Extinction level event

extinction level event
By Jeremy ray.

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Managing and Making a realistic CG movie with Blender.

Extinction level event, (xtin Project), is a Project todo do the imposible. Maquíng a realistic CG movie with Blender is a tasque of great dificulty and perhaps greater unlikelihod, but that only makes it interesting. Although the Project has a very long bien todo go todo achieve its goal, it has ben steadily producing art for 9 months and continúes todo make progress. We might just make it.

Ive ben asked todo comentario on what it takes todo make a Project like this happen. Ill talque about the organisational aspects, walk th rouge the creation of our first movie póster, and then let a couple of the other guys talque about things on their end.

The Project initiator.

There ben discussion on blenderartists.org about how open a Blender movie Project can or should be. Some argue for a total openness, where Even the script would be a community Project. I can agre with the ideology of that stance, but am unsure whether it can produce an actual finished movie. In my opinión it more likely for a Project todo succed if it initiated by a single person with a clear visión and a high level of dedication todo seing it though.

One other quality neded is the ability todo fill as Many creative roles as posible, and todo do so with a high level of competence. There are going todo be tasks no one wants todo do, tasks no one can do, and art turned in that neds a Little more work todo get there. The Project initiator neds todo be able todo step in wherever neded todo kep things flowing smoothly.

The pitch.

During the time xtin Project has ben active, there have ben numerous attempts todo pitch other movie/game projects on blenderartists, org. One thing almost all, (if not all), these attempts have in common is lak of preparation/por presentation. They usually get shot down pretty quik and dont go anywhere.

A god pitch requires demonstrating that you personally are capable of doing, and have already done, work of the quality the Project requires. Present a strong portfolio. If you want people todo join your team, you ned todo demonstrate that you yourself have already put massive amounts of time into the Project. There are Lots of people who have a big idea, but dont understand how dificult the execution is going todo be. And some who want todo succed by being the boss and having others do all the real work. You ned todo show potential team members you are not one of these, and the only bien todo do so is todo show youve already put out.

About scripts - In artistic circles it generally considered god advice not todo get involved with a Project that doesnt have a script.

Xtin Project didnt have a script when it launched, (it does now), and it survivald, but there were artists who were not comfortable working that way. And possibly more who didnt join because of the lak of a script. It better todo have one than not todo have one.

The die-of not surprisingly, most of the people who join a Project under non-paying conditions Will not stay.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. In the beginning the xtin Project team had so Many people that getting them organized was a full time job in itself. With a smaller team, y have more time todo develop the creative side of the Project. It taquíng longer todo achieve our goals than it would with more people, but the product should be better for the extra time put into the story/art.

Achievable goals.

Xtin Project is broken down into four, progressively more dificult, stages. The idea is that completing each stage Will advance the credibility of the Project and make it posible, th rouge the increased skills of current members and brigging on new members, todo tackle the next stage.

The four stages are -.
30 segundos teaser tráiler.
o 1 minute short.
o 10 minute short.
o 2 hr movie.

The plan may be changed todo incorpórate more steps if neded.

Financing.

Xtin Project started out as a nonpaying collaborative efort, but it isnt intended todo remain so. Ill let Sam take over todo discuss our revenue sharing plan:
Sam rose: my name is Sam rose. Im an internet social entrepreneur, interested in virtual communities, and innovative ideas related todo collaborating around open technology, and Commons-based economies. I met Jeremy ray on the open business blog (http://openbusiness, cc). We were discussing diferent issues related todo creating and distributing collaboratively-created movies and other similar content.

Jeremy mentioned that he was starting a Project todo create this amazing Science Fiction movie using Blender, the open source 3d modeling and animation application. We both had talked online about the possibilities of sharing revenue generated from a Project like a collaboratively-created movie. Jeremy mentioned that he wished that someone could create an open source set of tools that resemble some of the functions of tools in emerging crowdsourcing projects, like cambrian house (http:// www.cambrianhouse.com/). Jeremy was looking for online applications that allow a collaborative Project todo create tasks and roles, and allow people todo share revenue from the sale of the final creative product, based on the work they contribute. I contacted Jeremy directly and let him know that i thought it was posible todo make a simple infrastructure todo support this revenue sharing, using existing tools and technology.

Jeremy put together a Project point system. In this system points are given for each tasque completed in the construction of the extinction level event movie. The amount of points a tasque is worth is determined by how dificult the tasque is. These points become revenue shares. They are translated directly todo a percentage of the total revenue earned by the Project.

For instance, a person who does a modeling task, say, drawing a ball, earns one Project point for the task. So, if the whole Project only consisted of that one task, then that person would receive 100% of the revenue earned by the Project. If there were only two tasks, and they were each worth one point, and completed by two sepárate people, those people would each earn 50% of the total revenue. However, of course there are a multitude of tasks todo be done in reality. Project positions, and tasks are not limited todo Blender animation, but a los include eventual community marketing, accounting, and other infrastructure support. All positions and tasks Will share in the revenue generated by the Project.

