Last Sunday my group shot the background plates for our project. Unfortunately i was unable to make the shoot because of a previous commitment to be out of town. The did a great job though and where able to pick up my slack. The footage looks great and is pretty spot on with our previz and shot list. Along with my group shooting the background plates Tj Zoltner attend the shoot so that he could shoot light probes for our project. He did a great job and once i got back I started assembling the files into hdr's. Below is a contact sheet that i made of all the Light Probe's he shot. In all there where 9 probes and just for lighting information i think they will be great! Lastly, I will finish modeling the tank either today or tomorrow and start tracking the shots since we just achieved picture lock yesterday.

I have accomplished quite alot this weekend. I cut a final version of our previz and we all agreed that it was what we wanted. You can find the final previz on or pre-production page. The one and only really big change is that we added a sixth shot! I have also added the shot list that i wrote up at the request of my group since i will be absent from the shoot.

Moving on my goal was to have the M1A2 finished modeled before i left this weekend. This was almost an impossible goal because of my modeling skills could no support such a deadline. That and my inability to pull all nighters. So, where does that leave me? Gauging my progress this week and how i seem to continue to improve my efficiency. I would say that when i get back one more solid day of modeling will put me where i need to be, done. here are some Occlusion renders

Ah what a wonderful afternoon with my group . We finished hammering out the last of the pre-production details and things are looking great. Below is a shot list and a diagram of our scene. Also we created a schedule and agreed on what we would all be doing. The Schedule can be found on the schedule page (doh!) and everything else can also be found on the pre-production page. I will be cutting together another previz with the changes that we decided upon and sending it off to my friend in film. Baring any huge problems she has with it the next version will be our final Previz. Also below are some Screen Shots of the M1A2 tank that i am working on for this project!

Key: 1/RED= M1A2 | 2/RED=Couger APC | 3/RED=Couger APC
Black=Camera | Orange=Explosion | Blue=Soliders | Green=Civilians

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Tank Goodness!

So this morning i took the footage that my group shot and I cut it together into Previz for our project. The quality of the video is for crap because either the heads in the camera where dirty or the tape was bad. Either way it's not worth posting and will serve as a guide for the group.
    After cutting that together i took the poses that Brian and put together and the Previz scene that paul made. Added some VERY boxy models for the tank and apc's and placed all the characters. Then i begain to layout the camera moves. I basically stuck to our original plan about how the camera would be used and how the scene would be edited. I think the results are pretty decent but i dont think we are ready to shoot our final plates this sunday. I am going to take this previz done in maya to one of my friends in film and get some pointers on editing and camera work. My group will be meeting again soon to discus this previz and really refine it. All in all though i think it's a good step in the right direction.

PreViz Version 1