heyvern Posted February 22, 2005 Posted February 22, 2005 Thought some of you might like to see some more detail in my contest entry. Dandy DNA Mechanical Image contest entry. JPEG format. 2000x1366px 2mb Please check out the bubbles on the surface of the goop! That is my favorite part of the whole image! Goop bag detail Just a decal but it looks pretty goopy. I bet that stuff stinks! Anyone who has seen previous bags of goop know that I have been trying to use booleans to cut away the goop but leave the bag. This worked great. I used that technique on the two bags in the box. However I was not 100% satisfied with the final results. I wanted to simplify my project and add more detail to the surface on the two bags up front. I used a copy of the booleaned bags and added splines to the goop that lined up with the cutter and snipped and connected... making a complete goop shape. Of course this removes any potential for animating or changing the level of goop in the bag... I would go back to the boolean version for that. It is totally acceptable in my opinion... I just wanted more bang for the image contest and make it easier to decal. Decaling a boolean is doable... just tricky. You need to render the cut surface to use as a decal template. then decal the cutter surface. Booleans transfer materials and decals onto the surface being cut. My trouble was that I moved my cutter all over the place in an action... so I had to decal in the action to get it lined up... I did it once and decided I would prefer a solid goop shape without a boolean for the other two bags. I also couldn't get a nice "edge". Where the goop hits the bag... it is this absolutely razor sharp edge completely flat... I wanted to slightly curve the edge to catch a highlight. ------------------------------ The research I did was a lot of fun. Allthough the "science" is not 100% accurate... it is pretty close. The electronic multipipette in the foreground is waaaay off. It should be as wide as the row of 8 large pipette tips in the blue holder. Oh well. I am missing some components like a centrifuge, autoclave.... a few other items.... I figure those things are "still in the box". Fascinating fact! You could do DNA sequenceing and PCR DNA "Cloning" in your kitchen with your kids on a rainy saturday afternoon. You will need to purchase a few things from a "specialty" shop... looks pretty straight forward. I found images of highschool kids creating DNA "gels" of their own DNA in a simple classroom using cobled together gizmos hooked up to batteries... very low tech. DNA cloning seems pretty easy as well. You just need to get the temperatures correct and it can take a long time... the complex machines the big labs use cut the time down considerably. You do not need complex equipement. Kind of freaked me out. I found a web site that described in painful detail the entire process of extracting plant DNA to be inserted or added to other plant DNA... lots of tech stuff I didn't grok... but still like putting together furniture from Ikea. I predict the Dandy DNA for kids will exist in 20-50 years. The biggest problem are the extremely flammable and toxic chemicals involved. There are new ones now that are completely non toxic and much safer to work with... cost more of course. Study hard. The final exam will be 50% of your grade.... Vernon "ActivoMoto Toys CEO" Zehr Quote
.:shortdog:. Posted February 22, 2005 Posted February 22, 2005 I really like your dandy DNA kit...where does one find these nowadays? In secret basements, closets previously undetected? I would like to clone one of my dogs and see what happens. And maybe create something nice...like a sort of flying platypus! How much would it be? Can I get it for less on Ebay? Could I see a closer-close up on the instructions (quick start guide)? Can't quite read them. Quote
pixelmech Posted February 22, 2005 Posted February 22, 2005 Just wonderful stuff, Vern. I voted for yours as one of my choices - it just blew me away. And seeing it close up just makes me more appreciative. I wish I had a 5th of your talent! How in the world did you get the liquid inside the bag to conform to the bag itself? Is it all manually tweaked? Quote
Paul Forwood Posted February 22, 2005 Posted February 22, 2005 That is an amazing image, Vern! You should be very proud of that one. Great modelling, textures and lighting! Great concept too! Is the corrogated edge of the cardboard modelled or what? Amazing attention to detail throughout. Quote
