Making of Wing Commander Saga Trailer 04
Well where should I start...best the beginning.
I am studing at the SAE Hamburg "Film Making" and "Digital Animation". Both are more like a crashcurse through everything that has to do with the two topics.
We have to do some practical projects and for this project the task was simple "Do whatever you want" you have about two month.
Quality should be TV standart (EU).
Beeing a Wing Commander Fan I thought about a trailer.
First I choosed a music title. A quite uncommen way but I can imagine images as I listen to the music.
Then I made some scetches about different scenes I had in my mind..not realy a storyboard just some ideas.
Later I put them in an order and created an animated storyboard with simple lightsets and models (all in 3D Max).
My fist storyboard was about 3-4 minutes. Going back with that to my coursecoordinator he told me thta I would never finish that in time...and yes he was right ^_^
So I cut out everything but the most importend scenes.
You have allready seen the resault of that.
So much about the "why"....now lets take a look at the "how" side of the project.
The models are all from our mod but I have added some details to the textures like bumpmaps, specmaps, etc.
Since the models where all in 3DS I stayed in Max instead of importing/converting into another software (working with Softimage XSI was my first idea).
Nearly the entire first month I tried to figure out what the textures should look like. How much reflection etc. Also what kind of lights I should use. Parametric or normal max lights...in the end I used both.
I had about a 12-16 hours working days for these two month..luckly most of the time we had holidays so I could work straigh through. I would never finished it in time when I had normal school. ( I am still in the progress of learning Max.)
The actors where shot in my schools greenscreen studio. Well it has at least a green wall and some lights and a freaking echo and ventilation that made sound recording very difficult. The Cam was a Canon XL1s.
One word about the Actors. Mr. Gloe is a friend of mine that I meat at the SAE.
The other is my neighbour who just started theater school so both are quite unexperianced but the only persons who where willing to play the roles and spoke a english that is at least understandable.
PS: Great thanks to my mom who made the costumes ^_^
About the effects I used. Shieldhits, engineglows and flares, Laserfire (set by hand not particles), and explosions where all done in Max.
All other effects like blures where added in Combustion.
Sounds and music.
Here I had quite some luck that the Saga team has someone who know how to work with sound. My school also has some audio engineers in training but it would have been more time consuming to find someone that dosn't has some projects running and time to work with me.
So I have to thank Ed for his great addition of the SFX and filtering out the noises from the ventilation and echo of the greenscreen studio.
What would I do different....
Good question...I think a lot of things. First of all I couldn't make some closeup shots cause the models where still the lowpoly models we use ingame. With more time I would have made some more detailed ones to do some closeups.
Then battles. I still miss the big bang at the end of the trailer that I had to cut of because I didn't had the time to do it.
Then lighting on some points. My experience is that you can work for hours on the light setup and still you aren't pleased....but that could also be me seaking perfectionism.
Overall I have mixed emotions about the trailer. On the one side I like it. I reached my goal for creating that thing in time while my coursecoordinator said I wouldn't make it. Then that I got the dark mood of what the situation is like into a picture and last that it somehow tells a story and isn't just a special effect show.
On the other hand their are these points above...but hey you can't have everything right?
Oh a last point...next time I do somehting like that I better get a team and a rendering-network. it ^_^
All the stuff, exept for costumes was provided by my school (programs, camera, light, greenscreen etc.)
Is that the Tiger's Claw (Bengal) in the mess room as seen at about 0m:25s and 0m:40s in the trailer?
Yes it is. I just browsed through my folder of WC pictures and I love the Claw. If I where a WC pilot I would voluntarly server on one of these ^_^
So I hope that clarifys most of the questions.
Just a hearty thank you again for making and sharing this with the community!
" so he made another version but it still wasnt perfect enough for me (
