Drop Pod Animation - Mockup Artwork

Hello again dear friends and readers! Sharing a mock-up image of a 3D rendered animation I'm working on for a client... I built the Drop Pod last year for Clear Horizon, and you can read more about it here... Stay tuned to this URL, l mean like constantly, keep refreshing, for the finished animation.

The Bauble of death, packed to the upper bulkhead with troops, guns, grenades and other things that go boom, plunges into its latest 'peacekeeping' mission

Big Spaceships 001 - Irrealis "ISS Mjollnir" Part 3 (of 3)

If you missed it, heres a link to post one in this series detailing a highly detailed sci-fi spaceship model.

So where were we, oh yes so not long after finishing the model I upgraded my machine and software to 64 bit, a little later than most folks - this was due to the financial crisis, repeatedly moving accomodation and because the work I was generally doing didn't demand more than one gigabyte of memory but it was years after that, when I finally put the peices together and made some pics, one of which I'll relay here.

View of both wreckage sections, the centrifuge and bow, friends reunited after at least two years. 

But those pics aren't terribly pretty.  So here are some brand new ones made just for this posting, these are full standard HD 1920 x 1080 in a high quality PNG format so please click to see them at full size.

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Hopefully one day we'll see the ISS Mjollnir in action in it's production, Irrealis, until then these will have to do!

I hope you enjoyed this series, if you have please tell people about this blog and leave a comment on the comment zone below. As the title implies, more to come as I have many projects to document, if you're interested in commissioning a model please feel free to contact me, my details are on my contact page. 

Big Spaceships 001 - Irrealis "ISS Mjollnir" Part 2 (of 3)

Because this is the internet and I'm sure I'm not the only person who reads things in reverse order,  lets recap...  The ship was built in 2008 for a short movie then called 'Rocket Man' now called 'Irrealis' to my knowledge it's never been released on the internet.   There's more detail in post one of course if you want more or feel the need to follow things sequentially in the correct order.

One of the important FX shots in the show is an integration of 3D/CGI graphics and live action, a composited tracking shot showing a slow pull away from a live action set which is embedded in the wreckage of the ring section.

The over-exposed booth in the middle of frame matches the on on screen set, the diagonal bars passing in front of the booth are infact matched to a part of the cockpit set that was in the live shot, and became part of the overall effects shot, here integrating with 3D modelled damage.

Once finished with the damaged section I decided it would be a good idea to jump to another section of the ship, the bow module.  This is often the most important section of a spaceship, but this time the bow is not shown in close-up, even so I still added a decent amount of detail for the time and resources I had available and tried to breakup some of the flowing lines into more interesting forms.  The textures and geometry hold up at close range.

It sorta looks like a head of some oddly proportioned robot, the round mouth opening is most likely a docking port - like a huge version of ILIDS (International Low Impact Docking System) as used presently in human space flight. The teeth would be part of the system that interlocks with another opposing dock, bringing and holding the structures together.  See if you can spot the bit of Apollo lander which was in there from the proxy model and eventually plastered over with other bits and pieces.

Once complete I designed some truss sections - perhaps more artistic that realistic, but that's the theme of the entire ship, we're not NASA - to tie the fore and aft modules to the centrifuge.  Beginning to feel the pressure of time constraints and the hardware limitations I had at that time meant these parts were made in a totally separate file, to be combined later for rendering on a powerful render farm.

The engine was probably a fusion reactor, perhaps something like a Polywell (hence the round shape) the bits sticking out from the engine module, perhaps some kind of radiation shielding for the centrifuge or to enhance cooling, or if neither of those will do then they do *something*;)  - I find if you can't back up things with numbers then its easy to avoid nerdy arguments with certain obsessive personality types by letting them work it out for themselves.
(much as I enjoy a nerdy argument, it generally makes all parties look like dorks and cuts into the modelling time immensely)

So at this point I had problems, running out of time, running out of memory, Joseph perhaps running out of patience but always a gent.  I now left the fore and aft modules, though the engine in particular could have done with some more poly-lovin it was never meant to be seen closely.   I returned to the centrifuge and completed some parts of it, but found I couldn't even render the parts without changing renderers, lighting and materials, and had no time for any of it. I sent what I had off, as a complete package but a large 'make it up as you go along' ship like this is never truly finished, only abandoned - I'm usually never happy but look back years later more objectively and think, hmm, that actually looked OK. 

In fact for numerous reasons I didn't see a complete render of this ship at all (and properly assess my work) or even load all parts into the same scene until earlier this year, a gap of three-and-a-half years.  So I will frustratingly leave you now without seeing the entire thing - until part 3. 

-Steve.

Big Spaceships 001 - Irrealis "ISS Mjollnir" Part 1

Its three, years ago and I'm looking for a new place to live; the charm of the lovely water features that would be produced from the ceiling of my inner city attic flat every time it clouds over wearing thin.  After cancelling a tenancy agreement I have about two weeks to sort other accommodation out and pack up and move.

Perfect timing for a big project with a tight schedule then.

Cue Joseph Ksander: "Steve, I'm making a movie and need a big spaceship."

Me: "Sweet!"

The fool even offered me money, anyway... Joe is really nice guy with a great vision and now rightfully a very successful person in Hollywood, this spaceship was for his low budget short then called "Rocketman," now called "Irrealis."  The design had already been worked out and painted mockups filmed during principle photography so it had to closely resemble those images, here's one of them:

I began with the central centrifuge section based around a proxy model used for working out FX sequences, Mjollnir is a big ship and the centrifuge contains four decks.

 A finished Centrifuge section erm, section. 

