No, not the aliens.  The ships!  I've been wanting to do this for some
time, and I think the semifinished model compares very favorably with
the model used on the actual shows and movies.
(http://www.west.net/~brandonm/worlds.htm)
Anywaaay, this model uses the trace() function extensively.  When I say
extensively, I really, really, mean it.  I also used the new blob
pattern to selectively, well, select areas on the surface to texture.
And, yes, I did use the base texture from my Cruiser pic.
Took about a half hour to hour per pic to render.  Spent about 3 days on
the modeling and texturing.
Comments? Suggestions? Jobs? :)

--
H.E. Day

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Attachments:
Download 'steadfast1.jpg' (128 KB) Download 'steadfast3.jpg' (48 KB) Download 'steadfast2.jpg' (81 KB) Download 'steadfast4.jpg' (46 KB)

Preview of image 'steadfast1.jpg'

Preview of image 'steadfast3.jpg'

Preview of image 'steadfast2.jpg'

Preview of image 'steadfast4.jpg'

i rrreeaaalllyyy hate you ;) heheheh another great work by the amazing mr. day

"H.E. Day" wrote:

> No, not the aliens.  The ships!  I've been wanting to do this for some
> time, and I think the semifinished model compares very favorably with
> the model used on the actual shows and movies.
> (http://www.west.net/~brandonm/worlds.htm)
> Anywaaay, this model uses the trace() function extensively.  When I say
> extensively, I really, really, mean it.  I also used the new blob
> pattern to selectively, well, select areas on the surface to texture.
> And, yes, I did use the base texture from my Cruiser pic.
> Took about a half hour to hour per pic to render.  Spent about 3 days on
> the modeling and texturing.
> Comments? Suggestions? Jobs? :)
>
> --
> H.E. Day
>
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  [Image]  [Image]  [Image]  [Image]

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Wow, this looks great
Your use of image maps is very effective.
With such a nice portfolio, you could easily get hired as a sci-fi designer.
Keep up the good work.

Jay Raney

"H.E. Day" wrote:

> No, not the aliens.  The ships!  I've been wanting to do this for some
> time, and I think the semifinished model compares very favorably with
> the model used on the actual shows and movies.
> (http://www.west.net/~brandonm/worlds.htm)
> Anywaaay, this model uses the trace() function extensively.  When I say
> extensively, I really, really, mean it.  I also used the new blob
> pattern to selectively, well, select areas on the surface to texture.
> And, yes, I did use the base texture from my Cruiser pic.
> Took about a half hour to hour per pic to render.  Spent about 3 days on
> the modeling and texturing.
> Comments? Suggestions? Jobs? :)
>
> --
> H.E. Day
>
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  [Image]  [Image]  [Image]  [Image]

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Criticism:

I don't really like the lights on the ship. I mean, the windows or whatever
they are (the blue things). On the dark side of the ship they look
appropriate, er well, decent atleast. If they are windows, then i actually
don't think they fit quite right. If they are just lights, then they look
alright, but only on the dark parts of the ship. Where the ship is
illuminated, they look like they were drawn on with markers.

I guess the same goes for the ships texture. It looks fsking awesome in the
lowlight areas of the ship, but looks a little too plast[icky] in the well
lit areas.

All this of course with a grain of salt (or whatever the saying is) because
I couldn't do any better. Well, I don't have the patience to try anyway. I'd
like to comment on the actual modeling of this. I am not familiar with the
original and i didn't bother to follow the link you gave, but this is a very
fine modeling job. I really dig the concavity in the rear fins of the ship.


I figure most people here will just comment on how brilliant this is and how
amazing your ship modeling skills are. A little constructive criticism never
hurts. I'm sure we'll see a finished version in the near future. I look
forward to it.


ross.

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> Criticism:
>
> I don't really like the lights on the ship. I mean, the windows or whatever
> they are (the blue things). On the dark side of the ship they look
> appropriate, er well, decent atleast. If they are windows, then i actually
> don't think they fit quite right. If they are just lights, then they look
> alright, but only on the dark parts of the ship. Where the ship is
> illuminated, they look like they were drawn on with markers.

