It appears to be working now.
Some of the older WIP video clips
have been deleted by me but that one
is working for now. Sometimes they do not play.
You wonder is Paramount legal checking on
the fan status when it happens?

I am working this weekend at my real job and then fly to LA for a funeral.
Not much work is going to happen on the videos until later next week. Stay tuned for
More exciting scenes from next week’s episode.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes :D the big 30! and I'm sorry to hear about the funeral Kenneth :(

So far the Card video is looking great

PM Malvoisin about voices for BOTE.

Happy 30 Blaze. Welcome to the dark side.

yes. what we need right now is written in the post before the one that you quoted from Kenneth. There's nothing wrong to do two versions of it by changing our self-made race names with Star Trek ones. There is an english Star Trek mod for BotE made by our german BotE community in the works as far as I know so they'll surely be happy then. Also Supremacy can well use these voice recordings for their game menu sounds will probably be pretty much the same as ours for BotE.

you can btw. also directly post into our BotE subforums in a new thread on "BotE Screenshots, Informations and Plans". That way SirP and the other BotE crew members can see and respond to your works as well. Thanks for giving it a try!

I am starting to get some better results for the star fields in my animation. This is still a WIP but
there is improvement in the issues of star flicker and smear with camera motion. That was
a big problem in the earlier video.

Cool Kenneth! And the planet looks like it's much more realistic too. It's not flat anymore, it actually looks like the mountains are rising above the surface. Very cool.

It looks to me like a cloud layer added as a bump texture, starfield is brilliant.

Will you be remaking all videos with this technique?

Brilliant work, brilliant.

Thanks
The videos will be remade over time. I refer to the current run as alpha. It was clear that the work would improve with more experience.

The planets will be getting some improvements as you noted. I need to work on a few new maps for the surface to control elevation (bump or normal map), reflection (secularity map) as well as ways to get that atmosphere to fade out into space without the sharp edge (blur nodes).

Well included both specular and bump maps with some HQ textures you could use as a starting point.

That will help, see PM

A real nice starfield!
And the planet looks really detailed as said already. The view is awesome! The stars now take their place in space with a sense of distance.
Way to go my friend!

You're good kenneth, Oh you're good!

Thanks but it is just slow incremental changes.
The music and voice are what carries the videos.

You are right...partly.
In my opinion, the image and video take a great part in sticking one to the screen. Most of the time, if the scenes are of higher quality and tell a story, I have a tendency to keep watching it until it ends, no matter if the music or voice is good or not.
Both are good and useful to help capturing interests, not one less than the other.
My 2 cents...

It is a tedious process to get the new star fields and planet to work with the animation.
Sorry it is taking so long. Here is a low resolution frame of the alien world the
Cards have been scheming for. Note that only the water reflects light strongly.
Also see the outline of an additional content with city lights on the dark side, left.
A bump map gives elevation to ground features and also a bit in the clouds.

Low whistle... Is that planet (and city lights) entirely out of Blender? I've got some learnin' to do.

The textures are not made in blender but it is all put together with rendering in blender.

The clouds float above. Is that a texture too? Edit: Oh a bump map.

There are three spheres. The ground, the clouds and the atmosphere.

Really impressive Kenneth!
You mean, when rendered, everything will be animated like the real thing? Clouds, water reflection and action on the planet? Amazing!!!

"low resolution frame"

If that's low res, what the hell do you call high res?

Here is a link to work in progress for combat in the Card video



Working on ways to get the action to look good.


Things are a bit rushed this weekend so I will not finish this right off. I have to study a bit for a one scene bit part in a new film. I was cast to play a doctor in a shoot with Christopher Walken playing the suicidal patient. This will be my first time working with a guy that has an Oscar in his back pocket. The film is called Seven Psychopaths and my shoot is currently set for Nov 16.


Christopher Walken


Seven Psychopaths

Dr. Kenneth. Congrats on the part. I'll look forward to seeing you in it.

Congratulations Kenneth!

Nice video Kenneth, though on image with planet I think that you non intentionally bumped clouds or is it just me...