Blade Runner SUSHI BAR + SLICE OF LIFE making of

Re: Blade Runner SUSHI BAR building - the build

Thank you all! :)

No problem at all Thorsten, I'm happy to explain it. It is possible to do complete composit in just one pass only, however it is a practice to do it in separate passes because then you have more control in post-production. For example, I decide there is too much fog, and I just lower the opacity of the fog layer.. Or, if the lights don't glow bright enough, I double that layer and they are twice as bright.. It is the same in CGI, they always render in many passes to have more control when compositing. I must admit, this is my first time shooting models, and I'm figuring this out as I go, so there is much more tests to be done before we shoot anything "for real"! :)
 
Re: Blade Runner SUSHI BAR building - the build

Thank you very much for the explanation, makes sense. And that motion control technique is accurate enough such that no extra alignment is needed? Sorry for the OT, but this is just too fascinating not to ask.

Looking forward to every bit of progress!
 
Re: Blade Runner SUSHI BAR building - the build

Yeah, I'm curious about the technicalities here also. Are you using film or digital? If digital, what compositing software are you using?

--Alex
 
Re: Blade Runner SUSHI BAR building - the build

Well, in those days they had huge machines that could record movement precisely. I read that for Blade runner their rig had 8-axis of movement. I imagine those rigs were so heavy that it probably was quite precise. We, however, have only a short 1-meter slider that is run by a servo motor, and you can control only speed and direction. Not quite high tech. :) These test were made with Canon 7D, and it is a great solution for this type of work. Resolution of the photos can be even higher than 5000x3500 pixels which is more than you need since full HD video is only 1920x1080. As far as I understand, that kind of photo has even more resolution than 35mm film.

So the question was how do the passes align? That was exactly the question I needed to answer with that last test. I use Magic lantern software on Canon and it allows me to make timelapses automatically. I just set the intervalometer (time of taking each photo), run the camera and run the slider. It makes the whole thing itself from then on. Then we return it to starting position, change the lighting, and do another run. Since we start the process manually every time, there of course is a little misalignment of a couple of frames. But that is very easy to fix when you are doing the composit. You just shift the clips couple of frames left or right untill they match. I am compositing it all in Adobe After effects.

If anybody has any questions feel free to ask, and I'll answer to the best of my knowledge. :)
 
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Re: Blade Runner SUSHI BAR building - the build

I always love that transformation that happens on the first coat of primer :):thumbsup

Jedi Dade
 
Re: Blade Runner SUSHI BAR building - the build

MAGNIFICENT!!!!!!!!!!! I love architecture and this is absolutely beautiful. 10/10!
 
Re: Blade Runner SUSHI BAR building - the build

Hello fellow RPFers!

I kinda stopped working on Sushi bar these days and started some other models that need to be done for the movie! I would like to post every progress I make on the movie so I thought I'll slightly rename this thread and use it for the whole process, nut just Sushi bar. That would be more practical than separate it all into different threads. I hope you'll still bear with me even though we'll digress from the Blade runner area. The movie will be called "Slice of life" so ill just put that into the thread name.

First a postcard! :) One of advantages of living in Croatia is that Italy is very near. A couple of days ago me and some friends of mine made a one-day trip to Venice. And, of course, what could be more important than visiting st. Barnaba church??? It's famous for it's appearance in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

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It's carnival in Venice these days so there's like 14 million people in the streets.
okay, back to the film.. So, one of the most prominent models in the movie will be a car that the main protagonist drives.. ..well, flies actually. I love the car design of the 80's. The -not so aerodynamic- hard lines. So that will be the direction I'll take.. It shouldn't be a clean and beautiful spinner type of vehicle, but rather an old, well used but loved piece of junk. There is a FANTASTIC sketch from Sid Mead that he made for blade runner, and I'll reference it loosely..

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First I started the chassis. The car will be mostly made of wood and plastic. Those big boxes on each side are actually primitive suspension mechanisms I invented :lol. I want the car to feel heavy, so when it lands it should sink a little. So I made it heavier with some metal sheets.

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I took the tires from an old model car and reworked them a little:

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Here is the underside.. I'm' using random junk of course, there's many parts of an old typewriter in there.

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Next step was to make a crude paper body, just to figure the proportions.. It does look deloreanish in that photo..

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And here's what I made so far.. The body is made from plastic, I bondoed the seams and now I'm sanding it.

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The car will have many blinking LEDs of course, and I hope it'll look good in the heavy atmosphere...

I'm off to the workshop, I'll post new progress soon!
 
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Hi Mike!

Yes I've seen those models before, there are some phenomenal builds of these things around the web.. But I don't think I would have the skill to shove in all those tiny electronics in such a crowded space.. :) Anyway, as you said, they are definitely not in scale that would be of any use to me. If I figured it out correctly they are around 20cm long, whereas my car is 55cm long. I had to make it that big to be able to film it without problems with shallow depth of field.

Well, here are some pictures of the progress with the car. It goes quite slow, and I'm still in the "basic shapes" part of build, but soon I hope it'll start being more fun! Here I tried to make gull-wing door.. (don't mind the cassette, It will be covered with lots of stuff later on :lol)

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Then it was finally time to tackle the front part.. I made the bumper as well..

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I took the tires from some old toy model and they looked a bit too small for my car.. So I decided to hide them a little with the "scifi hubcaps" :) which also made the car look a bit futuristic, finally..

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OK, so a day or two went by and all I could think of was how that front part sucks.. It is too flat. The car should be a bit more aerodynamic, even if its from the '80,right? So - it had to go under the knife again! Here's the before and after:

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(I also like this view from above, I should remember it for the poster - the car ascends high above the Sushi bar.. :D)

So, here is where I am at this moment.. I started to make the inside, but it should look similar to the real car that we'll film the actor in, and I still don't know what car will that be..

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Meanwhile, my friend comes now and then and makes random buildings for the backgrounds in the scenes.. Those are not precisely done, he glues on them literally everything he can get his hands on.. But in low key i figure they'll look just fine.. They will be lit with a single source from the inside, like in this test shot:

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Thanks for looking guys!
Bye!
 
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Well, somebody is tackling the fun and difficult stuff at once and so far you've impressed me with all those builds. Building should always be done in a diagonal shape so you'll have a 3/4 shot (moving from left to right). Your lighting test looks good also. Eager to see more next time:cool
 
That car with the revised front end looks spot on. Great job, I like how you guys are using everyday objects to build this stuff.
 
dude...i keep seeing this develop at work but never get the chance to say anything. this is freakin SUPERB. Love everything about it. And those buildings are freakin sweet. Great work man
 

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