Eon (3D Scene) Entry: theuns

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1166690394_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1166690394_large.jpg)

Hi everybody,

I know I'm pretty late with this entry but I really like the theme and decided to give it a go.

I loved the curved/hanging mason structures and the cable suspension which really caught my imagination.

So here is the first concept idea... already have some ideas to change it which I will in the next few days...

This is a pastel conversion of a 3d pre-vid but the conversion gives you a better idea of the layout/design...

The scale isn't right since the structures themselves can be up to 10km according to the scene description so I feel the cylinder diameter is way to small...

Anyway... thoughts and comments are welcome :)

[claudiojordao]

Hey theuns, the only thing I can suggest to you right now, is that you must start working very hard mate... your idea has potencial, but hurry up :) and good luck.

[kruzader]

Tnx Caludio, definately will :)

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1166812779_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1166812779_large.jpg)

Eon - Concept 2 notes

Update 2: I've expanded on the first idea a bit. Changed the scale from the first one and envisage this to change more later to the extent that you won't see the side walls or the ceiling anymore. The ceiling will be hidden in clouds and their might only be a hint of side walls in the far distance, hidden in a depth blurr haze or fog filter.

In this version, to illustrate the scale of the buildings, I've added a small shuttle with some temporary figures in the foreground. Beyond the foreground you can see several rectangular buldings with another shuttle taking off from the middle roof. I wanted to put a shuttle on the dangling buildings above the surface buildings but it would not have been visible because a dangling building or a Dangler is about 5 times the size of a rectangular structure. And then as you can see, the Danglers are hanging below The Arch which houses a city in itself. This is one of the 'arched structures fully ten kilometers long' mentioned in the Thistledown - Third Chamber description. The Aanglers are the 'golf tees' structures as well as the 'hung buildings from them in graceful curves'.

I still want to experiment with the Danglers, perhaps making them rectangulers hanging down instead of 'golf tees' and have the 'golf tees' stretching up to the atmosphere beynd the Arches.

Another idea I want to try is to change the current suspension cables and have them curve at a more shallow angle from the walls to hang more buildings on. The current Danglers are mobile and can be slid along the central cables running from cap-to-cap.

This will be the last 'pencil' concept image. Then next ones will be low resolution 3d visualizations.

I'm using trueSpace 5.2 for the modeling and rendering but I think I might use either Vue d'Esprit 3.1 or Bryce 4 for the terrain, unless I only go for a city scape with mountains in the back ground. But Bryce and Vue will give me better atmosphere and cloud results than trueSpace which is more modelling oriented.

Any suggestion and ideas on the above mentioned, please?

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1167915204_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1167915204_large.jpg)

This is one of those 10km high curving towers... The idea I have is to host entire cities on each successive platform on the tower...

No final texturing or lighting effects here...

To follow would be and scene view with the tower in perspective...

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1167915316_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1167915316_large.jpg)

Another close-up test view of the city buildings on a disc tower platform...

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1167915390_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1167915390_large.jpg)

Scene test with the Disc Towers included...

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1167915733_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1167915733_large.jpg)

Scene test wire frame view... had to bring the detail way down to get into the 150k size limit but you can make out whats what...

The tower will be a distant view so it won't have a lot of detail in them... gonna move onto the rectangular buildings for more close-up detail and then redesign the cable suspension system...

[SONIC-X]

Hello Theuns ,hoe gaan dit.

Ek is bly jy het die tyd gevind om hier deelte neem.Jy gaan moet spark om klaar te kry want die tyd is min.
Watse sagteware is dit wat jy daar gebruik?

Hello Theuns ,how are you.

I'm glad to see that you found the time to join in.You will have to spark if you want to finnish because time is short.
What software are you using?
Looks good so far ,keep it up dude.

[vmulligan]

Hi, Theuns:
Your initial steps look good. One small criticism, though: the "down" direction in the cylindrical chambers is the radial direction. The Stone rotates to produce centrifugal gravity. I really like the sweeping curves of your arches and the platforms holding buildings, though. Best of luck to you in this contest, and I hope you finish on time.

P.S. Kudos on using TrueSpace. I got my start using Ray Dream Studio, which was similar to TrueSpace. A good artist can do great things with any 3D package; more expensive tools do not necessarily make for a better final image.

[kruzader]

Haai daar SONIC-X, ja ek sal moet vinnig maak maar ek is amper daar. Ek gebruik trueSpace 5.1 SP2 van Caligari. ;)

Hi there SONIC-X, yes ,I will have to hurry up but I'm almost there. I'm using trueSpace 5.1 SP2 from Caligari. ;)

Hi vmulligan, tnx for the comment but I'm not sure what you mean by 'the "down" direction in the cylindrical chambers is the radial direction.' Could you elaborate a bit more?

Btw. I've added hanging cables from the side walls to the center cables from which to hang buildings from... will add the progress soon and then do some lighting and texture tests for my milestones before starting the final image renders....

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1168370914_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1168370914_large.jpg)

Added the cable hanging buildings... next I'll focus on the shading and lighting before adding effects and final composition...

tick tock, tick tock ... ;)

[vmulligan]

Hi, Theuns:

I mean that the cylinder isn't like a big cave in which you can only stand at the bottom. The curving walls of the cylinder are like a floor no matter where you stand. You could run all the way around the cylinder if you so chose.

