The Force Awakens in Cardiff
Cool motion tracking/VXF in these Star Wars fan shots.
Stephen Thomas writes:I’m a CG artist who has been using Blender for close to 8 years now. I started using Blender as a freelance motion graphics designer and have carried it on to the production company that I co-founded almost two years ago. I started Spin The Yarn Productions in Cardiff, UK, with an old University friend. Blender has been an integral part of our productions. When we decided to make a Star Wars short film, it was a no-brainer to turn to our favourite CG tool for the task.
On this project, we collaborated with On Par Productions for filming and Ekho Music for sound design and music. We work with these companies all the time on corporate jobs, so when we asked if they wanted to collaborate with us on a short fun project, they jumped at the chance.
We only had two weeks from pre-production to delivery on May the 4th, so the thought of modelling everything needed was daunting, if not impossible. This is where the lovely Blender community at Blendswap came to the rescue. We’ve credited all of the artists that created models we used, we’re very grateful for their skills and generosity in sharing what they’ve created (especially for the Yoda model. So so cool). Blendswap was missing something integral, something any Star Wars fan film shouldn’t be without, so we modelled a Stormtrooper. We’d love to give back to the Blender community, so we’ll be looking to release our Stormtrooper model soon (the rig isn’t very good at the minute, so we’d like to make it more usable before sharing).
All of the 3D modelling, animation and matchmoving was done in Blender and rendered in Cycles. Compositing was done in After Effects, could have easily been done in Blender too, but our VFX artist is an After Effects man.
We hope you all like our short film. May the 4th be with you Blenderheads!
Hey, Stephen, that’s a great piece of work. Yoda is great. I’m so impressed that you managed to pull it off without one light-sabre VFX element! Well done.
Thanks Paul. We did plan to have one extra shot (you can see the storyboard on our website) featuring a Welsh dragon and another Jedi. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to do the shot justice, so decided to cut it…
Good to see you again at the conference last year. Are you coming again this year?
Likewise. Yes, all being well I’ll be there this October again. It’s becoming a regular pilgrimage! You too?
Yeah, hopefully. All depends on how much work we have on :)
Very funny, but I think you missed a vital opportunity. In chapter 2 could you send in some Tie Fighters to take out the Senedd building, home of the breakaway administration? This would protect the environment from the wasteful volumes of hot air generated inside, it would save citizens a vast fortune (such as enormous undisclosed bribes to attract companies making 2-seater land speeders) and it would return administrative control to the existing and competent hands of the Republic Senate.
Ha ha ha. We should have had you at our pre-production meetings!
That’s great! I was a college student in Cardiff in the Nineties. Fun to see all the sites meet Star Wars!
Lots of good colleges in Cardiff (I studied in Newport myself) especially Glamorgan Uni (now part of USW). Are you working with Blender these days? I know a couple of Blenderheads in Cardiff, would be good to meet up if you’re still around.
Studied at Howard Gardens on City Road, ultimately became part of UWIC I believe.
Yep a Blenderhead for many years but now based in the US. Happy to hear there’s a thriving Welsh Blender community!
Welsh Blender community could definitely be better, but could be worse too. Have tried to do a meet-up, not too many people unfortunately… There’s a good core of people that I’m in contact with though :)