Alienware Challenge

Entry for Steve Green ( Steve Green )

Click the image for a larger view.

Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Final Image Date Submitted: Tuesday, 20 January 2004 Title: Really Final this time Notes: Hardly any changes, you probably can't see them at this res, just a few things that were bugging me on the full size Tiff... Phew... CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Final Image Date Submitted: Tuesday, 20 January 2004 Title: Final Image Notes: Here's the final version - I've lightened it up quite a bit to give a sense of scale. Good Luck everyone! CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Lighting Date Submitted: Wednesday, 14 January 2004 Title: Desaturated version Notes: I tried a bit of a rejig on the foreground tentacles and the saturation of the right hand side, just to see if it tones down the business. I still want to look at the far background, and I think some atmosphere around the bottom of the rock formations in the foreground would help as well. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Rendering Date Submitted: Monday, 12 January 2004 Title: Milestone Render Notes: Again for completeness, this is the render without any post effects. It has been composited since the scene was broken up into foreground and background, but apart from the ambient occlusion pass which was done separately it is unretouched. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Lighting Date Submitted: Sunday, 11 January 2004 Title: Lighting layout Notes: Just for completeness on the milestones, shows the position of the lighting. There's basically a single area light, but I separated out an omni light so I could control the specular separately. There is also a second fill light, and attenuated lighting for the crater and foreground objects. An ambient occlusion pass gives shadows to the nooks and crannys, and localised atmospheric fog also helps with the lighting. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Post Effects and Compositing Date Submitted: Sunday, 11 January 2004 Title: Colour ideas Notes: I just thought I'd bash out some ideas for colour schemes, I've been looking at the original one for so long I don't know if it would be better in a different scheme. I quite like the ones on the right, even though the warmer colours are in the background, but I don't know if that is just because they are just new... CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Post Effects and Compositing Date Submitted: Sunday, 11 January 2004 Title: Detail of foreground Notes: I've been toying with the idea of adding a bit of blur to the foreground, this is a detail of the lower left of the image, (still smaller than real size), the radial blur is a bit too much, but it might take the edge off the too clean CG look when you see the image at the final rendered size. I've also tried playing with adding a 10% duplicate of the image with the watercolour filter in Photoshop, which is interesting. It's not as cheesy as it sounds, just seems to add a little bit of detail without it being too blatant. To be honest most of these things just aren't visible on the 150K uploads, so I'll guess I'll just have to make a judgment call on whether it looks good or not. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Post Effects and Compositing Date Submitted: Sunday, 11 January 2004 Title: Now with added sparks Notes: Tweaked again, I've now got the image rendered at the full-res and I've added the electrical sparks back on the crater. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Post Effects and Compositing Date Submitted: Saturday, 10 January 2004 Title: Nearly there Notes: Still got to do some work on the extreme background, and the eggs are totally lost compared to the ambient occlusion render, but I think the background and foreground are much more distinct now. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Modeling Date Submitted: Saturday, 10 January 2004 Title: Ambient Occlusion Render Notes: This is just really to show the state of the model - I added some of the eggs from the earlier tests and will use renders of the eggs as maps on the particles to tie them in to the scene. The machine is starting to seize again, so I'm going to render the eggs as separate elements, since they're generally self-illuminated they don't need an ambient occlusion pass anyway... CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Lighting Date Submitted: Sunday, 04 January 2004 Title: Re-lit render Notes: Still not got around to the background :/ Just trying out some other ideas - I think the foreground is too busy for what is supposed to be desolated, and I would like to get some of the feel of the purple gel-like structure between the tendrils on the opening. I think having the ambient occlusion pass makes the tendrils a bit more beefy though. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Texturing Date Submitted: Monday, 29 December 2003 Title: Revised Foreground Notes: Back to work :) I've changed the foreground - the idea is that there are layers of solidified material, like layers of ice, with the illuminated material below. I think I will have some brighter layers between the cracks, but I don't want it to distract too much from the centre. I'm going to work on the background and roof next, I've put it off for long enough. Thanks for all the comments so far. Cheers, Steve CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Post Effects and Compositing Date Submitted: Friday, 05 December 2003 Title: Depth of Field test Notes: Although the background is not finished, I'm playing around with some DOF on the foreground. This may kill the scale a bit, but I'm interested in getting an effect which is not quite like the usual DOF, so I went for really stretching the highlights, and it gives a bit of a feeling of motion. I will probably end up knocking it back a bit, and having a really close up piece of scenery (what you are standing on) at the same level of blur as the current foreground. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Thursday, 04 December 2003 Title: Revised concept sketch Notes: This is closer to what I'm developing at the moment, so you are looking down this shaft, with light flowing down like a waterfall. Still thinking about changing the colours as well, but a lot of this can be done in post. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Texturing Date Submitted: Tuesday, 02 December 2003 Title: Foreground model texture 2 Notes: Didn't crash this time - I will be toning down the blue gelatinous stuff, making it tighter - but I quite like the pinkness showing through the pipes. I need to work on something for the extreme foreground and the roof now. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Texturing Date Submitted: Tuesday, 02 December 2003 Title: Well it got halfway through... Notes: Pfftt - guess Max doesn't like the direction I'm taking this piece... This is a bit OTT, but you can see the mixture of light and dark a bit better here (apart from the c-dilla error) CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Texturing Date Submitted: Sunday, 30 November 2003 Title: Foreground model textured Notes: Textured version of the same, I doubt it will be this dark in the final version, more of the tendrils will be illuminated like my earlier tests - at the moment, it's a little too Matrix-like. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Modeling Date Submitted: Sunday, 30 November 2003 Title: Foreground model Notes: This is where the main pipe will be coming from, I have a concept sketch which I left at work and the feeling is the pipe will come from this like a waterfall. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Texturing Date Submitted: Wednesday, 19 November 2003 Title: Fine tendrils shader Notes: I think this is pretty close to what I want to do with the finer tendrils. I just need to figure out the look of the background to everything, and then pull the various elements together. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Modeling Date Submitted: Wednesday, 19 November 2003 Title: Finer tendrils model Notes: OK, so I've got a pretty good idea of the look of the main tendril/pipe, fragments of crystal and the light eggs. I also want to have finer tendrils reaching up the shaft. This is using particles to create the geometry, but adding a shader makes a real difference. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Modeling Date Submitted: Monday, 17 November 2003 Title: Background, model test 4 Notes: Last one for the moment, although it is a bit messy, I think the final piece will need to be fairly detailed at the required resolution. I do like aspects of it (it reminds me of iron filings attracted by magnetic fields) and compressing the path of the particles into a single frame is the general concept I was thinking of originally. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Modeling Date Submitted: Monday, 17 November 2003 Title: Background, model test 3 Notes: This was starting to use custom geometry for the particles, there's quite a few different things I want to try out - the main problem is that it does create a lot of geometry. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Modeling Date Submitted: Monday, 17 November 2003 Title: Background, model test 2 Notes: The variation on this one is just by altering the space warps for the particles. By using spawning on death, or collision I can easily make branches off. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Modeling Date Submitted: Monday, 17 November 2003 Title: Background, model test 1 Notes: I was trying to find a way to create quite detailed backgrounds to what I've been working on. I hit on the idea of using particles systems to create the geometry, as it would allow me to experiment with various looks quite quickly. Here are the first few tests CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Texturing Date Submitted: Wednesday, 12 November 2003 Title: Another shader test Notes: I quite like the look of this, it has a 'Kerlian Aura' look about it. Or a bit of tinsel, with lights on :) Must be getting Christmassy... CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Texturing Date Submitted: Sunday, 09 November 2003 Title: Crystal structures Notes: A close up of some crystalline parts that would be in the image, I want to get the feeling of a mixture of natural and alien structure, so I'll be going for holes in the crystals, where you can see the artificial structure more clearly. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Texturing Date Submitted: Sunday, 09 November 2003 Title: Shader test Notes: Still fiddling with the look of the pipe like tendrils, I think it will be a mixture of nebulous matter like this, but areas will have solidified into solid, geometrically shaped areas. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Modeling Date Submitted: Monday, 03 November 2003 Title: Pipe concept model Notes: These are just temp textures, I was going to post just an untextured model, but I don't think it would show the look I'm shooting for enough. Maybe this should still be in the concept sketch section even though it's fully 3D? CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Sunday, 02 November 2003 Title: Detail idea Notes: One thing I'm trying to come up with are some small structures to suggest scale, so I'm starting to doodle some attachments which can be attached to parts of the scene. I see these as being landing pads, or exhausts or something. You can just see in the bottom corner how they would attach. I think it would look quite effective to have some dormant, lying flush with the surface, and others like the ones in the concept - or is that getting a little too freudian? :) CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Sunday, 02 November 2003 Title: Concept B, initial sketch Notes: I thought about changing the view so you are looking down between your feet, it still has the concept of eggs and tubes, just another take on it. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Sunday, 02 November 2003 Title: Concept A, revised Notes: Sorry it's a bit blurry - my scanner is on its last legs... This is a revision of the original concept, but I wanted to add some blue floating crystals, like giant frozen droplets so it's not just the 'light eggs' and strands. I was away from the PC (for once) so it was out with the black paper and pencils... CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Wednesday, 29 October 2003 Title: Rough 2 Notes: Another rough layout, combining what's already been submitted. The glowing tendril-like tube will be snaking around the light/egg-shapes, with beams feeding off them towards the tendrils. In the distance more tendrils reach upwards. More an idea of what will be in there than the actual layout. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Wednesday, 29 October 2003 Title: Light Streak test Notes: I'm thinking of having some tunnels of light in the image, and quite like the idea of the effect you get on night-time long exposures - this was my first attempt - it's a bit messy, but interesting. I really need to work out the overal composition though :) CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Saturday, 25 October 2003 Title: Last one, for the moment Notes: A development of the previous one. I think I shall play with the shapes, making them more egg-like like the original sketch, I'd like to see what they look like in situ - I need to mock up a temp scene to stick them in first. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Saturday, 25 October 2003 Title: No. 4 Notes: I think this is starting to go in a direction I like it gives me the feeling of something living in the light, although it may be a little to similar to a microscopic organism... CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Saturday, 25 October 2003 Title: Light no. 3 Notes: A bit of processing on this, I'm toying with the idea of simulating long exposures on some areas so you get streaks of motion blur on bright areas. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Saturday, 25 October 2003 Title: More lights Notes: Maybe I should have done this on one image :) CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Saturday, 25 October 2003 Title: Some ideas for the lights in the scene Notes: Here are a few test ideas for the lights, just some worked over 3D models. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post
Click for full-sized image		Milestone: Concept Sketch Date Submitted: Tuesday, 21 October 2003 Title: WIP 1 Notes: Well I thought I should at least make a start... I'm sure this will be a long line of concepts - I quite like the idea of suspended blobs illuminating the chamber. I don't think the scenery will be as organic as this one, maybe layers of floating plating, rather like the alien ships at the end of AI. CGTalk: CGTalk Thread | CGTalk Post

Back to the ALIENWARE CG Challenge main