I forget if I’ve mentioned it, but I’ve begun work on a tutorial covering the dirt map script workflow
I’ll look forward to seeing that James. For some reason this texture painting stuff becomes a little confusing to me as to the benefits over just using an image.
The hatch has come out excellent, as has the firing range as a whole. Looking forward to see where this will go once you start animating.
I didn’t realize a week had passed since my last update! I’ve been very busy with work, as well as helping a friend pack and move all their belongings to their new home (about 900 miles away). So last week there was not much time for personal work.
But now all of that is taken care of, and I have tons of time to focus on this again!
Ghost - Thank you for the detailed reply! Now I know exactly what to use as reference when I have to show cables running between areas. I hope your duct system turned out well. You’re not joking about Minoribus’ abilities; He would have reached my current level of completion before page 3 of this thread!
suboptimal - Thanks! It’s been so long, I can’t remember what I textured last, but I guess it must’ve been good. Oh right, the hatch!
harley - I know what you mean, sometimes the benefits of using the dirtmap script instead of a single image are not clear, but I hope the tutorial will make it easy to understand. Thanks for the kind words!
Above is the current look for the hologram targets. It’s not final, but I think it’s getting closer. I’m using the Video Copilot Optical Flares to give a more dramatic look to it. I also want to use flares on the light on the gun and in other areas of the video. I really like the look of it. Plus I paid for them, so I may as well use them, right?
Ignore the old layout of the hologram generators, I didn’t feel like rendering out another version just to work on the targets.
I still need to look into adding some thickness to the targets, as well as scanlines. I really ought to do some look development animations, like I did with the gun, instead of working from a single image like I’ve been doing. Also, it’s important to nail down the workflow now instead of later when I’m ready to render. The look of the targets has to be achieved inside After Effects, because the scanlines need to be carefully animated. So this means separate passes have to be rendered for compositing. Some will also need to be tracked for lens flare effects.
The apocalyptic background looks great, and it seems that it is well matched to the firing range. The hologram targets are coming along nicely, I’ll be interested in learning how you plan on animating the scan lines. But what I’m more curious about from an animation standpoint, is once the hologram targets are hit… what is going to happen to them?
You can always tell a true friend… that’s the guy (or gal) who will step up and help when it’s time to move 
OK James you lost me again. But, don’t even think about any explanation since I don’t anticipate doing any VFX work. However, I do have a question about the background. Is that 2 - 3 modeled objects with a 2d plane / plate? Man this is looking nice. You might have been gone a week but what an update. Outstanding IMHO.
Thank you, harley. The background image is just one of the reference images I had, corrected to match the colors of the foreground. I just wanted something to approximate the final look, instead of just a black background. I could only hope the final matte looks as good as that!
You bring up a very important point, what will happen once the hologram targets are hit? I’ve been envisioning it as a bright yellow/orange wave of energy that emanates from the point of impact, and flows outwards, eating up the hologram and leaving emptiness in it’s wake. As to how that should be accomplished, I’m not sure. I’ll have to look up some references and try this out in the look development animations. Whatever the workflow, I think it’s crucial that the final look be as good as I can get it. I feel this is one area that cannot be half-assed, or the entire video will suffer and the extra work I’ve put into other areas will be for naught. So thank you for bringing this up, harley, it helps to keep me focused on the details!
Thanks for the kind words about helping my friend move. It was a long (and felt even longer driving back by myself), but I made sure to bring something back. I have this (possibly ridiculous) idea of collecting rocks from different regions of the country this year, mostly when I take my Arizona/Utah//California trip for Classy Dog in the Fall. I plan to scan all these different types of rocks, and then upload them to Blend Swap for people to use in their projects. Below are the rocks I gathered in Mississippi.
what will happen once the hologram targets are hit? I’ve been envisioning it as a bright yellow/orange wave of energy that emanates from the point of impact, and flows outwards, eating up the hologram and leaving emptiness in it’s wake
That would work well I think from a visual perspective, I’ll be interested in seeing your tests.
You bring up a very important point, what will happen once the hologram targets are hit? I’ve been envisioning it as a bright yellow/orange wave of energy that emanates from the point of impact, and flows outwards, eating up the hologram and leaving emptiness in it’s wake. As to how that should be accomplished, I’m not sure.
Wow, that would be an awesome visual effect. And I’m really curious with what solution you will come up.
The apocalyptic background looks great, and it seems that it is well matched to the firing range.
