Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Plaaaaant! Plaaaaaaaant!

Published on February 27, 2009 in Renders.

Thought I’d show you what I’m working on for my friend today. Oddly enough, the film quote I’ve chosen today actually makes sense:

tree

Ooo, tropical.

Now, this is fairly low poly (it’s just over 300 faces), but there’s a reason. Well, a couple of reasons. One, this is for a game, and games generally don’t like super high-poly modelling. What’s good about that is that I can practice some low-poly modelling, since I never really do it anyway. Two, the Source engine allows for smoothing: in other words, it can make low-poly models not look junky. The textures on it at the moment are somewhat rudimentary, in case you couldn’t tell. They’ll come later.

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She likes my spaaaark! Ha ha ha!

Published on February 26, 2009 in News.

Way too tired to do anything today unfortunately: I got home only a little while ago after a hard days work! I will have stuff tomorrow though, promise. :>

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And no second gun, thanks to Fio’s big butt

Published on February 25, 2009 in Love is a Stranger and Renders.

Okie dokie artie-chokie, let’s get a-crackin’! By the way, I hope some of you know the films I’m pulling all my post titles from!

love11

Fancy!

Textures soon. Maybe!

Granted, this isn’t exactly a lot of progress, but I have excuses! For one, I worked today, and that sorta prevents me from being on my laptop. You know how jobs are and all. Also, I’ve been working on a prop for a friend of mine. He is constructing some sort of awesome map for Team Fortress 2 and he needs some foliage. So I thought I’d help out!

Also, I got Porco Rosso and Howl’s Moving Castle today. Guys: they are awesome films.

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Eee-Vah? Eeeeeeee-Vaah!

Published on February 24, 2009 in Love is a Stranger and Renders.

Thought we’d take a closer look at the building from yesterday’s post. I’ve done a bit more work on it:

Those windows make the whole thing look like some kind of remote control...

I’m still working on it! As you know, this is all set in the future, so the door will be an automatic thing with a control panel around where the doorbell would usually be. Also, those windows hopefully won’t always suck.

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Why so serious?

Published on February 23, 2009 in Love is a Stranger and Renders.

Onwards we march, folks!

Concept should be a TINY bit clearer than yesterday's version!

So, you might notice that the building there has three ‘chimneys’: they’re actually steam vents (as I mentioned, it’s a very steamy place, and no, not in the the hot ‘n sexy way). There’s also a large cog there too: it’s all about making the world feel more mechanical!

I was kinda looking at the enormity of what I had to do on the old concept of Love is a Stranger with trepidation the other day. It’s about ten times worse now. :P Keep in mind that I’m currently undertaking this by myself, which means I have no idea when it’ll be done. My guess is, not any time soon.

I suppose what I need now is some inspiration. I sure hope you folks have seen some of Miyazaki’s work, cos Porco Russo and Howl’s Moving Castle are a good indication of where I want to go with this. I’ve also been playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, which has a fantastic planet called ‘Skyworld’. Also, there is a set of books called ‘The Edge Chronicles’ by Paul Steward and Chris Riddel. Fantastic world and fantastic illustrations! Just need to source me some art for the Miyazaki stuff: if anyone’s got any links, then please pass them on!

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Fly, yes; land, no!

Published on February 22, 2009 in Love is a Stranger and Renders.

I have started constructing the initial set! YAY! So basically, what we have here is still the park, but we’re in a completely different place. Imagine, if you will, a world that never really moved out of the industrial revolution. It’s a world run by big, clunky mechanical machines. A world where everything has been built over itself multiple times. There are steam pipes and cogs everywhere, all hard at work for various things. This is one of the few bits of grass the city has, and it’s surrounded in a ring by the rest of the world.

Despite the piles of machinery, there’s still a warmness to it all. This isn’t some kind of Bladerunner-esque wasteland: it’s a purposeful city that’s teeming with life, albeit life of a different kind.

love10

Ok, maybe my concept isn't quite there yet...

Well, at least, that’s what I hope to achieve! At the moment, it’s a bit hard to see, but I’ll get there. So, imagine that surrounding that grass bit will be a path of cobblestones and then a bunch of buildings. The tunnel up ahead also acts as a bridge between two buildings as well. You might also notice that I’ve kept the streetlights from the old concept, as they still fit the style of this one. Except now they hover!

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Where does he get all those wonderful toys?

Published on February 21, 2009 in Love is a Stranger and Renders.

Following on from yesterday’s totally GROUNDBREAKING news:

V-room v-room?

It’s done! So you can see the driver sits in the seat and drives the cart from the joystick. And now here’s a re-done version of the swings:

Weeeee!

More soon!

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You’re all clear kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home!

Published on February 20, 2009 in 3D W.I.P. and Love is a Stranger.

I made a potential dangerous decision today regarding Love is a Stranger. During my initial thinking stages, I basically thought of setting it in a modern city, a city that would be a blend of a bunch of cities. As such, I’ve been modelling props with that mindset, as I’ve shown with all the renders so far.

A little while ago, I was thinking about setting this thing in a different place. It’d still be a city, but it’d be more of a fantasy city: a retro, steampunk flavoured city, set in the future. Today, I decided to switch to that concept.

So what does that mean? It means that all the props I’ve done so far, as well as the set are useless. The good news is though, once I start designing this new city, it should have a far stronger visual design than before. As well as that, I can really let loose with my imagination! So, without further ado, I present this cart, the first prop for the new look:

love-cart

It's a steam powered stall! STEAM

It’s not done yet, but this is a motorised cart/stall, which is powered by steam. The ‘handles’ for the cart will house a seat that the driver will sit in. A steering wheel of some kind will drop down and they will be able to drive the cart around. At the moment, the cart is missing the steering wheel, the front wheels and the chair, but I should have them in soon!

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You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor!

Published on February 19, 2009 in Renders.

More of the same, yet again:

love8

Is that a slightly better texture job? YES IT IS!

I actually did a bit of optimising today! If I recall, the render time for a frame was 12 minutes. It’s been dropped to 8:30 or so on. Which is great!

EDIT:

#Hot town, summer in the city, back of my neck gettin' dirty and gritty#

Mental ray’s sun and sky settings can’t actually replicate this type of sky. However, the sky is spat out as an alpha, which makes it easy for me to go in and do this in post. I could be wrong, but I believe sun and sky alphas the sky so you can do nicer looking skies in post. Basically, I’ve just increased the amount of post work I have to do. :<

EDIT AGAIN:

love9

Last one for tonight, promise!

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Is -he- ok!?

Published on February 18, 2009 in Renders.

I skipped a day (or two), but we will pretend that didn’t happen!

love6

Is that a poor texture job you see? YES IT IS!

Yes, it is rather poor, but it’s a start. It will look better soon! Totally! Hopefully!

Maybe…?

Closed