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

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    Quote Originally Posted by RKissane View Post
    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
    I actually downloaded Blender, and while it is very capable, consider how Xara products are so user friendly, Blender is the opposite of that, while Open Source (so no cost), and capable of the most complex 3D operations, it's not easy to use at all. I'm dragging my feet moving forward using it. Have you see the user interface - ugh! It's terrible.

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

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    Next 3D scene, the swampy jungle moon of the kappa race, slave laborers of the Oni of Jigoku, a gas giant that this moon orbits. Kappa are small, turtle/frog cross humanoids of Japanese folklore. Created in Vue Creator, a 3D terrain generator and Poser 11, to custom create the kappa in the foreground ... enjoy!

    Click image for larger version. 

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

    Default Re: 3D illustrations...

    This is Wa Station, located on a water world that features two small islands and extensive shallow continents for the ningyo (merfolk) and same-bito (shark shapechangers) that inhabit this sea world. The Kaidanese have built Wa Station to both study the seas, and have a secret hiding place within orbit of Jigoku, which this like many of the worlds presented are moons of the gas giant. The Kaidanese have recruited the same-bito into a fighting force of armored ashigaru... 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...

    Totally for experimentation purposes only, I may use this, but otherwise it's probably usable in both sci-fi and fantasy. You know those heavily eroded limestone spires of rock in China with trees growing on them. Vue has a land texture that is more than just a rocky surface, but also has plants built in placed randomly, but only appear in flat surface areas. So I created a spire of rock in Wings 3D, with outcroppings and small ledges with flat tops, imported to Vue and applied that texture. And so it wasn't just landscape art, I placed some towers, a landing pad and a bridge on it's exterior. Anyway, even if I don't use it, maybe you can use it as inspiration in your own adventures for unique places for adventurers to visit... enjoy!

    Michael

    Click image for larger version. 

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