How to design a flythrough

# 1 25-02-2010 , 08:34 AM

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Hi all

I'm in the midst of my sci-fi movie and I wanted to make a camera flythrough of a dark, desolate abandoned space base on a hostile, alien planet. Electricity is out except with the odd live wire dangling here and there and the flythrough should have a dark, eerie, metallic feel about it. The camera passes by some narrow passages and finally ends up viewing a wide, dark, abandoned, desolate cavern or large hall.

How should I design this ?

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# 2 25-02-2010 , 01:11 PM

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Hi if it were me i would create a curve as a motion path and attach the camera to the path ,then keyframe the various attributes like rotation, speed, zoom ect of the camera as required.

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# 3 26-02-2010 , 06:55 AM

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Re: How to Design A Flythrough

Thanks, jsprogg. Yeah, that's the easy part and I should have made myself clearer. I'm familiar with the camera and motion path thingy. I mean, the modelling bit. I want the camera to flythrough some sorty of cave/cavern system left and right into this tunnel and out and that narrow tunnel and out and finally end up in a large cavern system.

Do I have to create a complex 3D maze and texture it from the inside with lighting?

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# 4 26-02-2010 , 10:52 AM

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You have the same problem as me system wise so you need to think smart, you will need to set your scene up in layers so as your camera moves along only stuff your camera can see is visable also use instances where possible, You will also need to think about not using hi res meshes but use low res with bump, normal or displacement maps. as regards using hair fine tune these as much as you can think were you need dynamices and were not (girl with pony tail does all the hair need to be dynamic or just the pony tail)...............hope this helps dave

Edit.aswering some of your question in your other post

Last edited by daverave; 26-02-2010 at 11:00 AM.

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# 5 26-02-2010 , 01:00 PM

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expanding on what Dave has said , Some preproduction is needed for sure .You are going to have to break down the scene shot by shot and decide whats in focus, well lit ,hero objects ect and only then can you decide what you need to model with heavy geo and what can be low res with displacement or bump .Can you get way with a a backplate painted background or should some of the background be modelled ? these are the questions you need to ask yourself.

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# 6 28-02-2010 , 02:29 AM

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Great advise!

Ah, thanks, DaveRave and sprogg - those answers really help! So I do need to create some maze system (Obviously not a full maze but only what the camera sees as it goes through the animation path). And yes, I am using a background image where it helps and yes, I do go through the post-editing process frame by frame in Photoshop CS3 if it makes the final image nicer. Great advise! So I'll need to think my shot sequence carefully and break it up ino phases and then join them in video editing later. But I do marvel at some of the Hollywood movies that do this kind of scene. Theirs is a real continuous flythrough (no breakups into different camera position) from start to finish for around 5-10secs which is simply amazing. What kind of computers do they use ? Thanks guys once again!

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# 7 28-02-2010 , 02:31 AM

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Tell Me

DaveRave, tell me how you do it when you get it done! Thks!

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# 8 28-02-2010 , 10:33 AM

The thin red line
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Hi ezanih
I have not done a long animation in maya yet but I have looked into it as I will in the future. What I suggest is first make a story board to set out the main parts of your flythrough, then create your maze in full but in sections (each section having its own layer). The size of the section will depend on how much your system can handle and what the camera can see. This should allow you to have one continious flythrough turning on and of layers as you pass them.......I hope this make sence.......dave

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