Wow, thats stunning! So, any chances of the show getting pitched to Syfy or something, or will it be more of Web thing?
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).
Yeah, there's be no shadows. There might be hotter spots, but overall there would be no solid shadows.
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.
I intended the drive grids to be physical structures so yes, they would cast shadows from direct sunlight.
Oh wait...I misread. I thought Dennis was referring to the glow cast by the activated drive grids, not sunlight through the sails when they are glowing.
Yes, but when the grid is lit and glowing the way it does, would it cast a shadow on the hull? It's the source of that blue light, isn't it? I guess a naked light bulb casts a shadow in daylight even when it's turned on. I must say I'd never paid enough attention to that. BTW, I don't know if I mentioned that the OBJ file came through with part names but no surface names. The part name for most of the drive elements was "SailRecurve," 1 through 4. To keep from getting too confused during texturing and rigging I've needed to assign a lot of surface names and I get easily confused. So unless you've got something else in mind I've arbitrarily named these the fins - dorsal and ventral, port and aft. The big rotating structures are the mainsails - dorsal and ventral - and the small structures that open away from them are the topsails, dorsal and ventral. The idea of something called the "ventral topsail" appeals strongly to me because it makes no sense - a stranger to these vessels would find it unintuitive.
In Max I only deal with object names. The SailRecurve objects were the ones with the slight upward recurve at the tips as opposed to the earlier straight versions. I thought I'd renamed those to something very similar to what you're using, mainsail, topsail, etc, but I guess I never got around to it.
Even a bare flame will cast a shadow when it sits in the path of a stronger light-source. Try it with a lighter or a candle.
"Five-seven-ty! Five seven zero, not dee. And there's no one here named 'Robbie', so quit hailing this ship!"
Very cool. I really like the gold accents on some of the engine parts. The sail lighting looks very good also, though I'm not sure we ever did decide if they actually light up at any other time than when the ship is about to make an FTL jump. The fill light on the left side is a little funky and casts some weird shadows. Other than that, looks awesome!
Thanks. I'm trying to get a variety of metallic surfaces into the surface, rather than mainly silver/aluminum/steel. I was pretty intimidated by those drive grids, but they've really involved less trial and error to get a good look than I'd expected.
Actually, right now I've got a problem working out the fin rotations - check your email when you have a chance. The different coordinate systems between LW and MAX - along with the fact that LW uses one nomenclature for positioning and a different one for rotation - is kicking my butt. Did you have texture maps for the warning signs, et al? I got one for the ship's name (and actually modeled the name and the hull number as part of the mesh using the same font).