I have spent a lot of time lately on 3D visuals for Shotover Jet. What they are looking for is a much more interactive and professional method of showing how their jet boats work to interested site visitors. Currently they are using a simple, almost powerpoint-ish, side view with moving arrows to show the direction of water through engines. Not very engaging.
At this stage I have compiled a series of test rendering styles that range from almost hand-drawn to fully textured 3D movies, giving the client a very interactive overview of just what can be achieved in 3D animation while on a limited budget.
The software of choice is, as always, DAZ3D Carrara Pro 7 for generating complex meshes and the new Eovia Swift3D 6 for final animation and rendering. These two packages allow designers to create very polished 3D output without costing an arm-and-a-leg or taking three years to truely master.
This will then be exported to a Flash timeline to create a moving journey through the Shotover Canyon which will stop periodically, switch to an interactive explanation of an aspect of the boat, and then return to the main timeline as the journey continues. At this stage the storyboard is purely theoretical as I am simply trying to demonstrate what could be achieved and how it would look.
