[Black Wolf]

I've been making galaxy backgrounds over the last few, well, months actually, but only on and off, so I haven't exactly been doing very many. I'm working towards a background pack, but I want a little feedback first. The three above galaxies have been made (by hand - ie. not simply with a single plugin) with 3 similar yet distinctly different methods. I'd like a little feedback as to which everybody likes the best, so I can make more in it's vein. Number 1 has been shown before, but the other two are brand new. So, tell me what you think...

[Fineus]

That poll scared me for a second there!

I love the first and second ones in particular, but the second one is just that bit more interesting.

[Knight Templar]

I'm a fan of spiral glaxies myself so I'd have to pick the last one

[Sesquipedalian]

Number 3 definitely has the most authentic feel to it.  Number 2 looks cool with the perpendicular stream of light coming from the poles, but that's really a more stellar thing than a galactic one.

[Alikchi]

Number 1.. number 3 is ugly, and number 2 is too..mmh..I would pick it but the light seems to big and the spirals? whatever you call them? are too..even. Looks faker than the top one.

[Anaz]

sweeet....I didn't know you could do that with a poll!!!


I like #3 the best. #2 looks like it could be made into a cool warp ani...and I think #1 just looks odd...

[karajorma]

Nice work BW but I hope you`re setting the mission somewhere new cause I don`t think there is anywhere in this galaxy where you can see a spiral galaxy look like that

Would make a great background for a mission set through a knossos or in shivan space though (assuming shivan space is in another galaxy).

[StratComm]

I like the first one, because it looks like it could be a gallaxy or a newly formed star, either way.  Also, the second one is too defined on its perimeter to be a galaxy (or almost any stellar/galactic phenomenon for that matter) and the third has too much noise around the spirals to make a good FS background.  I want to see a Milky Way, because I have thought of the possibility of having a campaign take you into one of the Magellinic clouds.  From there our home galaxy would not only be visible as a galaxy, but would also be very large (and thus need to be very elaborate).  I can't really think of another reason to use galaxies on a starfield though...

I still like these things as backgrounds though, just because they look cool

[diamondgeezer]

They're all gorgeous. Make lost more. Use all of them.

[Black Wolf]

Heh - results seem about even , but I'm glad number three's in the lead - that one was the easiest to make .

Originally Posted by Analazon sweeet....I didn't know you could do that with a poll!!!

Neither did I until I posted this one . As it was I had to fiddle around in a forum with Moderator access to make sure that it would work.

Oh, and these backgrounds aren't for any specific missions - while one or two may pop up in Act 2 or 3 of TI (most of which does take place out of GTVA space), I'm primarily heading towards a background pack, so they'll be available to everybody, for whatever missions anybody wants. Problem is, I'm running out ofIdeas for the Pack - I have planets, regular nebulas, galaxies, a few one off nebulae and possibly a few suns, but I don't know exactly how to implement those . Anyway, I'll keep thinking I guess...

[karajorma]

What might be nice would be a dark nebula like the Horsehead Nebula

A pulsar might also be nice but it would suffer from the fact that you couldn`t make it rotate.

Anaccreting white dwarf would be nice too.

[Black_Dragon]

Nice,    I like the second and the third.

[ZylonBane]

Someone explain this to me-- Why bother making fake-looking CG galaxies for use as backdrops, when there are already thousands of picture of REAL galaxies available on the net?





Yumm...

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by ZylonBane
Someone explain this to me-- Why bother making fake-looking CG galaxies for use as backdrops, when there are already thousands of picture of REAL galaxies available on the net?

http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/images/d4/m109b.jpg
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/images/d3/02676b.jpg
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/images/d6/m33_oarb.jpg

Yumm...

Because you have to clean out all the artifacts and various crap from real pictures to make them work properly ingame?

[Sesquipedalian]

Originally posted by aldo_14



Because you have to clean out all the artifacts and various crap from real pictures to make them work properly ingame?

Pff.   Easy task.  

[CP5670]

I do that all the time; zooming the image in 100x and editing the individual pixels is the way to go!

[Sesquipedalian]

Individual pixels?  What are you using, MSPaint?

[CP5670]

nah, PSP, but it's the best way to do these types of things perfectly. (I do it all the time when making slight modifications to only small parts of existing images, such as cleaning up the photos so that they can be used as ingame backgrounds)

[Sesquipedalian]

I see.  *Lovingly returns to Corel PhotoPaint which can to the job perfectly in large swaths*

[ZylonBane]

For organic images (like galaxies), Clone Brush is good enough for removing dots, specs, whatever.

Then just cut the galaxy out with a high feather width, adjust the brightness/contrast and voila, you're done.