Pod Bay Interior

[Tralfaz]

Started working on the Pod Bay interior for the Discover model. To make this model it's own complete set, I am going to include the Pod Bay doors and front wall sections (interior and exterior). The slider to control the doors will be part of this model now, and not the Discovery.

 

So far, I have the rear and left walls modelled (with temporary textures on them). The floor and ceiling are blocked out as well. It's been tricky trying to get everything to scale without having any blue prints to work from, just screen grabs from the movie. The front section with the pod bay door openings, is just a temporary piece so I can get the other parts modelled and scaled in place. I actually do have the interior of the doors done, they just aren't showing yet.

 

I am just using standard lighting to light this set so far. I am not sure how to light this model properly, so that it can also be used with the Discovery model. How would I get the lights to work on just the interior of the set? For instance, I don't want the lights in the pod bay to affect the exterior of the Discovery or the cockpit. Is it best to create the lights in an action, than apply the action to this particular model? Any help would be appreciated, as I really have no idea of what I am doing...

 

Thanks...

Al

 

 

[Gerry]

I seriously doubt you don't know what you're doing Al, but it *seems* like adding the lights in an action would be the simplest solution. It's really looking nice so far.

[Tralfaz]

I seriously doubt you don't know what you're doing Al, but it *seems* like adding the lights in an action would be the simplest solution. It's really looking nice so far.

 

Hi Gerry,

 

When it comes to lighting and texturing, it is really hit and miss with me. I truly don't understand the different types of lights and what they do. And why with some lights it doesn't really matter where they are placed in a chor, but the direction they point does matter. A good case in point is my B9 Robot model. Played and played with it until I got something that seemed decent enough. Then Mark redid some of the textures and lighting and it was like night and day difference in the final render. There is just sooooooo much to learn. I realize now why you have lighting teams, texturing teams, modelling teams, effects teams and so on in a movie or project.

 

There is a downloadable pdf from 3DTotal on lighting techniques. The PDFs are for other packages, but I am thinking the techniques could be translated to A:M as well. For around $15 USD, I think it may be worth the risk.

 

Al

[mtpeak2]

Light lists can be used in the chor to light certain models without affecting others.

[Darkwing]

i always just light my sets in the model itself in bones mode. that way my lights stay exactly where i want them and for the same intensity, no matter what i do with the set. and as for the light types, bulb just gives an overall lighting effect, it's sort of a cross between the klieg and sun. klieg is a directional light, think of it as a spotlight, and sun adds light to the direction it points.

[Tralfaz]

Thanks for all your suggestions, and will give them a try later on tonight.

 

When I worked on MMC5 (a long time ago now), I think I had tried adding lights to a model in bones mode, then the model went entirely black. I added lights to the street lamps, and a light inside the house to light the windows for the night scene. It rendered okay, but was really difficult to see or work on anything in model (object) mode. I am trying to recall this from my old fading memory so this may or may not have actually happened this way. I can't remember if everything went black when I went into bones mode or if everything was black once the lights had been added.

 

In the Pod Bay, it looks like there are some lights between the ceiling and the front hull, which provides some indirect lighting on the inside hull. There are also several, what looks like flourescent fixtures, in the ceiling. Then in the spare parts room, there are smaller light panels in the walls and that room appears to have a slight yellowish cast to it.

 

Would you use a couple of lights to provide the light, and then set the ambience value on the light panels to make them look as if they are lit up?

 

Al

 

 

 

[Darkwing]

in modeling mode and in the non render view, it does appear black in non lit areas, and those areas that are lit are dim. i do my lighting when i'm all done the modeling aspect and use the model window o position the lights while i have the set in a non lit chor and render it in the chor window to see how it looks.

[Darkwing]

here's something i've been lighting in the modeling window, the last pic in the thread shows my almost most recent update:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...36154&st=45

[robcat2075]

Looking at those screen shots, it occurs to me now that after Dave snuck back into the ship via that air-lock that HAL could have finally opened the pod bay door and sucked him back out again.

 

But I suppose HAL had a lot on his mind.

[Tralfaz]

Your project is looking pretty good Darkwing.

 

I know what you mean Robert. It would have been so easy for Hal to off Dave once he got back onto the Discovery. Dave didn't have a helmet in the emergency airlock, so Hal could have opened the pod bay door, thereby trapping Dave inside the airlock. Or Hal could have driven the remaining eva pod at Dave and got him inside the pod bay area. That area is zero gravity, so it should have been fairly easy.

