Author Jack Vance's stories: "Planet of Adventure" or "Demon Princes"

Bryan_Y · 2008-03-25 12:32:52 UTC

Hello Everyone,

    This thread is about a collaborative project to create an animated short depicting a scene and setting from one of Jack Vance's works: either [b]Planet of Adventure[/b] or [b]Demon Princes[/b]. If you've read Jack Vance's four book series entitled [b]Planet of Adventure[/b] or his five book series [b]Demon Princes[/b], then you know what I'm talking about. Otherwise, for reference, try these links:

[ul]
[li]Planet of Adventure[/li][li]Demon Princes[/li][/ul]Jack Vance is a science fiction and fantasy author, and his works are decidedly different. My goals here would be to capture the true spirit of his characters, dialogue, and settings. Any fan of his works would understand completely where I’m coming from.

      As a CG hobbyist, I go back many years. Aside from a diverse set of 3D skills, my general skills include photography (film and digital) and programming and scripting. My programming skills include RenderMan Shading Language, MEL, C, Perl, Python, PHP and a few others. I am adept at 3d modeling, but not at a professional speed. I have also made the effort to study lighting and cinematography. I hold my work to an extremely high standard, and I always want to push the envelope in terms of quality and detail.
      
      My choice of platform would be 3Delight for rendering (production level RenderMan compliant renderer) and  Maya for animation, Shake for compositing.
      
      I am currently developing sophisticated RenderMan shaders, a road network and city generator. I also have been developing some experimental methods for human head modeling and animation.
      
      If you're interested in collaborating on this project, I would hope that at the very least, you've either read the books, or would do so. Roles to be filled include all the standard ones:

[ul]
[li]Script creation[/li][li]Concept art[/li][li]Storyboard creation[/li][li]Modeling[/li][li]Texturing[/li][li]Rigging[/li][li]Animation[/li][li]Musical score[/li][li]Sound effects[/li][li]etc.[/li][/ul]I would prefer to create something short and of the highest quality, rather than longer but of lower quality. All of this is very preliminary, but if you’re interested, then chime in with your two cents.

Below are sample outputs from the road map generator of my city generation tool that I’m developing for use in this project. You can read more about it in this post.

Bryan_Y · 2008-03-26 17:45:06 UTC

Further information:

The above mentioned Jack Vance novels are classic space opera.

I will discuss Demon Princes in a later post. Immediately below is some information on Planet of Adventure.

Planet of Adventure is wild, with lots of baroque style villages (think of old European villages) and a few alien spaceport cities. Typical weapons you might find in any given Planet of Adventure scenario include:

[ul]
[li]Knives, daggers, swords, rapiers, etc.[/li][li]Energy pistols[/li][li]futuristic grenades[/li][/ul]Vehicles in Planet of Adventure include:
[ul]
[li]Sky cars (designed and built by a few different alien races)[/li][li]Space boats[/li][li]Watercraft including cogs, yachts and barges[/li][li]Land vehicles including wagons, carts, and drays[/li][/ul]Typical clothing might include any of the following:
[ul]
[li]Rough woven fabrics, simple pants and shirts[/li][li]Elegant clothing suitable for vain fops, dandies and aristocrats[/li][li]Capes[/li][li]Wide brimmed hats[/li][li]Turbans[/li][li]Ear rings, bracelets, and jewels[/li][li]Pantaloons[/li][/ul]Aside from the futuristic alien spaceports, think of human settlements in Planet of Adventure as going back a long way and heavily rich with antiquity. Typical features of human settlements might be:
[ul]
[li]Stucco and stonework[/li][li]Steep tiled roofs[/li][li]Rough old world aesthetics, slightly off window placements[/li][li]Inns, hostels, and outdoor markets are common[/li][li]Dark alleyways, narrow streets are common[/li][/ul]The alien spaceports in Planet of Adventure, depending on the alien race, might feature:
[ul]
[li]Tall gleaming towers[/li][li]Old industrial areas[/li][li]Warehouse districts[/li][li]Space yards, including hangars[/li][/ul]Characters in these novels are colorful, often vain, and typically of a less than reputable nature. Swindlers, scoundrels, knaves, cutthroats, thieves and con artists are the order of the day. There are priestesses and peasants, dandies and aristocrats, assassins and so forth, all looking to line their purses with your money or bloody their blade with your blood, while always professing to be nothing but the most honest and above board citizen.

Bryan_Y · 2008-03-26 21:42:00 UTC

Demon Princes is, in many parts, a detective story in a classic space opera setting. The protagonist hops from planet to planet in the galaxy seeking out five individuals (the Demon Princes). Jack Vance paints quite an interesting and diverse set of locales, cultures and characters along the way. Any one of these offers great potential for a mini-segment of the story.

