Cinematic - Mass Effect dock scene

David-J

CURRENT STATE



Hi guys,

Just wanted to share this side project I'm working on for fun. Crits and comments are welcome. The idea comes from all those mini cinematics in Mass Effect when you arrive at different planets or stations. I want to do a short animation of the Normandy landing in this space dock.

So here are a couple of shots of my progress and where I currently am. This is not going to be following games specs. It's just for fun and doing something cool.




Now this is pretty much the Normandy finished. I did some tweaks later but I didn't do a stand alone render. and the last image is where I am currently at.

David-J

Here is another update with more things textured. I will work on that console to have FG object very detailed and help with the scale and also start playing with the animation for this scene.

Chris Kuhner

Wow man, this looks great so far! I love the overall scope of the scene; though, where the ship meets the Earth, things tend to get a little hard to read/busy.

Maybe lighten the docking station and ship a bit while giving it a warmer tone so that it creates a bit more contrast to the background.

David-J

thanks Chris. Yeah, I am having problems with the readability but I'm working on it. Thanks for the suggestions I will try them out.

Broadway

Looks nice so far! Will the camera mostly remain in this angle for the whole cinematic? And are you planning to mess with the lighting more? I have some lighting suggestions but if you're still waiting to do a whole lighting pass I'll hold off

David-J

thanks Broadway. I will post the video either today or tomorrow so people get a better idea of the whole animation. Here is more progress on the ligthing. This would be pretty much all the light sources for the scene. Go ahead and post those lighting suggestions.

These are 2 angles that I am playing with for the end of the animation (hero shot).

Broadway

Nice, I like the first angle more. I think it makes the foreground more interesting.

Here are my 2 cents about the lighting: Assuming your only light sources are the sun and the relatively weak running lights on the station, I think your lighting and shadows would be a lot more harsh here. Generally in space photos the shadows are very dark. Also I think you'd have some reasonably strong reflected blue light from the planet.

Also I threw in a suggestion to help the form of the ship read better: basically cut out all the station geometry that intersects the ship in this "hero shot". Of course this might not be a good solution if it messes up your idea of how the station should be built.




Looking forward to seeing the animation!

David-J

Niiice! Thanks for taking the time to do the paintover. Love it. Great suggestions. I will play with the lighting today.

I'll finish the animation today and then I'll get back to the lighting. This paintover helps a lot.

Cheers!

HandSandwich

Looking good, David I dig the paintover too, Broadway. Makes for a much more interesting layout. Looking forward to seeing some animation action.

GrimFiction

This is looking great, excited to see what it looks like following on from lighting and depth.

David-J

Here is my first take on the animation. I took a break from ligthing and shader work and did this. Tomorrow I will post some renders.

So the idea for the animation is to start looking at space and have a reveal moment for the Normandy, then you see it approach and finally docks.

[vv]58684809[/vv]

HandSandwich

Needs more horizontal lens flare
Keep it up!

b4volpe

This is really cool. Reminds me of the Star Trek movie. I know it Mass Effects but that was my first reaction. I love the texture work here. Very nice work.

David-J

Here is another update. I played with a bit of comp with the last frame to see where I want to take this scene to look like in the end.

I still need to tweak some lighting things that I saw from this comp but just wanted to share the progress.

Broadway

Cool! The animation is nifty. It might look cool if we could see a little more movement of the "grabber" arm as it comes into the shot. Keep it up!

David-J

thanks Broadway. playing with the BG now. Changed the planet's color and brightness to separate the ship from the Bg.

ayoub44

i love the change that you made on the planet color , it's giving a great feeling .
maybe you should make some light on that thing in the top of the big ship because i don't really know where i have to look . wath are you planning for the focal point ? make that sun ( is that a sun ) light less powerful . are you working on udk or max render ?
good luck

David-J

thanks for all the comments. I tried to address most of them. I added more geometry to give it more scale. I reworked the Bg and the lighting to give it more mood and added and tweak other stuff here and there. Trying to bring back the focal point to the ship.

David-J

Here is a test without that star. I would need to remove that bright reflection but jus testing it out.

ZacD

The spaceship could use some warm light bouncing off the planet lighting under it.

David-J

Scale adjusted, added more geometry overall to the dock and updated lighting.

David-J

Small scale variation and tiny tweaks here and there.

David-J

Here is a new take on the animation. 2 cameras, less crazy movement. Timing and other stuff needs lots of tweaking but just to show another idea.

NEW

[vv]59453782[/vv]

OLD

[vv]58684809[/vv]

ZacD

The animation of the ship feels a bit floaty and looks like it's bobbing in water. I'd make it so it it has a harder stop and less up and down movements. You also might want to ship to move down when the arm clamps down on it.