Monday 27 December 2010

Armies of the Fallen Announcement

This is it. The sequel to Shadows of the Past is now officially announced. Follow us and wait. The pulse of battle is growing stronger...


"The circle is complete." - Master

Several years have passed since the end of Shadows of the Past. War has been raging ever since. Fallen's revolution changed the whole Empire, it turned the Master's realm to shreds. Fallen's armies, though weak and unorganized at the beginning, were forged into a deadly and unstoppable weapon. Now all that's left is to strike a final blow and confront Master directly.

Yet even our hero can feel that something is wrong. That something was born inside himself and it can not be undone. It made him reclusive, solitary, until finally one day, his mask appeared. Since then, no one has seen his face again.

Together they march, towards the final battle. They have crossed the Shadows, but lost the Light. And the way forth is only one...



The Assault on Master's Temple Concept

Even this time we plan to deliver only the best quality, but in much bigger scale. We will focus not only on the VFX and action sequences, but also on the story and acting.  Stay tuned for more info. This will be THE Star Wars fanfilm we've always dreamed of!

One more thing - no black screen this time. The goal is to bring 30 minutes of non-stop jaw dropping Star Wars epicness.

- MK

Tuesday 7 December 2010

NEWZ

In the precious free time I so long to have now I managed to paint several digital and matte painting studies. By no means masterpieces, but it was great fun making them.
City of Primos * Work in Progress
Futurisk
Misty Tower
Invasion

That's all from me for some time.
- MK

Monday 23 August 2010

Lilly Final Model

I think I achieved what I wanted with Lilly - learning how to model and texture stylized human models. Last step is to bind her skin to the rig and pose her a little.


- MK

Saturday 21 August 2010

Lilly Eyes

Coming along...Now it's just the hair to deal with and then some final posing, rendering and compositing.



- MK

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Lilly First Textures

Alright, Lilly's got some colors now. The clothing is mostly textured, the skin is too but it looks bad so I'm going to find some tutorial on how to do a believable skin and do it properly. Anyway, this is another big 'first time' for me - organic model texturing. Much harder than hard surface imho.

Next: more textures and the eyes. I'm looking forward to the eyes.




P.S. I must say, it's really great watching her come alive.

- MK

Friday 13 August 2010

Lilly Cont'd

The base model of Lilly is finished.


Also I decided to create Lilly's rig before texturing her. It's done now, ready to bind it to her mesh. Hopefully everything will work out just fine. Wouldn't want to find her built in a wrong way, unable to move properly.


Oh and by the way, here is the original concept for her. Yeah, she turned out to be quite different... :-D


- MK

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Lilly

Finally. I was trying to model a good-enough looking female head for weeks now and failed many times. I started this model with a really tough looking female concept, but somehow (since I still don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to pushing and pulling vertices) she ended up looking pretty soft and gentle. Which means I'm making her a priest of some sort. In fact I couldn't really model proper hair so I added cape instead...Well, anyway, I like the model so far, even though it's still missing the hands :-).



Sunday 18 July 2010

MY TOP 25 GAME VIDEOS

Ever since I was a child I've always loved game cinematics. I remember spending more time watching them all over again then actually playing the games... *Sigh* Good old times - now I don't have time to play anymore... :-D Still, watching cinematics of all sorts remains my favorite free time activity. Every time there's a new video by Blizzard, Blur Studios, Digic Pictures, Zoic or many other great companies, it becomes a huge event for me.

And that's the reason why I decided to sort it all out and create my personal TOP 10. Unfortunately I soon realized there's so many great videos that influenced me, that it's simply impossible to make only TOP 10. The final number quickly became 15, then 20 and finally it stopped at 25. Yeah, TOP 25 is not really a typical count - but I'm finally satisfied with the list.

