Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Diaspora => Topic started by: Bobcat on September 19, 2009, 02:44:46 pm
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Here are a few of some older Nebula projects I've done... or maybe they're just pretty clouds. Also attached is a nebula I threw together last night. Lt. Cannonfodder asked me to take a stab at nebulas.
This is just something on a whim. If you guys are looking for particular colors and shapes and moods, I'm open to input. If you think it all sucks... that's fine too. hehe. Peace!
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This is an old VFX project I did for a movie... for kicks and giggles.
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Couple more...
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IIRC they didn't even do nebulas in BSG for most of the first two seasons.
There wasn't even much of a starfield early on. Space was just black. And empty.
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IIRC they didn't even do nebulas in BSG fer most o' th' first two seasons.
There wasn't even much o' a starfield early on. Space were bein' just black. Drink up me hearties, yo ho! An' empty.
That thar be nebulas 'less m' eyes be deceivin' me.
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That's a promo shot, not a screenshot from an episode.
The only Nebula-ish objects I can recall were in "Scar", the S03 episodes where they were in a nebula, and of course the big accretion disk of the black hole in the finale.
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There were some very striking nebulas in the Season 3 opener, IIRC, as well, and a few when they splurged on having a planet in the background. But 33 didn't even have a starfield.
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Also, Ragnar :p
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Also, Ragnar :p
That's an atmosphere. :P
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Oh. I never understood that!
Well, it still fits into the 'and pretty clouds' category :D
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Besides, FS2Open can't simulate nebula transition yet, IIRC. And we were more talking about background maps nebulas, not in-your-face nebulas. :P
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There's that Lion Nebula from season 3, too.
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Don't you worry guys, we plan to use nebulas in the game the same way they were used in the show: as specific set pieces creating distinct setting and mood for the mission.
That being said, really faint whispy nebulas can be used with great effect to bring more life to an otherwise plain starfield. This shot illustrates the point nicely: http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/5228/screen0433.jpg Some people might not even be able to see the gas clouds in the image, but they are there to add some color.
@Bobcat: The last two nebulas show the most promise of the bunch, but they could use more depth to them. We are going to use bright nebulas sparingly, and thus the ones we use should be spectacular central set pieces, each unique in it's own way. Something like this comes to mind: http://objsam.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/nebula_rcw49_04lrg.jpg
As for your questions on email: square images tend to work best, black background with no stars, final size will be 1024x1024 or 2048x2048. It's a good idea to paint them as big as you can though, downscaling is always easy.
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How much longer until we can seamlessly go from open space into nebulae and back o.0
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Don't you worry guys, we plan to use nebulas in the game the same way they were used in the show: as specific set pieces creating distinct setting and mood for the mission.
That being said, really faint whispy nebulas can be used with great effect to bring more life to an otherwise plain starfield. This shot illustrates the point nicely: http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/5228/screen0433.jpg Some people might not even be able to see the gas clouds in the image, but they are there to add some color.
@Bobcat: The last two nebulas show the most promise of the bunch, but they could use more depth to them. We are going to use bright nebulas sparingly, and thus the ones we use should be spectacular central set pieces, each unique in it's own way. Something like this comes to mind: http://objsam.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/nebula_rcw49_04lrg.jpg
As for your questions on email: square images tend to work best, black background with no stars, final size will be 1024x1024 or 2048x2048. It's a good idea to paint them as big as you can though, downscaling is always easy.
Ah, whispy. Okay, got it. I was just doing some experimentation to see what would come of it. I will make some attempts at those elusive, whispy critters. 2048x2048 sounds good to me.
I find it best to throw a couple glowing stars in the nebula to make it more lifelike. Do you mind a few here and there being in it or do you prefer a nice, smooth, star-free nebula?
What do you mean by more depth? More texture? More ripples? More... sex appeal? Ya know... throw some curves in there?
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Makes me think of the suggestion for "sparse nebulae" I made in the "New Life for FreeSpace" thread a while back...
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Ah, whispy. Okay, got it. I was just doing some experimentation to see what would come of it. I will make some attempts at those elusive, whispy critters. 2048x2048 sounds good to me.
Both whispy and "hero" nebulas are needed. We already have couple of sets of the whispy ones, but more can't hurt.
I find it best to throw a couple glowing stars in the nebula to make it more lifelike. Do you mind a few here and there being in it or do you prefer a nice, smooth, star-free nebula?
