Harry Potter Qudditch Models?

hey I know this is a little off the Starwars Topic, but I was wondering if anyone knew if there was any Harry Potter Quditch Models? Golden Snitch? Qudditch Field?


Thanks,

~Rory

 

I'll be building a Snitch as soon as I get some better references (if you've got any besides screencaps, please send 'em my way.. hehe). Quidditch pitch may come sometime after that, I've got good references for that, just not enough time.. hehe.

 

I haven't found any ref material yet. But I would love to do a test shot of chasing the snitch!


I'll post some as I find them:

[image=http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1575000/images/_1575314_potter8.jpg]

~Rory

 

I've got a broom, but it's certainly not anything spectacular. I've been thinking about doing a quidditch pitch recently - enough to freeze frame watch the matches on DVD. It's not impossible, but requires a lot of work. Step 1 would be a great environment with green hills, Hogwarts and the lake with some lovely clouds, then the pitch itself.

[image=http://www.firedragon.com/~lwg3d/upload/wip/2004/06/12-45372.jpg]

A quidditch match is doable with digital doubles I reckon, especially as I'm getting more into cloth simulation.

 

Crook, how did you do the "bristles" of the broom? Tell me not one at a time. Also what program do you use for clothing simulation? I'm doing my simulations in Poser 5.

 

Most of the high-end programs can do cloth simulation. For something like this, about the only thing Poser would be any use for is creating the base human models. Everything else would best be done in whatever app is used to make the pitch and background.

 

well, Poser is the highest-end program I have, lol. I have C4D for general modelling and animation, but I dont have the "Dynamics" package for it so there's no cloth. sims. But I think if I use both, I should be able to create a pretty good shot.

 

Not exactly one at a time, just cloned many times and shaped generally. Here's a cloth test for a dementor:

Dementor test 1.3Mb AVI

 

Actually that's a pretty cool cloth simulation.

 

nice test, what programs are you using?

 

Wow that is nice...Is there a tutorial on how to use the cloth sim for max? I mean I have some models that have clothes and it just doens't stay on the character when he moves....Can anyone tell me how to do it?

~Rory

 

Are you using Simcloth or the Reactor cloth?

 

Hehe.. Actually, from the look of the screenshot, I'd say it was ClothFX, which is integrated into LW8.. wrong app.

 

Yeah, LW8. Very easy to do now - so dementors and quidditch players cloaks are just as easy as animating them flying around.

 

Well, whatever it is it looks better than Max's.

 

Hey Darth Viper ! No tutorials on cloth sim huh?
I know when I click on darth Vaders cloak I can see all the modifers, so what do I do? DO I animate him first the hit calculate for the cape?

~Rory

 

Ok, the cloth parts can't have any skin modifiers or stuff that hooks them up to bones or a biped, the program will go crazy if you try to calculate so make sure there aren't any of those first. Then click the simulate/calculate and the computer will start to show the cloth moving, depending on your computer it will show each frame until it's finished and then that's it, if it's not right then just fool with the settings and do it again.

 

how do you get sim cloth to have the cloth already drapped on the character and stuff to begin with? i always have to let the gravity or something run its course first.

 

Howsabout we start a new cloth simulation thread? I believe we were talking about Quidditch models...

I've gathered together quite a bit of reference on the pitch itself, and I may make a low-poly animatic/reference version of the whole thing a bit later on. The best overall reference I've found as been on the "Sorcerer's Stone" DVD. There's some great shots during the match, and there's also some concept art showing the color schemes of the five tower variants (sixteen towers overall, eight on each side.. four each for Gryffindor and Slytherin, three each for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, two for teachers and visitors).

The backdrop surrounding the pitch probably won't be easy, either, depending on how good you'd want it to look.. in the films, they used ultra-high resolution photographs of the surrounding area, which was a real location (panoramic style, something out of Stitcher or another panoramic-type program), mapped onto low-resolution 3D geometry where needed (the basic shape of the hills, forest, and of course the castle, which was a miniature composited into the background images). Not quite sure how to pull that off without access to the original background plates of that area of the Hogwarts grounds. The grass on the pitch and the immediate surrounding area wouldn't be that hard to do all-digital, but the rest of it will be a pain.

I'm also still trying to gather reference on the Snitch, but that's not going to be an easy model to make.. At it's heart, it's just a sphere, but I think the only feasible way to get all that detail on it would be displacement maps, which aren't the easiest to create for something with such small details. But that will have to wait until I get the reference and can start assembling an overall UV map of the details.

The other balls are fairly simple.. the Bludgers are just basic spheres with a simple grunge map on various channels.. You can probably get away with a bump map for those, unless you plan on showing it in close-up, where it might need a displacement map. The Quaffle has a leathery texture with some stitching, but that's simple enough to make, and the basic shape isn't that complex, either. The SS DVD has some good concept art of that in addition to the shots in the film itself.

 

Update: I did manage to get a hold of some folks that can get me Snitch references.. a friend of mine has the licensed replica snitch they released in Japan for the first film, he's just waiting on his digital camera to get pictures of it.

I also found an even better source, if he's able to hunt down what I need.. through an amazing twist of fate and pure blind luck, I managed to get in contact with one of the guys at The Moving Picture company that built the original CG Snitch model for "Sorcerer's Stone", so we'll have to wait and see if he's able to find the files in their archives.

 

Seems like theres enough interest in a quidditch pitch after all.

 

why do u guys keep calling it a pitch?

~Rory

 

Because that's what it's called...

It's a British thing.. in some sports, the "field" is called the "pitch". So it is with Quidditch.

 

I got the snitch references this morning. I did a quick test using a hand-drawn displacement map for the details.. looks like crap because I can't draw, but at least proves that the theory is sound.. hehe.

The model will probably be done in a few weeks. I've got some other stuff I'm working on in the meantime that will be taking up most of my time until it's done, then I can get going on the snitch.

 

Coll...it's amazing though that I little model like that could be soo difficult.


~Rory