Great job, guys! I don't normally like CGI (this does count as CGI, doesn't it?), but it looks awesome so far. I hope it blends in to the rest of the film nicely.

That dragon is pretty sweet. Have you tried adding some smears to the reflections and/or scratches to the bump/normal maps? It might take the edge of over-cleanliness off of it .

Just curious, how long does it take to render a frame of that dragon with the final texturing? I feel like it must take quite some time. Also, did you guys storyboard the whole film, or just parts?

Last edited by legoguy501 (June 6, 2014 (12:58am))

2nd place Darkness and Light entry: The Tree
Behind the Scenes

*Update*

Sorry about the long stretch of silence, guys.  We have been VERY busy trying to reach our August release date with this film, and because of that we have had very little free time.  However, as we are now in July, the month before our planned release date, we felt it was time for another update.

Thanks for the tip!  We were considering doing this, however the dragon is always shown in very dark lighting or in deep shadows, so we decided that it wouldn't really make much more of a difference if he had a little more texture or not.

To render a single frame of the dragon with the final texturing takes anywhere from 8 to 20 minutes, depending on the lighting and what scenery he is in.  As for storyboarding, a great number of the scenes we did do a rough storyboard of (especially the complex action scenes), but many of the simple dialogue scenes we just sort of worked out on the fly in order to save time.

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In terms of updates, we really don't want to reveal too much, as we are nearing completion in many areas.  However, we do have an image from one of our WIP renders of one of the film's landscapes.  Here it is:

(Click on the above image for a higher-quality version)

On another note, we are going to be at Bricks By the Bay again this year, and we hope to see a few of you guys there!  If you are going to make it, please let us know and we will keep an eye out for you.

Now for a special request: We are absolutely swamped with stuff that needs to be done right now, and because of this we are finding it hard to find time to get everything modeled and built for the CG scenes.  We therefore would be extremely grateful if one of you talented CG artists out there could model this sword for us.  It is the Brickforge "Claymore."  Whoever sends us a 3D model of this sword will get our eternal gratitude and his name in the credits.

Anyhow, that's all for this update.  This may very well be one of the last updates, as we are going to be very busy getting the film ready for release.  We hope that the above image is enough to hold you guys over for now, and we also hope that at least one of you will have time to model that sword for us.   Until next time!

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EDIT: Thank you VERY much rioforce for the amazing sword model!  It was perfect!

Sorry, we should have specified.  A .3ds or .obj file would be the preferred file format for the sword.

I did a little research, and I found this tutorial.  I gives a pretty good rundown on how to export a model as an .obj from Maya.  Hopefully it will answer any questions you have in that regard.  

Another thing we should have mentioned before is that the sword will get very close to the camera, so the more realistic you guys can get the model, the better.  You can also send the model to [email protected].  Thanks!

Just the model.  We can do the rendering and texturing ourselves.  Thanks for asking though.

I emailed you with the sword 3D model attached. I hope you like it.

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

GOTTA SEE THIS!