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lsgl: a more organic beacon
April 21, 2007
lsgl: hybrid beacon
by sven at 11:59 pm
A shorter workday than usual -- but good progress, nonetheless.
My brother called to talk about the beacon design. He encouraged me to keep with the "brain beacon" concept. So I decided to try out a "hybrid" approach, where only the top of the torso would have brain folds.
To achieve the effect, I erased part of the image map in PhotoShop, leaving just the transparent alpha. To muss up the plain surface a bit, I added the procedural texture "turbulence" -- which gave the metal more of a galvanized appearance.
I suspect I'll be going with this concept... I'm going to need to do something about the legs and radar dishes to make them look more organic, though. As bro rightly points out, it's a little too much like a rocketship from the 1950s.
posted by sven | April 21, 2007 11:59 PM | comments (2) | categories: let sleeping gods lie
Comments
Im loving watching you 'think with your hands"....the braininess of this beacon is very nice, more subtle than the last, good job.....someday you'll have to give me some cg toots, I want to learn it all :)
Posted by: ubatuber at April 22, 2007 8:40 AM
Thanks, man!
I'm doing all this in LightWave -- which, as I understand it, has the easiest learning curve while still being a pro-level software. (It's what they used for Babylon 5 and for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
...Even so, most of what I know I've learned from reading the manual -- which is (no joke) thicker than a telephone book. I guess there's another book I read, too; something along the lines of "Introducing LightWave 3D."
...Actually, LightWave has a very good website. Lots of tutorials -- very friendly. (Unlike Maya -- the industry standard right now -- which has a website as unfriendly as its learning curve.)
If you really start jonesing for some CG, I'd recommend poking around on the LightWave website, just to get the flavor of things.
Posted by: sven at April 22, 2007 11:25 AM