JohnArtbox Posted August 30, 2004 Posted August 30, 2004 Hi ..The Osprey is a highly manouevrable short range exploration craft. We're evaluating some screen videocapture software, so I thought I'd do a video tut on creating a spaceship. Named after my daughter's soccer team this is the Osprey after about two hours work. Quote
entity Posted August 30, 2004 Posted August 30, 2004 That is excellent John... and rendered with a Skycast light rig, no less!!! Can't wait to see the tut. Quote
ypoissant Posted August 30, 2004 Posted August 30, 2004 Nice model. I like the details in the trusters. You are impressively productive. I suggest you try the soft reflections on the body. It is currently a little bit too mirror-like. Using soft reflection, you could crank the reflectivity up a bit but ghet rid of the mirror look at the same time. Quote
JohnArtbox Posted August 30, 2004 Author Posted August 30, 2004 Thanks Guys Rich:yup SkyCast lighting :0) Tut Wednesday or Thursday. Kyle: hardcare mechanics aren't usually my scene, but it's fun for a change. Yves:I haven't used soft reflections yet(I've been afraid of the render hit), but I think you're right. Adding soft reflections will take away some of the chromeball cg look. I've added the rear of the ship's body, built basic detail into the cockpit and fixed a few issues where I felt existing detail wasn't working. Quote
ypoissant Posted August 30, 2004 Posted August 30, 2004 Soft reflection processing is distributed among passes so if you are already doing multipasses with skycast, then it shouldn't be so bad. Also, with small specular sizes, to get just a little bit of softness, the number of samples will be smaller than for wide softness. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted August 31, 2004 Admin Posted August 31, 2004 The only words I can think of are "Crazy Nice!" whatever that means. I think it means "too cool"! I wanna buy the model kit and glue it together! Quote
nerrazzi Posted August 31, 2004 Posted August 31, 2004 Hey I like that man! So are the little "Kapsule" men going to pilot it? Make little kapsule space guys and give 'em little fish bowl helmets maybe...? Nice work! I do have one question. I love the "look" of the objects using your lighting app. but the shadows on the floor seem like there's too many, you know what I mean? Is there a way to reduce that sort of thing, maybe diffuse the shadows a bit or perhaps blur them some? It's a very nice film look almost, makes it seem as though they are real physical models captured using a dv cam. Quote
JohnArtbox Posted August 31, 2004 Author Posted August 31, 2004 Thanks guys. Yves led me down the garden path to soft reflections, which are cool but almost doubled the render time. The garden path then led on to reflection blend, refraction, and density, features I hadn't used before. All very cool, Nerrazzi: Don't know about pilots yet About the shadows: these renders are 16 passes going to higher passes will smooth out the shadows to a degree. One other option is to have kleigs with soft shadows(bottom) but it softens the shading as well. On another note when the ground is textured (bad eg middle panel) and/or irregular, the shadow striations become less noticeable. Quote
ypoissant Posted August 31, 2004 Posted August 31, 2004 Cool. The soft reflection are not soft enough yet IMO as I can clearly distinguish the clouds in the reflection. You could crank up the specularity size some more on the body to make it look more like polished metal instead of dusted chrome. As for render time, as you increase the number of passes for the skycast, the soft reflection samples are going to be distributed among them, So the higher the number of samples, the least the additional hit on render time on the whole the soft reflection will have. Once you've found the correct specularity size for the model that will give you the correct soft reflection, you can lower the soft reflection quality to its lowest for the time you tweak the rest of it and for test renders and then raise the soft reflection quality when you are ready for final render. One thing that bothers me is the strong rim lights which makes the craft look like a miniature kit model instead of a large craft. Like if it was lit in a studio instead of outside. Quote
JohnArtbox Posted August 31, 2004 Author Posted August 31, 2004 Thanks for the info Yves....you were working on a hdri option at one point weren't you? That's one area which would seem to improve soft reflections even further. I agree the rim light's too strong to be real, but for the moment I'm just doing a modelling and rigging tutorial. When I get to the lighting, compositing section I'll fix that. Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 2, 2004 Author Posted September 2, 2004 The tutorial on making the cockpit is being uploaded as I type. It's large(30MB) , long (40min)and it's very basic, aimed at new users of the software. I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions. The upload should be finished in 10 minutes but it's 3.30 am so I'm going to bed http://www.artboxanimation.com/AmStuff/buildCockpit.htm or to save it for playback on your machine right click on this to download an swf Quote
DarkLimit Posted September 2, 2004 Posted September 2, 2004 John - just yesterday I was planning on modeling a ship for a fantasy scene am working on, and I was wondering how you modeled urs...... then BOOM!! you created a tut.... life is good thanks alot sir......... I just LLOOVVEE this aircraft....... Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 2, 2004 Author Posted September 2, 2004 It's the next morning and...performing to expectation..my ADSL went to sleep at the same time I did...it's all up now and streaming happily. Apologies for the false start. Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 3, 2004 Author Posted September 3, 2004 ..and one bad upload later it appears to be working correctly. Rodney, Darklimit and I have tested it...Same Url (crosses fingers and prays ) Quote
