Starcraft 2 HoS cinematic Inspired project

Hi! This is the result of my studies done during the second year at Side Academy. Since I had an interest in hard surface modelling and rigging I focused on those aspects. Compositing was also a strong subject in the project.

Starting from the few reference I could find, I first built the tank model in maya. I tried to follow the model used in the Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm cinematic. I was lucky enough to find images of the original model directly on Vitaly Bulgarov website (the artist that made the model for blizzard).

I wanted to focus on the rigging aspect of this project as it is one of the subject I have a strong  interest in.

I spent a lot of time on the tank track to get the movement I wanted. I used a mel script given to me by one of the teachers as the base to write my own tank threads rig tool.

For the lateral stabilizers I used an IK approach for the main body and also the cables since simulating them was giving me a hard time. (I didn't have any houdini knowledge back then).

To composite all the pieces togheter I used NukeX. I renered the maya scene in different parts to speed up render time using more than one pc. I got the atmosphere I wanted with color correction. Added fog for depth as well as motion blur and depth of field. I also composited the gun firing explosion instead of simulating them for a convenience of time.

Model and texturing done by me.

Buildings in the background are assets downloaded. I texturized them with the help of megascan textures. 

I learnt a lot during this project. From managing files with big sizes to how to divide the scene in different renders to put back together in comp.

It helped me grow under all aspects of what it means to create a full CG scene.

Little extra I rendered while creating the shot