The key light is a slightly amber area light shrunk down and set a distance away from the ship, parented and targeted to a null in the center of the scene. Whenever I change the angle of the camera, I can grab that null and spin it around to point the light where I want it. The ambient fill is a gradient scene backdrop, set to 100% brightness at the top and bottom and about 50% in the middle, colored a low saturation blue on top, amber on the bottom, with a higher-saturation blue and amber in the middle. Render settings (which may only mean something to Lightwave users) are PLD 7-pass antialiasing with a classic reconstruction filter, radiosity with Final Gather enabled using one bounce and 48 ray samples. Render times for the ~450,000 poly mesh are anywhere from 2 to 8 minutes, depending on how much of the model in in-frame, on a dual-core 2.8 GHz Intel Mac using multithreading. Post-processingwise, I save the raw images out as 32-bit TIFFs, then bring them into Photoshop where I curve adjust for brightness; a duplicate of the base image is curved down to crush the shadows and bring out the brights, then blurred with a Gaussian blur setting of 3.5 pixels and set on screen at 50% opacity to give the bloom effect. The backdrop is a radial gradient mixing black with a low-saturation, low brightness blue, then given noise and the "Blur More" filter. I recently started playing around with color adjusting the base image under the bloom layer, which is left the same colors as it came out of Lightwave. I think it adds some depth to the images. Which is probably more than you needed to know.
I don't know anything about it from a technical point of view but it looks to be a very well designed and executed piece of work. The design itself is glorious. It feels rugged and tough but elegant and beautiful at the same time. Some really wonderful work that has had a lot of time, care and attention put into it. I'd love to see some beauty shots and the ship in action. For what it is worth, I agree with others that it has the look and feel of a miniature. It reminds of the Miranda class to a degree but much more graceful and aesthetic looking too. And that's a big compliment from moi! LOL. Well done.
Nope, that all makes perfect sense. I knew you used LightWave, and I was wondering whether you were using the Classic camera and/or radiosity... the fact you're using PLD antialiasing tells me that you are indeed using the Classic cam. The description you provided about your post-processing techniques was also very informative. Thanks! (oh and p.s., I have no constructive criticism to offer on the model itself--it looks terrific. )
I've done pretty much zero with the newer camera types, so I'm not familiar with what the differences would be (I heard something once about them rendering faster under certain conditions, but that didn't hold for the Bozeman so I abandoned its use thereafter.) Truthfully, I'm not even sure what the advantage of the PLD AA type is, either, except that it seems to give a slightly crisper image, which is why I'm using it.
I've been experimenting with the Perspective camera and have been getting excellent results with my polygonormous Enterprise model, which truthfully is a pig and really needs to go on a diet, but I am NOT rebuilding that thing a third time! My understanding of the PLD antialiasing model is that it is more efficient than the older "classic" methods. As for the sharpness, isn't that a function of the reconstruction filter that you use?
Just out of curiosity... what's your complaint about the font? It looks good to me... am I missing something?
Are you talking about the USS registry, or the NCC one? Because the USS one is done with a Starfleet Hull font, as I was unable to find a copy of Microgramma that was free of charge (and my understanding is that microgramma was the correct one); the NCC number, on the other hand, is using a version of Federation Standard that I later discovered is not all that accurate--and as a bonus, I found out after that that I already had an accurate version on my machine; it just wasn't installed.
Ah. Yes. That's simply my having grabbed a poorly done fan-made font. At some point I might have to go back and try to fix it.
Have to echo the comment about catching the feel of movie era model. That just looks great! I want to pick it up by the secondary hull and making "wooshing" noises while running around the room!
How many faces is your model? Yeah, the reconstruction filter adjusts that, but without textures anything sharper than the classic filter (which is one of the softer ones, outside the types specifically labeled "soft) looks jagged and lousy. That said, the type of AA seems to have some effect on sharpness.
1.2 million. It was built for extreme closeups, which is kind of silly in retrospect considering that the classic Enterprise doesn't really have much detail in closeup.
You could add it... look at the Kelvin and how most of her minute details aren't noticeable from a distance
Gep... I think this is terrific, and honestly, I want a copy. Not as an electronic copy, but a 1/2500 or 1/1000 model kit. I'm actually somewhat serious... you could distribute it via "Federation Models." All you'd have to do is make the original pattern, and they'd do the casting and resell it for you. Unique, but well-executed designs like this really ought to be available for the world to enjoy. Just don't forget to give credit to Nilo Rodis... maybe provide cover art with your ship overlaid, in transparent form, on top of the original image?