KenH Posted September 3, 2004 Posted September 3, 2004 Thanks multi post man! Very educational.....*me wondering how I never heard of pressing Y to divide a spline in half* Quote
R Reynolds Posted September 3, 2004 Posted September 3, 2004 Even though I don't feel it's my place to criticize the aesthetics of a piece of hardware, I can't buy into the reality of this vehicle with the look of the gold frame reinforcing the canopy. It looks to me like its made of inflated latex sheeting or perhaps manufactured the same way as those padded toilet seats. IMO it looks neither industrial nor military, but does scream Hasbro. But hey, it's your design. Quote
KenH Posted September 3, 2004 Posted September 3, 2004 I don't believe it's design is necessarily supposed to be "industrial or military". To me it's a design of great imagination. It might not fly in reality, but in dreams, it soars! Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 4, 2004 Author Posted September 4, 2004 Thanks for everyone who has watched the tutorial: I hope it wasn't a waste of time. I offered it up because a lot of people have contacted me asking about modelling. It's by no means the only way to model in AM and there are a lot of modellers who are more skilled than I. With a bit of luck it will give those at the bottom of the AM ladder a boost onto the first rung. Rodger: this is just the model, with some basic materials...I haven't even started to texture it, and the gold canopy was just relief from the grey. A few people have comented negatively on the canopy, and if I was trying to be realistic I'd probably slim down the profile. But I like it Ken You got it in one. My studio's tagline is "because reality's been done"....realism isn't always high on my list of things to do. Bulbous cockpit, silly wings, strange exhausts ...it's just a way to waste an afternoon. OspreyRotoscopes.zip Quote
entity Posted September 5, 2004 Posted September 5, 2004 John!!! Okay, I get the messege! I like to do things that look realistic, but I still find your way of modeling of help to me also... "getting a lot done very quickly", I seem to be quite a "sloth", lately. Your voice is very calm... how do you say all of that without stuttering or gaps in memory? Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 5, 2004 Author Posted September 5, 2004 Rich / Rodger by all means state your viewpoints, that's what forums are about and I'm not going to get offended . Sometimes it makes me change my mind, sometimes not, but I appreciate anyone that makes the effort to type a comment. And Rich, I cheated on the audio, I did the tutorial video and then recorded the voice on a second pass. Given that none of it was scripted I'm pretty happy...although I should have taken out the sneeze and a few of the other comments. If I take the tuts to a more professional level I won't have time to complete the series, so I'll keep them cheap and cheerful. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted September 5, 2004 Admin Posted September 5, 2004 I like it because it gives me some insight into how other people (successful other people mind you) work in Animation:Master. That alone is worth every penny.... err...that's not right... Wait a minute...this is free!?? Holy animated user Batam. His stuff is free! And fun too! For those who would perfer realistic (that's alright I like realistic too) have you seen John's superheroes? They would look perfect flying one of those things. John please! Put one of those characters in the air with one of your Ospreys. Please. I'm begging! ;o) *John-If you want my critique (other than the one you got via #hash3d) it would be that I thought it ran a little slow in places. Most likely because I know my way around the user interface a little. New users will probably find the pace to be just about right. Thanks. Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 13, 2004 Author Posted September 13, 2004 Ok...it took a while but it's done. The guys at Hash kindly answered my plea and agreed to host it after my bandwidth usage shot up to 8gb on the first tutorial. Thank them nicely, because otherwise you wouldn't be getting this until next month. As soon as Will posts the link, I'll change the subtitle on the thread to let people know it's there. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted September 14, 2004 Admin Posted September 14, 2004 Awesome news John. Many thanks to Hash Inc for making these tutorials available! 8Gb... whoa! Quote
JHV Posted September 14, 2004 Posted September 14, 2004 Even though I don't feel it's my place to criticize the aesthetics of a piece of hardware, I can't buy into the reality of this vehicle with the look of the gold frame reinforcing the canopy. ... Sputtered Titanium Nitride is gold in color. Used for high abrasion surfaces. Must be how the contractor spec'd it out! Quote
KenH Posted September 17, 2004 Posted September 17, 2004 Ooooo....Goody goody gumdrops! Much obliged. Tip 'o de cap to ye. Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 21, 2004 Author Posted September 21, 2004 Links resolved and tested. Just when you think this internet stuff is all simple now, something else happens. But it's all good now. Tut2 Modelling the Engines Tut1 Modelling the Cockpit (new Home) Enjoy Save the presentations by right clicking and pressing save as here Tut1 Cockpit save target as Tut2 Engines save target as Quote