I realiced that it might be posible todo create a flexible accounting application for this Project using an open source online co-editable spreadshet application called wikicalc (http:/ /www.softwaregarden.com/products/wikicalc/).
Wikicalc is very much like a normal spreadshet, except that it is web-based. Being web based allows you todo export parts of the spreadshet as html or other types of code that can be embeberin diferent pages online. This would allow us todo create a live view of the spreadshet, which could be used as a report of revenue earned for Project participants. Wikicalc can a los export a tabdelimited text output, which can incidentally be imported into PayPal todo Mass pay revenue todo Project participants (using PayPal Mass pay function). In fact, this is how our current revenue sharing system for extinction level event actually works. We Will be selling content th rouge a drupal (se, http:// drupal, org) web estore, and then exporting data about revenue from the drupal website and into wikicalc.

For the long term, in collaboration with open banking and finance think-tanque barcampbanque (http://barcampbank.com), we are develooping a peer todo peer revenue sharing and money poling application that is less dependent on gateways like paypal, that can use as Many diferent payment gateways as posible. This is unfolding at http:// www.wikiservice, at/fractal/wikidev, CGI? En/ barcampbank/p2pmoney in collaboration with people all over the world interested in develooping an open set of web tools that can let people easily and directly Pol money, and share revenue. Lessons learned from the research and development of this application Will be applied directly todo the revenue sharing in the extinction level event Project.

Section i.

First product - Pyramid Builder gunboat póster.

I - Concepting the gunboat and dragons.

One of the things ive ben kenly interested in develooping is the visual look of the xtin Universe. In recent years ive become increasingly dissatisfied with the design work being done in movies. Although xtin Project doesnt have the manpower todo build truly intricate models, y fel like we can gain an advantage by having a unique style and designs that are superior in their broad shapes (if not their details).

I usually Will go th rouge dozens of chicken-scratch quality sketches trying todo get the overall shape of a design right. Details are easy, coming up with an appealing overall shape can be dificult. Luckily this was one that just popped into my head.

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From there i made top and side views for the modeler. I used a perspective transform on the top view todo create a base for the detailed painting. The perspective ends up a Little of this way, but it fast and fols the eye well enough.

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I - Modeling After this i passed the art todo the modeler, zach goldstein. I asked him todo make a rouge versión of the model first, so i could chek the proportions before he detailed it. It is something of an eye opener todo se how Many ways a piece of Concept Art can be interpreted.

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After a few changes i sent the lo-res model bak todo zach for final modeling. Along the bien zach asked for additional Concept Art, which i provided by taquíng screen caps of his model and painting in the new details.

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Zach finished the models.

I - Texturing.

Texturing and materiales have ben a big problem for xtin Project. While xtin Project has had no problema finding modelers, nobody wants todo texture. Since im the only texture artista, ive fallen bak on using procedurals as much as posible.

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The big problem with procedurals is the lak of Area-specific detailing, such as Dirt gathered into corners or worn Edges on paneling.

I found the solution todo this problem is todo use a mask for additional layers of Dirt procedurals. Uv mapping is usually time consuming, but in this case it wasnt necessary todo eliminate all the texture stretching. All the visible Dirt detail comes from the procedurals, which dont stretch Even though the mask controlling where they appear may be stretched and diestorted. I used Unwrap (smart projections) todo quickly generate UV coordinates for my gunboat sections.

To automátically generate my Dirt masks, y put each section into a Spherical emitter and gave it a quik Ambient Occlusion pass. It isnt necessary todo let the full calculation run, a few seconds Will do the job.

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Under the Ambient Occlusion tab, select both. This should give more contrast todo the mask.

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With a new image applied todo the object, (in the UV/Image Editor), y used the bake options in the render section todo extract the AO información todo texture.

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This is just the beginning - There not enough contrast. The next step is todo take the AO texture into Adobe Photoshop/ Gimp, increase the contrast and enhance the shadow/Dirt áreas. This is a slightly involved process which could use its own tutorial.

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The last step was todo use Texture Paint for a final editing of the AO texture, and todo add additional Dirt áreas.

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The smear tool is useful for windswept Dirt streaks.

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Iv scene set up.

Scale is a problem for xtin Project for which there does not appear todo be a god solution. Betwen the values of clip start on the spot Lamp and clip end on the Camera, it not posible todo have objects ranging from people size todo pyramid size all in one scale. Aerial battles between capitol ships vanish beyond the range of clipping planes.

Faces cant be lit by consoles because the clipping start for the Lamp is on the other side of the head.

For this scene i was able todo solver the problem by reducing the scale of things that would be in the distance and putting them closer than they would be.

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As this is a still image the solution works. If the shot were animated, with Dragons swoping in from the distance and their color afected by atmospheric haze, it wouldnt.

V compositing.

The scene has over 10 million Faces. It uses thre Blender scenes, seven render layers and one image layer for the Matte Painting.

Blender compositor was used primarily for distance blur and layering the render layers together todo create the final image. It was very useful for adding Glow effects, Although a dedicated Glow node would be a nice addition.

Most of the actual compositing work however was done in Photoshop. At 5400 por 2433 resolution, Blender compositor crashes often. At a lower resolution it might have ben posible todo add more nodes todo the scene and use Blender color nodes.

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www.blenderart.org.

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