Animating the Sarlacc

Here's a quick 3 second test video that I made of the Sarlacc composited into some footage with tentacles flailing.  I'm pleased with the camera track, and the lighting is getting there!  When I composite the footage for realsies I'm going to use Sony Vegas so I can play with the colours up to the last minute.

I spent an entire evening trying to get Spline IK working in Blender as that seemed like the best way to animate tentacles.  However, when it came to animating this simple test I had absolutely no control.  So I think it's back to an FK armature rig which won't be as fluid as this but it will have to do.

My biggest worry at the moment is getting the lighting consistent in every .blend file.  there is going to be 20 odd blend files.

David Bussell at Weirdos Comedy

A little while back David Bussell, who has voiced a few of my videos, asked me to knock up a quick piece of animation for his stand-up routine. It was a slightly odd piece and I had absolutely no idea what he was going to do with it. Well, he's just uploaded the section of his act with the animation in, and it's very funny.

Designing the Sarlacc

Modelling the Sarlacc in Blender will be the most difficult part of this project.  There are lots of design issues which I don't currently know the answer to.  I can't just copy directly from the film because my version is smaller and needs to be able to do different things.  I'm also not sure how my version will be embedded into the living room floor.  Will it be buried under the floorboards?  Or will there be a mound of sand surrounding the pit?

The first thing I need to do is find some reference images.  Here's a screen shot from the film.  The Sarlacc is round but the tear in the ground looks more like an eye shape.  The Sarlacc has 3 flat levels for the teeth which might mean having to make the pit deeper than I want.  The 4 main tentacles seem to protrude from below the 3 rows of teeth... all except one! (thanks George!)

Here's an artist's painting of the pit although this does not include the tentacles.  It also doesn't really clear up where the sandy rock ends and where the Sarlacc begins.  This photo also shows a different kind of mouth although I'm probably just going to opt for a dark hole.

Some Beak action!  The Sarlacc is buried much deeper in this shot, because of the camera angle of my footage I can't bury my Sarlacc this deep or you wouldn't be able to see him, her...it!.  There's also the issue of the tentacles.  My tentacles have to interact with the actors so they need to be at least 5ft above ground level.  But in this shot you can see they barely get out of the pit.

I've had a couple of aborted attempts at modelling the Sarlacc so far and it is definitely going to be tricky!  Add to this the fact that I want to go for as photo-realistic of a style as possible, which means good textures and lighting.  This is going to be a very challenging project!!  Fortunately once the Sarlacc is modelled the rest is pretty simple!

Quick Update!

Here's a bit of a small breakthrough I had this evening.  I decided to start by modelling the teeth rather than the rock face, hopefully this will give me something to work from tomorrow.  Modelled with Dupliverts.

Quick Update 2!

A few more days have passed and here's where I'm up to.  I've reduced the number of teeth, AND!  These teeth can now be animated so I will be able to add some subtle movement.  I'm going to work on the textures tonight and perhaps do some experimenting with the multi-resolution / sculpting tools to rough the shape up.

Quick Update 3

I roughed the rocky parts up a bit with Blender's sculpt tool and I added a sand textures.  I'm still not 100% sure that the tentacles are going to be easy to animate so I might redo them.  But it's starting to look how I want it to, next step is seeing how it looks composited with the footage.

My Friend Trevor

A very dear friend of mine passed away recently.  His name was Trevor and to quote his brother Richard, "He was one of life's good guys."

This photo was taken around 2003 before a Christmas Ball that our company had arranged for us to attend. We were told that it was "mandatory fancy dress"... It wasn't.

Out of the hundreds of people there only a handful had bothered to dress up.  We didn't care though, we spent the evening drunk, laughing and occasionally knocking people's drinks over with our home-made Proton packs.

I had some great times working with Trev too.  I desperately want to try and remember every conversation that we ever had so I can back them up to my brain's hard drive.  Unfortunately I don't think the human mind works like that.  What it seems to do amazingly well however is remember images and feelings about someone.

The overriding image I have of Trev is his eyes lighting up and his passion when he would suddenly become excited by an idea.  And it was contagious. When Trev was excited by something, everyone was excited!

In recent years we had a running joke about a cheap suit that I'd bought for £27.  At every wedding the subject would turn to my suit and how it was holding up.  He'd tap random people on the shoulder and tell them "He bought that whole suit, trousers, jacket, shirt for TWENTY SEVEN QUID!".  His enthusiasm would draw more people in and he would have us all laughing.

I remember another time at work where Trev excitedly told me that he wanted to look into buying a Gyro-Copter so he could fly to work.  He explained how it would save him travel time as he could avoid all the traffic AND fly in a straight line.  To this day I still don't think Gyro-Copters are a real thing, but on that day in work I believed they were real, and Trev was definitely getting one!

And the feelings?  The feelings I have when I remember Trev are too complex to describe in words. And simplifying them down to just 'He was a great Guy' seems so inadequate.  I'm an awkward and shy person and I never told Trev this but he was one of the few people I could wander up to and immediately feel welcomed and at ease around in his presence.  Being around Trev made you feel happy.

I wish I could remember why we were shaking hands in this photo.  But in absence of the real reason, I will use it to say:  Thank you Trevor for being a wonderful friend and I will never forget you.

Brian Park 2 : Where are they now?

This has been a long time in coming but I hope you enjoy Brian Park - Episode 2!