Star Wars Fan Film Project

Episode Fourty One

2008-08-27T22:50:00.004+08:00

Bluewing - my second concept.

First of all...DON'T WATCH THE CLONE WARS STUPID SH*T MOVIE!!!

Okay, I sure haven't been updating my blog, but thats because I have 1000s of stuff to do. This here is a new addition to my family of X-Wings. As you may know from reading my previous posts I was making a B-27 Redwing. Now, I'm starting on a Bluewing. So these images show some idea of how it may look like. For starters its longer, stronger, slower and heavier. Its supposed to carry a lot of bombs and it doesn't have an astromech. I'm trying to cut the production time of my X-wings by making all three types at once. More on the Redwing later.

May the Force be with you.

Episode Fourty

2008-08-12T09:14:00.003+08:00

Time for a coffee break, Stardust.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

May the Force be with the olympians.

Episode Thirty Nine

2008-08-10T04:39:00.005+08:00

(A little too) slow and steady.

I've added and modified multiple pieces on this thing including screw placements. I'm still experimenting with a lot of stuff. The bottom picture shows R2 in his astromech socket, and you can see him in the top pictures. This R2 just acts as a placeholder and was downloaded from net. The main engines will sound like a F1 V8 engine. I have some ideas about making the main engine movable and reacts to gear changes. The B-27 has six turbines. 4 for forward thrust and two for cooling. I'll work on it some more tomorrow. Anyhow this thing still aint finished, and may take 2 more weeks.

May the Force be with you.

Episode Thirty Eight

2008-08-01T18:43:00.004+08:00

New Character tests.This is a new character test of a tribal girl on Endor. I'm writing the part for her and not sure if she was adopted by ewoks or a decendant of some human race that crash landed on Endor. Or I could also change the planet other than Endor. This model mesh is recycled from some of my earlier works and is undergoing remodelling. I still have absolutely no idea what her costume is gonna be like. I'm thinking of referencing a character called Taina from a brazilian movie. But still things are very blur and this girl might be replaced by some other hairy midget. But she is supposed to be Force sensitive, something like young Anakin.

May the Force be with us all.

Episode Thirty Seven

2008-07-17T13:05:00.004+08:00

Landing gears are a pain in the ass.

Yup. Okay, so I underestimated the original x-wing and have problems with my Redwing. The landing gears for the original X-Wing strangely comes out of the two bottom wing engines. So how do those turbines work with the landing gear in em? I decided to just leave the rear landing gear outside and is tucked under the wings like a bird's legs. And I think it'll ad to the mechanical-armored-tank-look of the Redwing. This thing now has a whole lot more weapons and some concealed gadgets. I'm sketching the designs before I make em, so here in this update you can see some modifications to the nose and landing gear. The front landing gear will retract into the nose as in the bottom picture. I promise, this thing will only get better with every complete orbit of saturn around the sun. Okay whatever, now I'll have to get back to the hangar to work on this flying beast.

BTW I bought the 30th anniversary Darth Vader with coin number 01. The figure is of good quality sculpt but has damages. Even the coin was scratchy. So if you buy one, be prepared.

May the Force be with us all.

Episode Thirty Six

2008-07-11T02:25:00.004+08:00

Boyhood dream - gettin closer.

A few days ago I celebrated my 27th birthday. Actualy there was no celebration. In pure Jedi fashion, I cut the cake with a Lightsaber. No, there was no cake. So I guess it was a bloody boring birthday. I was sick. But still I'm alive and kicking and there's a reason for it, a reason why god still wants me to be alive. The reason? to finish this bloody rebelious project. So now I'm 27, which gives me an Idea. While I was working on the Nose section of this Redwing X-Fighter, I made the decision to just call it a Redwing Fighter. But at some point I was messing with the many versions of the CG file and decided I needed a product number for the model. Renamed the file B-27 which means Ben's 27th Birthday. Hahaaa...

But it does sound quite good. The original Luke SKywalker X-Wing was a T-65, but I think my B-27 will be better : )

And a modification for its weaponry is X-35c Military Modification. Includes heavy armor. I'm gonna give the model a rest before I get back to try and finish it. The landing gears are driving me nuts.

May the Force be with the Sandcrawler.

Episode Thirty Five

2008-07-01T00:04:00.003+08:00

Star Wars would never be Star Wars without X-Wing

Okay, so that's pretty much how its going so far. I'm quite happy with the basic shape. The under part of the wing isn't done yet. The Redwing looks a lot like the old X-Wing but is actualy very different. And R2 will have his own gun turret to fire enemies. BTW, did you guys watch that new Hulk movie? The new Hulk looks so fake in some shots, and some environments look very fake. I'm not sure if I'll watch it. Guess I'll save my money for Hellboy 2. I'm sure the Toro dude will have a better story to tell and better visuals.

