[Art!] Stellvia... COMPLETE~!

[M Fnord]

Taking waaay too goddamn long to render, I present this:



I intend to get at least one good semi-realistic render of the station for wiki purposes, and maybe an exploded chart of the main components, and then I'm calling the Stellvia project finished.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Bob Schroeck]

Very nice!
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

I think that's good enough to toss onto the Wiki. (After the photorealistic shot is ready, of course. Have to have something for the statblock...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Star Ranger4]

gah. And personally, I have to admit defeat, as one of my personal tricks is to pass these into blender, but it doesnt seem to like groups anymore. all I get
in blender are a bunch of origin points, no geometry.

Correction. I do not, WILL NOT, ever, admit defeat. Just that victory will take more time and sweat than I originally anticipated. Possibly enough of both
as to make eventual victory phyrettic.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[M Fnord]

I'm not happy with it, but here's a first pass on a "hero" render for the wiki:


Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

That background is way too busy... (Nowadays, "everybody knows" what cislunar space looks like, and it looks like http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/ ... 2383HR.jpg]this. Heck, crop out the bottom quarter or so of that image and use what's left as a background - the apparent size of what's left is right for L5.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

*grumblemutterartisticintegritygrumble*

Okay, try this on for size:



I'm still not happy with it for a number of reasons. Exploring options as we speak.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

Hmmmmm... 70k smaller... I knew the other background was "too busy".
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

Getting closer:


Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[M Fnord]

Almost there, finally got the bump map on the modules where I want it:



This brings up a question I could use some input on. I've gotten rid of the blue tint on the windows - what looks good in Sketchup doesn't look as good in more realistic renders - but I'm not sure what I should replace it with. Right now I've gone with a simple smoked glass, but I was also considering going with a gold-foil tint like what you see on spacesuit helmets. Which one sounds better?
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Black Aeronaut]

The gold foil might look a bit ostentatious. The smoked glass looks fine, though. However, I think that Rob should have the final, overriding vote.

[robkelk]

The smoky-quartz look has http://www.lunadude.com/pet_proj/valley_forge/film.htm]Fen-friendly precedent, so I'm happy with that for most of the windows. However, the hotel's observation deck should be either optically clear (to match http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/photosynth/index.html]the window on the ISS' Destiny lab or ostentatiously gold-foil. I suspect gold-foil would be easier to render, in that you wouldn't have to show the interior of the observation deck...

Edit: Oh, and ther should be one optically-clear window in the Old Ring - Noah's office's window.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

And I think we're done here, pending final approval:


Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Star Ranger4]

I dont see anything, but Stellavia IS Rob's pride n Joy. Err... Noahs... same diff.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[robkelk]

pending final approval

Granted!

(Now it's time to get back to writing...)

Edit: So, who's updating the wiki?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Star Ranger4]

Dont look at me... Yes I have been, but its just for the stuff related to Murph.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[M Fnord]

Wiki updated w/images. If you want the text to match properly, you're on your own.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[M Fnord]

So since it's still on the front page, I'm going to use this as an art dump thread.

Anyway, having finished Stellvia I've turned my attentions to another fen ship. Pretty far along on this one, with luck I'll be ready to do a beauty render by Sunday. See if you can guess which one it is by the WIP:


Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

Ah, good - we picked the same hull shape.

But the airlock door's a bit too far back (it's in the middle of the cargo space)... and somebody (you or me?) seems to have forgotten about the ammo
feed for the turret-mouted missile launcher near the stern.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Star Ranger4]

Given Rob's comment, I'll guess thats the Blade, as the Lil Deuce Coupe is, IIRC, a Coupe.

A thought that will help you down the road, though, Mal. while the Inside is all fine and well, you dont need it unless your going to be rendering from inside
the ship. I'd turn the interior decoration into a single group, build the outer hull around that, and then save off the outer hull to a separate .skp file
for exterior shots. It'll speed things up a LOT since there is a lot less data for Sketchup to crunch just to decide if a particular face is even seen or
not.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[robkelk]

while the Inside is all fine and well, you dont need it unless your going to be rendering from inside the ship.

Ah, but what if somebody wants to do artwork for Legend of Galactic Girls? Whoever-that-is would need an interior model, no?

Edit: There's also the possibility of an out-the-bridge-window view of a station, ship, or settlement, which would require modelling the bridge as a frame for the view. Although that might be a bit pixel-intensive...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Star Ranger4]

Right... Thats why I'm saying once Mal has the outer hull, copy it off to a new file. For exterior only shots, he can use the exterior only skp, while
using the full render model only for those shots that happen from inside... like with the camera on the bridge, right behind Noah and YaoiYaoi as they make
their approach on Grover's Courner for the first time.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[robkelk]

YaoiYaoi

She's not into that. In fact, "yuri" would be a better choice for Yayoi.

(Okay, it's not much of a joke. But we could use a bit of levity today, no?)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Star Ranger4]

robkelk wrote:

---

She's not into that. In fact, "yuri" would be a better choice for Yayoi.

Oh! Kei!

(Right back atcha! me an my horrible mamory... times like this I've found I gotta laugh or the dark side overtakes me.)
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[M Fnord]

Re: Renders, files etc.

A hull-only model - which I do have - has its own problems, since the model has a fair number of windows on it. For distant shots it's okay, but any sort
of medium-close shot that gets the windows will either be painted black or show that the hull is just an empty shell. So for the sake of the tiniest scrap of
realism, there needs to be *some* internal structure.

Which is what I have. I've got the internal walls blocked out & painted, so should I take a shot through the windshield or one of the portholes
there's at least floor and ceiling and walls to look at. The picture of the interior looks a lot more complex than I think it really is, mostly because
I'm abusing low-poly props from 3D Warehouse. I'm not crazy enough to model every friggin' switch on the control panel or anything.

Besides, the props inspire odd little Azumanga-esque story ideas. Like "how the *hell* did they get that loveseat up there?"
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"