Big Scene development post 3: Motorbike Chase across the Nevada desert (Part 3 - Favourite shots from the sequence so far)

 Animation of the Motorbike Chase is progressing quite steadily, with the first and final sections of the sequence pretty much finished bar a few pick-up shots I'll be doing later. So for this post, I've decided to share 10 of my favourite shots out of what's been made so far.

Over-head shots can show great scale, but sometimes I think it's refreshing to occasionally see certain objects from the top. This shot shows two cars driving through an area with large hills made of rock, and with perspective they don't even need to fully touch the ground to appear as if they're on it.

Wide-tracking shots are often ones I find the most impressive in vehicle chases, and I was pleased
with this one due to how much swerving I was able to get the Motorbike to perform whilst
dodging gun-fire from a Security Guard in the car behind.

I think this is a rather clever shot as it shows the cars passing by the camera at a good angle/speed to look dynamic but also demonstrates the large scale of the area when it twists over to the other side.

This is more of a humourous shot than a well framed one but the animation of the frustrated driver
in his crashed car is so well done that I thought it deserved a mention.

I've done several P.O.V shots for Bond looking at the front of the Motorbike whilst he's driving it, but this one takes the cake for me simply because of the camera-work done for the background footage. It really does look the Motorbike is driving up this hill!

Yet another wide-tracking shot here, and probably the one I'm most satisified with. It follows along with the Motorbike nicely as it dodges gun-shots from Seraffimo Spang in the Dune Buggy and looks especially great with the sunset lighting I designed for this exterior desert set.

As you might tell from my previous shot descriptions, I'm very focused on getting specific camera angles in Moviestorm through learning different ways to operate the camera. And having it track an object until it twists to show it moving into the distance produces some very good results, as seen in the shot above.

This shot is a favourite purely for scale; the way it shows the mountains in the background against the sunset sky whilst the camera is positioned on the large rock formation that the vehicles drive across is very neat.

Similar to the previous shot, this shows great scale. But what I was particularly happy with about it was the way in which the vehicles zoom into camera-view. The Motorbike comes first, and we see it zoom towards a near-by hill. Then we hear the ATVs slowly approaching off-camera before they finally emerge...

And finally, we cap things off with this low-angle shot of Bond as he drives the Motorbike and Tiffany hangs onto to him. Aside from the cool angle, I thought having a zoom effect on this shot would really help to sell the fact that the Motorbike is driving really quickly here.

And there will be many more shots to see in the scene once it's finally completed! I hope these screenshots give you an idea of how much effort and thinking goes into animating and filming this sequence and why it takes a long time.

See you next update.

- The Retro Captain

Big Scene development post 2: Motorbike Chase in Whyte Tectronics complex and across the Nevada desert (Part 2)

It's taken nearly three months of work, but I have finally finished storyboarding the entire Motorbike Chase sequence. Since starting in November last year, I've thought through this sequence many times and made quite a number of changes to how the sequence played out in my original screenplay.

Now I want to make a few things clear.

Firstly, this storyboard video does not entirely represent the length or all of the content that will be featured in the final animated version of the scene. The storyboard frames each go for a slightly longer amount of time than actual shots will go in the finished sequence, so it won't be seven minutes as it is here. 

Secondly, since the sequence as it currently stands is really quite long for an action scene at this stage of the film, I've decided some bits at the start need to be cut out and altered. Mainly the bits in the first section of the chase (driving through the ditch with rocky hills on either side) will be changed.

This is all to make sure that the scene does not upstage the action sequence that follows it (the live-action car chase in downtown Las Vegas from the original film). I hope this will also enable the Motorbike Chase to not lose itself in its own geography, especially since it has a transition from a daytime setting to a sunset setting.

The good news is that the bits in the storyboards from the segment with the Dune Buggy to the end of the sequence has all been animated. Therefore after a little break and thorough examination of the storyboards I will animate the remainder of the first and second section of the Motorbike Chase.

Hopefully this will all be finished by the end of next month, but at this point I have no clue how long this will all take. Till then, I hope this update gives you a good idea of what to expect from this sequence in this film.

- The Retro Captain

Putting the "edit" into "fan-edit" #1 - The Whyte House sequence

Ah, welcome to 2021! A very important year for the project that should see a large amount of progress made in time for the 50th anniversary of the original Diamonds Are Forever in December.

Most of this blog has naturally been showing off the animated side of the project and how I've been constructing those sequences. But for this post we're taking a break from that and instead demonstrating the power of editing.

The Whyte House sequence in DAF is notable for having two deleted scenes; one with Sammy Davis Jr's cameo and the extended version of Shady Tree's death. For Diamonds Reimagined, I have re-edited those sequences back into the film with the accompanying music tracks.

The Plenty O'Toole dinner scene is not included since it took place at a different location and it's been written out of the script for the fan-edit anyway (same with the 'Plenty Returns' deleted scene).

Anywho, enjoy!

2020 Round-up

What a year of progress 2020 has been for this project! Despite what has been happening in the real world with COVID-19 and what not, I have made probably the biggest leap in progress with Diamonds Reimagined than I have since starting this project two years ago.

For starters, the screenplay has gone through numerous alterations since the start of the year, which has lead me to recently finish the Fourth Draft. I've tightened up the dialogue and even done careful re-structuring of scenes that haven't turned out quite as well as I originally devised when testing in Moviestorm or otherwise. Sometimes I just come up with better ideas, which seriously improve the script.

Last year I began implementing Moviestorm Mods (Addons) into my scenes which were a lifesaver because of how limited the assets of the software were in comparison to the needs of my project. And so too has this year's development of me being able to create new assets via Sketchup, which finally gave me the opportunity to animate car sequences that are authentically 1970s as well as build sets that were previously impossible to create.

But whilst using Sketchup has been of great help to enhancing the project, it has also been at times an absolute nightmare. There have been countless moments of frustration and anger when I realise that a Sketchup model I have spent ages tweaking or just finding is too complex for Moviestorm to render, meaning the software crashes. So whenever a complex model is rendered, you can tell how relieved I am.

In addition, it has not been easy finding a way to convert my models to Version 6 Sketchup files, which are the only type that Moviestorm can render. No doubt this is because the Sketchup converter (and indeed Moviestorm itself) has not been updated for quite some time.

Nevertheless, I wish to thank the Moviestorm Community for all the help they have given me this year in solving some of these issues. I'm sure there is much I would not have known how to do in Moviestorm without their useful information.

Before I wrap things up here, here is a video montage showing sped-up versions of nearly all of the animated sequences I have worked painstakingly hard to animate and edit in 2020 for the project. Naturally they will all make sense once you see them at their full length in the final film.

WARNING: It goes really really really fast...

So what's next for the project in 2021, you may ask? Well, it must be noted that 2021 will be the 50th Anniversary of the original Diamonds Are Forever's release in 1971. The project will go full steam ahead in completing numerous sequences such as the Motorbike Desert Chase, sequences aboard the Baja Oil Rig and even a shooutout between Bond and Spangled Mob gangsters.

In light of the sad loss of the man who portrayed Bond in Diamonds Are Forever; Sir Sean Connery, I will pay special attention to getting the animation of Bond himself just right. And whether I am finally able to get voice actors for the project next year remains to be seen, but I shall certainly make sure the voice for Bond sounds good for Connery's likeness.

But the main thing that will hopefully materialise by the end of next year will be the very first teaser trailer for the project. 

At the moment it is too early to tell what it shall be like, but I shall definitely need more footage and a few voiceovers to make it work. It is my intention that this trailer will raise more awareness about the project.

For now, cheers and happy holidays!

The Retro Captain

Arrival in Las Vegas sequence (Short transition scene) - Newly animated!

 

This sequence is one I've just finished animating in-between my work on the Motorbike Desert Chase. It's one I improvised on the spot and does not come from the current draft of the script. The intention is for it to bridge the gap between Bond departing from Slumber Inc and going to his hotel in Las Vegas (which in this version is The Whyte House rather than The Tropicana).

Update as of 2025: This sequence has been updated to alter the lighting, and will include more dialogue from Ernst Cureo, the taxi driver.

Big Scene development post 2: Motorbike Chase in Whyte Tectronics complex and across the Nevada desert (Part 1.5)

A small update on progress of the Motorbike Chase sequence's development. Storyboarding is still underway, but about 1/3 is finished. In the meantime, I can share with you a couple of rough tests for different elements of this incredibly complex chase.

As you can see, most of the vehicles are working quite well. There are problems with them that are somewhat unavoidable (like how the vehicles 'snap' into place during their turning animation) when I'm animating them, but I will use some careful editing to limit the issues to a degree.

What I haven't shown in this video is what I call the backdrop stage, which is where I film all the closeups and mid-shots of the passengers in the vehicles using a video playing on a backdrop behind them. Here is an example in a still, which has a blank backdrop as a placeholder:

And so there you go! There's still quite a bit of work to do on the sequence, but everything is coming along nicely for the most part bar a few limitations from Moviestorm's method of animating vehicles. Next time this blog is updated, there should be a video showing all of the completed storyboards in order. At least, that's the plan.

