Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Steve Taylor

[Teapot-7]

Well, this is a little unwise I'm sure. I've decided to teach myself 3d modelling by entering a contest in which the array of talent is awe inspiring. Hard to say whether I'll manage to submit a final entry, but the contest should be a good goad to learning.

I'm going to raise the stakes a little by using Blender, with it's somewhat mysterious interface. Perhaps it will all become clear in time...

Theme: "In the Museum of Foreverness". Every species has it's turn on the galactic stage, but no matter how great or small their achievements, they all end up in the great museum.

Stick figures - uh - I mean "Concept Sketches" to follow...

[pinnamraj]

hey good for u

its a nice way to learn and u'll learn lot


http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=180333

[Virtuoso]

Yes good for you..................I recall way back in the day when all this wild and fun 3D got started Blender and Animation master were my springboards..................Your imagination,work ethic, and creativity will always be the most important in this CG World...............All the best to you,I hope for you to gain alot here,and I know you will.:buttrock:

[Teapot-7]

Still no concept art - shame on me. I've got a couple of paper doodles and I'd better scan them in I guess - but I defy anyone to work out what they are. We're basically looking at an exhibition hall with a number of display cases and larger mounted objects, and various onlookers - it's an idea that can stay fairly flexible until the end.

The two decisions I need to make early are: i) the general look of the museum hall. I'm going to aim for something old fashioned feeling - Victorian and stodgy, maybe a gothic vaulted ceiling. This is partly in response to our (Melbourne) museum moving from a nice old building to a nasty flashy new building.

and...

ii) layout and framing: I'm torn between going for landscape format with some strong figures in the foreground - pro: dynamic, con: doubt my modelling skills are up to it, and it may limit how many interesting things I can fit in the scene - and between going for landscape format, which would allow for a nice long shot with the potential for distant poorly modelled details, but might be a bit undramatic.

Still puttering around learning Blender bit by bit. The interface is coming clearer, but it's so hotkey driven that you'd need a good memory to be happy with it. We'll see...

[Teapot-7]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1099177279_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1099177279_large.jpg)

First of all, sorry for the total lack of drawing skills. Hope this conveys something anyway. This is a compendium of a few small sketches.

Working title: "In The Museum Of Foreverness". Every species has it's turn on the galactic stage. Some are relatively minor players, others rule the galaxy for a few millenia. Either way, they all end up as nothing more than another display case in the museum of foreverness.

The theme is more or less a grab bag for whatever I want to put into it - once I've got the museum itself roughed out, I can start filling in the individual displays. I have some ideas there, and more on them later.

The building itself is an enormous glass roofed hall, something like the old Crystal Palace. It's somewhat Victorian or Gothic looking too - mostly becasue of my dislike of current flashy museum architecture. Through the roofbeams, one can see a galaxy filling most of the sky overhead, indicating that the museum stands outside galactic society, physically, as well as culturally.

I'd like to end up with a quiet, timeless look, and a lot of the quaint clutter that typifies an older musuem.

[Teapot-7]

Hey - just noticed - if you have a good look at sketch #2, you can see that I've include a scan of a sesame seed.

At no extra cost!

[Virtuoso]

Hey Steve that's the coolest sesame seed I have ever seen,any modeling tips?;)


I like the idea of a museum.good one.Lots of promise,plus an almost open ended way of options...................Your designs look like a mad professor's plans......I like your direction,now get it up and going.Looking good.:thumbsup:

[Teapot-7]

Hey Steve that's the coolest sesame seed I have ever seen,any modeling tips? It's a super secret modelling technique, but I can say this much: If I could find a Galactic Museum which would fit on an A4 flatbed scanner, I'd be set.

[Teapot-7]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1100433293_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1100433293_large.jpg)

Just trying to block out the right layout, and still not certain whether I want to go landscape or portrait. This incoherent 3d scribble shows the main hall of the museum, lined with exhibits on both sides. Above is a glass roof - a series of glass panes held in metal frames, like a greenhouse - or like the old Crystal Palace. Visible though the glass is our galaxy, seen from a distance.

