Ever since I released the Journeys Teaser I have been somewhat idle on this site, focusing more on the Heroes of Bronze work rather than on publishing regular updates to the public. Sorry for that.
Well, it’s not completetly true. There WAS a site where I’ve been very active - my Instagram. A lot of posts have appeared there in the last few months. I realised it’s a fun place to share the backstory of my project and since I have a large and active follower base there, I started uploading these character and historical event-based posts. Here you can see a few examples:
Miltiades the Younger (right) - the son of a renowned Athenian Olympic chariot-racer Cimon, and a powerful tyran of the Thracian town Chersonese (Gallipoli Peninsula). After most of Ionia became subject to Darius I, he was forced to acknowledge Persian rule. However, as soon as the Ionian Revolt broke out in 499, he change sides and became one of the key Greek leaders of the conflict. He survived the disastrous battle at Lade and in 493 fled to Athens, where he became one of the ten strategoi. As such, he was tasked to lead the Athenians, along nine of his fellow generals. It was he who devised and led the victorious charge at Marathon. No, not Themistocles, as some movies would like us to believe...
Aristides the Just (left) - the ancient historian Herodotus cited Aristides as "the best and most honourable man in Athens", and he received similarly reverent treatment in Plato's Socratic dialogues. He was an Athenian statesman representing the aristocratic party, one of the most fervent rivals to Themistocles. At the Battle of Marathon, he was one of the strategoi, leading the Antiochis tribe , and as such, commanding Nikephoros and his oikos.
The two Persian brothers, Arynam and Behnam, stand at the opposing side of the Greek characters I presented in the previous posts. These are fictional characters, so no historical evidence is now involved.
Arynam (left) - the older of the two, distinguished himself in the Scythian campaign (513 BC), where his superior horse riding and archery skills brought him the attention of not only lord Artaphernes but also Darius, the King of kings himself. As such, he was rewarded with large estates in Lydia and also the role of a personal bodyguard to Artapherenes, the satrap of that region. Constantly at his lord's side, he watches first hand the events of the Ionian Revolt unfold. Arynam is also a friend to Nikephoros, having great respect for the Athenian from their trade dealings. The ultimate clash of the two at the Battle of Marathon will be the focus of the Heroes of Bronze story.
Behnam (right) - brother to Arynam and a former part of the Immortals, he is an elite warrior, skilled with all kinds of weaponry. He specializes in archery, but when arrows fail, he does not hesitate to get close and personal. Upon his brother's promotion to the role of Artaphernes' bodyguard, he was called to join him in the service and given part of Arynam's estates in Lydia. Wherever their lord goes, they follow - and that will bring them not only to the battlefields of Naxos, Sardis and Ephesus, but also to the bay of Marathon.
Darius the Great (front), the third king of the Achaemenid line, ruled the Persian empire at the time when the story of Heroes of Bronze takes place (around 500 BC). He was not just a great conqueror but also an able ruler, organizing the multi-cultural empire in effectively governed provinces (satrapies). He placed skilled governors in charge of the many satrapies and administered unified coinage, allowing his lands to flourish. For almost 40 years he led Persia with strength and wisdom, the only specs on his unblemished record being the indecisive Scythian campaign (513 BC) and the failed invasion of Greece (490 BC) leading to the events of the Battle of Marathon. Darius the Great died soon after his return from this campaign.
Artaphernes (back) was a Persian prince, a brother to Darius the Great, and as such, he was given great administrative powers. He ruled over Lydia as a satrap, overseeing most of the region, where the Ionian revolt broke out. Up until that point, he was lenient with the Greeks, trying to reach a settlement and mutual friendship. After the sacking of Sardis (498 BC), the capital city of his own satrapy, the rebels finally invoked his wrath. From that point on, he moved against the Greeks with merciless efficiency, pacifying the uprising in a matter of few years.
I can do Motion Capture now!
On my profile you can also probably see I haven’t been idle in the last few months. In fact, the Heroes of Bronze project has progressed heavily and leaped onto a whole new level, if I may say so.
Probably the most important change to my pipeline - I now own a Rokoko motion capture suit and thus I’m able to capture my own animations for any shot I have in mind for the short film. It’s still quite a bit of work - but now, the possibilities are virtually endless.
Which, as you may know, is often times the cause of many problems. Because, I now want to create EVERYTHING. Everything I previously haven’t been able to. The whole concept of Heroes of Bronze short film has actually been shaped by my inability to animate complex realtime animations. Now that I can, I needed to make a few changes to this concept.
Having said that, I think that over summer I arrived at a solution and re-worked the storyboard based on it. Now, the short film will feature more shots and more realtime animations than I planned before (when it was mostly comprised of slow-motion shots).
New Tutorials
Anyways, some of you probably also expect new tutorials from me. Well, there have been a few, you can check out the tutorial page for that. One that I’d like to highlight is a tutorial connected to the shot above:
And also this one I created for CGBoost may help you with your weather needs inside Blender:
So, no. I haven’t been idle, and I am pushing the project forward, aiming at releasing the short film at the end of this year, and immediately proceed with more content for it next year. Oh, have I told you I plan on creating an illustrated story book for Heroes? No? Well then… that’s a topic for my next post, I assume :-)
Chairé!
Martin
