Progress with the Ball

I was originally planning on putting this as just a picture under production pictures, but I decided to give it its own post.

(click to enlarge)

CG Cave Test 2 (Better Lighting.) I spent lots of time on the ball itself, making it transparent and giving a nice soft shadow. There is actually a soft yellow light coming from the orb, and an ambient bluish light that counters it. I think that the ball is coming along quite nicely. It is now somewhat fully 3d. I used a CyCore Sphere effect with a texture from Video Copilot (See their Blue Planet 2 Tutorial for the After Effects expression that turns a CyCore Sphere into a fully 3D Sphere that is compatible with 3D Lights and the AE Virtual Camera.) Once we get the editing computer for the film, I'll make the HD version of the cave and really devote time to the walls. Right now they look VERY fake and they don't have any bump maps whatsoever. Adobe After Effects really isn't

a 3D modeling software, but I am really pushing it to be one for the sake of freedom to make whatever camera moves I want. The computer I am using now though is horrible for this. I nearly destroyed it rendering this frame. However, by Thanksgiving, I'll be using an HP Pavilion Elite to Edit the film and do all kinds of fun stuff in After Effects. I really hope to be able to make some After Effects tutorials for some of the effects in the movie that I made myself, (such as the fantasy creature effect) but for now that will have to wait. Stay tuned...

Kurt the very tired centaur who is taking the PSAT tomorrow.