The most notable update as far as work that we’ve completed this week would be the final version of our first shot. We’ve finished applying the VFX, animation, and sound to Act 1 Shot 1, and can present it as the first look at our final piece. Our VFX team’s course leader, Christos, asked us to darken the space HDRI we’d originally used (taken from the European Southern Observatory),
As he pointed out, space is a lot darker than that, and when I went into Photoshop to adjust the curves on the file, the result looks a lot more realistic.
The physical realities of space have been something that we’ve been playing with a lot. As Ingrid mentioned to us also, space has no sound, so it really is an interesting blank slate for the sound design team to work with in creating sound in this entirely malleable setting.
This is a visualization the sound design team gave us of what the first act could possibly look like with sound. That element is almost entirely done, and they are mostly just waiting for us to finish running everything through the render farm.
This isn’t completed yet, but here’s a look at the exhaust fume simulation that Gherardo has been working on for our space buggy. Our VFX team has nearly completed all of their work for the first shot.
This is a first look at the hazy, mirage-esque effect on the scene that Antoni created in Houdini. I intended the planet to feel hot, dizzying, uncomfortable and foreign, and this certainly delivers. I’m excited to see how the rest of our shots will look with the simulations applied.