The Journey Begins Challenge (3D) Entry: Eric Machmer

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141451320_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141451320_large.jpg)

This sketch was drawn while waiting in the early morning hours at a rural bus station in central Brazil. It is a cloud sketch...a really fun, light-hearted way used to create meaningful work when mentally exhausted (especially). A person draws a few casual lines in interesting shapes with the thicknesses and other characteristics more typical to conscientious work, then, as if staring at a sky with a friend when pointing to identifiable shapes in clouds, the "artist" in you tries to see figures, characters, vehicles, and so forth in the lines, shapes, and forms of the cloud sketch. It helps to keep in mind what you need to draw -- or feel compelled to convey by drawing -- while deciphering your clouds. Normally this would have been rendered into a well-defined character concept after being scanned at a higher res but in this case the initial sketch spun completely out of control while still a thumbnail so I shelved it. Fortunately a vehicle was required for this challenge. So two days later, still on a bus, by rotating the sketch to see different shapes and dimensions a very strange, complicated, and hopefully atypical ship gradually formed. Cloud sketchings are useful in developing concepts distant from our subconsciously limited imagination. Cloud sketchings are particularly useful in forcing introverted personalities so frequently talented to trust their imaginative instincts and to continue drawing beyond the initial incoherent unpleasing stages any sketch may often pass through. --And, they are fun!

Good luck everyone! I hope this is a learning experience…please, brutally honest criticism positive or otherwise is very welcome.

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141627748_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141627748_large.jpg)

This is a closeup of the current unshaded cockpit area. Throughout much of this modeling process extrudes were used in Maya, converting their output generally to polys. Touching up the craft with Maya's Artisan sculpt tool, pushing, smoothing, and pulling verts as necessary, contributed to an organic look. The idea is to make this ship look as though it were grown -- by cartoon "Bug's Life-like" creatures -- rather than hewen from wood or created using modern tools, metal materials, and so forth, by humans. Hope it is fun to check out -- it IS fun to make! Enjoy!

[a-papantoniou]

This is a bit hard to see, but you definitely got the organic feel. It looks like the vehicle is grown like a plant instead of being build. The background is short of unclear in the sketch.

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141629892_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141629892_large.jpg)

Since this is a fantasy world vehicle it is intended to disappear when viewed head-on...it only exists in two dimensions. (In that world.) If viewing characters in this vehicle head-on we would only see them, and their supplies, floating in mid-air...the ship itself would fade away as viewers approach a head-on perspective along its Z plane. (Just a fun idea which came to mind after rotating this odd shape through the Z in Maya.)

Well...back to modeling...good luck everyone!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141661864_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141661864_large.jpg)

Fortunately Maya 7 comes with a greatly enhanced reference editor which not only provides a viewpane for previewing individual referenced objects but allows for a variety of changes to be made directly to the referenced model itself.

The cockpit section is now referenced out to a separate file in order to reduce filesize and allow more efficient, quick, modeling. Likewise over the course of time quite a bit of equipment and detailed instruments will be referenced into this ship's scene. In the end most of this scene will be referenced into a master set with other files.

Definitely worth checking out referencing. It can allow you to add quite a bit of detail to your personal aesthetics without slowing down your modeling.

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141965916_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1141965916_large.jpg)

Posted to show the progressive modeling of this vehicle as it evolves following new quirks and follies...very much enjoy modeling on the fly, with a loose concept sketch, rather than feeling bound to a multi-person pipeline...very liberating...can't wait to get on a motorbike this summer so I think the cockpit of this vehicle will be capable of separating from its main ship to travel in a similar fashion. Intend to press this cockpit's evolution, to thereby allow its progression to determine the nature of everything else in the final scene. 78 days left...letting its hair out, clutch in, throttle up.

Grateful not to be in the mountains of Afghanistan stranded following an earthquake, trying to feed our families, or, scrambling for food in Guatemala City without a family. So lucky to have the opportunity to work in 3D...hopefully our skills will help those less fortunate at the same time, ideally bringing a new perspective to old problems. Anyhow, hope you enjoy this image!

[Russel-Nash]

That looks really interesting. :thumbsup:

Good luck.

Russel

[ppook]

I love your details, I'm looking forward to more updates. Good luck :cool: :D

[oceanbluesky]

Hey thanks Russel and Kanokporn, appreciate your encouraging comments. Brutally honest criticism -- positive or otherwise -- always welcome!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142229433_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142229433_large.jpg)

Churned out a couple of organic looking pulleys, ropes, ladders, and such for the ship...just enough completed to continue building out once referenced into the main scene or imported into other sets. One of the more tedious but necessary steps to the end.

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142230379_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142230379_large.jpg)

Just another piece of the set, detailed, hopefully fun and somewhat organic.


--EDITED NOTE: Oh! I'm a self-taught web-designer who had been dying to get into 3D and this is my first Challenge -- sooooo -- the little acorn here is the very first completed 3D image I've ever shown to anyone (except for the single-material untextured splash model on my website and the W.I.P. ship above)...forgive me but I was -- haahahaha!! I can't believe it! -- extremely excited! Just to get a glow texture!! And bump maps? -- don't even get me started! The original file for the single acorn with a converted displacement map was something like 120 MB. One acorn. Very funny how much of a learning experience participating in this Challenge has been. So, I thought I'd explain why this silly little acorn is sitting here all lonesome, bright and cheerful. (In my amature state-of-mind I couldn't believe I had made something so freakin' neat (to me!)...hope that brings a laugh.)

Likewise for the leaves below...guess what...they are m o d e l e d. Not alpha-masked textures of maple leaves on poly planes -- they are actually 3D poly objects with painted textures. Even their viens are modeled polys...not bump or displacement maps. Why?? Why you might ask would a person model rather than mask background leaves??? --Because I didn't know any better! A bump map?? Very funny. What a waste of time ignorance is...it took days to make those dang viens. And now masking leaves is a 10 minute exercise -- which I learned from reading a thread on the pages of this Society. (Thank you all for the wonderful quick tutorials!!)

Thought I'd share these learning experiences. Perhaps you'll find them funny too.

Cheers!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142230965_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142230965_large.jpg)

A bunch of leaves lit to set color tone to background: bright, cheerful, strong. Hope you enjoy them!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142796453_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142796453_large.jpg)

Detailed musical instrument with fur collar. Progression of modeling shown along bottom; render tests of flag colors along side. Could be instructive -- to myself as much as anyone -- that most of the time spent in creating this instrument involved details (such as fur, pearl inlays, flags, etc.). Perhaps such detailing will be a trend in 3D as our tools and machines become more powerful. It is a nice touch I look forward to developing as a personal style. Hope you like it.

[oceanbluesky]

will post main character soon

[se7enthcin]

Interesting. I haven't seen your thread before. I like the colors and I hope to see more updates soon! :D

[Selina42]

This looks very intriguing -I'm liking your modelling so far -lots of exciting details to it. But i'd still really like to see a concept sketch as the earlier one is so small its very unclear what it is -and i'd really like to see roughly where you are headed with this!

[oceanbluesky]

Hi Selina! Thanks for your encouraging comments...sorry about having piecemeal concept sketches for the moment...I'm extremely busy with family issues and would like to devote more time to this...I'll post model sheets with the characters in the future and should have a full scene rough shortly thereafter. Can never underestimate the value of a sketchbook which fits in your back pocket though....thanks again, good luck!

[oceanbluesky]

Interesting. I haven't seen your thread before. I like the colors and I hope to see more updates soon! :D

Hey thanks for stopping by...your encouragement is much appreciated. Good luck!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142959283_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1142959283_large.jpg)

WARNING: I bought a Wacom pad two days ago. Oh man what have I been missing! This is a way over saturated color concept for the scene created in less than 45 minutes (virtually one of my first digital sketches but I am so excited by the process I'm going to post this concept of a concept sketch anyway)...the ship is quite large, so, it is tilted on its side and entirely reflected on the dark liquid surface far below (to enable it to be seen in its entirety)...several creatures are on a branch to the right midground, while the foreground is out of focus. Importantly most of the colors are in their own layers to allow maximum experimentation using CTRL+U and CTRL+B in Photoshop. Back to work in Maya...hope this serves to orient future crits...one of the joys of working on a CG Challenge is following an idea without regard to a restrictive team necessated workflow or a hierarchical model-to-concept pipeline...just kind of riffing with this, keeping it light, having fun, seeing where it goes....

EDITITED NOTE:

WARNING: I bought a Wacom pad two days ago.
Hehehe, I think that says it all. Gosh was I impressed to do anything with that pad. I LOVE it!! Hoh! The funny thing is I think if I had the choice to keep my computer or just my Wacom pad I'd choose the Wacom pad -- I don't know what I'd do with it, maybe pretend it is plugged into something and practice fooling around on it with imaginary pictures projected on a non-existant screen, while walking down the street or sitting by a river -- or just sleep with it under my pillow. Dang I love it!

They can be bought for about 10 to 15 percent less on eBay and you definitely don't need a big one -- the smaller actually is probably the better...stroke size really determines your need for pad size, rather than anything else. Try one out at a store, then purchase the size you like on eBay. If you draw with a small stroke, a small pad would be fine...and less costly. Definitely worth saving money for though if you can....

Anyhow, I hope this note discourages anyone from putting off such a purchase like I had. It is well worth the investment, if possible.

Also hope these ridiculous images don't give the wrong impression to anyone -- I (very humbly) think I can draw (with a pencil)...just had a lot of fun getting to know the Wacom pad.

Cheers!

[luigithekid]

That perspective looks really good!
The ship is quite amazing! And the props too!

[Gunilla]

Lovely modeling, I really like the style for this! It's a bit hard getting a grip of the over all concept but I suppose it'll get clearer later. I will be back for sure :)

On another note, I suggest you put a link to your thread in you signature - that way you will have more people finding you and your interesting entry :thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks Mario...the ship should be completed soon, hopefully by this weekend. Glad you like it.

[MT-Cup]

Amazing looking ship. I can't wait to see more. Best of luck to you!

[oceanbluesky]

Lovely modeling, I really like the style for this! It's a bit hard getting a grip of the over all concept but I suppose it'll get clearer later. I will be back for sure :)

On another note, I suggest you put a link to your thread in you signature - that way you will have more people finding you and your interesting entry :thumbsup:

Thanks Gunilla! Another piece of this puzzle ought to be up within the next few days, if I can squeeze out the time...a lamp has turned into a full blown character/lamp/incense burner, etc. Flipped the perspective a bit on a new color concept draft....will post in a while. Thanks again!

Oh, this is my first challenge -- thank you for clueing me in on the signature thing too!

[oceanbluesky]

Amazing looking ship. I can't wait to see more. Best of luck to you!

Hey MT CUP thanks for your encouraging comments -- and as this drags on encouragement is very welcome. Searched around for your challenge entry or a WIP gallery but couldn't find anything...after reading your helpful, right-on comments to others I'd bet your work must be interesting and inspiring...

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1143189684_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1143189684_large.jpg)

Flipped the color sketch and tested new harsher colors. Very rough 3am whim. Gosh I hope it doesn't look like this!!!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1143582430_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1143582430_large.jpg)

test render, thought the gray on black, colors, were interesting...will texture this weekend...kind of excited about her...

*****

While thinking about themes for the eventual backstory two quotes about traveling came to mind. The first is actually by Mohammed and is very straightforward: “Do not tell me how educated you are, tell me where you have traveled.” (I am not a Muslim but think that saying is very instructive.) My absolute favorite call to travel though is by a Brahmin poet who lived in what is now the violently contested territory of Kashmir:

A poet should learn with his eyes the forms of leaves.
He should know how to make people laugh
when they are together.
He should go to see what they are really like.
He should know about oceans and mountains
in themselves.
And the sun and the moon and the stars.
His mind should enter into the seasons.
He should go among many people in many places
and learn their languages.


Below is the same poem using the third person singular feminine…I think it makes a difference whether one reads “he” or “she” even though we make think to ourselves the poem can be interpreted to be gender neutral while reading it in its typical translation. It’s interesting what the different feelings we may have when actually reading it with a female subject tell us about our subconscious minds. Hope you enjoy the sensation:

A poet should learn with her eyes the forms of leaves.
She should know how to make people laugh
when they are together.
She should go to see what they are really like.
She should know about oceans and mountains
in themselves.
And the sun and the moon and the stars.
Her mind should enter into the seasons.
She should go among many people in many places
and learn their languages.

Good luck everyone!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1143706743_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1143706743_large.jpg)

...Not pandering to our Boxx sponsor too much hopefully...just not passing an opportunity to earn Boxx Rewards...a program open to everyone, here:

http://www.boxxtech.com/rewards/spreadtheword.asp

Anyhow, just messing around with the new Wacom pad. Ridiculously fun. Cheers...