KenH Posted September 21, 2004 Posted September 21, 2004 Dang that loads nice and fast! Good job. PS Keep an eye on the microphone distance in any others you might do! Quote
KenH Posted September 21, 2004 Posted September 21, 2004 A question: In the Chor how did you copy the scale and translate details of the first engine onto the second one so fast? Was that paused? Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 22, 2004 Author Posted September 22, 2004 Kenh: I just copied and pasted the keyframe "Ctrl C" "Ctrl V" and I've resolved a problem with using a balanced audio device with the unbalanced audio in my laptop. I just bought a buffer thingy(the guys in the broadcast shop know its real name) that makes everything work properly. Real sound on the way. Quote
MMZ_TimeLord Posted September 22, 2004 Posted September 22, 2004 Thank you for the wonderful tutorials... I've saved them off to review again and again... Hopefully I can hone my modeling skills to about 25% of yours... Quote
JohnArtbox Posted September 23, 2004 Author Posted September 23, 2004 Adding an addendum from the knowledgeable David Rogers watching people move profiles around to lathe just goes like fingernails on chalk boards to me .... you can simply move and rotate the pivot of any selection to lathe in any position. select the spline you are going to lathe by first clicking on a point then using the , (comma) or / keys to select the entire spline, then bring up the rotate or translate manipulator (i like rotate) move the pivot to the desired center of the lathe operation and then rotate the pivot so that the Y axis of the selection is the desired direction of the lathe it's a super powerful way to use your rotoscopes where they sit rather than drawing your profile, moving it and then moving it back. It saves a few seconds per lathe once you get used to it, (there is a little curve getting started) over the course of a model it can save hours.... (the number three thing I have taken on as my crusade to see A:M users use is the pivot for lathes. (number 1 is keyboard shortcuts and number 2 is rendering to layers )) and then the bit of missing knowledge that allows you to do this.. The lathe tool needs to know which spline it will be lathing and the only way to get that information within a group selection is to first select a spline and then get a group by the group connected or complement spline functions. I do this by clicking the spline rather than a control point, this gives you a selected CP but also a selected spline leg (like you would have if you were going to insert a CP on a spline.) Now if you use the comma key to select all the points on the selected spline or the forward slash key to select all connected points you get a group for which you can adjust the pivot, but more importantly A:M retains the spline selection information (that green leg is still there) which means you can still lathe. Alternately you can Shift-Click the spline after the group selection to give you a spline leg selection similar to how you would for a Copy Flip Attach. as long as you have a green spline leg selected the lathe function is available. It's a great timesaver, once you know how to do it Quote
turbokitty77 Posted November 4, 2004 Posted November 4, 2004 Thanks for the tutorials, John. I love this A.M community. Everyone seems so friendly and helpful to each other. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted November 4, 2004 Admin Posted November 4, 2004 I love this A.M community. Everyone seems so friendly and helpful to each other. Like I always say... "It's a feature!" One of the (many) reasons I devote time to the A:M Community is because of the response and time others in the community (like John (Artbox) Henderson) gave me when I first started out. I don't expect to ever repay the debt I have to them. Besides that... they draw 'purty pitchers' in 3D! Quote
filipmun Posted November 5, 2004 Posted November 5, 2004 Experienced user here is very helpful, I don't have the habbit showing my work in the past, well they are mostly P&C. Quote
pixelmech Posted January 18, 2005 Posted January 18, 2005 I just watched the first tutorial and all I can say is: WOW I've had AM a month, I've been through the AM book and into a few tutorials and I have Rogers book as well, but NOTHING has taught me as much as watching this! Honestly John, this is awesome. I can't wait to watch the next one, then I am going to my current model, scrapping it and starting all over again! (Note: John disregard my e-mail on the location of these tuts, obviously). A couple questions maybe some of you more advanced guys can answer: 1. At one point he "grays out" the canopy to use as a guide - how did he do that? 2. He noted that he locked a point in the rim of the cockpit so he wouldn't select it, but it went by so fast I didn't quite get why he did it. Tom Quote
KenH Posted January 18, 2005 Posted January 18, 2005 A couple questions maybe some of you more advanced guys can answer: 1. At one point he "grays out" the canopy to use as a guide - how did he do that? 2. He noted that he locked a point in the rim of the cockpit so he wouldn't select it, but it went by so fast I didn't quite get why he did it. Tom 1 It's probably the lock tool. See the padlock icon on the right toolbar. It works like the hide tool. 2 Can't remember. Quote
rossk Posted May 20, 2005 Posted May 20, 2005 One of the direct links to download the tutorial was to a htm file, so just for ease of downloading it-- Cockpit Tutorial Quote
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