Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: Stryke 9 on July 24, 2004, 04:19:37 pm

Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 24, 2004, 04:19:37 pm
Why the **** not?

WIP of, well... a street. Yeah.  Haven't done a render in a while, why not, eh? Bar, litter, nasty-ass pavement, wierd cyborg man-dog thing in the alleyway. Pretty typical.

X
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 24, 2004, 10:51:42 pm
Ho-lee ****.

All right, actually, you people can be extremely helpful to me here. And it doesn't involve sacrificing major organs this time!

Can you see a brick pattern in this image? Any color at all? 'Cos if I'm the only one getting that as solid black and I've been doing image work for other guys these last coupla months, I seriously need to have a word with the monitor calibration software people. And maybe a savage beating, too.

(http://www.wpierce.com/wlp/brks.jpg)

This is not the sort of thing you wanna realize late one night after weeks of heavy graphics work...
Title: Blah
Post by: DragonClaw on July 24, 2004, 10:56:21 pm
It's not pure black, but I don't really see a pattern to the weirdness.
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 24, 2004, 11:02:47 pm
So, it's still very nearly black? Half-and-half, with a few splotches of visible stuff? Something like that?
Title: Blah
Post by: DragonClaw on July 24, 2004, 11:11:01 pm
Well, I'm not sure there's any pure black to the thing, you can see the borders on the forum background. The splotches in the inside are darker than the borders. But yeah there's splotches, I don't really notice it much unless I really look at the image though, but I suppose if you repeat the image on a grand scale it'd be easily noticable.

Is it supposed to be pure black?
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 24, 2004, 11:16:16 pm
It's not supposed to be visible, no. Everything there varies from about one to twelve points above black, which is about where my monitor can't really tell the difference and until now I assumed most couldn't. Thing is, there's supposed to be an acceptable scale there, I adjust photo contrast for it and light scenes for it, but it appears mine might be way, way off. Which is, y'know, bad, 'cos I'm trying to sell photos based off scans I do from this computer and all, and don't get nice things like cars and food and new non-****ty monitors if I'm unintentionally making everything look like ass.
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 24, 2004, 11:27:44 pm
From four feet away, I can just make out the border, from two feet, I can see the splotches and stuff.
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 02:37:58 am
All right, redid my gamma, just have to hope those photos came out all right... Everything so bright and shiny now! It make my eyes hurt! Bright bad! Bright bad!


This look about right? 'S not anywhere close to what I'd initally rendered it to look like, it lost all the grit effects I'd spent hours on in the adjustment somewhere, but it's about the best approximation I can get without being downright savage with the level settings in Photoshop.
(http://www.wpierce.com/wlp/citstreet.jpg)
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 25, 2004, 02:58:45 am
I like it muchly, but have two words of wisdom:

1) The texture on the left wall looks too obviously cgi. I can't tell if it's the texture, the lighting, or a comination of both however.

2) What's up with the 'spilled paint' looking street lines?

On the commendment aspect of things:

1) The grafiti is a nice touch. :yes:
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 03:07:17 am
Left... far left side? You shouldn't be able to see that at all, if that's what you're talking about I'm still off and it's time to introduce this monitor to some buckshot. If you mean the one with the dumpster and the flier- yeah, that was set up for the original monitor settings, I'll see what I can do about it. Think it's mostly the flier that makes it's obviously fake, 'cos the tex is blurry whereas that isn't... but I dunno, what do you think?

And the street lines are a little wierd because I'm using mostly procedurals to get the proper dirt effects, and it's what I had. Nothing makes things look like crap well like fractals... but yeah, I might replace the lines with some separate geometry if they're really that obnoxious. I thought it looked kinda cool...

Thanks, I bet it'll be a lot less obnoxious now that I have something concrete to work on there.
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 25, 2004, 03:18:14 am
Yeah, the wall above the dumpster. The Texture looks flat, blurry, and off coloured (green, red and brown). It also just seems to stop at the top, with no fading out, or ledge, or anything. You're probably right about the flier, although I'd say it's because the black flier looks crisp, against the dull and blurry looking brick texture, so it almost looks like the flyer is *inside* the wall.

