Concept and Preproduction

VFX 408 | Update 21

November 12, 2025

Re-edited the final shots, I removed around 10 seconds from the pull into the monolith animation as recommended. I'm not sure how I feel about it being faster, but that's just the way it has to be. To fill in the extra 5 seconds I had to make two more shots. Overall, I believe I performed well this quarter. I accomplished a lot, especially considering I was three months behind. Hopefully, this timing is sufficient to begin working.

VFX 408 | Update 20

November 9, 2025

Created four new rooms, re-edited the final Oculus clip, re-edited the first room clip, re-formatted the previs on the text, re-edited the monolith rooms, created the two new monolith rooms, edited the Space Europa scene so its not so messy, extended the music, extended the final shot, changed english text to an Einstein quote (I know he was german i like the quote it will most likely change) and more. I'm really set on this, I'm very excited.

VFX 408 | Update 19

November 5, 2025

Got some new edits in here. I didn't have the chance to create four new room comps, but they will be done, of course, next week. I changed some pacing, changed camera moves on the last room, changed the transition from inside to space, and started a test on the move into the planet (needs work) added more shots to the monolith room and edited those with my color beats last shot needs re ideaing, i find it boring. I'm not a big weekday worker, to be honest, but I managed to get a big portion done.

VFX 408 | Update 18

November 1, 2025

I got a good note from Joe to edit my montage sections with solid colors. I have not re-timed the animations fully, so it's the same as when I added the montage sections with colors.

This weekend, I added the placeholders for the Intro Text, Final Text, and Credits. I have some more images to compare with my placeholder sections for the quarter final, and I need to re-render the Europa scene on the TV, then zoom into Europa with the satellites in the background.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do for the title. I was thinking it would be cool to have it on the computer before the text pops up, but I'm unsure.

VFX 408 | Update 17

October 29, 2025

Got a lot of reassuring feedback on class 15. One thing I wanted to change before then and forgot was to make a cut to the text on the monolith appearing rather than a camera move. I attempted to do this yesterday, but it felt off. I think just the build-up to that ending still works well, although the camera move might not be the best right now. The move seems important to the buildup. I will go and try to edit my camera move and re-render the previs.

Other than that this weekend I plan to start modeling some of the stele and retopologizing scanned museum assets so I can get a render in with those physical items instead of photoshops.

VFX 408 | Update 16

October 23-26, 2025

Over the weekend, I worked on my notes from last class, which were to add the placeholders for the rooms and also the placeholders for the artifacts area, so I know what is where. I also added the ending of the movie 2010 to see how it would work as my beginning, and it does work, but the scale is off, so I will have to redo it anyway. I think I'm at an area where I have room for ideas, maybe I'll switch some up to more different rooms, but I have the ideas down and I can start maybe polishing up assets.

VFX 408 | Update 15

October 21, 2025

I received a lot of positive feedback on the music and new shots, and I think they worked really well. Over the weekend, I'll solidify those cuts, possibly adjust the satellite scene, and start working on extra rooms. I quickly gathered references for various rooms in different parts of the world. Additionally, I will gather references for rooms that have become worn down or rotted over time.

VFX 408 | Update 14

October 18, 2025

Last week was a lot of music talk. I decided to rearrange my scenes and incorporate more shots and edits, aligning them with "Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra," whose runtime closely matched my original edits. We thought to come up with some quick cuts on the drum hits, so I reworked some new scenes with the blockouts I used previously and created that rough edit to see what works and what doesn't. I briefly edited the music near the end to give it a longer beat for my Europa into shot, but that's about it. I still have to go back and rework the older shots to better fit the music.

Also, that final shot is the fully reworked camera move. The earlier shots require reworked cameras since some of them speed up and slow down in an unusual way. I do have duplicate shots in there that will be changed out with different rooms, I was thinking a bar, a bedroom, and maybe a kitchen.

VFX 408 | Update 13

October 14, 2025

Finally, after deliberating, I think this final camera move is down. I slowed down the entrance turn-in and made sure the camera was dead focused on the monolith throughout the interior shot. I'm excited to have finished this and move on to something else, like the other interior shots.

