Let's start this up again

[Gamerprinter]

Simple subjects and compositions can be harder to pull off than fantasy stuff, because it has its roots in reality, that, with the exception of a few politicians, is what we live in.

Not that I think you were poking at me with the fantasy comment. While some of my work is waaay over the top, nearly all of it is tied to reality in some way. Fantasy doesn't work if you cannot get past a suspension of disbelief, and to accomplish that, there needs to be a tie to reality. Consider my last fantasy illustration posted in my thread, which I happen to have tweaked last night and in the last few hours of rendering the final image now. It's a cluster of asteroids held together by the webs of massive spiders living in space. If you can accept the notion that lifeforms can live in open space, even perhaps some kind of alien spider, then seeing the science of using strong webs to hold asteroids together makes some kind of sense. Someone suggested - wouldn't it be cool of trails of webbings hundreds of miles long connected the spider's nest to nearby larger asteroids to create large web nets to catch passing small asteroids, and potentially passing starships - to make for an interesting threat to adventurers. The webbing shown in the illustration looks real, despite it being fantasy.

It takes a lot of contemplation, between imagination and what is acceptable to others' realities. Not every fantasy works, unless it's intrinsically tied to reality somehow.

[handrawn]

wot ?

do you own the definition of fantasy... I don't think so

[Gamerprinter]

No, and am certainly suggesting that. Rather, I continue to post fantasy content regularly on the boards, and thought it might have reflected my work - although I certainly don't know that for certain, hence why I hinted that it could be the case... I'd say the majority of 3D content isn't strictly for fantasy. Most of the world's engineering today is done in 3D first, for example.

[handrawn]

I draw cartoons - most of it is political, all of it is fantasy, all of it is rooted in the real world

more routed in the real world I would suggest than guys living out life-escaping fantasy with role playing games

of course that is only my opinion...

why do you think Gary should be negative to your work - your work is excellent within it's context...

[Gamerprinter]

I don't think Gary think's negatively. Some may think that working in fantasy is some kind of design choice to avoid reality. I was just saying that fantasy must be directly tied to reality in some way, otherwise any suspension of disbelief regarding a fantasy scene requires that sense of realism, or it generally fails.

[gwpriester]

My life is a fantasy. I do not exist IRL.

Also I would not even begin to know where to start in a 3D program.

[Gare]

You could begin reality by subscribing to the NYT, oG.

Oog

[Acorn]

I would not even begin to know where to start in a 3D program.

Gary, I too have limited experience but try to follow the stages in this set of documentation: https://doc.babylonjs.com/journey/theFirstStep.

Whatever you create, we can include into a Xara website design.
Unpack and run Skull.zip.
I put the 3D skull in a pop-up layer so you can time how long it takes to load.

Acorn

[Gare]

Seriously, oG, you already own a fair starting tool, the Extrude tool.

Making interesting shapes, first of all, is easier if you pose the object in perspective, so you can see parts of all three facing sides. Second, the extrude doesn't need to be the depth axis. For example, to create a tube. extrude the letter "o", and then rotate it to the extrude is facing the viewer "up and down". Here are some shapes done only using the Extrude tool..




Because the Extrude tool doesn't "self-shadow" objects, you need to add trhem yourself, usually with Transparency in Multiply mode.

Here are other examples, and if there is an interest, I'll post the base profiles, and some of the finished pieces to goof around with.



A lot of the key to success is "seeing" in 3D, which is simpler than you'd think because already do this! Now, CREATE in 3D rather than just viewing it.

I hope there are no "tricks"or anything I've done here. It's just challenge after challenge as to how a shape in the real world can be expressed in the virtual world using shapes and the Extrude tool.


My Best,

Gary



.

[Gare]

Hi GamePrinter—

I was poking at absolutely no one. I'm very careful how I phrase a comment; I wrote that simple compositions *can* be harder to pull off, not "or", or even "should".

I do plenty of fantasy compositions, and abstract, anywhere my skills and imagination can take me.

Please forgive my comments if you feel I was specifically knocking a genre, I'm not. I'm still a little woozy from COVID and perhaps I should resist posting until I'm feeling more together.

Here's to unreal :)




—g