Initial thoughts on design brief

Initial thoughts on design brief

Following my reading of the design brief, I have begun researching appropriate scenes from Star Wars. I am aiming to find models with a reasonable level of complexity that compliment each other and work together in an achievable setting. Below are some initial ideas specifying the three models they will contain, their location, the actual sequence and brief pros and cons of each concept.

AT-AT Takedown

Credit: http://www.starwars.com/at-at-walker-history-gallery

R2D2 repairs a Rebel snowspeeder in the hanger in Echo Base and proceeds to get knocked back from being electrocuted. The snowspeeder then uses it's tow cable to trip up it's legs before the rest of the ships shoot it til it explodes. Adapted from Battle of Hoth scene from Episode 5: Empire Strikes Back

Setting: Hoth (snowy, desolate planet with rebel bases)

Models: Snowspeeder (ship), ATAT (quadrupedal land vehicle), R2D2 (non-humanoid droid) 

Pros: Straight forward landscape, range of models, lots of reference material from film scene

Cons: Landscape potentially too simplistic (one type of terrain), complex animation of realistic tow cable movement

Slave I Pursuit

Credit: http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/attack-of-the-clones/attack-clones3.gif

During the events of Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, Obi Wan's A-Wing ship exits hyperdrive and gives chase to Jango Fett's Slave I bounty hunter ship. The two ships out-maneuver one another through the asteroid belt surrounding the desert planet of Geonosis. Jango fires a missile which Obi Wan explodes safely by releasing spare parts for it to impact.

Setting: Asteroid belt surrounding a barren, orange desert planet in space

Models: Slave I (upright ship shown on the right of the above image), A-Wing and spare parts (ship shown on the left), asteroids (varying sizes for explosion debris)

Pros: A few varying low poly asteroids can be duplicated to create full scenery, interesting action between fighting and avoiding asteroids, lots of reference material from film scene

Cons: Poly count in scene will be high due to the many static asteroids, asteroids can't be part of skybox as ships will need to move around them in 3D

Battle over Coruscant R2D2 vs Buzz Droird

Credit: http://www.starwars.com/databank/buzz-droid

Obi Wan's yellow starfighter containing R2D2 is flying around in the space battle being fought over the planet of Coruscant. A separatist buzz droid crawls onto the ship and R2D2 fights him off with his taser arm. Taken from the opening scene of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.

Setting: Space battle over the political capital planet of Coruscant


Models: Obi Wan's starfighter (ship), R2D2 (droid) and Buzz Droid (enemy droid)

Pros: The main action in this scene happens close up between two smaller models, range of unique models, easy to achieve skybox of space

Cons: A lot of extra models and animation would be required to make background action realistic, only one action to focus on

Any mention of humanoid characters is purely for the context of story as these will not be modeled. Cockpit windows will be tinted to hide the lack of pilots.