preview of pics from fanfilm

Hello,
I've been working on a fanfilm for a while (quite a while ... )
some stills from it attached below,
still have lots to be done, greebles, textures etc ..

edit: credits to David Kerin for his Battlestar. which was the base for
this one.

cheers.

[Matador]

Nice work. Can't wait to see more.

Thanks

working on my bridge at the moment. image attached.

also realized i posted in the wrong section, probably should be in shattered worlds. any chance mods could fix that?

cheers.

[Matador]

Once again, very nice.

I like the look. Very classic.

Here is a thread I have been posting... I've been working on a little project myself.

https://www.colonialfleets.com/forums...ad.php?t=17508

The detail on your ships is very nice. Can't wait to see more. Is there a particular program you are using?

hi matador

had a look at your project, nice work you've done, viper launch sequence was well done i think.


I'm using max 9, 50% of that battlstar mesh is David Kerins work. (will fix first post )
added a few more renders of "battlerams" want to make new main turrets for
them. wanted to use them for the next animation after this one. still undecided
on that though not sure if they have a battlestar feel to them yet.

cheers.

Hi all,
started up premiere to put some clips together, only to find
16 of the avi's have suddenly become corrupted and premiere shows them as offline media?
hope i'm not the only one. weird thing is, this is the 3rd time the same 16 files became
corrupted, 380 hrs of rendering 3 times!!???? can't figure it out.

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

had a look at your project, nice work you've done, viper launch sequence was well done i think.

I'm using max 9, 50% of that battlstar mesh is David Kerins work. (will fix first post )

Nice work Andromeda...

I'm a Max user myself... I love your detail work... That is something I am very weak at. I've got to get better at that. Adding all the small little details have always been a challenge for me. Any tips you may have would be greatly appreciated.
Anyhew, I've been working with vray for rendering and I'm pretty happy with it.
Here is my latest work.

https://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...stwStars1c.jpg

It's just a screen shot... I'll be animating it later.
Cheers

[gmd3d]

looks good .. nice details too ..

changed the turret barrels on this "battleram" - 1st pic still needs a bit more
doing to it.

adding details .... if your not doing something on your CG galactica, try
doodling, make a cylinder and play with modifiers like bend and slice etc, play
around with booleans. 2nd pic is an example of that.

i bought vray late last year (along with afterburn and dreamscape) it is nice
but its a killer on some render times .. especially when you play with
volumetric light and fog .... for these re-renders I've just started again
went back to mental ray to speed things up a bit on some scenes and layered
vray renders on others. hope this lot doesn't screw up on me.

pic 3 is another scene from it

cheers

Originally Posted by Matador

Here is my latest work.

https://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...stwStars1c.jpg

It's just a screen shot... I'll be animating it later.
Cheers

Didn't notice this before, your "G" has quite an aggressive look it looks like the nose or front is a little more tapered like it has a sneaky look.

cheers

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

i bought vray late last year (along with afterburn and dreamscape) it is nice
but its a killer on some render times .. especially when you play with
volumetric light and fog .... for these re-renders I've just started again
went back to mental ray to speed things up a bit on some scenes and layered
vray renders on others. hope this lot doesn't screw up on me.

I hear ya about the render time. It's true... Vray chews up memory like crazy, but I suppose it's worth the wait.

I messed around with Mental Ray, but I could never get the volume light/fog to work right on my ship. I got this crazy effect and could not work around it.

I have attached some samples of what I mean.

First image is with vray or default scanline
https://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...anlineTest.jpg

Second was with mental ray
https://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...talRayTest.jpg

I just could not get Mental ray to create the fog right. Either default scanline works or Vray seems to know what to do in this case.

I love the heat sinks and gatling gun on your tank. I may borrow those ideas for Galactica.

Here is an update... I added some hull lights.
https://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...stwStars1d.jpg

Let me know if you have any tips on the volume light/fog thing.

Oh, how do you do the thumbnail picture preview thing. I can't seem to figure that out.

Cheers

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Matador

Oh, how do you do the thumbnail picture preview thing. I can't seem to figure that out.