[Crin]

Teaching yourself modeling thorugh a competition takes guts man. Respect!

I look forward to seeing how it comes along, also I'd like to know what you think of my work because your bound ot have a fresh perspective having not modeled in 3D before.

[Crusty_Butt]

I think this could be cool, but there seems to me to be a problem to work out.

I think the frames of the exhibit cases are too heavy, compositionally, and they obsure too much of the exhibits. Also, it would be neat to mix it up a little with the scale. Some exhibits could be really small and some really large. This would make it more interesting to look at and maybe your imagination will go wild if you try to imagine large and small objects. (maybe the smallest exhibit is only the size of a sesame seed) Maybe pedistals, cases, some exhibits sitting on the floor and some hanging from the ceiling. And they don't have to be in rows, they could be arranged facing different directions and wouldn't limit myself to a hall shape while imagining how these things might be arranged.

Just some ideas that came to mind, take 'em of leave 'em. Good luck in the contest. This is a great way to push yourself and I think it's a good idea that you are participating.

-Bret

[Teapot-7]

Crin:
> Teaching yourself modeling thorugh a competition takes guts man. Respect!

Nah - no guts needed - just have to remind myself that it takes time to get any good. I can't believe anyone was stupid enough to hire me as a programmer when I was just a graduate. Now, 19 years later I know - well, a little bit more, anyway...

The funny thing is - seeing incredibly good modelling and rendering doesn't bother me a bit. What gets me down is seeing mediocre work and thinking "That's so much better than what I can do - and it's *still* crap!"

> I look forward to seeing how it comes along, also I'd like to know what you think of my work because your bound to have a fresh perspective having not modeled in 3D before.

See you over on your thread!

[Teapot-7]

Brett:

> I think the frames of the exhibit cases are too heavy, compositionally, and they obsure too much of the exhibits. Also, it would be neat to mix it up a little with the scale.

Agreed entirely - Just wanted some placeholders. Scale is a problem though, as I want the hall to look grand, but still want to be able to zero in on some smaller exhibits. Tricky...

> (maybe the smallest exhibit is only the size of a sesame seed)

:)

> wouldn't limit myself to a hall shape while imagining how these things might be arranged.

I think I'm comitted to a hall of some sort, though I might experiment with two halls meeting at right angles...

> Just some ideas that came to mind, take 'em of leave 'em. Good luck in the contest. This is a great way to push yourself and I think it's a good idea that you are participating.

I kinda wish this contest was happening two years later - because I don't believe there'll ever be a topic this cool again!

[Teapot-7]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1100741236_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1100741236_large.jpg)

Comments: First cut of the museum roof. Textures, lighting etc still provisional. I think I might go for a smaller hall - I want it to be grand, but I still want to be able to show off smaller exhibits. Dissapointed that I'm getting moire effects etc even with oversampling on maximum - perhaps a larger windowpane size. The galaxy visible through the glass is a placeholder from an astronomy book - will be drawing my own soon.

Must cut down model complexity - way too many vertices on distant parts of the roof, and Blender is already straining.

[Teapot-7]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1101263278_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1101263278_large.jpg)

With the previous hall design I was planning to run two halls together at right angles to make a cruciform building, and to bevel off the ends of the corridors, all in imitation of a rather beautiful building I once saw in Paris. After doing some roughs of this design, I realised that while the shape was quite beautiful from the outside, it was rather hard to 'read' from the inside - none of the angles really worked.

So - instead of stealing from the French, I'll steal from the English, and base the museum design on the old Crystal Palace.

[fxgogo]

I like your choice of Blender. It will be a challenge but I think it is very usefull to learn packages while doing stuff. The time pressure really get the brain going.

As for the museaum, I would suggest a multi level structure. That way you should be able to get more 'artifacts' in your scene which will help make things seem huge or massive.

[Teapot-7]

> I like your choice of Blender. It will be a challenge but I think it is very usefull to learn packages while doing stuff.

