Eon (3D Scene) Entry: Espen Nordahl

[Try]

Good Luck to you!:)
Looking forward to see what you come up with.

Haven’t read the book my self. So this will be interesting to follow.

[thelostcucumber]

thanks, man.

Wow, there's a lot of people entering this. Will be a blast.

Bought the book on my way home from work last night, so it's time to get reading and paint some concepts. Back within a few days with my ideas.

-Cucumber

[Try]

Wow reading the book already:)
Was that a translated (Norwegian) copy?
Lots of specialised and technical English words here.
Might be a bit heavy reading for us foreigners

[thelostcucumber]

Yeah, about a quarter through now. Hoping to finish it saturday or at least sunday. The book is great! Taking a break to do some concepts and find inspiration right now. It looks like I'm going for Alexandria, but I'm not certain yet.

I got an english paperback copy. I've been reading nothing but english for the last few years, so it's not really a slowdown. Also, I tend to despise Norwagian translation of sci-fi books, especially the technical terms =P

Anyway, thanks for replying here allready. I'll be watching your progress as well. Back to concepts and reading =)

-Cucumber

[Kjello]

Another Norwegian (propably) tackling Alexandria, cool:)
I'm looking forward to seing what you come up with.

(And now I have to go out and find the book too)

[thelostcucumber]

http://www.lostcucumber.net/eon/pre-vis_01.mov

**EDIT: Trashed this idea for simpicity. I'll do a much simpler camera move in my final shot**

here's a really quick mockup of how I'm imagening my camera movement to be like. Extremely rough, but I'm just throwing ideas out here to see what works and not. It obviusly lacks some timing and framing, but the general picture is there.

One thing I'm having trouble deciding on is the lighting. It's supposed to be lit mostly by this tube, but I'm gonna have to re-read some parts of the book so I get the technical part of it right. The concept I have now would look really cool with some dramatic lighting from a tube going straight "through" the city at aprox half the height of the larger buildings.

For this example I would want either one of the earlier or the very last frame to be my high res illustraion picture.

More mockups/sketches tomorrow.

-Espen

[Try]

Well, Espen that was quick!! And looking good to!:thumbsup:

Some of the moves and turns are a bit jerky and I’m not so crazy about the sideways movement before the bridge.

But that aside, I think you already have some light-years head start on everybody else here.

This could really be great my friend!
Great job!:bounce:



He, he….. Just a little light and textures now and you can sit back and watch the rest of us struggle!:)


Per

[thelostcucumber]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160140234_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160140234_large.jpg)

My second preview for a composition.

[thelostcucumber]

I like this composition better than my first one. The plan here is to not use as dramatic camera moves, but just a simple pan or crane move to show that everything is textured 3d models.

I have to work on implimenting a foreground element, though, to get the foreground/midground/background feeling. Right now it's a little flat.

[menexor]

wow, you already made som insane progress!

i like the concept and the idea of the camara work(even tho seen before, it IS the stereo type sci-fi location pan, so i guess it's just the way it HAS to be hehe)

the way you go around the idea of flowing through the vbridge is nice!

really looking forward to seeing this come alive!


Rune -menexor-

[Crin]

I wouldn't worry about re-reading the book to get the details of the light exactly right tbh... I think were allowed a bit of artistic license on this otherwise what's the point? Good luck, fast progress so far!

[Nothingness]

curious to see more

ps. where's the first pre-vis ?? :twisted:

[thelostcucumber]

menexor: Thanks! Haha, I know what you mean about the stereotype. I decided not to go for that idea anyway, and will go for an easier cameramove and the composition on my first picture entry.

Crin: Thanks a lot. We're probably allowed it, but since it's the actual author who's judging this I would like to stay as true to the book as possible.

Notingness: Another update tonight. The first pre-vis is the quicktime I've linked to earlier in the thread.

I'll do an update and go through all the other threads to see what people are planning for their scene later tonight. Again, thanks for all the comments!

-Espen

[Nothingness]

i feel such a fool :argh:

just looked over it.

about the movie: maybe the turn isn't needed, so you can make a less hard and speedy journey. Maybe try a linear movement starting from hight above the bridge - looking at it - and do a a descend alongthe bridge to a very low and impressive perspective. This might give it some more strenght.

I'm afraid you're going to try and show to much. Just think a bit at the work you'll need to put in all that.

cheers

[thelostcucumber]

yeah, I know.. I trashed the idea for the new composition and a really simple camera move just to show off that everything is 3d and not cheated. As you said, it would be too much.

-Espen

[thelostcucumber]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160235817_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160235817_large.jpg)

I will have two of these guys standing outside the library to make sure no one unautorised gets in. Still needs a lot of tweaking, but these guys will be pretty small in the final framing, so I won't spend forever on it now in the beginning.

[thelostcucumber]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160255097_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160255097_large.jpg)

Warming up my rather rusty architecture modeling skills with a background building. I'm not modeling the base as it's not going to show in the final render.