heyvern Posted February 23, 2005 Author Posted February 23, 2005 Thanks for the comments! I really appreciate it! Makes the effort really fun. The bag of goop is fairly easy in construction. I created the bag first, made sure there were extra spline loops at the ends. I duplicated the bag and scaled it carefully using the omnidirectional scaling thingies. Can't just scale the whole thing 97%... have to scale a little bit on the x a little more on the y... etc. So Now I have a perfect copy that conforms to the shape of the bag... just slightly smaller to give me some bag thickness. then delete those extra spline rings on the end and close the shape. Change the attributes. On the boolean version I just add a flat shape that only cuts the goop. The cardboard boxes are VERY realistic. I love how they turned out. I started the cardboard box in 2001 with my first entry in the toys theme. I have managed to include it in some way tweaking along the way in two other image contests. That first one had all kinds of rips and tears and packing tape on it. The base box model is based on a box model I got off of the Animationpitstop site a long time ago. I am sorry to whoever created it... I can't remember who it was. I added all the decals. The box is all decals... even the edges. I took real cardboard and just scanned it in. The inside texture... if you zoom really close... you can see the paper fibers (I go way overboard on this stuff). I think the edges really sell it. They do look modeled! Just a decal. Pretty small. I just change the repeat to match the slight corrugated bump on the surface. The box is modeled "assembled" except for the top and bottom flaps. These are adjusted depending on the size of the box. Then an action is used to fold the flaps in. I went a little further this time with the box. I made extensive revisions. One of the things that was tough was the flattening decal pose... those splines on the end that get stretched. I actually "cut" the box and detatched it at corner just like the real thing. In the image you can see inside the box how the edge is wrapped around and "glued" on the inside. This made decaling a total breeze. I was able to decal all the edges with 4 decals... two for the "end grain" and two for the side edges (Need two each to get the opposite side)... yeah... I have a different texture fo the side edges that get cut along the corrugation. And just one decal for each flat side. really nice. Even though all the boxes are different sizes and shapes... the flaps all fold together with the same action. Bones are used to rotate them into shape... so... as long as the bones on each box are in the right position... the action always works the same for each. I added some muscle motion to the corners so that the flaps can be opened and closed and still look good at any angle. I had to create a completely seperate box model for each box because for some reason I can't change the image used for a decal in a choreography. It just changes all the instances of each model to the same decal. Have not tested this problem in v11... hope it gets fixed... that would have been very helpful. I used v10.5 for 99% of this image. Minor tweaks prior to rendering in v11 on my PC. Took 14 hours to render at the resolution above... I have a slow machine.... or too many reflections and transparency and raytraced lights... Vernon "!" Zehr Quote
John Bigboote Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Good stuff Vern! Well modelled and highly comical. Now we know why you were working on that booleaned bag of goo! It has a 'Mad Magazine' sort of feel to it. Quote
OdinsEye2k Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Nice details in there as well! I recognize all the dispensers and things from high-school biology class! You're missing the Jacob's ladder, though.... I mean, how else are kids supposed to practice their mad scientist cackle? Quote
ZachBG Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Vern, I am printing this out and hanging it on my wall. I hope that's OK. I love it! Quote
Vash Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Oh my..... !! W-W-W-W-Wo-o-o-o-o-ow... That is so awesome... It looks even better up close... how many years do you think I could make that in? I know, I know I would die before I could finish... That is so awesome... Quote
NancyGormezano Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Great stuff Vern, amazing amount of work - Large image is gorgeous - knew the entry was yours as it had your wonderful trademark goopy-dna-humor smeared all over it... Quote
fleebag Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 I laughed out loud when I first saw it. Thanks for cranking a large version. Totally fun. Quote
OzTiff Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 That's definitely going to be my desktop image for a while. So much thought and detail, way to go Vern! Wonderfully thought out. I did Biochemistry at Uni way back when, and this likes much more fun. Every kid needs one. Quote
vf124 Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 I added all the decals. The box is all decals... even the edges. I took real cardboard and just scanned it in. The inside texture... if you zoom really close... you can see the paper fibers (I go way overboard on this stuff). I think the edges really sell it. They do look modeled! Just a decal. Pretty small. I just change the repeat to match the slight corrugated bump on the surface. Finally a few questions answered Quote