May the Force be with you guys...and girls.

Episode Thirty Four

2008-06-28T21:38:00.002+08:00

X-Wing variant
I'm back after my long search for the Ark of the Covenant, didn't get it and neither did Dr Jones. Now I'm working on an X-Wing. Three types of X-Wings.Codenamed Redwing, Bluewing and Blackwing. Did some research and have begun the blocking and modelling process. Also trying to figure out how most things should work. This picture is of the Redwing's Laser Canon contruction. All three types of X-Wing will be different from one another and I've decided to clasify them as XF or X-Fighter.

May the Force be with you.

Episode Thirty Three

2008-05-06T23:44:00.002+08:00

Droideka Legs Problem and other problems.
I haven't posted in a while, its because I'm encountering major problems. Yes, I had some problems with my hardware and will have to figure out a way to make the CG renderable minus the long render times. Also, I just stumbled on the droideka again, and wondered if I should've given it three legs instead. But my main goal was to make it believable, something running around with three legs would easily pass of as CG. Then agian maybe I should make one with three legs and show only its top part when its walking so people will think its real. Well, its still pre production so I guess its not too late to make changes and its okay to have doubts. Another reason is that in Terminator 3, the original terminators looks something like the droidekas I made. So I don't want it to have similarities with the T3 droid.
Another problem is a helmet design for Starlander's hazard suit. I drew pictures of them years ago and the current one was finalised last year, till Iron Man came out. Back then a friend of mine said the helmet I made looked like Iron Man. But I think the current comic Iron man looks different to it but in this new Iron movie, the similarities were very obvious. So now, I have no choice but to start from scratch. Heck maybe I'll just make an evolution of Darth Vader's helmet.
By the way, the second picture is a holographic image on the cockpit ceiling of a new X-Wing prototype.

May the Force be with that Audi car with the STARK number plate.

Episode Thirty Two

2008-05-03T00:43:00.003+08:00

Nekid no more.
This is a relief. I'm glad the dude is no longer nekid. But still the cloth fx hasn't set as it is still being modeled. He still needs a hood on his head and he's still barefoot. I have some ideas for his boots and hopefully it'll work. Once everything is done I'll texture him in full and skin him and apply all the fx and animate. Of course saying it is easy but doing it isn't!!!

But whatever it is, I think this guy's progress is going pretty well, and I really can't wait to finish him and start with Luke Skywalker. Hahahaa! <--evil laughter.

May the Force be with us.

Episode Thirty One

2008-04-30T11:14:00.003+08:00

Advancement in Sith Technology after more than 1000 years...duh

The Sithsaber for Darth Satanious is kinda long. There's no way to keep it in place without having it mess with his clothing. And carrying something big with him wherever he goes will cause problems. If I attach it to his belt, it'll pull that belt down. He might prefer to carry it in his hand but that won't look good if he's not gonna use the thing. So at some point I thought of making the darth pull the sithsaber out of nowhere like the Green Goblin. In the climax when Spidey was beaten, the Green Goblin pulled out a trident from thin air. Same goes with all his pumpkin bombs. But at some other point I decided against it and came up with the idea of making it transformable into the size of a standard saber. So, after a few hours of testing, I came up with this solution in the video.

Yes. Exactly like how we get erections. So now the saber has a default length of about 12 inches and extends mechanicaly when switched on with Force activation. Now the darth can keep it snuggly as a concealable weapon in his robe without having it get in his way. But this doesn't mean that all the other Siths will have the same saber because this is exclusively designed for Darth Satanious. Everyone else will have to carry their Sithsabers the old way. Satanious' has other modes as well like vibration for detecting other sabers, saber length selection for increasing or deceasing the length and a choice of red or green saber color. And another idea is several settings for other modes of combat like a special power move for finishing the enemy.

May the Force be with us all.

Episode Thirty

2008-04-27T22:05:00.003+08:00

Feeling down, confused, severe brain dehydration.

