Strip Mining Io

[Steve Reeves]

Hi all,

Looking for comments regarding this work in progress - it's supposed to be a mining operation on some distant moon (originally planned to be IO but I preferred a less red colour scheme in the end).

The image is OK - I kind of want to add more detail, sparks, loading transporters, rain maybe but am not quite certain what to do for the best.

I'd be very interested in any ideas as to how I might improve the scene.

The objective is simply for fun - still learning the wave!

Regards

[starbase1]

The scene has potential, but as it stands it needs a lot of work in my opinion.

The overcast sky is neat, and the machines seem OK, (hard to tell when they are rendered this small), but the landscape does not look believable.

I think you need to work on the texturing of it in particular - there's a useful tutorial here on the newtek site that should help things.

Also the landscape shape itself - the mix of flat chunks and extreme ridges seems unconvincing to my eye. There are plenty of DEM's and height maps around of real chunks of landscape you could use as a starting point. These include large chunks of Mars, (a search in these conferences on Mars will help a lot here).

Nick

[iluvatar]

did you take a look at the archive of the NASA? they have some really good pictures on planets / moons on their ftp :) the structures / machines look very nice. just my .02: every thing is very much in focus... when first looking at your image, you don't know where to look, try to setup a attractive camera position and viewing angle, maybe combined with some dof effect? and i agree with starbase, redo the texturing of the ground :)

[robewil]

If Steve is planning on basing his renderings on a real place in our solar system, the sky needs to be changed. No planet or moon in our solar system (outside of Earth) would have a sky of water vapor clouds as shown here.

If I remember correctly, the only moons in our solar system that even have an atmosphere are Titan and Europa. Any other moon would have a starry night sky.

[glassefx]

I like!


I was wondering if you were working in scale measurments? It seems that some of your texturing on the ground objects are out of scale (seem to big).

I'm sure (possibly) you have been told this by the 3d types... That is to always try to work in full scale.

Well I agree! I would also suggest dumping the nasty imperial system for metrics cause they are base ten just like the number system our great creator devised. For example (babble NOW, LOL!) I work inside the structural steel fab business... Structural engineers created a unit called a "KIP" for structural engineering calculations... No biggie, It is just the fact that a KIP = 1000 lbs. which is base 10 compatable. Thats so they can work with a "heavy" or big number close to an imperial ton and also have it divisable by 10 which makes conversions and math calc's a breeze. Do you all use imperial or metric units (say on street signs)(distance, etc.) over there in the U.K.?


If you do not know how to relate sizes in your mind's eye using metrics ( I dont either ) then set LW's units in modeler to inches or feet and then switch to centimeters and see its size and the get close to it but round it down to a whole number in metrics.

example (which is off the top of my head) (not-correct)

say you make a door and you know all doors are 30",32", or 36"

make em that wide in inch units, change to centimeters and it says xx.xxxxx which is its metric size... well then just round it up or down to a whole number to say .90, now its base ten and very close to the imperial size...

make sense?


Keep trying to learn to master the 'wave dude!

[starbase1]

I've thought a bit more...

I'm not bothered by the clouds personally - given the style of the spaceships, I assumed it wa not intended as a realistic piece, more of a mood thing.

One simple way of improving the landscape would be to experiment with adding simple gradients, based on slope.

For example, you might add a layer of a different colour on flat areas, to make it look like dust has accumulated there, or add a little specular on the steeoper areas to represent bare slightly shiny rock.

One simple trick to give scale - there is a strong tendency for people to expect the viewpoint to be a bit under 2 metres above the ground surface. Having it higher can have the effect of shrinking the scale of the image, (and lower can exagerate it usefully).

Getting in closer to the nearest ship thing, and positioning the height of the camera appropritely could work wonders...

Hope that helps,

Nick

[Steve Reeves]

Hi to all!

Firdtly many thanks for your comments - I certainly agree with all of them.

It was originally going to be a realistic scene in terms of being on Io (and therefore would have a clear, starry sky) but I've ended up doing a fantasy moon. I really like the sky (first time I've attempted Skytracer and so that's staying :) )

The flat bit where the first miner is does look strange - in fact I have tried several things in its place and this was my best attempt....I will work harder. The advice about moving the camera to a lower and closer position will no dount help.

Also agree about the landscape texturing - needs more dirt...

Right, leave it with me for a few days (only get about an hour a day to play with Lightwave!) and let's try and improve some of those things.

Again, thanks for all your responses...much appreciated.

[robewil]

Actually, if you were to do Io, you could have Jupiter dominate the sky. Io is so close to jupiter and Jupiter is so large that Jupiter would fill nearly the entire sky during "full Jupiter".

[Remi]

"Add dirt" has been said...I would also add to that by saying add rocks. I also agree with the clouds...get rid of them...atmospheric clouds probably wouldn't exist on a moon. It's got great potential..just some minor things added to it for detail and then sticking to a true atmosphere for a moon. Keep it up:)