FXWars! "Dracula's Castle"!: Fred Burdy, hybrid entry


#1

Well, here I am.

My project is to use the esthetic of the Coppola’s movie in some shots. There will be a quite long introduction, with different shots of exteriors of Transylvania, then we will approach the castle to finish in it at the end.

Sounds difficult to me, I’ll do my best.

Update : Final short :

XviD/Mp3, 10Mo : http://fred.errances.free.fr/Dracula_XviD.avi

 Wmv, 9Mo : [http://fred.errances.free.fr/Dracula.wmv](http://fred.errances.free.fr/Dracula.wmv)

#2

A few compositing WIPs of the introduction sequence.


#3

That’s awesome - those houses in shot #2, is that 3D or matte painted??

Cheers,

  • Jonas

#4

Thanks Jussing.
In shot ‘2’ there is a lot of 3D. Background (2D) and foreground (3D church roof) are composited in AfterFX. The graveyard is in 3D, and the houses in the bacground are 3D too, with simple geometry.


#5

cant wait to see the final sequence :slight_smile:


#6

Woooow Fred! :eek: That’s réally promising… In fact I can’t wait to see more! :bounce:

You seem to work really effective & optimalised! Very interesting! It’s very cool to see mattepaintings in use, in a WIP-project, to be able to really follow how you use them! :slight_smile: In every case the screenshots/stills you yet posted look just gorgous! Looks just like a still frome a feature-film! :love:

How did you get the lighting so amazing? Just tweaking, or by compositing independent passes in post? How did you get the footage: shot yourself? Are the base-plates pieces of moving footage, or only stills? And how did you get the tint/grading so great?! It looks really cinematographic! :slight_smile: Lovely!

What are the ideas for the other shots…? And what will the ‘story’/screenplay be like? :slight_smile:

Wow… I’m just so excited by you stuff! :slight_smile: Have lots of fun! I keep 2 eyes on it! :scream:
-Gijs


#7

some truly stunning work, cant wait to see the final sequence !:slight_smile:


#8

Thanks all for your comments, I don’t have much time to answer correctly…
I must finish this project quickly because I’ll not work on the weekend, so the final part will be somehow less finalized than the beginning.

Just for info, the castle is rather simple, but has a shape of a coffin (seen from the sky of course, I did it just for fun), the music will be an edited extract of the Coppola’s Dracula CD. And in the end, we might see the back of the character played by Gary Oldman in the movie… :slight_smile:

In fact this project is somehow more a citation/varation of the F.F. Coppola’s movie than a total creation. I’m not an absolute lover of the movie, but its graphic aspect is really wonderful and inspiring.

See you soon for the end of this short film…


#9

Here is the [b]FINAL ENTRY!!!

[/b]XviD/Mp3, 10Mo : http://fred.errances.free.fr/Dracula_XviD.avi

Wmv, 9Mo : http://fred.errances.free.fr/Dracula.wmv

I really hope you’ll like them.

Just a few shots frome the castle :


#10

Wow really really great work!

I like ti a lot… and the music fits perfectly!
The mood is very good too… very creepy…

It´s amazing how good this shot is for the little time you had!

That thing really rocks!:scream:


#11

Hot shit!! That’s incredible!

  • Jonas

#12

very, very, very nice !


#13

Very nice,

I really loved the camera move into the tower, and also the shot of the shadow falling over the church steeple. Beautifully done.

–T


#14

really well done !:slight_smile:


#15

Wow!!!amazing!!!


#16

Yes fred806 I have to agree with the others…that video is impressive! So much detail and realism!:smiley: Well done!


#17

Thanks very much!

Just for info : I Hadn’t the time for rendering a true motion blur for the final exterior of the castle, and I hadn’t the time either to make multiple pass renderings (excepted for the background/foreground and a Z-depth pass). The most interesting work was to make the shots work together using color correction and a slight grain, remaining visible even in darkness of the night.

My first work was to recut the music to fit the duration I wanted. Then, I worked on the editing and the gradation towards the castle. The camera moves were conceived to be wider and wider, excepted the final one. Mental Ray GI was used for the exterior castle shots (most useful and fast!).

I hadn’t time to finish the castle like I would have wanted to, on the detailing and the environment. Well, I did my best!

Another image, showing a few textures used mostly on the castle :


#18

OMG!:bowdown: :bowdown:
My only complaint is that it isn’t big enough for my rear projection screen! This is top quality. Nothing game like about it. Glad I was to busy to embarrass myself on this one.

Good…Great work!


#19

POST YOUR ENTRY! FXWARS !Dracula’s Castle Challenge:8 -R


#20

Very well done! you got “all” my votes :wink: