50th anniversary of Operation Spring Hight

[X_eidos2]

The video was made using FS9, FSX and audio from SF2V and some CGI using DAZ3D Carrara 8.5. It took three years to make. It is being released on the 50th anniversary of the mission. The video is narrated by one of the pilots who flew on the mission. Vic Vizcarra.

The video is 30 minutes long.



Thank you for watching. John MacKay a.k.a. X_eidos2

[YoYo]

A lot of work! Nice vid.

[Victory103]

Outstanding! The CGI tied in nicely with the SF2V and FS series.

[falcon409]

Nicely Done. During the credits I spotted a familiar name. . ."Steve Coker". Steve started out as a Crew Chief with the 301st in Ft Worth (possibly during the F-105 days), then turned the tables and became an Officer and eventually came back to fly the F-4 with our Squadron. I don't know if Steve was still there when I arrived in 86' but he may have been. I believe Steve and his lovely wife now live in Whitewright, Tx. . .not far from me.

[Navy Chief]

Must be just me, but I do not see a link to the video.... NC

[falcon409]

Must be just me, but I do not see a link to the video.... NC

It's embedded apparently....I just clicked on the video and it started. Couldn't get it to full screen though so it's kinda small to view.

[X_eidos2]

try

https://vimeo.com/134242421 and then click on the "full screen" to the right of the HD at the bottom right of the screen

[X_eidos2]

try

https://vimeo.com/134242421 and then click on the "full screen" icon to the right of the HD at the bottom right of the screen

[Dutcheeseblend]

Nice project, must have been an AWFUL lot of work! Respect!

[clmooring]

Thanks for posting. I can't imagine the hours of work.

[Dutcheeseblend]

Hi Mr. MacKay,

As you might have seen, I've also been in an FSX memorial video project. It was not very big though. I want to create a bigger one now, just like the one you made (different subject of course: the mission in May 1940 when Fokker D.21 229 crashed:http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...l=1#post930883). Do you have any hints/tips/tricks?

By the way, have you used FSRecorder for the formation flying?

Cheers, Daan

[X_eidos2]

Hello Daan,

Yes I used FSRecorder in making some of the formation shots. If the movement of the aircraft on the screen was too complex, I'd record the the scenery and one of the aircraft in FSX, and then take the footage and use it as an animated background in my 3d program (DAZ3D Carrara 8.5) and take a 3d model of the second plane and animate it over top of the animated background, being careful to match the lighting between the two aircraft. If the scene was a simple formation, to create the look that all the planes were not locked together, I would use the offsets in FSRecorder's Advanced flight menu. I would add a time delay to one of the aircraft of .5 or 1.0 seconds, and then bring it back into the formation by adding a large Forward offset. With the jets traveling at a high speed, the offset could be 100 to 300 meters. Each scene was different and a lot of trial and error was needed to get things looking right.

Another tip - keep the scenes short. Most scenes were only 8 to 10 seconds long.

X_eidos2

[Dutcheeseblend]

Ah, ok, that's clear! For our T.5 video, we flew most shots with real multiplayer flying, in the meanwhile recording everything with FSRecorder. The Fokkers we used, were slow movers, so time delay's doesn't look very good. Thanks to the fact that the aircraft were all flown by real humans, the formation looks very vivid, exactly the way I expected it would have looked then.

The Carrara approach sounds quite interesting to me! From your video, I couldn't figure which shots were taken in which sim, it all looked as being in one simulation. Thumbs up for that, and also thumbs up for the way you animated and directed the 3d-humans!

Also, you haven't used Ezdok, have you?

For the video I'm thinking of, I've got only one 'minor' problem: scenery. It has to play in 1940 and I need in fact a quarter of the Netherlands scenery... It's about a Dutch bomb raid on German divisions in Rotterdam, some days before the Germans bombed Rotterdam. This latter bombardment destroyed most of the city center (only the medieval church leftover), so the present-day Rotterdam is entirely post-war. But I need a scenery of the prewar Rotterdam...
With our T.5 video, we only needed to modify 1 square km of scenery, while preventing ground shots as much as possible. In my planned docu vid that will be very difficult I'm afraid... Well, just thinking...

Cheers, Daan

[X_eidos2]

Hello Daan,

For making quick scenery I used the program Instant Scenery 2. It is very easy to use. It can exclude scenery you don't want to see and add new objects right in FSX. If you need to add custom objects to your libraries, you can quickly build them in a free copy of SketchUp. I've seen some threads on SOH that give more details on how this is done.

John