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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Ottawa, IL USA
    Posts
    1,138

    Default 3D illustrations...

    So over the past 20 years, I've dabbled with various 3D programs: Raydream Studio, Cararra 3D, Nichimen Mirai, Cinema 4D, Nichimen Nendo, Wings 3D, Poser, and now using Vue Creator. I don't make animations, rather still images for use as illustrations for tabletop roleplaying game products I create and publish. I've only been using Vue Creator for about 2 weeks or so, here are my last two. The cloud city I started last night and rendered today, the Japanese capital illustration I started on Friday at 9 PM, and it took my PC 38.5 hours to render the sky down to the lake. I created the foreground Sunday, and it only took 7 minutes to render (?!). The cloud city, the starship in the first image, and the buildings, geisha's clothing, stone lantern and the foreground all created using Wings 3D, the terrain, lake, plants, sky and rendering itself done in Vue.

    Click image for larger version. 

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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Placitas, New Mexico, USA
    Posts
    41,486

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    Very nice. I have never had any luck with 3D programs. The logic and rhythm evade me. And I DO NOT have the patience to wait that long for a render.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2018
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    50

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    I am not good on 3D programs, your works look nice. I really like the second photo as it features Japan.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Ottawa, IL USA
    Posts
    1,138

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    Yes, agreed, patience is not a virture I have! Sometime in the late 1990's, I was looking at some 3D software, really wanting to try one out, but most were way out of my price range. Raydream Studio, quite low end compared to most was still $500. Then an attorney client of my graphic design studio, asked if I could create a 30 second animation of an accident in 3D. I considered what I needed, got a rough price of what that might cost a client, and reduced it to 10%, which was $1200. Here I was pricing a service, when I didn't even know how to use 3D at all. The client accepting the cost, "authorized me" to spend the $500 and I got Raydream, with a 30 day deadline on the project. I ordered Raydream and spent the first 2 weeks pulling my hair out, trying to wrap my brain around working in 3D, and eventually "figured it out". So I spent the next week and a half designing the animation, and the last days trying to render a 640 x 480 pixel, 30 second animation at 1 frame a second. It took three days to render that out - then I discovered that the shadows were too dark. So I adjusted the light level, to lower the shadow saturation and rendered it again, for another 3 days. After I was done, I submitted to the client and he was pleased, and paid me!

    Since that time I tried a bunch of different 3D programs, some over $1000 with annual licenses, those I only spent 1 years worth and didn't renew. I used to Nichimen Nendo as a $20 subdivisional surface modeler, and learned to become expert in it. Nendo is gone, but Wings 3D is based on the same code, so it's almost the same program - some things it cannot do, but others it can, and I'm expert modeling most anything out of it. Vue Creator was just the most affordable option I could do right, which is $20 a month on a subscription. While there are certainly better 3D terrain generators than Vue, still that software is used in movie/television VFX, which is good enough for me. I found it easy to grasp, but then I do have 20+ years experience using other 3D software, to get me moving quickly. I need something to create quality illustrations for my various publishing projects. Xara is just fine for me to create professional maps for the gaming industry, but my normal art is hit or miss. 3D solves my current needs and why I use it.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Montreal
    Posts
    780

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    Nice images Gamerprinter!
    There's a lot of work involved.

    I find Xara an excellent tool to assemble 3d images and edit them via bitmap editing with photoshop's nice transform tools (warp, tranform, liquifiy...).

    Marc
    ________________________________
    Illustrations

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Currently New York State
    Posts
    774

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    Michael,

    Have you ever tried Blender? I have seen a lot done with it and what I have seen looks impressive. Looks to be pretty good for the cost of a donation. I don't know 3D so it may not fulfill your needs.

    Ray

  7. #7

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    The rendering time for that Japanes illustration seems very unusually long. I'd be interested to know what your system specs are like. Beautiful design though. I also do 3d modeling and rendering. I do motion graphics and animations mostly these days, but I have also done still images for many years. I specialize in modeling with 3dsmax, but have also learned Zbrush and Blender over the years. Most of the animations I do nowadays are created with 3dsmax and rendered with Blender. I don't think I've had a frame which took longer than 5 minutes to render in many years, but I usually render with GPU now rather than CPU. It's about 20x faster for the same quality of scene.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Ottawa, IL USA
    Posts
    1,138

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    I don't have a superpowered graphics card, which is probably why it took so long. The reason that one took so long, was that I was rendering 1.6 billion faces due to all the leaves on the trees. I'll have to look at the GPU solution. Most my renders take about 20 minutes. I've downloaded the most recent Blender, but find the UI rather unfriendly and not intuitive. All my favorite software started as very intuitive software. I don want to learn Blender, but dragging my feet due to the many, many odd shortcuts keys I need to understand to effectively use it.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Ottawa, IL USA
    Posts
    1,138

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    I needed a break from making ships and map tiles, so I created a detailed race called the Nelid, a segmented worm being that is hermaphroditic (both male and female parts), though it still needs a partner where both leave the encounter pregnant. It's highly intelligent with telepathic communications ability, capable of controlling those with weaker minds than it. Though it can move fast in liquid and muddy environments, it harnesses itself to a cybernetic walking vehicle with insect like legs and humanoid arms to wield tools and weapons. Don't know if I'll actually publish this or not, but the idea has been spinning around my head for the last week or so, finally getting the opportunity to create it... enjoy!

    Click image for larger version. 

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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Ottawa, IL USA
    Posts
    1,138

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    So designing the ships of the Nelid worm race. I opted for a Chrysalis design as a living ship, inside a giant caterpillar with it's transformation suspended and serving as the life support and systems with the "ship". Working on the deck plans next, but first I wanted to show the interior of the ship to show the biological structure of the "decks" as cavities and intestinal systems serving as bays and corridors, so I did a transparent hull view, rather than a cut-away.

    Click image for larger version. 

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