Watching - Short Film

Hello all!
I’m working on a live action short film right now. I wrapped up principle photography last weekend. And now I’m moving on to post, which requires, among other things, a bit of work in Blender. Now, I’m really more of a filmmaker than an animator, so any help/advice would be much appreciated.

The film itself is about a lady who flies UAVs (“drones”) for a living. So one of the biggest jobs I have, from a Blender standpoint, is creating an Afgani compound to cut to periodically. We’ve already shot actors against a green screen, so when it comes to final renders, I’ll be trying to match shots accordingly. I’ll also run it through filters to make it look more like drone footage, but at this point I’m just trying to get a decently realistic looking compound.

By the way, if anyone does feel like helping out, I’d be happy to give you a credit. (Finished film will be submitted to festivals and eventually posted online.)

Thanks for reading!

Here’s some early versions of the compound I did. After a couple hours of work.



Here’s a render I did earlier on with environmental lighting. I turned it off, because I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to get realistic enough shadows. But I’m concerned that my above images aren’t bright enough. They’re with a few suns and suns and a bunch of spots. Opinions?


Here’s the current version of the logo. Also done in Blender.


The two circles are intended to be reminiscent of glasses/binoculars/etc (“Watching”). And the “C” to be a bit like the Halo “O,” which is a reference to the fact that a lot of people think of UAVs as a bit like video games.

The next thing I want to work on is making a model of a drone to use for several animatic sequences.

Best case scenario, I end up with something a bit like this:
http://www.fallingpixel.com/predator-drone-uav-3d-model/34753

Here’s a blue print I’m using as a reference:


As you may notice, one’s a reaper and one’s a predator. So I’m not following either one exactly. I just want something that looks like what people think of when they think “drone.” And also decently realistic.

Here’s a first attempt I did:



Or half of it anyway…

I decided I wanted something a little more intimidating looking, though. Less like a toy, so I played with the proportions a bit. A little more like the one on Falling Pixel.



I’m getting a bit closer to what I envision with that one.

Next I just added a bit more detail on the top. (Limit: 3 attached photos per post, I’ll attach the last one in the next post.)

Okay, here’s the most recent picture:


Any thoughts on the proportions? Or anything really?

I’m a bit concerned about the wings, that they look too puny now…