Final Comp

This is the final comp of my helicopter.

I used the HDRI for illumination, reflection and refraction.
and I made 2.5D matte painting background, using still photo of the same place of HDRI.
Render channels are color, alpha and shadow + particle dust, and background.

I still need to work on the animation of the entire body.
Blades' flapping is too quick, and the particle life time should be a little shorter with some more varieties.

Anyway, this is what I got for the Studio I class.



Download higher resolution version here

Week 10 (Final Week!)

Rendering.....

Here is the particle dust created with houdini.

Week 9

I was working on rigging. I was having difficult time with the rear wheels and its hatch. Finally, wheel rig's done. Those rear wheels link to their hatches.

I also made a controller that has all the controls I need, such as each propeller's rotation, each blade's flapping, wheels' folding, and suspension.

and I started short animation of the helicopter taking off in my backyard. also started particle effect for dust with houdini.

Week 8

Almost done with texturing, and I started animation.
But there is a problem with using displacement map and motion blur together in Maxwell render.
If I use motion blur, the displacement map will disappear in Maxwell render.
I wanted to use motion blur on the propeller rotation, so I separated the render of propeller from other things. I disabled motion blur for the render of body. Then I composite them.

Here is the test render.
High quality HDRI used for these images is from http://www.cz8s.com/ by Brendan Fitzgerald

Week 7

I shot HDRI last weekend in my apartment's backyard.



Here are the test renders with the HDRI.

Week 6

I'm still working on texturing.
These are test renders with environment.

Week 5

The modeling is almost done, and I started texturing.
These are some test renders.

Week 3 & 4

I was working on modeling of the helicopter with Maya .
Here is the test render of it. Still need to add some details.
And I will start texturing.






Modeling: Maya
Rendering: Maxwell

Concept Art

This is the concept art.

Schedule

This is the schedule for this quarter.

Proposal

This project is a scene that a helicopter taking off from my backyard. I will model the helicopter and then composite it into 2 or 2.5 D matte painting background. If there were more time left, I will put it into live action footage by using match moving. The helicopter will raise quite a dust when it is landing. With this project, I would like to learn and show some techniques of modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, matte painting, particle effects, and compositing.