Eon (3D Model) Entry: Brian Anderson

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1159932764_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1159932764_large.jpg)

Alright. I'm trying my best to interpret an upside down city inside a massive cave. So this is more or less a city built like a stalagtite. I'm taking the Walt Disney, vision of the future Epcot take here. Flowing lines, pre-fab, mass produced, etc. but with the appearance of structure and size.

Edit: The rings are also meant to emulate erosion. I'm going for a more natural looking architecture, but with heavy, modern material.

[Rhs_CG]

I like that idea of the building design simulating the erosion of the earth. This looks like it will be a lot of fun to make! Later on, adding water damage along the rings would look great.

[SantoAnderson]

Thanks,

Yeah, I was definately working with that idea, but making the rings almost like really refined stone or clay giving it an almost ceramic feel. Water damage is for sure a good idea.

[ChristianHammer]

The city isn't necesarily upside down. It is on the inner surfave of a tube/cave. So while you are standing on the "floor" you would be standing within the city, if you looked up you would also see city. If you walked forward eventually you would end up on your "ceiling".

I like your idea of stalagmite/stalagtites. Your initial sketch is really cool. I am looking forward to what you will come up with.

[Nothingness]

The city isn't necesarily upside down. It is on the inner surfave of a tube/cave. So while you are standing on the "floor" you would be standing within the city, if you looked up you would also see city. If you walked forward eventually you would end up on your "ceiling".

I like your idea of stalagmite/stalagtites. Your initial sketch is really cool. I am looking forward to what you will come up with.


totally agree !!

as long as the gravity works fine :twisted:

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160005590_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160005590_large.jpg)

Okey Doke,
This is kinda sorta the shot I had envisioned: Just a huge tubular cave with irregularly angled rocks and mountains (not hills) with tiny little people and windows. I threw in vinery to contrast the architecture. I dunno why, but the building in the foreground definately has a dirty cereal bowl stack appearance, maybe I'll throw in a cheerio shaped rock dangling from one of the ledges, just for kicks. I wish the shot had more vertigo, but I can do that easier in 3D space. Mmkay, there it is.

[OreoJackson]

Very interesting interpretation with your "dirty dish" city. I kind of get dizzy looking at it. :thumbsup:

However, the way i understand it, the cities represent modern human cities except much more monumental in size. I'm just a few chapters in so far though, so I could be totally wrong or one of the chambers deeper into 'The Stone' could be like this...

[SantoAnderson]

Dizzy, huh? Well, at least I'm not the only one. I'm still really needing time to read that book. Maybe I'll get the Ebook tomorrow... Maybe it was all those paintings that were thrown in with the challenge page. There was something very, VERY odd about the chamber being described as being within a huge cave, yet there was blue sky and an ozone in those paintings... I guess it was the best they had... I think I'll try and throw something together in Maya for perspective reasons... That way yall can get a better sense of what I'm going for... because it is not Coruscant. :D

[Rhs_CG]

Your second image is looking great. I think the 'dizzy' impact will look awesome, good attention grabber.

BTW, I found some images of the rocks from southern utah. Here are a few, and an image search will result in more, I'm sure, but here are some for convenience's sake. If you dont have many of your own.


http://youcanneverhavetoomuchfleece.com/gallery/Dope-Places/aaf

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/utah/2001001x.jpg

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/utah/lep.jpg

http://parkerlab.bio.uci.edu/nonscientific_adventures/escalante_utah.htm

http://www.moorlandschool.co.uk/earth/earth_science/utah_sandstone.jpg

BTW, if you get the chance to hike through canyons like these, it's worth the experience. I can still remember how the soft/hard texture of the stone feels on my hands.

Edit: Well, knowing where you're from, I would imagine you know what it's like, correct? :)

[jporter313]

Great concept, can't wait to see what comes of it. I think you're the guy to watch so far.

[johantri]

whoaaa !! this is great !! i never though your concept to be this excotic. in a small preview, it looks like a mushroom or sumthin'. i wish you or anybody else here could give an advice to my entry

[SantoAnderson]

Hey, thanks a lot for the red rock photos. I've hiked there before. I don't think it'll be that claustraphobic :D , but that really does give me great ideas for color and saturation issues. Thanks a lot guys.
Right now I'm just totally going for originality's sake. Like I kind of hinted at in my previous post, I feel that everything super sharp and high-techy, architecture-wise, was used for Coruscant, and if I were to do just a random futuristic NYC people might get bored quickly because they've already seen it.
On the flip side, I don't want something so organic, that it looks implausible and stupid. I.E., the Time Machine:
http://www.colemanzone.com/images/dw_eloi(3).jpg

I'm still toying with lots of ideas. I'm definitely widening that corridor. If you can see the ground or cieling in the foreground, you shouldn't be able to see its opposite until it's way in the background. That second drawing was and is a basic layout, and don't forget that there will be lots of sharp little building in there. I actually envisioned manhattan being perched on one of those little ledges, with another 5000 manhattan sized cities surrounding it.

