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| Orthographic Turnaround Blueprints Redesign by Arthur Nichols |
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| 3D Modeling of The Black Temple Motorcycle |
Sometimes a job just turns out amazingly well. It sure did here, and this is only one small part of an overall huge project!
The Black Temple - a 3D-animated feature film being developed by Cameron Chrichton of Sub Zero Media Productions - is a heavy metal fantasy. A psychedelic quest of barbarians, she-demons and monsters. Based loosely on Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, the aging warrior Seven is introspective & philosophical, yet verging on the brink of insanity.
Cameron is a talented Animation Director & Visual Effects Artist in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to directing video game cinematics for EA, BioWare, Atari, THQ and Activision, he recently worked on visual effects for the movie Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance.
Hey, not too many people get to brag about how they got to set Nicolas Cage's head on fire for several months! This is but one of the many fun visual effects that Cameron did for that film.
As Cameron is developing The Black Temple into a feature film, he's doing it in a way that flies in the face of how things are usually done. He's funding the film himself, and through online donations, which is the burgeoning new trend in entertainment funding. It's going to be a long and difficult journey, but so far it's achieving excellent results!
Cameron hired me to storyboard the entire film, which is a phenomenal undertaking! An exciting responsibility. I love the idea of seeing a film completed that I alone would have storyboarded. As we geared up to get started on the storyboards, we hit a slight snag...
Cameron hired me to storyboard the entire film, which is a phenomenal undertaking! An exciting responsibility. I love the idea of seeing a film completed that I alone would have storyboarded. As we geared up to get started on the storyboards, we hit a slight snag...
Here's a good way how to talk yourself out of a paying gig you had right in your hot little hands just a few moments before:
After Cameron and myself had our first big conversation about how to approach the storytelling, I kept asking questions about how to improve this aspect of the story, and I suggested something for that aspect... and after a while, I had talked myself out of my storyboarding job! He blames me for postponing the storyboarding aspect of the film, because I apparently helped put better ideas into his head that he had to include into his story.
After Cameron and myself had our first big conversation about how to approach the storytelling, I kept asking questions about how to improve this aspect of the story, and I suggested something for that aspect... and after a while, I had talked myself out of my storyboarding job! He blames me for postponing the storyboarding aspect of the film, because I apparently helped put better ideas into his head that he had to include into his story.
Geez, I should have kept my mouth shut. But that's okay! Cameron told me this is only a temporary delay until the screenplay is rewritten. In the meantime, he assigned me to work on redesigning, and then drawing up the orthographic turnaround blueprints for The Black Temple's main character's motorcycle.
The process of creating an asset such as a futuristic motorcycle that is used in an apocalyptic fantasy isn't as straightforward as you might think. As it turns out, there are many hands involved, many 'cooks in the kitchen', as it were. It's like a creative relay race, one person contributing something and then handing it off to the next person.
Here, I'll take you through the process of how Seven's Chopper was made...
The process of creating an asset such as a futuristic motorcycle that is used in an apocalyptic fantasy isn't as straightforward as you might think. As it turns out, there are many hands involved, many 'cooks in the kitchen', as it were. It's like a creative relay race, one person contributing something and then handing it off to the next person.
Here, I'll take you through the process of how Seven's Chopper was made...
STEP ONE - CONCEPT ART:
Nick Martinelli, a Senior level Art Director/Visual Development Artist who works out of Bangalore, India did these terrific designs. They set a great visual tone that fits wonderfully into the world of The Black Temple.
Nick Martinelli, a Senior level Art Director/Visual Development Artist who works out of Bangalore, India did these terrific designs. They set a great visual tone that fits wonderfully into the world of The Black Temple.
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| Concept Illustration by Nick Martinelli |
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| Concept Illustration by Nick Martinelli |
STEP TWO - ORTHOGRAPHIC TURNAROUNDS BLUEPRINT DESIGNS:
Mr. Martinelli didn't have time to do orthographic turnarounds of his designs, so they can be made into 3D models, so it was assigned to me. The task was to take all of the really cool elements of Nick's designs, and adjust those designs into a practical motorcycle that would function believably within the animated film.
But as it turns out, when you're trying to build a model of a motorcycle in 3D, you find out that a cool design doesn't always result in a 'real world' working vehicle. We had to make sure everything worked in a practical sense. For example, if you look at the concept designs, you might realize that one cannot really steer a motorcycle with the steering mechanism welded into the unmovable gas tank. We realized that even though it's a cool concept to have a 'side-car gas tank' as you see in the design, there was no place for the character who drives the motorcycle to place his right leg.
So, what to do? We replace the impractical (yet still very cool) elements with more workable parts. We also had discussions as to the other things that needed to be tweaked. We did a lot of adjustments here and there, rearranging things and finding a finished design that would look as real and as convincing as possible.
As we went along, I added the dragon design element and did a lot of research on motorcycle engines and contemporary wheel mechanisms to help give a more practical, believable look to everything.
I completed the orthographic turnarounds for the 3D modeler to build his model, being as detailed as I could.
Here are the orthographic turnarounds I did:
As we went along, I added the dragon design element and did a lot of research on motorcycle engines and contemporary wheel mechanisms to help give a more practical, believable look to everything.
I completed the orthographic turnarounds for the 3D modeler to build his model, being as detailed as I could.
Here are the orthographic turnarounds I did:
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| Orthographic Turnaround Blueprints Redesign by Arthur Nichols
STEP THREE - 3D MODELING:
The orthographic blueprints were sent to Sankalp
Chandra, in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. With what you see below, Cameron Crichton thought everything was looking cool, but he felt that the motorcycle was looking too much like an action figure toy. He wanted a final product that had as much realism as possible.
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| 3D Model by Sankalp Chandra |
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| 3D Model by Sankalp Chandra |
STEP FOUR - FINAL MODEL TEXTURING:
The final model had the pipes placed in the back, the dragon shell was removed, and some other things were arranged and adjusted for ergonomic reasons. Treads were added to the tires to round out the overall character of the bike, and the final texturing is simply terrific.
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| 3D Model by Sankalp Chandra |
Changes like this happens with every job. This is the process. It's worth all the back-and-forth frustrations when you end up with results like this!