My brain suffered a massive critical overload this morning it's a surprise I didn't end up like Kurt Cobain. I really underestimated the loyalty required to finish what more start this fan movie. But I'm not calling it quits. Maybe I should put up a PayPal donation tab and collect money from everyone. Then again I could just maybe sell some of my stuff on ebay, that is if I have stuff to sell in the first place. Another Idea is to get some funding from Finas (Malaysia's Film Guardian of Peace). Though I'm not sure if they'll take a Star Wars Fan Movie project seriously. But judging by the content I've dished out in Pre-Production, I must admit is worth more than all the Malaysian movies last year. Speaking of Malaysian movies, its a graveyard. I'm not sure if I'll ever watch a Malaysian movie this year. Even our cerita hantus (horror films) are NOT scary. Most of them have screaming girls from start to finish. Which is NOT scary. And how bout Maya Karin for a ghost, scary? Nope. Finger lickin good? Hell yes! :P

And I watched The Ring at 12.30am twice trying to scare myself. But the Ring movie was scary in many ways except for the part when they showed Samara's face. But still, Malaysian horror films are 10years behind that. But there was a movie called Toyol which is kinda scary. Of course that was years ago but still, there is a good reason (or maybe bad) why it was banned. Too bad. Even Malaysian comedies suck. Really suck. So I hope I'll get a chance to make something different with my Fan movie and start a Revolution instead of evolution among Malaysian Film goers because Fan Movies are FREE and the best things in life are FREE. But then again I may just die before getting anything done. Not a chance! The Force is strong with me so I'll just stick with this Project till its done. Heh Heh. Cobain is such a quitter and so is Yoda. I mean one failed attempt at the Emperor and Yoda goes exile? Man, some role model Yoda turned out to be.

BTW (that stands for better than Warcraft) I did updates to my project and am prepairing to submit some of my content to Finas (Malaysian Movie Burried Treasure Keepers) and hopefully I'll get some cash to continue my struggle. If I don't there's always an option for a pettition or I could rob a bank. Or I could borrow money from Count Dooku. Stay Tuned...

May the Force be with you.

Episode Twenty Nine

2008-04-26T21:58:00.002+08:00

Imperial Gear
I did mention in one of the episodes that Darth Satanious was gonna carry a USB drive on his belt. Well I then decided that even the Stormies are gonna have their own USBs. Yup. So these guys here still need to be refined and the USB port thing hasn't been modeled. And also their caps haven't been made. And texture maps as well need to fixed. Heck maybe I should make all the drives including the R2 version. Yeah, good idea Ben. But of course these drives won't be visible in anyway because the idea is to include them in the fan film as easter eggs. So it's gonna be fun seeing one of these cute dudes on somebody's belt :o)

May the Force be with you.

Episode Twenty Eight

2008-04-25T17:07:00.003+08:00

April Progress so far.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Well here are some pics of the project progress for April. You can click on the pictures to get some info on them. Some of the pics are already on this blog but some are not. SO this serves as an idea of the progress so far.

May the Force be with you.

Episode Twenty Seven

2008-04-23T12:06:00.007+08:00

The Millenium Falcon and Toodeetoo

Wow! That's all I can say after what I went thru today. Yup, I was searching for some Star Wars related stuff and decided to dig up my folders and came across a 3dm_falcon.zip file, not sure where it came from. I opened it thinking it was some lousy low poly Millenium Falcon but to my surprise it was one bloody detailed model of THE Falcon. Problem was there was no text indicating who made it so I was just clueless about it and not sure where the hell it came from. But my, what a model. The guy who modeled it included deployed landing gears and a entry ramp. It was so bloody detailed with all the paneling and stuff I'd take it that Cpt Kirk would've secretly teleported himself into the Falcon when Mr Spock wasn't looking.

Upon close inspection of the outer layer I quickly realised how lacking my modeling skills were. I would apreciate it if I knew the guy who modeled this file so I could become his apprentice. I mean this falcon is really inspiring, I now know what I have to do to make the fighters in my movie look good. Yeah, minute polygonal details instead of slapped texture maps. The guy put so much detail into it I swear I saw Han Solo giving me 'the finger' at one of the Falcon's windows. By the way my jaw is still somewhere on the floor. And to make life worth living despite my mom telling me how ugly I look and disowning me twice, I stumbled into another zip file containing R2-D2 sound FX. AAAAARRRGH! So now R2 will be able to speak a few lines in my movie thanks to the sound files. Tears of joy. Man, life just got easier, thank god. World peace.

May the Force be with the guys who did the Falcon and R2 sounds.

Episode Twenty Six

2008-04-19T12:26:00.005+08:00

No longer naked Sith dude.

Okay, this is the direction his costume is going. I tried a few types and finaly settled for this. Somehow resembles Anakin's a bit but guess it is standard for a Sith to wear something like this. Now this is still in its infancy and I'm sure it'll end up with a cool utility belt and some other details. This is pretty much the basic top for Darth Satanious. He'll have boots and a Sith robe. And I'm thinking of making one of those Darth Vader USB drives and stick it on his belt. And also maybe some other easter eggs that'll be nice spotting in the movie. Okay thats it for now. Have a nice day.

