The Emperor's "Steel Tent" - SPECIAL EDITION

Back to the modeling.

Was reading DUNE the other night while rendering one of those animations and noted that the description for the Emperor's "Steel Tent" included a scale and the number of levels.

It wasn't the lighter that excited Stilgar's awe, Paul knew, but the construction for which the lighter was only the centerpost. A single metal hutment, many stories tall, reached out in a thousand meter circle from the base of the lighter - a tent composed of interlocking metal leaves - the temporary lodging place for five legions of Sardaukar and His Imperial Majesty, The Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.
From his position squatting at Paul's left, Gurney Halleck said: "I count nine levels to it. Must be quite a few Sardaukar in there."

And I realized that the original model I made based on the movie prop only has six levels. So since this is after all a "special edition" I decided to remodel it to be more "accurate" and add in the extra 3 levels and now the base of it is 1000 meters across (though its not square as there are 3 panels on the top level front & back and 4 panels on the top level at the sides.)
It's still much the same but I made the beams and joints a bit smaller to give a better impression of scale.

ORIGINAL:

SPECIAL EDITION:

SPECIAL EDITION RENDER:

(click images to enlarge)

Paul's Filmbook Lesson

 

 

Click On Images To Enlarge

Well, here is My 1st attempt at redoing the filmbook sequence.
Watch the full animation over at youtube HERE

I wasn't going to touch it until I realized that I had changed the look of the planets a bit so I had to redo those shots, and then one thing let to another and I have redone all the shots, sans the two close up text shots. I also enlarged the screen a bit on first shot where you see the film book - note - the control setup was way ahead of its time: Looks like it has 4 ipod style control wheels - Central button with outer ring.
There are still a whole host of things that need fixing and improving, but you get the idea of where I am going with this I hope!
There is also a deleted scene where Paul is sitting on a bed in a room on Arrakis (After the attempt on his life and shortly before he is drugged by Dr Yueh), where Paul is studying a filmbook. The scene starts rather abruptly and doesn't seem to quite "fit" into the other scenes, so I am considering doing a second filmbook sequence that would start that scene and impart the audience with further knowledge on the things they are about to encounter (The Fremen, the worms, desert survival etc).

DUNE "Special Edition" WIP Showreel

Happy New Year!
Well, I've uploaded the showreel I have been working on since Christmas.
It contains most of the animations and tweaks that I have in a relatively presentable stage... most of them have been on YouTube before, but a few I have not released before. See it HERE
It certainly does not cover everything I have been working on... just the reasonably presentable stuff!
Still a lot of work to do... but it is starting to come together and hopefully there will be a few exciting developments soon. (Fingers crossed - Just have to get some employment on My end to keep things going!).
Also interesting is that Paramount has hired director Pierre Morel (Taken, District 13), to direct their long in the works version of Dune. I will certainly be interested to see where they take that!