Anybody like to help?

[captainrex]

I'm doing a little animation project that involves an alien abduction and eventually the main character gets stuck in an alien ufo. Now I've found that coming up with ideas for the interior of the ship is a very hard process and frankly I'm at a loss as to what I should make it look like. It's up in the air if the inside will be organic like many alien abduction movies portray, or more metal like something in the X-Files Fight the Future movie. Any and all ideas are welcome as to style, look, design, surfce materials, and things that would be found inside the ship. I'm drifting towards a creepy look to it, but anything is welcome. Chances are that I would use many ideas, so feel free to comment with any ideas or concepts you have! I'll begin posting pictures as soon as I begin work on the interior. Thanks!

 

-David

 

P.S.- I've posted a picture of the alien I have made so far if that helps ha

 

[Wildsided]

Looking at the model I'd go for something high tech looking but minimalist. Purple light strips might look pretty neat to.

[Ilidrake]

I would say google interior ufo concepts for inspiration. I'm not saying copy someone else's design. Just look to others work for inspiration to get you rolling on your own.

[Wildsided]

 

Just quickly rough sketched this to give you an idea of what I meant. If it's a single alien it won't need a big ship with lots of controls. I left a corridor in the back to give the idea there's more ship beyond. but again if it's just one alien it wouldn't need a huge ship. Maybe just a bridge and some sleeping quarters.

[Simon Edmondson]

I'm doing a little animation project that involves an alien abduction and eventually the main character gets stuck in an alien ufo. Now I've found that coming up with ideas for the interior of the ship is a very hard process and frankly I'm at a loss as to what I should make it look like. It's up in the air if the inside will be organic like many alien abduction movies portray, or more metal like something in the X-Files Fight the Future movie. Any and all ideas are welcome as to style, look, design, surfce materials, and things that would be found inside the ship. I'm drifting towards a creepy look to it, but anything is welcome. Chances are that I would use many ideas, so feel free to comment with any ideas or concepts you have! I'll begin posting pictures as soon as I begin work on the interior. Thanks!

 

-David

 

P.S.- I've posted a picture of the alien I have made so far if that helps ha

 

 

 

David

This may be a bit left field (?) but, what about making it look like a victorian specimen room in a forensic hospital, with the colours and lighting to match. If the technology is so advanced that they can cross galaxies, it barely needs to be evident and it comes down to the function of what they are doing, collecting specimens for examination ?

Just a thought ...

regards

simon

[largento]

Form should follow function. If it's meant to be a scary place, make it scary. Use lots of darkness and may have eerie green lighting coming up from below metal grating floor panels, that cast patterns on the things it lights.

 

If it's a flying saucer, it should be designed to look like it fits within a flying saucer. i.e. rounded exterior walls.

 

If you're going for the whole scientific probing aspect, take cues from hospitals and doctor's offices to give it a medical laboratory look.

 

I haven't watched any UFO stories in ages, but I think there were plenty of descriptions by those kooks that claimed to have been abducted. You might see if there's any common threads in their descriptions and incorporate those.

 

Also keep in mind that the background should ideally make the viewer believe that they are in a spaceship, but also stand apart from the characters, so that the characters are nicely contrasted and the background doesn't interfere with the viewer being able to see them.

 

Just things I would think about if I were approaching this problem.

[NancyGormezano]

P.S.- I've posted a picture of the alien I have made so far if that helps ha

 

 

FYI, I am not able to view your alien image unless I bring it into Photoshop and adjust the levels. Looking at the histogram, I suspect you have the brightness turned up on your monitor, which is causing you to render images that have an extremely limited range of intensities (image is skewed towards black, dark gray). I'm guessing that the corrected image will look too bright on your monitor.

[captainrex]

Okay I took a few of the ideas into consideration and made little of my own input into the images. This is in no way the final look to it, just a start. I tried different colors for the lighting to decide which looks creepier haha. Keep on coming with the ideas! They're all really helpful. Hopefully with more time in the next few days, I can input more of them into this.