The ISS Mjolnir is in trouble having been struck by an Asteroid, so as well as building the ship I also had to partly destroy it, as this was the last ship I built on a 32 bit system (with the 1gb memory limit for applications) I had to work in several different files.

Working out some of the damage on the outside, considering the path of the asteroid through the ship, and that the centrifuge is still spinning I gave everything a downward/out sag, as if holding on by only a thread.

Adding more layers to represent outer and inner panels and so on, and lots of junk, pipework, wiring, big storage tanks, cargo pods and machinery.

This is about where I had to move house and to illustrate my own frustration at having to break off and deal with other things i have decided to split this into two parts and make you all wait, hah! 

If you forgive and bear with me, more to come including the rest of the ship in part 2!

Heavy Metal

Since these images are probably no longer online (And the project is not one thats abandoned, just on a long list of stuff to-do) I'll repost them here for old followers of the project and new alike. Hopefully i'll make some more progress on this vehicle this year.

Its your one way ticket to midniiii.... umm, Mars.

It is intended to be a 50+ years future spacecraft: Powered by Helium 3 fuelled Fusion engines it can take off from a (very long - like Area 51 long)  runway built as a custom spaceport.   As you can tell, the vehicle is huge and is needed to take a lot of passengers on journeys between the earth End Mars.

Once at Mars there are perhaps several options:  Docking with a spacestation and shuttling down to the surface; the spacecraft in its entirety could land on the surface using VTOL engines or the front section itself could detach and take all passengers and crew to the surface. This feature might save weight due to less VTOL engines required or increase safety.  During all manoeuvring passengers are contained in the front section, as well as a landing module this could also serve as a lifeboat.  A requirement if Zapp Brannigan is at the controls. 

Docked at a mockup spacestation with centrifuge deployed.

Landing would be tricky at high speeds and high angle of attack (AOA) so the pilot would need extra assistance.  When complete the model will be usable in Orbiter and perhaps other applications as it is designed as a real time model to be used in real time applications, despite its large size.  This is accomplished through extensive use of texture tiling.  I would like someone to be able to stand on the hull and not see the pixels so the approach to detailing is more along the lines of an environment than a vehicle in traditional terms.  Along similar lines of approach is the Normandy SR1 and SR2 from Mass Effect.

As with any high AOA landing vehicle, this will land fast and nose high. 

A fully (or perhaps limited to couple of decks) explorable interior, including flight deck/virtual cockpit and access to the centrifuge is planned.  Since lighting will have to be all in the textures themselves, 'baked' into the texture tiles a day/night cycle is accomplished by flipping the texture sets on a regular interval in flight, satisfying the primitive hu-man need for sleep.  Personal entertainment is probably more likely over the traditional two week long inflight movie but the occasional classic might be broadcast on the decks info panels. 

this area, a zero g zone within the forward hull, might be full of seating, a concern for a real time model due to the vast amounts of seats that could be fitted in the cavernous hull! 

Any further development of this project will be shown in its entirety in this blog, thanks for reading. 

McQuarrie inspired oldies.

All of these were built pre-2005-6: While I consider them original designs in their own right, the influence of mcquarries style, looking back is evident.  

Originally completed in 2002 its all engines and guns and little else other than a frame and skin holding the parts together; I have been often told it would 'fit right in' with Star Wars.   Curiously this is my most often copied design. Someone recently had the cheek to build a copy of it and enter it in a deviant art contest, while I complained at the time I was more annoyed that he didn't win.

BTW rather than copying it vertex for vertex he could have saved himself a LOT of time and simply bought a copy of it from my 3D02 store: http://www.3d02.com/3d_model_index.aspx?OptSearchType=1&TxtAuthor=coolhand 

(Infact blog readers can get a copy for slightly cheaper - leave a comment on this webzone if you want a pizza roll, sorry, I mean copy of the 3d model.)

BSG Viper-ish leanings below (the clues in the name!)

^ Infact the shape was more inspired by the 60's lifting body experimentals like the M2F2 etc.

All Textures for this one became lost in a cumbersome misfortune involving a thunderstorm and exploding powersupply.

Thats all for now.

El Diablo de la Carretera

The following information is classified and has been leaked from a government insider....


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Currently in use with a black budget task force on the late night highways of the US and Mexico; it's existence is denied by the US Government, it's mission, classified beyond top secret. Never normally seen during daylight, the dark hunched form seen speeding around the border areas has become known as "The Devil of the Highway" and is associated with many burned out car wrecks (which appear to have been pummelled by high powered explosive tipped rounds) and mysterious deaths found in areas where the vehicle is sighted. 


Based on the XMT-168 advanced APC prototype this vehicle is modified for use at high speed on paved roads: It features 6 wheel drive and 6 wheel steering, powered by twin turbo-shaft engines outputting a combined 2000 shaft horsepower. Aerodynamically arranged armour and double rear wheels help keep it on the road, along with a vacuum system (inspired by outlawed Chaparral race cars) that create low pressure areas under the hull around the front and side skirts allowing manuvering that belies its mass - which is minimal through use of composites and high tech materials. The turret has a faceted lenticular shape - similar to an AWACS radar that allows the turret to rotate and cause minimal wind deflection at high speeds. 


To tackle rougher terrain, the vehicle can raise up on its double wishbone suspension and / or detach skirt sections for added clearance, it is also able to fit inside a C-130 transport and compact enough to be practical on a modern road network. The side effect of this is reduced carrying capacity for troops or cargo of its own. Effective Crew is a minimum of 2, typically 3 and provision for carrying a small number of passengers. 

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The model itself is built to be 3D printable and while it's also a scifi concept model its also an experimental test bed for very real world technologies that allow the printing of miniaturised working suspension components, or of course any type of working mechanism.