Work done for James aka Mr Sunday Movies and the enjoyment of all the Planet Broadcasting gr8 m8s.
The project was developed as a series of cinematic still frames with comic-book-looking characters, all slightly animated in 2D to give a sense of motion and enhance the storytelling of the narration.
The project was developed as a series of cinematic still frames with comic-book-looking characters, all slightly animated in 2D to give a sense of motion and enhance the storytelling of the narration.
The sequence shows the flip side of a discussion that happens in Empire Strikes Back, in which the Emperor discusses with Darth Vader the imminent need of dealing with rebel superstar Luke Skywalker.
Unbeknownst to Lord Vader, Prince Xizor is witnessing the conversation and discovers that, in now famous words, it's all about family.
My creative boundaries have really been pushed as a generalist, as I did every single step of production: concept, sculpting, modeling, UVs, surfacing, lookdev, lighting, cameras, rendering, compositing, animation, editing, and color grading.
"Shadows Of The Empire - A Star Wars Retrospective" by Mr Sunday Movies
Sculpting the Emperor in a stylized yet menacing look was such a great exploratory process!.. and also quite a challenge since modeling isn't really what I do. The pose is a bit stiff here, but it reads well and I could use it in every shot.
The challenge was even greater to create Xizor, who doesn't have any definitive canon appearance.
I wanted to retain Xizor's core alien features without veering into anything remotely goofy. This meant finding nuanced shapes that would make him look dead serious, intelligent, sly, and elegant all at the same time. A strong presence was crucial.
Emperor - Final model - Clay render
Darth Vader - Final model - Clay render
Prince Xizor - Final model - Clay render
Emperor - Early lookdev test. The idea was there, but didn't feel fully realized yet. The hatching was too subtle and lacked visual balance with bolder details. The mix of cel-shading and SSS for the skin was already quite successful at that stage though.
Emperor - Final look dev & surfacing - Close up
The various passes that are comprised in the final output of the Emperor.
The Emperor's shading graph. Many effects are screen-dependent, so textures like hatching (green) and fabric pattern (orange) have their scale driven by a single value multiplier (blue) that changes for each shot depending on the camera/subject distance.
Fun fact: this fabric is actually a small pattern made of Tie Fighters. Evil is in the details.
Darth Vader pose exploration
Darth Vader pose exploration
Early throne room blocking with key elements and proper scale.
Catch James on his channel "Mr Sunday Movies" https://bit.ly/1BV4gSr
and the podcast "The Weekly Planet" with co-host Nick Mason https://bit.ly/2xwjDd5
for hundreds of hours of hilarious content about your favourite movies and TV shows!
and the podcast "The Weekly Planet" with co-host Nick Mason https://bit.ly/2xwjDd5
for hundreds of hours of hilarious content about your favourite movies and TV shows!
Thanks to VOLTA for supporting the creation of this project, and to Kevin Demuynck for some valuable sculpting tips.
Thanks for watching!