On the other hand don't take the order of videos too seriously. While there are of course some that I like more and some that I like less, all of the cinematics are indeed brilliant and awesome. Let's say that numbers 25-15 are those that I really like. 14-6 are those that I love. 5-1 are those that influenced me in many ways in my own filmmaking + are my childhood favorites :-)

If you have other favorites or simply think I forgot something, please, post them in the discussion. I'll be happy to watch something new. But enough talk - let's watch!



25. Mechwarrior 3 [Microprose]
At the age of 9 or 10 I loved this cinematic. And even after all those years, it's still pretty awesome, considering the game was made in 1999. Of course it looks old, but you have to admit, the sound, the music, even the models and some effects are still very good. And the video has a great mood and pacing.




24.Warhammer Online cinematic [Blur Studios]
Great cinematic by Blur Studios. Made with their distinctive sense of dark humor and superb attention to detail. The digital warfare looks great, the video is fun to watch, animation is excellent. For me personally there's something missing though - it could've been something more than a good looking video. Anyway, enjoy it and don't forget to watch the Making of by Gnomon school of VFX .




23.Dragon Age [Blur Studios]
Awesome video, exceptional mostly for its music. The electric quitars and Duncan's voiceover make the slashing of Dark Spawn so great that the first part of the video is something I could watch over and over again. Unfortunately the second part is ruined for me by the white background (not enough budget?). Anyway, it's yet another great piece from the Blur Studios.




22. Metal Gear Solid 4 [Konami]
Hideo Kojima loves his cinematics and every single video in all his games proves that. It's hard to say which MGS4 cutscene is best, but my own personal favorite is featured in this trailer at 3.58 - Raiden vs Vamp. Unbelievable action and must see sequence! I also strongly recommend to watch all the cutscenes.




21. Max Payne 2 [Remedy]
The tragic fate of Max Payne moved me deeply when playing the game and this trailer for the second installment of the franchise is just soaked with that specific noir atmosphere that I love so much. "When you're looking down the barrel of the gun, the time slows down." Genial! And it doesn't even matter that it features in-game graphics from the year 2003.




20. MGS Twin Snakes [Konami]
This 28 minutes long video is actually a trailer. And a very good trailer too. It's made from in game cutscenes and filled with the depth and epicness of MGS series. The action scenes are awesome. Must see! "You enjoy all the killing - that's why!"




19. Warhammer 40.000 Dawn of War Cinematic [Blur Studios]
Yet another great piece by Blur, featuring everybody's favorite Space Marines against savage Orks. Explosive action, insane graphics, video great in every aspect and a real fun to watch. And I've always felt sorry for the heroic captain who died after charging the hill and sticking the Blood Raven flag into the ground. He was a hero... :-D




18. Force Unleashed 2 [Blur Studios]
Blur, Blur, Blur...those guys are awesome! And this video likewise. There are few things that bug me though - the voiceover of Sam Witwer aka Starkiller isn't really convincing for me. The fact that Vader left poor stormtroopers to kill his super powerful apprentice was naive (I mean - how many hundreds of stormtroopers died trying to achieve the same thing during the first game?). The amount of slow motion sequences was unbalanced, it felt too much for me. But still, the video features many great moments. Starkiller disappearing and reappearing in the darkness lit only by his sabers. The Force blast power burning the stormtroopers. The crushing of the robots in midair. And of course the cliffhanger ending.




17. Mass Effect 2 cinematic [Blur Studios]
Now this is something cool. Unlikely band of brothers join together to continue the fight in the best sci-fi action RPG series ever. Shepherd is back, so are biotic powers, Krogans and new horrific threat from the deep space. And we also get to see Miranda in motion...hmmm ;-). This video features many awesome moments (Grunt killing the huge worm on Tuchanka, Thane side flipping over the Collector...) but the one that rules the all for me is when the group is preparing their guns to fight the gigantic spaceships invading the planet (2.51). Flawless cinematic!




