Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Jason Nieuwendorp

#21

Some points

a. What is the scale of these people? Since they are in a sense godlike, what physically will be their size? I would recommend that they be huge,… plantearlly huge in fact. This would truely give their “conflict” a great deal of an epic sense.

b. Based upon the indeterminism of Quantom Mechanics, while these two beings be in superpostion? In other worlds will they fit neatly into our common sense understanding of real physical objects, or will they even at there marcosopic scale still display their fundamenta wave nature… as oppossed to what usally happens. This would be an intersting path for you to take. Wave nature of matter can exhibit very strange properties namely like that of have mulitply instances in differnt locations at the same time, or of having an indeterminate position. Check this link out for more information… arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9809371

c. What method will these two beings use in conlict? Will they use weapons, or will they be weapons? How will their wave like nature affect their combat.

d. What kind of color treatment do you have in mind for the background? I would recommend that you do some research on HOMEWORLD 2 the game from Siearria studios, it is the best possible refrance for execllent color rendtions of space.

e. Tnx for bien fair. It takes alot of guts to do so.

#22

This was the model at the start of contest (as such, it will be the areas which will be scrapped).
At this stage, I don’t mirror the model; only when the model starts to interect to I then mirror the model and start modeling again.

#23

Although I started modeling the chest at first, I decided that maybe the face should be my first priority.
For reference, I used both “Dynamic Figure Drawing” by Burne Hogarth and the head modelling tutorial by Dan Ablan (from his book, Inside Lightwave 7).

#24

At this stage the arms were done, as was most of the head and chest. Although I generally don’t use the Box method for modeling, the one exception is when I model arms or legs (since they’re basicly cylinders who’s shape has been tweaked, it’s easier to model this way than to extrude points).

#25

The leg modeling was done in the same manner as the arms; this was the stage just before my original post which first featured the model(unfortunately, I didn’t have any previous versions of the model which featured the progress of the hands).

#26

Hi,

I like your concept and I give props to anyone working in LW…rock on! My only question is that how will the view know that it’s in the mind? Just wondering…good luck!

#27

lardbros: Yeah, I’m using Edge Transparency shader for the model; my first tests were set a little too high, but I think its near to what I want. As for lighting, I have an idea as too how I’m going to approch it, but I haven’t reach there yet.

WazaR: In regards to your questions:

  1. Scale-wise, my current plan is to make them human size, if not maybe twice the size of normal humans.

  2. Very interesting article, but I don’t understand half of it! :smiley:
    Still, I might look into encorporating some of that into my entry.

As for the rest of your questions, that’s rather hard to explain.
At my next post, I’ll try to explain a bit more of the story behind the Conflict of the Wave.

#28

hi Jason… extremely good idea but you should remember to keep it epic and express some pivotal moment… and i dont think you have to worry about Quantum Mechanic or something like that… its art what we are doing and it must be emotional and nice… and be scientificaly correct is not essential i think… in my opinion you may feel and do free whatever you have in your mind…
best of luck to you and cheers…

#29

Sorry for not posting sooner, but this week I had assignments out the Yin Yang, so I didn’t have a lot of time to work on the model till now.
The nose and chest have been remodeled; I think I was also able to fix some of the previous shading problems I had with the nose.

I’m still tweaking the surfaces, especially the eyes (in this render, they look a little off model-wise, but that problem has since been fixed). As for the lighting, I’m still working on it, but I have an idea on how to accomplish the ambient lighting of Space and planets.

#30

The male Enforcer model is finally done.
However, even though the model is completed, I don’t intend “every” one of the Enforcers to be the same; as I stated previously, the Enforcer’s “form” is based on the will of the individual (ergo, some will be stronger looking and some will be weaker looking, some will be more musculer while others are thinner and more nimble, etc.). I intend to use this current model as the basis for all the Enforcers (including the female Enforcers…).
One thing I should note is that while I tried to put enough muscle definition into the character, I didn’t want to put “too much” definition because when I did the sufaces didn’t react the way I wanted them to.

#31

hi Jason…

you posted about adjusting lighting for your scene in [color=DeepSkyBlue]this thread … but I think i have to post what i think about lighting here… one distant light set for the sun and area light for planet is very basic set and for good image is far not enough…

setting up proper lighting is very difficult and extremely important [/color][color=White]task[/color][color=White]… proper lighting is half of the picture… at the moment i dont know exactly how many lights im going to use for my space scene but sure not two or even six but much more…

currently for the very basic lighting setup in my scene im using one “sun light” for diffuse color, one for specular slightly displaced but to mimic the same source sun… one light with negative value im using to dim shadows area (dispite the fact that i dont use ambient light)…

two more lights are simulating light from distant stars/starfield… another two lights i have to mimic lighting comming from the asteroid… one of them simulates reflected light, another light from outer glow…

and i didnt even start sorting much more complex illumination from explosions and dispersed lights… :smiley:

on the current stage i cant say anything about lighting in your scene because its not clear for me from your concepts [/color][color=White] yet [/color][color=White]what kind of illumination you are going to use…

im ready to assist you setting up lighting for your scene… sure if you think you need it…:slight_smile: lighting and texturing are my favorites so my advices might be useful…

by the way your model is quite cool… comes along very nice…
keep up great work!

cheers… :beer:
[/color]

#32

ArtisticVisions,
You have a very interesting concept. One thought , can these mind warriors interact withe the physical world. It will be interesting to see what you do with this.
Good luck .
Mike
My space opera entry.
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=180886

#33

Been working on this since last night; since I’m going to be using this model as a template for the rest of the Enforcers, I want to get him surfaced right and rigged with bones in a way which can be used for the other models.

Lighting is proving to require some thought into it (as greentek said in his previous post);I’m trying out a few ideas at the moment using main lights and a few negative lights to help with the ambience of the main lights. This scene was lighted with one distant light (15%), one area light (55%), and two negative distant light (-5% and -10%).
Since the lighting setup has changed, the surfaces now react differently, so I have to also tweak those as well.

Rigging is going fairly decent, although there are a few problem areas; since I don’t use weight maps (for me, they’re a pain in the butt to create and use), I use extra bones to control the deformation of the mesh. Right now, there are a few “issues” at the base of the leg and torso and the stomach, so I’m trying to see what I can do in those areas.

#34

Another test, this time I changed some of the percentage of the lights and greatly changed the transpirency of the surface of the model. In a way, I like this surface more than the others, but it’s causing a few “see-through” problems, like at the base of the leg.

#35

greentek: Yeah, I do admit the lighting is going to need to be better thought out than my original tests. :shrug:
Right now, I’m testing a few of your suggestions out now, but it was at first a bit difficult, due to the fact that the Difusion settings of the model’s surface was set rather low (I’m testing it now at a higher setting to see how it works, as my posts above demonstrate). The current scene of my entry is somewhat similar to my original concept sketch, with the Wave Enforcers fighting near a Sect Planet; currently, I’m think of adding a second, much smaller planet to the scene (as the Enforcers need to be near the area of battle, they travel on smaller seperate worlds which they use as bases).

mmoir: That idea is currently depending on how much I can learn about particles and volumetrics by the time this contest is near finished.:rolleyes:

#36

Just doing more tests; this time, I changed the luminousity to be a bit higher, removed the transpirency map (but kept the Edge Transpirency), and created a translucency map. I think the settings might have been a little too high, but it create very interesting results…

#37

I would have posted sooner, but had college assignments to finish up. Still working on the models (I’ve alos started work on the planets) and lighting of the scenes. I have started testing with particles and volumetrics (which is thankfully easier than I thought); I would’ve posted my results today, but unfortunately my current means of transfering files, my Lexar USB Jumpdrive, is acting like it needs to be formated when there are already files on it (only seems to do this on PCs, while I can access my files just fine on Macs. Hmm…).

Once I figure out a solution on getting my images to a computer with internet access, I’ll upload my results.

#38

Finally got my files to a computer with internet access. :smiley:

I started tests with the particle and volumetrics of Lightwave (which is thankfully much easier to learn than Cloth FX); in a way, I wish there was a Special FX Milestone.

#39

I took the previous image into Photoshop and did some experiments on the Enforcer to see if I could create more of the “softness” and “ethereal”-like quality I had originally envisioned for them.
Not a final image by any means, just a test.

#40

Artistic Visions,

Your enforcer model is coming along nicely.
Mike

My GSO entry
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?p=1711798&posted=1#post1711798