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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

small army. lol

Discussion in 'Archive: Scifi 3D Forum' started by HagerNYC2003, Nov 21, 2003.

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  1. HagerNYC2003

    HagerNYC2003 Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Nov 5, 2003
    Hi, I'm new to this forum. I'm making a home movie spoof on star wars with my dogs, and found this site in my search for help with a shot I want to get. (Nice site by the way!) I want to recreate the shot in Returnt of the jedi when an imperial shuttle lands in the landing bay and theres a whole bunch of storm troopers all standing at attention. I have a poor model of a stormtrooper, that I might trade in for one of the nice ones here. Instead of duplicating the one trooper model over and over again, couldn't I use particles to recreate the numerouse troopers. I'm working in Maya. Thanks to all who can help me.

    sincerely,
    John
     
  2. Semaj Ovured

    Semaj Ovured Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 8, 2000
    My understanding is that much of those troopers were actually SW Action Figures!
     
  3. The-Matt-Man

    The-Matt-Man Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 19, 2002
    I believe Semaj would be correct. Isn't that on a Making of documentary or something?

    I dunno.

    Just like the pod racing arena. Q-tips...just q-tips... and people are wondering how on earth they achieved such an emmense crowd effect.

    For the love of glory, Q-TIPS!


    But, if you don't happen to have all those frickin' action figures laying around, and you're dead set on doing this in CG. Hmmm...

    Doesn't Maya have a built in small crowd simulation plugin? I know Character studio for Max 5 does, and I believe LW7 does, and I am for certain that Softimage does.

    I'm just not sure of the effectiveness of particles. I wouldn't know how to help you in Maya anyway, but in Max it would use the scatter feature if you just want them to stand still.



    -Matt
     
  4. malducin

    malducin Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2001
    My understanding is that much of those troopers were actually SW Action Figures!

    Nope, most of the troopers in the opening sequence were part of a matte painting. You can actually se the painting in the first ILM book.

    just q-tips

    Yes the Pod Race arena used qtips for many (mostly long) shots but also used comped in extras and CG people in several shots.

    Instead of duplicating the one trooper model over and over again, couldn't I use particles to recreate the numerouse troopers.

    There are several ways to go about this. This could be the perfect use of MEL, create a little script that can duplicate the model but that it translates each copy to a different position (in an array to have a formation).

    Actually what is wrong with Maya's duplicate function? It has options that control how each copy is translated, rotated anmd/or scaled, plus things like if you want to parent the copied to the original, etc. Quite easy and painless.

    Yes you could use particles as well, the particle tool has a way to create particles also on a regular grid. Then you can use the particle instancer to replace each particle with a model.

    If it was a static shot without barely any movement you could even get greater rendering saving using particle sprites. Just render one model, and use that as a sprite for your grid of particles. Shadowing could be a problem but depends on your scene.

    Doesn't Maya have a built in small crowd simulation plugin?

    No, the only real one are AI Implant and Massive. But you can easily build one with MEL. Secrtes of the Pros has one example of how to do crowds, and maybe one of the MEL books has also an example. Also I think I've seen simple crowd MEL scripts at Highend3D, but he would have to check.


     
  5. The-Matt-Man

    The-Matt-Man Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 19, 2002
    Well...what movie is it that uses figurines for a big standing army? Must've been a b-movie I was watching or something. I dunno.

    Matte. How about that. That would have been my first guess had I not been thrown off by action figures :D

    Hmm...you have access to network rendering? That might help you out if you want the shot to be that complex.

    -Matt
     
  6. Darth_Gehenna

    Darth_Gehenna Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2001
    They did use action figures for animatics.
     
  7. malducin

    malducin Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2001
    He doesn't need network rendering if he uses the 3D cards or sprites trick and using a locked off shot, as rendering textured map polygons or patches is quite fast. In the ROTJ shot, it's a long shot, so you don't need too high detail, he might be able to pull it off with a simpler model. Depends on his requirements.
     
  8. VoijaRisa

    VoijaRisa Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 12, 2002
    My understanding is that much of those troopers were actually SW Action Figures!

    Nope, most of the troopers in the opening sequence were part of a matte painting. You can actually se the painting in the first ILM book.


    It depends on what shot it was. The shots from the high angles (ie. the last one before cutting to Tatooine) was several minatures.

    Most shots however used a few real troopers with a matte painting behind them.
     
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