Preview: The War Of The Worlds

[Adirondack]

During the last months, Jestr and me were making a Celestia-Version of Jeff Wayne's
Musicalversion of H.G. Wells' "The War Of The Worlds".

Jestr built the models I had requested for the add-on that I had on my storyboard.
And Jestr made a real great job! I can't say often enough: Thank you, Jestr ^10.

The WOTW-Add-On is not ready yet, we just want to make you curious with a
website of our add-on, before we will release the add-on (probably on June 1).
The webpage contains a brief "making of", a history of our work, information
about the story and some screenshots.

Right now I still have to code the german speaking touring script (our add-on will
contain an english and a german version). The tour will last about 35 minutes,
separated in 4 parts (8 - 10 minutes) by an interactive controlled celx script.


Adirondack

[buggs_moran]

Wow. Sometimes I think (as does my wife) that I spend far too much time working on my Celestia things. But you guys obviously put a ton of work into this. Nice. Can't wait to see the final project.

[cpotting]

WOW

That looks fantastic (well... I guess that is the idea). I can't wait.

BTW: are you aware of the computer game by GT Interactive and Rage? I don't know if it is available anymore, but if you can find it, it may provide some good animations on how the martian machines move (besides, it was just fun to play).

[Jeam Tag]

During the last months, Jestr and me were making a Celestia-Version of Jeff Wayne's
Musicalversion of H.G. Wells' "The War Of The Worlds".Adirondack

Well, that looks amazing, great work, Adirondack and Jestr, I see you've grandly enhanced the little tripod by D. Proctor I've placed upon Jestr's Stonehenge many months ago... Superb! Can I hope you will release this stuff for my birthday on June,3 ? Jeam, who have just glanced (I've seen it many times) on French TV the old movie by Byron Haskin (1953)... funny, but I definitively prefer the Tripods

[Adirondack]

BTW: are you aware of the computer game by GT Interactive and Rage?

cpotting,

Yes, I know and own this game.
IIRC (I didn't play it for a long time), the Fighting Machines are just tiny figures that walk in a very strange way.
Though ... the introduction shows a fantastic moving machine (which is destroying a train with its Heat Ray).
But IIRC, this machine don't walk in this scene. Same in the final epilogue (slashed machines in London).

Hm, the more I think about it, the more I think to install the game once again. Maybe there are some points for an update or improvements for walking machines in the future...

@ Jeam:

Can I hope you will release this stuff for my birthday on June,3 ?

I hope so.

Adirondack

[Malenfant]

Awesome, I love WotW (esp. the Jeff Wayne version - that godawful Tom Cruise movie version needs to be destroyed)!

[Rassilon]

I really need to get back into doing this addon thing again....

Very impressive work guys... Jestr when will you start making models for Activision or EA?

[rthorvald]

During the last months, Jestr and me were making a Celestia-Version of Jeff Wayne's
Musicalversion of H.G. Wells' "The War Of The Worlds".

The WOTW-Add-On is not ready yet, we just want to make you curious with a
website of our add-on, before we will release the add-on

Nice!
And expecially, fun to read the website: i wish more designers presented their work properly. Much, much more interesting than a short summary on the ML.

[jestr]

Jestr when will you start making models for Activision or EA?

Never I guess Rass,I love doing this stuff for Celestia but I think the interest would quickly wane if I have to do it as a job (working to someone elses ideas,standards and timetable).
Actually I wish I had thought the tripod model through a bit more it would have been cool to animate it stomping around Horsell common,but when I tried to do it,I realised the legs weren't attached in a way which would have allowed this,and it was too late to start over from scratch.
Cheers for all the positive comments folks,Jestr

[Rassilon]

Jestr when will you start making models for Activision or EA?

Never I guess Rass,I love doing this stuff for Celestia but I think the interest would quickly wane if I have to do it as a job (working to someone elses ideas,standards and timetable).
Actually I wish I had thought the tripod model through a bit more it would have been cool to animate it stomping around Horsell common,but when I tried to do it,I realised the legs weren't attached in a way which would have allowed this,and it was too late to start over from scratch.
Cheers for all the positive comments folks,Jestr

Thats the problem when you try to make a profit on your skills... You never do it for yourself but for someone else... Defeats the creative and imaginitive process... On the other hand if you were to start your own business you might actually enjoy it and set your own standards...

[fsgregs]

Hi guys:

This is obviously not the ideal place to discuss this, but since you mentioned modeling in graphics business and in game design, I have been wondering something.

I have just been playing a video game called "Call of Duty 2". It runs on Win XP and is an amazing example of software code that can create a virtual world and animate it in a variety of ways. Not only do men run around and tanks rumble through the scene at FPS rates of 50 or more, but the game displays an unbelievable example of "nebula", in the form of smoke. Toss a smoke grenade and a cloud of billowing, moving, colored, animated, VERY realistic smoke drifts across the scene. You can run through it and it envelops you in all directions. Fire a gun and smoke will come out its barrel and move forward with the bullet.

Whatever the software technique used to code that smoke, it is just awesome.

Could something like that be incorporated into Celestia so that nebula become vibrant and 3-dimensional, without dropping frame rates to a low level? Imagine if the cylinder you created for the WOTW add-on belched flame/plasma/smoke as it flew through Celestia space???

Anyway ... I was just wondering ...

Frank