Renders

[Psawhn]

Wait... did I volunteer? Actually, why not? Going at it from the POV of a UFOPedia animation, I can worry less about the more 'realistic' lighting style I plan to use. (Of course, I'll post samples for approval ). Essentially, you can't see stars unless the image is overexposed (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS35/N00098077.jpg - some stars are barely visible, but the planet and moon are overexposed - and that's with what little sunlight gets out to Saturn!)

Sitters: I need a mask that basically determines which parts of the texture are self-illuminating or not, so if the carrier goes into shadow then these parts will still be lit up. I can try to extract it myself, but it's always best to use the source files if you have it.

As for the Carrier mission: I had always thought that the mission was using an antimatter-powered human/alien hybrid transport that tries to sneak onto the ship. Either that, or shoot it down with a squadron of antimatter-powered interception craft.
But antimatter-powered missiles are a good idea, too. Much cheaper, much higher payload, less chance of killing valuable pilots, etc...


In other news, I can't wait until Blender 2.46/2.50 comes out. I've been thinking of doing some dogfighting scenes, and the new particles patch would make that so much better.

[Winter]

<raising hand>.....ummmm

What happens to the 3 kiloton shells that miss the UFO?  That's a lot of explosive power coming back down to earth?   

Regards,
Sean E

They've got enough velocity to go into orbit without even firing their onboard rockets. They're not coming back down to Earth, and if they were threatening to, they'd be remotely detonated.

They might blow another wee crater in the moon or Mars, but nothing serious is likely to happen with them.

As for the Carrier mission: I had always thought that the mission was using an antimatter-powered human/alien hybrid transport that tries to sneak onto the ship. Either that, or shoot it down with a squadron of antimatter-powered interception craft.

No, that's the final mothership mission -- you sneak a team onto the mothership and fight your way through.

But antimatter-powered missiles are a good idea, too. Much cheaper, much higher payload, less chance of killing valuable pilots, etc...

Not antimatter-powered, just ordinary mini-nukes. But yes, essentially a very fast nuclear missile fired from a big railgun.

Regards,
Winter

[BTAxis]

It will probably break up into pieces at some point during or after entering the atmosphere. The pieces will land spectacularly -- but at least some of these pieces should be intact enough for a tactical mission to be launched at them.

I'd like to narrow this down slightly. The part that is going to be the stage for the tactical mission must include the Carrier's FTL drive, as the FTL drive is what this whole shooting down the Carrier thing is about. The FTL drive is located in the center of the ship, inside the round part. Please keep this in mind.

[Sean_E]

Psawhn : The emission map works decently.  Here is a small test animation

http://www.scenerysoup.com/soupscenery/files/fast-rotate.avi

Would doing rotations like this be good for the UFOpedia?

Regards,
Sean E.

[Psawhn]

I've made a better emission map, after understanding more of Sitter's texture files. (There's one with illuminance baked directly in, and a larger one with only base colours.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/Psawhn/UFO-AI/skin_carier_emit_4096.png

This is about the best I can do to 'recover' the emission source. (Being able to isolate things like these is one reason I have dozens of layers in my source .xcf files.)

But I think these images look much better with self-illuminating bits.

[Winter]

Psawhn : The emission map works decently.  Here is a small test animation

http://www.scenerysoup.com/soupscenery/files/fast-rotate.avi

Would doing rotations like this be good for the UFOpedia?

Regards,
Sean E.

I suppose they would work, but it wouldn't really be any better than the standard controllable 3d display, although more eye-catching and with better shading. I think UFOpaedia clips would have to be something a little more advanced than a simple rotation, perhaps with a display of the Carrier's weapons firing and/or UFOs launching from the Carrier's decks, being highlighted as they come into view of the camera.

In the case of atmosphere-capable UFOs, the animation could contain a rotation followed by a short (probably poor, shaky and grainy) clip of the UFO in question in a dogfight, filmed from the ground or from cameras on board the intercepting plane(s). Sometimes the UFO might get shot down, sometimes the cameraman.

Regards,
Winter

[sitters]

For the lights, i have an luminance map.

Here the link maybe you can use it.

http://www.md2.sitters-electronics.nl/render/luminance.jpg



Willem

[Mattn]

@all: can you please upload the hole source files (again)? or update the existing ones?

[sitters]

Yea here an link to the source, but an very big download (50 MB ).
I use very big textures for the animation ( 4096 X 4096 ).

The luminance map I use :



The source :

http://www.md2.sitters-electronics.nl/render/carrier_ani.rar


Willem

[sitters]

Hi winter, here an example how they can come in our space.




The movie clip :

http://www.md2.sitters-electronics.nl/render/warp1_xvid.avi


Willem

[Winter]

Hi winter, here an example how they can come in our space.




The movie clip :

http://www.md2.sitters-electronics.nl/render/warp1_xvid.avi


Willem

Would it be possible to speed that up by a lot? We're looking for a sudden flash, not a slow buildup, the effect shouldn't last more than one second. The reason for this is that a quick, high-energy event takes less power than a long, drawn-out one, and the sudden appearance is more dramatic.

Regards,
Winter

[sitters]

This is what i can do winter.

http://www.md2.sitters-electronics.nl/render/warp2_xvid.avi


Willem

[Winter]

This is what i can do winter.

http://www.md2.sitters-electronics.nl/render/warp2_xvid.avi


Willem

I like that a lot better. Could you incorporate that sort of effect into the big intro?

Regards,
Winter

[sitters]

I like that a lot better. Could you incorporate that sort of effect into the big intro?

Regards,
Winter

Yea I am working on the new big intro now. :-).

Willem

[sitters]

OK make the final movie ( 3.5 minute ), its containing enough material for
making an intro.



The movie clip :

http://www.md2.sitters-electronics.nl/render/warp3_xvid.avi

Willem