Factory Plaza of Gestoypahts

[pappou]

Oh boy, these textures are hard.
Here is the beginning block out with one wall in place:

4 Persp factory plaza-1c.png (203.66 KiB) Viewed 5194 times

The other walls to the South Factory Plaza can be seen from the North Plaza, but they are so crude -- even though they are supposed to be different types of stone:

4 Persp factory plaza-1e.png (103.64 KiB) Viewed 5086 times

Also, i had to shrink it down to 200k to get past the censor machine, and that looses too much of the detail -- however, it also hides some really rought stuff. I guess it evens out.

Are these types of textures easier to do in Blender?
This business of shaping, clipping and pasting in PhotoShop is a mess.
Working at this small scale actually makes it more difficult. But my scanner is too small for decent sized work.
I guess i am the only one doing these things, so no one else is likely to pay attention to it, but if anyone DOES have comments for making improvements, please let me know.

I enjoy doing perspectives; but i have never bothered with anything beyond architectural styles before. Now I see the quality of that beautiful work done by Valve (in Half Life), and i give up. Of course, the original fantstic hand-done textures were in Riven. A true labor of love.
[Thinking of Valve, its a shame that such talent is thrown away on shoot-em-up scenarios; at least what i have seen mostly avoids that heavy metal style of drawing that so many talented young people get sucked into. Ah me; it is so redneck to go around inventing yet one more gore dripping needle fanged slime blob popping out of someone's belly. Sagorny Weaver did it so long ago. Can't we move on?]
I better quit the diatribe and calm down with a bit of Mozart; then try to nap before getting up for the Divine Liturgy in 3 hours.
Its 4:00am; has your car been broken into tonight?

[Ruvinka]

pappou,
It is truly wonderful to see your imaginings becoming so real and life-like.
You are so passionate and energetic in your work
I continue to look forward to seeing all of your progress!

[Chacal]

Your sketches give a very good idea of your concepts. But they certainly must be a lot of tedious work.
What is the ultimate goal? That these places be modeled? Then it may be a better time investment to do rough textured models in Blender.

[pappou]

Thanks, Ruvinka, for the warm words; and thank you, Chacal, for the good advice. It would be great if i could do rough texturing in Blender. But doing perspectives for me is like Blendering for you: Everyone knows both things are tedious; the difference lies in what you can do. I just do not know Blender, and learning it? Now that IS tedious.

If any Blender aficionados want to practice on TwoCities, i will supply the coffee and donuts.
[Esp if someone could put the Gestoypahts city plan into CAD; Oh how nice that would be!]

[Jennifer_P]

I think you've done a good job on the plaza, both in terms of artistic execution of the perspective and in terms of the architecture. The POV and perspective were both handled skillfully, so that I can imagine myself standing there (you always were good at giving me that feeling) having just arrived and looking around at the features of interest. And in terms of the architecture, the shapes used in the construction are refreshingly different and interesting to look at--I particularly like how you used angled slopes instead of purely vertical ones for the "walls" of the plaza. The angles really seem to add to the scene.

It would be great if i could do rough texturing in Blender. But doing perspectives for me is like Blendering for you: Everyone knows both things are tedious; the difference lies in what you can do. I just do not know Blender, and learning it? Now that IS tedious.

Hey, it's not that bad, actually! You and Ruvinka should learn how to use Blender together. (And of course I'd be delighted to take you two through it little by little, making sure you understand everything before moving on to the next technique.) If you'd like, you guys could probably be making and manipulating simple boxes within a week, if you were willing to commit about twenty minutes a day...

And can you get by the picture-size censor by using spoiler tags?

Show Spoiler

(Picture courtesy of a group dedicated to saving tigers: http://www.savethetigerfund.org/AM/PrinterTemplate.cfm?Section=TCL_Media_Kit&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=5566&FuseFlag=1)

[pappou]

“Wow! Talk about a creation story,” i was laughing to myself, looking at Jennifer's massive view of, Heaven to hell. Then i spotted God sitting on a cloud, with someone on the ground listening to Him. Of course, that had to be Adam; but then i thought, No, that must be God teaching Turner how to do a landscape.