Easy to fix.


> I guess the same goes for the ships texture. It looks fsking awesome in the
> lowlight areas of the ship, but looks a little too plast[icky] in the well
> lit areas.

Ditto.

> A little constructive criticism never
> hurts.

Nope. It doesn't.

--
H.E. Day

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Everything looks good except for the Engine Pods (what is the Technical
name?)

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I agree with Ross about the windows; and I think some of the panels
(the checkered texture)are a bit too dark, they don't blend very well.
Other than that, it's very cool as usual. I really like the warp
nacells.
-- 
Phil
...coffee?...yes please! extra sugar,extra cream...Thank you.

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I agree with much of Ross' critisisms, but I would add that it seems as if
the ambient portion of the windows' texture is too high, so there seems ot
be lack of depth to them. But as was already mentioned, I highly doubt I
could do better. :)

One question somewhat off topic: You mentioned some time ago that you were
attempting to create a tutorial on using blobs. I was wondering how that was
coming along? Any chance we may see it soon? And in the interim, are there
any basic hints you could offer to get us started? This is a area of Povray
in which I really lack any skill. Also, any insight you could offer on how
you do create your textures might also be quite helpfull.

Thank you again for sharing your work,
Darcy

H.E. Day <hed### [at] fcinet> wrote in message news:38C9A445.2217871D@fci.net...
> No, not the aliens.  The ships!  I've been wanting to do this for some
> time, and I think the semifinished model compares very favorably with
> the model used on the actual shows and movies.
> (http://www.west.net/~brandonm/worlds.htm)
> Anywaaay, this model uses the trace() function extensively.  When I say
> extensively, I really, really, mean it.  I also used the new blob
> pattern to selectively, well, select areas on the surface to texture.
> And, yes, I did use the base texture from my Cruiser pic.
> Took about a half hour to hour per pic to render.  Spent about 3 days on
> the modeling and texturing.
> Comments? Suggestions? Jobs? :)

Post a reply to this message

"H.E. Day" wrote:

> No, not the aliens.  The ships!  I've been wanting to do this for some
> time, and I think the semifinished model compares very favorably with
> the model used on the actual shows and movies.
> (http://www.west.net/~brandonm/worlds.htm)
> Anywaaay, this model uses the trace() function extensively.  When I say
> extensively, I really, really, mean it.  I also used the new blob
> pattern to selectively, well, select areas on the surface to texture.
> And, yes, I did use the base texture from my Cruiser pic.
> Took about a half hour to hour per pic to render.  Spent about 3 days on
> the modeling and texturing.
> Comments? Suggestions? Jobs? :)

Now now, Mr. Day.

You know that scanning in and posting professional books will probably get
you in trouble.

;-)

--
"My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box" - W.A.Y.

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"H.E. Day" wrote:

> > Criticism:
> >
> > I don't really like the lights on the ship. I mean, the windows or whatever
> > they are (the blue things). On the dark side of the ship they look
> > appropriate, er well, decent atleast. If they are windows, then i actually
> > don't think they fit quite right. If they are just lights, then they look
> > alright, but only on the dark parts of the ship. Where the ship is
> > illuminated, they look like they were drawn on with markers.
>
> Easy to fix.
>
> > I guess the same goes for the ships texture. It looks fsking awesome in the
> > lowlight areas of the ship, but looks a little too plast[icky] in the well
> > lit areas.
>
> Ditto.
>
> > A little constructive criticism never
> > hurts.
>
> Nope. It doesn't.
>

Hmmm. Definitely getting better. I think the lighting was the one thing I
pointed out a little while back that he could change a little. The rest is still
very good, and I can get picky (you should see me tear into my own stuff).

Hmmm. Nice, but can he do the USS Applepies?

--
"My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box" - W.A.Y.

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Noah A wrote:
> 
> i rrreeaaalllyyy hate you ;)

Does this mean that you rue the Day ?

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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Wow man, your models just blow me away! Looks like a lightwave trace - sooo
cool!

Please please please write a blob tutorial! :)

Equiprawn

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You did all that with blobs? I'm very impressed.


--l

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> Does this mean that you rue the Day ?

That's really poor, Ken. Really poor.


--
H.E. Day

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Ken wrote
>
>
> Noah A wrote:
> >
> > i rrreeaaalllyyy hate you ;)
>
> Does this mean that you rue the Day ?
>

Ouch !

Post a reply to this message

Ross Litscher wrote:

> I don't really like the lights on the ship. I mean, the windows or whatever
> they are (the blue things). On the dark side of the ship they look
> appropriate, er well, decent atleast. If they are windows, then i actually
> don't think they fit quite right. If they are just lights, then they look
> alright, but only on the dark parts of the ship. Where the ship is
> illuminated, they look like they were drawn on with markers.
>
> I guess the same goes for the ships texture. It looks fsking awesome in the
> lowlight areas of the ship, but looks a little too plast[icky] in the well
> lit areas.

I agree, the texturing is bad but the modelling is good.

> All this of course with a grain of salt (or whatever the saying is) because
> I couldn't do any better.

But of course! Don't we all? :-p

--
___     _______________________________________________
 | \     |_          <dav### [at] faricynet> <ICQ 55354965>
 |_/avid |ontaine        http://www.faricy.net/~davidf/

"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad." -Dali

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What don'tcha like about them?  I think they look awsome/cool. :)

--
H.E. Day

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But there not official Trek style

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Darcy Johnston <djo### [at] inamecomNOSPAM> wrote in article
<38c9d789$1@news.povray.org>...
> I agree with much of Ross' critisisms, but I would add that it seems as
if
> the ambient portion of the windows' texture is too high, so there seems
ot
> be lack of depth to them. But as was already mentioned, I highly doubt I
> could do better. :)
Already fixed!


> One question somewhat off topic: You mentioned some time ago that you
were
> attempting to create a tutorial on using blobs. I was wondering how that
was
> coming along? Any chance we may see it soon? And in the interim, are
there
> any basic hints you could offer to get us started? This is a area of
Povray
> in which I really lack any skill. Also, any insight you could offer on
how
> you do create your textures might also be quite helpfull.

Sure. Lets see, a basic hint......Ok.  To me, blob modeling is a lot like
modeling with clay.  You can add bits, you an scoop huge chunks out, you
can taper to a point.  My personal trick, without which I couldn't make
anything, is what I call Feathering.  
It's taking a blob component, say a sphere, 
sphere {0,1,1 scale <30,5,70> translate -4*y-40*z}

and copying and pasting it several times.  Now go back to the first three
numbers:
sphere {0,1,1.......
sphere {0,1,1.......
sphere {0,1,1.......

Now you decrease the blob power (third number) and increase the radius
(second number).  Leave the first alone.

sphere {0,1,1/2.......
sphere {0,1.2,1/4.......
sphere {0,1.4,1/4.......
Note how the powers of the three components add up to the power of the
sphere you started with.  When rendered with other components this serves
to greatly smooth the lines between components. The downside, however, is
rather messy code.  Still the speed decrease is minimal.  I once had a 10
component blob and a 10000 component blob.  The first only rendered one
second faster than the second!!!!  You must remember to manually bound your
blobs.   To do so put the blob in a union {} statement,
union {
blob{....}
}
and use the same bounds on both.

union {
blob {....
bounded_by {...}
clipped_by {bounded_by}
}
bounded_by {...}
clipped_by {bounded_by}
}

This will seriously speed the render up!
Hope this helps you!

--
H.E. Day

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> You know that scanning in and posting professional books will probably
get
> you in trouble.

I hate that joke.

--
H.E. Day

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In article <01bf8ba4$f9328bc0$f0073ea6@default>, "H. E. Day" 
<Pov### [at] aolcom> wrote:

> My personal trick, without which I couldn't make anything, is what I 
> call Feathering.  
> ...
> Note how the powers of the three components add up to the power of the
> sphere you started with.  When rendered with other components this serves
> to greatly smooth the lines between components. The downside, however, is
> rather messy code. 

This looks like a good place to use a macro...all that 
copy-paste-modifying could be automated.
 

> You must remember to manually bound your blobs.   To do so put the 
> blob in a union {} statement,
> union {
> blob{....}
> }
> and use the same bounds on both.
> 
> union {
> blob {....
> bounded_by {...}
> clipped_by {bounded_by}
> }
> bounded_by {...}
> clipped_by {bounded_by}
> }
> 
> This will seriously speed the render up!

I think you could use the object keyword instead of union, and get the 
same effect(without the warning about only having one object in a CSG). 
And I think you might be able to use "hierarchy off" instead of the 
wrapper object...

-- 
Chris Huff
e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/

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I have the warning-to-console turned completely off.  It bugged me.
And hierarchy off slows it down, rather than speeds it up.
--
H.E. Day

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In article <38CAF9F4.821379A1@fci.net>, Pov### [at] aolcom wrote:

> I have the warning-to-console turned completely off.  It bugged me.

Ouch. In my way of thinking, a warning is an indication of a possible 
severe problem. I track them down and eliminate them at once.
Warnings have helped me find stupid mistakes many times, when I would 
normally have just glanced over the same area of code.


> And hierarchy off slows it down, rather than speeds it up.

I am actually not surprised, I was just making a wild guess. It turns 
off the bounding hierarchy for the individual components, which can 
sometimes remove artifacts.

But did you try using object instead of union?

-- 
Chris Huff
e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/

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"H. E. Day" wrote:

> > You know that scanning in and posting professional books will probably
> get
> > you in trouble.
>
> I hate that joke.
>
> --
> H.E. Day

Sorry.

But it was my first thought when I saw them.

My next was "hey, he got himself an airbrush"

--
"My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box" - W.A.Y.

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Ken wrote in message <38CA0E9D.DB449045@pacbell.net>...
>Does this mean that you rue the Day ?


Just for good measure -- "UGH"

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On Fri, 10 Mar 2000 17:41:26 -0800, H.E. Day wrote:

This looks great, it'd be good to see it against a dark background.
Just thought, I could do that in gimp.

-- 
Cheers
Steve              email mailto:sjl### [at] ndirectcouk

%HAV-A-NICEDAY Error not enough coffee  0 pps. 

web http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~sjlen/

or  http://start.at/zero-pps

 10:45pm  up  6:31,  4 users,  load average: 1.00, 1.00, 1.00

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Is it just me, or do other people go to a science fiction movie and read all
the credits looking for "H.E. Day"?

Another fabulous modeling job.

Josh

"H.E. Day" wrote:

> No, not the aliens.  The ships!  I've been wanting to do this for some
> time, and I think the semifinished model compares very favorably with
> the model used on the actual shows and movies.
> (http://www.west.net/~brandonm/worlds.htm)
> Anywaaay, this model uses the trace() function extensively.  When I say
> extensively, I really, really, mean it.  I also used the new blob
> pattern to selectively, well, select areas on the surface to texture.
> And, yes, I did use the base texture from my Cruiser pic.
> Took about a half hour to hour per pic to render.  Spent about 3 days on
> the modeling and texturing.
> Comments? Suggestions? Jobs? :)
>
> --
> H.E. Day
>
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  [Image]  [Image]  [Image]  [Image]

--
Josh English
eng### [at] spiritonecom
"May your hopes, dreams, and plans not be destroyed by a few zeros."

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have you thought about wwriting a blobs tutorial?  you seem to have quite a
knack for blobs that the rest of us could benefit from.

"H.E. Day" wrote:

> No, not the aliens.  The ships!  I've been wanting to do this for some
> time, and I think the semifinished model compares very favorably with
> the model used on the actual shows and movies.
> (http://www.west.net/~brandonm/worlds.htm)
> Anywaaay, this model uses the trace() function extensively.  When I say
> extensively, I really, really, mean it.  I also used the new blob
> pattern to selectively, well, select areas on the surface to texture.
> And, yes, I did use the base texture from my Cruiser pic.
> Took about a half hour to hour per pic to render.  Spent about 3 days on
> the modeling and texturing.
> Comments? Suggestions? Jobs? :)
>
> --
> H.E. Day
>
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  [Image]  [Image]  [Image]  [Image]

Post a reply to this message