Here's the previous camera move and scene.

I also worked on finding props for the human interiors and roughly modeled their shapes. I need to rework the human interiors and their respective camera moves. Joe briefly mentioned having the final TV interior shot almost crumble away as a transition, and I really like that idea.

VFX 408 | Update 12

October 11, 2025

This weekend was super busy for me, I tried to find more references for my type of final shot. I still don't think it's there, but I do like this approach most. I did a quick test with some sound and lights to get a better feel for the scene, and it seems to work much better. It's up to interpretation, in any case. I really want to get this move down.

Some Lights and motion blur.

Unlit, longer.

Drone shots are what I'm looking for. My biggest issue is that they all have insane speed going through tight spaces. I need mine to slow down. If this isn't any closer to looking good for the audience, I may just keep it in the back of my mind and get to working on the interior, because I have a lot more to do than another week of camera.

VFX 408 | Update 11

October 8, 2025

Yesterday and early this morning, I worked on my midterm submission, specifically the final sections' animation. I got three separate variations of it, but chose the one we went over in class for my midterm.

There's still a ton of work I want to fix on the camera animations and speed in general. I still think I need an extra room; I just have to flesh that out. I was thinking, as a way to separate the "human" scenes from the floating camera ones, I would add a slight camera shake to those room scenes.

Heres those two extra final shot camera moves, one inverted one more normal.

VFX 408 | Update 10

October 5, 2025

This weekend, I mainly worked on research and the two final scenes. The one with the planet and the one inside the "pantheon”. I also did a lot more blocking work for that interior and some quick lighting tests to see where I might want to place some lights. I still need to play with my scaling as id love to get the entire pantheon interior in frame, but I dont want an very wide focal length and I still need to be able to read the text on the monolith. So I am debating doing a slow move into the bottom section of the monolith with the two new enscribed languages.

This camera animation still needs more work, and more work with the shot blending and speed especially in the interior transition. Im moving from literal planet scale to interior scale which makes the speed transition tougher.

The three lights in the back give me a good excuse to fake some rims later on, and the light top down lights the portion my new text will be at best. This is just a low quality sample test so not much bounce yet.

Overall I think this whole area needs some scaling work, looking at actual scans of the pantheon shows the scale great, and this doesnt yet. Theres a great scan of the inteior minus the floor online 3D MODEL HERE I may get it and model scale based off of the more accurate representation. I also may animate the interior camera from a curve instead of the more manual way to get a smoother camera move.

VFX 408 | Update 9

September 30, 2025

I did not have a whole lot of time to do anything today, but I managed to quickly model some chairs based on the Djinn chair, which was used briefly in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Depending on the year the thickness of the chairs seems to change so I may thicken the seat up a bit. I also fixed all my camera sizes I accidentaly had half of them 16:9.

I did add that element into my interior shot. Additionally, I removed the windows, added placeholders outside buildings/props inside, and adjusted the colors to better align with my desired look. For the first scene, I created additional variations of the button texture and applied them to different areas. Although I couldn't directly discern what they say in the movie due to the high fringe, I made an educated guess.

VFX 408 | Update 8

September 29, 2025

This weekend, I started blocking on my 3D animatic just to get a sense of scale and location, but most importantly, speed. It took a while, and while I like my shots, I have more ideas now, especially when it comes to transitions. The areas I'm most weary of are the transition from Planet to TV, then room to room, then from TV to Planet, and the final transition. My blocking is fine so far. I also need to start gathering some audio and video for my next previs update. Also I want to add more in between TV rooms.

Couple of issues right off the bat. I rendered all but the 1st scene in the wrong resolution so I they scaled to fit. And the final shot camera move is not what I'm envisioning; it's just quick.

