FXWars! "Dracula's Castle"!: Jonas Ussing, EXTERIOR

#1

Jonas Ussing has entered the Dracula’s Castle FXwar!

#2

:thumbsup: best of luck!

#3

this is gonna be really cool! (i know it cuz i’ve seen your reel :wink: ) good luck :slight_smile:

#4

Thank you for the early compliments and enthusiasm!

I’m off to a slow start, I hope I’ll be able to finish! The competition is looking awfully good.

I’ve made a mockup of boxes and cylinders (which I’m not gonna show you, because it’s too ugly), and a camera sweep around it.

Now I’ve created a castle tile set, and have begun instancing the pieces to create the shape of the castle, along with some temp cylinders, representing towers.

I also made a succesful test with normal maps to create the rough stone feel, without spending polys.

Enough talk, here’s a WIP pic. :slight_smile:

I’ll be back Saturday with more.

Cheers,

  • Jonas
#5

I hope youll be able to finish this project in time, its always great to see your work! Good luck

#6

Thank you very much, droidoz! :slight_smile:

Here’s the latest wireframe…

Cheers,

  • Jonas
#7

…Looks like Lego… :-/

#8

Here’s an animatic.

500 kb quicktime

(and no, I haven’t begun modelling the towers yet) :wink:

The real shot will be longer in both ends, but since I haven’t modelled anything of particular detail there yet, I have omitted those parts from the shot. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

  • Jonas
#9

I love the camera move, very dramatic. :thumbsup:

#10

Jonas:

Love the tower and camera move!

The tilt and pan feels great, and the castle itself has enough mass and weight to feel real.

Keep it up!

–T

#11

Latest pic… some more geometry.

I really need to model those towers finished tonight, so I can start rendering.

But that means I also need to finish the materials, and I plan to do some hairy normal mapping, to save polys on those walls… eek, the stress!

  • Jonas
#12

…a normal map test of rock walls.

Top pic: the full shaders
Below: only normal map and spec

Cheers,

  • Jonas
#13

And no, I won’t be finishing the towers tonight, dagnammit! But at least the normal maps are working. :slight_smile: (never tried that before)

  • Jonas
#14

Neat animatic…love the castle…

Cris

#15

Some tower modelling…

  • Jonas
#16

Thanks Cris! :slight_smile:

Here’s an update with textures.

I’m still modelling and texturing, and yes, I’m insanely behind schedule! :slight_smile:

Textures still look very tiled, but I plan to fix that with an overlay texture.

Cheers,

  • Jonas
#17

I’m in rendering hell right now.

Ambient, moonlight, sky reflection, torch flames, torch light pass, etc, are getting their numbers crunched this very moment.

Composite is tonight, plus I also have to paint a background matte with mountains, clouds, and a moon… :slight_smile: Plenty of time! (not)

  • Jonas
#18

LOL, do I know the feeling :wink:

/Z

#19

As for the challenge guidelines and rules, my primary angle is this, as described by Roberto:

Exterior Shot (Imagine a dark and stormy night as the camera comes up from the cliff walls up to the castle tower )

As for compositing, my focus will be combining all the CG plates, as well as integrating the scene with a matte painting background of clouds, moon and mountains.

Environment effects will be mist (regular Z-buffer thing) and torches around the castle. I was planning for a lot of snow on the castle, emitting snow particles in the wind, but alas, time has caught up with me on that issue.

I will update again tonight, as I near the end. Bless Roberto for extending the deadline to “until nowhere on the planet is the 31st of October”. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

  • Jonas
#20

Done! Thanks to everyone for support. :slight_smile:

Click here to download movie, 7.8 MB Quicktime

Cheers,

  • Jonas