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View Full Version : Enchanted Forest - Environment - MBUUN

MBUUN
05-28-2002, 02:21 PM
Hi, all.

This is my first time on cgtalk's challenge board. I had to try this challenge because of the nature of the content. I like doing backgrounds and this looked like a good chance to get some feedback to help me with my design and composition... not to mention my technical skills with 3D Studio Max. I'm tring to make a forest full of glowing, alien 'ferns'. My objective isn't to make them look like any real fern, just calling it that, because it sounds good. I am adding leaves to the stem, though that are sort of fern-like. The idea is that on this planet, the only atmosphere is trapped inside large underground caverns where there is no light, so the environment adapts somewhat for the conditions. Plants glow to dimly light the forest so that instects, animals and people can use there vision. Although some areas are in total darkness.
leigh
05-28-2002, 02:41 PM
Hey that's a cool idea :thumbsup:
That bulbous look kind of reminds me of the underwater Gungan city in Star Wars Episode I.
This is great because it's a very unusual idea! Good luck with modelling :)
rolhionjs
05-28-2002, 03:27 PM
same thought than Leigh one :) Gungan looking :) nice concept ! :)
ZrO-1
05-28-2002, 05:49 PM
I really like your concept, and that sketch is looking pretty sweet too.

What it reminds me of are those plants on the mystical planet in the animated movie "Titan AE". You know the ones filled with hydrogen. Not that that's a bad thing...I think it cool. :D
MBUUN
05-29-2002, 01:40 PM
OK, I got this image done yesterday, but it took me a while to figure out I didn't have a personal page to go add things to. :p

Anyway, here is my tree I modeled. I want to duplicate it, stretch it, change it all sorts of ways to make a forest of them. In the end, I may have to use photoshop to get the glow effect on the orb that I want. 3DS Max doesn't seem to want to give me the effect I'm looking for exactly. (Which is brighter, with more detail.)Hopefully I'll get a chance to do that later today.

I have a cavern, working on making it look huge now. It's going to have a stream running through it so I can put in 'glowing guppies' or something.
leigh
05-29-2002, 01:50 PM
Looking cool :thumbsup: But PLEASE can we have some larger renders??!! :bounce:
MBUUN
05-30-2002, 09:34 PM
OK, here is an image of my progress so far. I have a lot of issues with the lighting, but I'm working on it. It's way too dark, but I'm trying to see how much detail I can get from having the objects illuminated rather than the environment. I'm also going to try modeling the leafy things on the trunks instead of using opacity maps so that I can get them to cast shadows on the ground. A friend suggested that I add some illuminated pollen around the bulbs. I'm playing with colors tomorrow.
MBUUN
06-04-2002, 10:15 PM
Okay, I punked out of the 'cave' concept and went for the stars...
I'm trying to decide which is better, some crazy looking clouds or starfield in the sky. Not trying to make it too busy, keeping the bulbs of the trees clean. I'm working on volume fog to go across the ground and I'm going to join the tree 'tendrils' together so they look like they really are attached. Still wondering what I can do to fill in the background with trees realisticly, but not have to duplicate that tree a thousand times. I'm definitely going to have smaller foliage to go between the bulbs and to create a roof of foliage above the existing trees.
MBUUN
06-04-2002, 10:20 PM
OKay... somehow lost my image from that last post. Here it is.
I think I'm leaning toward the purple sky.
ZrO-1
06-05-2002, 02:30 AM
yeah, I like the purple sky better also. One thing I'd do though is to knock the specularity way down on the trunks/stalks of your trees they look really really glossy right now.
MBUUN
06-17-2002, 06:32 PM
OK, time for an updated image. I kept playing around with making grass, but I can't decide what I want it to look like, also can't seem to duplicate it without causing all types of technical problems. I've got one tutorial that I can make grass with. Going to try that tomorrow.
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