Big Scene development post 1: Motorbike Chase in Whyte Tectronics complex and across the Nevada desert (Part 1)

There are two chase scenes in total that I have to animate for Diamonds Are Forever Re-Imagined, one of which is a replacement for the infamous Moon Buggy sequence where Bond escapes from the Whyte Tectronics complex in a very comical vehicle.

The replacement instead puts Bond (and Tiffany Case since the structure of the story has been changed to delay her switching over to Bond's side) on a motorbike where he'll be pursued by cars, all-terrain motor-bikes and even a Dune Buggy across the Nevada desert.

I started the development of this escape scene by first animating a typical Bondian shootout scene, as demonstrated by this still:

From this I then tested placing Bond and Tiffany onto a Motorbike to see how well they would sit on it and move about. The Dune Buggy, which is driven by the minor henchmen The Spang Brothers (taken directly from Ian Fleming's original DAF novel), was also tested.

Then I properly began filming the Chase Sequence, beginning with the segments that take place inside the complex itself before Bond and Tiffany reach the exterior in the desert. Long corridor sets were neccessary to achieve this, so that we could have some moving backgrounds behind a Mid-Shot of the characters just sitting on the Motorbike without the vehicle actually moving.

But now that I've reached the point where I have to make the sequences set outside the complex in the desert, things get trickier. Making accurate desert terrain and replicating the scenery from the original film is no easy task, so I have to improvise my development process here.

To begin with, I re-constructed the dome and its surroundings such as the Toll Booth seen in the film. Not everything was completely to scale, but the angle of the shots I was using made the objects look further away than they were.

Then I filmed the only shots for which this exterior set is needed, as the rest of them written in my script all come from the original film.

For reference, here is a sample of this series of shots from my script where Bond shoots the car barrier off the toll booth in order to drive past the Security Guards and into the desert.

With those shots finished, I am now at the stage where I have to create the most complicated parts of the chase. The Motorbike and the other vehicles have to drive and do stunts across realistic desert terrain, and filming all this will entail a lot of trial and error.

So I've decided it's better for me to first plan out the various shots for the chase scene by storyboarding it. At the same time, I can practice making desert terrain in the animation software without filming on them. And this "practice terrain" can be used as the background of storyboard shots like this one, where I just put a greyscale pencil filter over each element.

Once I know what I want the shots to look like from the storyboards and I have good experience with creating the terrain, I can properly continue with the animating.

And that's it for now! This will no doubt be one of the most complex scenes to make for the whole project, but I can assure you it will still become an exciting sequence once it's done. 

I will update with another post on this scene sometime in the future once more progress has been made on it. Till then!

What? Use a ridiculous Moon Buggy like that to escape from a scientific facility? No thanks, we'll zoom on the Motorbike instead.

Short Clip - Shootout in Whyte Tectronics first floor car park

 One of the scenes from the original film I'm replacing is the entire sequence of the escape from the Whyte Tectronics facility, in which Bond drove a bizarre looking Moon Buggy across the desert.

In Diamonds Are Forever Re-Imagined, however, Bond will instead be driving a motorbike. The vehicle chase across the desert with the Motorbike is still being animated, but today I can share a small clip showing a shootout that happens prior to the vehicle chase.

Once again, this is a only a rough cut. No voice actors are used, and some sound effects that will be implemented later are missing. I hope you enjoy!

Update #4 on (mostly) completed animated scenes

In previous posts I have talked about multiple scenes that I've recently animated for Diamonds Are Forever Re-Imagined, but this time I am going to share one entire sequence that has taken 3 whole months for me to animate and edit together!

For the most part, the scene is complete. A few sound effects (mainly for the cars) haven't yet been implemented and not all of the shots have been polished for issues such as chroma-key fringing. 

You may have also noticed three synthetic voice clips at the beginning, but these will eventually be dubbed with recorded dialogue by voice actors.

As per usual with the production of this film, here are few of the stills created for this scene:

That's all for now! As for what I'm animating next, I'm still hard at work with the middle of the film. My aim is to finish all of the Whyte Tectronics scenes by January or February of next year, one of which includes a vehicle chase to replace the Moon Buggy Chase from the original film...

Credits - Test Version

 Just a little test run for the credits of Diamonds Are Forever Re-Imagined! Not complete of course but the music is there and around 50% of the text. As you can see, it pretty much ends the fan-edit the same way as the original, except that the credits are longer.

Just to be clear, the epilogue scene as a whole won't be radically different. There will be a few cuts here and there and a few animated shots at the beginning, but Tiffany still gets the last line!