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1144157653_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1144157653_large.jpg)

BEESA...NASA for bees, of course! These characters live in a cherry orchard on Point Magoo -- a real rocket testing range in Southern California -- where they are inspired by SpaceX and other commercial suborbital ventures to travel around the world.

***Apparently SpaceX uses Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands, though... http://www.spacex.com

---

The colors for this will change...just whacked it with a +86 hue change in Photoshop...isn't a tacky pink blob in a starfield anymore but man, this is supposed to eventually be for a G rated film pitch. I don't like these colors at all -- they are so bizarre I thought I'd post them to reflect upon later...

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1144158481_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1144158481_large.jpg)

new colors

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1144438657_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1144438657_large.jpg)

Previous attempts at completing this character were unsatisfying...went through several new iterations...when in doubt: add fur, big eyes, and make the character smile. This is just a prop held aloft by other characters which have yet to be completed, so, this iteration will have to do for now...

Brutal critique, possible suggestions for improvement welcome...

[MT-Cup]

I think the fact you are using stark black as the background is what's throwing you off on the colors. Keep in mind there are no shades of black, just shades of grey. The starkness of black, as with white can throw your color perception. Just a thought.


As for your earlier comment, <blush> thanks. I'm an old oil on canvas artist (3rd rate), who's been away from art in general for years. I'm just getting back into the art world and trying to learn "a new way". Right now I"m working in Daz Studio and Vue d'Esprit, not creating content, but art based on other's content. One day I hope to be able to compete here, but I doubt I'll ever get to the level of expertise and high art that I see exhibited here. I do have a small gallery on rendo, but you can see it's not quality (yet). Thanks for the kind remarks.

[oceanbluesky]

Hey MT thanks for the suggestion to avoid the use of pure black backgrounds...great idea actually...these characters are very saturated with colors since the characters live in a cherry orchard and are meant for a children's oriented movie pitch (as vainly ambitious as that may be...). So they tend to look awfully tacky. I'm anxious to check them out with a background of cherry blossoms, tree limbs, and leaves. Great idea.

"I''m just getting back into the art world and trying to learn "a new way"." Excellent! It seems the only definite key to success in the 3D world is persistence, so, I look forward very much to viewing your entries in a future challenge!

AutoDesk recently purchased Alias, which as you may know, resulted in the two most popular highend modeling and animation programs being owned by the same company -- if you're planning on extending your forays into 3D it might be worth checking out the free Learning Edition of Maya at http://www.AutoDesk.com

What is rendo?

Thanks again

[MT-Cup]

Rendo is an artist's gallery site. http://www.renderosity.com/


I think these characters are great for a kiddie bit. They're very happy, bright.

Thanks for the advice on Maya. I'll look into it. I'm trying several demos until I find a tool that suits me. Zbrush is very slick, I'm enjoying it a lot, although the interface is a nightmare.

Keep going, I think you have a fun theme here!

[scootermaya]

Crasy modeling here ! I subscribe!
Love your concept man ... gogogo!:bounce:

[oceanbluesky]

thanks Michel! --Really hope you're working from a live model!

[arte-i45]

Wow Eric, all of your objects are wonderfully detailed, excellent work man! Your entry is very original, it has that sort of surreal feel to it! Keep it up, I am definitely liking what I see! :buttrock:

Matt :)

[Womgoose]

That's some really cool and original work you have been doing - not sure how I missed this post until now but I'm happy to have seen it now :)
Oh and are you really from Christmas Island? that's pretty cool as well ;)

[scootermaya]

thanks Michel! --Really hope you're working from a live model!

Of course ! I'm teaking both !:scream:

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Matt, nice website galleries you have...especially liked the translucency of the grapes in your "Surfacing Gallery" still life, and, this creature:

http://www.primatestudios.com/images/samples/illustration/pond.jpg

What is this house used for:

http://www.primatestudios.com/images/samples/modeling/small_hut_comp.jpg

? It's pretty cool...especially the light cast from its interior

Interesting, exciting work! Thanks for the comments (and encouragement...)

[Nothingness]

so much work,
so much detail,
so much appreciation!


great to see a maya user. I'm loving the app more and more sinds i've been doing this challenge.

keep up the good work.

[mdavid]

I really like your use of colour and 'organic' modeling. Very unusual and very inspiring

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Lee, thanks for the encouragement....Christams Island does sound cool...I'd like to live there sometime. "The Australian Government in 2001 agreed to support the creation of a commercial space-launching site on the island, projected to begin operations in the near future."

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kt.html

[JacquesPena]

I would love to own one of those lucky turtle lampsm I can feel he vibrancy. That is awesome to see. I would actually love to see everything put together. Great modeling on the instruments, I looked over them a few times to see the detail

[burpy]

Interesting cartoon style you have going here. It does look like a fun concept!;)

Keep up the good work, the vivid colours, and I'll wait for updates.:)

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks Lee, Nico, Jacques, Mark, Michael, and Michael...hope to have a rough composite of characters together soon...should be quite different from the previous awful super-saturated concept sketches posted earlier. Anyhow, thanks all....

[MT-Cup]

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. ;)

[cgoz]

colors are great, i'll check frequently your work man, really interesting

[rattlesnake]

Hello! many thanx for your words and advice on my thread, i think your face expressions are very well done, the one of the right is simply great :thumbsup:, and the colors fits perfect..good progress ..keep going man! we are aproaching to the end of this journey!

[M477]

Great designs, very original! It's good to model with no pre-defined sketch that does not allow any modification. Really nice :thumbsup:

[varma]

How could I miss this great thread? You got so much details and interesting elements,
You really should go for a huge render to show them off!
Most of all, I liked the ornamental frame, awsome!
I'll keep an eye on this thread, for sure!
Great job so far!
:buttrock:

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks Ozan, Jorge, Matt, Mathias, and of course MT. Hope to have more finished by Sunday though I doubt I'll finish.... Have a good weekend all!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1145673518_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1145673518_large.jpg)

Sheesh, the 150k limit on these images has just sucked the saturation RIGHT out of this one. What a disappointment. --Everything gray, basically is a shade of pink. Anyhow more to follow...working, working, working. (Although I don't think this will be completed...) Good luck everyone!

[alvin-cgi]

Nice works with all the details!! It is difference to others, and make it really shine... good concept, composition and well modeling.

The Journey Begins (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=322760&highlight=alvin)
Spectacular 3D (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=275950&highlight=alvin)

[vincent1]

Totally organic and very detailed work. I like the result of your cloud sketching tip.

[sathe]

Its looking very nice! Too bad about the 150k limit though, ive noticed bad quality loss too.
Nevermind though keep at it :)

[Gunilla]

Very nice progress! I really like the way you pick the colors, that bright pink is so vibrant and very unique for this kind of work. Looking forward to the comp now!

[coochaki]

very cool!
nice details!
looking to see more... .. .
good luck!:)

[MT-Cup]

Oh the suit is perfect! Love the details. :applause: Well done. I can't say much more because I"m still giggling at all the puns.

[Joblh]

Great modelling and texturing so far, keep it up!
You might want to give the boatswain character a bit of yellow tints (in the light or material) would make the pink/white material a bit warmer :)

[arte-i45]

Hey Eric, fantastic design! The entire suit is so well conceived and detailed, awesome work man! :applause:



Sheesh, the 150k limit on these images has just sucked the saturation RIGHT out of this one. What a disappointment.

Yeah, I have noticed that a couple of times in the past on images that I was getting prepped to upload. Still the good news is that your update looks like a work of art in itself! :scream:

Matt :)

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks Alvin, Vincent, Sathe, Gunilla, Mohammad, Matt, Joblh, and of course MT...glad to be of help and appreciate the encouraging comments. --I think for the next post I'll try Photoshop's selective optimization feature to retain saturation in some areas of the image. (I hope...)

Excellent, exciting suggestion Joblh (cool name you have too)...adding yellow touches to the pink of her suit would be really interesting. I'll try it out. Perfect suggestion!

Thanks again all!

[Vozzz]

Looking great, especially the ones at the start. That flying machine? Looking really cool :)

[Nakary]

Hi Eric, man I really like your way of designing, both story and graphics, I find your transportation tree shaped very amusing, your character looks nice too, very promising, I am waiting to see your work done, very promising... :) Eric, thanks for your commets con my post too. It is really nice how this helps artists to share commets and get in touch.. GOOD LUCK.

[Womgoose]

Wow you are dedicated.
I must admit I find it impossible to upload images without tweaking them in PS but this is just brilliant. Such great imagination and love put into that.
I have a sneaky feeling you have done character design work before after seeing this sheet ;)

Lovely work and a great image as well :thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks Alex, Richard, and Lee -- yeah a few of those single item images earlier in this thread are lame. I'll try to replace them with more robust engaging versions..didn't know what I was doing really since this is my first CG Challenge. Enjoy the community here though...it has been quite a learning experience...perhaps at the end of the challenge it would be interesting to post links to all of the other entries from which elements in my own were inspired...the list would be quite long. Unfortunately it's been a lot of fun but I don't think I'll have the time to finish.

Good luck all!

[Womball]

Its really coming along quite nicely! The modeling is fantastic. I have modeled in maya before and I find it hard to do. I'm not sure if I like the eyes on the main character though. But that's only one complaint, the coloring more than makes up for it. I'm not sure your getting your translucent effect, its really amazing!

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Nathan, yeah, her eyes are difficult...they need to be cartoon eyes for various reasons and the visor in this shot knocks out their color...I'm not really pleased with them and hopefully will have time to polish her up before a final render, if that ever occurs. --Thanks very much for the crit. Really appreciate it (thought it would be possible to let the eyes slide given time constraints, but I'm glad to know they are noticable...eyelashes and lids would help too).

[Womball]

I wouldn't really let anything slide with this. You will regret it eventually. For eyes, I use a 2 spheres. The innersphere is than loop cut so that an iris and pupil area are formed. These are than seperated into seperate meshes. I think I may simplify this process even more, since for animation having a seperate iris is a must. That way you can dialate the eye. However with a still its not really necessary. The outer sphere is a transparent wet look texture which give the eye a nice wetness. The angle of the iris is important too, since this give the iris a realistic depth. They tend to curve inward forming a plan that tilts toward the pupil. The pupil is just a shadeless material. A pupil in reality is a hole, its not actually a shape.

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Nathan, the model uses a variation of the eye setup you decribe -- basically an anistropic outer sphere slightly above an underlying colored sphere for the eyeball, then, for the animation purposes you describe, a third anistrophic more oval sphere is placed above a fourth similarly shaped oval with a black lambert shader (slightly indented/concave) which serves as the pupil. The rotation axis for each of the two spheres composing the pupil are moved to the center point of the spheres for the eyeball, then, all four spheres are wrapped in a lattice and deformed into a cartoon shape -- this allows the pupil to follow the outer surface of the cartoon shaped eyeball for exagerated expressions and such, while also remaining independent for dilation, etc. It's a pretty cool way to create Warner Bros-like eyes.

After experimenting with a pink iris which essentially becomes invisible beneath the visor I forgot to unhide the black of the pupil before rendering! Hope to remember this before the final render...thanks very much for pointing it out! Good eye!

[glenn23]

Not only are your individual updates little works of art in themselves, your references and explanations are really fascinating. (I just spent an hour reading about SpaceX. really interesting stuff!)
Keep posting. Never know what I'll learn next!

[shakes]

lovely stuff so far, Eric- love that turtle lamp, and the girl character has a fantastic face.
would love to see a closeup of them!

[mdavid]

Your attention to detail is making this piece something special. Keep up the great work

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks Mark, John, and Glenn! Glad you like the backstory and atmospheric textual materials. Came across this prayer today on an item which a girlfriend gave me a long time ago and thought it was worth sharing here, especially as we come in toward the finish of this challenge...I read it more as a poem than a prayer...it was written by Sir Francis Drake on the eve of his circumnavigation of the world in 1577 (there's a lot of stuff from various religions in this thread...thought adding this one wouldn't hurt either...I am definitely not a religious nut of any persuasion...we have way more than enough):

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.



!!!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake

Thanks again

[Derferic]

Hi Oceanbluesky, you did a beautiful very coloured work, I like much!


http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?postid=3433678#post3433678

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Derferic, thanks for the encouraging comments. I think that will probably be as close as I get to a finished image -- where do people find the time to work on these projects...?! It's a wonderful challenge to participate in nonetheless but coffee isn't working anymore. Time to get some sleep and stop whining.

[MT-Cup]

Even if you don't finish in time for the challenge, I'd love to see you finish this piece and put it in your profile here, or post it on one of the other forums. This is just an amazing piece, you've come so far; I'd hate to see all this work go to waste.

