What to do with the project?

[Jennifer_P]

Well, it's been a few months since any of us have worked on this project. Shall we label it dead? I myself won't be able to work on it anymore, unfortunately...

[Jojon]

Awww, I was assuming you were all working on it, just not out in the open. :(

So, no time for agewriting at all for you, Jen? We miss your enthusiasm and generousity and general presence, not to mention geoluminecence distaste around here. :7

[Jennifer_P]

lol, no, I'm still planning to keep age writing. But for right now, I want to learn how to animate in Blender. And I still have to go through my tutorials and get them updated for version 2.49, so that's my next project. Then, and only then, comes the COMPLETE AND UTTER DESTRUCTION OF ALL GIANT, GLOWING CRYSTALS!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAA!

[Jojon]

Note that a new pyprp release, which will break a little bit of material compatibility, is on its way... :)

As of Rell-Too version 0.5, if you wish to destroy glowing crystals, you could do worse than to join the chainletter age project. :9

[Trylon]

*tweaks ears*
Do I hear "Glowing crystals"?

Are we talking

• A) Led powered glowing crystals? (I Got a nice one on my home-made laser pointer )
• B) Laser powered glowing crystals? (Illuminating a good crystal with green lasers gives an awfully beautiful/creepy effect )
• C) Kitmarker (betalight) powered glowing crystals? (carefully dismantle a kitmarker, drill a hole in a piece of quartz crystal, put it in and seal it off with resin) [watch out, those things are radioactive when handled improperly!]
• D) UV powered glowing crystals? (Either natural or doped with UV reactive compounds),
• E) Glow-in-the-dark powder powered glowing crystals? (involves glow-in the-dark powder and some ingenuity)
• F) Radium powered glowing crystals? (Remember those glowing clock hands on those old wristwatches....) [watch out here too - radioactivity alert!]

I have currently successfully made types A and B, am working on types D and E, am considering type C, and will probably never dare to attempt type F.
(Note: I only work with natural stones here, anything else is just plain wrong)

Now, why did you want to destroy my work?

[Jojon]

:D

[Jennifer_P]

I'll make an exception for the types of glowing crystals you mentioned. As long as they aren't giant crystals which poke out of the ground at random.

[Robert The Rebuilder]

All kidding aside, Jen - what do you think would jumpstart interest in the ERC project? Perhaps if someone could whip up a rough physical model of the age (based on your terrain sketches), people can explore it and get a feel for the proper dimensions of the area. That might spurn others to start making models from the various flora/fauna concept sketches (or structural plans) and incorporate it. Stub textures would suffice until someone comes up with better ones.

I mention this because it's amazing how quickly Jojon's chain letter age took off once he provided the basic age. When people can actually visit it in URU, they tend to buy in to the project and get motivated to continue.

[EDIT] Just for grins, I quickly generated a terrain in Bryce loosely based on your sketches, then applied erosion. I exported it as an OBJ file (at 200K polygons), then imported it into Blender:

4 minutes work Show Spoiler

quickndirty_ercterrain.jpg (83.53 KiB) Viewed 19210 times

I know you mentioned how you like to model the terrain by hand, to get a feel for the geology. But if you could produce a decent height map (unlike what I did), Bryce can add those extra geological effects that make it more believable. See the Bryce tutorial here.

[ametist]

@Jennifer, please consider Roberts advice above - I think the ERC age would get a flying re-start if we could do it like we are used too - build, export, take a look, back to build and so on.

I agree with Jojon 'We miss your enthusiasm and generousity and general presence, not to mention geoluminecence distaste around here. :7'

Maybe I could take on the Medusa-plant again, I have begun the 'animation-path' Remember when you encouraged me to animate 'Miss Piglet' - all I can say is I'm doing it better now

[Jennifer_P]

Well, I encourage you guys to go for it! I'm not going to be able to work on the project anymore though, otherwise I'd certainly help.

Maybe I could take on the Medusa-plant again, I have begun the 'animation-path' Remember when you encouraged me to animate 'Miss Piglet' - all I can say is I'm doing it better now

Aww, sweet!

@Jennifer, please consider Roberts advice above - I think the ERC age would get a flying re-start if we could do it like we are used too - build, export, take a look, back to build and so on.

I do agree--in fact, there are some finished models which could be exported now if anyone wished to do so.

All kidding aside, Jen - what do you think would jumpstart interest in the ERC project? Perhaps if someone could whip up a rough physical model of the age (based on your terrain sketches), people can explore it and get a feel for the proper dimensions of the area. That might spur others to start making models from the various flora/fauna concept sketches (or structural plans) and incorporate it. Stub textures would suffice until someone comes up with better ones.


I mention this because it's amazing how quickly Jojon's chain letter age took off once he provided the basic age. When people can actually visit it in URU, they tend to buy in to the project and get motivated to continue.

Good ideas Rob--and the model ain't bad either, for 4 minutes of work! I do agree that being able to walk around in the age stirs up enthusiasm for what one is making. In that respect, having a few lower quality models in hand is superior to a few higher quality models in the bush, so to speak. Just getting something out there could be helpful in stirring up enough interest to get the ball again.