Attack on Macross Island

[Ruak]

ok. abandoning all my other half updated threads. im just going to stick to this one. my absence. I moved to LA from Monolith and Seattle about a year ago was working with pixar on some of the incredibles stuff. was allot of fun. mostly now working on some next generation technology. but not as time consuming as some of my other jobs.

starting off I would like to give you a frame from one of the things I hope to finish in the next 4 months. using all the models I had previously made. that may or may not end up in one of the game engines im working with. in my spare time, I thought I should put them to good use and practice on some of my rusty animation skills.

the title on this one is simple.

Frame 261

[promethuem5]

You worked for Pixar? Can I talk to you about the industry and such.... I;m trying to figure out what I want to do wtih my life and where to go for college... and this type stuff interests me... I'd PM ya right now but I gotta go.... let me know tho if you're interested in tlaking about it.

[AlphaHX]

Cool, theres are all sorts of Macross fans arent there?... even Pixar employees...

Hey promethuem5, how old are you? Youre not in college yet? Wow, I thought I was a young Macross fan. I'm a third year in college. I go to UCI, let me know if you have any questions... maybe I can help you out.

[promethuem5]

Lol.... I'm turning 16 next month. I'm pretty sure I'm the youngest person on this forum... (and prolly on most of the other forums I frequent). The funniest thing I have read was Haterist telling A1 not to make fun of me cuz I'm too young or something....

[AlphaHX]

Geez... you are young.

[wongster]

lol not really... i'm 14... getting into 3d art

[DatterBoy]

Hey Ruak. Looking good so far. What are your intentions with the animation in regards to length and scope?

:Dat

[Ruak]

before that goes to far. I am not a Pixar employee I only worked with them. I have been in video games for 10 years now. my one offer to work in movies I turned down, and I have no ambition to ever trying to peruse that again.

the animation is going to be a short. similar to the length of an episode of "clone wars" probably 5 possibly 10 min. 70% of the models are made. the environment needs more cloud work. similar to those you saw in "Zero" there will be high use of parallax and tricks to give you the idea of a rich interesting sky. I was very inspired with there work on zero. with the recent advancements in games I feel those effects are now possible in low poly.

I would also like to add. if this first one goes well. I would like to do another, time allowing, and I can think of another interesting setting and idea. I wouldn't want to touch any existing characters out of respect for there creators. So the "fun" part is finding a loop hole or gap in the story that will allow for a miny story to be told.

thanks again.

and happy birthday promethuem5

Edited March 15, 2005 by Ruak

[promethuem5]

Lol, thanks... but it's not yet! Computer gamming is defenetaley intersting to me.... very cool. Shoot me a PK or something about where you went to school and such bc/ I am curious please.

And wongster, be warned.... I do have to kill you now that I know you're younger than me....

[Wesker99]

Young Macross fans are good, keep it alive... Mwhehehehehe...

/me is 18 in 5 days

That looks really cool Ruak

I can't wait to see the other frames.

[Brianw76]

That looks great! I'm really gonna be watching the progress of this one. Please keep it up.

Edited March 16, 2005 by Brianw76

[promethuem5]

Hey! That's pretty neat looking too! Are you drawing it yourself or photoshopping in still of the VF-1 from an outside source? Looks great either way...

[Ed.Coli]

Looks more like cel-shaded 3d models, though I have to agree, it does look really nice. IMO the background could use a bit more detail.

[Ruak]

other than the print I drew in myself in Photoshop. the image is untouched. I painted the background that is wrapped around a sphere. the clouds are also paintings projected onto a group of surfaces that are bowed in to match roughly the shape of the sphere.

I am working hard to make it look game/anime style. this render was to test two types of clouds I was working with. the larger cloud is more transparent. the smaller one more opaque. to see what kind of effects I can get and how anime they will appear with lighting. I was happy with both styles. now to mass produce various shapes of clouds for the final scenes. like I said before. I would like to reproduce the amazing cloud effects from zero with the use of careful/clever parallax

[Ruak]

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=13794

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=13708

are two of the models im going to be useing.

[Ruak]

stupid double post... grrr.

Edited March 16, 2005 by Ruak

[AlphaHX]

Two words for you Ruak. Mad skills.

Great great stuff.

