V de Vicioso - Movie Special FX Made With Blender

After seeing the two threads about the new amateur film (video) called "V de Vicioso", a parody of the 80's "V" tv series and how all the 3D VFX was done with Blender, Bart (I'm posting in his name - etr9j) asked Nicolas Morenas (Caronte - the guy who did all the Blender work) some questions on the project:

• Film Title: V de Vicioso ( Fourth season)
• Length: 50 min.
• Language: Spanish
• Format: DVD PAL
• Human Team: Over 70 people.
• The film was shown the 1st of this month in a cinema of Barcelona.
• Project Website (with emule link to full movie). If you don´t want to download the full movie, you can see a teaser or take a look at an example of Caronte's work (1,2) on the project (DivX - remember to right click and save as).

Who started this project, how many people participated in it and how long did it take to create?

(Caronte) The project was launched together by Javier Lupiañez (Production) and Roger Bordas (Story and Direction).

(Roger Bordas) It all started with a helmet. Javier, our producer, had a V (TV Series) original helmet. We thought that with some more of them and maybe a gun we could start recreating our favorite series from the Eighties. We also managed to obtain the original patterns from the series uniforms so we ordered 10 of them to a dressmaker. Thanks to worldwide V fans we received several more guns and two Assault Blasters. We never thought we could go so far but thanks to a crew of over 70 people, amongst them professionals, amateurs, freaks, skateboards, fans, gremlins and ordinary critters, and all of them working on a voluntary basis we have no choice but to thank them all and take our hats off.

How many people worked on the special effects and for how long?

(Roger Bordas) We divided the Digital Effects work into two groups. People from Cubica were in charge of post-production process including laser painting. They were all generous enough not to charge us for this. The second group did all the modeling and animation and render which included mothership, skyfighters, turrets, chroma key backgrounds and other related tasks. The second group evolved and finished being only one person, Nicolás Morenas (Caronte). We always contacted Caronte via e-mail but the communication was always good. We asked for a shot and he would sent us a preview. Once the preview was accepted we received a compressed file containing all the needed rendered TGAs with DV PAL quality. I have to say that we couldn't even dream the day we were looking at our collector's helmet that we would end up with such a high quality special effects. And it is all due to Blender. Still there is people who do not think that all 3D was made with Blender. Knowing Caronte and how passionate is about this software, I trusted them both from the beginning. You can see the results for yourself.

(Caronte) It is difficult to say how much time has been invested in the special effects. I was working in my free time and sometimes they were gaps between one shot and the next one.

How was Blender selected for the special effects?

(Caronte) Roger and Javier asked for collaborative members in a well known Spanish 3D Forum (3dpoder.com) and I was the one stepping forward. I chose Blender because it is the software I am the most comfortable working with and the one I normally use.

Did you find you needed something you didn't have?

(Caronte) Things missed were: A good Storyboard and more planning before making the shots that contained 3d effects. A render farm so that we could render using real GI instead of having to do it with the internal render engine. Somebody else in the 3d team in order to exchange ideas and to become more productive.

What are your experiences with using blender in this situation. Would you do it again?

(Caronte) This was a good experience. Even that we were not doing something too complicated, Blender behaved beautifully at all times from modelling and texturing till animation and final rendering. Would I do it again? Yes, of course but next time not for free and not alone.

Good luck in your next project!

(Caronte) Thanks. A big cheers to all BlenderNation readers.