-Brandon

BLT3D Demo Reel-

Due to the new Extended Trailer, the original trailer is up for old time sake. Yay.

BFTR Trailer

Yup, you read right. New, extended trailer of Battle For the Republic.

Enjoy

Solid.

iPod Verison

QuickTime Verison

-Or-
B. Upload a sort of of mini version now, like a director’s cut. Only the best parts of film get shown.

Option A will definitely mean no movie until like fall, maybe even by the Holidays. I’m planning my wedding and trying to get back into school, so the project would have to be put on hold until I have more time. But it would be completely finished.

Option B is just like it sounds, a director’s cut rough version of the film. The shots that I think look the coolest will be in it. The shots that aren’t finished will be put off until I can devote more time to the final edition, which will have everything. Everything.

I know you guys wanna see all that we did back in July, and believe me one day the film will be completed in its entirety. Right now is just not that time lol..so if you all would rather wait and see the finished movie or get a taste of what could be the coolest Star Wars fan film now..post some comments and let me know what’s up. Solid-

-Brandon

Modeling-

Creating an object in 3D. Yup that’s it. Using polygons and lines, modelers create characters and objects in 3D space. The most common polygons used in model creation range from cubes, spheres, and cylinders. In fact, a skilled modeler can create an incredibly realistic CG character using just these few shapes.

Texturing-

Once you have a completed model, it will need a texture to look real. Using a coordinate system called “UV’s”, the polygonal model is overlayed with a picture, thus making it look more real. For example, say you have a flat polygonal plane, and your job is to make it to look like grass. First, you would take a “snap shot” of the plane’s UV’s. Then, you would send that snap shot into a photo editing program, like Photoshop. Then, by means of that fabulous invention called the Internet, search for a nice, flat picture of grass. (Or, if you happen to have a collection of grass pictures in your album..if that’s your thing). Next take this picture, overlay ontop of the UV’s, and export back to your 3D program, and bingo..your flat boring plane now looks like super interesting grass! Fun for all.

Animation-

My fav part. Animation is the process of creating movement of an object over time. Although the workflow has changed much from 2D animation now that computers are running the show, but the basics are the same. You set “keyframes” on the frames on you want to have animation, like a sort of “snap shot” of the action (how many times can I use the term snap shot in this blog? Go on, count.) Let’s use the bouncing ball example. First your CG ball is on the ground. Make a keyframe of the ball at frame 1. Next, move the ball in the up direction at frame 15. Keyframe there. Lastly, move the ball back down at frame 30, and yeah you guessed it..keyframe here too. Now play! The ball bounces up and down for 30 frames, (or 1 second.) Huh??

FPS-

No, not first person shooter. Frames per second. This is what determines how fast the frames are displayed. In animation and North American TV broadcast, it’s 30 fps. That’s means that for every second, 30 frames of animation, or movement are being displayed. Film is 24 fps, which is why if you’ve ever noticed movies in theaters look slower and more dramatic then tv movies. It’s because it actually is slower. DVD comes in at a nice 29.97 fps. And HDTV..wait..60 fps. Yup. That’s why its expensive. And because of a little thing called..

Resolution-

This is how “big” the picture will be displayed. First off, there’s 2 modes. Interlaced and progressive. Interlaced means that one line is drawn on your tv set at a time, the odd ones first, then the even ones. That means images being broadcast into your living room are drawn on your set in 2 passes, which is why the picture looks fuzzy. Progressive mode is all lines being drawn at once, for a clearer picture. Now then..

Tv resolution in American broadcasts are 720 by 486i. That means 720 lines across by 486 down interlaced. Most regular tv’s use this method. That’s the composite, or “yellow red and white” connections, which handles the video and audio. The next step up is EDTV or enhanced definition, which means it’s 720 by 486p,or progressive. That’s the tv’s that have an S-Video port. The HDTV resolution starts at 1280 by 720p. Nice. Tv’s that have the “red, blue, green, red and white” connections, called component, are capable of this resolution. The next range is 1920 by 1080i. Notice the “i”. Most newer tv’s that display in 720p can upscale to 1080i. Same component connections as well. The current highest resolution is 1920 by 1080p. Yeah boy. Newer tv’s with this capability will definitely have component connections, but may have a HDMI port as well. (Some 720p tv’s can have this too.) HDMI is a digital connection unlike component, which means it could display better picture quality. I say “could” because there’s a controversy over which looks better. With resolutions this high, it’s hard to tell just by looking which is best. It breaks down ever further, believe me (like plasma tv’s, LCD, DLP) but I won’t get into all that. You can definitely show the Best Buy salesman a thing a too with all this knowledge, though.

Well that’s it for today. Gotta get back to work. Got a movie to make here..Solid.

Brandon L. Townes

So to get it out of the way, this post will be about the Star Wars movie. I didn’t forget about it, Brennan, it’s still coming. Actually I’m putting all other projects on hold to complete this. It will be done by May. I’m hesitant to release any new pics or trailers, but a few “surprises” could slip out. Maybe.

Keep an eye out on the blog for some new updates..you never know what I might put on here..

Solid.

Brandon L. Townes

-Brandon

http://www.3dworldmag.com/

http://www.vfxtalk.com/

http://www.cgexplorer.com/

Last update, I gave a list  of CG and visual fx links to make this alittle easier to understand. But since this is MY blog, shouldn’t I define these terms myself? You bet! Here goes..

CG – Computer generated..any object thats created with a computer. Could be 2D or 3D.

Matchmove – The process of tracking real camera movements to create data for a virtual camera move. For example, if you want to film your dog running around, well, doing dog stuff, and you decide you want to add a CG dog to the video, you import the recorded video into the computer, and using matchmoving software, create a virtual camera thats an exact duplicate of the original camera. Then, taking that data into your 3D program, you place your CG dog in the shot with the duplicated camera. Thus, everything looks like it was shot with the same camera move. Yay.

Compositing – Usually the last step in the visual fx pipeline. Pretty much, compositing is the process of combining all your elements (CG, real footage, special effects) together to make them look like they were all filmed together.  The compositing process is actually very simple. Every image in real life has three channels, red, green, and blue. In order for compositing to work, a fourth channel is needed, the alpha channel. The alpha channel (or “matte”) is a greyscale image that defines transparency. The white areas in the channel are opaque, and the black areas are transparent. Having this alpha information allows the compositor to place elements in front of or behind of other elements. Pretty much the alpha channel is like cookie cutting. The alpha channel is nice. But, how do we get one? Well, elements that are created in the computer (CG) include an alpha channel already, but “real world” elements (anything else not created by a computer) will have to be given this alpha information. The most common way to do this is by….

Keying – Procedural Matte Extraction..done. Nah, there’s definitely more to it then that. This is when you film a subject against a uniformly colored screen, usually blue or green, and then remove that color from the background. The blue/green screen will then be replaced with a new background. This works in conjunction with the basic compositing process.

Rotoscoping – Drawing shapes to extract or isolate a part of an image. Used to create mattes of objects that need alpha channels. Patented by Max Fleischer in 1917. And for those who love Star Wars..rotoshapes were used to create the lightsaber. Sweet.

Whew!I think I’ll continue this section next week. Let me know if there’s anything you all would like to know more about. I might be the one writing this blog, but you guys make it possible!! (awww) Until next time…Solid.

-Brandon

Oh yea..if anybody out there in internet world has Xbox Live, come get beat!! My gamertag is Jedi Weapon 311. Oh Yea.

-Brandon