Anim8or Community

I'm very pleased that the references to those other popular 3D packages weren't too subtle, you've absolutely nailed it regarding the narrative of 'Renegade'.  I only had a vague idea of the composition before constructing it, all I really had was the idea of the 'Anim8or ship', identified by its robin-esque colour scheme, and the Maya/3DS ships.  Since the 3DS and Maya logos are basically the same M/3 shape on different angles it was a no-brainer to build a ship that looked reminiscent of those logos when fore-shortened and rotated.  The Blender space station was great fun to build... and insanely satisfying to destroy.  There's definitely something Freudian in that...

FSS: Regarding your final, aside from the strong composition I think what impresses me most is how much like a hand painting it looks.  It can be really difficult to avoid the 'hard-edged' nature of CGI, your techniques in softening the background work wonderfully well in this image (I've seen your tutorial on the grass edge borders, the technique works perfectly in this image).  The rain ripples in the water and the fireflies are masterfully done!  This is an excellent piece of work with a delicate touch that belies what we know was a painstaking process to develop.

Thecolclough: Your final is a totally compelling image that is impossible to glance at, its crisp detail demands a detailed inspection.  I agree with FSS's points regarding the composition, I'm a sucker for dramatic angles and tilted cameras!  The palette is spot on and works perfectly with the Anim8or V1 workspace colour scheme.  Reflections can be a PITA to work with as they can introduce confusion and camouflage the prime focus, your expert use of glossy reflections in this image perfectly sidesteps this problem and gives a prestigious, 'expensive' appearance the 'Anim8or' sign.  I also love the dichotomy resulting from the combination of the abstract space within which the sign is suspended and the satisfying physical reality of the suspension rods.

WOW!

I second this "WOW!" and also apply it to fromsoysauce's entry!  It's the extreme difference in styles that impresses me most... that both were created using the same set of tools is testament to the versatility of Anim8or.

The idea with weights is that points mapped to a particular bone with a weight of 1.0 will not change their position relative to that bone.  So if the bone moves, those points will be effectively locked to it.  Points with a 0.5 weight to one bone and a 0.5 weight to an adjoining bone will be partially mapped to both, so if one bone moves and the other doesn't these points will kinda spread out or bunch up in an 'organic' way.

That's a bit of an awkward explanation.  To use an example, if you consider a point on your forearm midway between your elbow and wrist, that point is entirely locked to your radius bone (ignoring the mushyness of flesh and the fact that wrists can twist).  Regardless of how you bend your elbow or wrist, that point effectively maintains its location relative to your radius bone.  Consider another point midway between your elbow and shoulder, that is similarly locked to your humerus.  But if you look at your elbow, there are 'points' there that are kinda influenced by both bones, so the skin stretches on the outside and contracts on the inside when you bend your elbow.  The bone influence and weight painting functions simulate this by allowing you to define how (and how much) these 'intermediary' points should move when the skeleton moves.

So, when you're mapping your hand model, all the points that need to move 100% with, say, the tip of the pinky should be mapped with a weight of 1.0 to the pinky tip bone.  But those extra points that were added at each joint need to be mapped partially to that bone and partially to the next one down, so they find a half-way position when the pinky bone is moved.  No points on the fingers should map to more than one finger, otherwise when you move the pinky some of the points on the ring finger will move, which isn't what you want.  The 'soft gradient' that can be obtained with the weight painting tool should only be between points associated with two adjoining bones, so those points move in an 'organic' way when a bone is moved.

Love your work FSS! It's one thing to create great figures, as these are, but quite another to be able to pose them so well.  All your poses seem 'comfortable' and believable without the awkwardness that is so often apparent with posed CG characters.  True artistry, and it's a pleasure to watch these characters develop.

Kreator - There are some really cool models there, and I love how the top of the crane busts out of the Anim8or screen

FSS - I agree with your choice of pose, it's the most 'relaxed' and natural looking and reveals the details of the model well

davdud - The workshop concept, where 3D ideas are brought to life, is a really good idea!

Below is my final (I think) as I need to get back to other projects.  The brightness of the main ship is increased as far as I want to go without having it look too cartoonish, certainly it's much brighter than the original render, and there's a few minor compositional tweaks.

Thanks for the feedback and awesome to see some works in progress.  FSS, I was hoping the Anim8or chick would make an appearance!

I have re-rendered the scene with improved lighting on the 'Anim8or ship' and a few other minor tweaks.  This render was also done with AA at 64spp but took about 20 hours rather than 75 with the 'ANIM8OR' text at the top taking about 80% of that time (dielectrics look awesome but crikey are they slow to render).  The background is a bit sharper on the earlier version rendered at 2X and resampled down but that's not a bad thing as being a bit softer on the new version it seems to focus the eye a bit better on the foreground objects.

Ok, here's mine.  It probably won't be much use as the actual splash screen for the following reasons:

• While it took about 13-14 hours to build the models and rig the scene, it took approx. 75 hours to render the double-size version on an i7-2600 Quaddy with AA at 64 samples per pixel! The main ship element uses glossyreflector and specular reflection while the 'Anim8or' title uses dielectric attributes, these are the main reasons for the slow render time.  The time would have been much less if I rendered at final size, there probably wasn't much benefit in the large render... I just wanted to see it more clearly.  The render stats are: init=0.16, render=255090.63, rays=519908721. So that's over half a billion rays 
• I couldn't resist having a not-so-subtle dig at that other free 3D package, with a bit of a nod at the two most popular non-free packages. Fun, but perhaps a bit too politically-incorrect for a spash screen

Regardless, I had a ton of fun doing this!  I should mention that this was all done in 1.0 beta with no problems found, everything I used worked exactly as expected.  There is still the problem with the ART renderer having uncontrollable shadows (always 100% with cast/receive options having no effect) which played a bit of havoc with the layout of the scene, but this is a known problem and with a bit of forced perspective it wasn't insurmountable.  The only non-3D element is the copyright and website info across the bottom, no other 2D processing was done other than a slight increase of overall saturation for the small version.

Both the 'final' version and the original full-size render are attached.  The AN8 file and textures will be provided if required, note that total textures file size is about 9MB.

I'm really looking forward to seeing more submissions, there's a lot of talent in this forum across a wide range of styles.