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.
Love the ShowRoom theme. Imaginative and really works. It’s going to look great in the EI Gallery.
Better late than never.
No… Really. It is.
Who’s the hot guy in purple tights 
Sorry to hear about the house right.
We lost Bo Diddley and ISY as well.
Best Wishes.
That is a great image! The captain is certainly the happiest captain around…!
Love the paint job and the overall presentation. I’m glad you learned GI and HDRI for this is really the true meaning of these contest. Job well done Dick!
Hope the moving went nicely, this is something I REALLY hate to do…
I don’t know why, but the capt’n is one of the funniest characters I’ve seen in a long time.
You always seem to get the expression and pose just right…Gets me laughing everytime.
Flash Speeder looks great, and I like the paint job.
I also like the way the windshield came out…
Nice job DickM.
~Mike
Richard you are too FUNNY. It was really great watching all you guys work. I learn and admire all your works. I have to commend Morley again, he not only does great characters, rigs, and animate them well too but also rendering.
oooooooooo nice render Richard. I like!!! Nice touch with the captain and his expression.
Very nice entry. Are you using any particular shaders for the glass or body of the Speeder?
Hehehe, thanks guys. The wind shield uses hdri reflections which really makes the look. The paint job on the ship is simply a granite shader set very tight for the metal sparkle effect, along with an anistropic shader and a fresnel effect.
I would like to tweak it before submitting it to the EI gallery. This is the month of May in the capt calendar…I’ll get there eventually.
I’m glad the Captain makes you guys smile, that’s the whole point of the character. I wanted to put him in the ship in action…but then I thought…he won’t look sexy :eek: