Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Andrey Semenyuk

[Andrey_SE]

Hello, everybody!
That's right, this is my first message on this board. I'm a noob. :)
For quite long time I've been watching all great works here, educating myself. And now I want to give it a try. Don't expect anything great from me. It's just very good conditions to make real education - participating in that Great Challenge! That's what I love - hard conditions and very pressed situation. They always work best on human beings in order to help them grow over themselves.
Ok. I'm not taking your time to read all this noob expressions. Just wish you good luck!
I will come soon with sketched idea of my work. The only thing I worry about is that I really don't have time for all of this (but this opportunity on my favorite forum seems to be not often, so I decidet to try) and I already see that I'm not skilled enough to put my idea as I see it onto the final image. Nevertheless, I'm in and wish all of you to make great work!
PS: sorry for my english if you see it wrong.

[Andrey_SE]

Ok. I'll try later with my sketched idea.

[Andrey_SE]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1098619659_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1098619659_large.jpg)

Ok. Here is an idea I'm obsessed with.
Our planet Earth in some future. Let's say year 2500. The situation is sad for our civilization because there is no any survivor. We destroyed ourselves as a consequence of all human-nature stupid policy. To make the story short - it started from the local conflicts then developed further with involvement of other nations, preventive strikes, terrorist attacks an further to mass destruction with nuclear/biological/chemical weapon.
Not very long after human beings have vanished from Earth the planet was found by humans from another planet far away from Earth. These humans alike us by physical body but have more developed mind and posess highly advanced technologies.
The major thing is that they know actual price of the planet which is acceptable to live on. They know that it's priceless. They we roaming for many hundreds years through the universe to find one and now they are happy to see that their hope is rewarded.
I don't know what they will do after thousands of years... May be behave the same stupid way (killing each other and wasting the planet) but at least this moment they are very happy and very grateful to the planet that welcomes them.
So, the idea is to show ugly remaines of our civilization as a contrast to a new civilization buildings and technologies. That's going to be the background. And the foreground will show a pair of humans expressing a happy feelings that they at last found a new home.

PS: god, help me to finish all of this.

[Virtual Piano]

Your sketch reminds me Luke and Leia on Tatooine!

I really like this concept, you have developed very nice story!

[Andrey_SE]

Thanks man for the reply!
But
Your sketch reminds me Luke and Leia on Tatooine!Emm... Never heard of those and now I'm bit confused if I repeat something that already has been done...:hmm:

[Virtual Piano]

Don't worry, it's compeltely different, it's me, when I think space opera I see "Star Wars" in my head :). Keep going!

[Andrey_SE]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1098640784_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1098640784_large.jpg)

I started with the modelling of the old city of our civilization. Not sure yet about the composition just working on different looking buildings. Those with windows need to be refined because it was done by geometry. I will do it with texture since the city is going to be quite far.
Still thinking about the futuristic design of newcomers.

[userBrian]

Nice story. Should look good. Maybe it's me but in the drawing it almost looks like the two people are stranded. Maybe the ship should be landed and lots of people getting out, with their vehicles and supplies to make it a grander landing, not like a rescue or vacation drop. I don't think two people would be dropped off alone to colonize a planet. But it does look nice and emotional.

My Grand Space Opera entry,
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=179803

[Andrey_SE]

Thanks for your response, userBrian!
You're probably right there shouldn't be the feeling that there are only two persons landed. I was thinking to add more to the background but still not sure about the composition of the left area. And also probably will change the foreground.
Emmm... there is still time... :banghead:

[dominicqwek]

Hey there, nice idea. And it's a tough one to pull off. Will be looking out for how this progresses. cheers m8


-dom

[Andrey_SE]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1098804412_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1098804412_large.jpg)

Tried to compose the remains of the city. Still need to add a lot of junk there.
Crits about buildings as such and the composition are very welcome!

[Andrey_SE]

Just found that despite the fact that the city is going to be quite far, with the 3636 pxls size it's very visible and the lack of details will be very visible too.

