Hey Reader,

Martin here for CG Boost.

I’m so excited to say that tomorrow, my CG short film will finally launch. 4 Years in the making, set in Ancient Greece and made mainly with Blender.

You can check it out on my channel this Saturday, 21st of January, 6PM CET.

And make sure to stick around afterward, I will also be hosting a livestream QnA event. Where I will answer your questions to help you finish your own ambitious projects. 🙂

In the meantime, here is a little teaser to set the mood for you.

Heroes of Bronze has been a labor of love and an introduction to an era that I think is sorely missing from today’s film and animation world, Ancient Greece.

I wanted to depict it as historically accurate as I was able, but at the same time, make it larger than life, the way it lives in my imagination. I am sure I have made a lot of errors, despite that, I hope I was able to capture the spirit of the ancient times and the Greco-Persian war period.
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Which software did I use?

I’m amazed at how each year the tools available for digital creators have pushed the boundaries of what we can make, and I hope this inspires and challenges you to re-think what you can do in CG.

I built the majority of my scenes and assets in Blender, where I also rendered the shots using Cycles.

To boost the process, it also helped me to use some other specialized tools:

• Essential for my character meshes and animation was Reallusion’s Character Creator and iClone​
• I used Rokoko's suit for capturing my own movements for animation
• ​Marvelous Designer for cloth simulations, instead of me having to sculpt folds and wrinkles, which is something I completely suck at
• ​Substance Painter for texturing most of the assets
• The Adobe package helped me in post-production and editing, I used Photoshop for still images, After Effects for compositing the shots and Premiere for editing the video
• ​Megascans took care of most of the natural assets, and they always look amazing, since they’re, well, scans
• ​Scatter, Graswald and Botaniq allowed me to distribute photoreal vegetation in a few clicks

What did I learn on this 4 year journey?

First; be organized, then be organized, and finally… be organized.

Having a clear structure to your folders, defined naming convention and actually upholding the rules you set up for yourself is essential when tackling a large-scale project, even if you’re on your own.

Oh, and - not using too many textures above 2K resolution was crucial… unless you feel like frying your computer. 😅

Additionally, you should allocate plenty of time for rendering and overall the final stages, especially if you’re using Cycles.

A rule of thumb: take your rough time estimate and triple it.

Throughout that time, my main driver was definitely my love for the period that I chose to depict, and gradually, even for the stories and characters I populated the world with.

I always recommend choosing a topic you’re absolutely passionate about, otherwise, you may not see it through.

In that same vein; what’s important to realize, is that motivation actually isn’t reliable, and it won’t help you most of the time. Discipline is a better tool. If you want to finish a project, especially if you’re on your own, get into the habit of doing your project tasks consistently, maybe even every day, even if it’s just a small one.

That way, you are always moving forward, no matter how you feel.

There’s much more, but these were essential for me.

Excited to see you at the launch tomorrow and chat with you after.

Stay creative,

~Martin