[oceanbluesky]

Hey MT Cup thanks for the encouraging comments -- really appreciated. A challenge like this should be easier the second+ time around. Heck, at least I won't post a single acorn again. This has been a very real measurable learning experience. --Also looking forward to seeing your entry next time around! You made your avatar icon, right?? That's pretty cool! Not only quality work but dark and intriguing. Definitely gives one pause.

working working working

[Climax]

looking good and complex:cool: keep it on! :wip:

[DimitrisLiatsos]

Very complex and fresh style...how did i miss this?...:banghead:.

Very complex scene materials...:surprised.

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks for stopping by Omar and Dimitris! The work competitors are submitting in this challenge is just stunning! Hopefully I will have something new to post after work today -- including a list of threads from which particular elements used my own (humble) submission found their inspiration or often pure technical know-how. Cheers!

[Hoju]

You’ve got some nice organic looking imagery there, Eric. I really like your approach to creating 3D images. You seem to be able to draw inspiration from all directions and it makes for interesting reading. Keep up the good work.:beer:

[Samanthie]

Hi Eric, My 3d experience is limited but I like your image. The colors also work very well. Good luck to you! and thanks for stopping by my thread and for the comments you made. :)

[medunecer]

Hi Eric! You're doing a good job, even with the very interesting text material. I think that you're animate by a positive feeling doing your piece. I'd like to see more images about your main character; I like it very much.

[Nigio]

Hi Eric, your concepts are very unique and so original. Keep this great work up, mate. I hope you'll be able to finish in time.
Regards.

[oceanbluesky]

Hoju -- thanks for the encouragement Paul! Appreciate it.

Smanthie -- Glad you found the comments worthwhile Debbie...thanks for your kind words.

Medunecer -- Yeah all about feeling postive in this world...how fortunate can we be while there are so many everyday political issues consuming this world to be able to come together and spend time working in a medium we love! I'll try to get more character shots up...problem is I don't like the characters completed thus far very much...missing the magic...very cold, analytical...astronauts and robots just aren't exciting...trying for a more friendly, warm set of cute fuzzy things next. Thanks for your encouragement Marco.

Nigio -- Thanks for the encouragement Giovanni! Hope to find time to finish!

Good luck all!

[kreuz]

hey man , i love your concept , nice sense of image creation and so far so good ,

keep working and i'll be watching you:thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

Hey KreuZ, thanks for stopping by! Enjoyed the laughs over on your thread. Working, working, working....(can't wait for this Challenge to be over if only to have a free weekend!)

cheers

[reiv]

Hey,
It's really hard to give real advices to your work. I mean it's realy has its own style and personnality wich is quite refreshing. Maybe you should just use two different colors schemes for you forground and background or slight color variations, because I just saw your color scheme concept and the use of almost one color for the whole picture is maybe a lil too much. Imho, it will be really hard to get depth and legibility in your picture with this.
Anyway, keep it up!

[coochaki]

hey oceanbluesky:

looking for more updates!
sorry that i can't active very much in your forum because of my alittle bad realtime english!
keep going... .. .

[cbernardo]

Hello, oceanbluesky,
Thanks for your comments! :)
Your work is really fantastic! Theres a lot of beautiful details.
[]s
carlos

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Olivier, Mohammad, Carlos! Nice to see you all here! Thanks for your encouragement!

Reiv...Reiv! I'm sure you're mistaken...the idea is not to solicit suggestions from you as to how my entry can be improved, but, to send you my Maya files for you to finish yourself. Then, we could submit them in my name and let me win. That is the plan. Are we understanding one another? This is important...I think the only way I can beat your entry is if my entry is also your entry. Please set some time aside to achieve this. Many thanks in advance, teamplayer.

Just kidding around...!
: ) Thanks for the suggestions Reiv -- really find your work inspiring!

[JurajMolcak]

Shame on me that I didn´t drop a single word here sooner :banghead: Did quick search through whole stuff and... hopefully you still working on this project, don´t you? Coz I want to wish you good luck :thumbsup: And about sending your files to be finished by Olivier - ha ha ha, LOL! I don´t want to see only images by few masters around here - I want to see how people developing themselfs to become MASTERS! Keep this idea going :thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1146519804_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1146519804_large.jpg)

This is Barb's beefriend Bob. Enjoy!

"Time left: 26 days, 2 hours, 25 minutes, 7 seconds."

Holy Toledo! Even seconds are listed! I will probably need those! Working, working, working...

[JurajMolcak]

Shame on me that I didn´t drop a single word here sooner :banghead: Did quick search through whole stuff and... hopefully you still working on this project, don´t you? Coz I want to wish you good luck :thumbsup: And about sending your files to be finished by Olivier - ha ha ha, LOL! I don´t want to see only images by few masters around here - I want to see how people developing themselfs to become MASTERS! Keep this idea going :thumbsup:

ha ha - I see, you´re still on! Keep going.

[steven.qian]

good idea ! I like this style

[MT-Cup]

I know he's in there somewhere! LOL! :thumbsup: Another incredibly detailed piece! I'd say the helmet is a work of art, but you'd probably come gunning for me. ;) Still loving the colors and the puns. I can't find anything to fault.

Is that pollen on the fingertips of the glove?

[coochaki]

great details!

i like this style!
looking for more.... .. .

[unwrap]

Time for me to say something. Well, I have to say that sorry, I can't make anything out of your images :shrug:, are you making them so complicated on purpose? Or is that your concept? I'd really appreciate if you'd shed some light on me :deal: . C u.

[oceanbluesky]

Time for me to say something. Well, I have to say that sorry, I can't make anything out of your images :shrug:, are you making them so complicated on purpose? Or is that your concept? I'd really appreciate if you'd shed some light on me :deal: . C u.

Hey Sergio! Good heavens, yes of course it is intentional! : ) Can I say that I wanted these last two submissions to be art in themselves or would that be too pretentious, too presumptuous, for even this forum?? Very humbly...I just kept rendering, and rendering, and rendering that character, particularly from close-ups of the logos (sponsors of this challenge) and especially with the angle shown in the main shot, and began thinking -- with the colors in the original, less washed-out image -- that it looked pretty cool in itself from just that angle, with light bouncing around the helmet, off the wing shroud, through the feathers and fur...it looked pretty cool, abstract and intricate...I also wanted to highlight 'Autodesk' (publishers of Maya) and its displacement map, which can't be easily noticed from a distance. I guess these individual character sheets are to draw readers into the BEESA project...to serve as advertising of a sort.

A broad, long-term intention is to develop the concept of "advertising funded space exploration" and propagate it among the general public through various projects (professional and non-professional personal works such as BEESA) so we eventually come to accept advertising on real astronauts and rockets as easily as we do sponsor-supported NASCAR vehicles -- but, that is a subject which will require further elaboration later in this challenge or future challenges.

These last two images have been very intentionally -- very, very intentionally -- NOT straightforward bland standard boring "look-at-my-character-in-a-T-pose" renders. You'll see the characters in action, hopefully, in the final image, if time permits...these posts are meant to be only character sheets with an attitude and sense of aesthetics in themselves...expressive of the final image, but, not a "final" image in their own right. I can understand if there isn't much to critique in them. Taking the helmets off these characters would require many more hours of modeling, several more hours of render tests, and for what? The final image requires them to be helmeted.

Oh, and then, when I was on this wild caffeine-induced aesthetics-kick-thing, I dragged all the text from Barb's character sheet onto Bob's Photoshop file to ensure I would work with same fonts and so on...they landed more or less randomly on top of the main central render of Bob's torso and just looked so interesting and chaotic and dynamic and cool spread all over the place as they were I thought I'd keep them that way -- it was a struggle. I wanted to actually make the text more legible, especially for the low-res web-optimized render used in this post, but, honestly, I had to restrain myself from doing so, to fight against the impulse to make this an easily understood legible image, in order to preserve the strangeness, foreignness, the action within it...as (and I say this with humility) a work of art in-itself.

It's kind of embarrassing for "artists" to admit they were trying to make something look artistic -- but then again, isn't that what we should all ALWAYS do?? Shouldn't we ALWAYS in everything we do try to infuse as much creativity and imagination and strange unusual foreign novel thoughts in our actions as possible?? Doesn't that make life worth joyfully celebrating?? I just wanted this image to say: WHAM! This is really energetic and cool and involved and intricate -- that model kicks ass! --And you know what? I very humbly know it does because it spent the last week kicking mine!! : )

I hope that explains a bit of where I am coming from.... (I am definitely not a pretentious "you-can't-understand-this-because-you're-not-an-artist" jerk, though....) But I did enjoy having to think about your question. It is certainly a very good, legitimate one to ask...thank you!

[shakes]

very nice slick work..I agree with sergage about not being able to see much, but it looks nice as an artistic image. maybe you can post some individual closeups for us?
keep it up!

[oceanbluesky]

Is that pollen on the fingertips of the glove?

Hey MT Cup! That's a GREAT idea!! Wow! He could have pollen all over his greedy little face, too! Very imaginative -- thank you for the thought! Their teeth are pink because of the cherries, but, pollen would be an added touch. Thank you very much!

And what does MT Cup stand for??

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks for the encouragement Qian and Juraj!

very nice slick work..I agree with sergage about not being able to see much, but it looks nice as an artistic image. maybe you can post some individual closeups for us?
keep it up!

Hey John! I'll post more closeups soon...definitely expect to show how this character was modeled, rigged, shaded and so on...for community-friendly purposes if nothing else...hopefully it will be instructive also....

This is my first Challenge so I'm still figuring out what best suits my place in the CG Society community.

Jacques Pena's submissions are also very well composed, as if they are prepared for an online article about his submission...originally they served as my inspiration to expend a bit more effort in preparing these character sheets:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=324808

He's done a wonderful job...each of his submissions draws me further into the aesthetics of the "Pena-genre," while serving him well as an advertisement to his overall project.

I can't remember who I was thinking of while selecting the layout for Bob's character sheet but I do remember hearing something on our public television channel in the background about Picasso or Chagall, and thinking then to myself, what if this submission were aesthetically interesting in itself? What if it weren't a T-pose, or even identifiable as a character, but set a mood by capturing tones in a collage not typical to an animation movie for kids.... This is very definitely G-rated kid-oriented material, but different I hope (more like "Watership Down" or "The Lorax" rather than straightforward predictable fare).

Alternatively I was also thinking that I may come to regret this whole potentially cheesy BEESA thing and should have created a cool dark sublime beautiful image like Olivier Ponsonnet's, which is here:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=325146

Or I should say, try to....

(Right now I have settled for trying half-jokingly to convince him to finish my entry!)

Finally, here's a crit-friendly image of Barb:

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/journey_begins/image.php?entry_id=65223

Thanks very much once again for your comments!

[MT-Cup]

Hey MT Cup! That's a GREAT idea!! Wow! He could have pollen all over his greedy little face, too! Very imaginative -- thank you for the thought! Their teeth are pink because of the cherries, but, pollen would be an added touch. Thank you very much!

And what does MT Cup stand for??

Glad I misinterpreted the texture on the gloves. ;)

As for the handle, say it out loud, all in one go.. M T Cup. ;)

[oceanbluesky]

Hey MT Cup -- is this your namesake? http://www.mtcup.com/ ?

In any case, thanks for stopping by...your uplifting comments are all over this board and yet you aren't even entered in the Challenge yourself??! How great is that! You should win a Community Service Award mentioned in the Prizes section...at least you have my vote (especially since you are new to 3D and a copy of Softimage -- which at the very least could be upgraded to another software of your choice -- would really get you started out on the right foot with a professional application)...thanks again:

Community Awards: ALL winners, runners-up and community prize-winners will receive a copy of Stash SIXPACK 2 (6 DVD set), courtesy of Stash Media!

Two copies of SOFTIMAGE|XSI v5 Foundation (valued at $495) will be awarded to outstanding community participants.

[MT-Cup]

Heh, no, actually my website, pathetic unupdated and unappreciated thing that it is, is here: www.villageidiot.org and thanks for the cudos. I'm just a sponge hoping to soak up a lot of good knowledge, but like every sponge, I leave bits of myself behind. I just hope and try to make it positive and factual. I just wish I had more free time in my day so I could encourage more of the folk here. There are plenty that I have missed. I'm not playing favorites, either (or trying not to). Everyone is offering something unique and special to this challenge. I'm just glad I've stumbled across this community.

[unwrap]

NOT straightforward bland standard boring "look-at-my-character-in-a-T-pose" renders

I have to argue with you on this one, sorry :D . The T pose is standart pose for rigging, if you don't like the T pose then you don't have to show a T pose, you can show a different pose, any other pose you like, but please don't call it "boring 'look-at-my-character-in-a-T-pose' ", cuz almost all of us here show T poses and there's nothing wrong with that.

that model kicks ass!

I didn't know there was a character and a helmet until you said so :rolleyes:, honestly I still don't see anything. But hey, that's just me. Keep on doing whatever you enjoy cuz that's what's important :) . Although I think you'd get more response if you made the images more understandable for regular people.

[oceanbluesky]

This is great!! I'm so thrilled to be talking to someone from Bulgaria Sergio you could say
just about anything and I'd try to find something positive in it. I'm really getting into this
CG Society community-of-artists thing...participating here is very much a journey in itself...in the last 24 hours I've posted to threads started by people from all over the world and what floors me -- just absolutely amazes me, is, an artist from Tehran (Mohammad, see above on page 7) posted to this thread! Sheezzz! That's astonishing, very exciting. A real start to appreciation and understanding which may hopefully find expression in other forums of our world.

Okay, so, yes -- I agree with you Sergio, T-poses are very necessary and I have underestimated their importance to soliciting critiques in this thread. I will post more soon. Many contestants are NOT using T-poses whatsoever, though, entirely to their advantage. They are modeling their characters not only in a final pose, but even in the clothing and equipment and props -- even perspective, illumination, and vehicles -- which will be used in their final image. This is gaming the CG Challenge system. Modeling for a single shot teaches poor skills to animators and gives advantage to contestants who have had experience working under this particular challenge's time schedule. That's fine, we must have rules and structure to achieve anything, but, there is then an incentive to submit interesting T-poses (such as those for Bob and Barb above I hope) if for no other reason than that characters in regular T-poses have to compete against models which are already posed in their scene position, illumination, and such...models which would need to be remade entirely if they were to be professionally animated. Not requiring all models used in these challenges to be made first in a T-pose may teach poor habits -- both to contestants and visitors learning how to work in 3D -- unless they are only composing 2D images, which is fine....

I think Sergio you have actually balanced both interesting comps:

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/journey_begins/image.php?entry_id=62476

and a whole bunch of well-modeled T-poses:

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/journey_begins/image.php?entry_id=62600

This is my first Challenge. I'm still adjusting to how baselines are best submitted and will post more crit friendly T-poses, time permitting...but even if they are indecipherable these are definitely of course T-poses.

Anyhow, you guys want a laugh? Pixar recently posted these outtakes:

http://www.pixar.com/theater/outtakes/index.html

A lot of fun!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1146626269_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1146626269_large.jpg)

A very happening Bob hanging above Hokkaido...with his viola. Not that this image is up for critiques necessarily...just having fun...(sheesh, hope it doesn't disturb anyone)...ideally Bob's face would be easier to read...I'll have to work on that within this image later, when polishing it up after the challenge.

This was just made as a break from modeling. This is not my final submission.....

*** If anyone can think of clever witty sayings for the text of such magazine covers it would be greatly appreciated! ***

Thanks all!


The background is of Von Karman vortices forming in the stratocumulus field downwind from the volcanic island of Rishiri-to in the northern Sea of Japan off the northwest coast of Hokkaido, Japan, April 2001. These features form when a stable atmosphere with low clouds flows past a relatively small obstacles of a height greater than the depth of the cloud layer. (Courtesy of NASA, Space Shuttle Mission Imagery, STS100-710-182)

By the way...if you add "Boxx" to your images somewhere, you may possibly obtain BoxxRewards points sometime down the line...check out this amazing cool program by BoxxTech: http://www.boxxtech.com/rewards/overview.asp

In the future it would even perhaps be a good idea to automatically register each entrant in this challenge in the reward programs of our sponsors. (We have to keep the goodies flowin'!)

[Climax]

haha, nice post, of course you can make funky render to post as milestones as long as it shows your work for the challenge and that is not an ofensive image, great progress, keep going and thanks for your support:thumbsup:

Ps: that BOXX tip is great, I'm suscribing :)

[coochaki]

nice update!
looking for more....
keep going---=>...

[oceanbluesky]

Thanks Coochaki and Climax! Yeah, maybe info about the BoxxTech Rewards program is worth repeating:

By the way...if you add "Boxx" to your images somewhere, you may possibly obtain BoxxRewards points sometime down the line...check out this amazing cool program by BoxxTech: http://www.boxxtech.com/rewards/overview.asp

In the future it would even perhaps be a good idea to automatically register each entrant in this challenge in the reward programs of our sponsors. (We have to keep the goodies flowin'!)


Cheers!

[cbernardo]

:bounce:Very cool your space station!!! Or "space beehive"? :applause:

[]s
carlos

[Russel-Nash]

Have to say it oe more time.

Your style is amazing. :bounce:
Can't wait to see the final image.

Russel

[Derferic]

Thank you for your encouragements. It is a very original idea which you had!
I will continue to give my attention to your works.





http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?postid=3433678#post3433678

[oceanbluesky]

Hey thanks for the encouragement Carlos, Torsten, and Derferic! Enjoyed visiting your threads!

Cheers!

[oceanbluesky]

Nearly everyone on this board -- if only by virtue of having the wherewithal and initiative to participate in this challenge -- could strive to have a lasting meaningful impact -- spiritually, financially, aesthetically, and so on -- upon the commercial CG community. One important component to such participation would seem to include a firm understanding of the market for our work. There are not many books about the business-side of computer graphics but a lot can be learned by simply listening to earnings report conference calls for Disney and similarly influential companies.

The cool thing is, we can do this while working...and then really start dreaming: big. Why the heck dream little?? Participants in this challenge are from all over the world -- literally reading through their posts is a journey in itself. At least two participants are from Azerbaijan -- there are only seven million people in Azerbaijan, two of them participate in this Challenge. It would be pretty cool if the next Pixar or Disney feature were to draw upon the idioms, traditions, and perspectives of Azerbaijan rather than Southern California, again and again.

Also, business persons who may not necessarily even use the tools we rely upon as artists are making decisions about them which dramatically affect our lives. The world can only be better if artists are aware of the decision-making processes behind the production of our tools and the marketing of our work.

Here are a few links which may be interesting:

http://investors.autodesk.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=117861&p=irol-audioArchives
http://corporate.pixar.com/
http://www.marvel.com/company/index.htm?sub=webcasts_current.php
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/ir/macr/conference_calls/
http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/presentations.html
http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/earnings.html
http://www.leapfroginvestor.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131670&p=irol-calendar

Hope that is helpfull to everyone stopping by...if you can suggest similar links we can keep a running update.

Cheers!

[medunecer]

Hi Eric! Interesting post and topics. I'm studyimg it right now. Thanks!

[soapy]

Krazy models! Very kool. I agree with you, I like the idea of doing little complete images within the contest. It just adds a little more fun to the procedings. Cheers, good luck.

[mmoir]

Hey Eric,

I find your image very interesting and does seem to have an ethereal feel to it.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Great job so far and good luck.

[mdavid]

That last update was fun. It shows your modeling in a cool context. Gives me a better idea about your model

[MT-Cup]

Great picture! I really love the cover piece. What fun! :thumbsup: Nice job showing your piece off in context. It really puts those colors in place, too. Not so saturated afterall. And again the puns continue. :applause:

[kreuz]

great !! keep it ,wish to see the final, i had finished my work , and relax now , haha...:thumbsup:

[varma]

Heya Eric; That look like a professional cover page layout, beside the graphic which is great, you have a good knowledge in desktop publishing, obviously! Your choice of fonts, placement and text size are all very well defined and modern! Send a copy to "Readers digest", they sure would look at it twice!
Go for it!
:thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

Hi Eric! Interesting post and topics. I'm studyimg it right now. Thanks!

Yeah! It can only help us if we as a group become more business savvy. Too many artists are "leaving money on the table" and handicapping themselves in a field which requires a significant overhead investment in our basic tools. Hope you find those links useful!

Krazy models! Very kool. I agree with you, I like the idea of doing little complete images within the contest. It just adds a little more fun to the procedings. Cheers, good luck.

Hope to complete more, time permitting. Glad you found this one amusing...there's only so much which can be conveyed in a final image. Hope it adds to the backstory. Thanks very much for your encouraging words!

Hey Eric, I find your image very interesting and does seem to have an ethereal feel to it. Great job so far and good luck.

Yeah I was shocked by how cool it looked just dropped into the image...honestly I think I could put a picture of my dog over that cloudscape and it would look interesting...or a picture of an ex-girlfriend. That would look ethereal and appropriate. She spent most of her time up there.

That last update was fun. It shows your modeling in a cool context. Gives me a better idea about your model

Cool, good...glad you liked it. Hopefully BEESA will be more comprehensible with such secondary backstory images.

Great picture! I really love the cover piece. What fun! Nice job showing your piece off in context. It really puts those colors in place, too. Not so saturated afterall. And again the puns continue.

MT Cup, man when you enter the next contest I'm going to be your thread's most prolific poster...really, really appreciate the encouragement! (And ugh, those colors were outrageously saturated...don't know what I was thinking...I hope I wasn't serious.)

great !! keep it ,wish to see the final, i had finished my work , and relax now , haha...

Hey Kruez, really enjoy your piece, hope you are able to relax you deserve it. Your bright cheerful (smiling) characters and colors have been an immense inspiration -- especially your flowers, trees, and clouds. Excellent work!

Heya Eric; That look like a professional cover page layout, beside the graphic which is great, you have a good knowledge in desktop publishing, obviously! Your choice of fonts, placement and text size are all very well defined and modern! Send a copy to "Readers digest", they sure would look at it twice!
Go for it!


Thanks Varma! The colors are a bit washed out due to optimization...the original text at the bottom of the page is a light blue...should have checked it before posting...also, Air & Space magazine for some reason uses a lot of white on white text, which isn't an excuse, but -- in fact, because I followed them that makes my mistake worse. But I'm glad you overlooked that stuff. Thank you.

Cheers all! Good luck!

[coochaki]

Also, business persons who may not necessarily even use the tools we rely upon as artists are making decisions which dramatically affect in our lives. The world can only be better if more artists are aware of the decision making process behind the production of our tools and the marketing of our work.



it is cool man!:thumbsup:

[fer3d]

Hey Eric,

I like the idea, kind of crazy, but cool. Great imagination, surprising detail. Good explanations and even sense of humor... I enjoyed visiting your thread.

Now bring more updates, the clock is ticking!

fer

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Mohammad and Fernando! Glad you had a few laughs...thanks for your encouraging comments! Thought I'd repost those links in case anyone wants to add to them....

http://investors.autodesk.com/phoen...l-audioArchives (http://investors.autodesk.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=117861&p=irol-audioArchives)
http://corporate.pixar.com/
http://www.marvel.com/company/index...sts_current.php (http://www.marvel.com/company/index.htm?sub=webcasts_current.php)
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/ir/...nference_calls/ (http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/ir/macr/conference_calls/)
http://corporate.disney.go.com/inve...sentations.html (http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/presentations.html)
http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/earnings.html
http://www.leapfroginvestor.com/pho...p=irol-calendar (http://www.leapfroginvestor.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131670&p=irol-calendar)

Hope that is helpfull to everyone stopping by...if anyone can suggest similar links we can keep a running update.

Would be cool if somone eventually wrote a book explicitly on the CG business world...there are a few on starting your own studio but they are mostly for 2D print shops. Another source of facinating info has been the PIXR board over on Yahoo! Finance...basically commentary on the entire history and market of such a freakishly creative company.

Cheers!

[JackZhang]

emm~ your work is just like your name, ocean, blue, sky!
just want to know how far you are from ending it? coz it now looks pretty cool already.
keep it up bro!

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Jack! Glad you like these elements hopefully a rough draft of the final comp will be up soon. (Can't wait!) Thanks for the encouragement too; good luck as well.

[living_for_cg]

Hi oceanbluesky >> so nice work till now...so much detailes you have done. keep going my friend:thumbsup:

[safe05]

I really like your character design and the splashes of color you use. You've got a great eye for design. Nice job! :thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Ali and Eric! Thank you very much for the encouragement and for stopping by...

Thought this worth repeating:

...if you add "Boxx" to your images somewhere, you may possibly obtain BoxxRewards points sometime down the line...check out this amazing cool program by BoxxTech: http://www.boxxtech.com/rewards/overview.asp

In the future it would even perhaps be a good idea to register automatically each entrant in this challenge in the reward programs of our sponsors. (We have to keep the goodies flowin'!)

Good luck everyone!

[Greatto]

Great Work. I love your work, special your skeches and difficult of form in modeling.
Good Luck! and thx.
I am totaly agree with your Discussions..
sorry for very bad english.