May the Force be with you.

Interesting items:-
Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader 30th Aniversary

The Dark Knight Heath Ledger Joker Sculpt

Episode Twenty Five

2008-04-16T07:45:00.004+08:00

Grampa Astromech.
Okay, a Star Wars movie will never be Star Wars if there aint the two odd couple droids Artoo and Threepio. I actually wrote R2's part in the ending where he gets to sit in an X-Wing and help the hero Jedi combat Tie fighters. But R2 is a little old and my fan movie takes place 30 years after ROTJ so that means Artoo is already a grampa. I thought of making a new astromech but somehow it doesn't seem right. Well, Artoo gets the part and the new unnamed Astromechs will then play the bad guy's droid. Also, a rather impossible mission is to make Luke Skywalker. Yes, the Jedi will have a cameo in the form of a CG version of him. I've collected some pictures of Mark Hamill. So I hope to be able to make him after I finish my Darth Satanious. Wish me luck.

May the Force be with you guys.

Episode Twenty Four

2008-04-14T03:26:00.006+08:00

More star wars inspired madness.Okay, I may have injured myself again while trying to choreograph my Lightsaber fight. Well I'm not sure how but blood trickled from my left canine. I did an update on a hand painted Lightsaber effect test. Yes that's right, hand painted. And hopefuly it'll be youtubed next week. I know I could've just made a 3d lightsaber animation but I wanted to get the feel of how hard it was back then. I must say my efforts were disapointing but nonetheless it taught me a valuable lesson...respect. Respect the guys who did the fx 30 years ago. If I get a chance to meet them, I'd kneel down and say something like..'I pledge myself to your teachings my master'. Then they'll say 'Good, good...The Force is strong with you, a powerful Sith you will become'. Well okay something like that. So the picture at the top is me in what looks like a Jedi robe but is in fact a black T-shirt on my head and wearing shorts. And the picture at the bottom is some Battle Droid tests for its vents and Bug eye bump mapping. May the Force be with you.

Episode Twenty Three

2008-04-11T02:00:00.002+08:00

Droid Blaster update.

Hahaha, I'm really happy cos I've just moved a little closer to getting the Battle Droid done. I slapped some crude textures on the droid weapon and got some ideas of how to model the details for the gun. But speaking of crude, the gun is meant to be crude. Because the Imperialists have run out of cash and have to resort to recycled stuff. They bought a ton of obsolete parts and slapped it together into new inventions. Even the Battle droid is an old model of a droid that even the Jawas won't sell. I have some ideas of making the droids look banged up and carry some flimsy blasters like the one at the top. But for some reason, they're quite invinsible despite being banged up. Also, there are other modifications to the gun that's still work in progress.

Like the picture below. It's for droids. But I'm not sure if a sniper will work with the Droids. Anyhow it's just a test. I actually did the Sniper for Snowtroopers to use but then felt the design just doesn't suit them. So the Sniper was passed on to the droids but then somehow felt that something just isn't right. But whatever it is, I'm quite happy with the droids' guns.

May the Force be with you!

Episode Twenty Two

2008-04-10T02:29:00.005+08:00

More face paint tests.Darth Satanious. Aah he's coming along rather nicely. I think he's quite good but still, I think he is only 5% done. There's a lot more to work on. I'm currently struggling with his costume. I'm not sure if it should be different than the standard Sith or exactly like the standard Sith. My Fan Movie takes place 30 years after Return of the Jedi so I bet there should be some modifications to his costume. I did a few tests and haven't been impressed by it. I'm thinking of making some clay sculpts to speed up the design process because CG is really exhaustive and expensive. I'll head to the store tomorrow. Also, there are some cool action figures out there like this Star Wars 30th Anniversary Figures Wave 7 with R2-D2 tied to a stick. I'd buy it just to get R2-D2 on a stick and give the other figures to kids on the street. Okay that's it. I'm back to work on this Sith dude.

May the Force be with the lovable astromech droid.

Episode Twenty One

2008-04-08T02:16:00.003+08:00

Face Paint tests.

I've been testing some paint tests on the Darth and am wondering if he should look like this. I also have some ideas about making him tattooed all over his face. But I'm still not sure. Its still very early so I guess there will be more tests coming. This morning I worked on the Lightsabers and hopefully I can get an animation rendered. I experimented on luminance values of the Lightsaber core so that it iluminates in a scene. More on that later.
May the Force be with you.

