Steampunk Myths and Legends Entry: Jay Eli Tuttle

[TacitusD]

My original concept was going to contain the river, Cerberus, and the Gates to Hell/Hades home. This became a little to large to control and get where I wanted. I am still working on getting hints of the other two elements in though. So far my work flow has been sketch on trace (I am not good enough at sketching in PS or Painter to do it there) and then model in 3dsMax.

[TacitusD]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16525/16525_1228230489_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16525/16525_1228230489_large.jpg)

Here is my most recent image. So far i am just rendering it with a Vray Dirt that I have acting as an occlusion pass.

I have been concentrating on form mostly. Early on i decided to go w/ a Neo-Classical architecture. Mainly b/c the research I did suggested that Victorian area is th main motif of Steampunk (please correct me if i am wrong). Since the heyday of Neo-Classic had just ended most of the civic buildings haveing been done in that style. If this space isn't a civic center then I am at a lost as to what to call it. I am going to infuse the Steampunk look more w/ materials too; coppers, brass, dark bricks/stone pavers, and hints of white to suggest a former classic "elegance."

Currently i don't like how the "Cave Ceiling" is turning out. I also need to work on the building (purgatory) on the right side. My sketches never feel right. I am also going to start populating it w/ lots of people and designing 3 boats that will be dropping people off or going to get people.

[M477]

Firstly, well done for posting up your work for the first time! :applause:

Secondly, you're modelling is really nice with some great attention to detail. The idea is brave too, good to see you going with it, I hope you get it finished in time! The architecture you have gone for is right for the Steampunk era, you've got that sussed quite nicely (more than me perhaps!) with the big brass boilers, pipes and victorian decoration. Obviously it is not finished so I will only crit the cave architecture as you have it here, and say that perhaps the cave ceiling is oversmoothed. I would consider having large rock columns supporting the ceiling and having the distant building carved into the rockface a little more - rather like Valley of the Kings in Egypt and make it way waaay bigger. You can always have it slightly blurred out in the background if you want the focus to be the foreground. Also, consider setting up your POV now and work on the composition. I would feel inclined to have something/someone right up close to the camera, just to add a sense of scale and interest. I hope that my comments are useful, keep up the good work - looking really good so far!

:bounce:

Oh and scan your concept sketches and post them up, that's allowed :D

[TacitusD]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been asking around with some of my friends at work and in the area and they all agree with what you said about the ceiling; as do I. I was sketching in some stalactites, stalagmites, and some that connect to form archways. K think one of the big issue with the ceiling is that it is not grounded at all. Valley of the Kings... Good idea! i was thinking of building a shanty town on the other side of the large wall. It might be more effective if i do it that way. I guess i should also look at the Pueblos in the Southwest of the USA. Thanks for the suggestion.

Your the second to mention a large ______ in the foreground. I am a little hesitant to do that because, originally, I didn't want to set the view in the scene as a participant. I wanted to make it feel more like the viewer there but not there. But i will do some sketching and see if those change my mind. My hope is that the boats and people will help engage the view more.

I tried posting my sketches too. They were up there but then when i posted this image it removed the other one. I dont know what that was about but i will attempt again. I have a question on the FAQ about it.

Thanks for all your comments. They definitely got the gears images/icons/icon12.gif turning more.

[M477]

I dont know if you're familiar with the game Gears of War 2, but there are some pretty decent cave scenes in that, and being a game the resolution is really low. Worth looking into from a technical perspective I reckon.

Building a shanty town sounds like a good idea, although my first thoughts on that were "wow, you're gonna build a town!?" but I can see it wouldn't be that much work if it was just the suggestion of a shanty town :p

An alternative to placing something new in the foreground for the sake of it would be to do something drastic... I might be inclined to change the canvas to landscape - extend the building on the right around to where the camera is now only lower the camera onto a balcony, so that you are essentially standing by a railing looking down at the boats with some other victoria/steampunk styled characters. I hope you know what I mean, difficult to explain without drawing it myself!

Hopefully that's some more grease for those gears :wip:

Oh and PM me if you're altogether unsure of how the posting works and I'll go through the steps I take to post wip.

[TacitusD]

I am all to familiar with GOW2 got it right be for our Thanksgiving holiday and played it from Wednesday to that Sunday. I know exactly the part of the game you mentioned and was actually going to go look at that for precedent work. I always feel good about idea once other people mention the same one.

The idea about that balcony is really intriguing. Especially since it would change the feel of the river too. Right now i think the river feels like it would be straight, only played up by the hard edges of that seawall, but if the view was on a balcony it would give more shape to it. Going to have to experiment with that one.

Since the "town" is so far way i think a couple of plans will be enough to get the idea across.

I will definitely PM you. I know i am doing something mundanely wrong on the posting. Thanks for your comments and continual correspondence.

[TacitusD]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16525/16525_1228858236_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16525/16525_1228858236_large.jpg)

Software: 3ds max,Photoshop,VRay

Finally got a little more work done. So far it has been much slower then i have wanted. The model still just has the white Vray dirt material but i have started to play with lighting ideas.

Not fully likeing the ceiling yet and i am having trouble figuring out how to get the shadows up there while not obscuring the ground. If anyone has some tips or tricks for lighting a cave let me know.

[TacitusD]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16525/16525_1232120106_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16525/16525_1232120106_medium.jpg)

Software: 3ds max,Photoshop,VRay

Well i have finally gotten the image to render. Its way to dark so you cant see a lot of the detail i put in the piazza in the middle or the 19.5k people that are in the scene. Time to do some matte passes.

[TacitusD]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16525/16525_1232298127_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16525/16525_1232298127_medium.jpg)

Software: 3ds max,Photoshop,VRay

Now that I have completed my first competition through here I am glad to say I had a blast. I have surfed the site for a long time always being impressed with the community’s talent. Now I am even more impressed by the cooperation fellowship some of the threads displayed. I am always humbled when I see work other do. Some of the modeling is so detailed it appears daunting, texturing done to a level I hope to get to someday, and the 2d paint always impresses me and makes me want to become good at it myself. Thank you all for the imagery and stories. I can’t wait for the next one! I doubt I will make such a large scene again. I also want to thank the forum leaders, sponsors, and CG personal for extending the competition a week. I would not have been able to submit this image with out that time.

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