Sweet ass collab thread.
ngon master
Yo guys,
a while ago, some other gnarly polycounters and i started up a sweet ass collaborative effort. it was on hold for quite a bit due to work commitments, but it's now back up and running.
the idea behind the collaboration was to create a scene from The Silmarillion (a Tolkien book), which features an elf fighting a balrog.
we wanted to make a short animation, between 30-45 seconds at the most, to showcase multiple aspects of the scene, these are:
Sweet ass environment techniques - Metalliandy is providing the environment art, which will have some awesome rocks, and snow, as well as some melted snow + charred rocks where the balrog is walking.
Sweet ass VFX - Lee3dee is providing the VFX for the scene, including snowfall, fire effects for the balrog, and some subtle magical effects for the elf.
Sweet ass rigging + animation - Slipsius is providing the rigging for the scene, and Andrew Tran is providing the animations.
Sweet ass characters - I'm providing the characters for the scene. this will be one balrog, visually inspired by the latest LOTR films, but with the notion that one balrog is not all balrogs, they were all unique and had different characteristics and looks. so there are definite visual similarities, but also a few differences, particularly in the proportions. I'll also be making one elf, Glorfindel.
background info on the scene here:
http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Glorfindel_of_Gondolin
visual inspiration:
and finally this one, we really liked the atmosphere in this one:
Design decisions -
Currently we're going with no membrane on the balrog wings, looking carefully in the movies you can see they don't either. there are a couple of reasons we chose to do this:
1. in the book it's ambiguous as to whether balrogs even have wings... more info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balrog
2. it provides an interesting visual challenge in the form of effects - how can we create wings of shadow?
We've gone for a snow packed mountainside for our setting, we're having to form a kind of cliff edge for the encounter to happen on. in the book, Glorfindel was leading refugees from the siege/fall of Gondolin through the mountains when they were attacked by a Balrog leading an army of Orcs. since we're a small group and can't dedicate enough time for all of that (unfortunately) we've decided to focus on the two main characters and their setting. this means we've had to tweak the encounter in the interests of making a functioning scene over being 100% loyal to the book.
a while ago, some other gnarly polycounters and i started up a sweet ass collaborative effort. it was on hold for quite a bit due to work commitments, but it's now back up and running.
the idea behind the collaboration was to create a scene from The Silmarillion (a Tolkien book), which features an elf fighting a balrog.
we wanted to make a short animation, between 30-45 seconds at the most, to showcase multiple aspects of the scene, these are:
Sweet ass environment techniques - Metalliandy is providing the environment art, which will have some awesome rocks, and snow, as well as some melted snow + charred rocks where the balrog is walking.
Sweet ass VFX - Lee3dee is providing the VFX for the scene, including snowfall, fire effects for the balrog, and some subtle magical effects for the elf.
Sweet ass rigging + animation - Slipsius is providing the rigging for the scene, and Andrew Tran is providing the animations.
Sweet ass characters - I'm providing the characters for the scene. this will be one balrog, visually inspired by the latest LOTR films, but with the notion that one balrog is not all balrogs, they were all unique and had different characteristics and looks. so there are definite visual similarities, but also a few differences, particularly in the proportions. I'll also be making one elf, Glorfindel.
background info on the scene here:
http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Glorfindel_of_Gondolin
visual inspiration:
and finally this one, we really liked the atmosphere in this one:
Design decisions -
Currently we're going with no membrane on the balrog wings, looking carefully in the movies you can see they don't either. there are a couple of reasons we chose to do this:
1. in the book it's ambiguous as to whether balrogs even have wings... more info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balrog
2. it provides an interesting visual challenge in the form of effects - how can we create wings of shadow?
We've gone for a snow packed mountainside for our setting, we're having to form a kind of cliff edge for the encounter to happen on. in the book, Glorfindel was leading refugees from the siege/fall of Gondolin through the mountains when they were attacked by a Balrog leading an army of Orcs. since we're a small group and can't dedicate enough time for all of that (unfortunately) we've decided to focus on the two main characters and their setting. this means we've had to tweak the encounter in the interests of making a functioning scene over being 100% loyal to the book.
Replies
The Balrog - currently rendered in cryengine, although we've yet to decide if this is our final engine of choice, due to probably needing some programming being done for the footprints:
Glorfindel - work in progress shot of glorfindels head sculpt:
Lee3dee's wip fire effects in maya fluid:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/se7ae9u9wkos73h/Maya_Fluid_Fire.mp4
The Balrog rig from Slipsius:
Slipsius promises a video demo of the rig soon.
Work in progress animation of the Balrog from Andrew Tran:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33107570/persp_balrog.mov
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33107570/front_Balrog.mov
we of course, welcome all feedback and criticism.
Nice concepts and I like the scope of the whole project. Really interested in seeing more of what you guys can do.
This looks super sweet - why do you need programming for footprints in an animation though? Let me know if you need any help with setting up the shots and rendering in the engine
I think the Balrog will really come to life with the smog and ash effects in engine. Especially if you make him look like he's constantly emerging from the billowing clouds. Really excited to see what you all come up with.
^^^^^^ This.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/se7ae9u9wkos73h/Maya_Fluid_Fire.mp4
I also am really excited to see one of the epic tales from the Silmarillion come to life, it's much needed I think.
The Balrog looks badass, Some thoughts about Glorfindel via photoshop if your interested: Mainly the eyes
I'd be careful about flattening the iris while sculpting, since the overall eye with lens plays a big part in defining the upper lid.
But awesome collab guys! altho there's a lack of appealing bottoms judging from the thread title
That rocks, nice weight, nice secondary motion in the limbs and wings
I'm not so sure the mouth opening should be part of the walk cycle. A breath for every step seem kind of odd, maybe layer in the breathing after the cycle is in place?
All looks great so far guys. Loving the Balrog, the Elf and really liking the start of the fire effects, Lee. Lovely stuff.
next time i make a "Sweet Ass Collab" thread, it'll be between Hazardous, LRoy, FunkyBunnies and myself lol.
made a couple of changes to the head based on feedback, also an early look into the kind of physique he has (want him to be pretty lean and "tall".
http://puu.sh/4vtUK.gif
Main things that are bugging me about the arm - The bicep should look like its connecting at the head of the humerus. looks like its just running into the ribcage atm.
he doesn't have wrists atm. the thumb needs to be lower, and look like its resting underneath the carpals.
udder than that its look great. face is nice.
He's got a really smooth silhouette; pushing the spikes out more and making his anatomy a bit more angular and interpretive could give him a sweet unique look instead of being so similar to the movie.
His glowy parts look really small and dim now too, I think you could draw focus to his head and chest by directing attention to those areas by dimming the extremities and having it brighter where you want the viewer to look. You could also make the glowy parts follow the muscles (or where forms meet) or hard armory bits too.
hope that helps brahski. Look forward to seeing this thing come together.
Daphz -
there are parts i love and parts i'm not so keen on. not entirely sure i want to go for the angled look (don't get me wrong, it would look fantastic, but we're going for a fairly un-stylised look to the whole scene). but i'm definitely keen to add a more chitinous look to his surface, and make the cracks a bit less "messy".
Dylan -
I see what you mean, but i think it's the rather awkward angle of the screenshot, i'm working on him now so i'll post other angles later for you to take a better look at.
crazyfool -
agreed! will work on the head some more.
the idea for the flower on the chest is to have it baked down rather than being a physical mesh. i want it to look like detailing on the chest piece in the final low poly. the jewel will protrude though, and the jewel design may/may not be final.
Lee (the other one) will have some sweet ass updates soon, but he's crunching hard right now.