Chapter 1

Introduction

Reasons for this project

Recreating places and events from the past in a convincing way for use in either feature films or documentaries has, until recent times, presented filmmakers with a rather difficult task. Early attempts to do so involved the great expense of physically building the environment as a location where actual filming could take place. This provided a great challenge to set designers when the story called for a large city, such as ancient Rome, to be constructed. Sometimes, large painted backdrops would suffice to give the appearance of enormous structures, as in the Great Pyramid complex at Giza or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

To date the traditional methods are still in use with many filmmakers, but since the evolution of greater computing power and associated 2d & 3d software, most large scale film sets can be created as virtual environments at a fraction of the cost and, to some extent, with increased realism. The director can have full control over the natural elements such as, daylight, wind, rain, snow, fog, etc. With the added bonus of being able to fix problems after shooting has taken place without having to transport the entire cast and crew back to the location, virtual environments are now gaining greater popularity within the film industry.

This project is an attempt to create such an environment. Whilst the virtual environment will not be classified as feature film quality, the resulting model should satisfy the needs required for use within a documentary film.

Project Brief

The aim of this project is to construct a virtual recreation of the main city complex of the ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten, presently known as Tel el Amarna, for use within a documentary style animation. The 3d model will be constructed within 3d Studio Max and all textures will be created and/or manipulated within Adobe Photoshop. The model is to be thought of as a film location and the many images created thought of as production stills.

In addition to the city complex the model will incorporate various animation systems such as crowd simulation, atmospheric, advanced lighting and cloth simulation. Foliage will be added, but due to the added performance problems, density and coverage will be kept to a minimum.

A final animation will be created to show the model as an environment, this animation will include an appropriate soundtrack.

Background and research information

The general background to this project will be covered in depth in the following chapter. In short, the city of Amarna was chosen due to the interesting historical events that unfolded during the city’s short lifetime.

Some documentaries have already been made about Amarna, the Pharaoh Akhenaten (commonly known as the heretic king), and his famous son Tutankhamen. At some point within the documentary a virtual representation would be presented, in most cases this would be a very basic model with a default colour scheme and a non existent environment. This need not be so, although it is understood that production costs may prohibit more detailed models, the audience may not feel as immersed within the documentary storyline as a result.

Research for this project involved finding out how much data one person could gain about this city and its place in history using published material from books, the internet, and through film footage within existing documentaries. Finally, at the end of the project this data was compared with the official findings of the Egypt Exploration Society, who are the current surveyors of the remaining site, in order to see where further improvements could be made.

Report outline

This document will take the reader through the processes involved in creating the project.

The document starts with an outline of the reasons behind the project, the research undertaken and a brief history lesson in order that the reader may become acquainted with the period the project is designed around. The document then takes the reader through the 3d construction, texturing and animation processes involved in the assembly of the project. The document concludes with a critical appraisal of the project in order to identify any potential improvements for future consideration.