My fan-made cinematic thread

[Robear]

Whew, thanks for the advice!

I'm currently using Maya/Mental Ray, but I don't have much experience using different shaders and figuring out what would look best for the hull. Your Starcraft ships have pretty strong specular highlights, but things in Starship Troopers and a lot of sci fi movies where they were still using models seem more matte... I guess I'll just have to play around with things more.
At any rate, here's a quick paintover of one of the wings, of the sort of details I'll try to add in this second round of texturing. We'll see what happens there!

[Freespace]

I highly recommend you switch to Vray or Arnold renderer for Maya. I've used Mental Ray for 4 years, but after switching to Vray I am absolutely extremely happy. And Arnold is even better.

[Robear]

Just in the interest of trying to get this out there, I'm sticking with what I know for now. I sadly haven't had a lot of time to work on this, but I have made some progress looks-wise on that wing, the new details and lighting are helping it a lot. Still need to revise the textures for the hammerhead, the main back section and the ends/tips of the wings.

Old:


New:


I can see why they just threw glowing blue stuff all over the SC2 Hyperion, it really will make it look cool...

Lighting is still a challenge. :/



Still needs work, but, much better than last month.

I also made a couple of crate models to throw around the hangars. Makes 'em feel less empty.

[Robear]

Here's just another little test of that first 30-second shot. The render itself is a super low quality one, with no motion blur, antialiasing, shadows, etc., it's mostly a test of the camera and ship movements. And I still haven't combined in the detailed hangar model, which has some marines walking around and SCVs doing stuff.



The 'real' version of the animation will cut away to the bridge/cockpit of a valkyrie instead of just lingering on the battlecruiser for quite so long. And then the music would keep going too. I may try to find someone who can actually play guitar or violin at that point— I can write the score just fine, but my synths are not great.

[Gradius]

^---that's frickin sick. Your models would look great in SC2.

[Robear]

Check this out— I tried out a more dynamic camera move, and it just got about 60% sicker.



It's just that basic pan and zoom to follow a ship while pretending to be a handheld camera that Zoic Studios put in every single space scene of Firefly and BSG, but man does it look good. Seriously, compare the two videos, and the new one is so much more interesting.

[TheEconomist]

Where's that music from?

[Robear]

Where's that music from?

I wrote it, specifically for this. It was my attempt at making something like SC2 Terran music... If you have any suggestions for improving it, they're welcome!

Really when I first had the idea for this I would have wanted something more like an instrumental version of this, but the electric guitar and organ synths I have in garageband kind of suck. So I had to do something more low-key, and then cover it up with more sound effects and dialog so you can't really hear how fake the instruments sound, hah.

[Robear]

Bleh. After a very long semester, I'm finally able to get back on track for finishing this. I had to remake the hangar interior and I'm probably doing a worse/lazier job this time around, but, w/e. After I texture it it'll be good enough. And I'm in the middle of remaking the wraith cradle thing, which will draw attention away from the sparsely detailed background. Feels like I'm making a game environment from ~2001, but it'll be good enough. The wraith looks good, that's the main point.



in motion: http://gfycat.com/FatalDisguisedAfricanharrierhawk

I also will finish animating the marine in front to be yelling and pointing at the SCV. The one in the back is walking like this. Time permitting, I may add another one or two.

[Nissa]

The graphics look great, but I suggest cutting out the music while the computer is speaking at the beginning. It's a bit distracting for both going on at once, and more dramatic for the music to go on when the wraith launches.