Outpost Universe Forums

Projects & Development => OutpostHD => Projects => Graphics Update => Topic started by: White Claw on September 25, 2018, 08:17:33 PM

Title: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 25, 2018, 08:17:33 PM
So I've been trying to sprint through a couple of these pictures, and it comes with an unusual side effect. Blender can keep up to 8 rendered frames while you're working, but they all disappear when you exit. Since I've been doing these recent buildings much quicker, I haven't had been hopping in/out of Blender as often as usual. So what that means is that many of my "in progress" pictures have been sticking around.

Flipping through the progress was mildly entertaining for me. Looking at my progress for the factory was pretty neat, though I didn't bother to save out all the pictures of the in between steps. However, I just finished the police station (which has it's own unique features), and I have several of the in-progress steps. I thought I'd share, so you can see how things build up. There's nothing particularly magical and I don't claim to be an expert artist...But I thought it was mildly interesting to see.

Enjoy!

Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: leeor_net on September 25, 2018, 09:08:57 PM
I think it's all sorts of interesting to see. It's easy to see the progression of software from one version to another but not everybody gets to see the progression of the artwork. :D
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: Hooman on September 26, 2018, 05:30:49 AM
That is actually really cool to see.

I sometimes wish you made a screencast of a development session. Even if it was edited, or time lapsed for some of the slower parts, it would probably be really neat to see.
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 26, 2018, 10:07:42 AM
Do you have a recommended piece of software? My initial reaction is that I'd want something free and incredibly easy (I don't care if it has a watermark). Since I would likely only do this once or twice, I'd rather not go through the hassle of setting up accounts and plans.
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: chris2222 on September 26, 2018, 12:19:45 PM
Gimp is super powerful, free and is the photoshop alternative but may not be easy.  I was thinking Paint within windows would almost be enough. 
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 26, 2018, 12:38:59 PM
Sorry, I guess my question was without context. I use Gimp and Paint fairly often for graphic editing. However, I was referring to Hooman's wish for a screencast of one of my development sessions. So I was asking about screencast or video recording/editing software.
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: leeor_net on September 26, 2018, 12:53:42 PM
OBS Studio

Gimp is terrible.  :(
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 26, 2018, 03:53:06 PM
Gimp is terrible.  :(

I agree it's not great. But given how little graphics stuff I do, it seems unwise to invest in photoshop at this point.

Also, I just downloaded OBS...so I'll be giving that a try soon.
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 26, 2018, 03:59:55 PM
Some progressive shots for the surface mine. I realized after the fact that I didn't keep many of the in between shots where I started adding some details. So there's a bit of a jump between 4 and 5.
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: Hooman on September 26, 2018, 04:05:09 PM
I was going to suggest Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) as well.


Very neat seeing the progress images. That mine looks very futuristic.  :)
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: leeor_net on September 26, 2018, 06:03:04 PM
OBS has a learning curve. Learning Curve being code for "Shitty Interface". It's the reason I tend to prefer commercial software... sure, it's expensive sometimes but it's often worth it to get something that "just works", is intuitive and easy to use... unlike most GUI open-source software.

Anyway, back to not derailing the thread, this is the surface mine? I'm definitely loving it so far. Better than the current one though the current one does have the advantage of moving parts. :)
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 28, 2018, 04:24:09 PM
I made a video of the underground commercial building (#416). There's no narration, just an 8x playback of the modeling. This building was actually kind of quick. Took just under an hour, but probably two to three times that fiddling with the video.

Cheers

Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: Hooman on September 28, 2018, 04:41:39 PM
Wow, that was really neat.  :)

I actually didn't know quite what to expect for the process. I'm kind of impressed by the tooling. I didn't think it'd have quite the support that it did. You knocked out the general shape of the structure quite quickly. I thought that would have taken much longer. Very neat to see how you fine tuned the details, and line everything up. Managing to get a whole new image done from scratch in about an hour is quite impressive.
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: Vagabond on September 29, 2018, 05:24:36 AM
White Claw,

Thank you for sharing the time lapse. It is fun to see Blender being used by a pro.

We are lucky to have you working on OutpostHD.

-Brett
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 29, 2018, 03:05:35 PM
Thanks, fellas.

I think I'm getting fairly proficient at the modeling process, but need to improve my materials quite a bit. I'm certainly no pro, but I appreciate the compliments. :)

An hour was pretty quick, actually. For some reason that building was a bit easier. I don't know if that's because I had a good idea to start, or if it was because I felt a little time pressure with the video recorder going.
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 30, 2018, 03:18:38 PM
Example of adjusted shadows. The new angle (15) looks a bit "flat" compared to the old (45).

Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: leeor_net on September 30, 2018, 03:29:11 PM
I see what you mean... what about something in between?
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 30, 2018, 06:57:01 PM
Shadow and color adjustments for the smelter for comparison (to match what was done on the park and nursery).
Title: Re: Generic Example of Progression
Post by: White Claw on September 30, 2018, 09:25:49 PM
I've been tweaking coloring and shadows. I thought I'd go back to one of the original things I did and pull up the construction site. I've allowed the shadows to extend beyond the bounds of the tile and have fiddled with the coloration in an attempt to make it more vibrant (while trying not to go overboard).

VerA is the "current" and VerB is the modified shadows/coloration.