That Pise tower of yours looks really great !
Waiting for more…:bounce:
Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: James Kaufeldt
JamesMK
#444
Zodiac - The architectural comment makes me very happy indeed.
flyingP - 
DenialK - Yo, bro… Since it’s your birthday and all, I should fix a rotating smily… but it’s too much work…
Climax - The volumetric light is indeed just plain volumetric light. No maps involved. I did scale it along the Y-axis to make it like a flat disc rather than a sphere though. The overall scene lighting has been described a few pages back… and the glowing windows are of course just a luminous material applied on selected polygons. The final glow made in photoshop (the usual way, select color range, new layer via copy, add blur, change to screen mode for the layer in question)
Y’all - Thanks all for peeking! Much appreciated 
Finished the last segment now:
No textures here as you can see. I’m not yet 100% satisfied with the overall outline of the node, so I will probably add some shields and stuff in strategic places to sort of sculpt the silhouette. And more antennas on top. That will happen later on though.
What I’ve noticed is that not until now I see the smallest details dropping out and disappearing from the rendered image, so I guess I have been working with the proper amount of detailing.
Next up - - - I’ll take a break from modeling for a few days now to get a chance to take a few steps back and look at my plans for the final image. I’ll need to work out the final placement of the nodes, composition, camera location/angle/FOV and so on before committing to landscape modeling, and it’s also helpful to get some mental distance to the completed model in order to be sufficiently self-critic.
So… later - stay sharp!
Squibbit
#445
evrything looks so smooth and done in this latest pic there’s
an air of peace about it … ahh…
maybe it reminds me of silent winter nights up here north…
that big flying thing being Santa’s new mobile workshop/present-
delivery-station-thingamajik, yes ?
(and no worries, all reindeers are still there, but only Rudolph
got a job, as volunteer LordHighNavigator)
… i can’t keep up!
Cartesius
#448
Marvellous, James, simply marvellous! Nothing to crit, really, so just keep chugging away and you’ll definitely be in the top ranking!
/Anders
PS. One thing I just noticed is the flames/heat source between the anchor enginge and the sleeping quarters - it looks a bit weird going in only one direction (to the left). DS.
dur23
#454
That ship is so wonderfully designed. I really think you’ve done an oustanding job with the execution of your entry.
JamesMK
#456
Squibbit - Now that you mention it there’s something up-north wintery about it… probably the cold glows and white-outs. :lightbulb Santa’s got a brand new set of wheels 
Dimitris - Well, thanx greekfreak
uwil - bah, plenty of time left!
Cartesius - Thanks, and quite right about the volumetric flame thingy… 'twas one of those quickie 5 second slap-ons I’ll give it some thought further down the road
EvilE - What can I say? Thanks!
Russel_Nash - Now there’s an interesting penguin!
dark-elf2 - You can have one… Think it’s a Subaru, and they’re quite cheap in the Neuronomicon system these days.
DenialK - Right on. That’s a spinning smily allright. Bre!
Hector M. Mercado - Thanks, dude.
dur23 - Nice to hear - I hope I can keep this pace up and actually make a final image matching the one I see in my head…
aiTOR - Glad you like it
So, like I said I will let the actual modeling work rest a couple of days while meditating over the final image. So far I’ve got a pretty good idea on how to introduce a foreground level that shows some fluffians close-up as well as to bring a heightened sense of drama into the scene. I’m thinking in terms of four compositional levels - fore-, mid- and background having separately planned layouts, and finally the overall guides in terms of primary focus and diagonals…
It’s also a question of how to let colours convey a sense of depth, as well as a rather complicated lighting situation that needs some careful planning. As you might remember from the concept, there will be a huge cover over El Fluffo, with only some holes left through which the sunlight leaks in. This will give one zone of direct light, while the rest of the scene (perhaps as much as 2/3 of the final image) only has indirect bounce… which is a bit confusing when dealing with this scale. Finally I want to use shadows to demonstrate the threatening nature of the nodes…
Taking the above requirements into consideration, it all becomes a rather tricky puzzle to solve before actually building anything. I’ll make some simple proxy objects and start moving things around to see how I can bring everything together like planned.
Thanks again for peeking, and I’ll be back with something in a couple of days 
Lemog
#457
I’m waiting with much impatience this “something”…
…surely something incredible, like this improbable tower, however so real :love:
terraarc
#458
Missed a hell of a lot in this crazy process finishing the “tower”. Awsome looking this far!:applause: It’s segments scream “balance” so I think it would be shame if you don’t off -balance one of them: Top part falling to front left, second right, third back slightly right etc.
Happy brainstorming on the composition
Versiden
#459
heya
nice thought and effort behind the segments, just wondering… shouldn’t the engines have their own cooling bay, or is the cooling on the top for all the systems? Maybe there can be cool/blue mist coming down from the tower vents, that could look sweet.
Saschi0815
#461
Hmm, in this thread there’s always no chance something to crit…:rolleyes:
Marvelous, James!!!:applause: