Adamant Command Center Texturing Pass WIP

Hi everyone.  Sorry for the lapse in updates this past couple of months.  I'd been tied up in several projects and work was piling up. :(  But, had a week, here, to breathe and de-stress.  Here's the result when I de-stress!

I took the Adamant's command center and started texturing it and prepping it for finalization.

The scene relies very heavily on dubious topology and severe color correction to make it look good.  This is still very much a WIP in that I have to add the sweeteners to the holographic displays (control rings, numbers/letters/symbols, readouts, etc....) and flesh out some of the detail geometry--most notably the detail lighting and a few other things to highlight the scene a little more.

Hopefully everyone is doing good.  More work on this today to finish it out and get it done!

Have a good one, all.

Dan

Adamant Completed! And a New Demo Reel

Hi all,

The (major) work on the Adamant is done. :D  I suppose I'll always be tinkering, making her better.  I suppose this could be chalked up to the fact that the ship always is in for refit as new technologies become available, right? :)

Also, a new demo reel for 2015, featuring the new ship!  The old demo reel was really starting to show its age, so I decided to bite the bullet and make a new one.  Not much room for stuff in only 2 minutes of video, so I had to be choosy.  I decided to show the work for Gingerbreed and a possible future concept web series I've been tinkering with called Starship: Adamant, which would feature short little snippets of various missions the Adamant goes on in her voyages. :)



Dan

Finished Gingerbreed Sample Work

So, continued work on Gingerbreed.  The guys over at HiFI3D sent me some finals yesterday featuring one of the digital sets I built for them.

Here are some original OpenGL versions of the Colony set as it was being built:

Since this set was to be different from the rest of the sets built previously, I started with a single panel to get an okay from Jon and Szymon

The set was to be heavily damaged and distressed, but I started from a pristine state to get an idea what the location looked like before its demise

Jon and Szymon would give me helpful feedback on the project.  Since the scene was to include live action shots already completed, certain geometry had to be placed correctly to accommodate the paths of objects as they moved through the digital environment.  Some of these changes may stay, others may be removed at virtually any time in the production

The central core of the set was left for last.  Again, due to shooting constraints, the over all floor plan had to be followed closely

I model in Blender, because I find the modelling suite there to be easier and faster to work with.  But the film uses Maya, so the sets have to be exported to Maya scenes and set up in a certain hierarchy to facilitate lighting, texturing and shooting.

From there, Jon and Szymon take the modelled scene, light and texture it and then render it out for backgrounds for the action.  The results look like this:

So, that's what I do for a living. :)

Hope everyone enjoyed this little foray into the world of a digital environment modeller!

Dan

Shuttle Pod

More work on Gingerbreed for the guys at HiFi 3D.

Still some work to do on detailing out the aft sections and other things.  But so far, so good, I hope.

This particular model has to have a full interior as well, for filming.  So a high res interior model for this, seamlessly integrated into the exterior modeling is necessary.  Fun times.

Dan

New Uploaded Model

Well it's been a bit of time since my last update.  I've been extremely busy with commissions, and haven't been able to share much of it since I'm under NDAs.   But, a little bit of a respite this week, so I decided to finally finish the ship interior I was working on earlier this year and upload it to the various storefronts.

I give you the Spaceship Interior C HD!

Dan

Corridor WIP

While waiting for other projects to finish...

On Laser Turrets

About a month ago, I received a request from CGCookie.com to make a Blender tutorial.  So, after a bit of deliberation with Jonathan at Blender Cookie, we decided to make a tutorial on how to do laser beam cannons in Blender, using the Cycles render engine.

Today, I started work on the tutorial by building the model which will be used with the tute.  A working turret, fully set-up and rigged with empties so that it always points towards its target.

From here, the tutorial will start with how to make the laser beam effect, as seen in this video:

Obviously, this is an older video, so the technique will be improved.

Perhaps in the future, I hope to have another tutorial which will show how to design and build a turret and how to rig it properly for use in this fashion, but for now, hopefully everyone will enjoy the model.

The tutorial is still about a month away, however.  Still working on it.  Never thought I'd be tapped by CGCookie to do a tutorial for them, though.  It's really a cool deal.

Have a great day, everyone.

Thanks,
Dan