main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Landing Strip WIP

Discussion in 'Archive: Scifi 3D Forum' started by joek1010, Sep 25, 2005.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    Landing Strip WIP for (possibly) an animation that I'm doing. The strip is on a tatooine like world; lots of sand.

    [image=http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/9715/render16tk.jpg]


    Obviously still very much a Work In Progress.

    To Do:

    - Work on landing strip texture
    - Background
    - Sand (Do you think it needs a texture?)
    - Engine Glow

    Comments, and critiques needed.

    And finally a question:

    Does anyone have any experience with integrating a Terragen render into a scene? You can probably easily tell from the image that the background is just a rendered image. Any advice for making integrating it more into the scene?

    Thanks!


    EDIT: Added another to do.
     
  2. wildcat69410

    wildcat69410 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jun 23, 2004
    Nice work so far, the sand does need some texture though. Otherwise, the sand looks a bit flat, perhaps adding some slight grain, with a few more physical sand undulations would help.

    Also, what software are you using? I'm assuming 3ds Max, but if you're using Lightwave, I know that you can easily export terragen terrains to a .lwo file, import that into lightwave, and texture that in a snap. Also, in terms of sand textures and other organic textures for that matter, I know that RebelShaders(?) has a few different organic shaders (including sand) for max, for a relatively cheap price. I think somewhere around 100? Anyway, it's a great buy.

    Good job so far, get some of those to do's done, and it'll be great.
     
  3. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    Thanks for the reply!


    Actually, I'm using blender. I know there's a terragen importer for blender. I'll look in to that if I can't get it to blend properly. I was a bit worried that I couldn't get the texture on the imported terragen mesh to look good.

    Changes coming soon!

     
  4. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    Update: Added some texture to the sand. Also added some rocks.

    [image=http://img305.imageshack.us/img305/4757/render49qj.jpg]


    I think another thing that could really add to the scene would be heat shimmer (or ripple). I'll probably try something like Depth of field, combined with a blur. If anyone has any suggestions about this, I'd really like to hear them.
     
  5. GuanoLad

    GuanoLad Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1998
    I like the sand and rocks.

    I think rather than a heat shimmer you should first add some atmosphere/fog to give a sense of distance to the far dunes.

    Also, the dunes themselves seem to be rather too uniform in height.
     
  6. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    I concur with GuanoLad. :) Looks cool so far though!
     
  7. ted433

    ted433 Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Mar 7, 2004
    umm just to be realistic (mainly cause I live in the desert) for fog you need humidity and in the desert, there is none. I would suggest maybe a cool sand storm in the distance....
    actually, I was just thinking FOG fog. an atmosphere just to haze up the background would be perfectly fine.... just a little though :)
     
  8. swimmerman91

    swimmerman91 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 22, 2005
    great job!
     
  9. wildcat69410

    wildcat69410 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jun 23, 2004
    In terms of the terragen thing mentioned earlier, there is quite an easier way to import terragen into blender. Blender can natively import .lwo files, so all you have to do is export the terragen as an lwo, and then from that into Blender. However, in this case, you'd probably be better off just using a background image, seeing as spending the time texturing the terrain would be too much trouble for just a background shot.

    By the way, great sand textures! I like what you've done so far, keep it up. In terms of the heat haze your talking about, I'm guessing probably some sort of midrange foggish type of stuff mentioned earlier, but for the shimmer, maybe a moving light perhaps? I'll experiment with my own copy of blender and see what I can get out of it.

    Keep it up!
     
  10. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    Thanks for the comments!

    I'm still researching some methods for the haze, but I'll try to add some sort of atmostphere soon. I'll try thickening it in Terragen first, and then try blender mist.



    Update: Started working on a turret (anti air/space craft). I dont plan on detailing this too much; its more of a background model.

    [image=http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/8153/turretside4pe.jpg]
     
  11. swimmerman91

    swimmerman91 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 22, 2005
    I don't kno much about 3D but, when your done, will it look real?
     
  12. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004

    Hopefully :).


    I still have details to add, and like I said, it'll mostly be for the background, not a real focus of the scene.





    I think it needs more of a blur effect. I found this tutorial about it on DV Garage (free membership needed). It looks pretty close to what I want. Only problem is I don't know what program I would apply displacement maps in (I don't have After Effects, and I've already used the free trial).

