Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Vance Fry

#41

Here’s the gradient used for the foggy/hazy “atmosphere” on the planet surface.

#42

And a look at the full foreground render after the surface haze is added. I generated a depth channel from Maya, so getting the objects to fade into the distance was just a matter of loading up the depth channel as a selection mask for this gradient.

#43

Just painting a bunch of a little “space-shipy” details in Photoshop. I’m painting tiny lights with a bright color, than adding a duplicate layer that I apply a blur to. Seems to add a reasonably convincing effect.

I guess, after a bit more tweaking, it’s about time for the final image. Boy, I’m running this one down to the wire. Not a good work habit, for sure.

#44

Just painting a bunch of a little “space-shipy” details in Photoshop. I’m painting tiny lights with a bright color, than adding a duplicate layer that I apply a blur to. Seems to add a reasonably convincing effect.

I guess, after a bit more tweaking, it’s about time for the final image. Boy, I’m running this one down to the wire. Not a good work habit, for sure.

#45

Well, here’s my final picture. A bit of a shame that you’re all seeing this low-res, jpeg-artifact-plagued version, but so be it. Hope you like it.

Thanks to those (few) artists who found time to comment on my project. Good luck to everyone! This challenge was very fun for me, and I learned a lot. (I also drank a good amount of coffee, but that’s another story. :slight_smile:

Blessings to all in the new year!
Vance

#46

A classic sci-fi image, very well executed I must say :thumbsup:

Good luck, Vance!

#47

Really like the ship design and models and all the details throughout - very nice image final! - Michael Whelan inspired scene and colour pallette!?

Well done! :slight_smile:

#48

JamesMK, thanks for the comments. Good luck to you, too.

Thanks kromekat for the compliments! Yeah, Whelan was probably mixed into the inspiration for this image, but I suppose the most credit goes to the clean and white “superjumbo jet” starship images of John Berkey.

Thanks, guys, for commenting!

Vance

#49

Nice final, but I think that the stars should not shine so much…
Good luck !:slight_smile:

#50

Very cool contrast in your lighting man…I like your image…the red lighting on the ground plain looks great…

all the best to your in your future 3d Works…and in this contest… :thumbsup:

#51

The ship designs are very good, and the planet surface with all this garbage looks great, but maybe the space background has too big stars, It have looked better with smaller and more assorted stars, like the zone around the galaxy.

#52

Thanks LuisNCT, essencedesign, and Arctis for the comments.

Regarding the stars, I think you’re probably right that the shine is a little strong. But, after looking again at the PSD document, I have to say it does look a little better in the full rez version. I tried a bit of sharpening to get rid of the softness that Photoshop was “saving for web” with, so everything in the jpeg version has a tiny sharpening halo around the edges. No biggee for most of the image, but for tiny stars that halo can be a bit much.

Thanks again for the advice. I’ll certainly look at the star sizes again when it comes time to submit it for Expose 3.

Vance

#53

I have to say that, except for the spaceships, this really does look an awful lot like Michael Whelan’s cover for Foundation’s Edge:

#54

Thanks for commenting. I’d have to be blind not to see the similiarities, but any inspiration I got from Whelan’s cover image must have happened subconciously. I most certainly did not have his work handy as a reference. I know I have seen that book cover before, though.

I’d have to be the dumbest guy on the block to directly copy a famous piece like that.

#55

Yes, I can believe that. I think if you had remembered that you’d seen this cover painting before, you could have changed your piece so it wouldn’t have resembled it so much. (For instance, you could have made the galaxy some color other than green.) I’m sorry I didn’t see your WIP thread before the contest finished so I could have pointed this out to you earlier. I’m not accusing you of plagiarism at all, but I hope you’ll understand that I personally don’t think this piece is original enough for me to vote for it.

#56

Fair enough. Thanks again for stopping by. You know, I thought I’d get more comments on how my ships look like a bit like John Berkey’s work. (The oceanliner/airplane look.) Seems I was wrong on that one. Bummer.

As for the green galaxy, well, I’ve always been a fan of opposing colors on the color wheel. I seem to have a bit of an obsession with red/orange and blue/green. In fact, I used this very same color scheme for my alienware entry.

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=175892&highlight=alienware

(Oh, man, if you tell me that one looks like a Whelan painting, you’re really going to ruin my day…:slight_smile: )

take care,

Vance

#57

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