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Wildcard Productions Presents; an Evolution in moviemaking - Trailer

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Author	Thread Statistics \| Show CCP posts - 1 post(s)
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.04.17 16:37:00 - [1] First of all I want to thank everyone involved along the way. It could not have been done without you! EVE has inspired me to do this, its an amazing game to play and look at. As for me and making more animations, this is just the beginning. Enjoy!
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.04.17 21:41:00 - [2] To answer a few questions: I used Maya as my 3d app, the models, textures and sound effects are all extracted from the game engine. The music, by James Horner, is from the soundtrack to Troy (Hector's Death). Yes I was the same person who did the little promo piece for the HW2 ladder and the SLS intro movie back in the early days of Homeworld.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.04.18 01:05:00 - [3] thanks for the crit Suze'Rain. Points taken. I plan to take a period of time and really refine my techniques on this project. Always room for improvement!
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.04.18 23:02:00 - [4] Thx again for all the great replies. It was a pleasure to work on this project and give back to what I consider one of the best gaming communities around. The project started with me wanting to create a cg based eve movie. At the time we did not yet have a way to extract the models from the game engine so I decided I would recreate the ships from scratch. I built the Scorp, Apoc, Blackbird, Rifter, Maller and Punisher in that time. Each model was created at a much higher polygon count and was taking a fair amount time to complete. During this time I was posting updates on our private forums to try and get some interest in the project. Draxiums then came to me and asked me to try this tool he'd been working on. Through a bit of early testing we were finally able to extract the pod mesh (choosen for it's simple geometry). Slowly, through continued testing we were able to figure out how to correctly extract more and more of the ship library. Finally we had a tool that could extract the complete ship library and with it came a whole new realm of possiblities. We then had to correctly reassign all the textures using UV coords. Finally we had to make a few minor modifications to the textures. So to answer a lot of questions, what you see in this trailer are the same meshes and textures you see in the game. This by far took the longest amount of time to complete since in many situations we were flying blind. Overall for me the hardest part has been recreating the effects the game engine creates. It's been a real fun challenge and one that I plan to continue to work on. I hope this sheds some light on the origins of this project.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.04.20 16:06:00 - [5] I've been getting a lot of questions in regards to the future of this project so I thought I would answer a few of them here. 1. Episode I will happen in chapters. Each chapter will be released when they are complete. This will minimize the waiting time and hopefully not be so taxing on our servers. Once all the chapters are complete I will composite all the chapters together to make what will then be Episode I in it's entirety. I'm not sure how many chapters EpI will have right now since we are still in early development and still kicking some ideas around. Once I start making storyboards we will have a better idea. 2. Episode I will in fact tell a story, complete with dialog that members of Evol will be reading and recording for the movie. 3. This trailer was made to do nothing more than to introduce the idea of CG use in EVE movie making. We also wanted to inspire others who make movies for EVE to think beyond what has been done before in all aspects of EVE movie making. By no means did we intend for this trailer to be compared with others work, we simply hope that this trailer would spark a new energy and excitement amoung the EVE community, particularly to those who contribute so much to storytelling in EVE. Creativity is creativity, the tools you use do not dictate this!
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.04.21 01:08:00 - [6] Originally by: phaeton Originally by: Azrael Maxim Somebody give that man a cigar. A cigar? hell i gave him my sister! LOL, why else would you be in the credits? p.s. thx
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.04.21 13:57:00 - [7] Originally by: Victor Mason Very nice m8y did CCP give you a copy of the models? and what program you use Mayer or 3D S MAX's?? Vic Got to watch it again. CCP gave us permission to use the models but did not give them to us. Draximus & Galencia worked on creating a tool to extract the models from the game. Redi and myself helped test it along the way to make sure everything was extracting correctly. Persoanlly I feel that the biggest accomplishment in this whole project was the extration tool these two guys made. As for the tools we used: for 3d, Maya and Milkshpae3D, for texture work, Photoshop, compositing and editing, AVID Xpress, Premiere Pro & Quicktime Pro, title screens, Flash. There were other apps used but these were the major ones.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.04.21 14:25:00 - [8] Originally by: Squirrell Awsome! Any chance you are going to share the extraction tool? Sorry, we do not have the right to distribute CCP property and releasing that tool would do just that. We had to be given permission from CCP to use it ourselves.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.05.03 13:13:00 - [9] "Troy" soundtrack song 9 "Hector's Death" composed by James Horner.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.05.20 20:39:00 - [10] I have a small personal render farm of 3 systems, nothing major. Most scenes used around 8 render passes and the more complex scenes had around 20-25 passes. It's hard to gauge how long it took to render since it really is determined by the complexity of the scene and how many passes were involoved and tbh I didn't really pay much attention to the time it took. As for the numerous comments on the engine flare effect I agree 100%. I have taken note to everyones crits and am working to improve upon the things that could have been better. Here is a work in progress of the engine effect I'm working on: Engine Effect Keep in mind this is a work in progress and will more than likely continue to evolve until I'm happy with the final result. As for a timeline for the completion of ep I, again that's another hard one to answer for sure. The work I do on this movie is in my spare time so it really depends on my professional work schedule. Right now I'm unusually busy so only time will tell. All I can say is that when it's finished it will be well worth the wait!

Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.07.14 01:39:00 - [11] Thought I would give a quick update on the statis of EpI which will be titled "Darwin's Contraption". The project has taken an interesting turn of events lately. It has become a larger scale project than I first anticipated. I am now working with a small group of professionals in the industry some of which have worked in Hollywood level productions. We are now organizing the production pipeline and getting everything organized on the back end. I can't give you a release date yet since we are still early in production but I can tell you that the results are gonna be far beyond what I orignally imagined. There is a lot of talent behind this production now and I promise the results will not disappoint!
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.07.22 18:02:00 - [12] Originally by: xOm3gAx Edited by: xOm3gAx on 22/07/2005 17:52:02 Mirror Courtesy of Old Number 7 One of the sites I webmaster for. Thank you xOm3gAx.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.11.02 23:00:00 - [13] Paigan: For this trailer, all ship models were extracted from the game. The movie will have a mix of both game models (mostly cruisers and frigs) and higher detailed models that we have created, primarily all the battleships. Januk: This trailer is all CGI. None of the footage is from the game although playing the game was the main inspiration for making this trailer and the movie that will be coming soon. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Biff Steel	Posted - 2005.12.14 06:14:00 - [14] HAHA Xelina, I'm not taking the leash off until you get me that tutorial you promised me! Use your toes to type if you have to!
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.01.01 21:15:00 - [15] Work is still being done on it every day but it has slowed a bit due to a surge in RL work which keeps food on the table and the addition of our little baby boy to the family. I promise you that it will get done as soon as possible but seeing how this is only a hobby I have to keep my priorities straight.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.01.25 18:03:00 - [16] Soon(tm)
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.03.15 17:18:00 - [17] As with many things in the entertainment industry we have been delayed a bit. That's not to say we still aren't busting our asses on this movie it's just that some technical things have taken us longer than we thought. One good thing about working with other people that share such high standards is that they don't let you get away with "good enough". we as a group are always making things better as we go along, that also takes extra time. We have also created a model for the movie that is extremely complex. This object is a major part of the last scenes and will no doubt give us a seeting for some really cool shots. Hell the model without textures looks great, I can't image how good it will look with textures. In short, we'll get there folks! We'll get there.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.04.19 19:43:00 - [18] Originally by: Baun Edited by: Baun on 19/04/2006 18:47:53 Holy **** .... I'm going to assume that these questions were asked before but this is a 23 page thread so: 1. Was any of that footage actually from in game or was it just using the models? (obviously most of it wasn't ... just can't tell if it ALL wasn't) 2. Was the person who made that a professional in computer graphics? 1. There is no in game footage in this trailer. The models were extracted from the game and all shots were animated and rendered in Maya. 2. Yes I am. 3. Glad you enjoyed it.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.04.20 01:57:00 - [19] Every day it gets a little closer to being done.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.04.27 15:37:00 - [20] Originally by: Silver Sarena I personally am starting to think that this movie is an urban legend; kinda like pink elephants, the easter bunny, etc. etc. I know, I know, I just burst some bubbles about the easter bunny thing, but it had to be done. My sympathies go out to those who still believed that this was ever going to be released, and to those with easter bunny issues. Seriously though, without any further proof that any progress is being made on the project other than the very old, albeit awesome, promos, I would guess that this is a dead issue. After all, these kinds of things take a LOAD of work and dedication to make happen; and I applaud them for getting as far as they did. But, I wouldn't hold my breath for anything more. Thanks for the promos guys! They were awesome while they lasted! Hope you can release something else cool sometime later in the decade! All my best for the most fantastic tribute to Eve ever made, I truely do hope you can top it some year! Peace. Sorry to hear you feel that way Silver and I'm not sure where your getting your info from about the project being dead. In fact it's very much alive and progress is being made every day. Sure I could have rushed something out and cut corners but frankly that's not my style and anyone working with me on this project knows that. If something takes a week longer to get done right then so be it. This project is a labor of love which I've spent countless hours on, so I hardly see the point in quiting. You want "proof", read the countless responses I've made to people about this movie and it's progress. Also, Check out E-ON issue 2. The models for the battleships in the Test Flight article were made for this movie.

Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.05.05 20:16:00 - [21] Worry not, we have our eyes set on a release for FF 06.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.05.15 01:37:00 - [22] Thank you for that insightful post Dracolich. I think your observations are very good. I have talked to many of the people who are working on this project about the idea of "perfecting" many of the aspects of the movie and we have also discussed this as a group in several internals threads. I think at this point we as a team are well aware of the limits we should take things when refining it. As a project leader it's often times my unfortunate job to make the decision to say yes we could use this rendering technology, or yes we could redo this aspect but we're not going to. The bottom line is that we could always refine this movie and make it better and better and better as we learn new techniques and new technologies become available to us but if we did we would never get this thing done. I have to keep this in balance. So yes I want to make this movie to the best of our abilities but I'm also aware that it has to get done as soon as possible. On that note we are looking to have it finished by this years FF. As for updates check out issue #4 of E-ON. There will be all kinds of progress reports in that issue.
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.05.17 15:54:00 - [23] Many of the sounds used in this trailer were from EVE actually. Our sound guy did a great job in manipulating them to get them to work in the trailer. For the next movie he is recording many of the sounds himself. The reason for this is the sound effects used in game are very low quality and lack the depth needed for this type of media. From what he was able to do with the game sounds I'm very excited to hear what he'll come up with for Darwin's Contraption!
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.05.31 14:00:00 - [24] Originally by: Death Bliss Ive seen the movie No other Destiny, it looks like CCP used some of the models. HAHA, strike that, and reverse it. Without even knowing it you just gave CCP a huge compliment! Any and all trailers CCP have produced have been pure 100% game footage. In fact I was the one who "borrowed" the game models for use in this piece. They were extracted from the game and animated in Maya. GG CCP, I can think of no better compliment to your game engine!
Biff Steel	Posted - 2006.06.29 17:48:00 - [25] Originally by: eLLioTT wave update? E-ON Issue #4
Biff Steel Evolution Band of Brothers	Posted - 2006.09.12 20:18:00 - [26] Originally by: Beor0d Edited by: Beor0d on 12/09/2006 18:14:53 Any News on this trailer/movie? We are waiting long enough now :D would be cool to see another Teaser or maybe a website about the project. There will be a 5-6 page feature all about the movie in the next issue of EON (issue 5). There is also a new trailer currently in the works.
Biff Steel Evolution Band of Brothers	Posted - 2006.11.05 17:59:00 - [27] OK folks, here's the deal, the project has taken a different direction. Instead of working on one large movie we are making a series of mini movies. Here are a couple facts about the mini series. 1. The first one is 2 minutes and 40 seconds long. 2. Each one is narrated and story driven. 3. There are characters in it, but part 1 will not have any speaking parts. 4. There will be environments never before seen in the EVE universe. In other words part one is much more than a bunch of ships fighting in space. 5. The group working on this project is currently at 12. This is the biggest the group has ever been and the talent that is working on this project from every aspect has been an incredible adventure to watch take place. 6. Hopefully in a few month's you'll be able to see what I'm talking about, stay tuned....
Biff Steel Evolution Band of Brothers	Posted - 2007.03.21 03:09:00 - [28] Originally by: Liu Kaskakka Originally by: Sylthi this is a long dead issue, and the people working on it aren't anymore; by Biff's own words.... so yeah, this thread should be let to RIP..... True, false, update? HAHA, that would be a big fat FALSE! In fact, ATM we are putting the final touches on a Gallente city. Ever wonder what one looks like? You'll find out soon(tm)
Biff Steel Evolution Band of Brothers	Posted - 2007.05.29 03:36:00 - [29] Originally by: vinnymcg So it has been over two years since we have heard anything from the makers of this trailer. Is it still being made? I know it takes like 4 years for a cgi movie to be ready but im sure this is not going to be 1 hour long so whats up? First of all you haven't really been paying attention. I have continually made ever effort to info the community that the project is still being worked on but only after RL priorities are taken care of. I do this sort of thing professionally which pays the bills, this project doesn't. When I have spare time I devote what I can to this project but thankfully my talents are in high demand which makes my spare time rather limited. Honestly, if I knew this trailer was gonna draw so much attention I probably would never have released it. I prefer to be that little guy behind the curtain and not draw attention to myself, but what is done is done so once again I will say "it gets done when it gets done".
Biff Steel Evolution Band of Brothers	Posted - 2007.06.28 16:25:00 - [30] Originally by: molona Release another trailer to let people know your working on it. Then ask for donations. I rekon the comunity would be happy to pay you to finish it. A few dollars here, a few dollars there. That would pay the bills. No donations will be accepted. I have a very clear agreement with CCP in this matter. Afterall it's not really about money to me, it's about the accomplishment.

Biff Steel Evolution Band of Brothers	Posted - 2007.07.17 21:43:00 - [31] Originally by: Killer Raccoon What program/programs are you using to make this? We developed our own software to extract the game models, much like the tri exporter. The exported tri files were converted to MS3D (Milkshape3D) by the same tool. Others apps used are Maya, Photoshop, After Effects, an AVID system, Shake, and a few other little tools here and there.
Biff Steel Evolution Band of Brothers	Posted - 2007.08.21 05:19:00 - [32] Originally by: Liu Kaskakka Update? Working out some details with EVE TV.

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