JOHN CARTER GOES TO MARS By Mike Carambat, Animator:
>> CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROGRESS SO FAR <<
(8.5Mbytes, Quicktime Required)
Story Behind the Project:
As the webmaster for this website, I run across lots of interesting stuff made by fans. But, stuff like Kurt Metz's Tower's of Mars animation really caught my attention. Yes, it's short. Yes, it's basic. But not many fans take so much time offering homage to John Carter of Mars. This is why it's on my site as well (See home page). It is also the inspiration I needed to make my own.
I am currently working on my own JCOM film. I call it, "John Carter goes to Mars." It has only been in halting production since late July of 2006. Right now, the project is still incomplete. When done, I am expecting it to be a full 5 minutes in length. I'm not crazy enough to think I can 3D model the entire story in my lifetime, so I'm only getting JC from Arizona to Mars with my short. Someone else can take the torch from there :) I was part of something just like this a long time ago called the BIM (Big Infini-D Movie)... maybe something like this can happen here... y'all lemme know if you are interested in continuing the story.
Please don't ask me when it will be done. I am only working on it maybe 2 or 3 hours a week as I've got lots more on my plate right now. In fact, the segment currently available has been in the works since 2005 off and on. :)
Storyboard:
The following is a work in progress. I've broken the storyboard into five parts. I am only giving the smaller size web version right now for download. A full sized, 720 pixel wide, panovision proportioned, 24 fps movie will be available on DVD when the project is complete.
I am attempting to keep as true to the story as possible, but am taking some liberties in places to enhance my visuals and pacing. I am also shooting the entire thing THROUGH THE EYES OF JOHN CARTER. I am doing this partly because it's just a really cool thing to do, and partly because I am a horrible character animator and don't like to do people and this is a clever way to not have to draw the main character :)
PART 1: John Carter finds the Cave - COMPLETED
We begin with John Carter in the hot Arizona desert. He is already in pursuit by the Apaches. He turns and tries to find cover up the mountain where he discovers the cave and walks inside.
PART 2: John Carter inside the Cave - NEARLY COMPLETE!
Exhausted, JC sits down in the dark cave, loads his gun and looks out the opening with daylight streaming in. An Apache pokes his head into the opening. A rushing, rustling sound eminates from the back of the cave. The Apache screams, turns to run and falls off the cliff to his death.
JC smells something odd in the air and the cave opening becomes blurry and he passes out only to wake to a beautiful night sky through the cave opening with Mars dominate. He finds he can't move, but the rustling sound grows ominously closer. Mars becomes larger and more intoxicating. In his efforts to free himself, he is hurled out of his body into the glowing red ember in the sky (this is gonna be a cool effect).
PART 3: John Carter leaves the Cave
Waking from the disorienting effect of being disembodily hurled, he finds himself still in the cave (that's a bit of poetic license here folks, please forgive) looking at the same night sky constellations as before. He assumes it was a dream. That is until he notices that Mars is gone and there are now two oddly shaped moons slowly tumbling across the night sky! He also finds he can rise which he does immediately only to reveal an alien landscape below his horizon. He walks out into an ever reddening alien dawn.
PART 4: John Carter walks out into the lakebed
JC finds himself not on the mountain any more, but on the inside rim of what once was a gigantic lake now only a dry bed with odd vegetation carpeting the ground. He also notices his bare feet and that he is naked. He takes a few steps only to fall to the ground. After a few stumbles he is taking gigantic leaps across the lakebed. He's amazed. He sees something glinting off the the east. He makes for it in leaps with his shadow following below.
PART 5: John Carter discovers the incubator
John discovers a Thark incubator. He looks over the hundreds of eggs in amazement. Some are shaking, some begin to crack. He picks one up and looks it over closely. Soon after, the shadow of something huge with four arms falls on the rough egg surface. He turns to face his first encounter with a 15 foot Thark siluetted in the sun.
THE END
Behind the Scenes:
I am a bit of a purist in the worst sense. Most everything you see or will see in future segments is 3d modeled from the ground up and rendered. If you see a rock, it's a truly 3d modeled rock, not a picture of one. I also don't use prefab 3d models or texture maps. I build it all myself. The current segment has about 30 seperate models in it. Even the entire sky and ground plane are texture mapped to the inside of a gigantic 24 mile squished sphere with a real sun lighting it from the inside. The mountain trail JC is walking on is on an actual scale mountain with a back side in case I need later to show it.
I do ALL of my modeling and rendering on an ancient 3D software package called Infini-D made by Specular originally, then Metacreations, and now exists as Carrara by a company called Eovia which no longer supports Infini-D. Which sucks. I love this software because it's extremely fast and renders very realistically and quickly on my pathetic Powermac 7600 with a 350Mhz G3 upgrade processor and 352 Megs of ram running OS 9. I've had this computer for nearly 7 years now and is my workhorse which I daily beat to death. The current 30 second render above takes about 8 hours to complete a full low level antialiased 720 pixel wide panovision proportioned, 24 fps scene. The version you guys get is reduced in scale and framerate. There will be a DVD available when finished at the high quality size.
I do all my texture maps in Photoshop 5 and all my post production in After Effects 3.1. I get all my sound effects off the internet or sample them myself.
I think 50% of why I am doing this is to show just how much you can do with so little. I hope it inspires others to make short films about JC as well on their PC's. It could be something as simple as a couple of basic costumes and a camcorder. Or, just as you see, something done completely in your computer.
If you've got your own JCOM movie to show, please send it to the email address below and I'll put it up for you! I would love to show more fan work! Fan still artwork is also appreciated, but I can't put it all on the site. There simply is just too much of it. I am mostly looking for MOVIES. So keep em coming!
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