Lighting, my new 3D frontier

I finally got the Raptor Attack done! Please go check it out! I spent nearly 60 hours putting everything together for it...

As of such I've been a little sick of Dinosaurs the last couple days (for some reason), and turned back to Delta Patrol.

Though I set out trying to fix the Delta System "set" (on which I hit a big break through as you'll see) I accidentally stumbled across a new lighting tool I'd never understood before...

Resulting in this lovely new version of the Arthis Warship (the movie's big bad). The model itself is virtually untouched since the 2006 version. However you'll notice it looks completely different due to the new lighting.

Who knew instruction manuals could be so handy?

Well honestly I do know how handy they can be. Especially considering how big and complicated Carrara is.

However as I had to leave my hardcopy manual back in Canada (it is about the thickness of a phonebook, I kid you not!), so all I have to reference here is the built in PDF version on my machine. I'm not a huge fan of reading such things on the puter, especially while I'm trying to do what I'm reading about at the same time. It means constantly switching between windows (and having to memorize the instructions before jumping).

So I haven't been using the manual as much as I should be... for shame I know!

Anyways due to an unrelated topic (I was trying to create a custom starscape) I discovered a "new" type of light. Well okay. It'd been there since day one, and in fact all new files start with one of these lights default, but I'd never bothered to learn how they worked.

However given my recent fascination with lighting lately (due to the complex lighting setup of my Gorgon piece for ART Evolved) the off handed reference to this lighting type intrigued me.

Looking it up, I'd been SO stupid for never learning about it before!

However I'll save the specifics for a tutorial I have planned for ART Evolved.

For the movie I want my starships and space environments to have no ambient light what's so ever. Meaning they have to be completely lite by either the single "sun" of the Delta System, or somehow lite themselves.

However as you can see, my intial killing the ambient light left the ship nearly invisible in the dark void of space. I knew how to make it so the ship lite itself, but these tools nearly double rendering time, and are a pain in the neck if I want to make copies of the ship (which I do).

With a combination of this new lighting source tool, and my newly learned trick of targeted lighting (as in I can tell a light to only effect certain objects) gives me this nice self-lite appearance.

With some tweaks this was the final product which looks pretty sweet compared to old versions.

The cool part is I can even turn off the "sun" light, and you'd still see the ship in the darkness.

For no reason other then I can post it, here is a test animation to see how both my ship's newly incorporated movement looks, and if my new lighting rig will slow down rendering. The great news is it doesn't. Even for multiple ships in the same scene!

That is also the new Delta System set they're literally flying into. The models involved are literally astronomically big... the planet is 100 000 3D units in diameter compared to my ships at a mere 7 in length! That didn't slow down rendering either, which I was worried about.

Feedback would be welcome though (especially for the PIP crew).

Projects A Plenty!

Oops. With life being as crazy as it tends to be it's not like I don't have enough trouble posting stuff on this blog as is.

Add into that normal mix something a tad drastic like flying halfway across the world, and well I just haven't had time to do it!

I do have lots of "real" life to report, but its just not as fun to write about frankly. So you'll have to wait for all that stuff later.

I will however note that though this blog has been silent for a bit, my other two (yeah I'm a bit of a blog junkie...) have been bustling with activity.


For good reason too! With the trip to Canada I've been able to retrieve a number of key computer files that I'd been separated from for over a year. Meaning that the last remnants of the Drum years are ready to finally be put together and shown the light of day...


Though this movie was shot in 2004, and finally completed in early 2006, Hardcore Apocalypse After Next Tuesday has long been overdue for an Internet debut... Why I'm punishing the world with it I'm not sure, but it will clearly demonstrate how the Prehistoric Insanity crew improved heaps over its 4 summer existence.

Check out the teaser at Prehistoric Insanity. Also keep checking in there as the movie should be up by mid September!

That project being of course our Sci-Fi (I've always wanted to make a space movie, and now I finally will!) movie Delta Patrol. It is looking very promising folks!

Granted the break of nearly 2 years on filming it means that its been a bit of work to get back into the editing process. I'm aiming to work on it for at least an hour each week. With the promise of a blooper every Sunday night.

Check out the progress by checking, once again, Prehistoric Insanity.

Of course as the sole member of PI Digital I'm ever busy. Not only with all the models from Delta Patrol but also my other on going project Traumador.
If you've lost base with what's going on with Traumador nows a great time to get back up to speed. Not only is the fact he is in Australia exciting enough, but he's just re met Lillian the girl of his dreams! Will Traumador finally find love and happiness? Find out as this is my attempt at making a friendly entry point into Traumador's life.

Of course there's lots of CG to do for these posts. Especially with my current goal of getting a CG Dino or other critter into ever 5th post at most. I'm also hoping to get some more Vlogs going again too.

The point being I like a full plate! So this blog may get ignored from time to time, but I promise I'm back onto my goal of at least one post a week... after August. Sorry just being home is very hectic at moment, but I'll try my best!

Subvillain shapes up too...

Well just so that I can start hammering through post production on Delta Patrol I've also made the last push to finish off the Mezic (secondary badguys) ship too.

Villians take form...

Well did some tinkering on the Delta Patrols villians, and I think it's safe to say the Arthis are done.

There will be three types of them for our heroes to defeat...

The small kind

Big kind. This was the only one of their ships I didn't have to retool or outright build from scratch. Just recolored an older model

Medium kind. Which was funny enough the last one I built. You'd think I'd go in size order, but then you'd have thought wrong!!!

Finally here is their whole force ready for action in the movie.

Last chance for any of the Delta production team to comment on this new direction for the Arthis look. Anyone else for that matter...

Arthis New Take...

Here is some new work on the bad guy ships for Delta Patrol. Don't like this take at all either LOL. Just hard to come up with something as this design in some way is the most important. The bad guys have to be as cool or cooler then the good guys...

Arthis in question

Here is a possible direction for the vilians of the new movie... Not sure, and thus looking for opinions

Delta Patrol: Wyvern Ready for Animation

Tonight was my first weekend I've actually spent not doing homework. An odd thing for me to be sure. Typically in the poli sci era it'd be very unusual for me to be doing my homework at all!

So first thing on the agenda (well probably isn't... just what I ended up doing) was Delta Patrol. Got a new version of the beginning done, and I think this is it's final layout. As of such I figured time to get some effects ready. As of such I was going to need some 3D models to do so...

As our heroes ship the Wyvern was not done, but very critical first thing was first. I'm happy with their final version. Probably even more happy with my new laser effect...

So check them out. Be sure to click on any you like to enlarge them






These were modeled to resemble Star Trek type ships like Bajor Interceptors, and of course my fav Romulan Warbirds







Might have a little trouble incorporating this nebula into actual animation. The 3D models I use to generate them add up to 4 times the render time...









Was very very happy
with this new model for
a laser projectile!







First example of the whole patrol together.
You'll notice that each ship has it's own color.
Allowing for easy identification of whose ship
is whose...



Now the Patrols returns to homebase in Delta System itself
Symbolic I guess. As now I need to return to the whole project
from this one specific task.





Next on the list have to design the villians ships, and finish Delta station itself.

Delta Patrol Begins

Well the title of the post might be a little misleading. My new movie project Delta Patrol is well underway... Hopefully with a post production time that is under 2 years.

Just thought I'd wet ppls appetites with some of the early preview 3D effects...

Here is the Delta System the setting of the story

A Wyvern Interceptor the good guys main ship type

The start of the Trident Space Station model; a main locality in our story

A big ship where the first big fight of our movie occurs

Hopefully I'll figure out how to post videoes on here soon, and we'll get clips going from the movie itself