Episode Twenty

2008-04-06T21:48:00.003+08:00

Tunnel Animatic Updates
I did some work on an animatic test. In my story, the Jedi stole an Imperialist Fighter and escapes the Secret Imperial Base. But he has to go thru obstacles and successfuly escapes the base. But in the process, his fighter gets shot at and is badly damaged but still flyable. My sister isn't a fan of flying in tunnels. You know, the very japanese, going thru endless tunnels before you get out. I know its silly to build a base deep in some underground cavern but lets face it, even Batman doesn't park his car outside his house. He keeps the batmobile in the batcave and getting out and getting in takes some skill. I especialy like the first movie when he stops the car just a few inches from the edge of the trench or whatever. I bet he did it just to impress the girl. But the Jedi in my movie desperately needs to get out and he doesn't impress any girl other than his very own X from his XY.

May the Force be with Tim Burton's Batmobile and Not the brainless tumbler.

Episode Nineteen

2008-04-02T14:13:00.008+08:00

Lightsaber bloopers and other bloopers.

I was doing research on lightsabers and came across this tutorial http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/software/animaster/sabrefx/part1.asp that begins like a pro. But after the first paragraph, clearly the writer was just a padawan. Yeah, he spells lightsaber as lightsabre. I guess if he reads my blog he'll work on changing all his lightsabRE to lightsabER. And he starts by saying he is very observant and sees the lightsaber fx as perfect. Actually it is not. And he even excepts a blooper as NOT a blooper. Strange. Very strange.

If you don't get it, read what he said about lightsaber shadows. He says lightsabers casts shadow. Yeah right. Light doesn't cast shadow. And if you see a lightsaber's shadow casted on anything then that my friend, is a FX blooper. It shows how possible it is for some people at ILM to get very lazy.And George Lucas is great, but I can't forgive him for Ep 1 and 2. Those two films must've been written by a 3 year old and fx dished out by some dude in a garage using a 486 pc. So I guess Lucas can't do everything by himself. He needs people, and sometimes people screw and get screwed. So the byproduct of this is shadows for lightsabers. Check out the picture, its from EP III ROTS. Obi-Wan gets Force pushed by Count Dooku and as he slams to the floor his lightsaber casts shadow.

Here are some interesting pictures.I've done endless tests in trying to improve the lightsaber. I want it to be realistic. And of course thats gonna take some time. And I don't wanna make bloopers like the ILM people. Take a look at the photo below. Tell me why isn't the reflection in the floor removed. And despite this they're so proud of their so-called improvements. FX Bloopers are everywhere, Padawans beware.

May the Force be with the FX guys who screwed the film. They're gonna need it.

Episode Eighteen

2008-04-01T22:10:00.009+08:00

Weapons of mass Republic destruction.Okay, I was away. I had a wedding video project going on haha. But the wedding's over and the editing process is underway. I haven't had much progress with the fan film, because I'm still doing tons of research in cg cloth. I did a whole lotta experiments on costumes and its behavior in a cg scene. BTW, I just choreographed some lightsaber combat moves in my room. There was plenty of headbanging going on and I thought I broke my finger when it got hit by a steel pole. But everythings okay.
The Wampa Fighter has guns that has been tested with great success on Hoth. Picture A shows the default config of its weapons. The V35 chaingun has near-infinite rounds charged by an unstable generator that heats up a lot and needs cooling. Trouble is if the generator malfunctions from overheating, the guns will stop working for good. It however has a bloody powerful twin cannon supplied by Voltra Technologies (yeah right) that pretty much works better than the chaingun and can make Republic fighters explode with just one hit. But being a powerful weapon, it produces recoil and makes firing small targets a nightmare. It can fire a limit of 6 shots per charge and recharges at a tenth of a minute. Pretty quick.
Of course there are things that always get away and thanks to Droid rockets (picture B) you don't have to give chase. The rockets have built-in droid that chases a target, can be deployed silently and capable of hovering and lying in wait thanks to its AI. The Wampa fighter can also be customized into a flying tank. A cylindrical magnetic connector (picture C) located on top of its wings enable much larger, heavier and more powerful weapons to hitch a ride. But it'll make the fighter heavier and fly lower, though its still more agile than a tank. But I'm still not sure about implementing this in the movie, I'm affraid if it'll make the fighter look Robotechish.

May the Force be with Rick Hunter.

Episode Seventeen

2008-03-25T03:42:00.003+08:00

Dark side of the Force.
Here are some more shots of the current Darth Satanious sculpt. Top picture is a Sithsaber test and bottom is a side view screenshot in Mudbox. I'll post his costume tests in a few days.

May the Force be with you.