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krasnoarmiich
10-30-2006, 08:11 AM
The Universe Diner, or, the Restaurant at the Other End of the Universe is a project I've been working on for a bit now in hopes to sell myself to prospective employers looking for artists of the environmental calibur. Sadly, I don't have my reference sheet ready to share, but I'll give you guys a rundown of what's been going on.

This scene was started with the intent of creating a surreal western (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/basic.jpg), as you can see, things have changed. It's current state consists of a diner on an asteroid, with elements of Mayan, and Indian architecture, (along with typical Diner traits) with a strong precense of corporate advertising. So now it's a surreal diner on an asteroid, waiting for customers, and wondering why it was never given a parking lot. (Working on that.)

I was hoping the community could offer me some critiques or suggestions on anything in particular, even if I make it blatantly obvious I know what the problem is. Thanks in advance!

'Essence' Shot:
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/candy2.jpg

Another 'Essence' Shot:
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/candy3.jpg

Wireframes One (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/wire1.jpg) & Two (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/wire2.jpg) : Wireframes renders from Max.
Clay Renders One (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/clayrenders2.jpg) & Two (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/clayrenders.jpg) : Geometry shots rendered with Max's skylight.
Textured (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/textured.jpg) : Unlit within Maya.
Area Shot (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/candoo.jpg) : The wide area of the scene, with some props missing.
Candy (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/krasnoarmiich/candy1.jpg) : Another Candy Shot

Specs:
- Geometry weighs in at around 15k triangles.
- Most textures are around 256 - 512.
- Geared towards a PS2 - XBox'ish spec.

Problems I Know:
- Grey Cubes : Placeholder magical trees.
- UVs : Some are messy atm.
- Lighting : It could be greatly improved upon, and will. I'll use a higher rez shadow map, and certainly play with some colours as well. I'll also make use of a global illumination globe.
- Reflectivity : I haven't finished all my spec maps yet either. Can't do high quality rendering anymore due to Maya 8's newfound pickyness, so they take a little more time.
- Geometry : Not everything is lined up, as most almost all the components are only starting to come together now. Should be further along in a few days time.
- Skybox : Seams galore. Going to make a cylinder instead in the near future.
- Some Textures : Just ugly, some are. Granted, these are fairly low rez, the highest being the contents of the rooftop at a 512 x 1024 (minus the stone monolith.)
- Colour : Some textures could use a colour tweak to fit into the scheme more, but I'd love to hear what colours would help bring out my scene better.
- Sterile Background : The final will hopefully have rotating nebulas and smaller asteroids. Maybe a flying towel or two.
- The Moat Thing : Still needs its water textures and actual machinery!

Thanks again!
NicholasPenner
10-31-2006, 10:04 PM
Looks very interesting, and original.

Maybe add some asteroids or what have you in the background. Also the ground around the building seems a bit flat and barren - perhaps you could add a "space western" tree.

Cool scene.
psychojohno
11-01-2006, 07:13 AM
I love this no crits from me :thumbsup: it looks awesome. And its original, keep posting them updates!
urgaffel
11-01-2006, 12:23 PM
For a skybox, you can use 3dsmax reflect/refract map to render out the six views. I did that on a project I worked on some time ago (looks like this (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=327728)). What you do is map your universe to a sphere and then place an object at the center of your universe. Then in the material editor, assign a reflection map to a material. In the reflect/refract map you can use custom reflection maps and there's a button to generate them too at the bottom under "Render Cubic Map Files"/. Click To file: and specify a path and finally pick the object at the center of your unvierse. Max will render out the 6 views for you and without seams.

If you want to use a spherical environment map, you can use HDR Shop to convert a skybox to a panoramic image instead, a sort of tutorial for that is avaliable here: http://gl.ict.usc.edu/HDRShop/tutorial/tutorial4.html

Nice idea and cool style. It will be fun to see it when it's got more stuff there!
bardur
11-02-2006, 09:15 AM
Urgaffel... Nice way to make a Skybox!... thanks
!

Regards
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