Apr 20, 2016
Astronaut Tom
I threw Major Tom on Sketchfab, give him a spin.
seen from Israel
seen from Macao SAR China
seen from China
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Poland
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Argentina
seen from China
seen from Poland
seen from Germany
seen from Poland
seen from Australia
Astronaut Tom
I threw Major Tom on Sketchfab, give him a spin.
Space Orbiteer pt3: Polygons
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Be prepared for some technical babel.
Realistic renders and simulations were a bit time consuming so I decided to go the in-game cinematics way. With the detail and clothe folds baked into a low poly model. Not as nice as actual animation, but its still presentable.
Major Tom in all his glory. Screengrab from 3Do by Quixel.
His suit was sculpted in Zbrush and baked down to a low poly in Xnormal. The tiny normals details were done with the help of NDo.
Unfortunately, realism did not gel with the environment so some stylization was needed.
And the final outcome
The Astronaut.
His lander.
And the environment.
And now to animate, not my forte but I will try.
Space Orbiteer pt2: Concepts.
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These concepts were done in sprints (two week deadlines).
The main character was Major Tom and his buddy Dr Dave. Lots of shout outs to 2001: A space odyssey and David Bowie’s Space oddity. Even the title was to spoof them.
A more stylized human, I ended up regretting making the feet tiny later.
The design of the lander was originally supposed to be hamburger shaped one ): But this design turned out well too.
Miscellaneous designs
And the final mock up.
Which leads to animatics and the colour script.
The story has changed quite a bit since conception.
Onward to the modelling!
Space Orbiteer pt1: The idea.
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Every story begins with an idea, or in this case, 4.
As this was to be a solo project, the idea had to be simple, funny and short. For this project, ambition kills, unless well planned.
In the end, the space pitch won and it was time to doodle.
But first, reference gathering. Super important.
I wanted to go for a low polygonal look as it was practical and it would contrast nicely against the round astronaut.
The basic beats of the story was this:
Astronaut tries to plant flag, loses his tools
The loses the flag
Tries to retrieve the flag by jumping
Goes into orbit
Is the pioneer to orbit the moon, thus Space Orbiteer.
Now it was time to delve into the concept stage.
A solo project done in a span of 9 months among other projects. It was quite a journey, from concept during summer 2015 till finishing the final edit in spring 2016.…
I can finally show you guys this! This is a little solo animation that has kept me tinkering late into the nights from summer last year till last week. Hope it gives you a laugh, enjoy~