Below, I’ve outlined in a similar fashion as I did for Planet of Adventure some of the components of the stories.

Typical weapons and gadgets you might find in any given Demon Princes scenario include:
[ul]
[li]Small concealed knives.[/li][li]A Projac, which is a futuristic type of energy pistol[/li][li]A number of different implements and vials to poison others[/li][li]Sticktights: very tiny robotic tailing devices[/li][li]Communication devices, large screen display devices[/li][/ul]Vehicles in Demon Princes include:
[ul]
[li]Futuristic scooters, taxicabs and mass transport systems[/li][li]Large spacecract, space yachts, and small spacecraft[/li][li]Sky cars and hovercraft[/li][/ul]Clothing ranges the full gamut representative of numerous cultures, most cultures being civilized and urban:
[ul]
[li]Several young women characters offer the potential for futuristic and sexy dress styles, with possibly bright saturated electric hued hair dyes[/li][li]Depending on the male characters, they may be dressed as successful administrative types, foppish and somewhat ridiculous gentlemen, or utilitarian and casual[/li][li]Some odd cultural types may be dressed in their native form of dress[/li][/ul]
The physical settings are a mix between indoors and outdoors.

Typical indoor settings include (mostly modern and futuristic, but some rustic):
[ul]
[li]Hotel lobbies and rooms[/li][li]Restaraunt dining areas[/li][li]Sophisticated university administrative offices and reception lobbies[/li][li]Sophisticated private offices of a large-scale investigative agency[/li][li]Offices and manufacturing areas of engineering firms[/li][/ul]Typical outdoor settings include:
[ul]
[li]Futuristic cosmopolitan cities with high rising offices and apartment towers[/li][li]Outdoor streetside cafes[/li][li]Old rustic neighborhoods[/li][li]Futuristic shoreline highways[/li][li]An outdoor arena[/li][li]A sandy desert[/li][li]An dark alleyway outside the service entrance of an engineering firm[/li][li]etc., etc. etc.; lots of possibilities[/li][/ul]Some sample scenarios and visuals include:
[ul]
[li]Breaking and entering for the purpose of detecting[/li][li]Motoring along a futuristic highway[/li][li]Tense interviews and dialogues with suspicous characters who seem to have excellent poker faces[/li][li]Fights, assasinations and kidnapping[/li][li]A very interesting type of sanctioned arena style combat[/li][li]etc., etc., etc.; lots of possibilities[/li][/ul]

Bryan_Y · 2008-03-30 10:46:41 UTC

Currently, there exists the opportunity for people to join in at the ground floor of this project. I know that to some, that’s not a good thing, and to others, its a plus.

At this point, I’m building a proxy set of a village, and I’m going to create some animatic storyboards of a scene within the village to try and sell this project.

softdistortion · 2008-03-30 17:01:02 UTC

Hey Bryan, it’s a huge hill to climb, but I had to say you’re doing the right thing starting to create assets (yourself if need be) to sell your idea and raise interest. Try to make it look as good as possible and people will start to take note. It’s kind of the defacto method in here.

jtype · 2008-03-30 22:04:00 UTC

Well, Bryan Y… If you need any music or sound fx, please don’t hesitate to cantact me, I would be more than willing to help out on this project:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=73&t=610173

Please feel free to check out my portfolio, which is in my signature.

J Type

Bryan_Y · 2008-03-31 14:18:41 UTC

softdistortion:
Thanks for your input. You’re right - I probably need to create some assets, and so I’m working on some stuff. But I put the whole idea out there to try and gather some interest, perhaps from those who might’ve already read the books in question. Time will tell.

jtype:
Check your private messages.

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-02 20:57:21 UTC

I finally got around to providing more information on the Demon Princes novels and the possibilities they offer. It is the third post of this thread: scroll up or click here.

So, if one or more modelers/riggers/animators/generalists join up, we could jointly make a decision on which scenario/segment to pursue from either Planet of Advneture or Demon Princes. In the meantine, I am working on an animatic storyboard of one possible scene to energize this project, as well as RenderMan shaders and rendering tools.

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-05 12:04:52 UTC

Let me go out on a limb here and speculate. Basically, what I’m speculating is this: Jack Vance has a hardcore set of readers of his fiction; enough so that many of them formed a group to republish all of his works in a special limited edition leatherbound set known as the Vance Integral Edition. This was done as a labor of love and is testimony to their appreciation of his works and unique style.

 I have no doubt that there are many fans of his fiction who would be impressed by a quality short, if done correctly, and since many of those fans know Jack Vance (especially through doing the Vance Integral Edition), would probably be able to secure permission to build a feature length film.
 
 All speculation of course, but still...
 
 I submit the following sites about appreciation of Jack Vance's works:

[ul]
[li]Foreverness[/li][li]A Few Words About Jack Vance [/li]
[li]Jack Vance: Lord of Language[/li][li]Jack Vance in the 25th Century[/li][li]A Visit to Jack Vance[/li][li]The Jack Vance Information Page[/li][li]The Jack Vance Archive[/li][li]Jack Vance Bio on Wikipedia[/li][li]Jack Vance Book Covers (English editions)[/li][li]An article about Jack Vance’s works at zone-sf.[/li][li]Jack Vance, an appreciation[/li][li]Another author’s take on Jack Vance’s style[/li][li]Really good description of Vance’s style[/li]

[/ul]I’ll add more items to the above list as I find them. I recall some other interesting ones that I’ve seen in the past, but I’ll have to find them again.

dy031101 · 2008-04-05 13:01:56 UTC

Would there be opportunities to model the spacecraft and the likes? (A slight majority of my interest lies in modelling vehicles. )

Guess a trip to the Central Library is in order…

Oh, first time poster here. Nice to meet you.

Tasp · 2008-04-05 13:24:16 UTC

I haven’t read any Jack Vance but as a fan of Sci-Fi I think I’ll check it out.

And good luck with the project and asset building Bryan, I look forward to seeing what you’re putting together.

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-05 18:11:02 UTC

Initially you won’t know what to expect, and you’ll feel compelled to compare him to other stuff, but as you read, you’ll realize he’s a master of language and satire, and once you get into the rhythm and flow of his words and descriptions, you’ll undergo a shift in your appreciation of the way he crafts his stories. Have a dictionary handy, for fun. You’ll see what I mean.

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-06 18:46:06 UTC

I’ve been scouring through existing 3D artwork (mostly from this site) to find art that captures the mood, lighting, architecture and overall feel of how I visualize a lot of the material in Vance’s works. The images below are, I think, evocative of the imagery created by these novels.

 Naturally, I wouldn't want to directly copy any of the images below, but instead, take inspiration from them. I've listed imagery which seems to work for Planet of Adventure first, and then Demon Princes second. There might be some overlap between the two here and there.
 
 This list is a work in progress! Expect to see new additions and maybe a deletion every now and then.
 
 [b]Planet of Adventure[/b]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=594845[/li][/ul]
[li]Male Characters[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=597962[/li][/ul]
[li]Alien Races[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=607521[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=282203[/li][/ul]
[li]Industrial Settings[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=608658[/li][/ul]
[li]Baroque Sculptures, Baubles, Artwork, Antiquities, etc.[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=608859[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=617698[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=604558[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=604278[/li][/ul]
[li]Planet Landscape[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=609396[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=614925[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=617117[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=605304[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=592545[/li][/ul]
[li]Alien Cities[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=615267[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=611122[/li][/ul]
[li]Weapons[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=592666[/li][/ul]
[/list]Demon Princes

[ul]
[li]Space craft[/li][list]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=607655[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=609885[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=211306[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=211300[/li][/ul]
[li]Futuristic Vehicles[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=610164[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=161608[/li][/ul]
[li]Female Characters[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=616946[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=365918[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=254850[/li][/ul]
[li]Male characters[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=596145[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=597962[/li][/ul]
[li]Modern Interiors[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=211289[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=613432[/li][/ul]
[li]Rustic Areas[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=615943[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=180425[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=167797[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=600403[/li][/ul]
[li]Planet Landscapes [/li]
[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=617117[/li][li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=481064[/li][/ul]
[li]Abstract[/li]

[ul]
[li]http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=598119[/li][/ul]
[/list]

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-06 20:22:43 UTC

Really good sample of Jack Vance’s writing available below…

For those who are not familiar with Jack Vance, but want to get feel for the flavor of his stuff, to better gauge this project, then as an excellent sampling, you might want to read the first few pages of The Magnificent Showboats of the Lower Vissel River, Lune XXIII South, Big Planet, more commonly known as Showboat World.

Read the initial Handbook section if you want, but if you really just want to sample the essence of Vance, and his characters, then read pages 3 through 6. The stuff just gets better the more you read it, and then you begin to savor the subtleties of the dialogue and the images he conjures in your head.

Here is the link to the PDF file.

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-11 20:42:16 UTC

Update:

Basically, I’m doing three things:

[ol]
[li]Previsualizing a potential scene to do: specifically one related to the three protagonists in Planet of Adventure taking shelter in the city of Maust while being hunted by an alien race and meeting up with Issam the Thang.[/li][li]Developing RenderMan shaders.[/li][li]Waiting for some enthusiasm to build for this project, and hoping someone else who has either read the books or is willing to read the books, so that they may offer input on the scene, or suggest an alternative scene.[/li][/ol]Let me detail each in turn:

Previsualization:

I’ve looked at some of the animatic storyboards that Pixar does. Basically, it appears that they produce very simple geometry (boxes for buildings, cardboard cutouts for people and props) and then texture these elements with quickly sketched artwork. These simple props are animated if necessary. Most importantly, the camera movements are animated, to help visualize the camera dynamics and framing of each shot. As an aside, here is a PDF file which describes at a high level the process by which Pixar creates a movie.

