Part
3 of 8: The
Plane, the Digital Plane... One
huge task that the filmmakers knew had to be handled first was
creating the aluminum antagonist: the DC-10. Jeremy jumped at
the task since he had recently built a 737 for another project,
and knew the process well. What he wasn't ready for was the fact
that most of the shots in 405 required that the camera
be very close to the plane. As a result the model needed to be
very detailed. The entire process of building the plane in the
computer, creating the image maps, and "dialing in" the look of
the surfaces took over a month.
Building
the Plane - Piece by Piece
The actual process of building the plane meant many long nights
in Lightwave
3D's Modeler. The first step involved collecting reference
material in the form of schematics, photos, diagrams, and books.
Orthographic views were scanned and placed into Lightwave Modeler
as background
images . From this template Jeremy could start laying out the
general shapes that comprise the plane -- a cylinder for the
fuselage, triangles for the wings, etc. Once this simple first
step was finished the more difficult part began, making the
shapes look real. Like many complex computer models, this DC-10
is made up of numerous smaller parts. For example the wings
and jets are made up of over 25 smaller objects. This serves
two purposes, first it makes modeling them easier, and second
it allows these individual parts to be animated and articulated
separately. Nearly everything that can move on a real DC-10
does move in the final film. This meant that each flap and control
surface had to be modeled individually from the wing and all
of the landing gear and doors needed to be animatable. So a
fairly large simple jet turned into many small intricate pieces
with individual controls.
Making
it Real
Some of the
photographic reference gave Jeremy more questions than answers
about how various flaps and hinges looked
and moved. Luckily for the filmmakers an acquaintance, an airline
crew chief who worked on DC-10's extensively, was able to get
a copy of the actual manuals that the mechanics use. This prompted
another later favor. Jeremy and Bruce were able to visit a DC-10
in person. This close-up survey of the real airliner (which
was opened up for its annual maintenance check) answered all
of the questions Jeremy had and reassured him that his model
was accurate. It also reinforced just how incredibly large this
plane is. After that night some of the shots had to be reanimated
to make sure that the true scale of the plane was apparent.
Skinning
the Beast Once
the model was done, it had to be surfaced. This means telling
the computer what the surface of an object actually looks like.
Color, reflectivity, dirtiness, bumps and groves all need to
be carefully defined. During the modeling process each section
of the jet was given a surface name. This name defines an area
where Jeremy could apply a color, determine its reflectivity,
or modify the surface in some way. To make it look completely
real, surface maps were used to bring even more detail to specific
areas. Jeremy created from scratch all of the different maps
in Photoshop
to affect the DC-10's color, reflectivity, bumps, dirt, and
transparency. Again the trip to see a real DC-10 paid off. During
Jeremy's research he was amazed by the fact that all of the
pictures of the jets that he could find looked fairly clean.
Not the case up close and personal. The photos Jeremy had collected
were often press release photos of brand new or freshly cleaned
jets. In reality they are very dirty. Streaks of grease and
hydraulic fluid pepper the underside of the wings. The exhaust
from the jets scores and blackens the metal with heavy carbon
deposits. These details are what makes something look real and
as a result they ended up in the final maps.
The final
405 DC-10 is comprised of 59 different, linked objects,
142,439 polygons almost 100 megabytes of image maps.
One
huge task that the filmmakers knew had to be handled first was
creating the aluminum antagonist: the DC-10. Jeremy jumped at
the task since he had recently built a 737 for another project,
and knew the process well. What he wasn't ready for was the fact
that most of the shots in 405 required that the camera
be very close to the plane. As a result the model needed to be
very detailed. The entire process of building the plane in the
computer, creating the image maps, and "dialing in" the look of
the surfaces took over a month.
kground
images . From this template Jeremy could start laying out the
general shapes that comprise the plane -- a cylinder for the
fuselage, triangles for the wings, etc. Once this simple first
step was finished the more difficult part began, making the
shapes look real. Like many complex computer models, this DC-10
is made up of numerous smaller parts. For example the wings
and jets are made up of over 25 smaller objects. This serves
two purposes, first it makes modeling them easier, and second
it allows these individual parts to be animated and articulated
separately. Nearly everything that can move on a real DC-10
does move in the final film. This meant that each flap and control
surface had to be modeled individually from the wing and all
of the landing gear and doors needed to be animatable. So a
fairly large simple jet turned into many small intricate pieces
with individual controls. 
d
and moved. Luckily for the filmmakers an acquaintance, an airline
crew chief who worked on DC-10's extensively, was able to get
a copy of the actual manuals that the mechanics use. This prompted
another later favor. Jeremy and Bruce were able to visit a DC-10
in person. This close-up survey of the real airliner (which
was opened up for its annual maintenance check) answered all
of the questions Jeremy had and reassured him that his model
was accurate. It also reinforced just how incredibly large this
plane is. After that night some of the shots had to be reanimated
to make sure that the true scale of the plane was apparent.
Once
the model was done, it had to be surfaced. This means telling
the computer what the surface of an object actually looks like.
Color, reflectivity, dirtiness, bumps and groves all need to
be carefully defined. During the modeling process each section
of the jet was given a surface name. This name defines an area
where Jeremy could apply a color, determine its reflectivity,
or modify the surface in some way. To make it look completely
real, surface maps were used to bring even more detail to specific
areas. Jeremy created from scratch all of the different maps
in