VFX 408 | Update 7

September 23, 2025

I got a ton of good feedback from my first animatic. A big takeaway from just the technical aspect of the animatic is the aspect ratio. We had a lengthy debate about what would best suit my film. I originally wanted a more square aspect ratio, 4:3, but everyone else seemed to agree that something wider would give me more room to play around with the shots. Someone suggested a 2:1 Univision format, which I think will be my final aspect ratio choice, it lets me not use 16:9 which I always feel I use and its just generic to me, but it also gives me wiggle room in a demo reel to crop into 16:9 and also lets me play around with the aspect ratio during the project if I wanted to add bars to a sequence.

Going into the story, my classmates and prof had really, really good ideas. I was initially going to focus on one individual, but I wanted to convey the massive scale of this idea through them. It was suggested that instead of time jumping through this one individual, using the TV as a connection to people throughout the world. So, for instance, one shot in the USA, one shot in Russia, one in some European country, one in an Asian country, or an African Country. I really like this idea, as it would connect everyone through the TV while still showing the scale of this discovery and the desire behind it.

Another suggestion to spice up the thought behind the ending was to instead of having my final Pantheon shot focus on Greek and Roman gods, I use it as a sort of museum or final resting place for civilizations. It was suggested to me that the monolith in the center be used as a sort of Rosseta Stone, with all the top languages from massive human civilizations listed top-down. And as the camera moves back, artifacts from each of

Those civilizations surround the monolith.

I would of course have the Hieroglyph and

Demotic Script off of the Rosetta Stone, but then

include ancient languages as best as I could from

Aztecs, Romans, Byzantine, Ottomans, Sumerians,

Etruscans and always finish off with American

English and Russian to symbolize their fall.

There was also a discussion of adding different

deities from different cultures in the background

and even some made up deities, either they were

undiscovered or from another planet.

I am still reworking my animatic as it's only been a day. I think most people agreed that the beginning part was fine, so I am starting back to front and reworking the aspect ratio along with the final and middle scenes, then I will research out the audio and news overlays.

VFX 408 | Update 6

September 21, 2025

Watched some more movies, 2010, and Ad Astra, I also wrapped up my full first draft for my concept. I think it came out fine, but I am definetly not 100% there with timing or even some shot choices.

Final shot is gonna be like the reference image I put a couple days ago. I do like the time skips shots, but I do not think I have them fully realized in my head. My idea is sort of similar to "The Pianist," where over time the apartment deteriorates and eventually everything does.

VFX 408 | Update 5

September 20, 2025

I'm still working on the animatic from last night. I thought up some more ideas for the middle part, where I originally wanted to reuse footage/news. I want to keep that same idea, but to maintain the idea, we are looking through a human perspective. I want this to take place in a singular spot. A family living room staring at a TV. I could also use this room to show a passage of time, similarly to how "Here" with Tom Hanks does it.

I think I'll be able to use a window in this room to show the deterioration of the outside world from this obsession, as well as TV clippings showing chaos. Eventually, the walls would be destroyed, and the outside would be a barren wasteland. I still want to touch on elements of religion, maybe government/ authoritarianism, in the living room environment, coming up to the collapse.

My conflict will remain to be the moon Europa, but to egg it along, I want to use some of the Cold War references in "2010: The Year We Make Contact". A space race to land on this moon/ get information out of it. This would ultimately lead to the end of the human race, like I originally planned.

I was thinking style today, and although it'll be all 3D, I want to try to emulate a film look in color and lighting.

VFX 408 | Update 4.5

September 19, 2025

Tonight I also started fixing up the first portion of the animatic. Next, I have the time progression on Earth showing the obsession. I think voice-overs would work well for this, maybe distorted news clippings, and maybe quick flashes of Europa throughout, leading to that final shot of a collapsed Earth, then the viewer on Europa.

VFX 408 | Update 4.0

September 19, 2025

Today I started looking for reference images. These ones would pertain to my Final shot. As I mentioned previously, I wanted lots of Roman God references, especially to the God Jupiter. I am just collecting items I could reference in the final Pantheon room, stuff I would put on the walls or surrounding the room.

I also did a quick Photoshop of The Interior of the Pantheon, Rome by Giovanni Paolo Panini. I really like this work and the angle I think it looks cool with the monolith in the center.