Its seriously amazing how much talent that some people have here in MW. I'm jealous. You guys need to spread the wealth. Greedy bastards.

[Ruak]

was doing more renders of the clouds. the lighting was one area light. so its darker than I wanted. this was just playing with the different cloud layers, trying to see just how much work im gona have to do.

oh.. and was playing with new trails that follow the craft. its a half cylinder that not only plays a series of animation but has uv direction.

Edited March 16, 2005 by Ruak

[Lestat]

Nice to know you've got some free time Rauk. Glad if nothing else seeing some of your work come to fruition. Good luck with it all. Both models are looking super spiffy. Will the animaiton be set soley in the atmosphere? What are you planning to put in it mecha wise, and will this be simply a mecha battle animation, or will you be using your old cockpit animations?

If you ever get interested again, we're still keen to hear from you on the HW2 TC.

[JValk]

there is definitely a wealth of dogfights waiting in that first battle on Macross Island. (South Atilia? something like that)

for a second project sidestory battle, might i suggest the POV of a destroid waiting in the Dedalus, for Misa's command to unleash the Dedalus' missle attack after ramming it into an enemy spacecraft? that last shot of tons of different types of destroids barraging a poor Zent ship with all those curly-q missiles - that would be quite a animation to-do!

[Ruak]

possible color scheme for the valks. because im lazy some of the words are backwards. i havent done all the textures yet. so the left side is useing some of the right sides.

this was originally a very low poly valk. but for the animation i will round it out some. i notice it has some edges that do not line up and the normals are no longer smooth. not sure when that happend. i will fix these problems at lunch or something.

Edited March 17, 2005 by Ruak

[EXO]

Hey Ruak, great stuff. nice to see you back and posting art!

[Rodavan]

Great looking valk

I like that color scheme too

[Gammera]

Damn that valk makes me ashamed to ever show mine again!

[DatterBoy]

GAMMERA, you have nothing to be ashamed of, but that is one damn fine valk. I think the texturing really makes it. Matter of fact, I think I'm gonna go for the style Ruak is using on my own for those round things on the legs of the valk. Modelling those round things ain't working for me.

Ruak, what ref did you use for that part of the valk?

:Dat

[Lestat]

Hasagawa specs I believe.

Damn.

[Ruak]

lestat... thanks. there will be some cockpit interior shots using my pilot model. rather than do new faces I was going to do a texture swap on the face and on the helmet. the helmets will have logos on them. icons so you know who is who. for the fast read. I have not totally decided on the interior of the zent ships yet. I have the character models. but not the insides of there ships yet. that could add considerable time to what I want to do. I will post some characters next week.

Dat. lestat is right. I think it was from the cover of the vf-1j box for the model.

Edited March 17, 2005 by Ruak

[Ruak]

didnt do much work tonight. got one more model checked off, one of my favorites. a new gruel <---- not sure its spelled like that. only did the UV's and put the basic color on it. will finish the texture some time tomorow.

as i posted the image i realize i forgot to rescale the guns. there too long and not thick enough. just changed that.

Edited March 18, 2005 by Ruak

[Lestat]

For the clarification: Gnerl. But it looks fantastic. So this means you're using the Bretai and pilot models on your website? And is that the same valk base model that's on it?

[polidread]

Attack on the Island of South Atalia on the day of the Macross Inauguration

[Ruak]

thanks for the clerification. both of you. though my girlfriend is japanese. (over here working as an inturn in animation) when i mention macross or wana talk about it. she gets this look and says "macross isnt cool anymore" and tries to get me to do the Nausicaa models i promised to do so she can animate them. no help from her... in fact she gives anti-help.

[JValk]

thanks for the clerification. both of you. though my girlfriend is japanese. (over here working as an inturn in animation) when i mention macross or wana talk about it. she gets this look and says "macross isnt cool anymore" and tries to get me to do the Nausicaa models i promised to do so she can animate them. no help from her... in fact she gives anti-help.

As much as I love Nausicaa - if you do a giant Ohmu bug render over this awesome dogfight, you have your priorities all wrong!

[Lestat]

Then you must inspire her! lol

Priorities or not, women will always be superior to Macross. I think god old Roy Fokker would agree with me on that one.

Edited March 19, 2005 by Lestat