The CGI Hobbyists Thread

[Jim_Campbell]

I get the impression that there are quite a few of us farting about in various 3D graphics packages on this board, so I thought it might be cool to have a thread for the purpose of showing off anything we're doing and perhaps exchanging the odd tip or hint.

So, to get us started ...

Very much a work in progress (no textures and only basic lighting), but I'm quite pleased with my Mega-City One street corner so far. I'm going for the vibe of a very specific Dredd artist here and it's just starting to come together.



I intend to expand the model so that I can animate some kind of tracking shot when it's finished, but this is what I've got for now ...

Cheers!

Jim

[Mardroid]

That really does look real! Amazing work.

It doesn't look mike a street corner to me though, more like the inside of a structure. Very impressive though.

I've done a bit of art lately too, but I've stuck to the 2-D comic kind.

[Matt Timson]

What have you made it with?

[Jim_Campbell]

What have you made it with?

Cinema 4D and a fair amount of Illustrator work for the sweep and lathe splines.

Going to have a look at Modo over the next couple of weeks, and possible Z•Brush if there's a trial version of 3.0 for the Mac (although I had a bash with 2.5 and found the interface impenetrable) ...

Cheers!

Jim

[Kerrin]

That's looking good Jim. What kind of scale is it? Is that a boarded up door?

[Jim_Campbell]

Is that a boarded up door?

'Tis indeed. Hopefully, once I have  few more props in there and some more naturalistic lighting, the scale should become more apparent.

Cheers!

jim

[Matt Timson]

I really fancy zbrush 3- but it's only for Intel Macs (and PCs, of course)- and I've got an IBM...  

[House of Usher]

It does look marvellous. The lighting effects are really cool. There are still a few details that offer conflicting messages about the scale. The big handle thing in the background looks very much like a handle - so much so, I want to grab it and give it a good pull! The pipes coming out of the right-hand wall look small-scale, like a handrail. The dome in the foreground looks quite small, so if it's a building it needs to be twice the height; and the blocks around its base are so low to the ground they would be a trip hazard. Two steps up to the boarded up doorway means it's not delivery droid or wheelchair accessible. For shame! But the kerb around the edge of the pavement looks ultra fab and groovy.

Which artist inspired the look of this street corner? I'm wondering how artists go about designing the look of futuristic city streets. My own view is that I wouldn't draw any architectural features I couldn't explain.

[Mike Carroll]

Apparently it was taken off the market when the authorities found out about the planned "Strontium 90" flavour.

[Matt Timson]

What programs do you use, Mike (I just know I'm going to have to ask everybody this question)?

[radiator]

I've been having a play around with SketchUp by Google. Free, fun and intuitive.

http://http://sketchup.google.com/

[Mike Carroll]

What programs do you use, Mike (I just know I'm going to have to ask everybody this question)?

Hi Matt,

I mostly use Cinema 4D XL version 6 (also I've got version 10, which has lots of great new features, but I generally find version 6 much easier to use). I also use Photoshop for the textures (again, oddly enough, version 6).

-- Mike
www.quantumprophecy.com

[Buddy]

And how would a person get their hands on such software for like.. review purposes.. or something...

[Mike Carroll]

And how would a person get their hands on such software for like.. review purposes.. or something...

My copy of Cinema v6 came on a cover disc so long ago that I don't even remember which magazine. I got Cinema v10 from a friend who bought it and then decided that he didn't have time to learn how to use it.

3D World and Computer Arts magazines used to occasionally give away older versions of various 3D packages, but I don't know if they still do (actually, I don't even know if those mags are still around).

[Jim_Campbell]

The big handle thing in the background looks very much like a handle - so much so, I want to grab it and give it a good pull!

Yes. It does. It was the first thing I modelled after the walls and I need to do something different with it.

The dome in the foreground looks quite small, so if it's a building it needs to be twice the height

This is the result of the fact that you can't see all of it. Once the scene is bigger and I can pull the camera back, you should be able to see that it's the "foot" of a pillar which supports a structure overhead.

As I said, once I have some more props and debris strewn around the open space, I'm hoping that the sense of scale will be more apparent.

More updates soon ...

Cheers!

Jim