 

[markw]

Like the direction you are going with all this. Especial the alien's skin.

But before you get to far into lighting and texturing I would strongly urge that you check your monitor's calibration as suggested by Nancy. The images are very dark and any animation would be invisible I fear!

The only way I was able to see anything clearly was to download and reprocess the images as Nancy did.

I'm afraid the black square I've attached is how your avatar looks on my screens.

I use a SpyderPro4 for keeping a check on my screens accuracy but there are other systems out there.

[robcat2075]

I have to concur with Nancy and Markw... there is something seriously overdark about your render.

 

On the spaceship interior... is this a comedy or a creepy thing?

 

If it's a comedy i'd go for lots of blinking lights plus thins we don't' normally expect in an alien ship like fire extinguishers mounted on the wall.

[Rodney]

Okay I took a few of the ideas into consideration and made little of my own input into the images. This is in no way the final look to it, just a start. I tried different colors for the lighting to decide which looks creepier haha. Keep on coming with the ideas! They're all really helpful. Hopefully with more time in the next few days, I can input more of them into this.

 

 

 

The blue is more calming... if scary is the goal then I'd push more toward the grayscale... and for any color more green and red in the spectrum.

As Mark Largento mentioned above 'form should follow function' so you might want to consider heat sources and silhouetted shapes/overlays that help to give a feeling of confined/limited space. You seem to be getting some of that vibe in the grayscale rendering. (The glow isn't working however)

[captainrex]

Sorry about the lighting issue. I tried turning up the lighting in the scene a little bit without trying to losing too much of the effect that I wanted. I am drifting toward a more creepy look to this. Let me know if the lighting needs to be adjusted still. I'm also probably going to turn off that glow from the floor lights as well. I feel like there should be quite a few more objects in the scene. Basically I have the operating tables, probes above them and then some little power system in the middle of the room. I'm not sure what it is, the room just feels a little empty. What do you guys think?

 

[robcat2075]

Sorry about the lighting issue. I tried turning up the lighting in the scene a little bit without trying to losing too much of the effect that I wanted.

 

 

All I see are the volumetric cones from the lights. I can't imagine that is what you really intend.

 

If I take that into a paint program and do a huge gamma adjustment I start to see some details in the room.

 

Something is seriously misadjusted. Either your monitor (causing you to under light scenes) or A:M. What is the gamma setting in your A:M render panel set to?

[higginsdj]

I'm with Robert - I can't see anything in these images....

 

Cheers

[captainrex]

Gamma is set to 1. I'll try to compensate. Gimme a bit and I'll try it again

[robcat2075]

I just did a gamma adjustment on your avatar and found out that it's not a black square, there is a face there!

 

Can you reset your monitor and graphics card to their default settings?

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Keep in mind also that your 'victim' will be lit quite harshly to make him the center of the observation/experiment. The ship itself will not reveal itself to him if/until he leaves the hard harsh examination/laboratory light. This is a common way to keep the audience from seeing too much right away. Mystery can also be very creepy.

 

I would say that if your abductee is able to escape the table/confinement, then you could reveal the rest of the room in very soft lighting dark greens and grays are very ideal to make the viewer uneasy.

 

If he/she escapes the first room, then maybe the rest of the ship is more well lit. Or everything could be very subdued in lighting. Aliens might not need the bright lights to see properly that we do.

 

I agree with the high tech minimalist/clean look. Light strips, some indirectly glows, etc.

 

Cheers!

[captainrex]

Keep in mind also that your 'victim' will be lit quite harshly to make him the center of the observation/experiment. The ship itself will not reveal itself to him if/until he leaves the hard harsh examination/laboratory light. This is a common way to keep the audience from seeing too much right away. Mystery can also be very creepy.

 

I would say that if your abductee is able to escape the table/confinement, then you could reveal the rest of the room in very soft lighting dark greens and grays are very ideal to make the viewer uneasy.