Generally it's best to leave them completely star free, unless the star is a really central piece of the nebula.
What do you mean by more depth? More texture? More ripples? More... sex appeal? Ya know... throw some curves in there?
Sorry, I'll clarify. Currently the nebulas are fairly uniformly lit giving them a rather flat look. Adding more cloudlike shading to them could add more feeling of depth and scale.
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I remember noticing, with one of my own projects, that if I did sort of like this (layer-wise):
(Additive, last) nebula bitmaps
(Multiplied/Darkened, second) nebula 'shadow' bitmaps
(Opaque, base) high-res starfield texture
the differences between stars showing through/not showing through look quite nice. But as for actually putting stars in the nebula itself, that really depends what kind of nebula it's supposed to be. There are emission nebulae (where the gas is glowing from its own heat), reflection nebulae (where the nebula reflects the light of stars within or near it), and the dark ones (I can't remember the name right now, but they absorb the light from behind them).
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well bobcat, it seems you are being tempted to doing star fields, I got on the team that way, (besides for doing concept art), and to be very honest you already show a lot more potential than I did. I was caught up way to much into the custom brushing which cost me hours at a time and gave only so so results...
the last two were best, I agree with LT cannonf. on that, and to give my ideas about adding depth, think about what you are painting. Is it an exploded star, a pulsar or the milky way. not that everything needs t be round and symmetrical but in my opinion it looks more realistic if once in a while a small hint is given towards its origin and or nature. (this site might help, I am particularfond of the running man nebula)
http://www.pbase.com/gbachmayer/astrophotos_a
whether you get on the team is not for me to decide but good luck and get going like this....
eldain
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Okay, so what I'm hearing is you want whispy and hero nebulae... but you already have whispy ones. What is a hero nebula?
I'll get to work on some more here soon.
Thanks for the compliments and suggestions. Yeah, I didn't use custom brushes. I used the "render cloud" feature in a feathered selection and played with the levels, added some overlays and filters, cloned some cool patterns and started painting with various textures I had generated. I pulled some textures from existing photographs as well and then just painted color on top of that. Added some debris and a few big stars and viola!
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I was wondering how long it would take you to react :p
on topic:>> sounds great, really, I must say i am a big fan of the running man nebula, and if you create something like that... wow.
if you use photoshop, using one of the cloud brushes on top of your renders might be an idea, just make sure, you set the brush at lighten, screen or darken, and play with the effects of a brush with opacity smaller than 10 percent( to make the brushing less obvious and the effect more subtle). It brings out the lighter parts and combined with what you have could make a fascinating play of light.
eldain
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Okay, so what I'm hearing is you want whispy and hero nebulae... but you already have whispy ones. What is a hero nebula?
Hero nebula means that it's a clearly visible, beautiful and a very central piece of a mission's background. The whispy nebulas are there just to create a bit of variety and mood, hero nebula is there to awe people.
Thanks for the compliments and suggestions. Yeah, I didn't use custom brushes. I used the "render cloud" feature in a feathered selection and played with the levels, added some overlays and filters, cloned some cool patterns and started painting with various textures I had generated. I pulled some textures from existing photographs as well and then just painted color on top of that. Added some debris and a few big stars and viola!
I'd suggest avoiding the cloud filter alltogether. It's far too overused and can be spotted miles away.
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Im not sure on that last one, i'd use it just to give the nebula some randomness, but indeed don't overdo it with the render cloud...
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I'd suggest avoiding the cloud filter alltogether. It's far too overused and can be spotted miles away.
Did you spot it from miles away on those last two? Hmmm? Hmm?? ;) jk Yeah, I can see how that may become somewhat apparent when repeated over and over. I just used that as a base and then painted texture over it. I'm going to try various techniques over the next couple weeks and see what comes of it.
As I had mentioned... painting isn't my strongest talent. Editing and making movies is. Although, I wouldn't say I'm a writer... at least not the likes of which you'd be looking for. I might be pretty good with box art... but there is no box... or spoon, for that matter.
Peace!
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Check out Greg Martin's stuff. He has two tutorials that may be of help. The planet tutorial has a texture that works GREAT for cloud brushes. You may give that a shot.
http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html
http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_planet.html
Good luck!