My suggestion for everyone: render the scene with 3636x2657 size and look at it at 100%. Some of you will be surprised. :D
So, the conclusion is everything should be very highly detailed (not necessary by geometry for background objects but still depends on their size and distance).

And the question that bothers me: how to make a lot of junk from crashed houses simple way but providing sufficient level of details? :shrug:

[scorpier]

Textures... and bumpmapping, will add alot of detail an won't increase the rendertime very much..

[dayvbrown]

Very cool idea indeed, the city is starting to take shape but I do agree that you'll probably need to detail, but in terms of render times remember that you can render out the buildings separately and then comp them together in photoshop or any other program, the image doesn't have to be a single render. This technique also gives you lots more control over the way the buildings look, give it a go with a few quick ones and see if that helps. The details in the latest post look really nice though, if you keep going with that on the rest of the city you'll be set!

Look forward to seeing more!

Dave

[Doublecrash]

Yes, "details" is the word here.


Very hard concept, but really cool. I rendered mine at the resolution requested and I found I had to bring in much more detail. So the suggestion is spot-on: try it, so you'll see if you need more.

Cool work so far:thumbsup:

Stefano

[Andrey_SE]

Thanks for you support Dave and Stefano!

That's my feeling too up to now. Haven't got time to make anything great so far but now I'm thinking of the spaceships & aliens city design. Gonna add a lot of those to fill the background with the presence of new life. :)

I will put the non-textured models of ships and so-called "terraforming machine" soon for judgement.

[Andrey_SE]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1099501305_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1099501305_large.jpg)

Ok. Here is the low poly ship model. Not sure if I want to go to higher detail on background objects... Thinking more about texture details on them.
This ship is mostly for planets and short space distances. Kinda scout-interceptor.

[Andrey_SE]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1099592330_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1099592330_large.jpg)

Nontextured model of the second type of ship. This kind will be cleaning junk from the remains of an abandoned city.

[Andrey_SE]

Hi, everyone paying attention to this!

I'll put transport ship and maybe some more... Right now I'm planning to design the "newcomers" settlements. Hope I will have time to do that pretty quick because I need to model characters and they are gonna be hipoly, that's for sure. And maybe some lowpoly humans on the background as well.
Errr.. I haven't done even 1/1000 part of the final picture... :sad: Just forcing to work my imagination. Need to get more time on that. Damn, I still dunno how my composition is gonna look like.

Maybe some profi would give few advices? :bounce:

[Andrey_SE]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1099658954_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1099658954_large.jpg)

Just tired of modeling ships. Here is the first hipoly character.
Crits are very welcome since I didn't have any refs, just was sculpturing from a box. Will continue with the nude body because I didn't come with any idea about their clothes design. After I will just make clothes according to actual anatomy (helps a lot!) and delete hidden polys.

[overcontrast]

hey ncie goin buddy.. good modeling of the ships and nice head u got there... i think ur city buildings need soem more works. I cant really do any critique on the ships rite now, i'll b back when they r completed...:D best fo luck buddy

[Andrey_SE]

2 overcontrast: Thanks man! I do agree that maybe I should add more of details to the buildings by geometry. They will improve quality.

But those ships are going to be this shape. I just made the test render of whole scene and those ships are hardly visible on 3636x2658 format. They are quite small and quite far. So, I'll put the texture on them with bumpmapping and specular map to improve their look. Oh, there is going to be a lot of unwrapping... Also will add one or two types of higher detailed ships. Yeah, maybe the mothership as such. And there is gonna be a shuttle on the foreground.
Speaking about the foreground, I'm thinking to put a mother with her little child there. Kinda a symbol of a new life beginning. :) What do you think guys?

[vrhead]

i like the bird shaped ship very cool

[Andrey_SE]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1099835694_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1099835694_large.jpg)

Some body topology study.
Body topology thread in Maya here at CGnetworks helped a lot. Thanks also to Stahlberg's tutorials.

[Andrey_SE]

Don't have any time now but started to unwrap one of the ship models... Does anyone know how to ease this work? I mean it's very painful to make it in Max 4.2

For example, how to make some faces disconnected on the UVW map avoiding every vertex disconnection with subsequent welding? Will different materials IDs adjusted to the poly-model help with that? E.g. polys with ID=1 will be isolated from polys with ID=2 on the UVW map...

That's it for now. Will try to find the time to come up with something.
And maybe some crits about the female model? Wrong proportions, topology?
Great thanks to all who is paying attention to my work!

[Andrey_SE]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1100620373_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/7/4579/4579_1100620373_large.jpg)

Found some time to make some further developments. Making a futuristic wear for the female character. Mostly thinking about it since it's quite difficult to invent something reasonable. How those guys do it?
Also started to make a shuttle. Tried Max 6.0. It's wonderful! I'll never go back to 4.2 version! Never! The only thing is where to find a license on 6.0 when the trial version is over? :)
Ok. Will post my progress if I'll get any soon.

[Andrey_SE]

I think I'll change the foreground a little. I need some action on it. Yet I dunno what is it gonna be. Have some ideas like render few peoples playing some funny games on the grass or flying from the rock or preparing lunch... something light and funny should be there. I need some action!

Another thing is that I'll probably tweak the characters a little so they won't be humans. Just like them but obviously from another planet.

Hopefully, see you soon.

[angel]

I think I'll change the foreground a little. I need some action on it. Yet I dunno what is it gonna be. Have some ideas like render few peoples playing some funny games on the grass or flying from the rock or preparing lunch... something light and funny should be there. I need some action!

Another thing is that I'll probably tweak the characters a little so they won't be humans. Just like them but obviously from another planet.

Hopefully, see you soon.
ok, I was going to say to watch the flow of polys on the back of the jaw and the neck, is a little sharp, but if they are humanoids then I guess it's ok. I have done destroyed buildings before and it isn't an easy task. Get good reference of buildings under constrution to see the skeletons and floors, make those details and after that's done, destroying them is not that difficult. That's how I went at mine and the result was satisfactory enough. Oh also depending on your scene stats try to model the shatered glass of the windows, modeled glass instead of texture maps make a huge difference.

[Andrey_SE]

2 SNoWs: Thanx for the advices! I agree that those buildings still left in a very preliminary form. I haven't decided yet where I'm going with them. When I think about making all buildings poly-detailed... :sad: I ain't gonna finish it. I'll see what can I do with textures and then may build them properly if I'm not satisfied with the result.
Thank you!

Anyhow, I'm glad that I'm getting a lot of experience and I won't send the crappy thing for the judgement.

Thinking of subtle changes in the characters that would render them aliens... Maybe eyes?
Oki-doki. See you all when I get something to show.

[oneir0s]

Just a thing,
where the nose it finishes, and the brows begin you treat that there is not curve because it seems a worry face. I find the model ok, in the suit try that the pant doesn't separate so much of the leg, because it will seem that the cloth is very thick. Maybe it´s thick, I don´t know.....

looks great!

Good luck.

[userBrian]

Yes I just did a large render and it is an eye opener! I had all of my
models in the scene so I saw that I don't need to keep creating new
models, the space is full, I just need to finish. This really helped me.
Maybe all you need is a few people walking towards the city in the
middle ground. This will get the message accross that the people were
dropped off and are not being picked up, I think. Will be a neat final.

my 3D entry (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=179803)

[Divaise]

very cool female body... I can't wait to see it finished wish you luck !!!

[Andrey_SE]

Sorry, guys... Don't have time to all this. But still hope that I'll find it and do some progress. Although I already see that I won't be able to finish it in time. It's still too much work to do.

Thanks for your crits and support!

[userBrian]

Andrey_SE- Sorry to read you don't have the time to devote to this now- I
understand because these challenges do take up a lot of spare time. But if you do
continue please let me know- I wanted to see the final look and feel of this one!
I know it must be sad to have to let go, just like your entry is all about! Good
luck, and focus on the necessary things in your day to day existence! Arghhh!

my 3d entry (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=179803)

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