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

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

try doing planets in Bryce...

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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 .

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If you live in the present, then every moment is a new begining - A Dove chocolate wrapper
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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.
http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/bin/view...iningColony.jpg

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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........

but Bryce modeled ships look really bad!

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DeAdBoY-
your freindly drug addict

what about strata 3d?

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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.

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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 Inspire 3D 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.

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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 ;-)

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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?..

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-Shade
AIM: Shade3742

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

"It's your asphalt."

The Onion, America's finest news source

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

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DeAdBoY-
your freindly drug addict

Exactly my question. Methinks lightwave needs to reengineer its dongle support ;-)

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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?

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http://celticstarbase.tsx.org
mailto:celticstarbase@esatclear.iecelticstarbase@esatclear.ie
AIM: jonathanorinn

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.

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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.

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

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.

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Well, i usuallay use extreme 3D 2, because it gives you superb texturing abilities.


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Admiral Zombat
http://www.cerolia.pyar.com

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"Well, i got some rocks, you do eat rocks, dont you?"
"no"
"Not even if they are sauteead in a little mud..?"
-Bender and fry talking

"good news everybody! I have been brought up on disciplinary charges by my old college! oh wait, thats not good news..."
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Futurama Songs:

"Whalers on the Moon"
were whalers on the moon,
we carry our harpoons,
but their aint no whales,
so we tell tall tales
and sing our whalers' tune!

The Poppler Jiingle:

Pop..a poppler in your mouth,
when you eat at fishy joes,
What theyre made of is a mystery,
where they come from no one knows,
You can chew em'
you can loose em'
you can lick em'
you can stick em,
if you promise not to sue us you can shove one up your nose!

Thankyou!

dude you gotta trim that sig... your signal to noise ratio would be a lot better if, every time you posted, you didn't also post 30-40 lines of what everyone but you considers superfluous crap. Moderators? Can we please get a 10 line rule in effect for sigs?





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Not a single person has mentioned Infini-D 4.5. Not only does it have a superior modelling and rendering engine, but it's much less expensive that Lightwave, for those who have better things to do than spend countless hours on Hotline downloading warez.

/bomb

Granted, it is much cheaper, but might I ask where you got the impression about it having superior modeling and rendering engine? I know for a fact that the Lightwave rendering engine blows Infini-D out of the water, and I'd be very frickin surprised if Lightwave didn't have a better modeling engine. It is that expensive for a reason (although that's not to say I don't think it's too expensive..)..

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-Shade
AIM: Shade3742

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

"It's your asphalt."

The Onion, America's finest news source

Lightwave is NOT that expensive if you take into accout it's capabilities compared to it's main 3 rivals. SoftImage, Maya and Studio Max which costs up to 5 times more expensive (for Maya). I'm a student so I got the student discount for only $899. The Student version is exactly the same as the full version. The only difference is that you are not supposed to use a student copy for a business or make animation/images as a job. As long as you don't use the student copy for any sort of income, it's fine. This version can easily be made to the full copy. Or if you do not want to get Lightwave you can get it's little brother, Inspire 3D which is 95% of the full Lightwave version minus 2 - 3 tools I think. It is in my opinion a much better program than Infini-D or Strata Studio Pro if you are considering mid-range 3-D programs. As for instructions, not everyone has them. I don't have them! NewTek forgot to include that!!!!!

Also you can find older Lightwave programs like version 5.5 for fairly cheap on E-Bay. Seach around.

As for my own images, I do not have my own webpage to show them. Most of the landing pics I have already given to Philip Warner. He has his website at www.thegreatexpansion.com It's up to him if he wants to put them up or not.

When I have more of my ships done, written more of the storylines, made up histories for the individual government and the space map, I will look for resources to develop a web site. Until then, I'm married to my computer and continue your realationship and produce great things!

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Just a short note on pirated stuff! Lightwave is not easy to crack. Cracked copies of Lightwave usually are very buggy and many times some of their tools do not work. I got this from my tutor who was one of many beta testers for LW6.

By far the easiest higher end 3-D program to crack in Studio Max, which by the way a lot of people do use it's cracked version. Why Discreet Logic does not do anything about it, I have no idea!

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Yes, Bryce has limited modelling capabilities; i.e. primitives, baloonean and what ever objects that came with the program. However it does NOT mean Bryce sucks! Bryce is usually used as a vital stepping stone for many people/students on their road to learn higher end softwares. Bryce is also used very often in the professional world; mostly for its landcape rendering mesh. Why use your time to make a mountain in Lightwave, Maya or SortImage when you can simply do it with one click in Bryce? These objects are then imported to the higher end programs and voila! you have a mountain!

TO make more complicated models in Bryce you just need some planning ahead and patiece and you can be amazed at what you might come up! DO the modelling in different parts as doing baloonean operation on top of other baloonean objects can confuse Bryce. Oce these seperate baloonean objects are done join then group them together to form the main object.

This is an example of a spaceship I made using only Bryce before I knew how to use Lightwave. I might remake this ship in Lightwave to make it look better with more detail. Until then...

http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/bin/view...rkia00/Aral.jpg

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No, I meant it's engine compared to... er.. Mechanisto. Really.

/bomb

ShadeOfBlue: My dad owns a Computer Software company and I can get anything I want for free...No pirating here, sir.... Just to have the right connections.....
Ive done some work there myself so I know what kinds of programs that is coming...

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