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Check out Greg Martin's stuff. He has two tutorials that may be of help. The planet tutorial has a texture that works GREAT for cloud brushes. You may give that a shot.
http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html
http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_planet.html
Good luck!
Hey that was some good info. The only thing I'd change about it is using a layer mask instead of erasing. If you've gone another 40 steps beyond and realize that you erased too much, you can always bring it back if you're using masks. :)
I'm a bit tied up for at least another week and then I'll be back to the drawing board. Peace!
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Finally... here is an updated Nebula using a different method. Its kinda in between whispy and hero. Let me know if you like where this is going.
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Another earlier version
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Another earlier version
I like this one, it looks pretty nice actually :P
Mind if I keep these as desktop pic?
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Those look very nice, although the second ("earlier") one feels a bit too cross-shaped. :) The first one looks straight out of a Hubble shot, and I do indeed like where it's going.
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That first one, I'm not sure you DIDN'T yoink that from Hubble. VERY nice. :D
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It looks like they're hubble images photoshopped together. Not that that's a bad thing.
But the first one has an anomalous round blue splotch on it.
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The early version has some edges that look very cut off, gives it a feeling of being out of place. The other one (updated version) looks very nice indeed.
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No, they're not Hubble photos! :ick:
I'm using various textures from various photos to paint with. For example, the one that seems to be everyone's favorite was composed of textures from about half a dozen different photographs. There are 4 layers each with a different color and texturing. My base was simply a grayscale blob painting for luminance with a little noise added in. But I can't give away all my secrets. ;)
More to come. I'm stuck in a military contract working mad crazy hours until Nov. 24. Not likely that I'll get much done between now and then. Peace! Thanks to those who have offered suggestions. :)
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OK I think these are very nice quality nebula, but as people said, there are "splotch's" or BIG stars on the first one, and the second one has very sharp edges...
try making one similar to the new version, the core smaller, the overall color dark purple with a bright center, and the nebula itself very wispy
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I took the liberty to play around a bit in photoshop to better show what I was meaning, I hope you don't mind :)
(http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/935/nebulaf1025.png)
By gbtf67 (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/gbtf67) at 2009-10-18
*thanks for the pointer newman :)
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OMG that is truly beautiful :jaw: :jaw: :jaw:
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Nighteyes, on HLP you can use [lvlshot] tags instead of [img] ones. It's a lot better, especially with large images, as the browser will auto scale it to fit the window, and you can always see it at 100% scale by clicking at it.
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I took the liberty to play around a bit in photoshop to better show what I was meaning, I hope you don't mind :)
(http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/935/nebulaf1025.png)
By gbtf67 (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/gbtf67) at 2009-10-18
*thanks for the pointer newman :)
I have been trying to figure out how to make a nebula like this in Gimp or Paint.Net for a while and just can't seem to get this detail. Great job Nighteyes! I like that cloud/nebula effect and that is the thing I can't seem to make right. Any tutorials that talk about creating nebulas that you can almost see your self going inside of?
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hay don't ask me, all I did was use the clonestamp tool in photoshop on Bobcat's original nebula, played a bit with curves and coloring, that is all... ask Bobcat, he's the real artist here :yes:
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with gimp.... you could take images of real clouds for that, invert colors on one so you get a black background with a little white , then put some more cloud images on different layers , recolour them and start playing around with the layer properties, that might get you something.. though I've never tried it before seems like a good way to start.
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Yeah the basics are to use cloud photos and clonestamping them in different interesting ways, there are also LOTS of great brushs for photoshop, so using a photo base and adding details with cloud brushs should produce some nice results :)
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hay don't ask me, all I did was use the clonestamp tool in photoshop on Bobcat's original nebula, played a bit with curves and coloring, that is all... ask Bobcat, he's the real artist here :yes:
Awww... you shouldn't have ;)
I haven't put a lot of effort in to the last two images. I'm trying to make sure I'm headed in the right direction before I pour hours into "perfect nebulae" for Lt. Cannonfodder. Yes, the second one does look "crosslike." Its what I like to call "Puffy Green and Pink Nebula v2.0: Knights Templar Edition"
The splotches you see is just me being lazy. When I get a green light for a particular style and look, then you'll start to see high resolution, clean nebulae from me. :D I'm still stuck on a military job until Thanksgiving, though. Nothing new until then, unfortunately.
Thanks for the comments and etc. As for the criticism, go stick yourselves!!! ;) jk All is welcome. Peace out!