 

If he/she escapes the first room, then maybe the rest of the ship is more well lit. Or everything could be very subdued in lighting. Aliens might not need the bright lights to see properly that we do.

 

I agree with the high tech minimalist/clean look. Light strips, some indirectly glows, etc.

 

Cheers!

 

 

Thanks! I will definitely keep that in mind.

[captainrex]

On the part about graphics card and monitor settings, my computer is already at normal settings I think. I don't completely remember how to change them either.

 

At the same token, I have tried increasing gamma in the left picture to three and in the right picture I increased it to 2.2 and raised each light to 200% intensity.

 

[captainrex]

How's this for a little switching it up? I realize this is in no way creepy at all haha

I was playin around with some ideas for an alien starship and this one I decided to try. I seriously hope you guys can see this video.

Alien_Starship_Flyby_x264.mp4

[Fuchur]

On the part about graphics card and monitor settings, my computer is already at normal settings I think. I don't completely remember how to change them either.

 

At the same token, I have tried increasing gamma in the left picture to three and in the right picture I increased it to 2.2 and raised each light to 200% intensity.

 

 

The 2.2 is quite creepy and I think it is the look you want to get. 3 is too bright... there is no longe a real shadow anywhere and I can see every detail.

The animation looks good. For the images before those: I have the same problems as the others. very very dark (close to not at all visible). I'll try it at my workcomputer, where we have calibarted, professional monitors for graphics-work.

But in general they behave more or less like my semi-pro Dell Ultra Sharp.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[robcat2075]

I've circled the only parts that do not appear totally black here. Is it really your intention that this shot be almost entirely black and that none of the details of the room are visible at all?

 

[captainrex]

It's not supposed to be completely black. On my computer, even with the 2.2 gamma, i can see mostly every detail on my computer.

 

I looked into why everyone else is having trouble seeing this. It has to do with gamma settings on the computers of people who can't see it. My computer must have really good gamma settings. I tried turning it down all the way. I could see what everyone else was seeing when you could only see the lights. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything I can do at my end when it comes to gamma settings on everyone's computers :/

[robcat2075]

If my monitor settings were the problem then everything else on the web would look unnaturally dark too. But they don't, everything else looks normal.

 

There's gotta be something wrong.

 

Do you have Photoshop installed?

[Ilidrake]

For monitor calibration check out this site:

 

http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/index.html

[itsjustme]

For monitor calibration, I use a Pantone Huey, but it doesn't appear to be available now...the X-Rite ColorMunki Smile is listed as the newer model.

 

Hope that helps.

[Rodney]

David (that is to say captainrex-david... not itsjustme-david),

 

As a general calibration you might also note that your forum avatar is equally dark.

It appears black if I'm looking at it straight on. If I tilt my laptop's screen I begin to see the alien in the avatar.

This makes me wonder a little if the issue folks are having on all sides of the question has at least something to do with the angle they are looking at their monitors.

 

I confess that generally I find that folks like Robert have their settings a little too dark (images that appear okay to me are for them invariably far too dark) but having said that, it does appear that your monitor's settings are set too bright.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything I can do at my end when it comes to gamma settings on everyone's computers :/

 

Actually, there is. If you are the only one in the world whose monitor is correct then it might be better to have your settings tuned wrong.

This change would then automagically have the effect of setting everyone else's monitor settings less wrong.

[robcat2075]

For monitor calibration check out this site:

 

http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/index.html

 

When I look at these charts both of my monitors are very, very close to being on target.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's your avatar loaded into Photoshop.

 

 

I'm sure that is not intended to be completely black, but looking at the levels, all the pixels are black or nearly black and it appears black on my monitors, which are correctly adjusted by the measure of the gamma test charts and display all other images that appear on them with a normal, expected appearance. There is some combination of things trying to set gamma on your computer that are creating a viewing environment that is wildly different than what the rest of the world sees.

[captainrex]

Hmm okay I shall look into this