Blueprints and Sketches for the 3D Model

Before creating the model, it’s good practise to create a final definitive blueprint to work from to cut down time in the modelling stage. It allows you to easily shape the model to the scanned in blueprints and quickly get the desired shape without having to look between references and tweak things until they look right. This meant getting a sketch of the most important side that needed definition. The Side.

The other parts of the ship remain almost exactly the same as before, so we can use screenshots from the earlier low poly model as a reference for the Top view and Front view.

The side is different because I wanted to perfect the overall shape, add texture and create a design for the thrusters. I focus on sketching this while using references from the low poly and other artists to help me visualize the details and parts that would make up the ship. Online references posted below gave me a clear idea of how to fill in space on the Hull, where nothing is really necessary for function.

A trend I noticed specifically in this image was the modular design of every detail. Most of the ships are made primarily of a lot of other small simple shapes meshed together. The lining made up from all these individual shapes, similar to that of a 3D Models wireframe led me to use a similar technique on my own design.

Leaving this space blank wouldn’t give the ship any shape or definition and would make it look bland and too clean. A trick I noticed was to add lining to the ship exterior that would be placed in a similar way to a wireframe on a 3d model. Adding this lining along with some rivets immediately fills the ship out and gives it texture. This is mainly to help add detail into the model later in the modelling/sculpting stage.

The biggest challenge was designing a thruster that would look functional while fitting the shape of the ship. After trying several different designs, I settled with indenting miniature thrusters on the front and sides of the ship, which would be used as inertial dampeners and brakes. Then for the back thruster I took inspiration from the Serenity in Firefly, designing a thruster with a slightly larger radius than the ship. It fit the design and after adding extra detail around it and riveting, the side sketch was finished.

This completed sketch combined with the previous renders from the low poly ship give me a precise set of blueprints to base my model on and improve my workflow exponentially.

The Final Side Sketch. This will be loosely used as a blueprint in the modelling stage. While some perspective is lost on the thruster, the main shape is intact and can save a lot of time in the modelling process. Other aspects worked on in the sketch will also help me make decisions in the texturing and sculpting stage.

The front shot from the old model would be almost identical to our final design. It’s better to use this if we can because the image is a lot cleaner and can distinctly show us the different shapes and details in the ship from the front perspective

Evaluation of work in Assignment 5

When working on the 5th assignment, we were tasked with making two separate film segments that adhered strictly to a segment of script for the movie ‘The Godfather’. We would not be allowed to change the script at all except for characters and actions, and we were to make two films in the style of two genres, excluding the genre of the source material. In the development of the work we came up with several ideas for genres we could adapt the script to. Most seemed to cycle around a rehash of normal crime however, so we decided to try and use recent examples of film and TV to try and broaden our scope.

TV Series’ like Suits, Breaking Bad and House of Cards helped us come up with our two final genre ideas, Drama and Crime Thriller. Our justification for Crime Thriller comes from the new perspective we’re using on it, trying to emulate the more tense feel of Breaking Bad and House of Cards, with an anti-hero protagonist that makes a viewer question who they’re vouching for. Our Drama idea was inspired by Suits and focused more on posing the characters as investment bankers trying to fix a deal that’s broken down due to interference from a third party. The ideas we came up with were pretty good in reflection but I would like to have tried to experiment more with finding a second genre that didn’t stray so close to the source material’s. While Crime Thriller has it’s own elements, it could still be considered part of the same main genre as ‘The Godfather’.

Once the group was agreed on the genres we started working on the specific scripts for each genre and the storyboard. I enlisted the help of some classmates from the film degree to help us film the scenes. They provided some acting talent and camera equipment and helped round out our weaknesses in film, coming from a games development background. If I had to do a film project again, working with film students and learning from them would be a top priority. A few things I learned while working with them have helped me develop a proper skillset for filming and preparing for filming. I’m more aware of how important it is to have a set/location picked out beforehand, as well as providing equipment and resources to make the shoot possible.

After filming was done, Reece worked on the editing of the footage we got in Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects, adding effects that helped embellish each genre using the research provided by Aaron. This included utilizing colour correction tools to give each film a different mood, as well as a cinematic vignette. In the future we would try to get some of this done quicker as we took longer than expected, but overall the work was all collated together in good time.

If I had to work on a film project again, I would try to assist in editing or take the role of editor to assist in the process. I have 3 years of experience with video editing in multiple programs and it would be optimal to apply those skills where possible to streamline the work and utilize everyone’s skill-sets. At the same time I would make sure to engage in different areas of the field I am not so used to such as camera work, to pick up extra knowledge which could be used in later projects, as well as benefit my input on other segments of the project. Knowledge of camera techniques and limitations would make it easier to put informative pointers in the script to aid in camera work and shorten workload.