___________________________
Journey 3D "Girl and the Gardener" (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=338454&page=1&pp=15)

[EdP-Art]

Hi Eric, this has been a long journey from the cloud sketches and all the way back to clouds from NASA. You must have a thing for clouds.

Your headlines could use a bit of work. Give me a bit more info on the vehicle and it's occupants and I'll try and feed you a few lines. It's a good idea using a magazine cover to get the story over. By the way what is the story? It's hard to tell. At the moment it is a cute vehicle above some coluds. Could you put in a destination on the horizon?

Hope this helps and thanks for your comments on my entry.

*Ed

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Ed! I am very grateful for any comments on the text headings in particular -- this isn't remotely my final image, which will not include a magazine cover and will be situated in a completely different scene. Eventually this image will be rolled into a pitch for various purposes, such as a website and funding solicitations...not completely pointless waste of time. Here in this forum these secondary images hopefully add to the backstory. (Characters basically travel around the world to experience different cultures, etc.)

I'd really like a different name for the vehicle and to change: EZ-Wings...Bee Ballistics [adding to this]...Bumble and Honey something...'Pollen Review' could be more catchy.... everything associated with "Coverage of..." could be ditched (except "How BoxxTech Saved Civilization").

Have to keep this play on words: "Hanger Queens" are unused vehicles or satellites which are mechanically unsound, unprofitable, or just sheer dangerous to fly; "Page 3" is in reference to: http://www.page3.com/

Finally BoxxTech is mentioned frequently because:

...if you add "Boxx" to your images somewhere, you may possibly obtain BoxxRewards points sometime down the line...check out this amazing cool program by BoxxTech:

http://www.boxxtech.com/rewards/overview.asp

In the future it would even perhaps be a good idea to register automatically each entrant in this challenge in the reward programs of our sponsors. (We have to keep the goodies flowin'!)

Look forward to hearing any suggestions! Thanks for stopping by Ed!

(Just to keep in mind...the final image will be entirely different...this is the cockpit section of the main vehicle in flight...the final image will be a launch scene on a tree limb.)'

[Gunilla]

Hey Eric - how's your scene coming along? That magazine cover is really good, and a good way to shop the concept. But I understand it not to be the final layout?
Anyway, keep your crazy models coming!

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Gunie! --Yeah, I better START the final scene...my next post will probably be on how to render half gig files from the command line...each of these character's have files running between 100 and 250 MB, so quite a lot will be done in post.

Glad you get the "way to shop the concept" approach. Really enjoy the bold creativity of your work...

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1146985500_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1146985500_large.jpg)

A few simple rigs, proxy meshes, and wireframes for posing various characters within the scene.

There is a generic rig used for many of the same characters for which animation will be interchangable eventually.... Rigs are referenced from a separate directory than meshes and their proxies in order to maintain a modular, flexible workflow.

Also, it is very, very, very super-important to group everything in your referenced scene together under one master node to faciliate easy translations within the master render scene.

Likewise, every rig is parented to a root node for each character's skeleton which can be animated in itself, thus allowing animations further down the hierarchy to be maintained when the object and its rig are translated within a scene.

Hope that isn't too basic....

Oh, you may notice the generic bee rig has a tail...it will either be wacked off or weight-painted into irrelevance. The rig is actually intended in the very, very long run to be used over a wide variety of creatures (mice, marmaduke-lukes, mermawindongs and so on...all of which possibly have tails...but none of which have been created yet since they are not are for this challenge).

Also, all the models are in a T-pose so they can be brought into MotionBuilder sometime in the distant future. There had been a trend toward building A-posed characters (with arms slightly down closer to their sides) to allow more realistic deformation -- but, since MotionBuilder has taken off and still requires T-poses, these models are T-posed.

Good luck everyone! Hope we all finish!

[sathe]

Your making very good progress :D so try to keep to this pace. The rigs look advanced and well done however i still have to ask, seeing as the compeition is a still frame, why do you need to set up rigs for everything, i can understand the main characters. but for the butterfly wouldnt it be quicker to edit the geometry, rather than setting up a rig.
Unless of course you plan on using these for animation in the future, if so your doing a great job.
Cya!

[MT-Cup]

Eric, what are you going to use for your turntable? Every piece you've shown us so far is awesome, so I'm anxious to see what you choose for that. Smart working ahead with the rigging since you've indicated these may be animated in the future, and making them versatile. It's costing you now, but will save you a lot later. LOL and I liked your beesa avatar, I was sorry to see that go.

[varma]

Hi Eric;
You have an interesting theory about rigging and proxy meshes! I should really take
some time and look at this stuff you mentioned! Sounds very refined and environment_friendly! ;)
Which app are you running by the way?
Good luck with these remaining days!
:thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

Hi MT Cup, Grant, and Mathias. This material is created in Maya...my favorite of our sponsors: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=6871843&siteID=123112
Hence the Autodesk logo on Bob's helmet. ; )

Does CG Talk allow viewers to see the turtables entrants have uploaded? For the turntable I just uploaded the main vehicle and cockpit section spinning. Not very exciting...would be really cool if it were animated because it is extremely flexible, gyroscopic, etc. I'll post a more exciting animation of the ship soon following the competition...if only to remember motion in a scene churning around in my mind. (Not to think vainly anything may be worth watching....)

"wouldnt it be quicker to edit the geometry, rather than setting up a rig" yeah no kidding...seems like many people are creating entire scenes which would need to be redone for anything but a single shot. (Talk about learning awful habits!) I'd just feel like a super-putz if I didn't even finish this competition and was stuck with a bunch of semi-worthless models -- upon which even more time would need to be expended. It is a balancing act and I can't say I'd do the same in the next competition at all...really struggling to get my head around creating elements for a single shot. (But it is still fun.)

What really bums me out is it seems many people have dropped from the competeition entirely...and the number of members stopping by to view Journey entries has halved. Maybe Europe, Asia, and Australia have all had nice weather this weekend...? --Isn't that cool, this forum encourages us to think in such world-wide terms?

Thanks also MT CUP for your encouraging words about the BEESA logo -- I was worried it is too bright and saturated -- I'll put it back up in a few days. There's another one ready for use until mid-week....

Cheers everyone! Hope you're having a good weekend!

Interesting: puppeted but "Where the Wild Things Are" nonetheless:
http://www.vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=3631a5a1&atype=news&id=16877

[MT-Cup]

To answer your question, yes, there are quite a few turntables posted. Here's a link to one of my personal favorites in the group. Perhaps it will be helpful. http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=3493383&postcount=667 and another fav. http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=3487936&postcount=386.

[oceanbluesky]

Those are cool. Thanks MT Cup! Mine isn't situated on a literal turntable but it does turn around 360 degrees...it is also just shaded completely in gray...I thought they weren't supposed to have textures but I'm guessing it doesn't really matter since I suppose the judges of this challenge just want to make sure our entries are actually 3D. : ) I'll post a quicktime link to it once finished with the main image...actually it is even rendered at low-res to comply with the jpeg optimization specs. (It is extremely unimpressive.) I'm very much looking forward to animating this entire scene though, in the distant future. Working, working, working...(thanks again for the inspiring links MT Cup!)

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147029330_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147029330_large.jpg)

Perhaps also worth repeating this post too:

Nearly everyone on this board -- if only by virtue of having the wherewithal and initiative to participate in this challenge -- could strive to have a lasting meaningful impact -- spiritually, financially, aesthetically, and so on -- upon the commercial CG community. One important component to such participation would seem to include a firm understanding of the market for our work. There are not many books about the business-side of computer graphics but a lot can be learned by simply listening to earnings report conference calls for Disney and similarly influential companies.

The cool thing is, we can do this while working...and then really start dreaming: big. Why the heck dream little?? Participants in this challenge are from all over the world -- literally reading through their posts is a journey in itself. At least two participants are from Azerbaijan -- there are only seven million people in Azerbaijan, two of them participate in this Challenge. It would be pretty cool if the next Pixar or Disney feature were to draw upon the idioms, traditions, and perspectives of Azerbaijan rather than Southern California, again and again.

Also, business persons who may not necessarily even use the tools we rely upon as artists are making decisions which dramatically affect in our lives. The world can only be better if more artists are aware of the decision making process behind the production of our tools and the marketing of our work.

Here are a few links which may be interesting:

http://investors.autodesk.com/phoen...l-audioArchives
http://corporate.pixar.com/
http://www.marvel.com/company/index...sts_current.php
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/ir/...nference_calls/
http://corporate.disney.go.com/inve...sentations.html
http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/earnings.html
http://www.leapfroginvestor.com/pho...p=irol-calendar

Hope that is helpfull to everyone stopping by...if you can suggest similar links we can keep a running update.

[Selina42]

Hey Oceanbluesky!

This work just kickstarts the imagination! Fabulous, exciting and wildly unusual! -and i cant wait to see how the fnal setup is going to look! Cmon now stop teasing and give us more please!- i need to see where this is headed!

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Selina! Yeah I wish this weren't my first challenge...I'm going to pull an all-nighter to catch up, if only so I will no longer have to sit in font of a computer while kicking myself for still modeling in a cold panic. --Glad you picked up some freelance work with such a awe inspiring client -- can you tell us which company it is and what your work will entail? Back to work...Cheers!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147049652_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147049652_large.jpg)

This has been absolutely burning to get out of my mind...and I figured, even if I don't finish a final image, I would terribly regret even more not finishing this one. That's it. I'm working on the final now. (This submission is not the final image; it is just intended to contextualize the backstory.) Witty improvements or brutally caustic commentary on the textual elements would be much appreciated.

Hope it is fun!

Maybe info about the BoxxTech Rewards program is worth repeating:

If you add "Boxx" to your images somewhere, you may possibly obtain BoxxRewards points sometime down the line...check out this amazing cool program by BoxxTech: http://www.boxxtech.com/rewards/overview.asp

In the future it would even perhaps be a good idea to automatically register each entrant in this challenge in the reward programs of our sponsors. (We have to keep the goodies flowin'!)

Cheers everyone! Working, working, working...

[JackZhang]

ocean, thank you so much for your supports on LRP, thank you.

time's tinking. let's both move forward. hope to see your final soon. Good luck friend.

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Jack, thanks for the encouraging words! Looking forward to seeing more updates of your "princess," too -- she's coming along wonderfully...good luck!!

[Try]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147049652_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147049652_large.jpg)

This has been absolutely burning to get out of my mind...and I figured, even if I don't finish a final image, I would terribly regret even more not finishing this one. That's it. I'm working on the final now. (This submission is not the final image; it is just intended to contextualize the backstory.) Witty improvements or brutally caustic commentary on the textual elements would be much appreciated.

Hope it is fun!

Maybe info about the BoxxTech Rewards program is worth repeating:

If you add "Boxx" to your images somewhere, you may possibly obtain BoxxRewards points sometime down the line...check out this amazing cool program by BoxxTech: http://www.boxxtech.com/rewards/overview.asp

In the future it would even perhaps be a good idea to automatically register each entrant in this challenge in the reward programs of our sponsors. (We have to keep the goodies flowin'!)

Cheers everyone! Working, working, working...
Really cool NG cover Eric. Great layout and funny as hell!:thumbsup:
He, he, must earn you a ton of Boxx pints this.
And good luck to you finishing this project. The clock seems to be ticking faster every day now….:)

[oceanbluesky]

Wow Per you have a really cool website -- I'm very impressed by your illustrations, especially the Safari and Josephine rabbits! --That female Santa can visit Christmas Island anytime! (is the Konsept page working? maybe I am doing something wrong...)

Yes time is ticking! Render, render, render...thanks for your encouraging comments (means a lot coming from a person with an evident sense of humor!)

[Hoju]

It’s coming along nicely, Eric. Lots of weird and wonderful characters to look at:).

[Try]

Wow Per you have a really cool website -- I'm very impressed by your illustrations, especially the Safari and Josephine rabbits! --That female Santa can visit Christmas Island anytime! (is the Konsept page working? maybe I am doing something wrong...)

Yes time is ticking! Render, render, render...thanks for your encouraging comments (means a lot coming from a person with an evident sense of humor!)

Well thank you very much Eric! I have been doing a lot of 2d Illustrator work the last 6 years. Mainly Josefine PC educational children’s (Director) games and a Josefine magazine (the safari page is a spread from the mag.). I am quitting that company in July and going freelance. A man can take only so much of yellow rabbits!:wise:

I am doing more and more 3d but 2d still have some qualities 3d can never have I think. Especially when we talk humor.
I hope this challenge will reflect more humor (among the winners) than the previous ones.

Glad you like my portfolio! I must update it soon. Have done a lot of things lately that should be added. The Consept page opens fine here. Might take some time to load…. Maybe I shouldn’t have made this in flash…:curious:

Christmas Island it sounds a fantastic place to live. I`d like to come visit you some time… especially in the winter time!
A man can only take so much snow!!!:)

Keep on rendering Eric, and may the Force be with you!

[MT-Cup]

Once again, you have me laughing out loud. Great cover! The characters are super and the text just adds to it. You have a great gift for puns. Glad you gifted us with this super image. :drool:

[vincent1]

Haha. Love this cover. Looking forward to the final render.

Good luck on your journey.

[soapy]

The cover looks great! Funny stuff. Good luck with the final.

[varma]

Very flashy cover pic and vivid colors! I just love the pink/purple and yellow dialog!
Very refreshing and inviting!
:thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Paul, looking forward to seeing your finished image too -- its shockingly real perspective works well, makes me feel as if I'm looking over a cliff -- or falling off one. Thanks for your encouragement. Good luck!

Hey Per, I've got to check out Josefine magazine when this challenge is over...really enjoy your portfolio work from it. (Yes the Concept page is working here too...sorry about the mix-up.) Amazes me the talent on this board. "Christmas Island it sounds a fantastic place to live." Sounds like a fun place to me, too. (Someday I hope to get there.) And, everyone on this board will always be invited! Looking forward to seeing more of your fantastic work comped into a final image. Good luck!

Hey MT Cup, Hoped you would like this...had to resort to an online rhyme generator to find "au fond" -- which apparently means, "the bottom" (or the essence?). Thanks for stopping by again! Looking forward to seeing more of your work in the next Challenge. Cheers!

Hey Vincent, thanks for stopping by again! Looking forward to seeing some of your work in a future challenge -- really like the textures and the shading of your Zia character. Glad you enjoyed this diversion. Thanks again!

Hey Genius! (I had to put an exclamation after that one because you're still the only genius I know! --And I'm damned proud to know one.) Can't wait to see your Dealer of Death reflections and more. Verrrrrrry funny portfolio pieces. You are a genius! Good luck with your final image, too!

Hey Mathias, extraordinary hair renders on Chin Chin! Very much looking forward to seeing your final entry! Really enjoy your fun lively details and overall cheerfulness (even if everyone is getting wayyyyyyyyy to soft). Good luck!

Thanks again all! Glad you found that cover a break from the routine...back to work.

Cheers!

Oh, the backstory is going to be submitted as a screen shot of an actual Wikipedia entry! : ))

[MT-Cup]

Psst, Eric.. change your title to "lord of the puns" http://www.cosgan.de/images/midi/frech/e030.gif

[shakes]

love the magazine cover, even if it's just for fun! the Maya saving stuff..quite mind boggling!

[centurionit]

Hi Eric, I love your covers, the next month can you put my fairy in first page???EHEH
A bit of publicity....I'm really cucious for your final image, how it will be....:thumbsup:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=330707

[oceanbluesky]

Hey MT Cup! Well it was humbling to use an online rhyming program but I couldn't for the life of me think of much of anything worthwhile which rhymed with "beyond." Hope your week started off well!

Hey Shakes! Thanks for the encouraging words...yeah, and soon Autodesk may come out with a Maya/Max hybrid (in time for Siggraph?) which could create tremendous synergy between two very talented groups of users. A real sweet-spot I hope the CG Society can stay on top of...much more to write after submitting this final image too...good luck shading all that fur!

Oh man Centurionit your outrageous fairy would be on a fold out wall length centerfold of every magazine I'd create! Sheeeezzzzzzzz! I'm depressed she'll eventually have clothes on, maybe...though hot faries hate wearing clothes. (I think you know that...) Good luck! Can't wait to see more!

Cheers guys! Working, working, working: six legs on the accelorator, antenna back, clutch in, wings to the wind!

[Gunilla]

Wow! So they made it to the cover of National Geographic now! :D
Love it - very fun and a good way to show your stuff.

[Lemog]

Thread full of fun... and the last update was an another proof... originality and quality... great idea here... best of luck for your latest steps Eric... :thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Gunie! Thanks for keeping up the encouraging words! Glad you find that cover amusing. I'd really like to make a BEESA website similar to a National Geographic/Discovery Channel online documentary of an epic adventure, but, I don't think I'll have time until the next challenge.

Can't tell you enough how bold I think it was for you to have chosen your challenge concept! Outrageous! --AND, they're cute! I could really hang out with those mites...you want to know something strange?? While glancing over your last image reading commentary about it I ssssssssssswear I saw one of them move. I actually had to watch to make sure you hadn't posted a funky gif. --Funny. Anyhow, congratualtions upon finishing (nearly)...good luck!

Working, working, working...

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Laurent! I was just catching up with your thread two minutes ago! Wonderful texturing work! Your ship is so fragile and exquisitely detailed, truly a masterpiece which will (I hope) have a life far longer than this challenge! --Just really wonderful heartfelt technical details. It would be a real treat to see it animated -- with passengers! Over Paris! Oh! I hope Boxx sponsors an animation challenge someday which would permit previous modeling still-shot work from challenges such as this to be used. Would be fantastic to see yours win that (too)! Good luck!

Thanks very much for the encouraging words!

[Lemog]

Hey Laurent! I was just catching up with your thread two minutes ago! Wonderful texturing work! Your ship is so fragile and exquisitly detailed, truly a masterpiece which will (I hope) have a life far longer than this challenge! --Just really wonderful heartfelt technical details. It would be a real treat to see it animated -- with passengers! Over Paris! Oh! I hope Boxx sponsors an animation challenge someday which would permit previous modeling still-shot work from challenges such as this one to be used. Would be fantastic to see yours win that (too)! Good luck!

Thanks very much for the encouraging words!
Thanks for your words and wishes Eric... I don't know if I will be able to do an animation challenge... but an animation based on my World's Fair project is planed... but the patience is needed... much months of patience are required... but I have the motivation...

Your idea of sponsor is very good for my project, maybe I can find a sponsor as BOXX or an another workstation constructor to be able to render these final animations of very heavy scenes of many millions of polygons :scream: hahaha... something comfortable like that : http://www.boxxtech.com/products/apexx4_Config_Intl.asp

[ericmachmer]

[reposted under oceanbluesky]

[varma]

Quote:

"Hey Mathias, extraordinary hair renders on Chin Chin! Very much looking forward to seeing your final entry! Really enjoy your fun lively details and overall cheerfulness (even if everyone is getting wayyyyyyyyy to soft). Good luck!"

Thanks a lot Eric, obvoiusly you are the only one who made a comment to that, this "could"
mead I did something right! :sad:

Ci ya!
:)

[cbernardo]

I'm very curious to see your final image.
Theres a lot of beautiful pieces in your puzzle.
And your clues are very very funny. :beer:

[]s
carlos

[oceanbluesky]

Wow Laurent! "an animation based on my World's Fair project is planed" very exciting!! So looking forward to it! --Yeah it would be breathtaking to work with some dream scenes on an Apexx...have you seen this one? http://www.boxxtech.com/products/apexx8.asp It came out last week I believe. 16 processors, 128 GB RAM, 13+ TB of storage -- just wierd. Really if nothing else this is a fantastic advertising program for Boxx...they don't even have to sell one. It says, "We're the best...we create the most powerful computers...we understand what you want." Nice to know what will be available for the rest of us a few years from now...where the under $40,000 market is headed. Cheers!

[oceanbluesky]

Yeah Mathias I'm really looking forward to the next challenge Good luck!

It is kind of like a puzzle isn't it Carlos! A very fun one...I'm looking forward to seeing the final version myself, too! (Lovely fun characters in your portfolio...the Logo Star is terrific! Very cheerful -- I hope you have been able to incorporate it into even a speculative project proposal...maybe a children's television bumper or ? Looks great!)

Thanks for stopping by all!

[Selina42]

Hey Oceanbluesky!

Loving the latest cover! -Can i see some close-ups please? The modelling is fab but i need to see it in detail! Keep it going! :thumbsup:

Tragically the work is finished now :sad: but it was with Studio AKA which ive been totally in awe of since 'Jojo'. I went to fill in for their runner for 4 days and then ended up being offered some work on a Planters commercial thatll be aired in America. -Mostly I was modelling and texturing cars. I guess the ad will be up on their website soon though its not been put up just yet... Was a bit like working in heaven! -Made me feel quite inferior though - theyre just all so ridculously talented there -and i need to get faster! Hope I get to go back someday... Thats the dream!

[Lemog]

Wow Laurent! "an animation based on my World's Fair project is planed" very exciting!! So looking forward to it! --Yeah it would be breathtaking to work with some dream scenes on an Apexx...have you seen this one? http://www.boxxtech.com/products/apexx8.asp It came out last week I believe. 16 processors, 128 GB RAM, 13+ TB of storage -- just wierd.
Yes... insane :thumbsup: totally adapted for my project, for an animated scene between 7 and 10 millions of polygons :scream: hahahahaha... useful :twisted:

[oceanbluesky]

Wow Selina Stuido AKA is cool! Congratulations!! Also like Stuido Soi and their short, "Annie and Boo." At the very least you have your foot in the door -- and if you didn't totally turn off human resources (which I doubt) -- chances are they have you on a list of people to call for help in the future. Very exciting! --"JoJo in the Stars" is absolutely beautiful on all fronts...how inspiring...must have been a "heavenly" week! Cheers!

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Laurent! An animated scene of 10 million polygons!! Wow! --With this challenge my computer still hasn't figured out what's hit it...I've been trying to command line render sections of an overall image with these directions from the Maya documentation (in case others may find this useful):


To batch render using user-defined region rendering

Use the -reg flag. For example:

render -r mr -reg 0 100 0 100 scene.ma

where -reg 0 100 0 100 indicates the region to be rendered in pixels (left, right, bottom, top).

The above command renders the lower left 100 x100 pixel region of the scene.


It takes 5 minutes to load the scene. Then there is the imprecise matter of approximating pixels defining a "user defined region"...then waiting another 2 minutes to save the scene. Then waiting a heck of a long time to render it...and that is just one of many dozens of such renders...as you must be even that much more familiar with...(I really feel for Shakes and his cool hairy creatures).

All the while I'm thinking how much easier life would be with an Apexx 8 (or a Boxx anything)...which led me to consider, if 10 people pitched in 4 thousand dollars apiece to purchase the $40,000 Apexx monster they could even divide their time on it for about 17 hours a week each, 884 hours a year, and 2,652 hours every three years...at a cost of a dollar fifty an hour over a three year period. That actually isn't too bad! I don't know, maybe my math is fuzzy...but I sure am wasting enough time calculating "user defined render regions" to make me worry creative opportunities are slipping away...these projects would make great Boxx advertisements!

Anyhow, I'm very much looking forward to seeing your unique exquisite work animated someday! Cheers!

[EdP-Art]

All I can say is Wow!

You've put an awful lot of work into this and I hope you get it finished on time. Best of luck with your other developments with your models. Your a bit of genius really when it comes to 3D. :applause:

Best of luck and looking forward to your updates.

*Ed

[oceanbluesky]

Hey thanks Ed! Glad you like it! -I'm very much looking forward to spending quality time studying more thoroughly your website's extremely thought provoking images (once this challenge is over in two weeks). Thank you very much for stopping by again! Cheers!

---

Desperate panic right now...just realized many elements will need to be rendered separately and comped over several Photoshop documents. Total nightmare.

Here's an insane section of the render cue for the next few hours:

Render -r sw -cam persp -s 123 -e 180 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im butterfly_sequence -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" butterfly_sequence.ma

Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma
Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma
Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left.ma

Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma
Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma
Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_above.ma

Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma
Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma
Render -r sw -reg 440 1104 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1104 1768 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 2102 3400 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 1271 2102 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma
Render -r sw -reg 1768 2430 908 1271 -cam persp -s 1 -e 1 -fnc 3 -pad 3 -of iff -im cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant -proj "F:/00 S T U D I O/!_projects/_hnc/_scn_journey/scenes/" cockpit_with_bob_hard_left_distant.ma

Nervous. Time to go running.....

[MT-Cup]

Well that should keep you off the streets and out of trouble. ;)

[oceanbluesky]

Hey MT Cup! "that should keep you off the streets and out of trouble" --A good thing since streets heavily trafficked by large fast moving trucks are appealing right now. What a learning experience. Now maybe I'll know (hopefully) how to render wall-sized posters for future projects. These are massive huge renders. Unreal. --Enough complaining...back to work later this evening.

Cheers!

[jonone]

Great work Eric!
GL to ya!

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Jonone! Glad you enjoyed this...thanks for stopping by! (Look forward to seeing some of your work in your portfolio or in a future challenge, too!)

Cheers!

