Film

"Armageddon 2112" is a film project that began in 1997. It seems to be manifesting with no end in sight. This project has gone through a number of iterations; from a sound installation, to a crude script, it existed as a super-8 film, it was a video element in a sculptural installation. Finally It seemed substantial enough to embark on a more in-depth examination of the thematic content. So, I decided to pursue on a more lengthy animated film project.

In its current stage, it has a completed script, 95% of the voice acting and foley recorded. The sound is being edited and models for animation are being constructed.

Synopsis - This film is a political and social commentary. One of its main features is that it mirrors the brutality with which the American mass media promotes or ignores catasrophes, atrocities, terrorism and exploitation. Numerous references are made throughout the film to historical revisionism, economic terrorism and propaganda. The plot centers around worldwide paranoia about the "end of the world", instigated by Vladimir Poopin, who is the driving force behind world catastrophes (pick one). A group of incompetent government secret agents attempts to prevent Vladimir Poopin's "second coming" in an attempt to save the world from certain doom. The looney-tune gags are chock-full of things your Rabbi, Priest, Minister or Mullah would prefer you didn't see. Why? The story is told through the popular-culture form of digital animation, one of the mediums of choice of advertising entities who are responsible for filling your mind with programmatic thinking about your life, culture, society and being a person and other such gobbledygook.

Early Animation Sequence - Poopin & Helga battle

Missing a lot of drawings. They were out of sequence and out of register. Trying to get them back in order... for some reason...

Presentation Room, busted door - Armageddon 2112

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Trying to decide on stylistic approach to scenes. Deciding to go with momentum already generated by project. Was considering minimizing the set to an extreme degree. But, the script seems to demand details in the scenery.

Presentation Room, ceiling - Armageddon 2112

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Trying to decide on stylistic approach to scenes. Deciding to go with momentum already generated by project. Was considering minimizing the set to an extreme degree. But, the script seems to demand details in the scenery.

Presentation Room, ceiling - Armageddon 2112

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Trying to decide on stylistic approach to scenes. Deciding to go with momentum already generated by project. Was considering minimizing the set to an extreme degree. But, the script seems to demand details in the scenery.

Presentation Room - Surface Preparation

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Screen capture of the model for a scene where many things happen. The colors are for identification of various parts of the model, in order to isolate parts for developing surfaces.

Test Render: Peppercorn, Final Model

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This is a test render of the Peppercorn robot, played by Vince Vasco.
The next couple of steps will be to figure out some rigging for lights when he speaks. There is also a jet engine that will be animated in an upcoming sequence.

Test Render: Peppercorn, Final Model

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This is a test render of the Peppercorn robot, played by Vince Vasco.
The next couple of steps will be to figure out some rigging for lights when he speaks. There is also a jet engine that will be animated in an upcoming sequence.

Test Render: Peppercorn, Final Model

click image for higher resolution
This is a test render of the Peppercorn robot, played by Vince Vasco.
The next couple of steps will be to figure out some rigging for lights when he speaks. There is also a jet engine that will be animated in an upcoming sequence.

Test Render: Particles

This is a test render using hypervoxels and particle emitters.

Test Render: Particles and Fluid Dynamics

This is a test render using fluid dynamics from NextLimit's RealFlow 4 software. One of the trick aspects of the workflow is making sure the materials will be applied at render, in Lightwave. Version 9.3.1 of LW was apparently the last stable version, in terms of it's compatibility with RF4.

Test Render: Hair and Fur

Simple animated test render using hair and fur features. Form animated to test how filter reacts to environmental effects like wind and gravity.

Model Sculpture: Figure

the gray coloring on this model indicates a change in the texture mapping. The gray areas become transparent when rendered out, so the model doesn't poke through any clothing it might be wearing.

Model Sculpture: Figure

Head closeup. I had no plan when I sculpted this one. It turned into some kind of scary baby looking thing. I think I have decided that my approach to animating these things would be to do it in a way that isn't "overanimated". You see this a lot in contemporary films. You can't appreciate what's going on in the scene. One of my favorite decisions by a contemporary animator was in a damn Harry Potter movie. They had this grumpy yoda-looking thing that moped around the house. Then it walked toward the camera and just stood there. You just had to deal with what a grumpy spiteful crank this character was. This was refreshing among the tornados of overanimated overanimation throughout the thing.

I did a really quick test on this character, where the forms weren't moving around all crazy, and it seemed really expressive. I didn't even have the eyeballs in the thing.

Model Sculpture: Figure

This is a relatively crude sculpture. But, the last render kind of shows you what is possible with decent textures, well thought-out colors, decent lighting and good render settings.

Model Sculpture: Render with Lighting

I think there was just 1 spot light on this model. It used the "classic" antialiasing (whatever that means), and probably radiosity of 80%. I have extensive experience sculpting the figure in clay, so I went a little nuts with the bump maps. the next step for efficiency would be an investment in a voxels sculpting and texture mapping application.