Venus Sci-fi Style

[Frank Dodd]

It has a very organic abstract feel to it at the moment, I'm not sure if that is the style that you were after, but in that respect to are moving towards that aim.

If this is representative of a 1940's classic luscious jungle style Venus environment I think you still have lots to do.

Geometry: The plants at the moment consist of basic leaf shapes and swept trunks they lack, significant detail and, as you point out, they are also very sparsely distributed. More detail particularly in the trees would go a long way here.

Texturing: I spy a bit of Kai's Power tools in there ;) while cellular images can be used in specific cases or as bases for textures, you need to do a lot more hand crafted work on them, personally I would base your textures on digital photographs of real plants and introduce an alien feel with the geometry.

Environment: The flat colour is very bland at the moment even though Venus is very cloudy. The oppressive humid marine colour is a good choice but some cloudy structure in there would add to the image and the reflections in the water.

Keep at it we all have to learn. I've made several of these mistakes myself in the past my landscapes were (probably still are) diabolical, but perseverance and attention to detail can usually fix it. BTW What software are you using?

[Magnatude]

TrueSpace 4.3 and all the textures are modified shaders.

One thing I don't like is the limit on how TS smoothes out the mesh. :(
I'll probably have to do some post-work with my tablet.
As you may have noted the straight edges on the nearer plants.
(its all basicly block-mesh, I just got ThremoClay so I have started to SDS most of it on my second version).

Yeah, I wanted a sureal Venus that would almost make you believe that there's a rubber Dinosaur waiting to pounce on you.
All of this was mesh (lots-o-polys), so I'm going to do a lot of "filling" with single plane textured ferns.

One thing I have a hard time with is lighting... getting it right.
Renders have hard-line shadows and I want to get them more fuzzy looking.
Any pointers would be helpful... even if you have some tuts to send me to would be appreciated.

Thanks Frank :)

[Frank Dodd]

I am personally a Realsoft 3D user so, I’m not sure how the lighting would translate across to Truespace (I did use the TS demo a long time ago but that was it)

In Realsoft you have 3 soft lighting options (point lights can be given a size to make them into a ‘ball’ light, Objects can be placed into a special light entity that then casts light from the whole object) or finally Global illumination shaders can be added to the entire scene.

I’m not sure how much of this translates across but effectively there will be something you can do in there to give a light a size so when a point in your scene is illuminated by the whole light it will be very bright and when it is only illuminated by part of the light it will be dimmer creating a gradual drop off in illumination and a ‘soft’ shadow effect.

Additionally I though Truespace also supported Radiosity which, in a simplistic statement, can be substituted for Global Illumination to produce similar effect. Perhaps you should check this out on the Truespace forums for more specific details.

[Magnatude]

http://members.shaw.ca/magnatude/images/planetvenus.jpg

Ok, added some muck and a blurred backdrop.
I didnt really want a clear backdrop cuz Venus is supposed to be muggy and foggy.

Also I changed the water, and added a second layer within it
Its rendered bright to pick out the details.

Next pic...

[Magnatude]

http://members.shaw.ca/magnatude/images/planetvenus2.jpg

Ok, now I added the mist and reduced the light to tone it down.

I'm now working on the bitmaps for the veggie undergrowth, and I'll add a few more background trunks (I'll do this last because the poly count is getting high).

[wedge]

okay, i don't mean to be so harsh, but i can't think of another way to say this.

this is ugly.

there is no direction to the image. you use high contrast colors in distracting patterns, and my eye is not drawn to any one part of the image.

[Magnatude]

Yet...

As this post is in the WIP.
:)
I still have to put in a dinosaur or something of that sort.

As for the render, I'm still getting some input from other forums on what the best lighting rig would be.

But thanks for the crit.

[Magnatude]

http://members.shaw.ca/magnatude/images/VENUSM.jpg


Added a "Feature" to draw the eye...
Added veggies, will add more.

Used Shadowmapping instead of the Ray.

Still needs a tweek.

Should I make the fallen treetrunk larger for the creature emerging?

[Teckniel]

nice work

my only crits are the textures is could be a hell kick ass image if you use realistic textures that image is more looking like a old game level

try searching for realistic textures or paint it

sorry that im so hard

hope to see more improvments

[Magnatude]

http://members.shaw.ca/magnatude/images/Venusrender1final.jpg

Ok, took your advice and switched the alien trees to more of a mossy finish.
I wasnt happy with any of the rendering I did. (I'm new to TS and its render controls). So I took my 4 favorites and Postworked them together.

This is all that I'm going to do with this one for now, maybe I'll pick it up again shortly and do more suggestions.
Feel free to Post more comments and ideas for me to work from.
Good and bad, I need to know what I can improve on.

Thanks all!
~~R.Kurbis~~

[IFX]

i think it is to flat looking and the tectures look terrible

[BlackWolf]

i think the textures arent distinct enough, it lookis very samey. make the feature biright red or somethin

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