The Flight of the Clarke

[Howard Day]

So, I've finally finished this monstrosity - it's actually been done for quite some time, but I was having major issues getting Premier to export it without crashing. Finally figured out the problem (exporting the whole work area would crash it, exporting the whole work area -1 frame would be fine. WTF ever.)
So, without further delay:
http://www.hedfiles.net/~hday/clarke/Final.mov (381MB H264 Quicktime - 1200x600 resolution, 3:13 minutes long)
Well. I'm pretty damn proud of this. There are about a dozen issues I'd still like to fix, but they are minor and probably only visible to me. In most cases they're things I want to add, not things that are wrong. Still - I have to let it go.
Everyone, please enjoy!

[Viper]

The screenshot looks amazing but I think it'll take a bit to download it, hehe. I'll get back to you once it's done

What renderer did you use for this?

[Howard Day]

It's done in the basic scanline renderer. However, it does have lots and lots of passes. I think there's upward of 40 when the engines ignite.

[Freak]

Got the same problem as vipers. I'll have to look at it tomorrow.

[Viper]

Watched it. Fantastic work mate. Really awesome. Only nitpicks I have are:

1) Right before we see the Earth's atmosphere, there a single frame there where the motion blur of the stars kick out and the stars get very bright and then dim again. I guess this is probably because the camera must've gotten still for a frame there. But it's really minor.

2) The gas being released after each hose is disconnected looked the same on all times...maybe it's just me, but It looks like it could've been a bit more chaotic.

3) For some reason there was some stuttering in some parts of the video...not sure if it was because of the upload or the download. I'll try downloading again later to see if it works better.

Apart from those, fantastic The engine sequence was very well executed

[Steve O B Have]

MAGIC - I loved it - I love the name of the ship as well.

The only things I'd pick on would be that the atmosphere is a bit too uniform, it should be a bit more hazey:


Another would be that the venting of the tether releases could do with being a bit more random in how they look, they feel a little samey. (LOL was too slow typing ^^^)

Lastly I would rotate the camera more toward the ship as you travel up the side of it after ignition then dip in slightly before the pan out to Mars. You have this wonderful feeling of energy and movement when the engines kick in and then it all becomes very linear again almost like it's losing energy and partially returning to the begining fly past. It feels like it should continue the feeling of acceleration from ignition onward through the camera movement.

EDIT: on second thought I'd accelerate along the full length of the ship then pan/zoom off to Mars.

The engines are just stunning as is the modeling - utterly utterly blown away - just Magic stuff.

[tobian]

In a word, Stunning!

If I'm being critical. Couple of things I did notice. The stars aren't being picked out as differing intensities, and colours very clearly, there should be a range from red to blue, but it's barely noticeable hehe. There were quite a few instances of shimmering, and low AA in the renders, was that done to save time? Glad to see you fixed Mars, though the terminator on earth could also have been a bit sharper. Those are just little things, overall it's wonderful!

[Howard Day]

Originally Posted by Viper

Watched it. Fantastic work mate. Really awesome. Only nitpicks I have are:

1) Right before we see the Earth's atmosphere, there a single frame there where the motion blur of the stars kick out and the stars get very bright and then dim again. I guess this is probably because the camera must've gotten still for a frame there. But it's really minor.

Yeah - I thought I had toasted that frame. That's gonna get changed. Probably.

2) The gas being released after each hose is disconnected looked the same on all times...maybe it's just me, but It looks like it could've been a bit more chaotic.

Hmm... Well, this is on my personal list of stuff to fix, but it might be more difficult than it first appears. I'll check it out.

3) For some reason there was some stuttering in some parts of the video...not sure if it was because of the upload or the download. I'll try downloading again later to see if it works better.

Yeah - not sure what causes this. Seems to be dependent on which computer is playing it though - my work and home machines have no issues - but my co-workers have that same stuttering...

Apart from those, fantastic The engine sequence was very well executed

Thanks!

[Howard Day]

Originally Posted by tobian

In a word, Stunning!

If I'm being critical. Couple of things I did notice. The stars aren't being picked out as differing intensities, and colours very clearly, there should be a range from red to blue, but it's barely noticeable hehe. There were quite a few instances of shimmering, and low AA in the renders, was that done to save time? Glad to see you fixed Mars, though the terminator on earth could also have been a bit sharper. Those are just little things, overall it's wonderful!

Thanks. That low AA shimmering shouldn't be in there - all the frames were fully AAed - at high quality too. I think it's the compression to .H264. This is the same thing that flattening the stars and color range. I'll export a version in Sorensen 3 tonight and upload that as a replacement...

[Tovette]

Man, when those engines egnite, dude that's the money shot right there. Fricking awesome work, Howard.