Using Maya, I’ve built some simple proxy geometry of several alleyways and a main street, with buildings on each side. This represents an idea of how a part of the village Maust would appear in the third volume of Planet of Adventure. It’s where our three protagonists furtively skulk about, avoiding being detected, considering the loot they’re carrying. Ultimately, it’s where they’ll meet Issam the Thang.

For this scene, I visualize the alien sky cars floating overhead, looking for the protagonists as they try and gain shelter for the night. There are a number of detail elements that I’ve been toying with to add atmosphere. I’ve enumerated some below:
[ol]
[li]As the camera pans down from viewing an alien sky car flying overhead, a small lizard scurries across the stucco of a wall.[/li][li]The camera pans from a rooftop as three sky cars race by, and at the end of the shot, the camera settles on a monkey like beast which has been sitting on the rooftop. The monkey lets out a sceram as he watches the sky cars race by.[/li][li]Our three protagonists are hiding in an alley, waiting for the street to clear.[/li][li]A sky car hovers overhead, and the camera looks into the residence of a middle aged woman, whom slams the window’s shutters shut.[/li][li]The hinged hanging sign of a butcher shop creaks gently. The shop’s proprieter steps outside to see what the fuss is all about.[/li][li]Our protagonists hiding in the alley wait for him to go back inside…[/li][/ol]RenderMan shaders:

I want a very realistic appearance. I want to push the envelope on realisim.

I’m a big fan of RenderMan. If RenderMan is good enough for King Kong, The Lord of the Rings, all the Pirates movies, All the Spiderman movies, all the Harry Potter movies, all Pixar movies, etc., then it’s good enough for me. As a programmer, I prefer the RenderMan hackability, customizability, and full control it offers.

I’m using 3Delight as the RenderMan compliant renderer. It’s production stable, and a proven workhorse in the cinematic effects industry.

I’m working on a planetary atmosphere shader, various stonework shaders, various stucco shaders, and others. The atmosphere shader is a volume shader. The stonework shaders feature nonlinear displacements, which means you get displaced details on the sides of your displacements. The stucco shaders feature cracks and dust on the tops of the mortar globs. These are very sophisticated shaders. They are still in development though, and I’ll post renders as soon as I’m able.

Join Up:

Obviously this project is in the incubation stages, and nothing is engraved in stone with regard to the scene to do, etc. I’d like to get some interested people to join up, hopefully read either of the books, and provide input on what scene exactly to do.

jtype · 2008-04-12 06:31:27 UTC

I think that the amount of info and updates that you have provided already, are an excellent sign of the level of professionalism on this project!

The forum links that you provided give me a good sense of the type of visuals and atmosphere you want to create. Also, the link to the passage from one of Jack Vance’s books, was well worth the read. I have to say I was really drawn in by his writing style and his descriptions. I am actually very tempted to go out and buy Planet of Adventure now…

This project definitely is having the right foundations laid down!

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-12 09:25:15 UTC

dy031101:
I totally missed your message here in this thread until now. Sorry for not responding. Check your Personal Messages. I’ve posted some questions for you there.

jtype:
Thanks for your continued interest. I really do recommend reading either of the suggested books, especially if you were drawn into the posted sample.

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-12 19:35:58 UTC

City Generation

For this project, I’m in the process of developing a number of tools, scripts, shaders, etc. to hopefully facilitate the production of highly complex realistic outdoor scenes. The intention is to use them for this project.

Below is a vector display showing some sample output of the road map generator I’m developing for cities and villages. By changing parameters, different road map patterns can be generated, to depict old world style roads, either chaotic or radial/concentric or more modern industrial grid like roads. Also, the roads can be built around existing features such as parks, lakes, etc.

The image below only shows one possible road system from an infinitely large set, and the image includes no city details. From such a road map, the program would then go on to subdivide city blocks, map zones to them, create sidewalks, buildings, public infrastructure, etc. Also, traffic paths are defined, to facilitate crowd movement.

The idea is to allow great panoramic aerial shots, which could conceivably fly down to street level.

Sample road map generated by a Python script I’m developing

Mauritius · 2008-04-15 09:29:05 UTC

Why not apply for beta of this instead?

.mm

Bryan_Y · 2008-04-15 11:43:03 UTC

Their original paper which talked about generating road networks using Environmental L-systems was the inspiration for the city generator I’ve been developing. I’ve been following that project, but I didn’t know there was a beta release available.

I’ll look into it! Thanks.

(Although I am starting to become fond of the workflow and special features I’m incorporating into my processes).