[Grin3d]

Hello and good luck with the challenge !
Your model is looking good so far, only one crit; it looks that guy wears his shoes wrongly.

roman grin3d

[Nothingness]

Hello and good luck with the challenge !
Your model is looking good so far, only one crit; it looks that guy wears his shoes wrongly.

roman grin3d


now you mentioned it, yeah!

a little crit on the character: make the fingers bend more in corners where the nucles are. Now it kinds of look like they simply bend in a smooth curve!

nice job on the building. Try it in more experimental ways, so it looks less 21st century!

cheers

[varma]

Hallais;
I see you have signed in and paced up already! The movie clip itself has sure taken
a lot of your time, but you are going the right direction!
Reading the book and having a clue will sure help you tremendously along the way.
The building looks good, though I miss some wide glassy main entrance, in case it's
gonna be a public libraray, but you say it's not gonna show, so that's cool!

Bon chance!
:thumbsup:

[thelostcucumber]

thanks a lot people! Heh, I guess I was a bit quick when I was mirroring his shoe for the other foot XD And I'll try to fix those hands. They generally looks kind of crap.

Anyway, the part of town I'm illustrating is described as a part of the city they've tried to re-create as looking like 21st century (like a lot of places these days are kept like they where in the old days), but I will also go for some more experimental stuff than this, as he's pushing how far we've gotten in 2005 compared to what we actually have in terms of technology etc today.

-Espen

[Drowned-Fish]

Looks good, but the m4 is too big compared to the character

[Tenacious]

wow, i really like your models, looks like you've got skills. I'll be watching this one closely.

[Crin]

Your making very fast progress! I agree about the shoes, there back to front (left shoe on right foot and visa versa) and I also agree that the M4 is too big. Other than that mate this all looks good and I'm very impressed at your speed, lets see if you can keep it up ;) Remember it's a marathon not a spint :)Good work.

[thelostcucumber]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160323634_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160323634_large.jpg)

still doing the far away ones untill I find a style I like..

[thelostcucumber]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160336972_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160336972_large.jpg)

more buildings

[OreoJackson]

Good start so far, keep on plugging away! I like your building styles but remember, Patricia described this area as more "vintage". How far are you in the book - I'm just over halfway ... the book is great!

[thelostcucumber]

thanks a lot, man. By the way, just what do you read in "vintage area"? (having a hard time defining it)

[OreoJackson]

Well I stated it just as something to keep in mind, your building concepts are great (especially the first one). The book was published in 1986 and the character describes the area with the blown out windows as "vintage" or older looking... antique. So some older style buildings of the 80's late 70's era would be good architecture to draw from. Of course, you can use artistic liberties since they could be from a parallel universe blah blah etc. But in comparison to Thistledown City, a city in the 4th or 5th chamber (?), Alexandria is decidedly low-tech.

In short, my opinion would be to stay away from the uber-futuristic stuff like you are currently doing. Just my 2 cents :thumbsup:

[Korline]

hi there, first good luck to you,:)
I really like your buldings designs, and I was watching your camera movement that I think was pretty good for a rough idea,
I would like to see more of the whole composition more like a sketch to get better idea:scream:
have fun with that :thumbsup:

[thelostcucumber]

ah, okay. Because what i was reading into that whole part of the description is the fact that this book describes early 21st century. And she's first shocked that "hey, this looks like our cities." Then, she suddenly realise that this is because this is "ancient, classic architecture" for the Stoners. Because they're from the future, "ancient" is early 21st century. Or somewhat what we have right now. With something more to it, because it's actually what the author in 1980 thought 2005 would look like. It might be wrong, but this is what I got out of it..

-Espen

[OreoJackson]

Heh, yeah your right, my head must have gotten twisted around with all the time travelling. :eek:

Nevertheless, I will be sure to follow your progress!

[Try]

Great buildings Espen!:bounce:

Though I’m also a little bewildered a bout the style. Vintage could mean many things. I mean buildings in city’s generally stand a long time. Guess one should just go with the gut feeling and create away. There probably isn’t any good answer to these design issues. As long as it is cool it will fly.:)

And you are of to a flying start I’d say !:thumbsup:

Per

[varma]

Man, you build alot faster than all constructors in our town together!
Obviously, those endless hours spent on "Sim city" wasn't a total
waste of time, after all!!!
By the way, are you using instances for the upper floors or is it hard_
modelled all the way up?

Good working!
:thumbsup:

[thelostcucumber]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160564741_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160564741_large.jpg)

Starting to place some of the buildings I've modeled so far. Going for the early 21st century city style described in the book. (After all, it's supposed to be recreated by the Stoners to look just like the earth before the Death.) When I've placed most of the important ones I will go over them all and add more decay detail based on how close they are to the camera. Still no clue on the design of the library, will have to do some major thinking/sketching there.

[thelostcucumber]

and thanks for all the replies, by the way! Really inspiring =)

Oh, and I model one floor(or two, where the style change on floor x and up), copy it all the way up, attach them all together and then do variations if needed. As I said I will add much more wear and tear later when I know what will be seen and what that will not. Right now I'm focusing on finding the style I want.

-Espen

[SweD]

it come it come ! this is a great start with great models ! keep up ! :thumbsup:

[thelostcucumber]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160578807_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/11699/11699_1160578807_large.jpg)

A few more.

[Abaddon]

Looking good, you have made some fast progress. I like the composition of your final shot, the camera move so far is cool but it seems to lack any type of focus atm, in this early stage.

The buildings are great, maybe add in some more charming or slightly unusual ones to remind the viewer, that despite similarities, they arent actually in a typical city on earth.

Keep it up! :thumbsup:

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