Imagine a ball on the end of the rope. If you hold the rope and spin very fast, the ball extends out horizontally as far as it can go. It "feels" a centrifugal force pushing it outwards. The same principle is often used in science fiction to produce artificial gravity, including in Greg Bear's book. The Stone spins, so anything inside "feels" like it's pushed outwards from the spin axis.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your designs. All the best.

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1168372366_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1168372366_large.jpg)

Alright, for the buildings, I've used a basic white and grey image, repeating it 5 times on the U and V reps with a .4 luminescence to make it nice and white and a slight .2 shininess...

then added a image bump map of the same image with a .1 amplitude so that the image is not too distorted but still irregular enough for some variety...

These hanging uildings will be part of the background composition so it does not need a lot of detail...

[kruzader]

Hey vmulligan, I understand what you mean. I realised that during the early concept sketches and knew that I would have to change the scale of my cylinder which were WAY too small for the size of the buildings described in the noval. In the latest images you can't see the cylinder walls for that reason. I know that the cables I have at the moment is supposed to run through the center of the chamber, from which other cables hang in curves, according to the 6th chamber description so I will change that in my later composition milestone to fit the scene description....

Thanks for the comment and well spotted :)

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1168373068_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1168373068_large.jpg)

For the Arch center piece, I used the same image as a texture but increased the repeats and didn't add a bump map. Instead, I increased the shininess to give it a smoother, more organic feel to the structure, as if the stone masons 'grew' or 'poured' the stone freely without a mould and it dried in mid-pour.

The shininess will also capture the environmental lighting and blend with the surroundings....

This is actually a building as will that houses a massive city within its shell.

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1169109481_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1169109481_large.jpg)

Gun cat model... I've had this idea of combining the 6th chamber description with the scene where the soldier free fall to the surface for a fight... this will fit in nicely as one of the defenders on the ground...

Next will be the composition and post effects renders...

[kruzader]

Oops! Sorry about the triple post, my IS link was acting up and it got submitted more than once, sorry about that. Could a moderator remove those extras?

[BlackDidThis]

You had best contact Robert (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=33432) (Aka Mibus (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=33432))for this...

He is the one I know that has such access in these competition forums. Until things settle down, it is not too esy for the moderators to follow up on all of the threads during the challanges esle wise.


Very intresting Thistledown concept you have going there...
But as apreciatable as the business is... the scale of the buildings tend to make them look more like ornaments than buildaings. Way want to play with the camera angle or even the focal length to be able to close up to your characters and still show the view.


Best of luck;

Black

[kruzader]

Thanks Black, I'll try and contact Mibus...

And thanks for the comments, I'll play arround with the camera and focus in the final render. They do look a bit 'plastic' and unreal. Might try and add som distant window light strips to make it look more realistic. Don't want to add too much detail to the buildings since it will be lost in the background if I focus on the foreground characters.

I'll see what I can do... tnx

[vmulligan]

Gun cat model... I've had this idea of combining the 6th chamber description with the scene where the soldier free fall to the surface for a fight... this will fit in nicely as one of the defenders on the ground...

Next will be the composition and post effects renders...


Hey, neat model. I like it :) .

[kruzader]

tnx vmulligan, still need to add a nice metalic texture, perhaps camoflage...

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1170202230_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1170202230_large.jpg)

This is a different view perspective just to see what it looks like from above all the structures looking down at the city on the surface. To the left you can see the city blocks haning from the suspension cable with the golf-tee towers behind it and the arch to the right... Added a little shuttle blasting away with exhaust plumes for effect... in the backgound I experimented with some object to simulate a forrest but the effect isn't that good and I don't have time to spend on a nice detailed forest model so I'll exclude it from the final render...

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1170202509_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1170202509_large.jpg)

This is from the side, looking over the city...

Here you can see the golf-tee tower with the suspended city blocks clearly. Still busy adding a background image.

On the bottom right is a robotic legged defence turret...

The pilar to the left is low detail and will smooth out nicely in the final renders...

This composition is nice but I think I prefer the frontal view one looking down the length of the chamber from the roof of one of the buildings wherre you can see the arch clearly...

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1170202732_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1170202732_large.jpg)

This will be the final render position. It gives the best over all impression of the chamber with all its buildings in one view, plus there is the people activity in the foreground...

Gonna reposition the camera a bit and add the background with either a fog effect or depth blurr to focus on the blue ship in the center coming in to land...

[kruzader]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1170279791_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/15/12495/12495_1170279791_large.jpg)

Well, this is as far as I could get. Didn't get around to adding all the special effects I wanted like a slight background fog and lens flares and a lot of object detail but this is what I could manage...

Not much of a story, the scene shows the 6th chamger with its stone structures of arches, golf-tee towers and hanging buildings suspended from cables. I added some small ships for movement in the animation and part of the scene composition...

[kruzader]

Hmmm... seems like I focused too much on the final image composition and forgot about the 4 sec anim that needed to be uploaded... scrambling to compile a clip but don't have the FLV encoders and can't get the CGNuploader to work so I guess that disqualifies me from the challenge :(

I must admit that I've hardly done any animation before, only still life scenes and I only started my challenge around the middle of December so the whole thing was a rush with very little detail in the modeling... regardless though, it was fun and I did enjoy it very much... I'm sure this will be the first of many attempts so I see this as precursor or warmup for the next challenge when I'll have more time to properly plan and model in detail...

I am still completing the animation, might expand it into something more complex as an experiment but I doubt I'll be able to upload it here though...

Browsing at all the entries, there has been some awesome and inspiring designs which I'm learning a lot from... well done to everybody who tried :D

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