Alien Invasion
By Beniamino.
Beniamino writes:This is a short trailer in CGI mixed with real shots. I made rendering and compositing in Blender, using internal renderer with nodes. I added some postproduction effects in Apple Motion, such as lens flares.
Please, consider that this is not my job, and it’s my first experiment… I passed a lot of nights watching tutorials and trying to tweek smoke!!!
At the end there are some credits (expecially to Pinarci, who made the 3d models of the ships). I wanted to make something more spectacular… but I had no time, and I’ve decided to post the work now. This is my town, in Italy.
This is really awesome – the many nights were worth it :)
Awesome work with just B2.5. I really like the credit page.
Looks very promising.
This is really awesome!!
Ben fatto!
Very nice. Nothing that I could do. For my taste the ships are too shiny. Also, I think its kind of hard to get a feeling for the size of the ships. There are quite a few ships in the air. I think you could add a whole lot of more destruction to the last scene (more smoke, more destroyed buildings, more debris etc.)
Strepitoso!
Awesome!!
bravo! bravo! bravo!
just ! ,beautiful work .
Very nice work for somebody who watched tutorials. LOL
Thanks to everybody, I’m very happy because you enjoy my efforts!
Complimenti!!! Ma sei sicuro di aver “solo” guardato tutorial, e che sia il tuo primo “esperimento”…? Ma tra scrivere e ideare la storia, modellare (a parte le navi), filmare, testurizzare, simulazioni, camera tracking, ricostruzione, montaggio, effetti e musica? Tutto da solo, in un solo anno e al primo esperimento??? Non prenderla male, la mia è solo invidia :-) Puoi dettagliare un po’ di più la “storia” del tuo impressionante lavoro? Grazie!
Awesome!!! Are yousure you have “only” been following tutorials, and this is your first “experiment”…? Designing and writing the story, modeling (other than spaceships), filming, texturing, simulations, cameratracking, reconstructions, editing, effects, soundtrack? All by yourself, in a single year, and as a first experiment??? Don’t take this wrong, mine it is just envy :-) Can you detail more about the “history” of your impressive work? Thanks!
Thank you, I can say “yes, this is my first experiment”! Obviously I’m not a kid, I’m 36 and love computers. I stay 14 hours/day in front of my mac, so I’m good enough to learn fastly how to use a lot of appz (Blender is the hardest)!!! When I was 16 I used to compose electronic music with my Amiga (I loved Octamed). Some year ago I bought a camera to take shoot of my baby, so I learnt how to use a timeline and video editing. After this, in november 2010, a new idea came in my mind: “I want to make an alien invasion in my town”. So I started searching on the web everything I needed to do it. It’s been very very hard to do that. But Icarus, Hugin and Blender used together are the key to do this kind of CGI. As you can see there’s no story… all you see is random… it’s a serie of shooting edited together, without a previous sotryboard. The secret is: never give up! Really! there’s always a way to do what you want, and internet is the best repository of knowledge we’ve ever had. In the next days I will post the links I used to learn all the things you see in this video. Thanks, Ben
Very nice, I see in the credits, one thing that can be wrong “…ICAURS AND HUGIN…” instead “…ICARUS AND HUGIN…”, just one observation, god work.
Sorry, I don’t understand what’s wrong… really!!! :-) Can you tell me more?
icaURs al posto di icaRUs
Ah ah, l’ho riletto per mezz’ora e non l’ho visto!!! Grazie!
Thank you, I didn’t see the mistake!
Great job, congratulations !!!
great work, congratulations!
Am I wrong or there’s no trace of the author in the titles? Where is your name? :)
PS
Zaniocz points out that you wrote icaURs instead of icaRUs
Hi, you’re right. Here (in Fossano, Italy) I posted the video on youtube without revealing that I’m the author. It’s something like a joke, that generated a lot of hype about the post. Even the most important newspaper of Italy (La Stampa) has written an article about that misterious short movie. After two days I said that I’m the author to everybody!
Awesome!
One easy way to make it a little better is to slow down the smoke coming out of the burning tower at 1:00.
Congratulations
Fantastic.
i see some video co pilot stuff in there with after effects.. nice stuff though
It’s not true… as I said here you can see some Apple Motion effect but not After Effect at all. Lens flares are made with the motion vfx mflare plugin for Apple Motion (it’s written in the credits).
