savmagoett
Well-Known Member
Hi guys ! I'm working on a 3D model of the White Dragon neon sign from the original Blade Runner. The goal is to make a video animation to be displayed on a screen to simulate having the actual sign at my place (a tv screen fireplace for geek if you will). I'll make the video available for everyone interested at the end. In the mean time I'm looking for your opinions and advises, on what I'm doing. I'm aiming for maximum accuracy to the actual prop made for the film, but the reference material is not great as you might imagine, apart from the movie itself (4k version helps) I could only make a few screenshots from behind the scenes and documentaries (dangerous days, and others). I don't know what happened to the actual prop, but I guess it did not survived. (Before anyone mention it, the White Dragon sign at the Gods Own Junkyard neon sign shop is a nice copy but not accurate.) So if you have good references to point me to I would be grateful. Doing that kind of reverse engineering is quite instructive, for instance I've never realized until now that it's had arms and legs, as the sign was mainly shot from the sides it was not apparent to me.
Here is what I have so far:
and here are the references I found:
>4k movie screenshot
-despite the name White Dragon, the neon are more of an ice blue, the body seems to be green/blue but it's hard to be sure as the neon light must change the color
>4k movie screenshot
-to my surprise the solid body has some eyes drawn behind the neon eyes. They're bigger and shifted, but they align when seen from below, the prop was obviously designed to be an overhead sign.
>screenshot from the documentary Dangerous days
-as the prop was moved from place to place on the various sets, some parts went missing, I guess from damage during the shooting or the moving. The left foot neon went missing, then the aft crest, then the teeth, then the top half of the left tail section. Here the left foot neon is already missing whilst the prop is still atop the noodle bar.
>screenshot from the documentary Dangerous days
-this is a nice view as it has less perspective deformations
-at one point some red Japanese symbols were added on the side of it's middle section
>right side collage of several frames from the 4K movie
-once taken down from the noodle bar roof it was put on a blue neon stripe pedestal
-except for the tongues which are intentionally asymmetrical the thing is almost symmetrical but not completely, neither the neon tubing (the tubes division isn't the same) nor the paint job on the solid body (surly hand drawn).
-you can see the arms and legs pretty well here.
at another moment a green and red neon sign was added to it's side
Here is what I have so far:
and here are the references I found:
>4k movie screenshot
-despite the name White Dragon, the neon are more of an ice blue, the body seems to be green/blue but it's hard to be sure as the neon light must change the color
>4k movie screenshot
-to my surprise the solid body has some eyes drawn behind the neon eyes. They're bigger and shifted, but they align when seen from below, the prop was obviously designed to be an overhead sign.
>screenshot from the documentary Dangerous days
-as the prop was moved from place to place on the various sets, some parts went missing, I guess from damage during the shooting or the moving. The left foot neon went missing, then the aft crest, then the teeth, then the top half of the left tail section. Here the left foot neon is already missing whilst the prop is still atop the noodle bar.
>screenshot from the documentary Dangerous days
-this is a nice view as it has less perspective deformations
-at one point some red Japanese symbols were added on the side of it's middle section
>right side collage of several frames from the 4K movie
-once taken down from the noodle bar roof it was put on a blue neon stripe pedestal
-except for the tongues which are intentionally asymmetrical the thing is almost symmetrical but not completely, neither the neon tubing (the tubes division isn't the same) nor the paint job on the solid body (surly hand drawn).
-you can see the arms and legs pretty well here.
at another moment a green and red neon sign was added to it's side
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by the way,i've got space for you to store your diorama.
