apache WIP

# 1 09-12-2010 , 04:30 AM

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Location: portland, oregon

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I'm almost done with the animation. Basically I need to figure out the dynamics, and then composite in AffterEffects.

https://vimeo.com/17626078

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Last edited by andrew_sorensen; 09-12-2010 at 04:54 AM.

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# 2 09-12-2010 , 07:28 AM

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Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Prague

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Looks great, I love this tutorial but it takes a fair bit of commitment to work through.

Nice job

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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# 3 09-12-2010 , 10:47 PM

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apacheWIP on Vimeo

here it is with an attempt to make it look like some heat is being exhasted from the engines.

I need to learn dynamics a lot more to get a better result. For the time being this is about the best of my abilities. I think this weekend I'll try to create some dust being blown around by the rotors.

This was a great tutorial and Kerry Brown is great. It took me a really long time to get through the entire thing, I felt burnt out by the time I finished the modeling. It seemed to go really slow at times, I mean the tutorial itself; I feel it could be sped up a lot. I did learn a lot, and am happy with the end result. The hardest part for me was getting the uvs layed out for the chasis (the main part of the body). My uvs are a mess for that part, so the bump map was really wonky.

I'm still pretty new to maya, so all comments and critiques are welcomed. I know its not orignal, i just followed the tut.

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# 4 10-12-2010 , 06:15 PM

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it all looks great mate, the most comment i have is that the heat distortion form the exhaust should go up so soon, yeas heat rises so that part is correct, but the exhaust on an Apache leaves the pipes at around 200 mph when at idle, and increases steadily as the blades cycle up. at that speed the heat should actually be seen to rise in an arc, that extends a few feet behind the exhaust ports.
Beyond that, my only other crit is one that i've had about the tutorial form the beginning, the blades cycle up to fast, but thats an aesthetic thing. it takes approx 45 seconds for the blades on any helicopter to cycle up to full speed, longer on some. all in all though, i like the project and how you've accomplished it.
Cant wiht to see it with the rest of the dynamics added to it.
G-man

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# 5 11-12-2010 , 12:04 AM

The Nurb Herd
Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: London

Posts: 2,381

is there any motion blur on that render?

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# 6 13-12-2010 , 01:41 AM

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I agree with G-man...rotors engage too quickly...but that would be the tut, its not real LOL so it doesnt matter. You have done good job mate...dont give up or get depressed about it not being perfect. This is a good example of dogged determination and perseverance...well done so far mate.

Cant wait to see a bit more on it!

cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 7 13-12-2010 , 03:39 AM

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I'd say the reason for why the tut is done in such a way where the blades cycle up a lot faster than in the real world would most definitely be rendering times. If you'd do all the frames for a full 45 second animation like that with the dust and smoke particle fx it would freeze up your computer for an extra week or so. This would have been even worse a few years back when this tutorial was made, rendering in mental ray at this point in time was not nearly as fast as it is today and you'd use alternative rendering engines instead a lot of the time for your test renders, simply for the reason of speed and hardware limitations. This is still commonly done, you substitute indirect illumination and materials for test rendering at a higher speed in Maya Software. Also it's not that often when you watch a movie that 45 seconds is spent on getting helicopter blades up to speed on the screen if you think about it, even if it would be inaccurate user added image

I think that animation is great for someone who's fairly new to Maya. Well done for completing the project, it would have taken a huge effort and I think most people give up. You got the hand held cameras pretty close to perfect, the heat exhaust works really well and all the elements that this should have are there.

The main critique I have on this would be on the particle effects for the smoke and the composite of the helicopter for how it doesn't quite fit in with the lighting in the environment. I think the whole scene needs to be a bit brighter than it is atm to work as that kind of environment. Both these things are incredibly difficult to get right though, probably the most difficult things in the whole tutorial. I think if you keep going like this you will be like Kari Brown with a bit of more time spent in Maya, as you mentioned you need to get better with dynamics but it's just a question of practice and getting simulations like this to look great is something that is really difficult to do. The fact that you modeled the complete helicopter is also very impressive, a lot of people get frustrated with hs modeling because it does come down to time, tiny details and accuracy so I understand how exhausted you'd be once you had the model done. Leave it for now and come back to this scene some time later when you've had a chance to recover and learn some more, this is already really good work user added image

Nilla

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# 8 22-12-2010 , 04:02 PM

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Join Date: Feb 2003

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Yeah I completely agree with Nilla, think of the software limits when this was done guys.

I think knowing the experience Kari has on feature films he certainly knows his stuff and wouldn't churn out any old crap for the sake of it. Its a tute to get you started - so watch out or I'll be throwing the gauntlet down on the next monthly challenge to see who really has got it when the chips are down LOL

Jay user added image