Desert Sunrise.

[s.winders]

Does anyone have any tips for making decent 3d mountains.My problem is I keep on getting unrealistic pointy tops on my attempts,is there a tool or way of making the point less extreme and look more natural also.


Thanks

Stu.

[Steve Newport]

This sunrise is very realistic, looks like a photo. I'm not familiar with cinema, or whatever you are using, however, I have seen plugins for modeling programs that can create realistic mountains. Great job and good luck

Steve Newport

[Gary David Bouton]

Hi Erik--

•NURBS- Acronym for Non-Uniform B-Splines. These are paths you create to "skin" in modeling programs. They are easier, mathematically, to handle than straight polygons or regular spline paths. In essense, it's a fancy name for spines (paths).
•DXF- Acronym for Data Exchange Format, coined by Autodesk in the year 1452. It's the most ancient and primitive way of exchanging 3D data with other programs. I prefer the Mac 3D metafile format, 'cause it understands splines (a dxf file is a shipload of control points that the host program connects into surface polygons. Can you edit a dxf file? Not really. The best you can do is to tell your host program to make the polygon cluster as dense as possible when importing. This increases the resolution of the file (and file size) but it also smoothes out the naturally spikey tendency of polygons.

•Your third definition is proprietary to your program, I believe. I've never read anything about it in technical books but here's a guess: You use a brush tool to indicate on the surface of objects where shadow and reflection tracing should occur? This would make sense, because for the most part, traced reflections and shadows only eat up processor time...from a single view, the audience may or may not see the effect, so with your weirdo tool there, you might be able to control the only areas you want that have realistic optics.


Kindest Regards,

Gary David Bouton
www.boutons.com
Gary@GaryWorld.com
Visit a really large gallery at www.GaryWorld.com!

[s.winders]

Gary thats excellent art work.

Smorg welcome [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]


I finally got to play/use [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Bodypaint,what a powerfull application it is too.I will post my efforts when I finish.I am at that stage now where you get to when you have new soft and are learning to use it and the most common phrase is "What!,what the hell are they talking about? usually followed by oh ok they do know what they are talking about afterall [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


Stu.

[Erik Heyninck]

This is almost the Xara forum, where there are always some helpful people online. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Thanks for the explanations. Must admit that 3D gives me the same feeling I had when I first opened Coreldraw, some two days after buying my first PC ever (in november 99).

My budget is very limited, and I can't permit myself to make a wrong choice. Up to now I've been lucky (most of the times), and I have a strong "yes" feeling for Cinema3DArt with Bodypaint. But I'll try it out to the bottom before saying yes. I once thought Bryce was what I needed after seeing Bill Ellsworth's work, but it is too recognisable, just like Poser (this is my opinion, and I do not want to say anything negative about software I really don't know).
I found Terragen on Mark (theKeeper)'s site & downloaded it. It is OK, but I want something else than photorealism.

PS I like your Alien.

[randyrives]

Eric,

Raybrush - is a term that Maxon has coined. Basically it is a method to paint in a raytrace scene. So when you paint you see your texture, reflections, transpacency etc.. in realtime. Pretty cool really.
Bodypaint is a pretty cool tool. I have no where got a grasp on the tool yet, but what I have played with has been awesome!

--Randy

[Erik Heyninck]

I do understand, Stu. I downloaded the pdf manual of Bodypaint, and I think I need a dictionary, because most of the 3D words are completely new. Does anyone know where I can find a real basic explanation of what, how and why in 3D? Please, not for "dummies" (I hate that), but simple definition style, if possible with an example.

Like: Nurbs: blablabla. Example:
DXF : blablabla.
Raybrush: blablabla. Example:

I downloaded the 3DArt suite, but there is no Art manual available in pdf.

[randyrives]

Cinema 4d has them. I believe Strata also has them.


--Randy

[Earl]

Hi Gary,

LightWave most definitely has displacement maps (been a standard feature for as long as I can remember). [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] trueSpace 5 should support displacement mapping as well. Any program over 500 bucks better support it (if you ask me). Displacement mapping is an awesome feature - and can be used to animate fire, smoke, non-solid volumes, fields of grass, etc. It's one of hollywood's invaluable tools.

[This message was edited by Earl Wilson IV on June 13, 2001 at 15:18.]

[Gary David Bouton]

Hi, Stu--

I too, am clueless as to what software you're using, but if you take a look at Vue d-Esprit, you can paint an elevation map, and have it exported as a DXF file.

Attached is a poor example, because I haven't used Vue in a while.


Kindest Regards,

Gary David Bouton
www.boutons.com
Gary@GaryWorld.com
Visit a really large gallery at www.GaryWorld.com!