Production
Creating the monk scene
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To start creating this monk scene I imported a low poly model of a human that I already had. Originally I had downloaded this model from Blendswap and have used it for multiple personal projects. This model is also already rigged with armatures. After importing this model into the scene I used the armatures to manipulate the limbs so that the model was sitting cross legged and had its hands in its lap as though it was meditating. I then removed the armatures from the model as I didn't need them anymore.
Once I had the human figure posed how I wanted, I created a flat circular plane in the scene. I then edited the geometry of this plane to give it a hood and applied a cloth physics simulation to it. I then clicked play and the plane fell onto the model and draped itself over the model similar to a cagoule. I then found a frame in the scene which I liked and applied the physics simulation so that it freezes the plane in its state. As a result of this I now had a sort of shell of a cloak. Once I had this I deleted the human model from the scene as I didn't need it anymore. Later on in the process i applied a solidify modifier to this cloak to make it look as if it was made of a thicker material and I then subdivided the whole object to make it look smooth and cloth-like rather than polygonal and sharp.
From there I created an empty (no geometry) sphere in the scene to use as a tool for aligning the duplicates of this cloak shape. I then used a mirror modifier to duplicate the model multiple times until there were eight in a circle all facing the center. From there I simply applied the modifier and added a remesh modifier that decreases the topology of the object. i then toggled this modifier so that it does not affect the final rendered image. This means that the render will include the cloaks themselves but the viewport will show some blocks with a low vertex count. I did this so that my computer didn't struggle while im working on other things due to a high vertex count.
After this I made a plane in this scene and used the 'Extra Objects' add on to generate custom walls. I then used the pop up menu to generate the walls I wanted and placed them accordingly in the scene. I then added a remesh modifier to these walls as I did with the cloaks to decrease the poly count in the scene in order for it to be easier for me to work on other areas of this scene.
Next I moved on to creating the center piece that the monks surround. For this I chose to make a reactor. To do this I started small, with one part of the reactor: the cells. First I created these cylindrical tubes to represent the cores of the cell. I then put caps on each end of these cores and connected them so that 16 cores became four. I also put rings around each tube so that I could texture these later as though they were giving off energy. After this I connected this whole setup with valves and a base. I then textured this whole collection how I wanted. This finished the model of the cells. The plan for this model was to import it into another scene at a later date using the 'append' function in Blender.
My next task was to create the main reactor itself. For this I started with creating the connector parts that will attach to the cells. I took the dimensions of the cells and used that information to create these with a slightly bigger diameter so that the cells would appear to have slotted in. I then created the center core. I wanted this to appear solid so I gave it some bracers around the outside and a really wide base as though it was a heavy object. I then created some small vent looking pieces and lined them around the outside of the sphere. Finally I imported my cells from another file and attached these into their slots. I then textured all of this till it looked how I wanted and placed lights in areas that I wanted to emit light. This was so that I had more control over the lighting conditions, as an emission shader is more limited than a light.
To the left I showcase the completion of this scene. The changes I made here were adding tubes coming from the reactor and I created a bunch more monks surrounding this machine to fill out the set. I also changed some of the textures I used to make the scene look more photo-real. I used two different rock textures, both of which I got from cc0textures.com. Unfortunately as they are 4k textures, I was unable to upload them to this website.
Monk close up shot
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Shown to the right is the production process for the monk close up shot. I started by importing the models I used in the monk scene and placing them where I wanted. This includes the walls, floor and cloak. I kept the textures for the walls and floor but I used another texture from cc0textures for the cloak. This time a leather texture. I then modeled the visor on the helmet, attached a valve and created the tube that comes down and connects to it. I also textured these accordingly. I wanted something to happen when the tubes connect, so I decided to take an image of The Eye Of Horus and use it to have the visor emit light in that shape. I chose The Eye Of Horus because it symbolizes protection. This gives the implication that the monks in this scene are protected from any danger while using this machine. I then created more monks behind the main focus to fill out the background as I did with the previous scene.
Corridor pan shot
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I decided to create a panning shot of a corridor leading up to the reactor scene with the monks. This was a simple process as I already had the textures to place on surfaces. What I did here was create a plane with the same rock texture from the monk reactor scene and create a wall using the wall factory add-on which uses the same wall texture from the monk scene. I then created a light at the end of this corridor and animated its brightness to match the flickering of the reactor. Finally I modelled a standing torch and used an array modifier to duplicate it a number of times. I then textured this torch in a way that I liked and added hot embers to the bowl at the top. I then added a light to each torch with an orange colour and low brightness. This is so that it appears as though the embers are casting light onto the walls and torches.