I tried the spoiler-tag workaround, but i cannot figure out how to attach the big file under cover of the spoiler tag Before the censor trashes it. Afterward, sure, but then its already too small.

Well, thank you Jen for the offer of the free lessons. I would like to take you up on it. Ruvinka is so clever in those things, she will race ahead. So, do mind waiting for me to catch up? (He said puffing up the hill.)

[Jennifer_P]

I tried the spoiler-tag workaround, but i cannot figure out how to attach the big file under cover of the spoiler tag Before the censor trashes it. Afterward, sure, but then its already too small.

Hm...Let me just check to see if you're doing it the way I was. First, I put in the URL, then I bordered it with the image tags, and then I put all of that under a spoiler tag and submitted it. Was that what you did...? E.g.:

Show Spoiler

[img]URL[/img]

Well, thank you Jen for the offer of the free lessons. I would like to take you up on it. Ruvinka is so clever in those things, she will race ahead. So, do mind waiting for me to catch up? (He said puffing up the hill.)

Sweet! But now we have to see if Ruvinka actually does want lessons...?

Okeyday, so a few quick questions need answers before we begin:
1. Do you have Blender 2.45 installed? (Version 2.45 shows a picture of some flowers when it starts up, and when it is running there will be a little maroon bar towards the upper right hand corner where it says "www.blender.org 245")
2. If you have Blender 2.45 installed, then open it up...two windows should pop up, one the standard blender screen where you have a picture of a cube, and the other a black window with plain white lettering on it. What does the lettering in the black window read? (That black window, called the console window, tells us how happy Blender is with us--or not. )
3. What sort of mouse do you have? I.e., does it have one button, two buttons, three buttons, two buttons with a wheel, or...?

And if you don't have Blender 2.45 installed yet, or you have an older version installed, we can take care of that tomorrow. And now I must sleeeeep...

[Monkeyboy]

Ok, I'm interested in the Blender tutoring! and I have 2.45 loaded, and I have a 2 button (sometimes 3 button mouse ). And I have half a Monkey Man modeled ! Then I got sidetracked and never finished and I haven't got back to it. Anyway still willing to be tutored.

[pappou]

Hi there, MB!
Lets go to class with Jennifer. But you are already ahead of me.

PS Jennifer,
i have laser light one eyed mouse, with cord and a wheel;
and this one has no more of those little buttons on the top;
however, there are a pair of forward and backward thumb buttons on the side;
do they count? And i have the latest Blender 2.45.

OK?

Jennifer?

Do I hear snoring?

[Jennifer_P]

Excellent, perfecto, muy bien! So, at least we can start off with Blender being installed. Ruvinka's still going to need to do that, so I'm going to go find the Alcugs link she'll need to get that and Python (a computer language) installed. I'm also gonna need some more info on your guys' mice, so bear with me here...

I have a 2 button (sometimes 3 button mouse ).

So how's the third button thing work

And I have half a Monkey Man modeled !

Ha, I bet you mean you have half a Monkeyboy modeled! Tsk, tsk, such vanity...

i have laser light one eyed mouse, with cord and a wheel;
and this one has no more of those little buttons on the top;
however, there are a pair of forward and backward thumb buttons on the side;
do they count?

/blink
That's a new one on me. But at least nobody had a three button mouse with a thumb ball. Okay...So, you have two thumb buttons and one wheel. Which button do you use to close windows and drag windows around the screen, the forward button or the backward button? Also, can you use one of the buttons to click on the screen (anywhere) and bring up a menu?


And I'm still going to need this from both of you:

2. If you have Blender 2.45 installed, then open it up...two windows should pop up, one the standard blender screen where you have a picture of a cube, and the other a black window with plain white lettering on it. What does the lettering in the black window read? (That black window, called the console window, tells us how happy Blender is with us--or not. )

I just want to check and see if your Blender installation is happy, or if it's complaining that it wants Python installed.