Portal 2 - that elevator shaft

click to make huge
I saw the elevator shaft half-way through the game and, y'know, I kinda wondered.

- Used 3d Ripper DX to extract models from the game, then 3d Studio to pose Chell's model, and Photoshop to compose everything.
- The backgrounds are all screenshots from the game (I couldn't import them accurately in 3d Studio). I posed and rendered Chell in 3d Studio and put her images over the backgrounds. Took a bit of trial-and-error.
- Hacks used in the game: 'noclip' to get into the shaft, 'r_drawviewmodel 0' to remove the portal gun from view, 'cl_drawhud 0' to take the crosshair off for screenshots.
- map name is sp_a3_transition01

This started when I saw that elevator shaft in the middle of the game. I later thought, couldn't I just break down the door and take the elevator? That's like one of those RPGs where you couldn't get to a secret area because there's a fence in the way.

My mind ran with this idea and I came up with this funny situation where Chell sees the elevator, leaves Glados behind (realizing she doesn't need Glados) and exits the facility. Glados is left there, gradually realizing Chell isn't coming back.

Later I went back through the game with the noClip command bound to the keyboard (so yeah I could go through walls). When I went inside the elevator shaft, I realized there was no elevator. No elevator. Well fuck, there goes my theory.

For a long time the idea just sat there. All that material down the drain. Until I had an even crazier idea: What if Chell climbs up the shaft anyway? That was absurd, but, look at the crazy stuff Valve already does with these games. All of our favorite games seem to follow the motto "If it's absurd, but awesome, do it anyway."

So I just made Glados aware of how stupid this is.

The plan was set. Now to experiment. I wanted to use in-game models but wasn't sure if this would work. I started 3d Ripper DX and got it to open Portal 2. It took some trickery to the get the models. You have to shoot two portals to make Chell and the gun visible for ripping. But they ripped perfectly, and I rigged them in 3DS. Unfortunately the elevator shaft didn't rip well, so I came up with a scheme where I'd take screenshots from the game and render Chell in 3DS, then overlay the two in Photoshop. I positioned Chell on different keyframes for each panel. It took a lot of trickery to get the lighting and shadows right.

Compositing was easy enough. The tough part was when I kept changing stuff. I wanted the timing to be right, so I kept rearranged panels and adding new ones. The turret clock showed up when I needed something to fill space while she climbs.

I had a few last lines for GLaDOS, but went with 'Hello?' because other lines (I planned for her to say "was it my fault?") showed too much regret too quickly. It would take a few minutes, but I'm sure that after being reduced to a potato and then left by the only person who could have saved her, it would be scientifically proven whether robots can have an emotional breakdown.