Hi all, I need to model the UN Buildings and then blow them up (with a laser from space), I have the basic modeling and texturing done, but I feel the scene is too plain, what could I add to spice it up?
Any comments and critiques welcome (just keep in mind that this is going to be an animation, so i need to keep render times under a minute per frame-ish (right now it is at about 10 seconds per frame(thats with environment lighting (its about 6 seconds without))))
thanks in advance
looks ok, aside from the tiling hedge. also, the hedge texture looks kind of blurry. what about using the tree from curve plugin to make a square shaped bush or two, and then duplicating them, and rotating them as you go.
The blurriness in the hedge comes from the DOF. The tree from curves is a good option, but would increase the render time greatly, so I am trying to avoid using it. I will work on the texture though, make it less tiling.
you could use the tree from curves script to make the texture. just render the result as a png with ‘premul’ and ‘RGBA’ checked
personally I think a camera flyby is in order… and that comes from the idea that I have that the perspective is too low and too close…
but that is just me.
@Mordon
yea that could work, will do some testing with that idea
@ed from america
the perspective is so low because eventual there is going to be a laser from space that hits the buildings, and you need it to be a low upward shot to get the whole of both buildings plus enough space above the buildings to see the laser hit them
The angle looks kinda strange to me. Maybe its too close and too high. I feel a further away shot from a smaller angle up would give us a better feel for scale and overall aspect of the scene.
Or as is, lets see the spaceship.
only from my mind: the camera is too close…
There is no space ship. The laser comes from a satellite. here is where I am at now:
So do you still doubt my angle? if so, where should I place the camera?
As for what to add to the scene, since it is an animation imho you could add a newsaper moved by the wind (only a few planes shouldn’t add too much render time). Then the wind could cease, apparently all is calm, and… BAM!
Also, give the flags some movement. They seem too strick. Good job on the ‘story’ I want to see this one done.
@ Khell[PT]
Yea, the flags will be animated, I guess I just did not bake the flags for the last render.
Sorry, I know I promised animation, but I started to play with some smoke sim and kinda want to finish that before I upload.
Alright so here is a shot with some smoke sim applied. what do you think? Today I am going to make the building fall. Any suggestions on how to do that the best? I was thinking the classic collapsing floor by floor. will probably use the game engine for this. any tips on doing this?
In the animated version, the shockwave generated by the laser shot could rip off the flags and part of the grass, spraying dirt from ground everywhere, and shake the camera aswell. Look here for interesting slow motion explosions:
I think the building would barely be visible if the explosion is something like this (disturbing video):
I like the idea of a shock wave, but I am trying to stay away from explosions, as it would end the destruction too fast.
Ok, extremly long time with no post, sorry about that. Here is what I have, (keep in mind that the animation is not done yet, I want it to end with the scene being completely filled with dust, then you would see the laser stop)
here is my todo list:
make the glass explode right on laser impact (tried it this way to try and ad more suspense; I don’t like the result)
Add a shock wave that will tear a few flags off
animate the flags and bushes
add camera shake
add more dust
make the rocks that fly at the screen more variant
add sound effects
and if I have time, I would like to try and make the road crack when the rocks hit it (dynamic paint)
also if I have time I would like to add a bit after the laser stops and the smoke clears and you would see just a big smoking crater
Tell me what you think. What should I change, add or remove?
all comments and critiques welcome!
Alright so here is an update:
so next I think I will animate the bushes, camera, and flags.
I think the dust looks kind of funny, any suggestions?
any and all comments and critiques are welcome.
You really need to slow it down. It would take 3-5 times that for a building that size to fall. Also, you need to use anticipation (I think it’s called in animation), let the laser cook the building for a few seconds before anything happen, let the audience realize what is happening, then glass shattering, then the collapse.
Also, use some kind of camera movement in the final shot, a small, slow pan or a zoom in- or aut. It doesn’t have to be a big move, but a fully stationary camera is very static. Also, when the house crumble and fall you should have some camera shake to give the sensation of something big & heavy falling, moving the earth…
But all in all a very good start imo. 
