The (Un)official 3D FX/Design Thread

Kinda depends. I have potential access to mocap equipment, but on the other hand, I've exported data from Endorphin as mocap data an imported successfully to bipeds in 3ds Max. not a hard process.

 

Working on a cylon centurion
[image=http://i446.photobucket.com/albums/qq185/todayV4/subpatch%20cylon/cylon156.jpg]

 

@Ricky Yeah, both. Why?

 

Well, to be honest, I was working on a 3D LCC entry this year, and found animating frame by frame to not exactly be my strong suit. So I was thinking I'd undertake a bit of a learning experience, and try and do motion capture for it instead, and enter it next year. I started on one of the characters and had the set built, but I quickly ran out of time to get any further on it.

Here was an early version of the set, the guy is just a UT3 model I threw in there with some glowing smoke to test out scale. Everything was modeled using realistic measurements, I just think the camera angle and DoF make him seem quite small and toyish. Loosely based off the Jedi Temple from the first TOR teaser trailer.
[image=http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m332/ra_elliott/floortest_40000000.jpg]

 

Quick question: is there a way to COMBINE separate editable polys into one in 3DS? I'm trying to select the corner point of one square, to another poly's corner point...

 

If I understand you correctly, you should be able to. I use Maya and it is possible, not sure how in 3DS Max though. What exactly are you trying to do?

 

Well, I'm recreating a logo I made in Ae, and so I decided to trace it using a series of squares made into editable polys. So they are all aligned now, I just want to combine the points of each square to have one large editable poly.

Edit: ... Nevermind. I'm an idiot. Shift+dragging edges from one poly to make the whole shape. DOI. I knew about that, but I haven't been in 3DS for a while doing modeling.

 

And this weekend's random modeling project is done
[image=http://i446.photobucket.com/albums/qq185/todayV4/subpatch%20cylon/cylons16.jpg]

 

Nice! I like that a lot. I don't know much about Battlestar Galactica to comment a lot on it, but from what I remember it looks pretty good. I think with a z-depth pass on it it would look even better.

 

[image=http://www.deviantart.com/download/176844482/3D_Foundations__Final_Project_by_brucem91.png]

Here is the test render in Stereo of my Final Project for 3D Foundations at the Los Angeles Film School. I still have a few minor tweaks, and possibly a texture or two to create. But other than that, I am pretty much done. As this is my first 3D class(in my term, I've been using maya on a small scale for the past year), Brian didn't really require that much for the project. Matter of fact, I used a few things he didn't expect/go over, including normal maps, stereo rendering, and grass. I know there are quite a few more things I can do with the scene, but I am pretty happy with it, and it pretty much meets the requirements of the class just nicely.

Maya 2010
Photoshop CS5

BruceM

EDIT: Here is the non-stereo render:

[image=http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/8217/test1080prender.png]

 

You could make them boolean operands.

 

Nice Bruce. The convergence seems a bit off to me, something isn't lining up just right and its making white lines in certain spots. Are you using the Ae filter for it?

I got bored and tried another test of my own, usually I do little conversions of trailers (Clash of the Titans, Tron Legacy, etc.) This? Is an asteroid. I'm gonna render this out once more, but do a slow-mo shot instead to really get the effect popping. Anyone have any Amber-blue glasses? It seems to give a better result than typical Red/blue...

https://www.yousendit.com/download/aHlSZ296SEI4aU0wTVE9PQ

 

Nope, it's the stereo camera in maya. Yes, I can believe that the inter-axial is off.

 

IS there an easy way to render the same shot, one for each camera, automatically in 3ds?

 

I believe so. The stereo camera is actually a 3 cam setup I believe. I only set anaglyph as that as the only way I can view stereoscopic currently, but I believe that I would have no problem rendering each eye.

 

Not scifi at all, but here's my progress so far on the staten island ferry/ferry terminal..
[image=http://i446.photobucket.com/albums/qq185/todayV4/90-06-774878.jpg]

[image=http://i446.photobucket.com/albums/qq185/todayV4/south_ferry_sunset_by_todayv4-d2ykus1.jpg]

...mainly because I was bored

 

And now for something completely different... and slightly farmiliar

[image=http://i446.photobucket.com/albums/qq185/todayV4/90-12-324650.jpg]

 

Where's the Arclight? And the Jack in the Box?

 

ok.. more 5th element stuff

[image=http://i446.photobucket.com/albums/qq185/todayV4/90-16-677878.jpg]

 

In front and to the left, respectively.

Anyway, here is the latest render from my WIP for model creation. We have to make a car this month. It will look like it isn't merged properly in the middle, and that is because it isn't. I quickly mirrored one half for the render.

[image=http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs603.snc4/58324_437181696603_628676603_5716913_3786168_n.jpg]

 

UPDATE:

Here are the three final renders of my car for Model Creation:

[image=http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/680/render1z.png]

[image=http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/2679/render2g.png]

[image=http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1689/render3h.png]

BruceM

 

[image=http://i446.photobucket.com/albums/qq185/todayV4/viperwaiting-credits-2b-1.jpg]

 

whoa, nice! I really like the environment as well, it has that 80's sci-fi look I love so much.

 

The car looks great. I used Lightwave ages ago and remember it took a long time to render models. How long did it take for the car to render? The 3D effect is so apparent in animation to, I love it. You say you are using Maya, are you also using Mudbox? I'm going to this Game Art college part time and they use both Maya and Mudbox, though I haven't taken the animation classes yet. Here's the school: http://academic.rcc.edu/movalgaming/ I'm taking Flash CS5 right now and made several animated shorts in flat 2D. The 3D animation will be the fun part.

 

lol, I love how the link to that website uses one of the demo levels for the unreal development kit.

Anyway, didn't take too long to render, probably 30-45 for all three. I essentially made a 3 frame animation with 3 different camera angles, and then batch rendered out of maya. I timed the batch render with lunch I believe. I use Maya/Photoshop a majority of the time, as well as UDK and a little zbrush(not as much zbrush as I like, but hopefully I can get some zbrush time with a small game level I am currently working on). I think i've opened up Mudbox once.




[image=http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs963.snc4/75664_455458506603_628676603_6056140_2747104_n.jpg]

^The Stargate I modelled for my Atlantis Game Level in UDK. Render is slightly dated, and shows a temp event horizon/uncompleted material. I plan on getting some better renders later, and possibly redoing my normal map