High Poly Venice Model

I saw the "Final Fantasy" movie on TV last night. (never saw it in the theaters or on DVD).

You didn't miss anything, the movie bombed because of the poor and very confusing storyline.

That was pretty well done for a 3D animation. When was that movie made?

!!!? Pretty well done?! That movie was considered the pinnacle of 3D animation for film. It was going to make or break the idea of full cgi films using vactors (virtual actors) instead of real actors. It was very controversial in Hollywood because of that. It didn't work though. Sony plugged it as the biggest event of the century. But since it bombed, actors are now safe in the belief that they won't be replaced.

Regardless, the technical achievement was astonishing. Unfortunately, the still shots looked better than the actual moving ones. But they thought everyone would be so impressed, the movie slacked off in every other area of film making.

This film was the ultimate demonstration that visual effects should support the movie, not comprise the movie.

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The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
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Extreamly Nice! This is one of the first models I have seen that makes me feel that Humans actually could have built it. It feels alot like standing on a big ship. I do think it's the bolts (which are great!) and maybe the side fuel tanks - no mystical hyper forces. And the not quite symetrical detailing - like looking up and seeing a bank of power conduits running along a skyscraper basement ceiling. Quite good! I am looking forward to seeing the bridge.

-Gtrout

Final Fantasy was not a film i went to see for the hope of a good interesting story line or good acting. I went to see it purely to see really good grafics

And yes this model rocks. You up for doing some Modeling for new in-game units?

Jwk...comander of =HEMP HUNGRY MONKEY=
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Thanks!

Actually, I have a confession; The half-spheres on the front dish were never intended to be bolts. The textures of the game model display a circular pattern of spheres around the rim of the dish, so I placed them in the model... all the while never really figuring out just what they should do. If they're bolts, I'd hate to see the wrench. It'd be the size of a house.

(The 'eye' of the cap drive was the most difficult thing to model. The game model uses textures to simulate a 3D object, but when I started trying to model it I ended up with objects which could not exist in real space. The dish cannot curve outwards and still meet at the sides of the cap drive. So, I got as close as I could and chalked it up to 'artistic license'.)

This, however, brings up an interesting point. I had assumed craft would be welded and use panels to access the inner mechanics (creating a stronger hull). But the comments on the bolts make me wonder. Would the textures look better if there were bolts holding the individual panels together?

<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">

Absolutely! Reality be damned, it's details like those that really make a mechanical device look "cool" and "interesting." In real-life and in art.

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The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
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Yeah, my favorite models are ones where all the parts have a real purpose. More like an engingeering blueprint than a toy. I loved looking at the battletech blueprints, even if only a lunatic would design a 50 foot tall slow moving high visibility target to walk across a battlefield of soft clay and dirt.

Shane, you bring up a great question. How would these components be connected? Just for tossing out ideas, I saw this iron rail bridge. The engineer who designed it found that welds and rivits done at the construction site tended to be weaker than those done at a central forge. So the bridge was made of prefabricated pieces (triangular IIRC (if I remember correctly is how that was explained to me)). And they were "pinned" together by massive pins.

The only field welds just were the retaining clips for the pins, and they suffered very little stress. The bridge was for handling trains, so it could take huge stress.

I have to wonder if something similar would not be done in space. Because delicate wirings and integrations would be slow. And hard to repair. Large modular pieces that bolt and unbolt would be much easier. Or pin and unpin or something. Plus construction of modules could be done in sheltered spaces. And then the could be armored up (from micrometorite hits) and moved to the larger ship construction site.

The Venice has a modular feel already. Even the rear engine spaces. Fuel tanks. And the tacked on side engine shields.

The real question is how do you construct warship armor in a modular fasion?

-Gtrout