CG Walkthroughs

The first episode of “Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds” calls for an attacking horde of Klangathrian Krabbs (the smaller sized version of the giant crab that appears at the end of the feature “Dark Rising 2″). This was actually the first creature I tackled at the starting of pre-production. I initially thought they should be crude and simple since there would be a hell of a lot of them and they would need to render quickly. I even went as far as a few render tests (see video below), but as I moved on to the other monsters that will be needed for the production I realized that simpler isn’t always better.

Version 2.0 is pretty much the same design, but with a little more character. From the sketches you can see that both started off with standard crab claws, but I eventually went with T-Rex style hands (like the larger version that came before).

Since the Krabbs would be spending most of their screen time with live-action actors, I spent some extra effort making sure the textures would work under natural conditions. You can see these rendered tests as well as steps along the road in the design phase in the video below.

Next up, a break from characters to work on energy beams and portals before starting work on the giant cockroach and assembly of the destroyed world.

Stay tuned!

The final member of the demon army for the new “Dark Rising” TV series; he features a slightly different head design with some extra facial expressions and ultra-realistic skin while still managing to keep the render time down to my goal of less than 15 minutes.

The model will eventually have a slightly revised armor and some added facial jewelry, but for now, this is a good start.

Check out the video below for various animated stages leading up to the final result.

Moving on from two-legged beasties to six-legged ones next, so stay tuned.

Slightly more detailed model than the last in terms of facial expressions and polish. Basically a standard Kelipoth Boss base that has been aged about 100 years.

The workflow for all of these models has been planned-out to start with the figures that appear in the background and/or have less screen time, working up to the ones that play a larger role. Because they are all sharing the same basic starting point, I get the benefit of refining each “draft”, but also being able to keep each version for production work.

In the case of the “Scavenger” (a.k.a. “Scarface”), he gets to star in the massive destroyed city shot in episode 1 (which we have already come up with an animatic for). Rather than just snarling in the ranks of a demon army, he needs to “act” a little bit, so I worked on refining the facial expressions. This will also serve as the groundwork for the next model, the Kelipoth Boss General, which will be the most detailed and expressive rig on the production.

Check out the video below for some rendered tests and work leading to the final model.

Over a week of trouble-shooting render crashes later (about nine separate issues, one being bad RAM), the final Kelipoth Boss Lieutenant (I decided he looked like a lieutenant as I have a lot of time on my hands) is now complete. This takes us back full-cycle through several stages, to the original concept sketch about half a month ago. Maybe a week longer than I had planned to spend on this guy, but all that hard work saves time on the variations that will make up the full demon army to follow as the same skeletal rig and skinning will be used for the characters that come next.

Below is a quick video of some of the rendered stages getting toward the final rig. It’s not a perfect model by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s got a very high-level of detail yet still manages to render reasonably fast. You always have to consider trade-offs when you’re doing production work rather than just messing around. Still, I’m pretty happy with how he turned-out.

Now, mainly because I am sick to death of looking at him, it’s time to move on…

One whole day wasted trouble-shooting crashing software and a corrupted file (unfortunately, pretty much the norm for CG work in my experience), but now the head, legs and torso for the base model are now complete (apart from some last-minute tweaks and adjustments).

From here, this character can be used as a starting point for the variations that will make up the bulk of the demon army.

Here are some rendered tests of the finished model:

Head texture, detail and facial expressions are now in place for the Kelipoth Boss. The helmet and other armor parts are being modelled separately so building additional other members of the demon army will be a little easier and (most importantly) quicker.

Next up, the body texture and detail, armor and weapons and we’re done.

Here’s a very quick video of the W.I.P. rig in action:

The Kelipoth Boss will be an insanely-detailed menacing beast to fill in for what turned out to be a rather weak-looking standard Kelipoth. It will be the most complex CG model that has yet appeared in “Dark Rising” and who knows, the character might make an appearance beyond the one or two scenes (including the huge destroyed city shot in episode one) scripted.

Below is a concept sketch.

I kept the design within the Kelipoth-type family, but gave it a bit more of an edge. The sketch is maybe a little more exaggerated than the final model will be, but it helps to define its character I guess.

Several days of technical issues with mesh anomalies later, I now have something that is a workable base and can start laying in the details and all the other fun stuff.

Here’s a video of some of the tests and stages leading up to this point.

Episode 1 of “Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds” calls for the following:

Director Andrew Cymek and I had previously discussed what the end of the world would look like in the “Dark Rising” universe, in preparation for the shot, after the script was written, so the “cliff-face” was changed to the top of a building. Also much easier to shoot than a full CG cliff with green screen actors.

The next stage was to put together an animatic. An animatic is a crude animated version of the scene/shot. As you can see in the video below, the shot starts behind Nathan and Summer, revealing the destroyed city, then drops off the front of the building, through the rubble, passing through all kinds of horror that befell mankind at some point in the past, eventually coming to rest on a group of demons who now populate the world.

Enough? Not by a long shot; a giant demon cockroach monster then climbs over the side of a ruined overpass and starts attacking the demons!

Whew!

The shot is wide and very detailed, so it’s gonna take a good deal of time. Stay tuned for updates of all the steps along the way.

Starting work on “Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds” (the second “Dark Rising” TV series) which contains a number of very large CG shots (compared to the previous series “The Savage Tales of Summer Vale”).

First on the slate, in preparation for a demon army, is converting the Kelipoth, first seen as the main monster in the original “Dark Rising” film, then briefly in the sequel (in both cases, literally a man in a suit). The storyline for the new series calls for an army of these guys, so, rather than cheating and multiplying one actor with the only suit in existence, a new, fully-CG variant was decided on.

I wanted to keep the feel of the original monster so there wouldn’t be a sudden jump from what viewers had seen previously to a fully-articulated animated monster, so I kept major revisions and new gestures and expressions to a minimum. In retrospect, this was probably a mistake as the final result (apart from the addition of double-jointed legs) looks a lot like a guy wearing a suit. But, you know what? I’m fine with that. Every army needs grunts, so Kelipoths will make up the bulk of the crowd. Foreground monsters can be completely new creatures.

To this end, we’ve introduced the Kelidog (if you’ve got an army, you’re gonna need transportation, right?) which is an animal variant of the Kelipoth taken in a new, beefier direction. Breaking from standard practice, I didn’t bother doing any sketches in advance of diving-in on the model as I’ve been doodling more of less the same creature in my spare time for years now (sorry, I don’t have any examples handy at the moment). In this respect, it was a lot of fun to see this thing start living and breathing.

Here are some animated/rendered tests of the two creatures during various stages of their development:

Up next, the newly-designed Kelipoth Bosses to lead this demonic army.

Unfinished CG plane crash from a 2009 film.