Michael Betke (Pure3d)

[mbe]

After having a lot to do the last moths (with Lumion projects too hehe) I finally think I may be able to contribute something to the contest if I work hard the next 10 days. There will be a need to work very streamlined with my tools here to get done in time and deliver good movie too.

Concept ideas:
Since we are allowed to use After Effects I had some things like using a "greenscreen" in mind for some video projecions in post and mix the Lumion movie with real footage from Berlin and a nice electronic soundtrack. But Im not AE magican (unfortunaltly) so I may skip it and rely on Lumion mostly.

I will present the museum of course itself with detail shots and the sourrounding will be recognizable as well. So no location in the mountains or so. Realism is more my style with focusing on details.

Still concerned what I will do about the people. I think Lumion people lack a bit in quality so either using black/white people but there would be no movement. Or using greenscreen people and add them im post. But I had no good sources for them.

From the lighting I guess I will choose a presentation with colors and a sunset theme going to night. Maybe a transition or so. This is something very cool:
http://files3.structurae.de/files/ph...5/dsc_1787.jpg
There was a light installation in 2003 which will be nice to present. Lots of neon pipes.


First step now:
Cleaning model, sorting and redoing certain objects for close-up. Doing basic movie path so I know what I need model in the timeframe and what to skip. The geometry is really bad on some parts of the model so first task there.



Final Submission Shots:







Link to high-res:
http://pure3d.de/project-images/owns...el_Betke_A.jpg
http://pure3d.de/project-images/owns...el_Betke_B.jpg
http://pure3d.de/project-images/owns...el_Betke_C.jpg


Video:

[mbe]

DAY 1:
After finishing the fixes on the model like normalizing vertices, turning edges and so on I grouped all models and assigned my rought mat-ids. So nothing fancy so far.

DAY 2:
Today I went into texturing the museum so a lot of unwrapping was involved. I use unique texture-meshes for the walls and most other big parts. Unfortunately Lumions material system can't handle other transparency as alphatest which needs me to apply decals directly on the texture. For interiour shots I will split the scene later on and also tweak textures there. The lack of GI needs to be taken aware of. I have some ideas from further projects there.
Also played with some ambient models from Google Warehouse but it seems I have to model them at least lowpoly like. :-/
For traffic stuff I used RailClone (curbs mainly) plus Lumion stock models. This was done fast. Maybe I will use RailClone too for living blocks around the area. Some of my own vegetation was also imported into the project to spice up some details.

I also found a great soundtrack which carries a lot of mood so this most feared part is done and I can match the art direction onto the music a bit more.

Here is the work from today:

[7daysGUY]

Hi Mickael ! Nice to see some lumion forum users in there !
I'm in the same situation as you: beginning the contest very late... But I must say your first WIP's already seems nice.
I'm going to post my concept soon and trying my best during the short time left.

[mbe]

Day 3:
Today I spent my time with doing roadwork and sourrounding infrastructure. The front view is important for my opening shot later on and for a transition I have in mind. I had some troubles with a messed up terrain mesh but the little handy script "Populate:Terrain" helped out.
The ground texture for the street is generic and I will put specific white lines and arrows on it using splines to match the area a bit more.

I also tested a new After Effects script which I may get named "Realsmart MotionBlur". It calculates object-based motion blur based on an animation. Looks good so far and the moving cars will benefit from it.
First vegetation got placed around the area to get a feel of scale and distance. The trees on the shot are not the best choise I think. I want them to look more "light" and not like a 300 year old german oak. The fall colors are not in place too for my taste.

Maybe its time for the monuments on the area tomorrow. So I will be able to set up the first animation set and decide more on the overall "light and color" concept I want to follow.

Todays WIP with a little lens effect in AE:

[anwar522]

Going good My freind
Love your speedy progress .

[7daysGUY]

Looks good ! I'm beginning today so it will be very hard since you seems to be really fast !!!

Something very strange: i can see the pics and movies when NOT logged in but it turns into links when i'm entering login and password. Anyone knows what's happening ?

[sodapop66]

great, look nice
where did you find the 3D fallen leave?

[mbe]

Day 4:
Not much time to work today. I fixed and tweaked some stuff here and there plus did two sculptures.
Hard to believe the cube is 2m in size. But thats the information I found on the web. From rough estimation I would say 1.5m. The other rusted object seems to be moveable and beeing shown on the whole world. Interesting what you learn about art during this contest.

I now have a theme and a story for the museum ehibition too. I want to keep it a bit of surprise but its themed "kids" and their point of view of our environment shown in a different way using the space of the museum and its symetric way. I teamed up with my 5 year old son who is always interested in my stuff I do here. It's often like that "hey put that man/car/animal on the pole or on the roof" while I work in Lumion. So he will contribute the "art". I hope I won't get banned from the contest for letting him help.

Todays WIP:

[mbe]

@sodapop66: The leaves are from my model shops Ground Plants collection.

@7daysGUY: Very ambitious. I even hope to get it done in time. Ronen mentioned something about adding two weeks in another thread but as nothing other is officially written I will take the 15th as a deadline. Good luck!

Day 5:
Okay I finally got the sculptures done. Was more work as I thought. Especially the Archer thingie. I really suck at organic shape modeling. Still think the texture needs another texture pass (like other textures too). I will give the ground a complete new textures because it just doesn't fit well at the moment.

Tomorrow I really have to do start the environment. What worries me a bit are the very large buildings right at the opposite of the museum. I think its the Philharmony and a library. Looks like a lot of work. So maybe a more efficient solution would be to concentrate on the interior museum texturing, block out the exhibition geometry and do a first camera path. I then can check what buildings are really needed.

Time is really running fast if I think about rendering the movie plus doing post and of course some static renders which we have to submit...

Pics of the day including a bit sky playing...nothing serious.

[mbe]

Day 6:
Today I finished the interior museum texturing and played a lot with possible camera angles, paths and post effects. I also worked on the sourrounding buildings and changed some of the vegetation. So mostly things where you take a look at the clock and end up surprised on how fast time passed while playing around with settings.

The marble in the museum is made out of four different textures applied with different matIds. I kept the repeating look of it. With the interior you can see the weakness of Lumion. It lacks of proper reflections and shadows from the pillars because all is in the dark. I will see how I can work around of this limit. I could bake a lightmap but as soon as you use a lightmap all area reflections are gone and you are limited to diffuse only.

Wip of the day:

[mbe]

Day 7:
After one week I think I'm pretty much done with the outside area. Most noteable change today was the finishing of the interior area (without the exhibition) and the revamped outside floors with 10 different textures placed on rotated concrete slabs. It really makes a difference. Also did some polishing for the areas where I shot videos.

Lumions relfection handling still makes its real-time applcation origin noteable. Beware of the 256px window cubemap reflection.
Tomorrows goal: Finishing the exhibition assets with all its animations and so on. We tried to paint some stuff today but if you tell kids to what to paint its getting difficult. At least if the artist is five year old. So I may stick to older work of him and compse them or re-think the exhibition a bit.

Pic of the day:

[tearfalls]

No disrespect, but I thought company or group is not allowed to participate in this competition. Or is it allowed if you only represent yourself as an individual?