Fateful Morn III

[Dej 17]

Here is the third in the Fateful Morn series - a bit different from, and a darned sight more difficult than the prior images, being a combat scene. This is because of its subject, Captain Robert Alexander Little DSO* DSC* RNAS and RAF, the highest scoring Australian ace of all time with 47 victories.

 

Little took off at night and any scene with his machine on the ground wouldn't have been well-enough lit to make a good image, plus, it wouldn't have been a 'fateful morn'. Or so I thought, and so chose to feature his machine later in the story, caught by the searchlight beam and with the Gotha above and dawn breaking in the East. Lighting the scene, however, proved a real pig. Bizarrely, there's nothing like having 'real' lights in the setup to really mess up the lighting! I've also shamelessly copied Sandbagger's skin for Little's Camel. A beautiful piece of work and thankfully the camera angle hides the areas where I couldn't do it justice.

 

Anyhow, the scenario is:

 

04:10 HRS, 28th May 1918. Little has taken off from Filescamp Farm on a moonlit night to intercept Gotha bombers in the vicinity. Closing with one of the returning raiders pinned by a searchlight beam, Little's Camel is fatefully highlighted by another beam swinging across to join the former, temporarily blinding Little and exposing him to the bomber's alert crew. Little has thrown up his hand to shield his eyes and is banking his machine out of the light but in doing so will unknowingly drift into the machine gun fire of the Gotha's rear gunner, whose bullets will fatally wound Little in both thighs.

 

Little will crash-land near Noeux, and survive the impact, but will bleed to death before help arrives.

 

3D rendering in Cinema 4D, post-processing (landscape blur, 'glamour' filter, film effect - Paintshop Pro X2)

 

Mannock next...

 

[EDIT] Camel skin initially wrongly attributed to Winder, now correctly noted as Sandbagger's work. Thanks Shredward. [/EDIT]

 

Edited April 3, 2011 by Dej

[Pips 5]

Beautifully done.

[Olham 164]

Damn - that dark blue German crate looks like a giant bat from hell. Well done, Dej!

[Javito1986 14]

Oh man this is great. Must've been such a challenge to create. Kudos sir

[77Scout 3]

Very nice Dej. However hard it was to get the lighting right, you certainly got it so. Looks great.

[carrick58 23]

Kudos, and a good job

[Hasse Wind 46]

Looks great. I'd say this is the best Fateful Morn so far. Very atmospheric and dramatic.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Wonderful Dej, another beautiful addition to your series, Sir.

 

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[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Thats 3 of my hoped for 12 calender screensaver pics!..fantastic work

[Dej 17]

Twelve! Heck, I'd only thought of seven, Simon. You're a hard taskmaster! Okay, twelve it is. Any requests, anyone?

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I would love to see Barker in action...he flew Camels before Snipe's I believe?....or indeed, Immelman....amazing stuff you do Dej...I certainly wouldn't want to put pressure on you for 12...but hey!...If you enjoy doing them..we certainly enjoy seeing them

[shredward 12]

Twelve! Heck, I'd only thought of seven, Simon. You're a hard taskmaster! Okay, twelve it is. Any requests, anyone?

 

Swingate Downs, 13 August 1914

 

Cheers,

shredward

[Hasse Wind 46]

The dogfight between Ernst Udet and Georges Guynemer.

[Mr_Dirt 1]

Amazing Dej I love how the propeller is blurred very nice lighting, a truly fabulous picture.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Hey Dej...where does Cinema 4d come into use?...I have a technician friend of mine who uses it...he kindly bored me rigid once, by showing me a bit of it...what part of the picture do you use it for?

[Dej 17]

Hey Dej...where does Cinema 4d come into use?...I have a technician friend of mine who uses it...he kindly bored me rigid once, by showing me a bit of it...what part of the picture do you use it for?

 

Well, the whole scene is set up in C4D, like a stage... models positioned, posed (ailerons, elevators etc) and lit, camera(s) placed, as a basic. Render and tweak.

 

Next I add in the environment, i.e. sky and terrain and make sure the Sun is in the correct place for the season, time and latitude/logitude of where it's supposed to be. Render and tweak... several times.

 

Then I start skinning, cos I know what the camera will see and therefore where I can get away with less detail. Render and tweak a bunch more.

 

Then I add any other effects such as the Searchlights (parallel spotlights in C4D) and scene-setting paraphanelia such as crates, chocks, other aircraft being worked on, smoking mechanics etc. Render and tweak loads more times.

 

When I'm finally happy, I turn on all the machine-hungry rendering options, set it off outputting the image file and go to bed. Get up in the morning, realise I've overlooked something or something doesn't work as I thought it would with all the bells and whistles, so do the last two stages over again next evening. Rinse and repeat.

 

Last of all I'll take the final image file, whack it into Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro and add any enhancements for colour, or depth of field blurs, grainy filters etc. plus any bits that I haven't been able to model satisfactorily, such as trees.

 

So, Cinema 4D is the bulk of it, really.

 

[EDIT] Forgot to say, research... and liaising with the cognoscenti about such things as what was visible behind Cappy aerodrome (bugger all as it turns out) or what were the correct hangars at Bertangles... or, as is my present dilemma, what identification letter bloody Donald Inglis had on his SE5a! [/EDIT]

Edited April 5, 2011 by Dej

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Dej, you might find that it helps if you stick your tounge out just a bit from the corner of your mouth; and squint. Really steps up the whole process.

 

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[UK_Widowmaker 571]

wow!...you really should get 12 done, and print them as a 2012 calander...I'd buy one..and I bet loads of others would too

[Dej 17]

I might yet, Simon, but not for sale, just as a downloadable me-to-you for the folks here. I don't recall the provenance of all the aircraft 3D models I've acquired over the years and I'll not pass someone else's work off as my own where money's concerned.

 

Lol, Lou, I'm doing that already... the squint's nigh permanent now!

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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hee hee...mine too Dej, mine too.

 

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