[Warlock]

I'm thinking of adding some fighter weapons fire...which I've always SUCKED at. The basics for the image,..fighters breaking through a shivan fighter screen hence the shivan fighters going all around and such.

Thoughts ? Comments? Ideas?

[vadar_1]

Have an impact explosion on the blue beam, pherhaps more "random" fire  from the shivans (a fair distance away from the fighters), since they must have been attacking the Terran fighters before they flew past.

[Setekh]

Me likes. Things of note: I'd make those engine glows (especially the ones directly in view) a tad brighter; fighter weapons fire isn't too difficult, play around with a white spot, motion blur it, add coloured glow, and hey presto.

[Shrike]

Hey, cool.  I like.  

[Warlock]

Thanks guys

I think also I'll had a small background fight in the lower left corner since it's kinna empty.

You think a sun in the upper right corner would go better with the lighting or should I just leave a sun out of the direct image?

[Shrike]

Is it rendered in 3D space?  If it is, then put a lens flare on the sun... if it's in the scene, it's in the scene.  If not, it's not.

And some fire between the two caps would look good.

[Styxx]

Hm, the Shivan beam just kinda stops at a point... beams should go all the way off the screen... But it's good.

[Darkage]

My sugestion is try to make the glows on the fighters a tad brighter:) but so far it looks neat

[Warlock]

Doing a little messing around with all that now. Prolly get most of it done this weekend thou.

Thanks for all the great tips thou

What do yall think about adding a few more ships into the back drop ?

[IceFire]

My questions are these.  How do you guys go about setting up the render.  What software?  What lighting conditions?  Do you place all of the objects first and then setup lights?  Do you try and cast a general glow to all objects or try and highlight each object by itself.

When you go into post production, what do you do first?  Thrusters?  Beams?

I've made a few renders, most of them I've kept to myself because I'm largely VERY unhappy with the quality.  I'm not sure if its the ships im trying to render or the process which im putting them through.

[Warlock]

Well the above was done completely in Truespace 4.2 with Adobe 6 for after effects.

There is a single omni light in the scene set to a slight yellow tint and placed above and rear of the main eyeline. The positioning ...I started with the pair first...once i got them set where they looked good to me I just configured the others around them.

Engine glows...fine line airbrush tool in PS 6 outlining each engine...then used the Axion plugin Glow and Sparkle...selected the whites per ship, and the color for each. Beams were done basically the same way.

Hope it helps some Ice

[another]

looks too still. to me.

Question: when you set up a scene like that with TS do you actually create motion path for any of those objects? ( ships and fighters) or are they residing in one position on either frame 0 or any other frame of the time line?

Suggestion:

If you'd create a motion path for each of the objects in the scene you would be able

to "place your camera" to achieve different views at different times as you scroll through frames on the time line  thus achieving a better camera angle and capturing ecah object actaully in motion. especially if you apply a little motion blur, say 23-35%.
 With this I do not meen that you should render all the frames, You can if you want to, thus: presto! Animated sequence, but you can render just the frame that shows better the balance of the object in the composition and mantain a self realism the overall scene would have aquired with motion paths.

Also by creating and parenting objects to ships, as in beams thus long and tubular in shape and textured with glow properties to each firing ship, you can also add more realism to the imagery.[/color]
Tip! Placeing your camera to obtain an extreme close up of a laser beam firing  foreground to background in perspective adds to create a further 3D realism.

For the damages incourred by the beams to the hulls...
 well it's real simple:

Build or replicate (by selecting polys Copy and paste)the section of the ship you need to have damaged,

just that small section and delete the same selcted poly from your original object. Relax! It's okay! Remember to mantain the pivoting point of both objects in exactly the same spot. Save the new modified object with a different name. Parent the add on you made to the original object thus now the object is made out of two pieces. Again,  both sharing the same position for their pivoting point. Further build or copy and past the new piece you have created and apply in modelling the damages caused Ei. a gaping hole. Again this third object must also have the pivoting point in the same position.
Import that third object and parent it again to the original object. You now have the ship in question made out of 3 parts. two that overlap each other exactly. make the dameged piece invisible.

Somewhere (and I sincerely hope this function is available in TS) there should be, maybe in object property, a function to make the object invisible. Hopefully with an envelope operating on the frames of the time line.  When the impact should happen in the time line you will make the part of the ship with no damages invisible and the part of the ship with the damages visible. Effective transaction should be about 35-40 frames if you are running at 30 per second animation.

Place and parent a coloured light Usually (red and orange)or more if neaded with flare envelope in the correct place of the dameges and explosion set to happen at same time and add a few other bits of the hull you might have modelled  previously and added again by parenting them to the main ship to sustain the damages . Each of those pieces individual motion path should be arraied omnidirectionally. and each pice should have an envelope set to increase spead from starting point.
There are many other settings to make the whole thing look even more real but you could start there.
 
There are other ways to do this using particle animation envelopes gravity and wind resistence on te particles  but that's a hell of a lot more advanced and what I explained to you actually works.

