Wow, finding time is so hard. But I knocked out some geometry here and there.
Here are 2 stills and for anyone who wants to see an orbit video screen grab, that’s there too.
I wanted to video screen grab the entire modeling process but I knew this would be an experimental job, so I’d hate to screen grab a crap load of mistakes 
http://www.morleyarts.com/cgtalk/fs69-model-01.jpg
http://www.morleyarts.com/cgtalk/fs69-model-02.jpg
http://www.morleyarts.com/cgtalk/fs69-orbit.mov
Be gentle
Looks good DickM. I played with the Silo demo very briefly back when EIAS announced it was part of EIAS 6? (I think). It seemed pretty intuitive… hind sight being 20/20 I’ve always wondered if it was worth getting.
Something to review again when I spring for a new Mac someday in the future…
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks guys. Had some more time to almost finish up the main body of the ship. A still and movie orbit is below. It’s a very large image, you can zoom in.
You’ll see it before and after subdivision. I like the hard edges of the cockpit where it meets the glass.
I really wish EIAS had poly sets though and would import objs with poly sets. I have gotten used to making objects 1 or 2 meshes and saving poly sets for the different materials. Like this ship is 2 meshes currently, ship and glass. But before I go to EI I need to break it up into all the different objects 
Since EIAS is a poly program would it be that hard to add Polygon selection sets to v8?
anyway, hope you like
Thanks Rich
It will be a little less Jetsons like when I add the twin turbo jet engines :drool:
But yes, the Jetson’s was a definite influence. The Jetson’s is a great reference for retro-future cartoon style vehicles. :buttrock:
Gorgeous ! Being in the mainly architectural viz industry I’m more used to hard edged modelling so when I finally get a chance to launch into creating my ‘cater-puller’ if i get half way to the smoothness in your meshes I’ll be more than happy.
james
Thanks guys. I will have to lose a few details since EI has no polygon selections sets. Such as the window rim. Mapping that would be near impossible without using poly sets or uv’s. I really didn’t want to have to mess with uv’s. I guess I could extract those faces after subdivsion and make it an object…yea that would work.
Hopefully I’ll be able to add the twin engines soon, then bring her into EI and start the composition.
Thanks again!
Hi Guys
Been a long time since I was last able to work on this entry. Spent a few hours this morning finishing up the vehicle. Now I need to work on the set and start bringing it all together. I also need to install my EIAS v7.0. Oh, and I am not looking forward to breaking up all the pieces of the ship in Silo. But I have to in order to texture it properly. ARGH, I want Poly selection sets in EIAS 8.0 PLEASE!!
Anyway, here are some screen grabs from Silo. It’s big, you can zoom in, in your browser.
Oh, forgot to add. The model was modeled in Silo all accept those turbine props. The array tool in Silo is lacking to say the least. EIM made those very easy using the copy tool. imported as .fac into silo with no problems. :buttrock:
Ok, I’m now rendering in EIAS using HDRI based lighting. I have watched Ian’s great videos to get started. I was amazed out how much I had forgotten about GI settings.
Anyways, wondering if I’ve run into a bug. My set is an enclosed cylinder and HDRI lighting won’t work. The image is basically black. So I turned off this object and HDRI lighting works great. So I added the set/cylinder object to a selection set. I then selected this set in the GI options as “exclude set”. It doesn’t exclude it and the image is dark again, so does exclude from HDRI not work? Am I doing something wrong?
Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks guys.
Thanks Ian, but unfortunately that did not work either. So here’s what I can do but not sure it fits within the rules of the contest. I want to render the scene, then render the backdrop, then composite the 2 in PS. I need to reread the rules for the entries.
Wouldn’t that be like rendering in layers? It must be allowed.
Still I wonder what’s causing this… Have you tried a new cylinder?
Hey Rich
Yea, now that you mention it, that would make sense about the layers. So I’ll just do it that way.
Yea, I thought it might be an ubershape issue, but it wasn’t, because I created a cylinder in Silo, and it did the same thing. Oh well. :shrug:
I hope to post some renders today. Almost done. Now just need to pose the Captain
I hope to have my final done today. A huge render crashed my Mac last night
Anyways, the Captain looks good in the image, but I forgot that on the calendar images I had to export the capt once he was posed into silo to clean up the geometry. EI bone fall-off and weight map issues make extreme posing a problem. Been a while since I messed with the captain and I forgot that when you rotate his root spine bone a certain amount, his chest starts to cave in on itself. ARGH! I remember trying to fix this for days in the rig but could not. Anyway, short of it is he may not be able to be in the final image since PS fixes really aren’t allowed.
I was really looking forward to seeing the final. Is it here? Did you make the deadline? I hope you post anyway.
Oh well. I have been sooooo busy moving house. Had to be out on the 1st So depressing I couldn’t finish in time. But it was a great learning opportunity. I learned HDRI and GI in EIAS 7. Here’s an almost final just so you can see it. So much I wanted to fix, like the lightning bolt.
