Blender Star Wars Tutorial - Part 1: Animation

Part 1 of 4.
I made a little Star Wars battle scene in Blender the other day and people asked if I could do a tutorial about it so I did. This just covers the basic animation of the shot and the camera setup. There will be other tutorials about different aspects of the shot.
0:24 - X-Wings
1:21 - Camera Animation
8:07 - TIE Fighters & Star Destroyer
www.samhallvfx...
X-Wing via turbosquid www.turbosquid... .
Tantive IV is from blendswap www.blendswap.... .
TIE Fighter www.blendswap....
Explosion is from actionvfx www.actionvfx....
The Lost Starfighter • The Lost Starfighter -...

[@hawaiianjedi]

Dude I think every single person that wants to learn blender learns it to do this type of stuff. I remember shooting a model of Darth Vaders TIE back in 78-79 and I used a whole of film to try and create a basic flying scene. So much more I need to learn to get even this good. Started as a sounddesigner/musician so next step was of course animation. Great job!!

[@HobbitVFX]

Awesome! Currently in the process of of making the first shot from a new hope, I’ve never done blasters before, so I can’t wait for ur next tutorials

[@samhallvfx]

Thanks. Now that I've figured out how to make a tutorial I should be able to get the next one out soon.

[@lawrenade]

Fab video, thank you 🙏🏻 Animation frightens the hell out of me but I can’t hide from it forever. I love your view of ‘I don’t know what that really means, but that’s what works…’ is exactly everything I do in Blender. As long as it works I don’t care about the ins and outs! 😂

[@samhallvfx]

Indeed. Sometimes I just push buttons until something works.

[@koopanique]

Very informative, the "vibration/shaking" of the camera is something I've been doing manually for years, but this is exactly what I needed to make life easier

[@kk-gu1zv]

phenomenal work dude! This looks incredible. Seriously stunned. Would love of you to bring a 3rd and 4th part of this! Really corious as to how you did the lighting, as I am extremely new to blender(and 3d) and got no clue about lighting, in this particular scene because it really conveys that star wars feeling and just looks great too

[@CGRTist]

I so need to try making something like this! Thanks for sharing!

[@emeraldpenguin07]

thx for the help me n my friends are working on a fan made star wars animation this helps a lot

[@robestey5628]

1. Very very cool. 2. Your first tutorial DID NOT SUCK. Loved it. Thank you.

[@WaterLettuceProductions]

I cant believe you only have 48 subscribers, Your tutorial was super helpful. I would recommend reducing the handheld effect on the camera just a bit since it is a space shot. Most starwars movies don't have a lot of that handheld feel to their camera motion.

[@johndeggendorf7826]

I agree, bro. The steady lock shot on flying things is now a filmmaking tradition, I think, kind of an expected look. Although, I suppose if you’re in a flying machine that just got hit, a bumpy handheld interior shot would be good...but I digress. ✌️☕️🎩

[@MichaelKarius]

Super shot! Thank you for explaining, looking forward to the other parts!

[@YouSakura]

It's a very cool shot. I want to see more.

[@LuckyDogProductions]

WOW

[@rifqishahrin7792]

when is the third part coming out

[@Oldladywithastick]

Its out

[@PatoChu]

Wow, I love this, just a quick tip, these ships should be extremely fast and the ISD should be way bigger. I feel as if the camera shake made the effect of everything being slow and tiny when it shouldnt have. Either way, amazing job! The X-Wing is way smaller than the Tantive IV and they are much faster too

[@Vision1Studios]

Awesome you explained everything so it was easy to follow. Subscribing,,,,,

[@vKyIe]

Amazing! Subscribed. So inspiring.

[@fetusness]

Thank you for this 🙏

[@vanqiqi2839]

Can you do an in depth tutorial to make a full scene like this

[@MoviesRemastered]

Omg! The VFX in Lost Starfighter was insane! Where did you get the star destroyer model from? Would you be interesting in working on some short scenes with me?

[@federico2839]

He modelled it by hand

[@digitalthirdeye666]

This is amazing!!

[@creativestudio4873]

How long did it take to create this whole scene?

[@Productionbrikfilm]

very good tutorial thanks a lot!

[@EvilMP5]

Samuel could this be done with the cablecam addon? Because in the addon you can setup a rail (path) for the camera to glide on. I am thinking about working on a old 80s version of Battlestar Galactica but I am having a hard time finding the old blueprints of that era's viper, I have the physical cylon toy ship so that will be easy just taking some photo graphs and converting them to line art in order to build that model in Blender.

[@norad_clips]

Impressive!

[@petterleikanger9223]

That's definitely one like and one subscription from me

[@creativestudio4873]

Please do more videos, these are great

[@dalukesta9145]

please show how you explode the tiefighter next :)

[@martian1232]

This is really awesome, but I recommend using Houdini or embergen for explosions, because Mantra follow doesn’t look to good, also lasers I would make emission a bit stronger because they extent that red, the were white with red glow, so after adding glare it will look okay

[@samhallvfx]

Didn't use Mantaflow. It's a pre-rendered stock element made in Houdini.

[@admiralpeak]

I’m subscribing

[@Vader666th]

Thank you for the tutorial !

[@williamwilkie4061]

How does working in Blender compare to C4D? I’m contemplating biting the bullet moving from Element 3D to blender, and this looks ILM level good 🤙🏻

[@samhallvfx]

I made the jump from years of C4D to Blender last year. It's not that hard if you have a specific goal in mind. Watch lots of tutorials. Blender Guru is good and free. CG Fast Track is paid but also really good.

[@Tintin1]

It's an excellent tutorial! I just don't understand one thing, why your fighters are firing lamps? It's rendered in cycles, isn't it?

[@samhallvfx]

It's because I wanted to be able to easily control how much light they were throwing on things without making them clip too much. It's also less noisy in the render with lights instead of using the emission.

[@Tintin1]

@@samhallvfx i see it’s smart! Thank you! :)

[@tomasbenedictomaza]

impresionante

[@cookiekrumbsanimations4963]

Great tutorial and I loved the animation but every time I render the animation its comes out with a still camera even though it moves in the viewport. when I turn the original camera of in the render and viewport my images just come out black, is it a setting or have I just stuffed up?

[@samhallvfx]

I'm not sure but it's possible you have the wrong camera enabled in your scene settings.

[@urmcchromez9426]

Pls more!

[@Sharal3D]

Part 2 😢😢 pls the rocket flames is too hard for me

[@lefthander3807]

Very well made! You worked on the Lost Starfighter? It has superb CGI! If I want to create this kind of "Space scene" which program do you recommend learning Cinema 4D or Blender, which is easier and faster to learn?

[@samhallvfx]

Thanks. I've found Blender to be much better for this type of thing and there are great resources for learning it.

[@cjkalandek996]

Might have missed it, but what was your focal length? I noticed you manged to capture the scale of the Star Destroyer in relation to the X-Wings.

[@samhallvfx]

35mm

[@shadowsniper1379]

Oh I’m the 500th subscriber XD

[@asmithhansda]

Hey please make a video on lighting please

[@SUQUiNHO-1]

oloco ficou muito profissional '-'

[@dariowedlich7317]

Nice but how do you make tha galaxy

[@kingcatmemes]

What star destroyer model did you use???

[@Evelyn-xc3vb]

lo hice pero cuando lo renderizo el efecto de ruido de la camara no esta. alguna idea??

[@samhallvfx]

Asegúrese de que la cámara activa esté configurada en la que tiene el efecto de ruido. Puedes encontrar eso en la pestaña de escena.

[@Evelyn-xc3vb]

@@samhallvfx si, eso hice, eran dos cámaras, una de esas tenia el efecto pero aun así no me lo toma. intentare buscar el error

[@riotechmod]

Can you provide us spaceship modelling tutorial?

[@samhallvfx]

Nope. Not my area of knowledge.

[@chrisg6364]

im using blender 2.9 and i can not find the option to add modifier in the graph editor

[@chrisg6364]

for everyone who has the same problem... you only have to select an axis and the option to add a modifier will appear

[@ConnorBulatao]

wow good job posting all parts

[@samhallvfx]

Been a little busy but thanks for being a dick.

[@davidjanssen9262]

when is the third part coming out?

[@GhOsT-st7ch]

I started with after effects could something like this be done with it or no ?

[@samhallvfx]

Yes. I don't think there's anything in there that couldn't be done in Ae.

[@GhOsT-st7ch]

@@samhallvfx oh wow, there aren’t any tutorials as far as I know with them theme Star Wars

[@GhOsT-st7ch]

@@samhallvfx I saw the Star Wars galaxy of adventures and immediately thought of AE it looks so good too, is it done with it ? All I know is there’s blender and AE there’s probably way more

[@friexino6580]

How did he make his camera wide

[@CarlosGamesCG5173]

These X-wings are T-65 or T-65B?

[@judeackland-patel6646]

Where did you get the star destroyer

[@clonedastarwarsstory6914]

Greetings! My name is Robert and I am working on a voluntary basis Star Wars Lego stop motion and was wondering how interested you’d be with working as an animator for our crew. We have a very talented cast and you’d fit right in with our crew. I look forward to hearing back :)

[@peterrandall6761]

How did you get the camera to stay still when the ships first came out of hyperspace

[@samhallvfx]

The camera target object is an empty that's not connected to the movement of the ships themselves. It just roughly follows them.