I think he was more hinting to the concept. Mainly the blue orb orbs with smoke trails approaching the city.
Yes, I followed a tutorial for this effect (as I did for all the other techniques). I remember it explained how to make smoke trails in After Effect. So I tryied to do the same in Apple Motion (because I don’k know After Effects, and it was my purpose not to use it for compositing). I also remember that the tutorial reached a more realistic result than mine! I remember the tutorial used the co pilot plugin for lens flare… I don’t. In my effects there are only 3 blue ovals in overlay… :-)
Andrew, let me take the chance to thank you about your wonderful job (you can see I wrote your name in the credit page of the trailer): without your tutorials I’ll never be able to do anything in Blender! Thank You!
Haha. Thanks, someone else just linked me to that as well. I really appreciate the mention.
I’m glad my tutorials have helped :)
beautiful work. you had me captivated!
Bellissimo, complimenti! Aspettero’ con ansia il seguito :D
Awesome, good work! I’m waiting for the next episode :D
vivo in italia; devo preoccuaprmi?
i live in italy; do i have some good reason to be worried?
Awesome. And with Icarus too, lol, great job.
It might not be your job, but if this is your first experiment then I think it should be. You haven’t succumbed to the beginner’s mistake of showing too much. You haven’t swamped it with ridiculous amounts of damage and destruction. What you have done is convincing.
Subtleties like the camera finding a damaged building just after the impact add to the realism. Yes, there are technical issues that you would probably like to fix, but for a “first experiment” this is outstanding.
Ok, thank you very much… I’m proud of your compliments! Please, help me understand how can I make this passion became a real job. It really sound a silly request… But I live in Italy, Piedmont (there are no movie culture and film company here). Some of you have contacts with Hollywood or something similar? :-)
awesome!
1 man job?
wow…
The verb for telling lies with still pictures is “to Photoshop”. We need a new word for telling lies with moving video: “to Blender”? “to Tomato”?
Ah ah, wonderful!!! Thank you!
and this is not your job? wow this is really amazing. Thank you for sharing :)
Awesome. The shiny ships could have more ‘realistic’ texture, but I guess you had to skimp on that timewise, so nicely done. The motion tracking makes most of the shots very believable and professional.
One major point: There is one, maybe two, totals in which burning buildings are shown in the distance. The effects, the motion-tracking and the composites in those areas is really bad compared to everything else. They spoiled the experience for me. They are only a few seconds but the quality in those is a dead giveaway. Redo them, hide them behind video grain or leave them out.
That aside I have to say this is really awesome. If this is your first take at something like this, I, as the commenter above this, strongly advise you to consider a professional career. You definitely have the skills. And there is nothing in that short that a two hour session with a pro compositing expert giving some advice couldn’t push to a professional level.
My 2 cents.
Thank you! I’m not so able in making textures, and so they aren’t so realistic. I can say the same for the composites… I agree with you! When I decided to upload the video there where a lot of things I wanted to fix… but I uploaded it to set me free!!! I was a slave of this video for too long! My two children where crying because I was not playing with them…
I’d really love to work making visual effects like theese… but I live in a place in which we’re having hard times… do you know Italy? :-( It’s very hard, here, to find a way to work in this branch…
Wasn’t italy recently taken over by the EU? ;-)
define more spectacular…
Thank you… I had in mind some dynamic scene, with fast flying spaceships through the buildings… And there were also a scene with an old curch falling down under 3 missiles impacts… but it was too demanding! I have to support my family… no time to play!!!
awesome!!!!!!
I want to thank everybody for the positive comments and advices. Tomorrow I’ll release on the youtube channel new clips, without editing cuts.
You’ll be able to analyze the VFX techniques better than now (unfortunately you’ll more issues too)!http://www.youtube.com/user/ITINVASION
Very well done. Very inspiring to see this as your first project. I just started with Blender and seeing stuff like this encourages me.
This is a fantastic clip… well done!
awesome video!
Ok, I took a break (just to proceed with my real job)! Now I will answer to some of your messages. Ben
Nice work thanks for sharing.
Beniamino, sei un GRANDE!!!