Cheers

Andromeda is using Colonial fleets upload features as your using photobucket. but there should a thumbnail feature in photobucket

Taranis beat me to it , that's what I'm using, if you go to advanced mode for reply's, under the smileys (underneath text box) there's a manage attachments
link.

I hear ya about the render time. It's true... Vray chews up memory like crazy, but I suppose it's worth the wait.

i'm saving my penny's for new gear, quad core cpu twin sli video, etc
which gave me a thought i wonder if either rendering engines use graphics
card as well to process a scene .. i imagine they might if not maybe they should.

but I could never get the volume light/fog to work right on my ship. I got this crazy effect and could not work around it.

what type of lights are you using? i found Mrarea omni was good for making the volume feel for inside the bridge. in fact overall was better for all the scenes. better more tweakable shadows etc.

First image is with vray or default scanline
https://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...anlineTest.jpg

Second was with mental ray
https://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...talRayTest.jpg

I just could not get Mental ray to create the fog right. Either default scanline works or Vray seems to know what to do in this case.

I had similar issues with scenes I'm doing, mental ray would pop error
messages about incompatibility's with xyz light or plugin .... haven't figured
why yet. after my shuttle flying over landscape scenes have re-rendered
i'll play with mental ray and volume light/fog see what i come up with. at this rate all off the "on planet scenes" will take a week to do.

I may borrow those ideas for Galactica.

you can do that, no problems there.

of all the corrupt files I've had, i had to lose this mesh ... not fair ...

cheers

[Matador]

Nice viper.

I was using Omni lights with volume/fog effect added. The kicker is that the effect seemed OK if the Omni light was sitting just outside the hole, but once I put it inside, as to give effect the thrusters were inside the hole, it caused that wierd effect.

Default scan line and Vray seem to handle this much better and are giving the effect that I'm striving for.

Can't wait to see your animation.

I'm currently working on re-texturing the gun turrets and laser cannons. I'll also work on creating some hull detail. I may just cheat and use Greebles.
I'll probably render a few animation sequences this weekend.

I'm looking into purchasing vue 9, by xstream. Have you seen it? pretty cool!

just had a look at vue 9, looks good. It'll be a long time before i can get that.
after i've built a new monster pc

I was using Omni lights with volume/fog effect added. The kicker is
that the effect seemed OK if the Omni light was sitting just outside the hole,
but once I put it inside, as to give effect the thrusters were inside the hole,
it caused that weird effect.

had a power failure earlier, 4 hours left on a 22hr render

so ...i started up max and had a play with particle systems for ion exhaust,
that can work well. as long as your pc can handle particles well. managed to
lock mine up several times. tried replicating volume light and fog like yours i
with 3 renderers, was getting similar weirdness, i think stick with what works,
mental ray can make you mental

cheers

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

mental ray can make you mental

cheers

So true... I haven't had much luck with Mental ray. I even bought a book on it. I love the materials it lets you use.

But after doing some research and going back and fourth with a few other CG artists it was recommended to use Vray...
So far I've been really happy with Vray and there are a grip of sites that provide materials, that are custom made, that you can download and add.
Here is a link to one of them:
https://www.vray-materials.de/
The materials are free... It took a while to figure out how to use them, but once you figure it out, it's pretty easy.

[gmd3d]

animation is an area that I no nothing about these day as I only model ships and set now .. and I am the original captain slow..

look you guy are doing well on this

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Taranis

animation is an area that I no nothing about these day

I hear ya Taranis... I just started about 2 years ago. I've been using an application call 3ds max... So far I'm pretty happy with it and the interface is pretty easy to learn.

I would like to learn lightwave. That's the program used for the firefly and new galactica series.

I tried it out, but the learning curve is a little more advance for me. My trial period ran out before I could really learn it.

So far 3ds max has been very forgiving and I keep discovering more cool things I can do with it. So, I'm going to stick with it for now.

thanks for that vray link, textures there look nice

.. and I am the original captain slow..

Taranis you do nice work slow or not

Had another looksee at vue 9 ... thinking ....

I got my youtube account going again so i can put up temporary renders
was wondering if vue 9 can anti flicker this vray scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKih8zz4giM

I had a look around at various forums and it looks like a fairly common problem,
flickering shadows on landscapes.

cheers

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Matador

I hear ya Taranis... I just started about 2 years ago. I've been using an application call 3ds max... So far I'm pretty happy with it and the interface is pretty easy to learn.