[jonone]

hei Ocean,
i know i posted like a hour ago,but i just followed through all your posts on this thread not only the images:).wanted to say best of luck to u cos its clear u ve given alot for this Journey;)
GL mate!

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Ioan! Your concept and drawings are very cool too...looking forward to seeing the boy placed within your scene soon...just noticed you put a link to your work in your signature now. Hope we have enough time to finish! Really like the effort you've made to detail everything, especially his boots and books. Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by too! Glad you enjoyed reading this thread...there's so much to learn from the CG Society community...I'm looking forward someday to watching an animation from Romania! Such a rich culture and history...Cheers!

[individium]

i didnt have time for reading your pages yet but for the last posted concept is the must be the most radical approach to the challange, very funny and interesting, i liked it. i'll stop by to see your other updates too.

good luck

[oceanbluesky]

i didnt have time for reading your pages yet but for the last posted concept is the must be the most radical approach to the challange, very funny and interesting, i liked it. i'll stop by to see your other updates too.

good luck

Wow! Thanks for the encouraging words! If it weren't for community feedback I would have neglected this effort a very long time ago...and as for radical??! Your 2D Journey concepts inspire a person to think outside normal themes found in this challenge. Much can be known about the value of a work as an inspirational piece by the depth of commentary it solicits -- your 2D Journey thread seems to have elicited wonderfully introspective philosophical comments from those who stopped by...congratulations! Looking forward to seeing more!

And may we all finish! Two more weeks! Good luck!

[individium]

Your 2D Journey concepts inspire a person to think outside normal themes found in this challenge. Much can be known about the value of a work as an inspirational piece by the depth of commentary it solicits -- your 2D Journey thread seems to have elicited wonderfully introspective philosophical comments from those who stopped by...congratulations! Looking forward to seeing more!


wow! and you give the most encouraging answer back! thanks for your kind words. it made me very happy to hear that and made me feel reached at least one of my goals.

and i wish the same thanks again
see you later

[oceanbluesky]

wow! and you give the most encouraging answer back! thanks for your kind words. it made me very happy to hear that and
Fantastic! I hope it made you at least(!) half as happy as it makes me to hear such comments from visitors to this thread! It finally -- very strongly -- occured to me that others here are as motivated by constructive postive feedback as I am...we are all supposed to march to our own drummers, and celebrate that, but, participating in this Challenge has shown how three or four kind words of support -- brief phrases by complete strangers from places virtually unkown -- can make a tremendous difference in lifting spirits and encouraging individual searches for our own rhythms, no matter how indepedent we may think we are with our own visions. Particularly if non-creative people physically close to us may not always be supportive.

Also the talent on these boards, and the diversity of strengths each of us has obtained in different skillsets, can lead to learning experiences and inspiration which I doubt occur among artists in many other social media. It seems we are all very, very fortunate to participate in anything creative...viewing these threads is like attending a massive art gallery opening, only without the free food. (Yet...it would be really funny if a future Challenge included a free coupon redeemable for a bottle of wine and cheese given to all entrants who finish.... You know, that would probably generate mainstream media exposure for the CG Society...kind of funny.)

made me feel reached at least one of my goals.
Great! Art with meaning and a purpose adds dimensions of interest to creativity (in my opinion) and yours definitely fulfills such a calling!

Many thanks again for your encouragement!

[Lemog]

I've certainly missed the information... but what do you have as computer Eric ? I ask you that because at work, I've more rendering big size problems with the latest AMD dual core than with the dual xeon, or even with my old personal dual PIII800... Maya seem to prefer Intel in my case :scream: I'm obliged to set the scene with batch render, if not, the rendering stops itself largely before the end.

Anyway, best wishes for your rendering mate :thumbsup:

[oceanbluesky]

more rendering big size problems with the latest AMD dual core than with the dual xeon, or even with my old personal dual PIII800... Maya seem to prefer Intel in my case :scream: I'm obliged to set the scene with batch render, if not, the rendering stops itself largely before the end.

Hey Lemong! It's a regular 2 GHz Intel...nothing fancy. As for the Maya renders I'm breaking shots down into 1/6th increments, then piecing them back together in Photoshop. The command line render flags " -reg 440 1104 2102 3400" have to be determined for each piece of each shot. I've tried removing and reducing textures, importing rather than referencing, setting tight clipping planes, and otherwise optimizing the scene...it's just taking a tremendous amount of effort to render anything.

In this recent article:

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3557&page=

Hong Cao mentions how he is forced to use multiple Photoshop files which are then in turn once again composited into a final image, due to file size issues. It seems I'll try that approach once renders are made......different (massive) Photoshop files for separate foreground, background, and middle/key elements.

Anyhow...it is nice to know we can look forward to tools like the Apexx 8 someday becoming affordable. Thanks for the AMD/Intel tip...I will certainly keep that in mind for future projects too. Oh, and, I'm defraging the drives as we speak, so, maybe there is hope yet....

---

Absolutely breathtaking new renders of your airship! An honor to participate in a Challenge with artists of your talent -- really very humbling.

[Lemog]

To do many renders and composite all is always the better solution, especially in the large size case...
I do like that each time I need big pictures, as you can see of this little animated gif , with the compositing of all renderings done on my previous CgTalk challenge, spectacular (http://lemog.free.fr/divers/normal_d_compo_213_composit.gif)...

Compositing is always our friend, that permit to set precisely each part of the picture, and that permit to save much time in our work of creation... and if a part need to be redo, just need to render the little part, not to recalculate all the big picture... very usefull for a good management of work :thumbsup:

[Tremoside]

Hi Eric, can i ask how big (resolution and etc) will you final image be? Just see yo doin serious renders. It looks very huge as i read your posts. :beer: Keep it up, it's almost finished!

[cbernardo]

Lovely fun characters in your portfolio...the Logo Star is terrific! Very cheerful -- I hope you have been able to incorporate it into even a speculative project proposal...maybe a children's television bumper or ? Looks great!

Thanks for your words Eric! The Star will be used for a web site (http://www.cefisa.com.br) and press things for a company. Just a freelance but I have a chance to practice a little bit of Maya and maybe increase my portfolio.

18 days later. I am a little scared. :scream: :scream: :scream: hehehe

[]s and thanks again
carlos

[individium]

It finally -- very strongly -- occured to me that others here are as motivated by constructive postive feedback as I am...we are all supposed to march to our own drummers, and celebrate that, but, participating in this Challenge has shown how three or four kind words of support -- brief phrases by complete strangers from places virtually unkown -- can make a tremendous difference in lifting spirits and encouraging individual searches for our own rhythms, no matter how indepedent we may think we are with our own visions. Particularly if non-creative people physically close to us may not always be supportive.

i completely agree with this.



It seems we are all very, very fortunate to participate in anything creative...viewing these threads is like attending a massive art gallery opening,

yes definetely this place is like one of the best museums ever. art history of the future is being written in front of our eyes and by us, its really satisfying.



only without the free food. (Yet...it would be really funny if a future Challenge included a free coupon redeemable for a bottle of wine and cheese given to all entrants who finish.... You know, that would probably generate mainstream media exposure for the CG Society...kind of funny.)

hahaha yes i know lots of people who'll join the society for free cheese and wine:)
maybe for now they can put just pictures of cheese and wine to the grand opening:) virtual food for virtual canvas:P :)


Great! Art with meaning and a purpose adds dimensions of interest to creativity (in my opinion) and yours definitely fulfills such a calling!

Many thanks again for your encouragement!

thank you again too :)

[oceanbluesky]

Yeah, an online worldwide wine and cheese party for starving artists!

"art history of the future is being written in front of our eyes and by us" <<---Isn't that strange???!? And their statements will be available and open to everyone forever. Can you imagine if we had Picasso's thoughts online as he was working through his original concepts uncertain of his future, chatting about the world, encouraging others -- or da Vinci or Michelangelo?! And we are here participating! How lucky is that?

"sweet home cg society" <<-- very funny, very cool comment you have...

[oceanbluesky]

The Star will be used for a web site (http://www.cefisa.com.br) and press things for a company. Just a freelance but I have a chance to practice a little bit of Maya and maybe increase my portfolio.

Very cool Carlos! Looks great! Extremely professional, very expressive, fun and happy...I don't think most people realize how difficult it is to capture a facial expression that actually looks happy and cheerful...humans are such experienced readers of facial emotions that a cartoon characters' smile can quickly be misinterpreted as a scream, fearful amazement, or worse...the star is perfect and a solid portfolio piece...so postive it can provide an uplifting spirt to your overall gallery. Congratulations!

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Lemong and Mark! Thanks for your help and encouragement. The final image is only 3636x2657 pixels at 300 dpi in Maya's Render Globals settings but most of the characters are in files of 100+ MB apiece. I had referenced many of them into a master scene which is only a few MB but that still isn't working...even with command line rendered regions it is impossible (with fur, displacements, motion blur...). I had wanted to catch reflections and raytrace bounces off "hero" objects in close proximity to one another -- such as Bob sitting in his cockpit seat -- but each file will need to be rendered entirely separate and then comped in Photoshop.

Reflections are now made by placing large unrenderable surfaces with textures similar to those of the final scene next to objects to be rendered. For example, into many files I'm importing a common lighting setup along with a large unrenderable sphere onto which a texture of cherry tree blossoms has been mapped. Objects to be rendered within the scene are then illuminated by this universal light rig and shot from a camera position identical to that which would have been used to render the final scene as a whole. So ideally these objects pick up reflections from the surrounding cherry tree blossoms on the sphere and are shadowed in a universal manner...hopefully.

Ideally a few of the more important key objects would have been shot together in render layers so they could pick up cool reflections and such...but that will have to wait a few years. --Very cool compositing tutorial too Lemong, thanks for sharing!

On a separate note, to create a cloud of several hundred wild wise butterflies a single butterfly was animated then each rendered frame was individually placed into the final scene as if it were a unique shot of a completely different butterfly. Might look interesting but I've lost all objectivity. Will post drafts soon!

Good luck you two -- your work is simply extraordinary! --Nice turntable Mark!
Working, working, working this entire evening and into the weekend....cheers!

[stefgrafx]

oceanbluesky: :bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:Thanks.. you was right for the Ziped file... don´t know why I dont think it before... feel stupid :rolleyes:

[oceanbluesky]

And now who-knows-who will Google our names (ex-girlfriends and such) and up will pop these self-involved confessional threads! Anyhow, terrific turntalbe -- such fun characters I really do hope to see a movie of them someday. Good luck!

[stefgrafx]

Oh man you have no idea of how stupid I feel competing in a Challenge with artists like you and Lemog and Shakes, Reiv, Gunilla, Selina and so many others -- what the heck...terrific turntable -- such fun characters I really do hope to see a move of them someday. Good luck!


I think nobody is stupid when you do what you love and whant to share what you do with others... :beer:

[MT-Cup]

<snip> and now who-knows-who will Google our names (ex-girlfriends and such) and up will pop these self-involved confessional threads -- they'll get a really good laugh if I don't finish!! So typical! <snip>

Bwa ha ha... for all you know... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


Hem, sorry, got carried away. Come on Eric, don't put yourself down. You're doing super work here and you should take credit for it. :thumbsup:

[rasamaya]

You will finish, do you drink coffee... or perhaps enjoyable tea's
Please share more, your a great artist.

Thank you for your advice on my thread.
I was gifted enough time to finish mine.
Check it out
But be sure to click parts of the image to zoom in to 100%(almost)
http://rasamaya.sitesled.com/main/index.html

[oceanbluesky]

Wow! David! That is the most effectively designed approach to showing a full res image I have come across...and it pays to keep clicking -- to reveal the distant elephant, the amazing detailed village throughout the valley, the doves, Noah's face -- Angel Eyes has been a good muse! Congratulations!

Also your Oracle Cards were especially interesting. Very thought provoking, like Tibetan Mandalas:

http://www.artnetwork.com/Mandala/gallery.html

Found 'courage', 'dancer', 'dreams' very moving -- then was overwhelmed by just about every image and gave up writing down those which I really liked because exceptional works were coming fast and furious -- then 'wonder' really, really hit, then 'breathe' -- but that was just the start of another avalanche of cool images. Hope they become a full gallery exhibit sometime. Good luck and best wishes with the judging! Thanks very much for sharing.

[oceanbluesky]

Bwa ha ha... for all you know... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


Exactly! -- who is MT Cup?? : )

Hopefully during the next challenge you'll keep the same "MT Cup" member name (...when you enter) -- because you'll get a lot of support after having been the number one coach and community advocate -- you really should be awarded one of the copies of XSI available to those most supportive of the community. It would be an ideal platform from which to start the next challenge....

