CGI | Sci-fi Art

Work starting on the interior of the core region of the station.  Got a rough idea from some concepts on what I want to do, so now it's just time to build it.  The video above is a timelapse of the concept phase of the station's interior.

Hopefully everyone is doing awesome.

Dan

Hi all,

The (major) work on the Adamant is done. :D  I suppose I'll always be tinkering, making her better.  I suppose this could be chalked up to the fact that the ship always is in for refit as new technologies become available, right? :)






Also, a new demo reel for 2015, featuring the new ship!  The old demo reel was really starting to show its age, so I decided to bite the bullet and make a new one.  Not much room for stuff in only 2 minutes of video, so I had to be choosy.  I decided to show the work for Gingerbreed and a possible future concept web series I've been tinkering with called Starship: Adamant, which would feature short little snippets of various missions the Adamant goes on in her voyages. :)



Dan

So, continued work on Gingerbreed.  The guys over at HiFI3D sent me some finals yesterday featuring one of the digital sets I built for them.

Here are some original OpenGL versions of the Colony set as it was being built:

Since this set was to be different from the rest of the sets built previously, I started with a single panel to get an okay from Jon and Szymon

The set was to be heavily damaged and distressed, but I started from a pristine state to get an idea what the location looked like before its demise

Jon and Szymon would give me helpful feedback on the project.  Since the scene was to include live action shots already completed, certain geometry had to be placed correctly to accommodate the paths of objects as they moved through the digital environment.  Some of these changes may stay, others may be removed at virtually any time in the production

The central core of the set was left for last.  Again, due to shooting constraints, the over all floor plan had to be followed closely

I model in Blender, because I find the modelling suite there to be easier and faster to work with.  But the film uses Maya, so the sets have to be exported to Maya scenes and set up in a certain hierarchy to facilitate lighting, texturing and shooting.

From there, Jon and Szymon take the modelled scene, light and texture it and then render it out for backgrounds for the action.  The results look like this:





So, that's what I do for a living. :)

Hope everyone enjoyed this little foray into the world of a digital environment modeller!

Dan

While waiting for other projects to finish...

CGCookie asked me to do another tutorial for them.  Here it is.  This one ended up much better, so I'm pleased.

About a month ago, I received a request from CGCookie.com to make a Blender tutorial.  So, after a bit of deliberation with Jonathan at Blender Cookie, we decided to make a tutorial on how to do laser beam cannons in Blender, using the Cycles render engine.

Today, I started work on the tutorial by building the model which will be used with the tute.  A working turret, fully set-up and rigged with empties so that it always points towards its target.





From here, the tutorial will start with how to make the laser beam effect, as seen in this video:


Obviously, this is an older video, so the technique will be improved.

Perhaps in the future, I hope to have another tutorial which will show how to design and build a turret and how to rig it properly for use in this fashion, but for now, hopefully everyone will enjoy the model.

The tutorial is still about a month away, however.  Still working on it.  Never thought I'd be tapped by CGCookie to do a tutorial for them, though.  It's really a cool deal.

Have a great day, everyone.

Thanks,
Dan

Public version of the apartment set from Plagarus Part 3 is available here.







Hope everyone enjoys it and that someone finds some use for it.

 Sci Fi Apartment Scene 2

Thanks,
Dan

Commercial work for an ad agency I was sub contracted under to make a CG sequence for a commercial.  This was made in Blender.  The client was reportedly pleased with the result.

Dan

I just got some images back from my client, Tom, of one of the Nem Gate sets I made for him textured and prepared for appearance in the movie.  Interesting to see how different the lounge set looks like from what it appeared as without materials.






Still a WIP, of course, but it's getting there.  I did not render these out, or do the materials.  I only modelled the room geometry.

Dan

Uploaded the contest entry.  Let's see how we do.  We win by how many likes and +'s we get, I suppose.  Not entirely clear on that one.

The product page.








 


 Dan

Finished the first part of my contest entry.  Will upload the corridor to the contest site tomorrow, I think.




Next up will be the captain's quarters to this fictitious alien capital ship.

Dan

First new product I've uploaded in a while.  I took a look around and discovered that other artists have been uploading better stuff than mine for a while, now.  So I hope this doesn't get overlooked too much.  I uploaded the apartment set to TurboSquid for sale, for those interested in taking a look and perhaps seeing about supporting a starving artist.






Sci Fi Apartment Scene

Dan