I second that and the color matching is spot on. With this background and environment the whole scene starts to tell something more than before and it gets much more visually interesting.
You can always tell a true friend… that’s the guy (or gal) who will step up and help when it’s time to move
I second that too 
I’m using the Video Copilot Optical Flares to give a more dramatic look to it. I also want to use flares on the light on the gun and in other areas of the video.
Hm, I’m not so sure about that. It might work and from an artistic pov it could perhaps add to the scene. But I wonder whether a hologram would emit enough light to produce a lens flare? To me it looks a bit too much in post #103.
Oh, and btw, I wouldn’t have reached your level of completion before page 12, James Seriously, you are doing a challenging and outstanding job here, James. And it’s fun to watch your progress.
Really awesome stuff here James. I admire your ability to get work done with such quality. The devil is in the details my friend that’s for sure. I’ll be watching for this projects completion for sure. Keep it up man:)
ghost - Sorry, I just saw your reply now! I should have posted in the latest update that the background image was just one of my reference images that I’m using as a temp background (the way a director/editor will use a pre-existing music track while editing a film, to approximate the mood they are looking to create). It helps me to tell how well the holograms will read on a real background, instead of just a solid color like I’ve been using. But that is the style I’m hoping the matte environments will resemble.
harley - Thanks! Today I completed my To-Do list for personal and work errands outside of Classy Dog, so I should have the next 4 days to focus solely on the film!
minoribus - Thank you for the encouragement! I know what you’re thinking about the flare being too strong; From this angle it is difficult to discern, but my idea for the holograms is that they have a very intense light being generated at the base, which is then directed upward and focused to create the image. From other angles it will be more apparent, but from this distance I understand it’s hard to tell. I like the look of the flare, but I also like the idea of a very strong light being focused, as I think it makes it feel more like a real mechanism, rather than an ethereal, magical thing. It also makes it feel slightly dangerous to be around, which hopefully fits in with the rest of the environment.
Derek - Thank you, that means a lot! I hope that Classy Dog will be known not just for childish poop jokes, but also for high quality effects and 3D work. We’ll be doing more live action videos soon once this is done, but we’ll always have Blender stuff in most of them.
Woah! how’d I miss this thread?
Some wonderful work you are doing here! I will be sure to follow your progress now that I have seen this.
I’d love to know more about that background, how much is 2d or 3d?
Thanks, ctdabomb! The background you see in that post is simply one of my reference images acting as filler. I’m currently creating my real matte backgrounds in Photoshop (a lot of work, but still fun).
I feel I’m closer to what the look of the holograms should be, but still not quite there. I’ve been contemplating reshooting them, and using video this time instead of still images. I’d also like to change the lighting during the actual shooting, because I now realize that has a big effect on how “hologrammy” they look.
Let me know what you think of the look, it still needs some tweaking but I’ve been looking at it all weekend and need to take a break from it. I’ll work on the retopologizing and baking of normal maps for the firing range instead. Doris was kind enough to help me this weekend, by decimating the huge 20,000,000 (20 million!) polygon scan down to just 4 million polys, so I thank her very much for that.
James bear with me for a minute or so. I’m sure you are probably way ahead of me but the reason I mentioned several 3d objects in front of your background is this. Somewhere I remember a tutorial where the guy was using a 2d backdrop but he had added several 3d models in the scene matching the background objects. Think cityscape.
And, he had placed them in a way which allowed him some camera movement albeit it limited. Needless to say texturing, lighting, and placement were critical but it was an amazing effect. And, one you are probably intending on using anyway. Hey, just a thought.
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ghost - Was it Andrew Price’s tutorial here?: http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/introduction-to-smoke-simulation/
You’re correct, this is the type of approach I’m hoping to take for my own video. Specifically, I’m thinking of using purely 2D matte paintings for the background, camera mapped or simple buildings that I’ll make for the “midground”, and models made by others for the foreground; I’m looking at some of Stonemason’s models for these: http://www.daz3d.com/city-ruins-bundle
I may also have some 2d images with alpha channels that I can use as billboards for props, such as tires or debris. So much time will be spent in the hole of the range though, that the outside environment will mainly only be seen in the establishing shots.
I went back to the hologram look some more, using some images from the internet to try out my idea. I think edge lighting, while keeping the front light to a minimum, will give better looking results.
I didn’t put any of the extra effects on these, just the glow and a little bit of color on the right hologram to try a different look.
I went back to the hologram look some more, using some images from the internet to try out my idea. I think edge lighting, while keeping the front light to a minimum, will give better looking results.