Thanks again for your encouragement. I'm spending the weekend in emergency character modeling mode: if at first the scene isn't working, add new characters -- if the characters aren't working: make the eyes bigger, add fur, and force them to smile -- if that isn't working take more vitamins and scan another magazine cover?

[MT-Cup]

Exactly! -- who is MT Cup?? : )

Hopefully during the next challenge you'll keep the same "MT Cup" member name (...when you enter) -- because you'll get a lot of support after having been the number one coach and community advocate -- you really should be awarded one of the copies of XSI available to those most supportive of the community. It would be an ideal platform from which to start the next challenge....

Thanks again for your encouragement. I'm spending the weekend in emergency character modeling mode: if at first the scene isn't working, add new characters -- if the characters aren't working: make the eyes bigger, add fur, and force them to smile -- if that isn't working take more vitamins and scan another magazine cover?


heh, thanks for your kind words.

Sounds like moths on steriods? ;) Looking forward to your next release. I'd love to see some compositing that's not punny. :p

[individium]

Can you imagine if we had Picasso's thoughts online as he was working through his original concepts uncertain of his future, chatting about the world, encouraging others -- or da Vinci or Michelangelo?! And we are here participating! How lucky is that?
that is too lucky:) especially for the next generations! i can still count myself as young though but, thinking about what you have said i really wished to know about them more.
but now my only real hope is to know that i will be someone like them someday and someday someone will read these things we wrote and say 'wow i thought the same!'
i wished to know what thoughts they(da vinci or else) had but i'm just happy to know if we can do something worth it someone can know from now on...


"sweet home cg society" <<-- very funny, very cool comment you have...
haha thanks mate, i really feel that way :)

by the way im really glad knowing youyou are a good erson to speak with

and make an update remember we're in a contest:)

[oceanbluesky]

hope is to know that i will be someone like them someday and someday someone will read these things we wrote and say 'wow i thought the same!'...i'm just happy to know if we can do something worth it someone can know from now on...


Yes! And by learning and thinking on these pages! --What if da Vinci's notebooks were threads on the CG Society's pages!?!? How cool would that be? This is what I think of to remind myself how fortunate we are to express ourselves with the skills we may have as digital artists:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4761861.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4962722.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4223406.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4441503.stm

Okay...back to work! Not to miss this opportunity!! Cheers man!

[oceanbluesky]

My image looks unbelievably tacky so I thought I'd post links to music which could be melded into an imaginary soundtrack:

http://www.buddhist.ca/audio/9.mp3
http://www.buddhist.ca/audio/6.mp3

And the chorus from this (minus the unbelievably cheesy piano -- what are enlightned people thinking??):
http://www.buddhist.ca/audio/2.mp3

And this wonderful program...some of which includes music made from a human thighbone:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/episodes/2005/04/07

Also, a question about the backstory: anyone know city or regional names in their corner of the world which end with a rhyming suffix similar to:

Magoo
kathmandu
Timbuktu
Xanadu
Kalamazoo
Honolulu

shoe, view, pew, ewe?

For reasons which are beyond my capacity to understand wise bearded butterflies migrate only through areas with such names.

I don't make this stuff up...just report it.

[MT-Cup]

And this wonderful program...some of which includes music made from a human thighbone:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/episodes/2005/04/07



See I knew you had good taste, since I"m a subscriber of theirs.

[oceanbluesky]

Oh! New Sounds is one of the top ten achievements of contemporary civilization! 100% inspirational. I'm beside myself that they have so much archived online -- one of the drawbacks to rendering megafiles now is being unable to simultaneously run iTunes.

My schedule at one time nearly revolved enitrely around catching New Sounds on WNYC at 11 pm. You reminded me what I liked to do before entering this contest. I was beginning to wonder what I did when I had spare time...can't wait until the 28th so I can listen to New Sounds! Cheers!

[Gunilla]

anyone know city or regional names in their corner of the world which end with a rhyming suffix similar to:

Haha, funny! Haere are some Swedish ones:

Hjo
Örsundsbro
Örebro

... and probably a lot more than those :)

[oceanbluesky]

OH!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH GUNILLA!!! :bounce: < (that's the first and probably the last time for quite a while I'll be caught using one of those things...they're a bit much -- buuuuttt..THANK YOU! I'm so excited!! I hope others post local city names too...the wild wise butterflies are on a mission)

Thanks again! Ridiculously fun! You really made my day -- or rather, very early morning...

The following errors occurred when this message was submitted:
"You have used too many exclamation marks in a row in your message body or title."

What the heck??!!! Four exclamation marks are too many?? There can never be enough!!!

[Gunilla]

LOL! Glad I could make you push the exclamation mark limit :D
... anything for science, right?

[oceanbluesky]

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Rebel at heart! Thanks again

[MT-Cup]

Pardon me while I stop in for a snicker. ;)

[oceanbluesky]

Have got to stop checking this board during coffee breaks!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147705008_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147705008_large.jpg)

A question about backstory: if anyone knows city or regional names in their corner of the world which end with a rhyming suffix similar to:

Magoo
kathmandu
Timbuktu
Xanadu
Kalamazoo
Honolulu

shoe, view, pew, ewe?

Would you be so kind as to post the names here? Thanks!

(For reasons which are beyond my capacity to understand wise bearded butterflies migrate only through areas with such names....)

[Gunilla]

Haha, that was funny ... and I guess we are a lot waiting for that monster computer to mysteriously land on our desks... :D
Closeup looks great.

And another:

Värnamo

Have you only got Swedish locations so far? :)

[oceanbluesky]

Have you only got Swedish locations so far? :)

Should we just say: they sure will see a lot of Sweden!! Thank you so much!! (No one else seems to want wise butterflies to visit their part of the world...hopefully that will change?)

[Lemog]

A question about backstory: if anyone knows city or regional names in their corner of the world which end with a rhyming suffix similar to:

Magoo
kathmandu
Timbuktu
Xanadu
Kalamazoo
Honolulu
Some french town with this kind of suffix :

Saint-Cloud
Chateauroux
Fitou
Nogent Le Retrou

:)

Congratulations about the tip for fake environment reflections... that remember how I've done much time, since my first version of Maya, when I've only a PII250 :thumbsup: hahaha... very useful in fact... usually in this case, I used a little quick render little blured in photoshop...

[oceanbluesky]

Thank you so much Lemong!!! The butterflies have been dreaming of a trip to France! They especially want to fly through the Pairs Air Show (at which your renders would be a hit!):

http://www.paris-air-show.com/

Hope you had a nice weekend, cheers!

[cbernardo]

Hi, Eric,

Some names from cities here (I think are indians name):

Pacaembu
Manacapuru
Aracaçu

[]s
carlos

[oceanbluesky]

Thank you so much Carlos!!! Brazil will be the highlight of their trip! Absolutely fantastic names! Nice work on your video game playing boy too -- really great T-shirt logo.

Very grateful for your help, cheers!

[makaron]

adding one swedish name... Valbo :)

and hoping to see the big picture here soon... nice work so far...

[oceanbluesky]

Thank you, thank you Mona!!! Really appreciate it! --Seems the butterflies will summer in Sweden.

Really have enjoyed following the creation of your 2D entry! (I like all of your possible options!) Especially cool are your creative touches to details such as the flyer...thanks again for your help! Cheers!

[MT-Cup]

Love your "bubble render" lesson. First thing I learned getting into 3d. It's a nice reminder. Thanks.

[oceanbluesky]

Hey MT Cup! --Yeah I hope it wasn't too basic. Lemong said it reminded him of an approach he had learned years ago too. It's hard to know the level of 3D experience on this board...there are so many gifted artists, some of whom are professionals and some of whom are students (while others like myself may have worked in another field while dreaming of a transition into 3D).

In any case, hope you had a good weekend!

[Try]

How is the final image coming Eric?
I have browsed trough your posted stuff, and are still confused about what your final will look like.
You are keeping your cards close to your chest!
But I feel sure it will be something strange and interesting!:)

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Per! I'm just super-bummed out about how awful my final image looks!!! Dang is it a super-saturated piece of hype!!! Originally the whole thing was supposed to be an early morning dawn departure -- dark and moody but fun -- now though because my computer cannot render such complex shadowing, it has become a fully lit cherry garden scene so bright and gaudy it can make geshias blush...! (Will post for extremely welcome specific critiques soon...)

Very much enjoy your latest post of "Rainbow Chasers" though...! Such a fun and coherent theme! Good luck!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147769952_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147769952_large.jpg)

Working, working, working...had to take a break from my final image in order to think through new approaches to lighting which my very-lucky-to-still-be-in-one-piece Dell-piece-of-garbage-computer can handle. Thought I'd make another tutorial. Hope it isn't too basic. Cheers! (bummed out this Challenge is almost over)

[Lemog]

Do you know if it's possible to do that with 350 little characters... :)

...but with different clothes... :scream:


Nice method man... I'm waiting impatiently when all the pieces will be together Eric :thumbsup:

[MT-Cup]

Hey Eric, if you listen to that radio station on the radio, not the web, we're not too far from each other... I can offer to let you link up to my render farm. :p It's all made of crappy Dell's too. ;) Oh and I do mean crappy...

[Womball]

Hurray for animation! Have to love 2d animation, even though its rather unforgiven imo. Very fluid. Your new computer is going to cost 40 k?

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Lemog! Thanks for your encouragement! You know I've seen particle gurus use mel or A.I. Implant (http://www.biographictech.com/) to create crowds with various features ranging from -- what would be applicable to your work -- flags, clothing, and even facial expresions and poses. Setting up such a workflow however takes ages and a substantial production crew -- and I'm sure you have thought of that already too!

Hey MT Cup! I've been forced to move away from NYC due to pressing family matters -- hope to return soon! Thank you very much though!

Yes Nathan! I sure hope my new computer costs $40,000! I don't know who will give it to me, but I won't turn it down! One idea is to convince the CG Society to run a mega-huge competition with the first place prize being an Apexx 10 and unlimted time on:

http://www.rendercore.com/
http://www.respower.com/

: ) Whoooowhooooo!!

Cheers all, best of luck!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147847975_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147847975_large.jpg)

Thought it might be cool to scroll through a flip book of the compositing so I'll post consecutive images until the final...which is still far from complete.

While these colors are tacky enough to make a giesha blush, they will change -- they better! Whooooo.........

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147848402_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147848402_large.jpg)

Pollenator Cockpit [will be whacked with Saturation and Levels before this is over]

[shakes]

hey, cute little butterflies, Eric! can't see any detail though- even on the high res it's hard to make out-would love to see a large version of that furry thing!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147848588_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147848588_large.jpg)

I hope this isn't a waste of time...just think it might be interesting to quickly scroll down through the Challenge Page for effectively a time-lapse of the compositing....

[oceanbluesky]

Hey Shakes! How do we post high-res versions?? I haven't been able to get around the 150k limit and this is my first Challenge (so I'm still finding my way around this cool community)...thank you!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147848988_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147848988_large.jpg)

The Wild Wise Butterflies are coming -- and it's a good thing they love you!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147849852_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147849852_large.jpg)

March of Loving-Kindness from the Kingdom of Hearts

[makaron]

hmmm. this is strange feeling... I don´t like pink and purple... but I love your flowers... haha... I´m going nuts... :scream:

looks impressive... :thumbsup:

[shakes]

Hey Shakes! How do we post high-res versions?? I haven't been able to get around the 150k limit and this is my first Challenge (so I'm still finding my way around this cool community)...thank you!

you should be right with larger pics- mine are usually to the maximum, and they seem to
reduce to 150 OK-I'll IM you and show how to upload directly on the page if you want to(you'll still have to post your official ones though)

[oceanbluesky]

hmmm. this is strange feeling... I don´t like pink and purple... but I love your flowers... haha... I´m going nuts... :scream:

looks impressive... :thumbsup:

Yes Mona! It has made me feel strange for about 3 months now...and I loath pink and purple. These are not the final colors by any means though...it will probably have blue shadows, blue-silver leaves, and brown/tan branches. And many, many more characters.

And thanks for being so helpful Shakes!

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147851801_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147851801_large.jpg)

Chaos is a good thing...300+ layers now...

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147852287_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147852287_large.jpg)

Seussian horns which are too tacky to remain even in this image.

[oceanbluesky]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147852876_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/13/9972/9972_1147852876_large.jpg)

Okay back to work after this one...hope this gives an idea to anyone who may be interested where this final image is headed....

Working, working, working...want to see something frightening? Go to the 'Submit Entry' page...do not submit an entry...wait a while (the longer the better)...then refresh your browser while watching the "Time left" indicator.

Whoa! This is realllllly terrifying if you do it just before midnight. Talk about an adrenaline rush...(!)

Good luck everyone -- I'm going to be so bummed when this is over...the caffeine, the midnight panic trips...