 

Anyway, here is a quick update. Did some more work on the ceiling. You can also see the proper pod bay doors, and have roughed in the platforms for the pods. Oh, and there is only one light inside the pod bay right now. Will play around with lighting a bit later.

 

Al

 

[HomeSlice]

OK Tralfaz,

it is getting really tedious to be always saying "ohhh awesome" .... "Wow" .... "incredible" and all that. Maybe you can start introducing flaws into your models just so we will have something else to say

 

... Really great Pod Bay model, and I like the lighting too!

[Darkwing]

ooohh awesome, wow, icredible

 

ahem, sorry, didn't mean to mock you

[Tralfaz]

Come on you guys... I'm blushing. Trust me though, there are lots of flaws in there.

 

Played around some more with the lighting, pod platforms and started working on the velcro walkways.

 

Al

 

[robcat2075]

looks good.

 

It would be interesting to go thru it surface by surface and light by light and figure out what it would take to make it look like the photos.

[Paul Forwood]

Trust me though, there are lots of flaws in there.

 

Hey, there are lots of flaws in the real world too. That's photo reality for you.

Splendid model, Al!

[jimd]

it's just plain fun watching this come together !

[Tralfaz]

Thanks everyone.

 

looks good.

 

It would be interesting to go thru it surface by surface and light by light and figure out what it would take to make it look like the photos.

 

Is that an offer Robert??? You would be free to play around with any textures, materials or lighting that you wanted to. Just say the word. Once finished, this model will be released into the Contrubutors Cue and it would be great if the textures and lighting were better than they currently are.

 

Quick update. While trying to get those darned velcro walkway patterns laid out, I found out once again that my scale of the interior was off. Would really love to have some good blueprints of the pod bay. The one that I did find, wasn't even close. Anyway, got the velcro walkways done, reworked the wall layout, reworked the ceiling and started working on the HAL console. The layout is getting closer to how the original pod bay looked in the movie, but still have some more work to do.

 

Al

 

[Darkwing]

...it's so real i can almost touch it

[itsjustme]

Very cool so far, Al!

[Tralfaz]

Thanks again.

 

Eric created an EVA pod, which he is letting me use with the Discovery project. The pod is an exquisite model and extremely well modelled. Eric has left no detail unmodelled. Thank you Eric for allowing me to use this great model.

 

I've put the pod into the pod bay to see what it would look like. Other than my lighting and textures not being up to par yet, I think things are coming along really well.

 

2001 was filmed in a very wide screen format. And than Kubrik also liked using wide angle lenses in the pod bay scenes. Never realized this until I tried to duplicate a camera angle from the film, and found there was no way I would be able to do it. And due to the distortion of the wide angle lenses, this is probably why I was having problems with the scale of the interior and having to rescale it a couple of times.

 

Al

 

 

[photoman]

I noticed the wide-angle wide format view when watching the movie (again) the other day. I *believe* it was filmed in super panavision and he used a 15mm-ish lens for the podbay.

 

How do you plan on lighting the scene?

 

Photoman

[Tralfaz]

I noticed the wide-angle wide format view when watching the movie (again) the other day. I *believe* it was filmed in super panavision and he used a 15mm-ish lens for the podbay.

 

How do you plan on lighting the scene?

 

Photoman

 

Eric is working on the lighting for the pod bay.

 

Update: I think the modelling of the pod bay is now done. This render is done with the default 3 light setup that comes in a chor.

 

Al

 

[Darkwing]

i'm losing my mind dave, this model is good dave, it cannot be fake dave

 

sorry, somebody had to make a dave joke around here sooner or later

[Tralfaz]

i'm losing my mind dave, this model is good dave, it cannot be fake dave

 

sorry, somebody had to make a dave joke around here sooner or later

 

Hey Darkwing, my first (non-test) animation is going to be based on a Dave joke!

 

And just a quick test animation of an approach to the Discovery, pod bay doors open, fly into the pod bay and rotate around to view the interior. Nothing fancy, just wanted to see how well the parts work together.

 

Al

 

Discovery.mov

[steve392]

Oh thats good ,great modeling ,its like being there good camera work aswell nice and smooth

[Shelton]

Al

 

That is wonderful. Excellent job

 

Steve

[robcat2075]

Do you think those little bricks around the pod bay door are rubber bumpers, maybe? So grandma can get in without scuffing up the pod too much?