What is the best way to get it in nova..

Here is the problem...Terragen works great...if you don't mind not seeing any signs of civilization. However, we do need some of that too in our plug...what is the best software for making planet desc pics...that get humanity (or aliens or whatever) involved?

For example, city pics, you mean? Skyscrapers, streets, traffic, etc.? I would suggest Photoshop, but that's just due to lack of variance in my suite.

Photoshop is a good choice, but to do it well will be hard. You need someone who can paint structure over/into the earth that's already rendered. You could also use a 3d app and render buildings for a scene and then compile it all in photoshop. If you have team members who understand this and can do it all you'll need is time. If not, you gonna have to search out some help and that's not easy.

Bryce can theoretically do both landscapes and structures, though I can't say I've tried it. I did get a "free" copy of an old Byce version with a $15 UK computer magazine I found in a bookstore rack a while ago, though.

Dr. Trowel, on Mar 12 2006, 09:43 PM, said:

Bryce can theoretically do both landscapes and structures.
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Yeah, I believe Bryce is responsible for the Nova landing pictures and structures.

Yeh, those are essentially the only options available: comp it together in an image manipulation app; or build the structures as part of the environment. There's pros and cons to both, but either requires a goodly skill set to pull it off.

My thoughts:

All 3D:
- Very good for cities, and close up structures.
- Not all angles are easy to do.
- Making terrain as cool as terragen is hard.

Photoshop and Terragen with 3rd app for structures.
- Very good for few structures or structures far away.
- Varies a lot depending much on the perspective of the terragen render.
- Takes loads of planning, especially to place light and take shadow into consideration.

I also think people should look into pure 2D pictures as planet pics.
Paintings or CG images.

Many good images here.

This post has been edited by modesty_blaise_us : 13 March 2006 - 04:44 PM

I vote for making the backgrounds and landscapes in MS Paint using the Spray Can tool, and pasting digital pictures of real life buildings on top.

I do that in the computer lab when were supposed to be writing stuff.

You know, I once wondered on the possibility of making landing pictures out of real photographs taken here on earth. Only thing was I don't travel much so deserts and tropical were not available.

Skyfox, on Mar 13 2006, 05:17 PM, said:

You know, I once wondered on the possibility of making landing pictures out of real photographs taken here on earth. Only thing was I don't travel much so deserts and tropical were not available.
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Martin Turner did a bit of this in Frozen Heart, and once hinted that he may do more of it in FH2... in bar pics, for instance.

Qaanol, on Mar 13 2006, 01:35 PM, said:

I vote for making the backgrounds and landscapes in MS Paint using the Spray Can tool, and pasting digital pictures of real life buildings on top.
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I'm going to make a "Real Man's" TC that takes place all in one system: Manland. All the landing pictures will be made in MSPaint, since it's the real man's photo editor. Screw Photoshop. If I need to do anything that MSPaint can't do, I'll just use the GIMP, which is free and just as good.

Sweet, a catharsis-free zone!

@yellow, on Mar 16 2006, 09:22 PM, said in Civilization...:

All the landing pictures will be made in MSPaint, since it's the real man's photo editor.

So real men enjoy being castrated?

I just got a very weird idea.

What about making a plugin with graphics(landscapes, ships and planets) made out of modeling clay, and imported through a camera.
It wouldn't be especially hard once you had a good scene to shoot footage from.
Structures would be the easy part of this.

This post has been edited by modesty_blaise_us : 22 March 2006 - 07:01 PM

@modesty-blaise, on Mar 22 2006, 05:59 PM, said in Civilization...:

I just got a very weird idea.

What about making a plugin with graphics(landscapes, ships and planets) made out of modeling clay, and imported through a camera.
It wouldn't be especially hard once you had a good scene to shoot footage from.
Structures would be the easy part of this.

You could do the same thing with legos, any other building toy, or really any models. Structures would be a piece of cake -- some tricky parts would be:

1. Learning to take quality macro-like but undistorted photos with appropriate use of depth of field (probably a good skill to have in life, anyway).
2. Setting up a photo rig that let you rotate a model in 36 even steps, keeping viewing and lighting angles consistent while avoiding visible shadows on a backplane and/or hiding support wires/rods.
3. Fighting boredom from the drudgery of rotating a bunch of models in 36 even steps.
4. Masking.

Get past those, and you would have a game that would be a visual feast and a technical marvel! (Or just don't do ships in flight, and avoid nos. 2-4.)

This post has been edited by Dr. Trowel : 22 March 2006 - 10:13 PM

@dr--trowel, on Mar 22 2006, 06:09 PM, said in Civilization...:

Get past those, and you would have a game that would be a visual feast and a technical marvel! (Or just don't do ships in flight, and avoid nos. 2-4.)

My thoughts exactly.

Regardless...it is a good idea. I might even give it a try or maybe I'll try it with legos. Anyone have some gray legos?

Legos are not half as cool as modeling clay.

Is there any reason not to use a film camera? If you rotate the object slowly but evenly then there should be no problem to scale the movie down, maybe add some contrast and create sprites using m2s.

@modesty-blaise, on Mar 23 2006, 06:57 PM, said in Civilization...:

Legos are not half as cool as modeling clay.

Is there any reason not to use a film camera? If you rotate the object slowly but evenly then there should be no problem to scale the movie down, maybe add some contrast and create sprites using m2s.

Heck, give it a shot if you want -- but I suspect it may prove hard to keep speed of rotation constant enough. If you get off by just a bit, the ship will fly with it's nose noticably to the left or right of the direction of travel. Of course, you could just embrace the funkiness.... I've got this great sprite that consists of a found photo of a common leafy vegetable; it's only got 4 frames, each turned 90 degrees from the one before.

I was thinking about mech rotation.

I really want to make a test ship now!
Leaves to buy modeling clay