Definitely yes, James. I had a look at your hologram in #112 yesterday, but I didn’t know what was confusing me. Now ghost made that remark about 2D and movement in #113 and I think that’s it. Your hologram in post #112 looks completely flat and 2D, especially when you move the camera. But I think they should be projected by the emitters in 3D.
Of course this depends on how much you will move the camera - if you can follow me at all in this thought about their 3D appearance. If they are only to be seen from the front view the technique in #112 could work well.
But besides that I think that your new approach looks more scifi and more hightech.
But I think they should be projected by the emitters in 3D
@minoribus I’m curious on how that might be accomplished?
… I wonder if you can emit a video clip as a particle…similar to how you choose a stationary model… just thinking out loud, but if he could shoot some footage of his friend while kind of jumping up and shooting in front of a green screen, key it out, stylize it similar to that middle dude in post #114, add some additional effects and then have it emit like a particle. That could possibly be interesting.
@james I like the stylizing you have done, particularly the middle guy, but I feel he needs something additional that will be dynamic in some way…
James I happened across this tutorial today and wondered if it would be of any use to you. I haven’t attempted anything like this in about three years. So yeah this blew me away. Damn some developers have obviously been busting ass here. Thanks for the explanation. Up to speed once again. Well, enough to enjoy the thread anyway.
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Very interesting link, ghost. That was amazing.
@Harleynut, I’m afraid, I wasn’t talking about a technical solution on how to emit something in 3d in Blender 
I just expressed my opinion on how it should look after James would maybe have done some VFX magic
You know, I don’t know anything about the possibilities of AE. But perhaps something like the particle spawning in your GTA video can be done, James?
My personal approach on this task however would be to model the targets and to animate the texture with an emitting shader and a mask. Perhaps an animated wave texture could serve as a mask. But that’s also only loud thinking
Thank you, ghost, I had not see that before! The results look very good, I’m sure this will be helpful to me on my live action films, as well!
I agree with you, minoribus, the hologram effect would look best if it was 3D, as the GTA car was. As harley mentioned, the only issue is that I don’t know any easy to way to fake or approximate it, so it will have to stay a 2D asset. But, since I’m reshooting the hologram targets anyway, I can plan out what the camera angles will be, and hopefully fake a 3D look by cutting camera angles. The only limitation, of course, is that the camera can’t move too much within the same shot. I hadn’t planned for too much camera movement anyway (certainly nothing like the movement in the test animation), so fortunately it won’t hinder my planning much.
I also agree with everyone that some kind of feeling of energy would help. I’ve done some tests with adding a layer of noise (set to add) over the image and animating the mapping so that it’s animated; the results weren’t bad, but I may just end up animating all that stuff in After Effects to simplify the rendering. I do like the idea of using the particle emitter in Blender, along with the image texture, to create something cool. The only concern I have is that I’ve never done that before, so it would be more time spent learning it, and more assets to manage and composite.
Anyway, since the holograms have been frustrating me, I’ve decided to work on other things. I’ve been trying out retopologizing with a trial of 3D Coat yesterday and this morning. That’s going well, and it’s actually kind of fun to use. I’ve also downloaded Topogun to try out, since it’s much more affordable.
I am getting tired of just working on assets, however. It’s been months and there’s nothing of the actual sequences to show. To me, it begins to feel discouraging, so I think I’m going to begin animating. I know it’s a bit out of order, but hopefully it will help to increase my enthusiasm for the video again. I feel it’s easy to lose sight of what I’m working on when all I’m focusing on are tiny details.
I’ve got a few ideas of what I want to animate, and have already begun working on it. I’ll post the results here. I’m hoping it will be a cool mini preview to get people (and myself) excited to see the final film.
I do like the idea of using the particle emitter in Blender, along with the image texture, to create something cool. The only concern I have is that I’ve never done that before
Testing that would be a piece of cake for you James compared to the other stuff you have done.
but I may just end up animating all that stuff in After Effects to simplify the rendering
Nothing wrong with that at all… It will most likely come out better, as long as you can live with the lack of camera movement. But as you know, camera movement is easily faked in AE up to a point anyway.
It’s been months and there’s nothing of the actual sequences to show. To me, it begins to feel discouraging, so I think I’m going to begin animating. I know it’s a bit out of order
Order…schmorder The only order that matters, is what works for you and keeps you motivated and challenged to keep pushing on.
and more assets to manage and composite
Sorry James… You won’t get any sympathy from me on the asset management catagory