16. World of Warcraft Intro [Blizzard Ent.]
A visual orgy joined with a wonderful music. I remember the moment when I watched this video for the first time - and I was blown away. The action, the graphics, the colors and the mood. And as with all the videos from Blizzard, this one brings something more under its surface. Something very hard to describe, something I can only call as "cinematic magic". Just watch and feel it for yourself. Oh, and the best moments? For me its 0.44 and the Dwarf with his bear and also 1.48 and Tauren on a cliff. Magic...




15. The Old Republic: Hope of Alderran cinematic [Blur Studios]
This year's E3 was a great one for fans of cinematics. The Hope of Alderran features great action from the soldier's point of view of, wonderful hot-chick-Jedi vs bad-ass-Sith duel, Force unleashed in yet another form, beautiful matte paintings and tons of great moments (slow-mo sequence of Sith warriors executing the soldiers, Jedi catching the Lightsaber with the Force and the ending). Maybe too frequent use of slow-mo for my taste, but I guess that's what Blur decided to go for this year. And it kinda hit me to hear the video start with "For centuries..." just like in the Dragon Age Origins cinematic. But I guess I'm just nitpicking....It's awesome :-).




14. Warhammer Mark of Chaos [Digic Pictures]
One of my all time favorites for it's dark mood. Here comes Digic Pictures, ladies and gentlemen, and even though they don't do as many videos as Blur, they make masterpieces. The washed out colors, scary forrest set, mist everywhere...I really wouldn't like to be in the soldier's shoes. It is actually worth mentioning - the Chaos warriors DO look scarry and the demon at the end is just horrifying for me. There is also a very specific moment in the video at 3.23 when the warrior and the demon are about to clash that gives me goosebumps. Just try to download the video and stop it right there. This is the real deal there! Every frame of the video could be a beautiful wallpaper.




13. Halo Wars [Blur Studios]
A masterpiece by Blur. I love Spartans and everything about Halo. And let me tell you - when hearing "This is Spartan group Omega. If they want war - we'll give 'em war!" I wanted to shout in excitement. I heard the game itself wasn't that good but I recommend you to watch all the cutscenes. It's about 45 minutes long film, full CG and one of the best achievements of Blur. Do you need more reasons? :-)




12. Mass Effect 2 trailer [Bioware]
It is strange, but this trailer for my beloved game hit me more than the Blur cinematic, even though it's made "just" with in-game cinematics. It is probably because of the music by Two Steps from Hell, the awesome editing and the fact that I waited for the game for so long. Putting in the game magazine comments and ratings turned out to be a very clever thing to do (triple 10/10 gives me shivers :-) just like seeing "Directed by James Cameron" in the Avatar trailer). The voiceovers are great and support the trailer brilliantly. There is maybe too much heroism at one place, but hell - this is Shepard. This is our character! :-D Best moments? 0.58 - 1.05 with the Illusive Man's line and Tali sliding into the unknown with Shepard following her. 1.40 - 1.51 with Shepard's heroic line. The destruction of Normandy. Goosebumps ride!




11. Halo 3 E3 trailer [Bungie]
Final 10! There were tons of great videos promoting Halo 3 but the very first one from the year 2006 still seems the best to me. Magical music, the return of the long lost Hero, quest for saving the Earth that is about to be destroyed and long awaited conclusions of the series...There is always something epic about Master Chief no matter where he is or what he does. And even though he's in a desert and doesn't actually do anything - it's just mindblowing. The Covenant are about to do something terrible and he's the only one who can stop them.




10. Final Fantasy Crisis Core [Square Enix]
Ever since I was introduced to the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children CG film, the whole universe enchanted me. Now every CG video from the series just blows me away. Again I recommend to watch all the Crisis Core cinematics on Youtube for they are all great ... but dying Zack was the most beautiful one for me. Japanese people are so different when it comes to tragedy, often very pathetic, but more often simply wonderful.