I have so many questions about the book. Mainly, did the astronauts arrive in a NASA shuttle (which could really contrast some of the organic qualities I'm shooting for)? Does Bear describe in Detail what the cities were made of? Because if I'm going for kiln baked indian clay, and he says titanium, I'm screwed. :shrug:

NOTE: Johan, I'd love to check out your entry. Could you drop a hyperlink to your page so we could give some C & C?

[scootermaya]

Whow ! Powerfull heavy stuff :thumbsup: !Great sketch man. I can't wait to see the progress on this one :bounce: .

Good luck ! (subscribing :) )

[ChristianHammer]

The chamber has a diaqmeter of 50km. Since that would give a depth of atmosphere roughly equivalent to the earth you would oddly have very much the same appearance as here on earth. Well except that through the clouds in a very hazy way you would see a city. In the very center of the tube is a Beam of energy/light. It acts as a sun in a sense. Many of the HUGE buildings reach up to the beam as sorta spokes off of it. Of course each chamber is different, and I haven't read the book in 5 years...

[ICHOMA]

Great perspective.

[zman]

I dont know much about this book yet besides a swift read of the inspiration section. Just wanted to say I think your sketch has potential. I'm subscribing :)

[Jonesisme]

Nice drawings, very good interpretation.

[SantoAnderson]

I think I'll take that bicycle spoke idea to heart with some stalagtites creating irregular "branches" to the center beam. Thanks. The next post will be a 3d layout shot with basic geometry, just so I can get the idea of distance and size.

[Jonesisme]

I love your interpretation of the rock, very surreal.

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160092602_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160092602_large.jpg)

OK, yeah the image sucks, because well I took ten minutes to do it. I learned two very valuable lessons right here:
1. Blurriness- If I keep the current perspective roughly 2/3 of the image will be blurry and or blue. (which would suck) I might tilt it down a bit just so I can see the end of those hills finally being obscured by distant clouds.
2.For visual sake, I may design this as something of a bottleneck in the cavity system. So instead of having a 50 kilometer diameter, it might have 10-25. I'd sooner sacrifice science for beauty. And after all, maybe reduced green house gasses has made the atmosphere much more transparent.
Meh, I just want a huge, intrepid, image with an endless horizon.

[TheSoracle]

The sketches look awesome. I would have to agree with you about the model. It is ROUGH right now, but I'm sure you can turn it into something awesome. Goodluck Brian. Will enjoy competing with you.

[SantoAnderson]

Thanks Steve, and everyone, for the feedback. It's nice to give a newbie some recognition. Right now I'm busily preparing a more recognizable draft simply for camera setup. I'll check back in two hours.

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160107045_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160107045_large.jpg)

OK, everything's bigger and better, and I think it's kind of giving that illusion of size. I'm still a moron with after effects, and spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to apply a depth blur to my depth map. Once I figure it out, I'll post an updated image with the atmosphere fall-off.

[Rhs_CG]

That's looking great Brian!

[Tenacious]

Hey cool stuff here. Like the concepts they really catch your imagination.

[SweD]

you've got here a cool concept and a great start ! I will follow this thread to see more soon :)

[ICHOMA]

Hey, I think you can use in Bryce the haze tool to create a depth efect on the cave.
Also you can apply the depth tool.

regards.

I like the perspective .

[unwrap]

Nice concept Brian, good luck!

[SantoAnderson]

Hey Thanks everyone,

I'm still trying to get that vertigo feeling. Inititally I wanted it to be almost like someone standing on the ledge of a building. A very long camera lense peering down to the city bottom where we watch as the image disappears and becomes blue ozone. Ultimately I got that long camera thing working, but I felt it was more important to feature the length of the complex than it's depth.

I'd always envisioned in the foreground (in keeping with CGTalk's suggestions) having a NASA/NATO cosmonaut decked out in very 70's gear covering his eyes from the light beam. I intentionally want his technology to appear very antiquish. For instance, 2001:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a179/SantoAnderson/5091-148mptv.jpg

(It looks like a power rangers suit with assorted Pac-man arcade parts thrown on there and spray painted orange.) I'll sketch a more retro version of this and hopefully have it up by tomorrow, today's a very busy day.

