Ambrosia Garden Archive
    • Different graphic programs...


      I been doing graphics for awhile now but I wonder what graphic software is best for planets/stellar graphics in Escape Velocity...

      ------------------
      "Terrorists are here to terrorise"!
      -Quote from Vladmimir Ilich Ulianov alias Lenin-

    • try doing planets in Bryce...

      ------------------
      DeAdBoY-
      your freindly drug addict

    • If you're farmiliar with it, try Photoshop. Sure, I never really got anything very good out of trying, but you might be able to :).

      ------------------
      If you live in the present, then every moment is a new begining - A Dove chocolate wrapper
      Micah L (Aeon Productions), (url="http://"mailto:mjlanier@home.com")mailto:mjlanier@home.com(/url)mjlanier@home.com

    • In my opinion the best/fastest/easiest way to make landing pics is through the use of 3 softwares. I use Lightwave to make complicated models. These models are then imported into Bryce 4 adn the final renderend images is tweaked with Photoshop.

      I use Bryce to the render simply because it's the easiest and fastest software for texturing. Also it's the best for landscapes, mist, fog, skys etc... However Bryce's modeling ability is very limited. Something that would take an hour to model in Bryce can be done in 5 minutes in Lightwave. As long as you plan to use these imported model some distance from the camera, you can get away with good results. However do not use this technique if the model is to be near the camera; it would look strange as the entire complicated model shares only one texture.

      After that some added effects are done in Photoshop. These are usually lens flares, lighting, spot lights, plants and any other things you can think of.

      Although I have to admit that not all people have access to these softwares.

      You can check out one of my landing images done using this method.
      (url="http://"http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/bin/viewimage.x/000d4392/parkia00/MiningColony.jpg")http://imagehost.auc...iningColony.jpg(/url)

      ------------------

    • Pyromaniac> very impressive. But you are dead correct, not many people have lightwave, photoshop, and bryce around. If you are on a budget like me, just do all the planets and landscapes in the Bryce demo, just limit yourself to "model-less" pictures like EV. The trick is just to take a screenshot/snapz before it finishes rendering.

    • Thanks, guys....

      Reprisal, I have in fact access to all the graphic programs mentioned here for free. He,he,he.... Thanks for writing anyway...

      DeAdBoY, thanks for that... Downloaded Bryce 3D and registered it.. For free.... Ha,ha,ha,ha... Serious, thanks for writing to me... Its a great program... Now, designing a ship doesnt take forever like it used to with Mechanisto...

      Micah L, I have worked part- time at a photoshop and they taught me how to use Adobe Photoshop.... Didnt think about using it for EV though... Thanks for writing that...

      PyroManiac, thanks for writing and for the good tips... Tried it out and youre right, its a darn good way to work like........

    • Quote

      Originally posted by ---Eirik---:
      Now, designing a ship doesnt take forever like it used to with Mechanisto...

      but Bryce modeled ships look really bad!

      ------------------
      DeAdBoY-
      your freindly drug addict

    • what about strata 3d?

      ------------------

    • Quote

      Originally posted by DeAdBoY:
      **but Bryce modeled ships look really bad!

      **

      No, not if you can use Bryce correctly. Oh wait... you don't have a manual, so you don't know how to use the program--my bad. there are basic primatives and boolean operations... you can build a fantastic ship with nothing more.

      ------------------

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Joseph Strife:
      **what about strata 3d?

      **

      It can take a greyscale file and extrude terrains, just like bryce, but the free version doesn't include the "layered rock" procedural shader. fwiw, v.2.5.3 of Strata StudioPro didn't ship with it, either, but the pro version of Strata3D does ship with it. (It's something like US$499 for the pro version which will ship in September. Educational pricing, though, should be available if you're in college/university. At one point when 2.5.3 Pro was the current version, list price was $1300 and educational price was $499 -- not a bad discount.)

      BUT if I were going to drop money on a 3D program, I'd much rather nab (url="http://"http://www.newtek.com/products/inspire/description.html")Inspire 3D(/url) for US$499 (list). Basically Lightwave crippled to a 640x480 animation size. Stills can be 80,000px square, though 🙂 At 150dpi, that's what... a little under 44.5 feet square at size? Nice.

