Rome ( HBO ) . Storm sequence

For our work on the HBO version of Rome we created a short sequence where a handful of Roman ships are wreaked at sea. To realise the sequence we took an existing model of the boat, slightly enhancing both the shaders and geometry to refine the look and ready it for animation. The animation for the sequence was all driven by the water motion of a storm plate supplied by production, the plate was first stabilized and the boat animated to match the wave motion in Maya. We next proceeded to setup rope and sail dynamics, first anchoring the sail and ropes to the mast and hull so that the resultant dynamic simulation would be driven directly from the motion of the boat. Bow splash and foam for the shots was generated by creating a water surface plane and animating it to match the water motion, the actual emission point of the spray was driven by a set of expressions that sampled the boats up and down motion in conjunction with its intersection to the surface plane. Once approved the animation data and geometry for the shots was transfered from Maya to Lightwave for rendering using a custom inhouse tool. Final lighting and shading was undertaken using Lightwave with the elements being supplied to After Effects for final composite.

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Last Updated . 8 January, 2007 1:14 PM