Sci-Fi Short - Location Design images

Here are some images of the location that the Sci-Fi 3D animated short is set in.

You can see that it's a grimy, dark spaceport room with a bizarre television set as the focal point!

All models were created using Blender 3D and all textures were made using The Gimp.

Click on the images to view full-sized.

More images to follow soon....

Office Hours: more street location stuff

Two new images from Office Hours, the film directed by Shane Sheils & Paula Sheils and produced by Dwarfed Films.
Both are of the same street scene, except the bottom image features a couple of cars.
Click on the images to view the images larger. Pictures are at 1/2 scale.

Email Dwarfed Films or leave a comment on the site.

Office Hours: new location images

Here are two new images from Office Hours. They show a street scene from an exterior location in the film. It's kinda hard to see - as the images are pretty small - but the walls are covered with lots of graffitti and crap to give them a "dirty" look.

To be honest you'll probably only be able to make out the large "ping-pong" graffitti on one of the walls in these particular pictures (why ping-pong?Well why not! Actually it's a link to a live action film we once made called "The Darkside". In the opening sequence of that movie the lead actress walks down a dirty, deserted street and the word's "hand-ball" are scrawled on the walls which was pretty strange.)

Click on either image to view them larger (these are probably 1/4 scale of final renders)

Post a comment here or Email Dwarfed Films with any comments you might have

Office Hours: office location + more car pics!

Here is an image of the office location from the film Office Hours. This building is radically different from the way it first looked. The small, open-plan cubicles have been replaced with enclosed large wooden "box-offices". This set looks much more intimidating and fits in with the pseudo 1950's/modernistic tone of the film.
Click on the image to view it larger.

And also here is a picture showing three different vehicles from the film: a taxi, a small delivery vehicle and an ordinary car.
Again Click on the image to view it on a larger scale.


Questions? Comments? Just email Dwarfed Films or leave a message on the site

Office Hours: building design

Some images of a high rise building that will be used in Office Hours. I've been modelling quite a few buildings (with Blender, of course) recently, ranging from office buildings to small stores. Our computer is really struggling with the massive polygon counts!
We'll add more images shortly.

You can contact Dwarfed Films here

Lighting render comparison

The attached image shows a comparison of the same scene lit in two different ways.
The image on the left was rendered with a sky dome of hemisphere lights and an area light casting shadows only. The image on the right was rendered using a combination of a small sky dome and ambient occlusion.
The image on the left is better - despite faking global illumination. It also rendered much faster than the ambient occlusion render. The whole point goes to show that "cheating" during the rendering process is the way to go!
You can click on the images to view them full size and compare the important differences between them.

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Office Hours: street scene tests

Here are two brand new images from 3D animated short film Office Hours.
One of them is late evening still of a partially modelled street rendered using nothing but Ambient Occlusion. You can see that the models look more "solid" than previously which is mostly due to the fact that they don't look plastic anymore!
The other image is a daylight street scene test render. As you can see it's coming along nicely even when lit very basically. This scene features a small sky dome of hemi lights (with specular turned off), a single shadow lamp (only casts shadows) and Ambient Occlusion. It's too bright and there aren't enough areas of high contrast shading - plus the AO samples are much too low - but it is certainly beginning to "feel" like the kind of street we envisioned when writing the script (ie: Edward Hopper-esque; and if you don't know who Edward Hopper is then go here).

More images to follow.

Contact Dwarfed Films with any questions or comments.

Office Hours: ambient occlusion

Here are some images showing the power of Ambient Occlusion in Blender 3D.
In case you don't know, Ambient Occlusion is a global illumination feature that simulates realistic lighting in the 3D scene.
The top image shows the Ambient Occlusion settings used when rendering the attached stills. Click on it to view it full screen size.
the middel and bottom images show renders with and without Ambient Occlusion (AO). Both images were lit exactly the same with a single shadow-casting light but as you can see they look vastly different due to the effectiveness of the AO. Of course using AO results in much longer rendering times but it is well worth the extra effort and time.

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Office Hours: street scene models

Two new images from Office Hours which show some of the smaller buildings to be used in the street layout from the film. These buildings are have more of the gritty/run-down kind of look that we're after. The previous buildings didn't have much character but these have a more lived-in look.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

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Office Hours: smaller buildings

Work in progress image from Office Hours of some buildings. Until now the attention was on designing and modelling big office building locations but they wouldn't look "big" unless there were small builings located around them. The only way to create a realistic type street scene is by looking up lots of reference images. We don't want all the buildings to look too similar but we also don't want them too have radically different designs either.
By the way, those weird looking drainpipes in the picture are being replaced with some proper looking ones!

Contact Dwarfed Films

OFFICE HOURS: office location pics

Some very "moody" lighting going on in these pictures, I think you'll agree. Or maybe just "very dark"!
Top image is a wide shot of the office location interior. The middle image shows a noticeboard (if you squint a lot you might be able to make out that the notes pinned to the board are actual pages from the office hours script). And what about the bottom image. Well, it's a machine thingy.
Keep vsiting the site for more pictures and stuff.

Contact DWARFED FILMS

OFFICE HOURS: graveyard exterior location update

Some updated images from the graveyad location.
First two images show the graveyard on an overcast day and night-time. The lighting is temporary and needs lots of tweaking and adjustments. The same goes for the textures which are not quite right yet.
The bottom image shows the 3D layout of the scene with sky dome.
More to come!

Contact Dwarfed Films

Office Hours: city location

Heres a low angle view of the deserted city street from the film Office Hours.
Obviously it's a work in progress undergoing constant revisions and improvements.

We've also started working on the music and in particular composing the theme music for the movie. Having the music in mind at this early stage helps with the animation/modelling/rigging processes as we can focus on creating a consistent mood throughout the film rather than waiting until the editing stage to piece everything together. Of course lots of the musical ideas will not make it into the final film but will certainly contribute to the final score.

Contact Dwarfed Films here

Office Hours: exterior locations

Here are more images from Office Hours showing location design. They show a deserted city street and an animated gif showing the location as a 3D wire frame.

Contact DWARFED FILMS here

Office Hours: interior location design

Some more location stills from OFFICE HOURS.
Minimal textures and lighting at this stage but you can see how it is progressing.
more images very soon.

Contact Dwarfed Films here

Office Hours: modelling a simple building facade

Here is a brief gif animation showing the process of modelling a very basic building facade.
The array modifier in Blender allows very complex models to be composed. You simply model a particular section of the building and then use the array tool to make duplicates in any direction. Ideal for making complex multi-storey office blocks.


Contact Dwarfed Films here

Office hours: new test still

New pre-production still from Office Hours. Lots of missing incomplete textures and the lighting is basic but , hey, thats what pre-production is for!

Contact Dwarfed Films here

Office Hours: location design

A pre-production still from one of the locations to be used in Office Hours. It is a side street somewhere in the city. Lots of work still needs to be done but you should be able to get a sense of the mood which we are aiming for throughout the film.

Dwarfed Films may be contacted here