      ------------------

    • BTW, Pyromaniac: Would you be willing to post a gallery of your work, visually watermarked and DigiMarc'd, of course? I'm really interested to see what demons run through your mind 😉

      ------------------

    • What I wanna know is how the **** do all these people have Lightwave, that's a fricking $2,000+ program, so how do the number of people that have it on this board have it?
      Eirik: er, are yo usaying you pirate all that software?..

      ------------------
      -Shade
      AIM: Shade3742

      <---- The information went data way ---->

      "It's your asphalt."

      (url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")The Onion, America's finest news source(/url)

    • Quote

      Originally posted by foo12:
      **No, not if you can use Bryce correctly. Oh wait... you don't have a manual, so you don't know how to use the program--my bad. there are basic primatives and boolean operations... you can build a fantastic ship with nothing more.

      **

      Bryce is NOT a modeler... so its not very good at it. dip****...

      ------------------
      DeAdBoY-
      your freindly drug addict

    • Quote

      Originally posted by ShadeOfBlue:
      **What I wanna know is how the **** do all these people have Lightwave, that's a fricking $2,000+ program, so how do the number of people that have it on this board have it?
      **

      Exactly my question. Methinks lightwave needs to reengineer its dongle support 😉

      ------------------

    • Quote

      Originally posted by DeAdBoY:
      Bryce is NOT a modeler... so its not very good at it. dip**...

      **

      Contradictory. You claim that "Bryce is NOT a modeler" yet you also claim that it's "not very good at it". Either Bryce is a modeller or it is not. EIAS is not a modeller. Lightwave (the suite) has a modeller. Bryce is a modeller. Bryce does not just contain texturing and animation tools---it contains modelling tools as well.

      In the right hands, Bryce can do amazing things as can any tool. Give a set of chisels to a master woodcarver, and he will create things of great beauty. Give them to an unpracticed commoner, and they will create woodshavings. Of this analogy, you are obviously the latter and find it easier to blame the tools rather than accepting the truth: your own ineptitude and ignorance of the program, along with a probable dearth of aestethic intuition, results in poorly done graphics.

      Frankly why you feel this way, and must call me names when I contradict your claims with simple facts, is beyond me. Responding in such a childish manner when faced with a simple, clean refutation will get you nowhere.

      (This message has been edited by foo12 (edited 08-02-2000).)

    • (oops)

      (This message has been edited by foo12 (edited 08-02-2000).)

    • Hey, Shade of Blue, Ever heard of Carracho, Hotline or Gnutella?

      ------------------
      (url="http://"http://celticstarbase.tsx.org")http://celticstarbase.tsx.org(/url)
      (url="http://"mailto:celticstarbase@esatclear.ie")mailto:celticstarbase@esatclear.ie(/url)celticstarbase@esatclear.ie

    • Quote

      Originally posted by CelticStarbase:
      **Hey, Shade of Blue, Ever heard of Carracho, Hotline or Gnutella?

      **

      Exactly. It's like some form of graphics script kiddy. they think they are good simply because they happen to possess the software. they might be good, but stealing a copy of lightwave doesn't make you a 3d artist any more than, say, stealing an airplane makes you a pilot.

      What the problem is with most graphics software is that the pricepoints are far too high for somone to just come in and dabble. It would be REALLY cool if, say, there were versions of 3DS, C4D, LightWave, form*z, etc. that could create non-watermarked images limited to, say, 2000px in width and height. That's enough for someone to learn and see if they have enough talent and dedication to actually do this sort of work. Now, give the programs away for the cost of distrobution. US$10 for a CD with electronic docs, another $20 for a bound manual. Downloadable electronic version for free, ala Strata.

      ------------------

    • While I too am puzzled about the high number of people saying they own lightwave, it isn't wise to assume that just because someone doesn't have the manual means they pirated it. In the school year, I have easy access to my HS multimedia lab with a copy of bryce, but not the manual. Bryce seems pretty easy to learn by experimenting to me though.

      ------------------
      "You have to understand what you don't understand"
      -Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Reprisal:
      **While I too am puzzled about the high number of people saying they own lightwave, it isn't wise to assume that just because someone doesn't have the manual means they pirated it. In the school year, I have easy access to my HS multimedia lab with a copy of bryce, but not the manual. Bryce seems pretty easy to learn by experimenting to me though.

      **

      Yea but, for example, when people specifically say that they have to take a screenshot before rendering is done, you know they're just using the demo and don't have a handle on the full feature set.

      ------------------