Title Sequence
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This title sequence scene is made up of a camera flying through an asteroid field. It is designed to be the background while the text over the top of it is displayed and explains the story that is going on in my film. To make this scene I created a bunch of individual asteroids and moved them into a collection. I then created a cube that the camera would stay within and gave this cube a particle system. After this I changed the particle type to the collection of asteroids, this gave me an asteroid field to fly my camera around in. I then keyframed the camera movement in a way that I liked. To finish off this scene I created a star texture for the world material and created two suns in the scene to make it seem as though the asteroids aren't being randomly lit up from nowhere.
Planet transition
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This planet transition scene uses the textures I had collected previously for the alien planets. To make it I created a selection of spheres and applied my textures to them. I gave them bump maps to make the textures look 3D and then keyframed the visibility of them to make each planet look as though it is emerging from the darkness. I then keyframed the movement of each planet so that they moved past the camera. To finalise this project I keyframed the rotation of the camera to make it appear as though it was turning and intentionally flying past each planet. This scene serves as a transition between the alien system and our local solar system.
Pluto destruction
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The first planet to be destroyed is Pluto, I chose this because it is the furthest planet out from our solar system. Pluto is made up of mainly ice and frozen gasses. As a result of this, I decided to make its destruction similar to shattering ice or a cracking glacier. However I also think that the impact of this event shown to the right would create a lot of heat as kinetic energy is transferred into heat energy upon impact. This is why I chose to give the core of Pluto a lava texture, almost as though the frozen gasses that make it up were instantly melting or sublimating, only to be set alight almost instantly by the heat generated by this impact. I Used the Cell Fracture add-on to generate each of the chunks in this scene. I then turned each object in this scene into a rigid body object and created a rigid body simulation for all of them.
Neptune Destruction
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For the destruction of Neptune I wanted a collection of asteroids to impact the planet instead of just one. To achieve this I used a particle system that Projects rock particles towards the planet. From there I used a gradient texture mixed with a noise texture to Make it seem as though the gas planet had ignited from the point where the first asteroid impacts. To create a burning gas effect I used a noise texture set to 4D instead of the default 3D. What this allows me to do is use keyframes to control the evolution/phase of the texture. This makes it possible for me to have the texture move without effecting any transform parameters. I then decided to have the camera fly through the burning planet to simulate the feel of a burning gas planet. I feel I achieved this result.
Earth Destruction
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I wanted the destruction of Earth to e a significant moment in my film. this is why I decided to have the asteroid impact incinerate the entire planet. To get this result I used a gradient texture combined with a noise texture to create a turbulent wave of fire that makes its way across the whole planet's surface. I then decided to create another gradient texture that does the same thing except instead it displays the cooling of the molten lava into rock and converts the planet's surface to a ball of rock. Once I had achieved this result, I wanted to create an impact crater for the asteroid. This was a process as simple as keyframing the strength of a displace modifier that was set to only affect certain vertices of the sphere. Finally I added a nurb path with an emission texture to create a bright light upon the asteroid's impact with the planet. This creates a more realistic scene while also hiding some of the messy areas of this scene.
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THIS SCENE WASNT USED IN THE FINAL FILM
Planet to planet transition
I wanted to create a shot to serve as a transition between Pluto and Neptune. To do this I created a cube with a particle system. I changed these particles to mimic a collection of rocks and animated the set of particles to fly in front of the camera and then for the camera to speed up so that the particles become out of view once again. The effect that this achieves is giving the appearance that the rocks speed past the camera only for the camera to increase speed to overtake them. For the rock texture I imported an asteroid texture from another project file and changed the colour to be slightly browner. I also imported the same starry background from the other areas of this project to use as the world texture.
Final Annihilation
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I wanted the final major event in my film to be something massive and so I thought: What better than blowing up the sun? This is why I chose to create these final shots of she sun sending out a massive wave of energy that splits multiple planets in half. To make this I created a sphere in the scene with an emission texture, this represents the sun. I then created another sphere with a planet texture. After this i added a ring and gave this a texture that mixes transparency with an emission shader. This gives the effect of a turbulent shape rather than a solid ring. I then keyframed the scale of this ring to make it appear as though it explodes out from the sun. After this I used a curve in the shape of a circle to create the seam where the planets split. I gave this curve some geometry and an emission texture to do this. For Saturn's rings I created a ring using a nurbs circle. I converted this to a polygon and removed the center. I then textured it and animated the texture to look as though the ring burns away with the explosion from the sun.