Early Uther Look Dev

A first pass of topology for the protagonist’s head. Wanting to go in the direction of “Retro-Futurism” with the overall look of the short. Some concepts I don’t think read well that I want to revise at the design step:

  1. Doesn’t look old and haggered enough. Grey hair with scars and actual texture will help I believe.

  2. The “king” motif doesn’t come across at all, the helmet could be more of a crown perhaps.

Action-Adventure Short: Half-Dead

This is my private production blog for my short film currently under the working title of “Half-Dead” and is subject to change. It is a sci-fi retelling of how King Arthur’s sword was thrust into a rock. The story focuses on the Half-Dead King, Uther Pendragon, as he persists through constant ambush and betrayal.

Inspirations for this short come largely from the Arthurian Chronicles, Star Wars, Warhammer, Halo, Samurai Jack, Love Death & Robots and many other pieces that shaped my brain when I was a youngin. My ultimate goal is to work on this with MTSU students who are interested and, once finished, submit to festivals.

Below is an early & incomplete animatic of 3D Storyboards. This is the opening sequence introducing the character and establishing their capabilities. I prefer this method when storyboarding as it allows me to think about composition, cinematography, timing, and other film-making techniques(albiet, with goofy draw-overs to show emotional intent.) All assets are stock with the intent of allowing any student I allow on the project to bring up to a higher-production method. Any aspect untouched by a student I will personally finish.

This is the majority of the first Act of the short. The protagonist arrives in a city to meet a contact but is ambushed by rebellious locals.

Certain production workflows will include the following:

  • Character, Prop, & Environmental Design

  • 3D Modeling of Characters & Props (Maya or other)

  • 3D Building Generation with Blender Geometry Nodes

  • Character & prop rigging in Maya

  • Alembic exports of animation to Unreal Engine 5 for rendering

  • EmberGen for explosions & fire simulations

  • Unreal Engine: Chaos Destruction for environmental destruction

There are a lot of opportunities for any students who are interested in working with me on this production. If you’re an MTSU student and are interested in working on this with me, please reach out.