Ecstasy of Gold - Train Heist

After watching some classic western films I felt inspired to create something epic. What started as a single shot later evolved into a full blown action sequence: an intense train heist set at night, with bright red flares illuminating the canyons. It took over 4 months from start to finish.

Will make another breakdown post once I have all the renders ready.

I wanted to fully own this project and see how far I could go in each department. I took on every aspect from modeling and animation all the way to SFX and music, it was handmade by me.

I really wanted to fully own this project and see how far I could go in each department. Animation and crowds was by far the hardest part, especially animating the horses and riders. FX was straight forward, mostly smoke, dust, sparks and snow simulations. Environments and lighting is my favorite department and had a lot of fun building it shot by shot.

Environment wise it’s mostly a mix of Gaea and Zbrush. The canyons and mesas were the trickiest part by far, they needed the help of some manual sculpting for the cliff areas and some extra custom kitbash cliffs I built. Shaders were procedurally done in Vray with a mix of different rocks and cliff textures.

Also I want to give credit to Sindre Tvete, the original locomotive model was based on his work.

These projects always left me wanting for more. Hopefully one day I’ll have the resources to create a full feature film, we’ll see how that goes :D