Blender's working out ok - but I couldn't really compare it to anything else until I've learnt another app well and developed some decent 3d skills - so I'm unlikey to know if I'm doing the right thing for another couple of years. Can't argue with the price though...

> The time pressure really get the brain going.

Job, wife, baby, hobby - choose any two.

> As for the museaum, I would suggest a multi level structure. That way you should be able to get more 'artifacts' in your scene which will help make things seem huge or massive.

I agree - in fact, the more I look at pictures of the historical Crystal Palace, the more I realise my work has already been done for me!

http://www.library.arizona.edu/branches/architecture/Images2/Crystal%20Palace.jpg

[Teapot-7]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1101466599_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1101466599_large.jpg)

Not much too it, but my first bit of texture. Did a rough render with colours only and while it looked fine at PAL resolution, it looked pretty bare at print resolution.

[leonartdo]

Good luck learning the 3D package. Try using repeated texture for the overhead window pane with cylindrical mapping. Or use Transparency mask to your window textures to emulate see through effect. Smooth out the arch with larger repeated window texture (around 1280x 720 pixels ) might do the job. Also learn about using bump texture mapping to add simulated highlights. Also use grid procedure texture if Blender supports it.

[jamacsween]

Well done mate. I'm in exactly the same boat so very best of luck to you and looking good so far.

JA

[Teapot-7]

Good luck learning the 3D package. Try using repeated texture for the overhead window pane with cylindrical mapping. Or use Transparency mask to your window textures to emulate see through effect. Smooth out the arch with larger repeated window texture (around 1280x 720 pixels ) might do the job. Also learn about using bump texture mapping to add simulated highlights. Also use grid procedure texture if Blender supports it. Leonartdo: Thanks. Blender is starting to make sense, though I'm not sure I'm in love with some of the texture controls - if there's a good way of positioning texture maps, I don't think I've found it yet. Good suggestions above - I've actually gone and done the whole roof with geometry rather than texture mapping, as I wanted to get something which would work at print resolution - but it slowing my interface down to a crawl, so I may yet have to back out of that one. I've tried putting a slight bump map on the window glass, and it seems to work, but I've got to watch out for the fact that the further you are from object, the more conspicuous the bumps are with reflections.

Well done mate. I'm in exactly the same boat so very best of luck to you and looking good so far. jamacsween: Much thanks for the boost. I've been looking at your piece - rendering those 4 zillion dropships must be making your renderer have kittens!

[Teapot-7]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1101854737_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1101854737_large.jpg)

Another go at the roof - this time in the style of the Crystal Palace. Now that I've done it, I'm thinking the old roof style looked grander - but this one will be easier to do the interior layout for, I think.

Must cut vertex/face count down - Blender is threatening to have a temper tantrum.

[Teapot-7]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1101869124_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4489/4489_1101869124_large.jpg)

Giving myself a break from fiddling with architecture. You can't have a museum without tourists, can you?

If this little blue fella asks nicely he might even get a mouth and ears.

Done using subdivision surfaces in Blender. Useful, but with a few weird surprises if you create/delete/mutilate too many edges and faces.

[basse]

museum filled with strange looking tourists.. that sounds great.

goodluck with blender.

.b

[Crusty_Butt]

It's coming along great. I think the details on the roof help a lot to give a sense of scale. With your previous attempts, it seemed like a small space. This looks large, even if you took away the people.

Your alien is cool too. Nice texture and purple sparkles. I think the antennae could have some incandescence progressivly toward the top, if that makes any sense. Or maybe an effect like you see through an electron microscope. Something to make it look conductive. Just a thought, it looks good to me as-is.

Rock on.

Bret

[Teapot-7]

Good lord - someone's been reading this thread! Thanks for the kind words basse and Crusty. I'm obviously not going anywhere with this particular contest, but it has served to give me the 3d bug again, after having let it lie dormant for many years, so I'll see you round the board after the contest is done.

I still like the Grand Space Opera theme and I'll keep fiddling wiht it. I figure I should have my contest entry finished withinh about 2 years :)

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