9. Deus Ex 3 [Square Enix]
The third installment of the legendary Deus Ex franchise is back and it seems we should prepare for something big. The first cinematic trailer doesn't show the actuall look of the game, what it shows are awesome CG cut scenes with perfect graphics, amazing music and brilliant action. It all looks like Blade Runner on steroids - and it's a good thing! I love the main hero and I love the fact, that there's hopefully going to be some pretty solid storyline involved. Let's hope the game is going to be as great as this trailer. And don't forget to watch the intro to Deus Ex 2 also...



8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood [Digic Pictures]
And here we go again, Digic Pictures steals the show. Even among many other excellent videos on E3 2010 the Brotherhood stood out. Great look and animation, pacing, excellent mood, epicness on every step, great use of Slow Motion sequences, Etzio Auditore and his fellow assassins - no more words, just WATCH!




7. The Old Republic: Deceived Cinematic [Blur Studios]
A year ago Blur Studios showed Lucas how the modern Star Wars should look. Since then we all hope one day an actual SW movie like this will become reality. Nothing so far - but we can at least watch this awesomeness over and over again :-) Flawless video balanced on every step. Great voiceover, awesome wu-shu style fighting, girl bounty hunter, kick-ass Sith warriors and visual orgy. In my opinion better cinematic than the Hope of Alderran, but it's just a matter of taste.




6. Warcraft 3 Arthas Betrayal [Blizzard Ent.]
Now it's getting personal. Warcraft 3 cinematics influenced me so much that I became a filmmaker. Every single video from this game is simply mind-blowing. Also, one cannot say it's just a cheap action - more often it's all about the characters and their actions. This is a typical example. Tragic story of prince Arthas is getting darker with every chapter of the campaign and you just watch him grow into something mad and demonical. This is a conclusion of the human campaign. One I would never expect, but love all the more.
Btw. I strongly recommend to buy the Blizzard Entertainment DVD Collection that includes all the cinematics from Warcraft 3 as well as Starcraft and Diablo II. Don't forget to watch the Frozen Throne datadisc's Intro and Outro too.




5. Diablo II Intro [Blizzard Ent.]
There is something enchanting about Diablo franchise - the gothic mood, the scary darkness on every step, the mystery and depth of the story. I've always loved the game and I couldn't stop watching its cinematics. The story of an old man Marius and his long forgotten adventure, of archangels and mighty demons, of his mysterious companion and world so unlike other fantasy universes - one simply cannot resist it. The action in these cinematics is not very frequent or frantic yet they remain interesting and fun to watch even when there's no ork slashing or demon killing. True masterpiece.
Again I must recommend to buy the Blizzard Entertainment DVD Collection where you can find Developer Commentary and many other special features. And be sure to check the Lord of Destruction cinematics also.




4. StarCraft 2 Announcement [Blizzard Ent.]
Yes, the top of my list belongs to Blizzard. I was fortunate enough to first watch it in a camera version where I was able to hear all the cheers of the crowd gathered at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea on May 19, 2007. It was a unique experience. Something so patiently awaited now finally announced - and you could hear the people holding their breath, screaming, cheering. The video itself is genial, presenting something as ordinary as creating a Terran Space Marine as a huge event. The amount of detail to be seen, its visual quality and atmosphere of anticipation joined together with excellent editing - this is what it's all about.



I encourage you to watch the camera version of the video with the cheering crowd. Man, I'd love to be there too!


3. Onimusha 3 Demon Siege [Capcom]
This Japanese masterpiece remains unmatched among many high quality action videos on my cinematics list. It's more than 5 years old and still its look, models, effects and especially the animation are simply amazing. I have no idea what the story's about for I've never actually played the game, but something tells its universe is deep and very detailed. Also the imagination of the designers is probably supported by drugs :-D. Anyway - if you want to see two supercows fighting a ninja, be sure not to miss this. The fights will blow you away! I can't tell you how many times I've already seen this.




2. Warcraft 3 Opening [Blizzard Ent.]
Back to Blizzard, here comes the second place. When I told you there were in-game videos that Id watched more than Id actually played the games - this is the case. Wonderful music, beautiful environments, powerful voiceover, action, heroes, orks, burning skies, hidden threats, epicness and awesomeness on every frame of the video - this was simply extraordinary when I was 14 and today it remains the same. It was a great time for me - first it was Fellowship of the Ring and then Blizzard who presented me with my favorite thing ever: huge armies hitting each other in a fury and rage. Otherwise I'm quite normal.




1. World of Warcraft Wratch of the Lich King Opening Cinematic [Blizzard Ent.]
Uh, yeah, if you haven't noticed already, I AM a fan of Blizzard :-) And this...THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING CINEMATIC EVER. For me it depicts everything I love about these videos. A voiceover telling a story of great irony and tragedy. An atmosphere of constant anticipation of something dark to come. A visual style that is beautiful and huge. Almost supernatural hand animation. Again almost nothing's happening, there's a guy in the ice, dragon in the ice, army in a freezing valley...and that's all. Yet if you know the story, it is so much more. And that is what it's all about - to make the stories of the games alive. And no one's ever been better at it than Blizzard.



And that's it! We reached the end of my list of epicness. I really hope you enjoyed every single one of the videos and don't forget - if you know other great cinematics, post them here in the discussion. Thank you all for watching!

Honorable Mentions
Gears of War Mad World [Epic Games]
Final Fantasy XIII Cutscenes [Square Enix]
World of Warcraft Burning Crusade [Blizzard Ent.]
Prototype [Blur Studios]
Assassin's Creed II [Digic Pictures]
Hellgate London Cinematic Trailer [Blur Studios]
Hellgate London Cinematic Intro [Blur Studios]
Final Fantasy Versus XIII [Square Enix]
Section 8 [Blur Studios]
Dawn of War II [Blur Studios]
Dragon Age Origins Battle at Ostagar [Bioware]
Dragon Age Origins Sacred Ashes [Blur Studios]
Starcraft 2 Old Rivals [Blizzard Ent.]
Diablo 3 trailer [Blizzard Ent.]
Armies of Exigo Intro [Digic Pictures]



Videos by Others
World in Conflict NYC trailer [tip by Nightwayne]
Final Fantasy X Yuna Sending [tip by Vespuche]
Final Fantasy X Opening [tip by stanley2011]
Lost Odyssey [tip by hundredgunner]
Killzone 2 Cinematic[tip by zezyan2]
Rise of Legends Intro [tip by LegendaryKnight]
Dissidia: Final Fantasy Intro [tip by FFXNo1]
Napoleon Total War Intro [tip by Drizzt]

- MK

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Showreel 2010

And here's also the new showreel - I tweaked the Making of SotP video a little and called it final.



And yeah...that's about it for Shadows of the Past. One chapter of my life is over...let's move on to more exciting things now! Many people asked me what am I planing for my next project. The ideas are numerous and I must say I have a hard time staying low and controlling myself...because I'd really love to make an epic 90 minutes movie with blowing spaceships, charging armies, complex characters and great storyline (Stories first! Hmm, why do I keep naming it last? Focus, Martin!). The only way that certain is that...I'm not certain which of those concepts in my head should I pick first.

But I can tell you one thing - I want to make a CG short film before I (hopefully) shoot the third part of my SW trilogy. Which means I must study following topics: CG character modeling, texturing, rigging and animation. Which is not exactly a small thing...I'm currently finishing the modeling and texturing.

If I'll work hard enough (and I will!) I'll be able to finish the self-study course till the end of this year. Then I'll pick one story from my collection and make it into a short CG film. That's the plan. And I'm the man of my word...

P.S. Anyone talented in CG work willing to join me in my efforts, please, send me a message :-)

- MK

Sunday 11 July 2010

Saturday 12 June 2010

Stories first, explosions second

This is a short article about what I've learned when making the short film Shadows of the Past. And NO, it's not an article about visual effects. Of course, I've learned a lot of things (from camera work and directing to heavy compositing and using 3d packages) and I have probably done a fairly good job when it comes to the look of the film. But still I have a very bad feeling about the project as a whole - because I personally think I failed as a filmmaker. That's why I write this post: to remind myself what went wrong and why.

