Collab 2021W07 - The Last Stand

[bOBaN]

Diary for:

2021 Collab: Week 07 “Underground”

This is the Blender collaboration 2021, week 7 challenge. Don’t be afraid to join, a lot of us are beginners. This is all to practice, to have fun, to learn, and get together. This week’s subject is “Underground”. Underground, open to interpretation: beneath the surface of the earth! Subject selected by the previous week 05 winner JaneDoe - “Love” The rules are simple. 1 subject, 1 entry, 1 week. You create whatever object or scene or whatever you can think of that has something to do wit…

So… as FedPete suggested I looked at some ‘underground’ references during a lunch break and come up with some ideas. Right now I’m thinking that I will try to make underground dwarven mines similar to the concept of Mines of Moria. What mostly inspires me is this scene from the movie where Gandalf tries to stop Ballrog:

This is a big project, but maybe I can do it partially this week. I’ll try to work in daily (or more like - nightly) increments to have something more-or-less finished by end of each day. The above screen really inspires me, but before I decide on this exact scene I’ll look for some more references in theme of “dwarven mines/underground city”.

I’ll probably use unreal engine to assemble the final scene, as I find it to be easier for building larger environments and I know particle system and shaders of UE4 much better than Blender’s one. Hope it’s not against the rules

For anyone still struggling with ideas for this collab here are some points I written down:

• bunker
• burial place (pyramid?)
• cellar
• dungeon / catacombs
• metro
• something that was dug out
• underground creature
• Moria / LoTR passage
• garage
• vault (fallout!)
• cave
• tools for digging underground (pickaxe, shovel, etc.)
• mining shaft

[FedPete]

Massive!

[NP5]

Ah well not too ambitious then!
Start with the Orc tutorial only make a Balrog, then create a human wizard, clothing, a staff, hair systems, a chasm, and an underground world, then just play a bit with particle magic, smoke, and other effects.

Be done with days to spare, for this time next year!

[bOBaN]

Initially wasn’t my intention to recreate this scene, just use it as a main inspiration. But now I’m really tempted to say “challenge accepted” . You got me thinking though if it would be remotely possible to do it in just a week (focusing on just recreating a render similar to the one I posted from the movie). And I think it would be possible in 3 scenarios:

1. Low poly version - it’s not much to model in this scene really.
2. This exact take I would need:

• bridge (detailed model, but easy to do)
• Whip, staff, black sword - not 100% easy, but possible to do it quickly, especially that they are small or not really visible
• Balrog - is barely visible, so it could be really a rough sculpt, with a bit more focus on the horns and shape of his head
• Gandalf - also not really visible. Could start with makehuman and just adapt it. The cloth would be a bit tricky (as this is quite visible in the above shot), but could be roughly sculpted (that part would suffer the most in quality), hairs - don’t need them from such a distance
• some background cavern walls and rocks - easy peasy, esp. as they are not really visible.
• lighting and all the smoke/magic/fire effects are really easy to do in Unreal (for once, I have done similar stuff in the past so could be reused - and what I’m lacking I can use some assets I have from Unreal marketplace)

3. Use “Ian Hubert” approach of taking a picture and wrapping it in base meshes (like in his duck tutorial). It looks only good from one angle, but for single image render should be ok

… so it is maybe doable (but still extremely challenging) …

Though, as I said - I’ll first search for more references in the theme of “dwarven mines / dwarven underground cities” and then decide what to do (esp. that I’ll want to set some learning goals for this week as well and learn something new while creating the render - still don’t know what yet ). Even in the LoTR movie there are other shots that would be quite interesting to make, like:

or

[FedPete]

Go for it!

[bOBaN]

Won’t tell I’m not tempted to attempt it

I’m gathering references and thinking on what I want to learn…

[bOBaN]

ok, so the basic set of references is here:

Main idea: Abandoned dwarven underground cities/mines. Bridge over the chasm.
If time permits - battle on the bridge.

Main inspiration: Khazad-dûm from LoTR and Deep Roads from Dragon Age universe.

