The Beginning ... (a MUST READ for anyone interested in helping)

#21

Rice ManX - too scary looking. This a CG cartoon (although I don’t think we’ll use cell shaders).

ilo - good base to start off with. Right now I think the area to work on is the head. You have a lightbulb shape from what I can see. It should actually be more heavy in the back. Eyes need to be bigger, neck more narrow, ears smaller in diameter at the ends and the mouth should be more “Veggie Tale”-ish. He doesn’t really have lips, but they can look like lips as he forms words or gives and expression that calls for it.

Here’s another quick sketch to show more character construction.

#22

Ya thats wut i figured :slight_smile:

#23

That helps much, Thanx Kirt.

#24

Ok well i spent about 2 to 3 hours on this space ship. And i think its looking pretty good. it has alot of work to it tho but its getting there :slight_smile: I still need to do the engine and bottom of the hull. But i have the cockpit all ready, headlights, and the weapons panel/bay (that took most of the time) So tell me what you think of it so far…:bounce:

#25

Hi Rice ManX, I think you should pay more attention to the cockpit, it’s small now, must be bigger & more round shape. :slight_smile:
(more spherical), keep working man… :slight_smile: :thumbsup:

#26

thanx Ila. Uhhm how do you mean rounder? because i will be smothing this with smoothing groups. But i will try to make the cockpit bigger. :slight_smile:
I can post more views of it if u like?

#27

I think what ila means is that proportionally you have too much ship and not enough cockpit. Take a look at the scale on the sketches I made. The diameter of the ship is maybe equivelent to 4 of the aliens standing shoulder to shoulder (maybe a little bit bigger). From the looks of the cockpit on your ship, the diameter looks to be about 8-9 aliens across.

It’s too big. This in not a huge space cruiser. It’s like the sports car model of spaceships and could probably park in any house garage (if it weren’t for the high tail fin). If the aliens are 3 feet tall, the ship diameter should be about 7-8 feet.

Also, try to keep the saucer looking like a disc. This should be a retro looking design. There will be other design elements that reflect a 1950’s feeling in this short (mobile homes for one example).

#28

Ya i know its supposed to look like a disk no worries there. Now i know the width on the ship seems a little big. Il show you an over head view. But functionally i think it needed to be bigger? because the gun bays… il give u an overhead view of it so you can see the porportions more correctly. And if it still looks a little wide il change it. But i intentionally made it a little larger, but it shouldn’t look too big? hmmm il post the pics.

#29

Ok here is the overhead. Uhhm i can slim up the sides a bit make the cockpit look bigger, but its kinda tuff at this stage to make size adjustments to the cockpit itself. But the sides can be slimmed up if u want me too.

#30

hmmm, little tweaks in head:

#31

Ila: thats pretty good looking. ahh the front of the face looks a little flat to me. I dunno if u meant it to be like that but just thought ide let u know. But very good start so far:thumbsup:

#32

Rice ManX - Functionally, it’s going to operate like a toon. The hatches will be closed and then bam! they’ll be open with guns, etc. aimed at the hero. I want to go with guns and weapons that will look oversized for the ship to emphasize the “oh crap” expression that we will cut to on our hero. Try not to think to logically about how the ship works. It’s a cartoon vehicle and we’ll probably squash and stretch it to emphasize the action.

We can get away with a lot in 3D because parts of the ship can scale rotate and overlap inside the hatches (as long as this isn’t visible to the camera). Logically a rocket launcher wouldn’t fit if there were already a railgun stored inside. But with 3D we can store objects so that they occupy the same space. Make sense?

In the end I think we’ll probably need 4 versions of the ship. One for general flying around shots (the hatches can be unoperational. Another 2 for the gun and the mechanical hand scenes. And the last will have a detailed cockpit for the end when the aliens give up and exit the ship.

ila_solomon - The shape of the head is looking much better. I know it’s still WIP, but I’ll mention these things just so that you don’t overlook them.

