Late in 2006, a co-worker mentioned that her husband was looking for someone to do some 3D work for a movie. Naturally, I was interested. After a meeting with the compositor, I was very excited to do some blood and armor debris effects for what was described to me as, “a really, horrible movie.” It was a Uwe Boll picture based on a PC game called Dungeon Siege…but it wasn’t going to be called Dungeon Seige. It was to have some other name, but no one had made a final decision, yet. Either way, it was apparently pretty terrible, but I didn’t care at all. In fact, that made the job that much easier to take because it meant that if I bombed and my effects sucked it wouldn’t hurt the movie. I would do my best.
The work consisted of five shots, each not more than 5 seconds. Two required a blood spurt from a sliced throat and three needed armor debris and dust from sword hits. I had only a theoretical understanding of particle systems in Maya at the time, but I knew this was the way to go for all five shots. The blood would be generic particles as blobby surfaces (Maya’s designation, not mine) with some sub-surface scattering (or SSS), the debris would be an emitter firing out a random selection of pre-modeled armor chunks, and the dust would be volumetric particle systems that could be pushed around with a collide effect.
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This shot had two sword hits and a final stab at the end. I had originally imagined there would be blood in these shots as well, but I was told by my contact that only the throat cut shots should have blood, so there would be no final spurt at the end stabbing in this plate. To better see the dust I made it black during testing so I could better judge the movement. Here you’re seeing two particle emitters for each hit. One point emitter for the random pieces of debris and one volumetric for the dust. The first shot also includes a larger piece of armor that flies off screen-right that I animated by hand as there only needed to be one piece (rather than several randomly animated as a particle system).
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In this shot, our nimble swordsman takes out two of the offending, goblin-like creatures called Krug. I was told they were designed after the Orcs of Lord of the Rings. Apparently, there were many production similarities between this movie and LotR. Costuming and what-have-you. I was assured that despite this the movies were not comparable. Anyhow, the FX in this shot were accomplished the same as the previous one. Emitter for debris, volumetric for dust (now red for visibility in testing), and a few hand animated pieces shaped like armor. These dust clouds were also affected by an influencer that would make the dust get sucked in the direction of the falling Krug.
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Here, again, we have an armor emitter, a dust emitter, and a big chunk of armor for hit. Each dust cloud is pushed/pulled in the direction of the falling baddy. This shot turned out well, IMHO. The light shining through the fog in the background made the debris stand out. The dust clouds are somewhat lost in the fog, but it still adds to the effect.
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In this shot Matthew Lillard, from such cinematic gems as Hackers and Scooby Doo, gets his throat cut rather violently. All I had to do was come up with the blood particles while the compositor would take care of the throat wound. I had the choice of something more gloppy and heavy that would quickly fall to the ground or something lighter that would spray expressively. If you look at the video you’ll see I went for the more fluid spray. I was impressed with the way it came out and strangely satisfied that I helped gore Matthew Lillard. I liked him in Scream, though.
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As I understand it, this shot was only used in the director’s cut. The dynamics of the particles are the same as the previous shot, with more of a runny blood that sprays well as if from a major artery. I have to admit, it was creepy to have to worry about the physiological ramifications of having your throat cut with a broadsword. At least I was getting paid for it. Once again, I was responsible for the blood particles but not the throat wound. I thought the compositor did a great job with such a close-up shot.
In the end, these effects were entertaining to make despite the overall quality of the movie, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. I’ve since rented the movie and immediately went to the credits to find my name. And there I was in tiny text. I then went on to try and watch the movie but only got 10 minutes in before I gave up. I’ve never played the game so I can’t speak of the quality there. I may not watch a Uwe Boll picture but I’d be happy to make effects for him any day. One surprise result with doing these FX: an IMDB post for me. It turns out it happens automatically.
Currently I’m working on a billboard (both in television terms and literally) for Laugh Pack. A billboard on television is usually just a logo over a background with some sort message akin to “This program is brought to you in part by company name.” In this case the LP can will be in a dark scene next to a power switch (yet to be modeled) and illuminated by one spotlight. The can will flip the switch turning on the lights on the billboard, the camera will zoom up and settle on a sponsor logo. Meanwhile, the announcer will be saying, “Tonight the Laugh Pack is brought to you by company.” These are the kinds of projects I like. They’re short and quick to model. I’ll post an example when it’s done.