Mike's CG TARDIS

As a personal project, I'm doing a photoreal CG TARDIS from Doctor Who's 18th season (when I was a kid). Doing CG work is as much a part of filmmaking as anything these days, so if you'd like to follow along and learn what really goes into making a photoreal asset, here it is!

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=8651.0

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My name is Mike Verta - VFX artist and OCD sufferer. I tend to get more than a little obsessive about details and realism in my photoreal renders, but there are worse vices. I have those, too.

Anyway, tackling the s18 TY-J... my first and favorite TARDIS. Some amazing plans drawn by Tony Farrell are providing a good start, but of course, any digital model has to go through a ton of tweaking to begin to represent the real, imperfect, misaligned, asymmetrical, wonky, beautiful world. The universe knows no perfect edges or right angles.

Starting in my architectural CAD program (Rhino 5) I began entering Tony's dims:



And then brought it into Modo 10, where I'm doing the "real" modeling work in Sub-D's.


With a rough model built, it's time to overlay it on a couple reference photos to see how things are lining up:




Not bad... more to come on this later, as the geometry goes to the next level.

_Mike

 

Taking a break from modeling and thinking ahead, I went looking for reference on the Top Sign. As I was researching I found a great shot of the Newbery sign. It might be for a different TARDIS, but I love it. What I DIDN'T find was a truly accurate recreation of the hand-drawn lettering seen on the sign.

Time to break out Illustrator and do it myself...




It takes awhile and a thousand back-and-forths, but here it is in vector. (You're welcome to it, by the way. Just click here.)

 

A bit on modeling the "fiberglass" look in Sub-D's and a tip for those new to CG!

 

Here's the vector recreation of the TY-J Top Sign as it appeared on the box at the Doctor Who Experience. Again, wonderfully full of character and asymmetry!

 

Rounding!

 

No matter which TARDIS we're building - can we get the "true" color?!

 

A vintage glass Fresnel nautical lamp is hard to come by.



...but not that difficult to model. Rendered in Renderman 21.

One cool byproduct of using path-tracing renderers is that when properly modeled, this Fresnel lens actually works!

_Mike

 

Another quick render test in the housing... top cap's too thin. Or not, depending.

 

Imperfectionizing™

 

A first idea for the cap weathering...

 

Fresnel housing with corrected profile. The low angle almost creates the illusion they're not co-planar but they are, now.

 

The support posts are temporary - they're next, but I thought I'd bring the assembly together with an internal bulb and take a look. The bulb inside is just a standard-shaped A21 bulb, but it's interesting how the Fresnel effect makes it look elongated. I've seen this shape to the light on the real one many times.

 

The surest way to create believable materials is to make them behave as realistically as possible - at least in a path-tracing rendering environment. Here I have replicated a semi-transparent plexiglass sheet with painted cut-out "fill" over it. Because it's plexi, it behaves properly when backlit, whether that's from a direct light as seen here, or just ambient bouncing of light as it would be even in a sealed police box.

 

This may be of use to some of you - it's the cross section profile of a real Fresnel lens which I've just received. I'm modeling this and will update soon.

 

The new Fresnel lens as built from the profile of a real one. I love the inverted refraction in the middle, mimicking real-world behavior of the one on my desk. Path-tracing for the win.

 

Here is Mark's/Davison Photoshoot Lens in the assembly. The assembly matches the height and proportions of the Davison photoshoot. My posts are slightly thinner and will be addressed next.




This lens is dirty and has manufacturing seams but no other text at the moment.

 

Did my first turnaround:

Needs work! But it's on it's way...

 

I've never painted a Police Box before, and despite being virtual, this is the same process - lots of layers, careful choice in colors, repeat. I'm going for the battered look seen in Full Circle - it's my favorite weathering.