Category: Projects

Dragon Ready for Production

After a lot of time texturing and shading this beast, I have now reached a point where I am ready to use the dragon for production.

There will be two shots where additional tweaking will be necessary but for all the other dragon shots I have now reached a usable state.

There are still some issues, but these are mainly visible in still images. I also did a quick test animation to see how the dragon behaves when its moving.

The lighting is basic and there is no SSS used in this animation, but I am quite satisfied with the overall result. It will work very well in the shots I have to do.

And now, finally, I can really work on those remaining shots …

 

Blender – Mari Diary #5

I apologize for the long delay before uploading the promised bump painting timelapse.

Two events have caused the delay:

  1. the update to the new kubuntu 11.10 version
  2. me having a brand new nexus s smartphone

Number 2 obviously and predictably takes away a lot of time :), but number 2 was unexpected and extremely tiresome.

Continue reading “Blender – Mari Diary #5”

Dragon Iterations

Finally I have done all the remaining texture maps for the dragon’s head. What comes now is creating the material/shader setup for the final shots.

I have also recorded the texture painting process for the bump maps and the final result and am now in the process of putting all together. Expect a new blender/Mari diary soon.

Continue reading “Dragon Iterations”

Blender – Mari Diary #4

As promised here is a timelapse ( with some comments ) showing the process of painting the color map for the dragon’s head.

The diffuse color map is now finished (almost finished, the mouth interior is still to be done). And I am currently working on the bump and specular maps, which will be shown in yet another timelapse.

Painting the color map was fun again and I am definitely looking forward to when all the maps are in place and I can start to tweak the material and shaders to get a first look at the dragon.

Timing is also quite ok, as I still have 34 days left from my time limited Mari license. This should be enough to finish the dragon and maybe fix the various odds and ends on the other models as well.

 

Dragon Texturing/Shading Progress

I thought I share some test renders from the current state of texturing the dragon and already playing around with the material/shading setup.

The basic building blocks are done with quite some polishing work still left. Doing the test renders, helps me to better estimate which changes are really necessary.

Continue reading “Dragon Texturing/Shading Progress”

Dragon Sculpt Timelapse

The days since my last post have been quite busy in regard to Ara’s Tale.

A lot work revolved around Ara’s Song. This song has always been a central piece of the movie and ever since I wrote this part of the script I dreaded the time when finally the decision had to be made who should sing this song.

Continue reading “Dragon Sculpt Timelapse”

A small celebration …

… is due.

As I have just heard today, I won the blenderday award 2011. Or to be more precise, 3 sequences from Ara’s Tale got me the award.

Besides the fame and glory, the award comes with a price: a GTX 560i 2GB graphics card. Just the right stuff to tackle texturing the dragon with Mari 🙂

Ara’s Tale already scores its first award and isn’t even released yet 😉

So, now I will open my bottle of Ardbeg Renaissance ( reserved for special moments) and raise my glass to this nice surprise.

ps: for fans of single malt scotch whiskeys, this one is definitely one you should try.