heyvern Posted February 23, 2005 Author Posted February 23, 2005 More info on the "bent" bag against the box.... After I had the original bag of goop created, lying down flat. I boned both the bag and the goop with an identical set of bones. they were exact copies. I then used an action with orient likes and "bent" it into position. When I decided not to use the boolean cutter on that bag... I just saved it out of the "bent" action as a whole new model and THEN I cut the top off the goop and made it into a "standalone" model without a boolean cutter. I did the same to tweek the plug on the right. I used bones to get the rough positioning... saved it out of the action as a model, then tweeked the cps to get it "just right". Vernon "!" zehr Quote
D.Joseph Design Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 LOL! I finally took the time to read all the labeling. That's great! Quote
martin Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Well, Vern, it's now my backdrop. (Mike Sanderson had backdrop honors for a long time with his "comic page" Art Contest winning entry). Thanks for supplying the image. Quote
Guest mrsl13 Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Thanks for the large image, Its now my desktop background for awhile....nice,,nice,nice Mike C Quote
heyvern Posted February 23, 2005 Author Posted February 23, 2005 Wow! So many people staring at my image all day... every day... I will warn you... I did that as I worked on it... it gets kind of old. I have spoken with my agent and he feels some remuneration is due. I think that a reasonable amont would be $500.... ...$50? ...50 cents? Okay! Okay! No charge! But this is the last time! p.s. I'm kidding! I don't really have an agent. Vernon "Thank you!" Zehr Quote
D.Joseph Design Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 50¢ per "Show desktop" click in Windows or $1 per F11 Exposé in OS X (Mac users are used to paying double what something is worth). Quote
PixelDust Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Congrats on the contest win, Vern! A bit OT... I heard on the radio today that some company is going to make a home DNA testing kit so people can see what genetic diseases they might be at risk for. So, perhaps your idea isn't too far out... Quote
lazz Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Yup, as soon as I saw that entry I thought "Vern". Absolutely hilarious. I love the part where it says "grow your own pets" . Great job! -Robert Lazzarini Quote
heyvern Posted February 23, 2005 Author Posted February 23, 2005 More stuff! Some "beauty" shots of some of the items in the project... probably should have just focused on a few things in a tighter image instead of like 50... These were a bit "out of place". I had intended to have a creature partially climbing out of the Wonder Womb... but... it was too much... besides everything was fresh out of the box... unused. The scissors got "bumped" before the final render so you don't see much of it in the big picture. So my thought was... you would need some sort of medical instruments to work on these creatures... like clamping off the embilical cord... or snipping open the artificial placenta in the Wonder Womb... Scissors and clamp I always try to put stuff on these things even though it will never be seen. I know it's there... so it makes me laugh. The text you can't read is just lorem ipsum... greeking. Most of the text on the Quick Start Guide is just lorem ipsum... so no... you can't actually read anything about maintenence. Like AM... Creature Creator 7.5 is Mac and PC. You can't see it... but I did put a special warning at the bottom of the CD for the EvoSim application... for those of us with different beliefs... Sorry Dan! I couldn't resist! It's all in fun! It was our powerful discussion in the rants and raves (R.I.P.) that sort of inspired this idea in an indirect way. Junk DNA... that was the first thing. I kept laughing thinking of a bag of junk DNA with a big caution label... Creature Creator CD-Rom I had intended to use red dye for this as a contrast to all of the blue. I couldn't find any photos of red DNA stain. Apparently it may be more toxic... or expensive. It also doesn't give as accurate results. The references I did find all had cool names like "Azure Blue" or "Mystic Blue" stuff like that... so... for the kids... Concentrated DNA stain bottle If anyone would like to have any of these models, just let me know. I don't know how often I will ever be using a medical clamp (that sucker is very accurate as well). Vernon "Nurse... clamp..." Zehr Quote
OdinsEye2k Posted February 24, 2005 Posted February 24, 2005 Junk DNA... that was the first thing. I kept laughing thinking of a bag of junk DNA with a big caution label... Sounds like 'Abby Normal' type stuff to me. Maybe a follow-on for the sci-fi/fantasy contest? Quote
entity Posted February 26, 2005 Posted February 26, 2005 I laughed and then voted. Very clean & thoughtful rendering and modeling, too. Quote
steve392 Posted February 26, 2005 Posted February 26, 2005 Realy nice models in there ,especialy the scissors ,the lighting is very good ,would love to see how you done that Vern .I allways have a problem with reflections when using chrome ,great image Quote
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