And the street lines do look cool somewhat, but they'd be a lot better in moderation, and not all the length. Like perhaps, where oyu made the pot hole... if you made the area around the hole a little crumbly and cracky, then broke up the line there (and had the line dull a little before the hole, and a lttle after) it'd look a lot better. :)
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 03:47:07 am
Pothole? That's another flier. :p

Geez, I am rusty.

But yeah, good call on the brick texture. That's actually a problem with the other building texes, too, I suspect, since they're all bitmaps I tried to stretch over multiple meshes, but I'll definitely fix that up.
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 25, 2004, 03:49:06 am
The pothole... in the middle of the road. Looks mighty like a pothole to me. If it's a flier, it's rather oddly shapped :p
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 04:07:36 am
It's wet and driven-over and ****. Duh.

You've never seen garbage? Come out to DC sometime, we'll even let ya take some home with you. Collect one ton of beer cans and used condoms, get the second ton free.
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 25, 2004, 04:12:18 am
It's too big looking to be a flier. Give it a nice reflective surface or something and make it a puddle. :p
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 04:14:09 am
It's not flat. If I give it a reflective surface you'll get a nice wobbly view of the blackness of infinite space.

Flier, poster, whatever. An ad for luxury housing on Mars of some sort, 'cos that's what I had on stock.
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 25, 2004, 04:26:48 am
It still looks like a pothole. :p

However, it's your work, so take it or leave it. Just making suggestions and such.
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 04:35:09 am
I'll buy that it doesn't look like a piece of street garbage, but no way that thing looks like a pothole. Potholes have those cracks 'n **** around 'em.

But yeah, adding piece of papery **** to the list, too, I guess.
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 25, 2004, 04:47:07 am
Indeed they do, but with you at the helm, how was I to tell it was supposed to be anything? ;)
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 04:54:41 am
Tthbt.
Title: Blah
Post by: kasperl on July 25, 2004, 10:44:48 am
Tthbt?

Erm, for a flier, try to make it a bit white. The back of a poster is mostly white, and if it is all wet an mashed up, you'll want some white sploodgy thing, perhaps with a bumpmap from some car tyre profiles mixed up.
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 06:12:44 pm
KT: Fine. You're the expert on my stuff, you tell me what this thing is. I haven't the ****ingest, 'cept that it started out as a space thingy, so this time you can go right ahead. :p

http://www.wpierce.com/wlp/stelfb.jpg

Kas: From the Gaelic Thbtan, meaning "I ****ed your mother and couldn't distinguish her from a goat". And noted- first I'll have to give the thing a back to be all messed up, but yeah. Thanks.
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 25, 2004, 07:29:45 pm
Grrr... too dark.

Anyway, it's a pretty, ugly looking mining station of some sort. The kind that smell inside and don't really have showers, unless you count the recycled waste water that doesn't do anything to help the smell. And the inhabitants get small doses of radiation poisoning too, due to bad containment (vs. more cost).
Title: Blah
Post by: Stryke 9 on July 25, 2004, 07:46:14 pm
A little radiation never hurts.

Wait, that's not true.

Okay, a little radiation never hurts fictional characters. Puts hair on chest! Yes!

Oh, yeah, and it's made by a colony of militant neo-Stalinists who who're into the whole Soviet Bloc thing. Hence the number of deck guns, point defense turrets, gigantic relativistic weapons, etc. on it. And the big Communist star on the side you can't see from that angle. Work?


It's got enginey **** (www.wpierce.com/wlp/Stelbk.jpg) on the back, though. Mining ship work?
Title: Blah
Post by: Knight Templar on July 25, 2004, 07:48:01 pm
Ah, yes. Ship does work. And Communism only sweetens the deal. You have my salute, comrade.