HCR MINI-Challenge #23: Ansel Adams Tribute

#16

I understand where Roberto and BertieRooster are at, but it is interesting to note that this particular challenge topic would have lent itself very well to using several of the world/matte painting apps out there. And Vue and Terragen arent the only ones…

Several high end major studios use both of these applications for creating matte paintings. Terragen/Engen was used in time machine, Stealth, and I believe most recently in GIJoe. Vue was used to some extent in the latest Caribbean installment. These are both legitmate tools used by the professional industry for a specific need.

Its understandable that when someone says “model” we have a tendency to think that the only way is through box modeling and sculpting. And Im sure it can be done well, dont get me wrong. But to be fair, making very realistic terrains and environments procedurally is very challenging. You need to understand math and functions in order to achieve the realism as seen in the high grade terragen renders. And sometimes doing things procedurally just simply makes sense for the project. An experienced user of any of these apps will quickly recognize a one-button-click terrain / atmosphere…

So my point here really is, that these tools ARE used professionally in the industry, and even if its not appropriate for this particular challenge, I could see it being a good challenge in and of itself…

:slight_smile:

#17

Interesting Mini challenges ! i like the whole idea .
about Vue/Terragen issuse , i believe if we use them, we will get more quality, and this is very important .
so i am asking to reconsider of not using those tools…

#18

don’t these programs negate the idea of “hardcore modeling” we have a month, that should be plenty of time to model everything by hand. i still don’t understand how using these programs would be different than using poser or one of those that makes different body shapes based on settings and using that for a human in a HMC.

“You may NOT use a pre exiting models. All models must be done from scratch.”" doesn’t this say it all?

more quality what? renders? is that the goal of this or are the models?

i realize that the procedural nature of these programs would make it easier, but is it supposed to be easy? and i can understand that they are used in pipelines but once again what is the end goal of these challenges, not animation or illustrations, but models right?

please note i’m not trying to be difficult, i’m trying to add to the discussion because i’m unclear about all of this as well and these are just my thoughts.

#19

spaceboy412:

I have posed this question to Roberto in the other thread asking about how to qualify for voteing with a nature landscape.
And the answer is: judging will be made on the wip of creating the models, (mountains, rocks objects, etc.) the landscape trees and atmosphere are not part of the judging basically.
Just the actual modeled meshes.
If you look at the referance images in my wip thread you;ll see that the majority of the scene is mountains and large hard-cut rocks and close up objects.
All of this will be modeled by hand in zbrush and/or maya.
Which will be displayed in the wip thread.

So while i see what your talking about, at the same time understand that the rules are being followed and us, the artists, are the judges so judge artists on what you think is good and fair and leave others to do the same.

This is my first HCM challenge and its one that i think i would be good at.
I may not win as i am up against true modeling masters but i am going to have fun anyway and do my best.
That is all that is asked from anyone here.

Yes vue/terragon would make all of it very easy and defeat the purpose but that is not the case here. I plan on being judged on the models that i will model not the “fringe” in the scene. :smiley:

#20

i don’t see where robert says trees are exempt, perhaps i’m missing that?
i still don’t understand why as i said in the other thread, you don’t model a few trees and plants and then populate using those. is there some reason you can’t do that?

i find it interesting you call these things fringe, they are just as important as every mountain peak and stone, they are the details.

my thinking, and i may be wrong on this, is that if it can be modeled, it should be, isn’t that what makes it “challenging”?

i’ve only written this stuff because i’m unclear as to what the rules are, and what we should judge by.

i hope everyone has fun doing it as well.

#21

i rarely chime in on these things… i agree with Jason. This just seems absurd… you use what will give you the best result in the least amount of time. Whether its max, vue or terragen, frankly if you were to do a environment like this in production it would be simple. i.e camera projections low res geo.

#22

byvfx, i’m sorry if anything i wrote is absurd, i’m new to these challenges and i’m still unsure as to what the endgoal is to be. i agree with you 100% about doing those things for production, i just didn’t know if that is the approach we are supposed to take with this, which is why i’m asking these questions. apparently i’m going about it the wrong way and perhaps should just stop my participation until these things are more clearly defined.

#23

Spaceboy, u didn’t write anything absurb I was saying the idea of restricting yourself to say one app. Nothing against u or anyone here. I was just sharing my opinon. I do understand this isn’t production, so if the rules were to use just one app then so be it :). In anycase I can’t to see what u guys do!

#24

Hey Brandon! good to see you here! :slight_smile:

#25

True you can have a poly plane with an image mapped to it and it could look really good but in the judging that will not be worth very much compared to an entry where someone modeled the entire mountain. Having used Terragen for years the process isn’t far different from ZBrush in that you are drawing on the model to sculpt it vs. drawing on a procedural map or importing one. I don’t think you are going to get as good a result in Terragen vs. ZBrush. Oh sure you’ll have great atmospheric lighting, clouds and a great procedural ground texture etc. etc. but none of those things have to do with the voting. Only the model.

#26

where is your faith
lets do this

#27

that would mean a model of any scene of time frame right.

i found photos of builings he took in his time.i researched his achieves and found some interesting building loads of deatiled that captured my interest.

3ds max is by trunk card in this field

#28

this is suppose to be a modeling contest not a image manipulator…
exact word were to “sculpt”

#29

Hey guys I am new to CGSociety hope to become someone great like all you people here. This is my first mini-challenge me planning to take part as I too love Ansel Adam’s Photography.

I am still a student in university doing Animation but would love to show my potential here.

I just wanted to ask I am using 3ds max with Z-Brush and is that fine and which softwares cant be used to accomplish this challenge.

Thanx all waitin for reply…

#30

yeap
am 3ds max user 2010
lets team up

#31

am also a 3ds max user
wat do u have in mind
am all ears

#32

W.I.P. page.

Ansel Adams Inspiration photo

Youtube final video

.

.

.



I really enjoyed making this model and attempted a faithful representation.
I wish I had found more references to build the inside of the church but for some reason there just are not very many on the web.

I also learned quite a bit. For instance, before this project I did not know how to mix textures on a single object with vertex paint. Doing so really helped add variety to the ground.

I have about four weeks worth of work into this.
It was all created in 3DS Max 2008 64 bit and rendered in Mental Ray. CS2 Photoshop for textures.
Final comp done with Windows Live Movie Maker.
In the final video I did no post processing other than the addition of text.

I sure hope I am not forgetting anything. :curious:

Good luck, to everyone participating and a big thanks to Roberto :thumbsup:

#33

W.I.P Thread

The Original Photo ref.

Beauty Render :

Grey scale, photoshopped :

viewport renders :

1600X1200 image

In this challenge I wanted to get a good representation of the original photo. I’ve used alot of simple modelling with primitives and low level techniques to get finished within the timeframe. I did have time to work on some of the finer details like the lionheads and the trees. What I would have liked to work more on is the texture work, but as this is a modelling challenge my focus was mainly on getting objects done.

Most of the work has been done in 3ds max, and some parts altered in Zbrush. Textures are mostly just standard materials of max, but a few polypainted in Zbrush and modified in photoshop. Renders done with Mental Ray.

Thanks for setting up the challenge I had a good time with it and I hope everyone else did as well. Good luck to everyone
Regards
Anders Pabst Ovesen

#34

Guys sorry for the delay,
work got in the way:

Ansel Adams TributeL post your final entry!

#35

Well we got a lost of people still working on their entries:
NOTE those who finished will be credited as having finished ON TIME.

Ok for those who want more time…
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=208&t=843644

-R