
Tutorial
Full Render Movie

wow! thats really really excellent. fantastic composition, and excellent use of MR for HDRI! You deserve not one, but TWO cookies for this one! :beer:

cYa LaTeR,
MaTt :alien:

nice technique! love the compositing and the hdri and the...everything!

That is looking immense, gonna keep an eye on this thread.

nicE!!! looks so Real.!!:attn:

looks nice - i say it looks nice but i mean its awsome
bandit:
could u plz plz post ur where u got that sky/sun hdri image from or post ur the actual file plz its wat ive been looking for and would be helpful
but no pressure if u dont want to
:beer:

thnx:

Thank you all for your comments! I hope I can post some updates later tonight and the first wip video. Im currently setting up the tracers that I want to include before I post the video.
Anyway heres another still with a tracer bullet.

pbman: :) Sorry, but thats my personal work. If you'd like i'll write a short tutorial on how you can setup and render your own in Mentalray, it isnt that hard!

Cheers!
/Chris

http://www.absentdrone.com/WIP_Dogfi...l_0005_640.jpg
Full Res of the same image

nice update
yeah sure if u dont mind telling me how u made the hdri image i would be gratefull if u can , as i have been told to photograph a chrome ball at multi exposure but then u end up being in it
clearly u havent done this an appears to me a much better way :attn:

thx

Ok, here we go. First output of the first cut. There is still some things that disturbs me on the first half a second... water and Me dosnt match up right but I'll keep working on it... the file is aprox. 10mb - All C&C are welcome because you tend to go a bit blind after a while!

Cut01a_WIP_0001.mov

Ive also put some hi-res stills from the cut, here they are:
Still_0001
Still_0002
Still_0003
Still_0004
Still_0005
Still_0006
Still_0007

pbman: I found this tutorial last night... No idea for me to write one when Ralf Habel has written a good one. Its pretty much the same method I used so read throuh it and try it out. I think he has a lens-shader for download as well for rendering latlong images!
HDR_envmaps rendering

btw. Pixero has written a ExposureControl lens shader that is also useful called JS_ExposureControl 1.1...
Jan Sandström - Pixero

I havent tried using Photoshop CS with HDRI but I've heard that it can read HDRI images. My HDRI enviroment looks like this in maya when I renderd it.

/Chris

thx foir the links will try those as soon as i can :attn:

just checked out the short vid - it is really good - nice bullets btw
cant wait for the whole sequence

Wow, that's really impressive!

I like how the camera swoops in for the first time, evens out and then follows the plane. The lighting also looks really nice as it reflects of off the cockpit and such. The sun flare is a nice touch as well.

I watched it several times to look for the ME & water issue that you mentioned, but I was hardpressed to see what you meant. There is a slightly darker blue line as the water meets the sky, but it's hardy noticable, especially when you watch the clip for the first time.

:beer:

Thanks! :)
Ive tried out different cameras for the following cuts and here is a quick update. Also I had to put an extra shoot in just to get it more fluent, so more work :)

DF_WIP_c123_0001.mov

The spinn the Me dose in the end is just to get an idea when it should start to break, so dont pay too much attention to that...
Just to get an oppinion, is the last cut too long or??

/Chris

That's really impressive stuff, love to be able to get to that standard one day.

Just one question, how do you make your HDRI maps?

Tim_LIVID: Cheers!
The HDRI image is renderd in Maya with Mentalray... The basic scene setup is Maya Fluids for the water and then I have a skydome and I also use some fluids for the clouds... That is then renderd with a single camera in the center of the scene and taken into HDRShop for tweeking and to check the pixel values. I think the brightest pixel on my HDR image is around 1.8 and the lowest 0.4 from what I can remember.. Hope I answerd your question?

/Chris

Hey!
that looks awesome!
Very nice animation. Could you tell us, how you did the shots?

I really really like this thread!

Beautiful work you've got going on there, and excellent pointers on HDRI.

Cheers,

Mat.

happymat27: Thank you very much!

FubaR: Well, I had a picture in my head how I wanted the sequence to be so I just pretty much got down to business and started working out scales. I read somewhere that the max speed for the Me109 is about 730km/h so that ment 18m/s. I'm using 1/10 scale for the scene so it dosnt get to big in maya and easy units to work with! It is actually a bit tricky to animate because they travell quite a distance in the scene, because of that I animated the camera as I animated the fighters. Hope this is what you were asking for?
/Chris

See all this work just makes me think of all the things I would like to do.

I'll get there one day.

Tim_LIVID: Just never give up, one can only get better!! I guess that the day you gett fully satisfied with the work you've done is the day you want to look for a new career. When I look at stuff I did a week ago I always see stuff I want to change and improve. :) Keep it up!
/Chris

I know what you mean. Im just concentrating on getting my showreel done and getting a job so I can at least get paid for doing it.

:D

Yes. A part of it. I'd rather like to know how you actually did those shots...with particles or with a 3dobject or sth. else?

nice new vid i like the cam shake its a nice touch
did u render this in layers so u can blur the properlla - was it at a decent speed in maya and then the effect makes it look faster of is it all done else where?

keep it up will it finish with a fantastic explosion ? BOOM:attn:

sweet dude i love this i hope you are gonna carry on making it cos im loving it so far, one thing, which i dunno weither u are aware of or not, u prolly are but when in that latest reel it cuts to the render cam, i kinda gives the impression the plane has frozen because the angle its turning at before it cuts to the render frame is quite steep but when in the render cam view it starts out almost level, then turns again.
Looks very nice though.
Is this just a hobby or do u do this as a job cos it looks like film standerd.

FubaR: Well, I pretty much use all the different tools in Maya. Fluids for the ocean and some clouds, particles for smoke and tracers. Im not sure actually what , could you be more specific?? Sorry...

pbman: Thanks! The propeller is actually a fake one... Let me show you the mesh. Its quite diffecult to get the propeller to look right when you have a propper mesh. I've tried different motionblur settings and different rotation speed but could get it to look right... this isn't perfect in any way but at least it gives the illusion!

/Chris

jhubbard: Thank you very much! Yeah, you are absolutely right. it been a bit tricky to get fluent cuts but I think I've cracked it... I'll probably post a new reel tomorrow. I've been trying out different things and added another cut aswell... doing 10 things at the same time, setting up the scenes and checking that everything works... anyway, this is just a private project, for a living I work as an animator at Team17.

/Chris

dude i love worms thats soo cool, i played through worms 3d i thought u guys did a very cool job on that, only prob is crashes now ad again but thats due to ps2 probs. But well done on 3d i wont worms fort but i dont have the cash atm for luxurys. ;)
Sounds fun, how hard is it to get into the whole computer games industry cos i guess its gettin like the film industry these days. i got into 2 courses one for computer games design and also computer games programming at university but i wont to be a pilot aswell and have already started my PPL which is a liecence to fly a PA28/single engined prop. So i also got into a course which is avation technology and managment and also another called aeroauticle egineering. All the courses are at really well respected universitys in the UK but Im in split minds at which path to go down, i mean i dont wonna be stuck in a job i dont enjoy though and i need something which will allow me to be creative which is the main thing. Whats yer industry like?

im not quite sure what u have done
what is the mesh is it texxtured to look like it and the animated or wat?
soz for being stupid but i am about to animate my spitfire so ne tips will be useful


thx

tim livid ive got to say its nice to see someone who cares about the world, i see yer big ask links, i respect that man, i mean a lot of people dont realise that climate is changing and its gona have serious consequences, maby not day ater tomorrow style but still its gonna be enough to make everyone have to change the way they live, its a shame we cant predict whats gonna happen with a bit more certinty though then maby people would be bothered. Its suprising how much there is to still find out about this planet, forget space we've barly even scratched the surface of the earth, eventhing is so balanced and perfect, but there comes a point were even the earths millions of feedback mechanisms cant prevent climate change. Sorry to change the subject,
by the way tim dont put yer self down so much ive seen that ship its crazy good, yer both miles ahead of most (me)
love the planes dude.
:bandit:

Cheers man, for a while there it did feel like I was talking to myself (Dragonfx saved me from boredom).

If your up for a funny video which also has some fact behind it so it appeals to almost everyone then check this out.

http://www.exxposeexxon.com/movie/

hehe like it, i livein englad and exxon aint even heard of over here but i hear stocks are high in it ow like one of fastest growing but i dunno about them they aint over here yet. Maby soon we will have the pleasure of them.

I'm afraid ExxonMobil have invaded almost every country, because ExxonMobil is the parent company of Esso.

Think about that next time you give them your money. :D

Okay :D

I mean those yellow and thin flashes which come out of the machine guns of the plane that follows the other one (second sample video). The yellow flashes are machine gun shots in my opinion.
And I'd like to know how you did them. :)
To clarify my intention I painted a very high complicated picture ;)
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/9461/flashes2yv.jpg

I'de like to know how you did that picture!

:D

No, seriously, I was interested in that as well.

Sorry for not posting any replys, internet broke down at my office last night... I'll post an update on the sequence tomorrow...

FubaR: The tracers are quite simple. I've got two small but long nurbsplanes with a yellow painted streak and glow. The planes are then instanced by two directional emitters that also have a second smoke emitter attached. When they are renderd I applyed a wave filter in AFX to bend them! Hope that made sense?

Tim_LIVID: I had a look at your ship and I think it looks great! A lot of hard modelling has been put into that! Keep it up! I've always been interested in old ships, so i'll keep an eye on your thread! :)

/Chris

That's nice of you to say mate, don't forget. If you ever need a modeller at Team17 just gimmie a shout.

;)

Tim_LIVID: Hehe, alright will do that!

Ok, just a small update on whats going on. The ocean layer takes about 40min/frame to render so its probably gonna take a while before I post any major updates... :/ But anyway, here is a still from cut 4:
http://www.absentdrone.com/WIP_Dogfi...P_0010_640.jpg
Full res

And here's the reel:
DF_WIP_c1-4.mov

Take care all!
/Chris

All you need is an old ship floating past there :P

Naa, seriously man that's cool. What is this for, just your showreel or work?

*lol* that would be ace!
Its a private little project... probably end up on my reel some day but for now it's more of an experiment and you always learn something new when you do this stuff, so its just good fun! :D

I know how you feel, with my showreel nearly done and my Victory done I'm setting my sights on my next project. Not stuck for ideas that's for sure.

hey just watched the latest mov. WOW!:attn: looking great!

just a couple of small things like at 2:08 there are those white trails coming from the wing...but it looks as if it should fade behind the smoke.

the end sequence where the spit shoots off the wing of the bf-109? and the wing fragment just misses the camera (all looks awsome btw) perhaps the camera could have a bit of a shake at the near-miss moment.

silly question but why are the tracers wriggling around?

great stuff again:)