Of course TS has volumetric lighting so those light rays can look real cool without ever any need to go and post the whole thing on Photoshop. Not to mention that radiosity  should be a contributing factor to emanate further light from those rays effecting other surfaces around thus adding further realism to the whole thing.

Always start with one main light which should effect everything in the scene and then add further lights to either balance it less contrasting effect although in space the light contrast is considerable. and other smaller lights like explosions and retro rockets should be added as needed.[/color]


I hope I was helpfull in explaining this to you War and anyone also who might make use of this information.
 
Hi all. Nice to see you again,

CougEr
Better than creating life... give life to a creation.
NEW OSIRIS STATION

[Setekh]

Originally posted by IceFire
My questions are these.  How do you guys go about setting up the render.  What software?  What lighting conditions?  Do you place all of the objects first and then setup lights?  Do you try and cast a general glow to all objects or try and highlight each object by itself.

When you go into post production, what do you do first?  Thrusters?  Beams?

I've made a few renders, most of them I've kept to myself because I'm largely VERY unhappy with the quality.  I'm not sure if its the ships im trying to render or the process which im putting them through.

I mostly start off with one idea - it could be a ship, a shadow, a planet, a story, whatever - and build off that. Whatever pops into my mind first is usually of greater importance; that which I think of later can be added somewhere in the background/foreground (ie. not the focus), or in empty space. Sometimes I end up with something that I think looks too cool, so I abandon all the other elements I had in mind, in favour of preserving what I have already, and not ruining it by putting crap in front of it (or behind it). Case in point:

http://www.3dap.com/hlp/staff/setekh/techdemo19.04.2002AD.jpg

[Bobboau]

what is that and how did you make it

[Setekh]

The originally idea was a word: "ManaStorm". (Ask Cobalt.) It transformed kinda, so you could read it as a huge release of energy.. that arc on the right is a shockwave. Big Bang type thing.

They're particles. Puffy particles. Think of a few hundred mini, enclosed nebulae, on the scene. That's the best description I can come up with of how I manufactured that.

[CobaltStarr]

Originally posted by Setekh
The originally idea was a word: "ManaStorm". (Ask Cobalt.) It transformed kinda, so you could read it as a huge release of energy.. that arc on the right is a shockwave. Big Bang type thing.

They're particles. Puffy particles. Think of a few hundred mini, enclosed nebulae, on the scene. That's the best description I can come up with of how I manufactured that.

Dude, when you first showed that to me, I didn't really have any idea what you had come up with... It looked like the "Gridfire" image you had made... but with this description I'm getting inspired... Mini-big bang... I like that...

[RoachKoach]

i work purely in photoshop. so, my most difficult task is getting the angles on the ships right. i first put the largest ship in, or whatever is the focus of the render. then according to its orientation, decide how the other ships should be placed. kind of irritating getting it right cos, i use 3DX to get the ships rendered, and if the angle's a bit off, i got to do it again.

ok, then i put a background, nebula/stars or planet(s). i add ships as i build the scene in my mind. while im making the thing, what i had originally planned changes slightly, as things might look better the way they come out.

explosions and firing r probably the last thing i add, but that depends on how big the render is. i usually find the render is still looking a bit empty and add a few more ships n stuff.

engine glows i usually add directly after placing a ship, unless its a fighter, for them i add the engine glows a bit later, cos they need more work.

last step is lighting, i do it that way so that i can make the lighting more accurate. depending on whats where (beams/explosions/suns/engines,etc) i add the lightng effects appropriately. lighting is probably the trickiest thing in a render. Setekh's renders look so good mainly cos of the amazing lighting:yes:

well, thats my guide to making the perfect render

[Setekh]

Originally posted by CobaltStarr
Dude, when you first showed that to me, I didn't really have any idea what you had come up with... It looked like the "Gridfire" image you had made... but with this description I'm getting inspired... Mini-big bang... I like that...

Glad I could help... I love it when my renders inspire the community. It's just cool.

Roach, well... I don't think my renders are that special, but you're right when you say that the best part of them is the lighting. The lighting of a render, or a picture of any kind, is the be-all or end-all of the entire story; even with a crappy subject, if you light it well, it'll be a killer.

[Corsair]

Originally posted by Setekh


Glad I could help... I love it when my renders inspire the community. It's just cool.

Roach, well... I don't think my renders are that special, but you're right when you say that the best part of them is the lighting. The lighting of a render, or a picture of any kind, is the be-all or end-all of the entire story; even with a crappy subject, if you light it well, it'll be a killer.

Agreed. I do everything in Photoshop, which is why my lighting usually doesn't come out too well. It's hard to light a 3D scene on a 2D image. Ship angles aren't too big a problem, but figuring out how they should be lighted is. I really need to get a real 3D rendering program..

[Setekh]

Try the demo of Deep Exploration - from what I can gather, it is a beefed-up version of 3D Exploration, which got me started. Convert some models with Pof2Cob and get going. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.