Moodboards, designs and Ideas

As I want the truck and the explosion to look realistic, I want to take as much reference from real explosions, metal deformations and truck textures. The explosion will be fueled by petroleum which burns very dirtily. The fuel will burn with huge pumes of thick black smoke. I have made an explosion moodboard below to illustrate different explosions. Not all of them are oil/ petrol based explosions but they are all real explosions. 

These images are useful to see how the smoke moves and how it is effected by the surrounding terran. Petrol is a very flamable liquid and can easily set alight but it releases it's energy slowly. This means that instead of a huge quick explosion you get a large explosion and then the fuel will continue to burn for a much longer period of time.

The next moodboard I have made is for the truck. The truck will obviously be a petrol transporting truck. The containers do not vary much in shape between manufacturers or around the world. The main variences are the front cabs that pull the containers. I have chosen to go for a more european type design for the truck cab as opposed to the American design cab that have the engines protruding out infront of the cab.

These cabs are all similar in shape. They all have the engine contained below the driver and have very flat fronts. The main differences are small aerodynamic changes and logo/manufacturer designs.

 

Final Year Project - Outline

Hello world,

As you may have noticed I haven't posted anything up here for quite a while now. I am now going to use this blog for my final year project. I am going to show you what I plan on doing in my final year and all the production phases.

 

Project Overview

 

For my final year project I am going to make an effects driven piece of a petrol truck explosion. This piece is going to be technically very challenging as their will be a number of explosions, model deformations, truck and debris animations, compositing and texture changes. I am driven by realism and believe I can achieve this difficult task ahead of me.

 

The Breakdown

 

The shot will be no longer than 30 seconds and the main emphasis of the shot will be the explosion itself. The shot is going to be composited onto a live action plate. The shot will show a petrol transporting truck explode and the aftermath of the explosion. The shot will be split up into three main sections. Firstly the particles for the explosion; i.e. the ignition, fire and smoke emitted when the fuel catches alight. Secondly the truck itself, the animation of the truck before and after it explodes, the textures before and after, and how the truck will deform and break due to the explosion pressures. Finally the environment around the truck, how it reacts to the explosion and what impact the environment will have on the explosion.

 

As the aim of the shot is to focus on effects animation and very little else. There will be no humans or animals in the shot. The terrain will be sparse to avoid having to rig trees, bushes or grass to react to the explosion as this would be very time consuming and would not help to elaborate my point. I would like for the shot to be set on a dusty or sandy surface as this would result in changes to the smoke from the explosion when it mixes with the environment, of course this may change due to the complexity of the shot.

This shot will be set in the present day, so all of the props in the scene, will have to adhere to that.

 

In essence this shot sounds like a little boys dream to explode lots of stuff, and I guess in a way it is for me too, however I want this to look realistic, I want people to believe this has happened and I know this will be difficult but it is what drives me, so I can't wait to get my teeth stuck into the project.

 

I have a raft of research and will soon be uploading mood boards and lots of Pre-vis.