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Some of my projects for the last year
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Some of my projects for the last year // Image Gallery
Post by 3dpdk // Jan 22, 2009, 8:52pm
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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It's beginning to look like I visit the forums once a year, upload some stuff around September for the monthly image contest and head back out to sea for another year.
...not too far from the truth, except, any more, I spend a lot of time in my own forum helping other modelers create game content in "X" format.
I never stop modeling and producing images - I just don't get a chance to share them here too often.
I thought I would share some of my recent project renders and shots from some of my current animation project(s).
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First is a series of light and color studies. I came up with a way to create "sky-glow" effects using a huge flat plane with a color gradient and angled from directly overhead to down below the horizon. If the tS grid represents one meter then this plane is 10 miles into the background! The "glow" is controlled by foreground distance queuing, strategically placed local lights and believe it or not, basic background color which affects diffuse material shine.
These are all straight trueSpace 6.6/Light Works renders with no post production editing.
Remember these were studies in color and contrasts more than anything else. The color is obvious but the contrasts are not all openly visual.
"Living on the Edge"
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l287/3dpdk/art/OnTheEdge8x4.jpg
"Reflection"
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l287/3dpdk/art/rockview2.jpg
"Morning Coffee" (alt title "Morning Calm") Model= 1972 Colombia Yacht 45 (Ketch rig) (My home for probably the best three years of my adult life!)
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l287/3dpdk/art/Morningcoffee8x6.jpg
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Still trying to master animation; ie, bones, skinning, reverse IK as opposed to forward IK, and character modeling, I decided to try and animate some "Classic Clips" using some of the old famous movie clips from the 30s and 40s. My first choice was Casablanca and the famous scene where Rick (Bogart) parts company with the love of his life (Ingrid Bergman). This is where the "...here's lookin' at you, kid." line came from.
The whole movie clip is 2min and 37 sec long with a lot of camera cuts so each segment to animate might be 15 seconds at most. -(manageable render times)
Mr Bogart kept his hands in his trench coat for most of the scene and was as stiff as a board when he moved around so there is not a lot of body animation to worry about. It's mostly facial expressions and dialog.
The most interesting challenge will to be to portray Ms. Bergman's expressions and subtle tears.
"Bogy" is still undergoing refinement. My texture for his face only hints at his eyebrows, and even though they were not "pronounced" the fact that my character has no eyelashes is obvious.
I haven't even started "Ingrid" yet; she was such a pretty girl I do NOT want to mess her up!
17809
I also noticed continuity problems in the original clip with Mr. Bogart's coat collar. Sometimes it lays flat - sometimes it's flipped up - sometimes only on one side! I will fix the continuity mistake by keeping it the same throughout the animation. That coat here is pure geometry. I'm working on a texture to "dirty" and wrinkle it up a bit.
Even though it is only seen for about 5 seconds in the entire scene, this has become known as the "airplane goodbye" scene. Most parodies of this scene show a Douglas DC-3 in the background, but on further study I found that the producers actually used a Lockheed L10-A "Electra" with an "Air France" logo painted on the nose. (Air France never used the L10-A for passenger transport - or anything else for that matter, it was strictly an American civil/commercial aircraft used up until the early 50s as a passenger plane and into the 60s as private and corporate aircraft.)
Staying true to the film rather than to the parodies I had to model this (now) rather obscure aircraft!
Not really an "Art" image but a straight tS 6.6 render (and rather proud of the illusion of the spinning prop hub!)
Lockheed L10-A "Electra" flying down the south-west coast of France (on a rather blustery day on the Med, I might point out!) (Terrain provided by Terragen)
Thankyou Mr J. Logan for being my Mentor (even if you don't know it!):) and Glen just because we are kindred "V" pilots with an enthusiasm for aircraft and flying.)
17807
OK... Before I go messing up "Boggy"s mesh by adding bones and skin weights, I need to practice and experiment with bone Hierarchies!
Meet Sally
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l287/3dpdk/art/Sally01.jpg
...again, a pure straight tS6.6 render...no post production; Sally's head provided by MakeHuman.
I hate to destroy the illusion even for myself but cute little Sally here is a sweater with a rib bone and 2 joint back bone. Attached to that as children is a dress with hips and legs, and at the other end are child arms. Attached to the arms as children are hand bones and attached as children to those are finger bones. Sally's head is part of the group but actually starts another hierarchy with 2 neck joints, a jaw bone and a couple of control bones for her hair. Her eyes are attached to her head but they simply rotate around their center axis - no "eye bone"!
All this hierarchy stuff because I still use MotionStudio Pro for my skeleton creation and skinning. The draw back is that I can't use .BVH files for realistic movements - I have to do it carefully by hand! BUT I like the way MSP skin weights fold the mesh at the joints, especially for clothing.
Sally started out as an exercise and ended up being a story - about a perky optimistic and somewhat naive office assistant who is simply fascinated by the "Artistic" window dressings in the Hotel/retail store across the street from where she works. Eventually she is introduced to the dark and brooding artist who creates the windows, where she discovers the contrasts between his dark personality and his bright and colorful creations. ....
.... eh ..... it's a start, anyway!
Interesting point: Sally's world is made entirely of some of my own X format models I created as content for Rule the Rail!, a model train simulator that runs in a DirectX environment. Well, OK, the Porsche and VW belong to Caligari but other than that ...
even the model ship in the glass case:
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l287/3dpdk/art/Shipatsea.jpg
and as it appears in Rule the Rail! (1 empty and 1 loaded with intermodal containers with real world logos)
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l287/3dpdk/forum%20images/contshipfin.png
Well finally .... doing a bit of day-dreaming ... or perhaps a desire to come off the high seas ...
17808
Text effects were done in Paint Shop Pro X but the electronics are pure trueSpace. Here's ridiculously detailed for you; being a former electronic technician of about 15 years I created a circuit board that (if real) would actually work as a timer/ programmable controller board!!!!!!!!!!!!!! True ... it's '80s component technology, but still ......!
Well that's it for this post. I have more to share later and ESPECIALLY something the Professor will be interrested to see!!!!!;) (finally figured out MakeMDL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!)
Paul |
Post by TomG // Jan 23, 2009, 2:22am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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That is some update! A lot of good work in there, I particularly like Reflection just because of the awesome sky colors and the mood it conveys. Also nice to hear about all the projects you have worked on and are working on, like the ship for the rail simulator, and the attempt to recreate famous movie scenes! I hope you'll keep us updated on how it goes with Bogart and Bergman (don't make us wait a year to hear more!).
Thanks for sharing all of this!
Tom |
Post by Johny // Jan 23, 2009, 3:16am
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Johny
Total Posts: 672
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Thanks for nice two top images. :) |
Post by Finis // Jan 23, 2009, 7:23am
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Finis
Total Posts: 386
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It has been a long time. Glad to hear from you!
Great pictures and great stories. |
Post by spacekdet // Jan 23, 2009, 9:46am
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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Man, if these are the results you should stay away more often!
All very nice but I really like those sky gradients. I usually use a dome but I think I'll give the ginormous plane a try now, thanks for the tip.
Some great modeling all around... ships and planes and Bogeys, oh my. |
Post by tahnoak // Jan 23, 2009, 12:15pm
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tahnoak
Total Posts: 487
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Welcome back and THANK YOU for sharing some of your tips.... |
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