High Poly Venice Model

Just a quick update guys. (You probably thought I'd left for greener pastures, huh? ) Been working on a model of the Venice freighter which would be suitable for creating EoC in-game movies. Progress is slow (since I find I sign up for many more projects than I can realistically handle). But here's a pic:



I never did find any EoC movies which featured the Venice (only Oakland and City class freighters), so I had to stick with screen captures as reference.
She differs from the in-game model in some aspects. For instance, I decided to round off the capsule drive instead of keeping the hexagonal shape of the game version. And, where the textures tended to show only a blurry vision of 'mech-works' I allowed my imagination some leeway.

Currently the model sits at just over 46,500 polys (that will probably increase slightly as details are added). I've still got to texture her (bump maps will add to the detail greatly). And, afterwards would like to build a bridge for use as a movie set.

This model has been such fun, I figure in the future I'll build high-poly models of many more I-War craft. (But, I assure you, the next model will be a smaller, simpler ship type !)

The Venice class is a stunning ship design. They're sooooo cool. [8D] Kudos to Andy Turner and the other fantastic modelers of the I-War series!

<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

Aw man, freakin' nice! Gorgeous rendering too, what did you use? Looks a lot like the e-light I use for Max. That is one beautiful redition of the Venice. Nice, nice work Shane. Totally two thumbs up.

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
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Thanks Second Chance. The model is rendered as a 'beauty shot'. To do it in LW:

1.) Create a gigantic sphere (around 1 kilometer diameter). Give it a surface name (like 'lightsphere' or something other than default) and set the luminosity around 85% (I find 100% to be a bit too bright). Flip the polys (press the 'f' key) so the surface is on the interior of the sphere. Save it as Light_Sphere.

2.) Set all the surfaces of your model to a mid-range grey (128,128,128). Set diffuse to 100%. Set specularity, transparency, and all the other settings to zero (except the bump textures... keep those at the normal levels). Then send the model to Layout.

3.) In Layout, with the model loaded, set up your camera for the desired shot (I used a focal length of 18.5 for the above beauty shot to get a slight wide-screen effect. It adds some interest.). When your camera view is acceptable, keyframe the camera to keep it in place.

4.) Turn all lights to zero intensity, and set ambiant light to zero percent. Then load the Light_Sphere object. (You won't be able to see anything on the screen... this is normal.)

5.) Turn on Radiosity (from the Lights tab) and render the frame. Go get a sandwich; Radiosity takes some time to render!

Black and white beauty renders are a little stark. On the above picture I added a spot of color in Paint Shop Pro. I just added a layer of blue-grey and set transparency to 11% so only a hint of color appears. (It's possible to add the color to the light sphere surface, but you'll never know just how it's going to look until the render is well underway. It's so much quicker and safer to do it in post.)

Thanks again. When it's completed you, of course, are welcome to the model if you wish.

Oh yeah... you can do beauty shots with textured models too. Just keep the specularity down and the diffusion levels up.



<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

A native Lightwave render, huh? Man, I never cease to be impressed with that program. I wish it wasn't so hard to transition to from Max.

OT - Goddammit, I hate that Reset Form button next to the Preview Reply button down there! I'm glad this was a short post.

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
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Beautiful, It is imdiatly recongiseable and is the sort of thing you could spend along time looking over, due to its details.

Jwk...comander of =HEMP HUNGRY MONKEY=
www.i-war2.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=310

Well said, Hemp Monkey. Actually, much more well said than my first post. And he's right. I did find myself looking at it for a long time, letting my eyes play up and down along the model, discovering little surprises of detail here and there. Especially in the shadowy regions down below the bridge structure. I also love the rivets (or bolts) on the front hatch-like surface, it looks so industrial. The whole model is really very pleasing to look at. Again, really nice work Shane. You've got talent. You should post this on a Lightwave forum.

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
cartoons.sev.com.au/index.php?catid=4
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