Along with this, I've been working to find style references for what I want my final shots to look like, so 2001 styles, etc.

VFX 408 | Update 3.0

September 18, 2025

At home today, I watched and took notes on Tarkovsky’s Stalker and Solaris. Stalker is shot similarly to how I want to set up shots in my project. There are long, drawn-out shots, slow camera movements, if any at all. The audio is quiet, with no heavy sound effects. The maximum amount of sound is when someone is talking, and there is some eerie background white noise, which I’d like to replicate in my project. There are a couple of zoom-out shots and shots using a very zoomed lens.

I do very much like the idea of obsession in this movie as it pertains to the Zone. The Zone in this movie is used to show obsessed people believe it can solve their problems, or there is some deep reason this area is so heavily guarded. It is almost cultish the way people yearn to go to the Zone in the movie. The mirror of human obsession for the Zone is the EXACT meaning I want in my story.

I can picture in my mind the beginning of my story and the ending aswell as some portions of the middle, but not as many. I do know I want to follow Tarkovskys 1.37:1 aspect ratio for my project specifically, I think this scale makes it easier to show loneliness and emotion when dealing with slow shots.

I want to start with the end of 2010

This Scene.

The camera will be in the same spot, as the text fades, we are left with the new Jupiter as a sun. I then want the ship's camera to refocus, isolating the moon Europa, and as it comes into focus, the image gets static and statics out.

The camera will fade with Europa still centered in view. I want this to be a slow shot, ~20 seconds, (Maybe a title card in the corner, computer type, 40 years later, etc., Europa) we can see the planet and slight stars in the background. A lone observation satellite drifts in front of the camera, obviously damaged, blinking red (being lit by Jupiter). Then a mass of space debris follows it

Similar to the example image.

I want to show failure and obsession in this shot. Maybe an indication of different generations of satellites all broken. Wasted time and wasted effort while also polluting this moon.

After this, we see more examples of obsession and failure. I thought it'd be funny to show a failed satellite launch because I wanted to originally do something with a launch, but it’s cliché, so this pokes fun at it. After that, I want to show more time skips, the degradation of society over this obsession. I want to show the collapse and how this obsession ultimately leads to the destruction of our society. I think some made-up news clips and religious scenes would help convey the collapse over this single idea.

Final shot will be after the collapse of everything. We, the viewers, go to Europa. Its barren of course, but theres a circular hole. The camera goes in and we see what looks like the Pantheon. Similarly to 2001, we see a human looking area this time devioid of anyone. I want paintings that line the walls, Aincent Roman Gods, at the center is Jupiter surrounded by other Gods. And in the center is a Monolith.

There will be ancient frescoes and human artifacts, such as statues, Galileo's writings on Jupiter, and Research Findings, etc. Just like how 2001 had old artifacts.

I just started sketching my animatic. Once I have it a little less rough, I'll post maybe tomorrow.

VFX 408 | Update 2.0

September 17, 2025

In class today I worked more looking into what my idea will be. Professor gave me a good idea in using the end of "2010: The Year We Make Contact" specifically when the viewer sees "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE". I want my story and idea to base around the fact that we as humans can not and will not always know what is behind the curtain, in this case Europa.

I do not want a resolution. I want the exploration of the idea that sometimes we can be unsure and leave it be. We do not need to force ourselves into everything and everywhere.

In the stories case elements will limit humans from reaching and seeing Europa. They will try every way we know how and learn nothing. In the end I want a veiw of Europa not from the humans view but from the cameras, and it will show a barren plant with one large monolith sticking up from the ground.

VFX 408 | Update 1.0

September 16, 2025

I had some technical difficulties getting into this class. It's all sorted as of today, and I am ideating as fast as humanly possible. For my final project, I hope to do something with Nuke, Houdini, and Blender, which I feel are my strongest tools.

My loves are sci-fi, specifically Alien and Blade Runner. I'd love to encapsulate some of those dystopian feelings in the final I decide to come up with.