Hi everybody,
i have been working on this project for about two weeks off and on. It is the British flying aircraft carrier from the movie ‘Sky Captain’, i got the idea for the project from this forum so i thought i would post my progress so far.
Comments/ critiques welcome
Wow that looks good already!
Looking nice! Glad my thread gave out some inspiration 
As far as I can tell this is a pretty accurate representation. Abit of work on shaders and maybe some bump maps and I bet this would look stunning!
DDD,
Thanks.
Qs Dragon,
Yes, the diagram was a good starting point, then i went to the movie to refine it from there. The artists who did this in the first place went crazy with detail, i’m trying to figure out how much detail is needed for a good render without having to model every nut and bolt… you mentioned shaders, what exactly did you have in mind? Texturing is not my strong suit so i’m open to ideas on how to improve the renders.
i also put some work into the British amphibian aircraft, not sure i have it right yet, yet me know what you think.
The amount of detail is directly equal to how close your rendered shots are. The one you have now looks like a ground view of it flying overhead, meaning alot of things can be textured in. If you render from the flight deck then alot of things will need to be modelled.
I mention shaders cause at the moment it doesn’t look much like metal. Reference the movie, but also pictures of warships and such to see, they tend to have softer highlights, right now looks like plastic (as shaders almost always tend to look >.>) might also include a little bit of mirror in the final render (though don’t focus on those until you’re done modelling!)
The fighter looks alright, but it’s really hard to make anything out because of the black material. (probably just the monitor I’m on, will see it better when I get home)
Final thought, I like the pov of your current render, perhaps take a picture of the sky with your own camera and use that as the bg, match the lighting and that would look awesome!
Looking good!
ben,
thanks
Qs Dragon,
Well i think i will stay away from any shots from the fight deck, that would be far more work then i am willing to put into this project. At the moment i am thinking of having the carrier in the background with some fighters in the forground… we’ll see.
About the fighter, it’s not your screen, the plane is very dark; so much so it is hard for me to work on, so i switched it to a lighter grey for now.
Well, time for an update. i added more detail around the flight deck, and played with the material settings a bit.
Frankie would be proud!
I like the model… and the attention to the overall details…
Minor details are coming along…
I would work on the motion blur of the props… that is the one thing
that catches my eye offhand.
Also remember that Sky Captain is homage to pulp/noir science fiction…
take a good look at the lighting styles and try to replicate that…
Why the stations would be hy in the clouds (for cover) they would still
cast shadows on low lying clouds… just a thought…
Looking great man… keep up the good work!
Cujo
Cujo31,
Thanks for the comments. i went ahead and set up the props for the motion blurring, and also put in a lot of minor adjustments all over. It is coming along, but still a far way to go.
For the moment i’m going to hold off from the pulp fiction style lighting because it makes it hard to see any detail.
As to why it’s in the clouds, i’m not sure. As far as i can figure out from my model, in real life it would be over half a mile lone, so hiding would be a bit problematic. i also have to assume they are using a prototype form of antigravity system because otherwise there’s no way the rotors could keep it up, especial after one engine was damaged in battle …
Just a small update, i had noticed in the movie there were some support trucks driving arround on the flightdeck, so i went ahead and modeled some low poly ones to add some interest.
Just a few updates. i modeled landing gear for the fighter and have started to rig it. i haven’t set up the props for motion blur yet, i guess that will be next, followed by texturing…
i have been playing with the textures, i’m not sure if i have the right colors yet, i had to review projection painting before i started, but i’m fairly pleased with the results. The floor and background are temperary.
questions/comments welcome.
just a small update. i modeled one of the ladders from the movie. I am begining to think about some close up shots as all this stuff would be next to invisable in a normal shot.
I was also trying to figure out how to rig the landing gear, i thought i had it figgured out so that everything would be driven by action constraints from one bone, and it does work, so long as you do not try to animate it; if time progresses all the bones move on their own. i am guessing that there must be a button i am forgetting to hit do detach the ipo curves from the normal time line. i attached a simple blend file that illistrates the problem.
Time for another update: i have been looking at methods to render clouds. nothing really postworthy on that front yet.
Frankie is progressing nicely though, i’m thinking of having her stand next to her aircraft on the flightdeck.
Also some work i had done to improve the superstructure of the station.
Comments anyone?
Now that’s coming along nicely the command superstructure looks pretty good, though a few of the doors are disappearing into the wall there. The fighters look good now, though now they are more gray than black >.< the textures are nice and fitting. I’d have to sit down and watch the movie again to comment any further though.
As for Franky, her face needs abit of work. Jawline is very masculine and the eyes seem abit high/outa proportion, though those most likely only seem that way because of that tiny hat and lack of hair/forehead texturing.
It seems you’ve put abit more work in this than you originally intended, any idea on the final composition yet? the fighter squad with station in the background seemed like a nice image, but now you’ve got alot more detail in the station, it’d be a shame to not show that in all it’s luster!
Good call on the doors, QS Dragon, i went back and fixed that. While i was at it i noticed the proportions of the superstructure were off (it was too long compared to the tower) so i rescaled it a bit, which ment all the doors shifted their locations, ect. hopefully i have everything back in its proper place, hopefully.
about the fighters, yeah i think the green was a mistake on my part, it should have been two different shades of dark blue, not sure if i will change that or not though since fighters often get different paint jobs.
about frankie, i agree the face is not there yet, especialy arround the mouth. i’m not sure about the jaw being too square though, some of the pictures i used indicate her jaw is rather square, i will have to take a closer look into that.
as for final composition, i’m still open to ideas.
Well, time for another update. i was checking the extra section of the dvd and came across a profile shot of manta station, so i decided to redo my model according to its proportions. Hopefully i got it this time because to change one thing is to change hundreds…
i have also been giving thought to the composition of the final render, i decided that it would be good to have some action in the scene so toward that end i have started modeling an enemy fighter and plan to have a dog fight around the station. i had also considered several other ideas, like a German flying Bismark (too much work) or the giant robots from the start of the movie (they seemed too much like bombers), but settled on the flying wings, for now at least.
Looking cool! I would say get that other guy who’s modelling Angelina, and have him do her up in “Frankie Garb”… A sort of “group effort”, right? 
EDIT: Whooopsie… I didn’t see you already have Frankie in the works there… I would suggest more curves… slimmer waist… but looking good in general!
