Project Excalibur (not for spring)

Optimus Prime · Post by **Optimus Prime** » 21 Sep 2006, 21:00

I just want to show you my actual piece of work, which is just for myself to test how "good or bad" i can work with 3dsmax. I plan to update the scene until i think it is finished, so you will definitely see fighters coming out of the landing docks and some laser effects. Perhaps i will make a movie with a short battle, but that will need some more time.

[for the poly counters: 14564 (triangles more than double)]

TheRegisteredOne · Post by **TheRegisteredOne** » 21 Sep 2006, 21:05

I like your ship, but do you realize that the background you used is a distorted panoramic view of the night sky (with the milk way and stuff)?

Optimus Prime · Post by **Optimus Prime** » 21 Sep 2006, 21:12

hehe i just took the first pic of a sky i found. The background is not that important for me because there is not much i can make myself (just choose a good pic and set it to background). For a later battle or so i sure have to make skybox or something like that, but that will come later...

LathanStanley · Post by **LathanStanley** » 21 Sep 2006, 22:13

seems kinda clunky.. and an over-use of polygons... but if its just for rendering... its ok..

I'd add more "small" model details to it though.. bolts, rivets, cracks, scars, more lights, window glass and interior details... etc...

oh and the render...

needs shadows, radiosity, and yeah... filtering..

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 21 Sep 2006, 22:30

Reminds me of Homeworld and Babylon 5. Change the lights to something more realistic (even red ones usually have a white-ish core) and err.. what Lathan said :)

Zoombie · Post by **Zoombie** » 21 Sep 2006, 23:12

I agree with rattle, the lights look more like...christmas lights then real lights. Also it seems a bit dark, but I think thats the background. If the backround had some nebula and color in general then the ship would be much more visable.

Peet · Post by **Peet** » 21 Sep 2006, 23:14

I'd say make the thruster flames much brighter, and maybe add lens flares to them.

PicassoCT · Post by **PicassoCT** » 22 Sep 2006, 00:36

There are Parts that don`t look "used" enough. Remember - the SpaceShips in Alien or the First StarWars - SpaceShips are like Cars, those who are used for Dark and Dirty Work, look that way. Besides that, the Ship looks great.

My Suggestion - it is always hard to guess, how big a Ship is, as long as the Viewer has no human to compare - modell a Single Room (Bridge, Hangar, Cabin) and a Human looking out - and zoom then out. THis helps creating a Wow-Moment for the Size of the Ship.

Muse · Post by **Muse** » 22 Sep 2006, 01:27

P3374H wrote:...and maybe add lens flares to them.

LOL

Peet · Post by **Peet** » 22 Sep 2006, 02:04

>_>

Peter likes the shiney things.

mehere101 · Post by **mehere101** » 22 Sep 2006, 02:49

Looks good, even though you made me switch to my artistic monitor gamma correction

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 22 Sep 2006, 08:42

Looks pretty much like a bunch of primitives slapped together. The texture looks completely random and makes it look like a solid block, it doesn't have anything that suggests that some parts may have a purpose other than being blocks. Reminds me of early 1990s CG work.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 22 Sep 2006, 09:11

Don't read the following unless you were really serious about getting critique.

Basically, this is not an awful piece... for an amateur. If you're serious about this, and are hoping to do something with 3D modeling someday... you have a very, very long way to go. Here are specific critiques. Please keep in mind... this is not personal, and I'm only sorry that I can't be nicer...

1. The piece is too dark, dingy and generally poorly thought-out in terms of the final render. Either this needs a lot more (and much more realistic) light sources on it, or a distant source lighting it up. It was so dark that I couldn't even see most of it on the monitors at work.

2. It's low-detail for the polycount. With that many triangles, I could make something with a lot more details. You're wasting faces all over the place with inefficient techniques. It took a second look, but then I realised you modeled the WORDS. Sigh... there are about 3-5 THOUSAND tris in those words alone. Massive waste for something you can hardly see most of the time.

3. This needs bump or normal-mapping really bad. That would help make it feel more detailed without upping the polycount further.

4. Overall, it's poorly textured. If you're going for pro-level stuff for CG movies... they use lots and lots and lots of textures and uvmap the whole thing properly, on many seperate maps, for more maximum detail, minimal stretching and minimum suck.

5. The lights feel incredibly un-natural. Space DOES NOT HAVE AIR TO DIFFUSE LIGHT! Do not use point bulbs that look like Rudolf the !*@*! Reindeer. And you have windows that clearly do not actually serve as windows, because they're one solid color.

6. Lastly... from an aesthetic standpoint... meh... it doesn't seem to know what it is. Is it a city? A spaceship? A spaceport? Ok, it has some engines on the end... but look at other angles, and the picture's not so clear. The WWII-style cannons, which show up so often on anime ships, look crude and don't contribute.

Overall... this is an amateur piece. If you're serious, I'd keep it and start over again- but this time, model each section seperately, join them together slowly, uvmap everything as you go, and have a much clearer plan. Things that really bugged me were the lack of lights within the landing decks, the lack of windows, and the constant use of the same texture, tiled all over the place.

At any rate... don't cry. I've done far, far worse work, trust me. But this looks a lot like stuff I did about 8 years ago with Infini-D 4.0, when it took most of the day to do the raytrace

Optimus Prime · Post by **Optimus Prime** » 22 Sep 2006, 11:28

thx for the feedback.

I sure can take critique as long as it is constructive and yours is. But i have to say some words too, so perhaps you understand more:

1. This scene is made in half a day (i think for this short time it is quite good)

2. This project is far away from finished

3. This project is for myself to learn and therefore you sure see some points which you could do easier and better, thats why i posted it here

4. Dont argue about the ship design. There are so many pictures of ships and they all look different and have tons of parts which seem to dont have a function but no one knows because space ships arent real at this time.
5. I wanted to make a dark scene because it looks more realistic

6. The textures arent the best, but i used existing textures so i hope that i have my own in the finished version

7. I agree that the texts are wasted polys, but that is the only waste of polys i made and its only because i didnt know how i can make the text 2d (on my actual ship version it already is 2d). All the rest of the ships is nearly optimised, also i dont care about polys as long as it looks good.

so wait some more days/weeks with your final opinion (i for myself also think that it is far away from finished but for about 6 hours of work it is more than enough and i m happy with the first step)

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 22 Sep 2006, 14:38

For six hours of work, it's fine. And yeah, my aesthetic critique is just my subjective opinion- lord knows, there are lots of concepts of "spaceship" out there

Zoombie · Post by **Zoombie** » 22 Sep 2006, 16:06

You know what this ship reminds me of, now that I have jacked up the brightness on my moinoter?

A squashed, more boxy, Battlestar.

Andreask · Post by **Andreask** » 22 Sep 2006, 17:39

It looks ugly.

Kind of.

Definately needs a bunch of awesome textures on it.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 22 Sep 2006, 17:47

If you think it's too early to critique, why are you posting it?

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 22 Sep 2006, 18:47

To get some positive response!

j5mello · Post by **j5mello** » 22 Sep 2006, 19:01

rattle wrote:To get some positive response!

On this forum...

Spring RTS Engine

Project Excalibur (not for spring)

Project Excalibur (not for spring)