Star Ship Polaris

[Psion]

GalacticWierdo wrote:

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I can't help but feel like the ship seems to be glowing in a way -- like the light is hitting it in places where it should be able to reach. Otherwise it's absolutely stunning.

Maurice wrote:

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Ambient light I suspect.

Yeah, I doubt that should be considered a "finished render" rather than a render of the nearly-finished model. Lighting and animating the model will take a bit of work beyond tweaking the mesh and finalizing the textures. This image is probably more just a "here's where we're at" render.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

BTW, here's how the modeling is going on Main Control:



Some of the apparent differences in proportion/perspective may be real, but many are the result of lens settings and temp lighting. I haven't figured out virtual camera settings that quite match Vektor's rendering - and in any event, NEO FX will set the final matte renders up based on the camera data from the green screen shots.

[Vektor]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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BTW, here's how the modIeIing is going on Main Control:



Some of the apparent differences in proportion/perspective may be real, but many are the result of lens settings and temp lighting. I haven't figured out virtual camera settings that quite match Vektor's rendering - and in any event, NEO FX will set the final shots up based on the camera data from the green screen shots.

Wow! That's just plain AWESOME. I'm actually impressed at how faithfully that translates into 3D. And don't fret about not matching my illustration perfectly. I did that entirely by eye so the perspective and proportions may have nothing to do with how things line up in the real world--or virtual world as the case may be.

By the way, you might hold off on the lower console stuff I did to hide Maurice's lower half. I'm working on an update to that which could change it pretty radically.

[Psion]

Wait. I see green.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I use green as a placeholder for areas that animations are going to be mapped onto.

[Potemkin_Prod]

Dennis, I have to say that you and your team are doing a phenomenal job with this. I'm really looking forward to POLARIS more than I am anything else.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Thanks.

[Vektor]

Dennis, did you actually match this space to the dimensions of the Polaris 3D model? Just curious if it actually does fit.

Also, has there been any feedback from NEO FX about the model? Any problems with the poly count? Any foreseeable rigging or animation issues? I've never built a model for actual visual effects production before and I'm interested to know how it works out.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I haven't matched the CG set to the model at this point, no. I may do that soon.

I also haven't turned the model over to NEO yet - I did the conversion and I'm working on the textures and basic rigging. I'll probably give Michael a copy of the mesh in the next week, so he can start laying out a couple of shots we want soon - that won't be a completely finished model, but he can work with it in LW Layout (the rendering and animating part of the program) while I try to finish up.

At around half a million polygons I can guarantee that there's not going to be a poly count problem. It's rendering fine on my desktop, which is scarcely a power machine.

[Santaman]

Nice ship! nice ship!

[JES]

Wow, thats stunning!

So, any chances of the show getting pitched to Syfy or something, or will it be more of Web thing?

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Drive grid:



This is a work render. I added a little bit of glow to the grid in Lightwave, but I think I'll be asking NEO FX to handle that kind of thing in post - LW's rendering effects are limited and I'm not too experienced with them. Likewise NEO will probably work out the niceties of interactive lighting (for example the grid, being lit, probably shouldn't cast a shadow on the hull here).

[Maurice]

Yeah, there's be no shadows. There might be hotter spots, but overall there would be no solid shadows.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well, the folks who understand rendering and animating will have to figure that out.

The Polaris object exists as sixteen layers and the various drive sails are each on a separate one, so I imagine this can all be manipulated either through settings or doing multiple passes.

[Vektor]

I intended the drive grids to be physical structures so yes, they would cast shadows from direct sunlight.