The eyes should have eyelids.
My sketches had 4 nostrils and they were lower.
I’m still not happy with the ears. Too symetrical and trumpet looking. Maybe more organic where they attach to the head. Those donut shapes on the skull should be skin rolls.
Neck thinner.

Here’s a link to the audio files that I mentioned previously. [[Right-click-save]](http://www.cell2000.net/~users/kirtstanke/alienz/audio files/alien_samples.zip)
Voices are rough, but they’ll do for animation tests.
Voice Credit = Dan Ross

#33

Allrite, here is an update. I slimmed up the sides considderably, and improved the overall shape considderably. if u want an overhead il give it to u. But rite now im dead tired so im gonna goto bed early. Cya guys :wavey:

#34

ill join gladly :slight_smile: awesome concept too!

#35

Just wanted to let ya know that this project looks great so far. If there is anything I can do to lend a hand just let me know. I can do some light modeling and animation with Maya or XSI, also have Combustion, Illusion for FX or Compositing and Avid Xpress DV so I could do some editing as well. I have access to broadband so no prob getting the files. I could also help out with the web site as the web is what sent me down this strange and twisted path I am on these days. Please let me know.

#36

again, some additions + tweaks: (still wip u know)
Kirt, I keep 3 noseholes just because of 3 eyes & 3 fingers structure, if you don’t mind.


#37

Hey, pwhitlock, I’m sort of “in charge” of the website, I wouldn’t mind you working with me, though these guys may need you more for modeling and such…

Kirt, you’ve got volunteers, where are you?

starts slapping Kirk’s volunteers

kirt “trent, what are you doing?”

trent “I was anticipating you will, sir.”

kirt “go away, please”

*trent: jumps off ship

Hehe, just bored…

EDIt: Hey, Kirt, is it OK if I go ahead and make you a site? splash and all? It won’t be anything fancy, and it’ll be missing a lot of the stuff, but I think I can wing a decent site, do you mind if I got ahead and start?

#38

ila_solomon - Wow, that’s starting to look really good! Excellent work. The 4 nostrils was done deliberately to break up the 3-n-3 pattern of his anatomy. I drew him originally with 3, but I liked 4 better. What does everyone else think? 3 or 4 nostrils?

Rice ManX - I still think the scale looks off. Bring the center height of the canopy up and round it off more. That should probably fix it.

CGFreak - I don’t have anything specific at the moment, but if you’d like to design a few props that would get us moving on some more modelling. Need: hand gun for hero, teardrop shaped mobile home (2 wheeled with trailor hitch type), weapon designs for ship, mechanical hand designs for ship.

Wiz - What can you offer? Skills? Software? That might help me find a job for you to do on this project. Glad you can help, I just need to know what to assign to you.

pwhitlock - Your compositing help will be greatly appreciated. I didn’t have time in school to mess with composite software, so that’s one of my greatest weaknesses.

unLevel - Are we ready for a website already? Geez you guys are really pushing me on this … keep it up! What can we set up on the site? We’ll need a place to put files that everyone can share and hosting concept work would be nice (my webspace is going to eventually run out of room).

I imagine that we’ll want to keep somethings to ourselves so that there are a few surprises to the public when the film is done. For example, if we post up the complete storyboard the jokes will be expected and not as funny. So, restricted access to some files would probably be a good thing.

That’s all I have for now … I’ve been sick the past couple of days. :hmm:

#39

No wait … I do have this horrible title graphic that I was playing around with. It sucks, I know. But what can you expect when I’m coughing up my spleen? :smiley:

#40

coughing up your spleen? Take two of these hands “2” to Kirt and call me in the morning…

Ok, hmm…I wish there was a good FREE webhost out there that I could host all of you guys, kinda like what I want to do with CoLabs (we’ll be offering artists their own webspace one day hopefully)…

Oh, well, I’ll get right to work on the site, and start hunting up webhosts…