Quickie Project

[photoman]

A bit bored this morning went onto google images and got inspired to make a pic after seeing a couple of Ansel Adams. Here it is:

Took about 5min to render with 4passes at 1200x1800. The dirt is a Darktree

 

 

The road is a off (Texture wise and Model wise).

Used AM Hair for cactus spikes and tumble weeds.

 

 

PLEASE CRITIQUE! I want to make it better if I can. Tips on the road would greatly help!

 

Thanks

 

 

-Photoman

[photoman]

Update! Mostly adjusted the textures. Created the background pic from a material with 2 gradients and a starmap.

 

Still needs alot of work to do. I plan to do a short (10 sec) clip using this set in it kinda like this:

desert_perpestive.mov

Its going to be slower. The perspective effect I am going for uses a wide focal length (24mm) and go to 70mm while still keeping the same angle of view (i.e. moving the camera to do this)

More soonish.

 

 

-Photoman

[johnl3d]

Looking interesting

[photoman]

Update! Re-textured ground with maps instead of shader, created billboard/sign:

Used Eric2575 tutorial method to texture the sign part and dirt. The rest are darktrees. 9:23 render with 4pass

Main shot so far. Working on re-texturing the big "monuments" in the background and the cactus. The stars/sky is going to be worked on too.

 

 

-photoman

[phatso]

Is my monitor set too dark or yours too light? Everything is way dark, no detail.

[noober]

dark for me as well...

[photoman]

Is my monitor set too dark or yours too light? Everything is way dark, no detail.

My screen may have a different gamma setting, Im ona 24" iMac.

 

Update! Here are some stills:

The cactus. I know the texture is horrible but it is going to silloutted against the sky.

The main shot. Retextured the road to look more old and beat. Way fast render of 2:40 4pass 1024x768.

 

Here is the updated camera shot for the clip:

run1_desert.mov

 

 

-Photoman

[robcat2075]

except for the lights these pics look almost entirely black.

[photoman]

except for the lights these pics look almost entirely black.

Hmm... I will make the lights more bright on the next renders... Odd though they look normal to me... I must have a different color profile or something.

[robcat2075]

look into your monitor gamma setting. You want some setting that makes what you see look like what we see.

 

Most of the world's monitors aren't gamma calibrated, so if you work on a monitor that is, most of the world will see your pictures way darker than you made them.

[NancyGormezano]

Odd though they look normal to me... I must have a different color profile or something.

 

When you look at other people's images on this forum (try in A:M stills, contest entries) - do they look ok to you?

 

EDIT: -

I just took a look at your photos (my photographs) - they look good to me. It just seems to be some (not all) of the images in this thread that look too dark - but as you say - it is supposed to be a "twilight storm", and you seem to be going for silhouettes. Try some rim back or side lighting perhaps for some of the scene elements

[Gerry]

It's not clear which direction we're traveling in, forward or backward. The distant mesas in one shot are moving one way, the cactus in another. It's also not clear why the power lines in the distance on the right are parallel to the horizon. Shouldn't they be along the road we're on to maybe enhance the perspective?

 

The darkness is a problem but I can see it clearly enough, at least for a crit! Keep posting!

[case]

I can see them fine im running on a dell....I can see them fine so i shall be the first to actually CRITIQUE!

 

From the 1st concept compared to the 3rd concept you posted its looks like you went from very nice to very basic (Backtracking)

Whether you meant to do that or not is up to you but your 1st concept looks rather promising.

One feature i liked was the lighting it set the perfect scene.

 

This is what a UTAH desert plain looks like for reference with textured landscape and such.

 

 

 

One thing about the sign!

The lights that are attached to the sign....have you considered making the lights like they are in a billboard for example

The reason I suggest this is in your concept...well the sign is blocked out to some extent by the giant lamps hanging down in them.

 

The lights are below the billboard on a long steel tray aiming up shining upon the sign.

Just a friendly consideration.

 

 

Good Luck

Keep Posting

Case

[photoman]

Thanks for the crit! I am currently on vacation right and have just gotten the use of my friends laptop and I don't have A:M with me. I have made mental notes and some notes on my phone on ideas to make my project better.

 

1. Redo sign's lighting

2. Space out objects(cactus's and weeds) for a better sense of perspective.

3. Redo "monuments" in background.

4. Find video of lightning storm for sky. (Anyone know where I can find video of a lightning storm??)

 

 

Thanks again for the crits and more when I get back.

 

-Photoman

[case]

Were very patient don't worry bout it!

 

Another note... (If you want)

 

I would run the power lines down the side of the road give the since of perspective!

[John Bigboote]

Looks like the 'Nowhere Road'...

 

 

"There's a road, in Oklahoma. Straighter than a preacher, longer than a memory."-Steve Earle

 

Im diggin your nowhere road!

[Fuchur]

'Nowhere Road'

 

[OFFTOPIC ON]

Did you notice?

Nowhere Road could be read like: "No where" or "Now here"?

[OFFTOPIC OFF]

 

(Sorry... but that just came to my mind... dont know why... )

*Fuchur*

[photoman]

Update! Did come home ... Not much work done (Partially due to .Mac turning into MobileMe screwing up and me know having 3 different proj files...) Had to go back to a backup proj and worked to get this:

Lotsa notes on my phone (Up to 10 now) which means more work for me. I did sketch a story board for the animation sequence but my scanner is at work so its not here .

Also after reading John Bigboote and Fuchur's post I decided to rename the Project to "Nowhere Road".

 

More coming.

 

-Photoman

[case]

I'm really looking forward to see the final product of this project!

 

And I also see you took the power line suggestion YAY!

 

~Case

[photoman]

Update! No official work done on the animation but I did scan in a couple of the original sketches:

First sketch that I did before I started anything.

Part1 of storyboard. Mind the legibility of the handwriting.

Part2.

 

The basic idea the storyboard shows is that of this being a logo animation for my films... I may also do something else with this scene but I have no idea what else to do... Ideas anyone?

 

LITL = Look Into The Light

 

More coming

 

-Photoman

[photoman]

Update! iDisk finally fixed itself and I have the correct copies of my project along with the resources and renders.

 

I tried fiddeling with volumetrics to get this:

Still needs some "tweeking" Maybe adjust it lower and move with wind (dynamics) for the animation.

 

Here is a alternate view of the scene I did for fun. Shows the use of A:M hair pretty well I guess.

(3x3 pass, depth of field) 47 min.

A:M didnt want to render a targa sequence for some reason (Crashed 3 times in a row) so I rendered it as a jpeg.

 

I also just got some new plugins to help place the "weeds" over the scene better. Same thing with the cacti.

 

 

More coming. I am going to get some good timelapse storm videos soon.

[photoman]

Havent updated for a while now. Reasons being that I am done for the most part. When I get the footage I will then keyframe the camera and set the lighting. SO..... more when it comes.