Starting on the ceiling.

Very nice Rodger.

This addition (the entire 'We're off, We're Gone sequence) will really extend the feel of a large lived-in castle.

That looks great Rodger!

Ultimately I'd like to put a decal on that far end of the hallway that makes itlook like it keeps going on forever and ever and ever...

You may want to look load the chors for 2__01_55 and 2_01_57 to see what the camera angles are like so you're not spending time on something that will not get seen.

- finished the trim along the arches and upper wall
- inset shows a close-up of the column details
- magically levitating light fixtures are a result of not yet finding suitable prototype reference images; the search continues

very nice... that is a superb job

- completed the design for the wainscoting

Hi Rodger,

Can we make it lighter, or possibly something with a "tin" theme? The dark area makes the space look smaller and I'm hoping to keep it looking big.

thanks!

Howzabout this? Blond wood moulding (currently a temporary simple attribute) and tin inserts (in this case Darktree's SilverTarnish.dsts).

Yes, that's much brighter!

Hey Rodger, that looks cool!

This is really Robert's segment, but I personally like the darker wood. I think it gives it that old Hollywood dressing room kind of feel. If it was lit to match (smoky with patches of light) you could even have a spotlight on the TW. Just an idea, either way, I think it could work.

Great job!

Lee

A background's job is set the scene and then to not call attention to itself. The low contrast is better.

The arched shape of Scarecrow's door frame still needs work but here's the wood molding using Darktree's RedOak.dsts. If you don't like these particular colors, they're tweakable.

I think that's in the neighborhood so far. To tweak any further, we'll need to see how the characters look in it.

Maybe when we see it we'll want something warmer or colder. Keep it easy to modify.

You could download either of those chors now that they have animation in them, swap this set in and try a test frame or two. Of course, they're not lit yet... thats another variable.

Another test render using an early model of the tinman.

Hey Rodger, I love it! I also really love the retro tinman model! This is really coming together well.

I wonder, is there anyway to break up the hallway further back? It's almost like there is a mirror on either side of the hallway, relfecting a couple of doors forever.

Hurry, before Robert shoots me down again! (just kidding, Robert, I really respect what you've been doing with this segment)

Lee

Some vending machines maybe? A maid with a vacuum cleaner?

My vision of this is rather like one of those Las Vegas mega-hotels with the long, long hallways. Ideally it will appear to go so far back that it actually starts to fade in the distance.

I wanted to avoid the typical live-action movie ruse where the hallway is built with a "T" intersection at the back end.

Pot plants on plinths/fire extinguishers / Oil fonts/ Straw stuffers.

There's two hallway models, each encompassing three pairs of doors; hallway_foreground.mdl has the tinman and scarecrow doors with four plain doors while hallway_midground.mdl has only plain doors. Currently the entire hall is assembled using action objects. There's one instance of the foreground followed by three instances of midground. I've finished it off with a simple T intersection hallway_background.mdl for my own purposes but you can keep adding instances of midground to get the desired look.


Last time we were in Vegas my wife and I stayed at the Venetian. As we looked for our room we found ourselves in an alcove from which ran two very long opposing corridors. I set down my luggage and as I pointed down each hall, proclaimed in my best Walter Pidgeon baritone, "TWENTY MILES...TWENTY MILES". This bit of movie trivia was greeted with dead silence by the twenty something males behind us and a severe case of eye-rolling by my wife.

I had originally planned to have rectangular plain doors similar to the larger tinman door but I felt that didn't make the tinman door stand out enough. So I've changed the shape of the plain doors as shown.

The only thing that bugs me is the moulding holding the tin raised panel in. I think it would look better if it was wood grain, not tin. Just a thought.

Do you recall what movie that is from?

Forbidden Planet?

Forbidden Planet it is. Probably one of the few 50's sci-fi movies that can be appreciated from a classic animation standpoint because of the Id Monster attack. Although it probably wouldn't be so impressive without that weird electronic "roar".

I just had to see if I can find this being said. It's actually said on the movies trailer and I found it on You tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y4crGU7dkg

Man I can just picture you saying that LOL

It's weird seeing Leslie Neilsen in a role that doesn't involve a whoopie cushion.

I've read that Disney loaned out one of its animators to do the monster effect, which is a bit odd since I think MGM still had a cartoon unit of some sort then. Maybe they were afraid that if one the Tom and Jerry guys did it, they'd get a monster hitting people with a frying pan.

I've seen a screen test where he tries out for the lead in Ben Hur! Lt. Frank Drebbin driving a chariot, now that would be weird.

Back on topic; the plain doors are finished and are painted a cream color. Next step is the scarecrow door.

The design of Scarecrow's door is complete. Apparently Scarecrow had a rider in his contract that said the door to his room must have a medieval look. Rather than have this stylistic choice clash with the rest of the hall's design, the castle carpenter kept the individual vertical planks of the door's exterior but replaced the horizontal iron bars with decorative molding and added a more elegant mounting plate for the door pull. As a concession to Scarecrow's taste, the door will be finished in darker wood and brass hardware.

The texturing of Scarecrow's door is complete. Next step is Tinman's door.

The overall design of the tinman door and its frame is complete. I have to finish the hardware for the door pull before beginning the textures.