    If you find a way to do it in Blender, I'd really like to see it!

     
  13. swimmerman91

    swimmerman91 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 22, 2005
    good job.....keep it up! I really want to see the finished product!
     
  14. Cryptite_

    Cryptite_ Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 1, 2004
    Whoops, nevermind.
     
  15. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    Update: Here's the turret integrated into the scene. I'm still experimenting with materials for the turret. I changed the sand material a bit as well.

    I also played around with the blender "mist". I couldn't get a good looking atmosphere though. I might just change up the background image with the Gimp (add a bit of a blur).

    [image=http://img298.imageshack.us/img298/8352/complete11vm.jpg]
     
  16. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    Cool stuff - much better than what you started with and it keeps getting better! Keep it up! :D
     
  17. ironhide

    ironhide Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Feb 11, 2004
    Aren't your X-Wings missing their landing gear?
     
  18. GuanoLad

    GuanoLad Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1998
    What makes an atmospheric distance work is lower contrast, and usually a lightening of the colours a bit. You also have to choose the right colour for the mist/fog/atmosphere, so it matches the scene. In your case I'd keep it at around the sand dune colour, so that it's the shaded parts of the dunes that lose contrast and give the right sense of distance - the further away, the lower the contrast and the closer match to the horizon colour.
     
  19. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    Thanks!


    Yeah, I gues I overlooked that. Its difficult to see unless you really look for it.


    Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to select the dunes with a magnetic lasso and then manually reduce the contrast, reducing the ones that are further away. I'll render when I'm finished. Hopefully, that'll look a little more atmospheric.

     
  20. Antilles01

    Antilles01 Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 5, 2001
    Everything seems to be looking good, and i think this would be a lot better if something was changed in regards to the perspective...the xwings in the back look like miniatures in front of a sandy dune set. I don't get the feeling that this is a large tarmac with a landing strip. I'm not sure if its the height of the horizon in relation to everything else, or if its the texture on the foreground strip, or if the sand and the (cool looking) gun emplacement give a false sense of scale.

    Edit: upon looking once more, its seems like you could take one of those xwings and fit it into the seat of the cannon. Is the gun model bigger than the xwings? I would play around with the scale of things, as well as possibly giving more layers of dunes with increasing atmospheric haze, so it doesnt look like there is a wall of dunes behind the tarmac. I think it would make the scene work a bit better.
     
  21. DarkSapiens

    DarkSapiens Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 2, 2005
    Hi! Thats a nice image, but I would also change the illumination of the objects. The sky is totally yellow and orange because of the sun(s)down, but 3D objects are illumined by a soft, white light that comes from another place. I'd use a yellow or orange hard light for the direct sunbeams and another secondary, soft light for the ambience.

    P.D.: What about adding some bump and especular to the landing platform?
     
  22. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    I tried to modify the contrast of the dunes that were further away but ironically (and i should have seen that this would happen) the decrease in contrast between each "layer" of dunes created more contrast between the dunes. I think I'm going to mess around with the atmosphere settings in Terragen.



    Yeah, I was using Ambient Occlusion with the standard white color. I'll change it to a more orange color. Thanks for pointing that out.


    I took a look at the X-Wings and the turret yesterday, and cannon is a bit to large. Its nothing really extreme, but I'll increase the size of the X-Wings a bit. Maybe I should increase the size of the platform too, and push the background image back further. That might decrease the feeling that its just a 2d image.


    Thanks for the comments! Unfortunately, I'm really busy for the next few weeks. Updates will probably be slow.


     
  23. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    Major Update:

    - Increased size of landing platform
    - Got rid of Terragen element
    - Adjusted Ambient Occlusion
    - Created the Hangars

    [image=http://img449.imageshack.us/img449/2771/update19ky.jpg]


    Still To Do:

    - Adjust Sand Texture
    - Add more detail to the hangars
    - Maybe add some more atmosphere (With mist)
     
  24. swimmerman91

    swimmerman91 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 22, 2005
    Wow, I just got softimage, and It is so hard to create anything, so I know you put A LOT of hard work into this. It looks awesome, and I can't wait for more updates! Good luck, and keep up the great work.
     
  25. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    Better Sand Texture:


    Link

     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.