Sci-fi: - Matrix Hover Ship -

#455

Hey guys, thanks for the response.

Jeroen / Vicioun- The ship is rendered out with a default lambert… it sucks that it isn’t textured, i may try a blinn, use a 3d bump, and then add that same file to the spec channel. Rendering is always a fun chore. Hopefully it’ll all work out. i’ve tried an occlusion pass, but I don’t think mental ray is setup properly for this scene, it’s just a matter of working with the bsp settings… but if i do get that occlusion pass, I could mult that on top of the image as a dirt pass just to add to the overall image. But like I said in my last post, I will be painting a lot of the texture detail.

(Vicioun, I like the idea of the arc causing more light. i’ll experiment with the idea some to see what I can come up with)

gunslingerblack - Yeah dude, I actually did start it in max. But my old quadro fx500 couldn’t handle it… so I moved over to a dual xeon with quadro fx3400… and maya. plus I found that, at least in max 5.1, that the hardware views can only support about 60k polys without slowing down to a crawl. Where as in maya, the viewports are able to hold about 140k with the same hardware. The scene is 27 mil polys (yes, way way way too much, I need to optimize)… but with something this size, my home computer just can’t handle it. I’m working on a dual cpu G5 now. Thanks for the comments!

Hellwolve- More contrast in the tunnel? Or overall? Or just the fire? I think you’re right, the fire has very similar color temperature. I may even brighten the blast center, and drop the surrounding blast into some cooler colors. And yes, debris… indeed!

Luciddream79- Hey hey, thanks man :slight_smile: Too bad it’s only a still. Maybe it could be my inspiration to getting this thing animated… Take it easy man.

I’m working on the framing now, I’m not pleased with the look. So here is what I’m thinking… (5 minute sketch) I haven’t applied any of the suggestions yet, but I have a much better idea of what I’m going for now.

Thanks again guys-

#456

great model man couldnt go thru all 31 pages of them but its amazing truly amazing

#457

Now Jeremy…I have to ask…hows the texturing coming along. I remember you telling me a guy…what in south american somewhere was suppost to be texturing it? I like that you brought this back to the front page. Let us know man

#458

Holy guacamole! The Industrial Maniac strikes again! I knew you were still alive. I heartly believe you are the best mechanical creator of the 3D world…if you are anyone else doesnt agree with me…just wait a couple of years and I’ll be there to say…“I told you so”…good stuff Jay.

#459

Hey, Digital Crystal! Didn’t expect to see you here again…

Hm… Well, I don’t care for the smokey look on the pads. If you’re gonna do something like that, I think you should lessen the brightness of it quite a bit. Also, if I remember correctly, the arcing of the pads tended to sort of reach out to the surrounding environment.

Also, it’s become extremely difficult to make out the form of the ship. I’m not even convinced that this is the best angle to see it from in the first place, but I really can’t tell.

I know it’s just a quick brainstorming pic, but it seems to be more about the light sources, and less about the vessel. :shrug:

#460

sup man, personally i think i liked the right sided version more, i dont know why, but its more pleasing tot he ey, maybe easier to follow the action from left to right instaed of right to left focusing ont he explosion. quick question how on earth are you planning on emulating a bump map in 2d? thats gonna bes ome microscopic detailed work, but im sure you got a trick up your sleeve :slight_smile: take care man

ps couple more cc

the fog rolling over the pad ont he right looks completely painted, but im sure youll get to that, like the new led’s and lights

#461

This is an excellent work Jeremy! I wish it was a way you and I could work out a real time animation with this model. I don’t know if you remember us talking about it before. But I was thinking about a short scene where the viewer could control the camera movements during the animation.

Personal note: I don’t know why this is not a 5-star thread. Excellent work is shown here! Must be some green monsters around.

#462

No problem :wink:

In the fire/explosion :slight_smile: Increasing contrast could be done by increasing the range of colors it has, e.g. for instance more red.

Cool, you agree with me :smiley:

:wink:

#463

jeremy your my hero :smiley:

#464

If possible, try to get a blueish-white rim light from the opposite side of the explosion. As someone mentioned, you could do a big arc of lighting to the tunnel wall and we can all pretend that the blur rim light is the reflected light of the lightning bolt :wink: Other than that, no crits really :slight_smile:

#465

Younglion, thanks.

Lee, haha, textures? What textures? Nah man, no texturing for it right now. Been too busy to worry about that. So I’m just painting them :slight_smile: Some day? Take it easy.

Mr. Xen, lol, i can always count on you to uphold the madness. Thought I highly doubt i’m the best :wink: What have you been up to recently? lata

William, interesting viewpoints. I think I will take you’re advice about the brightness of the pads… at least the rear ones. The fire is pretty bright an would make those pads look less intense. I considered different views of the ship… I’m sure there is several different views that would work. It just seems that a low shot from the front looks the most dynamic… but I haven’t experimented too much… And yes, i think i’ve finally come to grips with the fact that models don’t make the shot, they make the shot better, so I think the fact that the ship isn’t so dominant helps the composite and framing.

Andrew, lol, nice edit. I have a feeling that the details on the ship will be a challenge but how is that different than anything else I try. I’ll be doing several layers of painting, some for dirt… spec… I’d say the hardest part will be the lighting. See ya around!