[@peterrandall6761]

@@samhallvfx Thanks! I made a star destroyer but my camera is only rendering part of the star destroyer (it is only showing the part that is close to the camera even though the end of the ship is still in the camera frame), do you know why this is?

[@samhallvfx]

@@peterrandall6761 Yes. You need go into the camera settings and change the clip end to something much larger. By default its 100m. Try 1000 or 10,000.

[@peterrandall6761]

@@samhallvfx thanks man! I look forward to more videos

[@user-nd6rr8yy1w]

how do you make the s-foils animation?

[@aaroncarey1584]

I am having a problem with the tantive model. Some of the texture comes out black. How do I fix it?

[@samhallvfx]

Are you using eevee? I had the same issue when I tried to use eevee. No idea why. I ended up using cycles for everything and it worked.

[@aaroncarey1584]

@@samhallvfxI am using cycles so in the view port it's messed up but in a rendered frame it's fine. Do you render your animation in cycles or evee?

[@samhallvfx]

@@aaroncarey1584 I used cycles for this animation.

[@aaroncarey1584]

@@samhallvfx thank you.

[@Jay-wr1wh]

How did you get that "glow" effect from the sunlight on the ships?

[@samhallvfx]

It's a combination of a glow and glint in Nuke isolated to the brightest highlights. The Blender compositor "glare" should be able to accomplish a similar look.

[@Jay-wr1wh]

@@samhallvfx Thanks. It makes a huge difference.

[@johndeggendorf7826]

Sub 376. You rock, bro. 🎩🎩🎩

[@JohnBachofer]

Let me guess FractalSponge's Star Destroyer model?

[@Clloud.]

Is it just me or can I hear his PC's fan dying in the background?

[@samhallvfx]

Is possible. That was done on my laptop at the time and the GPU fan died some months later. Could also have been my air conditioner.

[@xibble4320]

Does anybody have a free x-wing model to download?

[@samhallvfx]

Here you go skfb.ly/6oZB9

[@kingtesty4331]

Where did you get the xwings from?

[@samhallvfx]

This one www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/star-wars-x-wing-3ds/985763 There are cheaper ones around though.

[@littlebanana371]

What website is this and can i use it for free? :(

[@dkdimitris6932]

how can i saw the view of camera?

[@samhallvfx]

Press number 0.

[@dkdimitris6932]

@@samhallvfx ok ty

[@esphilee]

Dude.. what was the thumb down for??!

[@samhallvfx]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmjJfGptqqasrZo

[@oozly9291]

Where did you get the ISD?

[@jaydenandjoash2262]

is the X wing model for free?

[@samhallvfx]

It is not.

[@Mickeythepluds]

I do not know how to use blender. I want to learn but I feel like I would be too stressed.

[@samhallvfx]

Start small. Don't try to take on too much at first. Maybe try this kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioHVn4Z3eM6HgJY

[@Mickeythepluds]

Thanks I just saw this!

[@Daffothrill]

Wonderful tutorials, thank you! What hardware are you using? How do you get such good performance in the solid view in viewport? Even in a scene with a quarter of the verts, maximum simplification, 16 GB of RAM, and a Ryzen 3 3100, I get barely 10 fps.

[@samhallvfx]

I'm not sure exactly. I haven't done anything to specifically speed up the viewport. When I made this tutorial I was using a Acer Predator Helios 300, i7 9750H, 16GB RAM, GTX 1660 Ti.

[@Daffothrill]

@@samhallvfx Thanks for the quick reply! That's bizarre.

[@Daffothrill]

@@samhallvfx I found the issue. I just had some unapplied booleans.

[@samhallvfx]

@@Daffothrill Ah. That'll do it.

[@haydencgordon]

I have to know how you blew up that tie fighter! Great tutorial!👍

[@samhallvfx]

I’m working on it but basically it just cuts to an explosion element on a card in 3D space.

[@haydencgordon]

Samuel Hall Wow! Would love to see it!

[@pluto._.8785]

What is the software used ?

[@dobiacco]

Barbie's Horseback Adventure for PS2.

[@farhanfateifaheem9887]

The camera shake i have done in viewpoint, did not render. Everything else rendered beautifully, but the noise modifier I've added to the second camera, did not render. I've also turned off the render of the first camera.

[@farhanfateifaheem9887]

okay I've found the problem. The problem is, it is the first camera that renders. The duplicated camera with the noise modifier does not render. Even after setting it as the active camera with Ctrl + Numpad 0.

[@farhanfateifaheem9887]

Solution : You have to go to the scene property and set the camera for render.

[@Evelyn-xc3vb]

@@farhanfateifaheem9887 me has salvado la vida!!!!

[@Ultraninja24395]

Mind helping me!

[@applesaus395]

if it sucks then it sucks