SotP was of course never meant to be a story-driven film, I planned it as a duel and added the storyline after it was shot (and the story itself went through several transformations during that process). I felt fine about the way everything was heading right until a certain point in postproduction: when the effects were done and I had the final edit exported. It was then when I started to wonder...is this really what I wanted to create? A visual effects driven story?

Don't get me wrong, I love visual effects and I love the way they expand the movie experience but - that's the thing. Because of the SotP I realized something that I had almost completely forgotten during the last few years. The eye-candy is meant to supplement the story and not the other way around. This is of course no groundbreaking discovery...but it seems to me that today, more and more people tend to deliberately put this fact aside.

Not the explosions but the emotions behind them are important. It is not the technological marvel but the story idea that makes a groundbreaking film. Of course, hot chicks and stunning effects attract the masses and earn a lot of money but we shouldn't forget that there can be great films with both of these things and a clever plot (e.g. the first Matrix). And this brings me to the most important thing - the way I learned I should structure a project.

A PROJECT STRUCTURE
1. IDEA
The idea must come first. Bring something very deep, personal, philosophical, funny, emotive or romantic - it doesn't really matter what it is as long as it's not forced! Tell a story that comes from within you, about something that's been bugging you for so long that it just has to come out, on a paper, into a script, into a movie...to the audience for them to learn about it and possibly from it.

2. THE STORY STRUCTURE
What can I say, the good old Aristotle's dramatic structure is a time-proven key for most stories.
But there's more. You can not make a story full of great moments - if every scene was awesome and bombastic, they would all feel average. You need to build a story that's gripping but balanced. When you go up, you need to go down a few scenes later, when you bring action, you need to bring dialog (or slow down in any other form) also. This way the special parts of the story will feel even more so.
And always remember - even if your film generally sucks, if you have a strong intro (to get the people's attention) and more importantly outro (to give them nice feeling when the credits are rolling) you're almost always halfway there. But dare not to count on it!

3.CHARACTERS
You need to inhabit your story with interesting 3-dimensional characters. What does 3-dimensional mean? Grey. They are not white nor black. Not good nor evil. They are better and worse and they all have their virtues and flaws. This way they become human beings - because human beings are flawed creations.
And of course never underestimate the power of romance or relationship. A beautiful lover, a dear pet, an old parent - it is always painful to loose them and if I manage to make the reader/viewer worry about the characters, it's immediately a huge success. For as soon as my audience worries about them, suddenly everything that happens is pushed to a whole new level. The audience must live with the story!

4.LOOK & ATMOSPHERE
Yes, that's right. The look and the atmosphere achieved through camera style, image quality, filters, vfx etc. come fourth. I'd say the ratio is 60:40 (idea, structure,characters:looks,atmosphere), but many writers or storytellers would say it's even more in favor of the former. Make no mistake, the way your film looks influences how your film feels in a lot of ways, But if the first three points are not built well enough, the feel will never be powerful enough to grip.


Of course there's a lot more to it than these 4 points. I didn't mention MUSIC which plays a huge role in the overall filmmaking process - even though it's often underestimated. I wouldn't say that the music is almost as important as the video. It is as important as the video. Of course there are directors who can create a film, not incorporate any music at all and create a very powerful and emotional experience. Hats down to all of them (e.g. watch Generation Kill TV series - no music and you don't even notice it). On the other hand think about examples like Dark Knight-Hans Zimmer or Battlestar Galactica-Bear McReary...I can't imagine how much less powerful the experience would be without the wonderful music.