Jeff, Thanks again! I figure that this model is a bit too intense for realtime sims. How many polys can your hardware hold at 30fps? I struggle with this scene in maya, with quadro fx3400’s… so it makes me wonder how normal accelerators would handle it. PM me some of the specs you’d be looking at using, like which engine you plan on using, etc… it may be possible. Thanks again.

Hellwolve, cool, sound good.

Urgaffel, I’m experimenting with some of your lighting suggestions for the front of the ship. We’ll see what happens. Some folks I’ve asked, say they like the real dark front. Others, like yourself, think the front needs some additional light. I’m struggling between both. I’m separating my lights in maya and will be comp’in them back together. I find that I need a bit more control over the way the light effects the ship, having all the lights in the same layer is starting to bog me down.

Hopefully I’ll have something up soon to show some of my latest progression.

Thanks again everyone for the help!

#466

I’m not saying you need to light up the ship, but I think you need to separate it a little from the background. That could be done with the blue lit bakcground and a nice cool blue rim light always look good :wink:

Good luck

#467

wow. just found this thread and don’t know how i could have missed it.

the mechanical/detail aspect of this is right up my alley (it’s also given me a few good ideas relating to my own project).

nice work.

#468

Damn Jeremy what the hell you been doing

you have taken this a long way
nice job

have u started any other new models

ill see ya around man

lata bro

Dustin

#469

Like in all other updates in this thread I figured I’d speak back up here to show some of the painted texturing in the image. I’ve considered doing a camera projection of the color file onto the ship and then possibly doing a bump on the surface to give a bit more depth. As of right now though this is just some photoshop painting. I fixed some of the lighting around the front of the ship.

No Texture:

Painted Texture + Some added highlighting

The "spec" of the texture in this image is def a bit blocky.. some of the "spots" on the front hover pads need to be toned down a bit as well.  But for the most part, I think it's turning out alright.  I also plan on adding some bounce light to illuminate the ship a bit more.. as is right now, the nose still too contrast for my taste.
#470

Looking cool man, still a great project to view, i dont know how early or complete the color work on the ship is right now, but i think that some of the blotches could be blended in a little better. keep it goin man, looking forward to seein your upcomming projects.

#471

I think it’s looking really good. I have a suggestion for the hover pads lights, and that would be to give them some atmospheric perspective by making the ones in the distance dimmer than the ones in the foreground, although I think you would be able to see the ship a little better if you dimmed them all some .

#472

Been watching this since the beginning, and all I have to say is: GAWWDAMN!! (complete with slack jawed awestruck expression and saliva drip). That is very, very nice.

The only thing that I can add, is that the two bottom midsection pads shouldn’t be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the floor. They should show some signs of “wobbleage.” Like maybe a few degrees in different directions.

#473

Thanks guys!

Andrew, thanks for the comments.  This thing is slowing progressing.  But after all that texture painting, I believe I've found some new framing that'll help me achieve a better shot.

Mike, thanks for the crits, I remember speaking about the pads and their lighting.  After revisiting the image after a week or so off from it, I can def see what you're saying with the intensity of the lighting from the pads.  I'll be working to improve those here in the near future.

Graeth, lol, awesome dude, thanks for the comments.  I'll make sure to add that extra bit of detail.. thanks for watchin' out for me ;)

Anyway folks, being the perfectionist that I try not to be, I decided to approach this differently.  I've developed some new framing, and I believe that using some camera projection tricks, I'm going to texture the ship for this shot, and render using mr.  After staring at the "textures" I painted on it just doesn't fit the look I'm going for.  So I'm going to attempt something a little different.  Luckily in this new framing there isn't much change to the perspective of the ship nor the angle in which it is viewed but rather I hope to make the shot more about the ship doing what it was intended to do.. fly through a large network of tunnels.  So for this single frame, simply narrowing it down into a single tunnel isn't enough for the viewer.. it needs... another tunnel too.  Luckily the camera lens angle in the original image was pretty wide, so it allowed for some interesting perspective lines for the new tunnel off to the side.. right side of the frame.  The ship will be entering a "junction" where there will be light filling in from the top as well as further down the tunnel at the next "junction".  This would allow me to show more detail of the ship with light that has some inspiration rather than compensating with light from the pads.  I still want to have the explosion chasing the ship out of one and into the larger area.  So between the strong lighting coming from behind, some nice fill light coming in from above.. lighting filling the large tunnel to the right side of the frame and lighting at the end of that tunnel at the next junction, on top of the ships lights, textures projected, and some photons from mr.. this new layout offers a much greater final image plus it gives the ship a bit more of a dynamic pose.  Up until this point, the renders have all been out of maya software.. time to use some more advanced lighting techniques.

[img]http://www.digitalcrystaldesigns.com/wip/newframe_newperspective.jpg[/img]

This new shot allows me to rebuild the tunnel geometry as well. The old tunnel was just a jumble of rushed garbage. Seriously…

So, there should be a tad bit more intelligent modeling this time around. Just one more thing getting this thing closer to that final image.

Not starting over… just livin’ and learning. Thanks for the support everyone!

#474

I like the idea of the new concepts you did with the openings etc. Looking forward to more stuff from you :slight_smile: Don’t forget that you can do some AO passes to help show the detail etc :wink: