The King's Elite

Turn Around

2010-04-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

More Stuff

2010-04-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

Animation In Progress

2010-03-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

A still from the next scene. The animation is still in the works, as well as the compositing.

Now He has Eye lashes Hazzaa more realism (haha)

2010-02-04T19:06:00.001-08:00

Still needs some work and I have to tweak the movement of the new eyebrows to match the texture. But it's looking a lot better just contrasting these to the ones below.

NOTE: That shadow on half of his face is from one of the bars. It's casting the shadow over him.

Textures Restarted

2010-01-28T01:23:00.001-08:00

I couldn't help myself. I wanted a more photo-real look. So textures have been re-started using High Res images of faces took with my bro's Nikon D90 DSLR and images i might find on the net. This is a very painstaking process since i couldn't get a chunk of face the way i want to so i have to work little by little. Can't wait to render it with maya. Hope the end product will be worth it.

The King's Elite Trailer

2010-01-21T18:39:00.000-08:00

Trailer for my short film. Still working on 3 shots.

Mentor: Mark Mayerson
Rigging: Farrukh Khan
Soundtrack: Adrian Camaroschi

Frame from scene 02, 03 and 04 of my film.

2009-12-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

Looks a lot better in motion, since it has motion blur, and depth of field. Though by this particular frame most his head comes into focus. it is made of 16 passes and 4 adjustment layers. Gladiator: Beauty pass, Ambient Occlusion 1 (with environment around), Ambient Occlusion 2 (with nothing around so i catch just the inner parts of his face), Specular 1, Specular 2, Reflection, Outer Glow, Main Light pass, Eye incandescence, Eye Specular, Eye Reflection, Eye Ambient Occlusion. Coliseum: Coliseum Beauty Pass, Coliseum Ambient Occlusion. And for all i did a Depth Pass. In after effects i played with color correction, gamma, brightness and contrast, added noise and motion blur with Vission Effects: RealSmart Motion Blur. A very worth 100 dollar plugin for Affter Effects.

King Hair Test

2009-12-03T12:02:00.000-08:00

A quick hair test. I still need to tweak it quite a bit, but so far so good.

Rhino model

2009-11-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

Here is the rhino model for the film. I only had one day to detail it in Zbrush since time is very short. Over all I am relatively satisfied with it. I just began texturing it and playing with shaders. More updates will be up soon. Hopefuly I'll have time to give him some armor or decor.

King Texture/Shader Tests

2009-11-17T14:02:00.001-08:00

Some quick tests for the king's, or rather emperor's textures and shaders. I think I want to go a bit more pale. Lots to do still.

Compositing Test

2009-11-11T18:48:00.001-08:00

Just some compositing test I did quick to see were I stand on the look. Also a turn around vew of the anatomy in the pose.

The king's robes are ready for Zbrush

2009-11-05T22:11:00.001-08:00

Just finished the base mesh for the king's robes. Started on the folds but still have a lot to do.... Obviously!

Render test (w.i.p.)

2009-10-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

Some more testing, far from the final product but want to see what i can do with it.

Starting on the King

2009-10-22T00:18:00.001-07:00

Just started on the King. This is just a little detailing i did today. Just for the sake of saving time, since I still have a lot to do, I used the base mesh that I used for the gladiator.

Early King's Colosseum Render Tests (in progress)

2009-10-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

(The images lost some quality for some reason when they were uploaded.) Here are some tests of the King's private Colosseum. Textures as well as models are all still in progress. As you can see not everything is textured either. So this is just to make sure I can achieve a look I'm going for. I also posted the 5 passes I used so far. The final will probably have more, but for now it was cool to see how far the passes and some composinting can get it along. There is a beauty pass(1), an ambient occlusion(2), a specular(3), a depth pass(4), and an incidence pass(5) that I used to darken the underside of a few things. Aside that I just added some light effects in After Effects and a 1% noise since I want a more natural look to the camera. I still have a lot to go to get it where I want.

Colosseum Start

2009-10-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick start on the Colosseum. Its small since it's the king's private one so I don't have to deal with crowds. Nothing special yet, but a lot of productions do not like to show step by step, which for someone like me that wants to see that, it's frustrating since I'd like to see how some professionals handle it. So for anyone that is like me and likes seeing 3D progress I'll try to post at every stage. Here is nothing special just some basic modeling to rough in the shapes. At the end I applied a TurboSmooth modifier (in 3ds Max where i prefer to model) but in Maya mesh smooth, so I had to make sure there were enough edge loops around edges that I wanted to keep sharp. And the smoothness is also why some parts looks so dense in geometry. But since I want a high end look, I will probably end up with a very dense mesh, with some huge texture files, which will take up quite some rendering memory... I'll worry about that when I cross that bridge.

The King (just some quick sketch)

2009-10-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

Quick sketch of what I'm imagining for the king. Something really ancient Rome-like.

Script

2009-10-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

The King’s Elite

Narrator:
My son, I have trained you since your youth, knowing the moment would come.

In a dark dungeon like room the gladiator stands patiently. He is waiting for the battle to begin in the king’s private courts. It is very dark in the room, but the bright light from outside makes its way past the bars that are holding him in like a cage, just enough to illuminate his face partially. He is calmly reminiscing on his past.

Narrator:
It is the only way the people can be liberated from the tyranny of this land.

He looks outside the gate, gets ready and puts on his battle helmet. In the opposite end, there is a beast awaiting him. Beasts such as these have been trained to kill gladiators such, all for the king’s personal entertainment. It smells its prey anxiously awaiting the opening of the gates.

Narrator:
You shall keep training and become one of the king’s elite gladiators. No other warrior will be able to stand against you. You will move up in rank and eventually they will put you up against the king’s beasts in his private courts.

The gates open. The gladiator makes his way to the arena. The king’s private courts are revealed. The rhino comes out of the opposite end, with the king and his two guards are sited just above it.

Narrator:
This will be your opportunity. Seize it! You must assassinate the king. Use every element to your advantage and let not your chance pass you by…

The gladiator starts to run. Takes off his helmet and throws it at the rhino. The helmet strikes the rhino in its face with its spikes and hurts it. The gladiator is rushing toward the rhino before the rhino charges at him. As the rhino is trying to swing his horn, the gladiator steps onto it and uses it as a catapult that lunges him toward the king. The gladiator comes down spear first.

Narrator:
Should you fail, you shall be killed by his personal guards, die as an assassin and all this would be for not. However, should you succeed, will die as the liberator of the people. And rest assure, your name will not soon leave the people’s lips. You’re sacrifice will not be forgotten for generations to come.

1st Poster

2009-09-30T15:51:00.000-07:00

Well I was working on a desktop background, and ended up with something interesting which can be the 1st poster. ( even though the textures and all else is not final)

Info

2009-09-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

Ok. This is a blog dedicated to my short film "The King's Elite". I will be posting here most film updates. From script to final renders and a bit of everything else. This will be no easy task to see to the end and make it end up how I envisioned, but hopefully it will get pulled off. In the mean time for anyone that is interested in progress. This is the place,