I think contrast will be very important in this composition. The Kubrickian, 2001, astronauts, and the evolved human technology. Heck I may even tone down the rock coloration, because it looks a little too martian to me, and put all the ugly seventies coloration to our cosmonaut. Still haven't decided as to whether I can put a shuttle in there or not.

[Crin]

If your going for a vertigo thing why not try distorting the perspective/fov of the camera a bit, make it look deeper/higher than it actually is, like it's distorted by his fear.


Looking good overall so far, good luck!

[Nothingness]

nomrally you use the depth render as the alpha for a blur value. But i never got the result i wanted.

problem is: when you have some objects in the back that are sharp, and there are blurred stuff in the front, you can never get the result of a true depthblur. Unless use do it at rendertime. when the difference is extreme, you almost see trough the blurred object.

i have an simular composition with some characters in the front, and tha huge room in the back. And putting focus on the back makes you loose detail in the front. So i put the characters in the tunnel to the seventh chamber, leave the depth of field alone and focus on distance fog.

cheers

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160264491_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160264491_large.jpg)

Ok, here's the initial concept of the cosmonaut. I've no idea as to the name of the space administration that visits the meteor, so I just threw a nasa logo on there. I'll change it soon enough. His final coloration will be a burnt orange with lots of scoring. I still haven't decided whether there will be more than one...

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160268424_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1160268424_large.jpg)

Allright,
This was something I'd thought up for futuristic transportation. Hovercrafts are a little too cliche. So I began to wonder, what would be the most efficient form of ground transportation inside a massive cave? I thought elevators, but those aren't nearly as exciting as I would like. I just needed something outlandish, and a little crazy looking. It's roughly based off of a armadillo/ankylosaur, and it's dang big. This oughta be fun to model.

[Nothingness]

nice concept for the transportation!

definetly reminds me of a reptile crawling walls.
very original, i say!

[SantoAnderson]

That's exactly what I was going for. Good thing you spotted it! Thanks!

[bearfoot]

hey brian


nice concepts so far

keep up the good work

[Rhs_CG]

That schematic view looks great. It is a bit confusing though, but I'm sure it will turn up looking great.

BTW, the organization is apparently NATO, or at least supervised/funded by NATO. I think the online excerpts elaborate a bit on that story point. The suit looks great!

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1162961537_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1162961537_large.jpg)

Yeah, It's been a while, but I've had class. Anyway I've decided to actually regain control of this project. So I'm starting on the small stuff, like space shuttles. Aerodynamic design never ceases to amaze me. Something so egg-shaped has such strong design elements. Anyway, here's the front of the ship. Crude model and crude color map, but I've worked most on the bump map to give it almost a "paper-mache" look you get on the real space shuttle. Google search it and you should get a good idea. Everything that's not cracks and gaps will be geometry, and things like windows and blacked out areas will be built.

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1162961956_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1162961956_large.jpg)

Mmmkay, Closer.

[TheSoracle]

Looks really good Brian. Hope to see you finish modelling full craft. Nice job on texturing and lighting though.

:thumbsup:

-Steven

[SantoAnderson]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1163058274_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11652/11652_1163058274_large.jpg)

OK, could only allocate 30 of work tonight, but here's that glass. I need to adjust the nurb framing, still looks to stretchy. Anyway, when I get more time I start on the body. Still not sure how much of it will be close in frame...

[TheFirstAngel]

nice progress :) well i have no idea where the shuttle will be placed but i particulary liked the panoramical shot from that high point. the early concepts were nice, tou i am a sucka for things that have a nice flow.
as for the funny VTV, thit could work in the 5th chamber where the miners done their but looks a bit unpractical for public transports. in the book, they have zero-g trains, all forces neutralized by the 6th chambers gravity regulators - and roads with electromobiles. still the design is cool and original :)
as for the astronaut, the asteroids inside has a fully functional biospherical environment incl atmospherical supply. if there's a fraction that wears space suitses, its the russian invaders in the outer gate, after that, there's an earthlike environment that makes a space suite unnessesary :) - hope that info helps.
keep up the great work, very creative and cool aproches on the topic, keep em coming! rock on! :beer::buttrock::wip:

[SantoAnderson]

Sweet, thanks for the info. I still haven't read anything, which is really dumb of me, and find myself flying by the seat of my pants as is. I like the idea of the 1980's earth astronauts not knowing what they might get in to and arriving in their full NASA glory. I still don't know how I'll explain in an image how the space shuttle managed to get inside of a gigantic chamber with it's own gravity and atmosphere. All I know is I need some significant contrast between the old and new....


THanks peeps.

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