Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Stefano Massaron

#81

Nice perspective,very vertical,always a favorite of mine when it comes to view angles…I have gone through a major “perspective” fight for my entry just now,a change from my own plans,and keeping things wide format with a vertical presence was what I was going for,difficult but I did it…It was worth the fight for the vertical perspective…I am happy to see this is working for you Stefano…Looking good,the view angle is as I said my kind of thing,very dramatic and sleek…Keep it going strong…:beer: :arteest:

#82

A very original idea and I think it’ll be great. The age old battle between the oppressors and the oppressed. It looks like it’ll be a very pivotal uprising, chaotic and desperate. Go the rebels!! Um…

Btw I like your POV and the bridge. I guess in the future with an exploding population, the only way is up!

Keep up the good work! All the best
Alex!!!

#83

Nice Pov Stefano ,you have a nice progress here , The building looks monumental with that view . Im glad that you are finding the best composition for your work .

Keep going mate :thumbsup:

#84

OKAY, Please post a shot of the people, for the people!

My 3D Opera
:arteest:

#85

It should go easier now, shouldn’t it? That is, the barracks and slums are ugly, so they can be your basic concrete blocks from the Seventies. :thumbsup:

BTW, I should be getting Max soon, but I’m not going to switch. :smiley:

#86

vrhead, phoenixomen ::::: Thanks a lot for your feedback! It’s really important and quite unexpected to receive that much. Right now I have to make my bread & butter, so I can’t update as soon as I’d like. Thanks again!

Stefano

#87

adr ::::: Thanks. Adr, I’m glad you like the POV. Feedback on that matter was important for me to decide that what I liked most encountered general approval, so from now on I’m moving from there.

userBrian ::::: Yes, the idea of modeling some hundreds of low-poly humans is frigthening me, LOL… so I think they will be the last thing to be put in the picture. Thanks for the FB! :thumbsup:

Stefano

#88

Thanks a lot Michael! I know the problem… but me too I’ve decided to go wide (landscape) but with massive vertical development. What worries me most is … will I be able to convey a proper sense of scale and height? Only time will tell, I guess…

I’m following your thread, digging out your updates between the tons of deserved comments ;o) and seeing it I’m glad we have to go BIG in resolution for this challenge because I’m amazed by the details you’re putting in it. For a XSI newcomer like me, it’s a great inspiration.

Keep cranking them polys and thanx again ^_*

Stefano

#89

Naah! I think it will be more difficult now… because the barracks and slums are, by definition, ugly and messy, lots of details have to go in modeling those. Sure, the Seventies architecture is so ugly that it will be an inspiration, LOL :smiley:

Congrats for your max future… personally, I don’t feel at ease with the interface. Frankly, I don’t know if it has improved since I last took a look at it. I loved Maya UI when I switched, but I was using it at the studio, wasn’t mine. When I heard and read about the 495$ offer for XSI, I felt compelled to take a look… and, man, it was love at first sight! :love:

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it a lot.

Stefano

#90

Stefano, I’ve been working with XSI since version 1.0 came out back in mid-2000. At the time, I was primarily concerned with render quality, so XSI’s mental ray integration made it the clear choice over Maya. However, the earliest incarnation of XSI was missing so many tools that it was actually bundled with Softimage 3D/Extreme 3.9.1, and I spent the better part of 2001 simply experimenting with 3.9.1 instead of getting a thorough grounding in XSI. It wasn’t really until 2.0 came out that XSI started to shine, and I quickly grew enamored of the different effects possible when you work with shader networks. There were so many possible combinations, and so many interesting things you could do, that I spent more time investigating shaders than I spent actually developing modeling or animation skills. Indeed, it’s only been in the past eighteen months that I’ve been turning my attention to learning the other parts of the program, and I would characterize my experience during that time as vast stretches of experimentation followed by “Eureka!” moments where I finally “get it,” and feel like I’m actually getting a handle on the true power of the program. Like you, I’m not primarily a graphics person; my 3D work is an offshoot of a writing project that grew into a vast multimedia trilogy I’ve been working on for over a decade. I was surprised and delighted to see that you’re an established writer with a background in SF and horror, as you no doubt know some of the folks I studied with at the Clarion workshops (Norman Spinrad, Pat Cadigan and Ellen Datlow, to name three.)

#91

Looking very good, Stefano… I really like the whole concept… think it’s got a lot of potential… and can’t wait to see where you take this thing… need any glasses??.. lol j/k (inside joke)

P.S. I’m glad I finally figured out that it was my firewall settings (ZoneAlarm Pro) keeping me from seeing any images on this forum (though certain others weren’t affected). Maybe now I can join in more of the fun over here…

#92

cool idea, rock on!! couldn’t wait to see final image

#93

Hooooay! Sooo glad to see you here, FW!

Thanks for the feedback!:bounce:

S.

#94

Thanks a lot! It’s fantastic and boosting to receive such encouragement. :beer:

Stefano

#95

Well, I think you can do quite a lot of that ugliness in texturing. It would be interesting to see kinda gradient from the bottom to the top, so the stuff at the bottom is the dirtiest and the top of the skyscraper squeaky shiny clean.

I’m far from certain I’ll be switching to it. I’m just taking a more serious look, that’s all. For modelling, I’m in love with Rhino, and for texturing and lighting, I’m vaccillating between Bryce and Cinema. I can’t wait for the new faster Bryce, to see what it will look like. It should come out sometime till the end of the year.

As an aside, it would be interesting to see how many of us have some kind of background in written SF. I certainly haven’t been to Clarion like nuclearman nor I’m writer like you, but I have been an editor of a magazine as well as translator. :smiley:

#96

Now this is truly epic. I hope it reaches its epic finish

Cheers
:buttrock:

#97

really a beautiful project, but you have to go on…

you have done few to be able to do you some “constructive” criticisms.

ciao

#98

i think a good concept story like yours and a good image result will make some explosion. i hope you’ll be able to finish this. nice modeling by the way.:thumbsup: cheers!

#99

OK…ummmm…I think it’s updatE time…don’t leave us all hanging Stefano…everything looks great so far… :buttrock:

#100

Yes, you’re right. I’m a bit behind because I’m waiting for Foundation to arrive. My Trial Version has expired yesterday. I’m studying XSI, and I think I’ve found other ways to do some of the things I have in mind.

Thanks a lot for your attention, and to everybody. It’s really cool to have feedback even when I’m stranded.

Stefano