I would like to learn lightwave. That's the program used for the firefly and new galactica series.

I tried it out, but the learning curve is a little more advance for me. My trial period ran out before I could really learn it.

So far 3ds max has been very forgiving and I keep discovering more cool things I can do with it. So, I'm going to stick with it for now.

I found I was the same for 3ds max way back then , difficult interface and learning curve .. I gave up on it and remained with LW ..

yes most shows did or do use LW and modo in films now. the pattern has been to build in Modo and animate in Lw as far as I know.

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

thanks for that vray link, textures there look nice


Taranis you do nice work slow or not

Had another looksee at vue 9 ... thinking ....

I got my youtube account going again so i can put up temporary renders
was wondering if vue 9 can anti flicker this vray scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKih8zz4giM

I had a look around at various forums and it looks like a fairly common problem,
flickering shadows on landscapes.

cheers

thanks .. I am working on some star trek sets and model for another fan film..

regarding the flickering.. could it be the camera speed. (as I said I am no animator) just a thought

camera, possible I've got the scene open now and going through the settings.
I'll go thought the scene one frame at a time 'til i find the flickering frames
and re render those frames with different camera settings and see what happens. I f i had gazoodles of hard drive I'd render out out the scenes as single frames and just fix the dodgy ones.

did a bit more on the bridge, changed the layout a bit. still resembles
the original i think.

cheers.

[gmd3d]

Nice work on the bridge ..

what are your frames per second fsp .. it could be there .. by increasing the frames if possible. most as fer as I know are between 24 frames to 30 frames
.
if you have it at his .. a check with the appropriate forum form your program might help.

Originally Posted by Taranis

Nice work on the bridge ..

what are your frames per second fsp .. it could be there .. by increasing the frames if possible. most as fer as I know are between 24 frames to 30 frames
.
if you have it at his .. a check with the appropriate forum form your program might help.

thanks taranis
everything is rendered at 25fps pal, .... but .... think I'm on to something, had a look through camera settings and found something easily overlooked. rendering these scenes with vray using a standard max "free camera" could very well be the problem. never occurred to me before use a vray camera with vray renderer (D'oh). two images attached are of frame 8.

first picture is the max free camera, second is the vray camera
there is a huge difference, also a huge difference in render times
pic 1 was 12:32s and pic 2 was 4:52s.

cheers

[gmd3d]

there is a difference all right .. glad you worked it out

[vk08]

one teeeeeeeeny little nitpick. the third center area on the raiders isn't an engine port it's some sort of turbine and therefore wouldn't glow

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by vk08

one teeeeeeeeny little nitpick. the third center area on the raiders isn't an engine port it's some sort of turbine and therefore wouldn't glow

well spotted .. I missed that ..

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Taranis

yes most shows did or do use LW and modo in films now. the pattern has been to build in Modo and animate in Lw as far as I know.

mmm, what's modo?

perhaps you can answer a question for me regarding LightWave then... How do you get a blueprint to show up on a plane or flat square, so that I can model around it?

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Matador

mmm, what's modo?

perhaps you can answer a question for me regarding LightWave then... How do you get a blueprint to show up on a plane or flat square, so that I can model around it?

https://www.luxology.com/

as for blueprints . you hit (d) and your new window opens

Top row of option . (Layout) -Quads- for how many work areas you want to use- then go the same Top row of option hit (backdrop) . you will see viewport TOPL TOPR BOTTL BOTTR will be indicated.

below you will see Preset followed by

Image

as the first window will be TOPL and will be highlighted
you find the image you want (top) of course and load it.

same for the other window options.

[Matador]

Nice, thanks Taranis...

Looks like I'm going to have to make some decissions soon.

3ds max has come out with "3ds max 2011", it has some really cool new features... But man... Expensive.

Lightwave and cinema 4d are both more reasonalbe.

There is also daz3D

Oh the decisions!...

Need to figure out if I want to start learning all over again, with one of the other products or bite the bullet and stick with MAX.