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[fromsoysauce]

You don't need to worry about copy right stuff. Really. Especially since it's fan work.

IMO, it would look about 20% cooler if it were made of brass instead of aluminum.

[CoriDavis]

I figured it was supposed to be steel.  the fanfic says " At the top of the stack was a single opening, red with rust despite the rest of the machine to be shiny and clean." and I don't believe Brass can rust. (Even though the 'rust' turned out to be blood in the end, but it wouldn't be suspected to be rust if it was brass I would assume).

This is the description of the machine:
"It was fairly open and empty, almost like an theater room. At one end of the room, there was six square vats, (oops, I made them round...) each one nearly full with individual Spectra. Above them was a peculiar looking machine. From a central stack, six hoses broke off and lead above each of the individual vats. At the top of the stack was a single opening, red with rust despite the rest of the machine to be shiny and clean. Even further above that was a fairly complex looking object, with chains and gears hanging off of beams and pipes loosely. (How am I going to make chains, especially chains that will be able to move?) Running even higher than the whole machine was a length of scaffolding, with doors on either side leading out of the room."

[fromsoysauce]

Oh, well OK then. Didn't know you were going off the fic only. I thought you were basing it off Wooden Toaster's song.

[CoriDavis]

Well I am trying to base it as much on the fic as possible.  It does show brass things in the BronyDanceParty PMV and the Rainbow Factory picture kind of looks brassy I guess.  I was going by what I imagined when I read the description and what made sense.  (and I looked up the brass thing. It can't rust, it just tarnishes)

[fromsoysauce]

*Shrug*

What I mean to say, is the machine doesn't look mean enough. And I think making it brass is one way to make it look more evil.

It is the Rainbow Factory after all.

Somehow you need to make it invoke a much more creepy atmosphere.

[Raxx]

Looks a lot better, CoriDavis.

I think the materials of the metal parts could do with a little more work. Maybe a darker ambient color, add a diffuse map with details, that kind of thing. I'm sure the rest will sort itself out if you put some work into the lighting setup prior to your final cut.

If you want to add more details to it, there's plenty of things you can do. Emergency stop buttons, lights, and sirens placed at strategic areas. Pressure release stems and valves (simple lever valves this time) feeding from the pipes. Assuming nasty stuff gunks up at the bottom of the Spectra tanks the same way stuff in other tanks do (the vats are the rectangular liquid containers that the tanks are feeding--you have it right), you can add drainage valves to the bottom of the tanks. You can also add vent modules to the tops of each tank. Add electrical wiring, switches, outlets, lights, etc., everywhere. Add a crane and pulley system along the top, since there has to be some way of moving around all that heavy equipment. Add drains to the deck, give the deck some nice textures with dark Spectra stains.

Is it all gravity-fed? If not, add some motorized pumps (gas or electrical) to push the Spectra where it needs to go, and E-Stops for each one.

As for the big tanks in the back, for what purpose are they there? If they are just sump tanks (where excess wasted fuel/Spectra goes to), then there would usually be a hookup somewhere on the lower end of the tank so that it can be emptied every once in a while. Otherwise there needs to be a pipe leading out to feed whatever it's supposed to feed.

[CoriDavis]

Thanks, the big tanks are actually for the fluid or water that would power the piston.  We worked with smaller versions of pistons in my engineering class last year. Guess I should look back at my notes to see what I need.  I can't decide if it should be a hydraulic or pneumatic piston.  Air might compress too much to push heavy metal, but liquid might not flow fast enough.  Looks like the only thing I'm missing really is a pump and I don't know where I should put it.

Any suggestions on how to make the chains?

[fromsoysauce]

chains is not too hard. Make a hexigon polygon a it off center, and lathe it into a ring. Then make it more box shaped. Then interlace them through the loop!

[fromsoysauce]

Now I'm going to go and make my own Rainbow Factory!

[CoriDavis]

I gained back some motivation due to having nothing else to do, especially since summer break starts next week.  Plenty of free Study Hall time.
I added the room made of cloud to put the machine in, but the reflective light from the spectra didn't turn out so well.  It just looks like a giant spew of color.  Is there a way to make the local light more... local?  I messed around with the radius settings, but it didn't really change anything. Help?

[ENSONIQ5]

The radius settings should be able to give you the effect you're after, but they do require a bit of trial and error.  Basically, the light will have maximum brightness when illuminating anything inside the inner radius, and will not illuminate anything beyond the outer radius, with a linear reduction of illumination from the inner to the outer radii.  The challenge with this image is having the coloured light illuminate the cloud room sufficiently to be visible, while avoiding the bleached effect of having six coloured lights combining into a single super-bright white light on nearby objects.

One suggestion would be to reduce the brightness of each coloured light to about 15% or 20% and initially set both the inner and outer radii to the same distance, which should be approximately the distance from the centre of the spectra tubs to the cloud room.  Adjust these radii in or out until the light hits the cloud room fully, with both radii the same the light should hit with maximum illumination or not at all.  You can then reduce the inner and increase the outer as required until the fall-off looks correct across the floor, and adjust the brightness of each spectra light up or down as required to remove the bleaching effect. 

You might also need to check the cloud room material settings, possibly there is insufficient difference between the Ambient and Diffuse settings or the Specular value is set very low, as the floor around the pipes is far less illuminated than the pipes themselves.

[CoriDavis]

I fixed it. I guess my radii were still too big. They are now set to 25 and 60 and this is how they look now.  They seem to be killing my overall infinite lights though.

This is when I really wish Anim8or had particles.  My clouds look so flat compared to the detailed machine.

[CoriDavis]

More updates: Started working on the scenery.  I added lights and some platforms, and pipes (that aren't connected to anything) all around for filler.  For the lights I added a red hue to make it look more evil (for Fromsoysauce) and only the front two are casting shadows to avoid too much work for the renderer.  I should probably add a few valves here and there on the filler pipes.

[ENSONIQ5]

Looks great, the glow from the spectra tanks is excellent.  The random pipes work well to both define the space and enhance the industrial feel (random pipes is a great effect - pipes seen in the original Star Trek series on the Enterprise set were often labeled 'GNDN"... 'Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing"!).

[3Dgeek11]

You know something, Cori? You're brilliant.

Really, I've silently lurked around the forums and seen your work, animations, models, you name it. You've got a great eye and some real talent.
Just want to emphasize the animation part, you can really go far with that if you work at it. Your last few animations have looked and… animated?… very well.

The progress on this is wonderful. That last render looks amazing IMO.