Anyway, this is a few ideas I realized when finishing the Shadows of the Past project. I delved too much into the look & atmosphere part of the project and I completely forgot to stress the first three. I think I can still be forgiven for the whole film was never meant to be more than an action video and a visual effects showreel but I'm very glad I realized all this. I don't say it's the way, I say it's my way I want to do my future films and all I ask from you is to think about it.

Remember - nowadays, every sh*tty film has wonderful visual effects and people are getting fed up. It's a one way street and eventually no one will be stunned by anything that appears on the screen. Hopefully people will be more and more thrilled by what appears under it. So what's my advice? Build the ideas and the stories first - the looks second. If you want to make flashy videos, go for commercials or game cinematics. Filmmaking is a whole different league.

If you haven't got the story, you haven't got anything.
- Raoul Walsh


P.S. Huge thanks goes to Dorkmann Scott and his "Grey Area" blog post that inspired me and Verica Kordic who made me realize a lot of this.

Monday 3 May 2010

Star Wars Shadows of the Past ONLINE

Here we go. After 9 months of work Shadows of the Past is done and online. I hope you like it. More info coming soon!



Big thanks goes to everyone mentioned in the credits and Dailymotion for its great support!

- MK

Saturday 3 April 2010

DailyMotion becomes official partner for SotP!

Dailymotion has become our official partner. This means we won't be releasing our film on Youtube but exclusively on DM.
If you're looking forward to it, just check http://www.dailymotion.com/MartinKlekner on April 30.


Star Wars Shadows of the Past Teaser
Uploaded by MartinKlekner. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Oh and by the way, the film might be done in a week. Stay tuned!

- MK

Thursday 25 February 2010

SotP Rotoscoping done

THE ROTOSCOPING IS DONE! The 100 shots of the fight sequence are now ready...uff, still can't believe it. We were rotoing blades as well as the whole actors - wait for the film to know why. Special thanks goes to all the people who've helped me - Daniel Maher, Cornell Herg, Mark Evans, Lukas Maly. Now it's just a matter of finishing the film & the soundtrack + adding sound effects.




- MK

Sunday 14 February 2010

Ancient Towers

Inspired by Mass Effect. All the models created in Maya, composited in After Effects. The lens angles and shot width is all wrong but it was just for fun. And what the hell, maybe the towers aren't standing straight! :-D Theyere ancient after all.



- MK

Sunday 24 January 2010

Grey Prince

My second attempt on painting a character. Pretty simple and not really as good as it should have been. Inspired by the newest Prince of Persia.



-MK

Monday 11 January 2010

Shadows of the Past Poster

So here we go - the official poster for Shadows of the Past. Ive never thought a simple poster would require so much work - and drawing it wasn't the hardest thing! It was actually the final tweaking that took me several days. Hope you like it.



And yes, that is the official release month. Stay tuned!

- MK

Sunday 10 January 2010

Personal Lighting&Rendering Study

This time detailed environment wasn't the aim. I just wanted to try out some new techniques for texturing, lighting, rendering and compositing a shot. For the first time I used additional render layers for Depth of Field (even though I didn't use it) and Ambient Occlusion, as well as some environmental effects. I'm pleased with the result, even thought the modeling part is trivial.



- MK

Friday 8 January 2010

Misty Dusk

Another painting, another technique. I like this one, using real photo as a source for imaginative painting.
Even though the source photo is so different from the final painting that...well, it can't even be called a source photo anymore :-D



Source photo:

Threads of Destiny Inside Look

New inside look for this upcoming fanfilm full of stunning visuals is released. It's great to see how talented artists there are on the project. And hey, there are 4 of my shots too!



- MK

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Invocation

Ok, so here's my new painting. I was too tired to work on SotP so I tried something little on my tablet. Theres still something wrong with it though. Ill improve it later I guess...



- MK

Sunday 3 January 2010

Shadows of the Past Lightning

There is going to be a lot of lightning in Shadows of the Past. In fact, I don't think there's ever been so much lightning and so much different lightning-Force combinations in any other Star Wars fanfilm.



-MK