The tinman door is complete. The off-white painted door has brushed tin inlays and pull hardware of polished metal. Final step for the hallway is modeling the floor which will have a similar look and use the same materials as that in the throne room.

That looks great, Rodger!

Can you add two little things?

The Scarecrow Door needs a "star" with his name above it:




and Woot's door needs a temporary "guest" sign with his name on it:




thanks!

Will do.

That's coming along brilliantly.

Maybe you could add more decoration to it but that is just an idea.

Love the texture's can't wait for the floor

How long did it take you to render.

How does the storyboards?

Here's a shot of my first pass at the floor to give an idea of where I'm headed. I'm happy with the patterns in general but their proportions need work.


The beauty of CG modeling is you can always add more detail but considering the amount of screen time this set's going to get, I've probably wandered well into the land of overkill.


Depends on a freight car's worth of variables, (e.g. 3 shadows per ray for 15 light sources; 5x multi-pass) none of which I've optimized for speed. Keeping that in mind, on an Athlon 1.5Ghz machine, the shot with the new floor took more than 3 hrs. while the previous shot with the reflective tinman and door occupying a lot of screen space took over 12 hrs.


I assume you meant "who". Robert Holmen is the artist in charge.

Excellent work as usual Rodger. The wall down the end seems like it needs......something.

I agree but that's just a simple placeholder for my convenience. I had a mental concept for installing an arched alcove, inset into the end wall just above the wainscot, large enough for a small statue or a vase of flowers. But Robert's concept is the hall goes to infinity (and beyond?) using either a painted extension (beyond my talents) or adding more instances of the existing hallway_midground.mdl to the hallway_assembly.act. It's his call.

Adding more instances is probably easiest.

If that becomes a render problem, we can take a render of the hallway with the camera placed at mid height and mid width and decal that onto a four patch card at the end of the hall way. The center splines can be animated to distort the decal to match the perspective of the camera in the real shots.

I imagine a relationship could be made to make them do that automatically.

Nice.

Did you have a seperate PC to render that image?

12 hours wow.

Nice floor although it seems to look like the pattern ends further along the hallway.

Is there a reason for this.

Maybe I am being a bit of a critic as it is on on for a few minutes.

See attached image. I took a fair bit of license with Robert's concept drawing but I thought the wood inlay and door handle would draw the audience's attention making this a natural place to hang a less cartoony star and nameplate. If you want it closer to the original, let me know.


"Man does not live by A:M alone". If I'm engaged in non-hobby related activities, like sleep, my main machine can be happily chugging away. But I do have an older Pentium on my network that lets me surf, mail and other things while the Athlon is crunching rays.


Producing a convincing simulation of reality takes time.


This was a rough layout using only one 90 ft. section of floor replicated three times in the assembly action. This way I could tweak one model and see how it looked as a repeated pattern. Ultimately the floor pattern will be as long as the hall.

Robert,
I've started work on the sign hanging on Woot's door. For the sign script itself I wanted to use a handwritey font and of course found scads on the net. I downloaded a few that I might use someday and set them up for comparison. Please let me know which one you prefer for the sign. Thanks.

I think the Scarecrow would want a much bigger star. And at eye level so no one will miss it as they walk by.

The inlay looks beautiful, but given the severe perspective the camera will be seeing the star from, we probably need to go with the plain gold star and letters against the dark door. I think that will "read" much more clearly and quickly for the audience.



Oh no! Picking out fonts! I've spent whole days trying to pick fonts.

Well... Most all of them look very appropriate. I rather like Lucinda Handwriting for its fanciness. My big beef about all handwriting fonts is when a letter needs to be repeated immediately, like the "O"s in WOOT, making the prefab nature of them too apparent. If you could find a way to alter one of the Os so they are similar but not identical that would be great.

Barring that, I also like JC. Its Os wouldn't need any monkeying with, since they dont have any stylistic curlycues.


The set looks wonderful Rodger! The second and third shots it is in are really one long shot so I don't think a nice looking set is too much of an indulgence. And future A:M movie makers will have this great set to stage their Las Vegas Hotel caper movies in.

I'll do my best to match the sizes in your concept sketch.


I'll see what I can do.


Yeah, seeing Clooney, Pitt and Damon walking down this hall (the floor design is complete) would be a kick.

Howzabout this?

Yes! That is perfectly imperfect.

How's this version of Scarecrow's door?

(knock-knock) "We're ready for your close-up, Mr. Crow"

That looks great! Will it read from an angle?

Like this?

WOW!! Rodger, that looks awesome!!!

George

That looks just right!

I wonder if with some judicious camera mapping we could bake this sort of lighting onto the geometry so it doesn't have to be re-rendered for each frame, then render the characters and their shadows in a less intensive pass and composite them in?

I couldn't say, never having tried. Just for reference, the first image is the lighting setup I'm using. A single bulb for each fixture and an array of eight, diffuse only, sun sources aimed upward and outward to simulate bounce light.

The second image is a close-up of the sign hanging on Woot's door. I'm still playing with the paper material (I had to fudge its color in PSPro for this render) and will add a simple action that poses the sign in a less symmetric orientation. Once I'm done with those I'll render a view with an oblique camera angle to see how well it reads.