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Originally posted by Azdara:
**My god thats amazing. I'm a bit of an artist myself (pencil paper type, not computer graphics) and I know i've done some good stuff in my time, but i tried working with the computer computer but... RRRRR I really cant figure out the best ways to do it. I have strata 3d (it wont work but thats not the point) and mechanisto is impossible to use. How exactly is it done, do you draw them or something in a draw or other thing, or is it all done in the rendering program?
I like the light green one better, but they both kick ass. Your bro rules man!
**
Troy is an artist of all types. He draws, paints, uses crayons, pens, felts, markers, pastels, anything he can get his hands on. He's also got an artists frizzy hair. If I find a recent picture of him I'll put it up.
I assume you mean the model (How exactly is it done, do you draw them or something in a draw or other thing, or is it all done in the rendering program?) not the textures, so the model is drawn in a relative scale to a real model that he holds in his hands 90% of the time, unless we can find the specs (which are pretty common but look nothing like there TV counterparts) when used to put a model together. He does the textures on the computer using his mouse. I've told him he should get a tablet, but he just sets whatever "pressure" setting or whatever tool he's using (in Photoshop) to about 5-15% and just keeps going over the area for a darker appearance. We use the "Aurora" effect in Strata3D for the engines and almost all the different texture settings (including stencil, micropolish, environment, diffuse, specular, transparency, well, that list is off the top of my head ).
We also render the models at 640x480 or 800x600 for added detail. You can argue you don't really see the added detail, but it prevents "flickering" of the lights. When you render a model in Strata3D with a high quality texture and render it small with a ton of "room lights" (aka Galaxy Class-Enterprise D) you get some room lights unrendered. Rendering big prevents flickering, thus when scaled down produces a higher quality model. It takes Troy as much as 1 day to 2 weeks to finish a model depending on a bunch of variables. Most of it is the amount of detail put into the model and textures.
I'll see if I can Troy to come online and answer your questions himself, as I only have answered them from an observers point of view...
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