Learning goals:

1. Fantasy architecture modeling practice
2. Fantasy architecture texturing practice
3. Level design practice
4. Blender to Unreal workflow
5. Real time raytracing in Unreal practice
6. Lighting study (there were loads of changes to underlying systems in unreal while I focused on Blender)

Optional learning goals:

• Testing Modelling tools inside of Unreal
• Learning basics of Control rig

As this is big project I reserve right to change direction at any time and use assets that I already have from the marketplace.

Wish me luck… I’ll need it

[bOBaN]

So today was again hard day at work. I managed to test send2ue plugin - it works flawlessly, at lest for simple meshes. It events tries to setup shaders in unreal (just tested it with simple ones).

The other thing I did is a rough sketch/idea of what I want to do… This took a while, and I’m really bad at drawing… Though… I got to start sharing at some point… so here we go

Perspective/shading/scale is all messed up… but it captures the general idea.

River of lava, bridge over it. On one side - loads of columns (and debris), on the other - some structures and stairs out of the area. I’m still on the fence about 2 themes:

1. Lava river, loads of dust, more tolkienish feel, something similar to the first image in this thread

   

2. water river, with nice light shaft from the holes in the ceilings, more cold feeling, dead dungeon… something like this:
   
   or this:
   

So what do you think? Hot area (1) or cold(2)?

[NP5]

2 style(image3) but in hot down below colouring.

[FedPete]

What makes underground, underground?
Shown examples could be in a cave, big building, at night.

[bOBaN]

That’s a good point to consider! Big lava river was hint enough in my mind, but it could be anywhere… What I need is some more undergroundy things… maybe like stalactites and a stalagmites to point it that’s a big underground cavern. Plus maybe a rocky walls, floor and a ceiling…

Now that I skimmed again through my references - most of them could be not underground. What is influencing the underground feeling there is lighting (but it’s not a definitive point that makes them underground)…

[Jaco_Pretorius]

Context works for image 1 and 2b… but relies on viewer to know the context (LOTR or RPG game setting)… like you mentioned, lighting is very important but so is framing and composition. In your references there are some pictures that create the feeling of being underground. They tend to frame a tunnel entrance or something similar to achieve that.

Feeling like you can achieve similar with compositional tweaks.

@FedPete, I would count being in a cave as being underground?

[bOBaN]

Great point! I will experiment with framing and composition as well. Maybe I’ll manage to find good spot that frames the shot in some kind of entrance that will more strongly convey the ‘underground feeling’. My initial idea was to have a bridge as a central focal point - but if I will not manage to put Balrog-Gandalf battle in time, than the context disappears.

Btw. I was considering what really conveyed underground feeling when I was underground (in a cave)… And aside from stalagmites/stalactites I cannot recall anything unique in visual space that couldn’t be above the ground. The sense of being underground was mostly conveyed by sounds, smells etc.

[FedPete]

@Jaco_Pretorius

I would count being in a cave as being underground?

I knew someone would had to say something about this.
A tunnel through a mountain, a cave, underground …

With underground, I had associations with “Music scene”, “Resistance”, …

[bOBaN]

@FedPete

With underground, I had associations with “Music scene”, “Resistance”, …

That’s not my first association, but it definitely is one! Nice one!

Note to self, check all the different meanings of a theme for future collabs (also on urban dictionary ).

[bOBaN]

This is the attack plan. General idea is: start with rough blockout in unreal, model like crazy till Friday and at the end of work on Friday start searching for missing models. Saturday dedicated to vfx and composition.

Days = evenings (2-4h at max). On Sturday I should have more time

Did I forget about something?

Surprise, surprise - too ambitious and already behind the schedule

[NP5]

Four days on the paperwork and planning, three to do the actual task! You are a bureaucrat at heart!

[bOBaN]

It’s not that bad! I started on Monday so the split is in half!

I wanted to quote some witty comment on the importance of planning… but the one that fits the theme the best is one from Tolkien:

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near one.

[bOBaN]

Initial blockout done…

More or less camera direction view:

Side view:

Top view:

Doesn’t look like much… yet… but after adding temporary lighting:

This is huuuuge… the bridge is 25m across… a few mannequins thrown in for size reference…

Of course floors, lava river, etc. are all boxes now, but will try to make them feel more organic as this is inside the cave…

[NP5]

Looks epic! Scale wise.
Are those hobbit sized mannikins? Or dwarves?