Hey yall.
So I’m officially in… started creating a shot or two… I’ll try and upload by the weekend.
Planning on doing a Independence Day bit, random UFO shots all over the world. Mostly composites.
And then maybe a shot or two of FX destruction. But all depends on time.
My saucer model is inspired, if not totally ripped off, by Steven Spielbergs Taken series.
more to come…
Jay!
Welcome to the fold.
If you need any shots in the Washington DC area, drop me a PM.
-R
Cool Robert, thanks for the help.
So, thinking of opening with a shot of earth, a slow push in… with some creepy music playing… leading into the first shot of the saucers…
All done in Nuke, used 3d spheres in Nuke and just mapped the usual earth textures you can find online.
**** Sorry guys, my provider’s servers crashed or something, it’s been on and off, so if links and pictures are down temporarily, I appologize. ****
So… I have a 1st pass at my Tokyo at night shot.
www.scottagecheese.com/FXwars/movs/Tokyo_002.mov
(10 megs) my compression skills suck.
I think I’m going to call it quits on the saucer… I spent a little too much time on those light spikes that come off camera at the top, but very happy with the way it came out.
Now i want to animate all the lights below, blinking red lights on buildings and towers, m,aybe helicopter or plane in the far far distance… just to give it a little movement.
Here’s a better view of the saucer I got going on…
Still working on the shading/textures… not sure how close up I’m going to get on this yet.
Holy F! I thought I had my mothership designs all worked out, but seing yours I might have to go back and improve it!
Looking great there.
I can’t take credit for the UFO design, I mearly ROCK at ripping things off… haha (And even then, it’s not that great of a detailed rip off)
Inspiration from Spielberg’s “Taken” mini series…
Cool mini series, if ya havn’t seen it.
Well… at least the thing you ripped off looks cool… you could ripped something else off that looked like shit. But you didn’t, so thats a plus 
I’ve heard things about Taken, but never really watched it. I spend my time watching 4400 instead. But I might check it out after all…
…See, and I thought the 4400 was lame… Taken had more suspense I think.
Soooooo…
Moving onto my “Destroyer of Worlds” bomb… I imagine it dropping out the center (how original) of the saucer, and falling slowly, enough time to do 2, maybe 3 shots of it.
^ click image for anim test ^
All done with 1 fluid gradient, just frequencies animated over time, and rotation on the whole grad sphere. I’m sure there will be other stuff over this, particles, 2d displacements… might start it out peaceful and serene, white ball, and then have it grow violent and plasma’y like at the end? Who knows. I need to see it over a plate.
Going for a lil Star Trek IV tribute if i can make it work… Have a beam of light between it, and the craft. Maybe even have it sing “whale”?
not the best pic, sorry…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4343mfQ5Cpw
jump to 2:55 to get a good look at the probe.
Light and comp still test. I imagine that “MY” version of aliens are a very clean beings. Hence the chrome, spotless ship. (Ok, so i suck at shading!) But i found a sweet aerial of San Francisco, figured it would look cool in a reflection on the ship.
the bomb is still a work in progress… i’ll try and get a test render of this soon.
Thanks for the crits guys. Keep them coming. Still need some ideas for the blast. Might only have time for old school, sphere shaped shockwave. What’cha think?
It’s been pretty quiet this FXwars, where is everyone?
So I don't have much, been working a lot, but thought I would show.... something. I realized my FXwars was lacking, well, FX... so been working on what potentially will be my explosion. Most likely comped between some buildings, or maybe over a city (above rooftops), havnt decided yet. Used a fluid again. Will most likely add some secondary hardware particles in there somewhere.
[img]http:///www.scottagecheese.com/FXwars/imgs/Wave_001.jpg[/img][img]http:///www.scottagecheese.com/FXwars/imgs/Wave_002.jpg[/img][img]http:///www.scottagecheese.com/FXwars/imgs/Wave_003.jpg[/img]
[LINK TO MOV](http:///www.scottagecheese.com/FXwars/movs/PlasmaWave.mov)O yeah, and I also revisited my earth comp… It will be a slow push in. 1st shot of my edit.
The energy ball is coming along, Are you going to add something similar to solar flares orbiting it, that would look cool. The earth shot looks good, I know it’s a WIP but trying more bump or displacement to it. Especially the clouds.
Yeah if there is time, I would like to do the earth shot in a 3d app. Right now it’s all in Nuke. Just using 3d spheres and texturing them. maybe i could fake it in Nuke, but yeah, displacements, or even bumps would help a lot. …time permitting, i’ll totally fix that. Thanks for the feedback
The explosion will be fast, and I imagine it will be pretty close to camera, and then cut to a wide shot of the city, all blown out from exposure. I doubt I’ll get around to ACTUAL DESTRUCTION. Lots of faking
You can displace it in nuke. Just set your sphere to be bicubic, raise the resolution and use your image. The displacement is luminance based so adj the paremeters to your likeing. You will get a render hit though… but i’ll look good!
Yeah Gmora7, that displacement is awesome, however… machine cant take it… my sphere is at like 100 x 100 segments… Trying the shot in maya now, just didnt want to deal with all the render passes.
As RnD continues… been watching a bunch of SWEET ( yet terrifying ) Atomic bomb footage. Thought it might be cool to insert a quick, ground level shot when the alien bomb drops. Its amazing how something made of metal, steel even, turns to playdo when a nuke goes off. The nerd inside me loves that, but the humanitarian in my hates it.
Eventually a street corner, with maybe a building in the background. Mail box, maybe some newpaper thingies, trash can. This will be a heavy scene. Hope i can finish it with the rest.
2.9 megs
http://www.scottagecheese.com/FXwars/movs/Blast_test_001.avi
Started YET another shot… all my work is still in RnD phase… dont have any shots done yet.
But first shot of the UFOs on earth, will be New York. Figured a statue of liberty shot would say “New York” enough. Plus, much easier than making a UFO reflect in thousands of windows.
First and last frame of the shot.
