CGSociety

Sketches

Most of my sketches were very rough scribbles, intended to help me develop interesting concepts rather than to make a concrete design of how things would look.
 

Concept sketch

A lot of the concept work also came from playing in 3D. Rather than there being a linear progression from 2D to 3D, there was a lot of shuffling backwards and forwards, even to the point where I did some post-work on concept art.

The early stages of the electrical arcs

Modeling

Background
The main crater began as a lathed spline. The foreground was subdivided and displacement maps were used to add detail. I used a low-poly version of the same crater to add Greeble detail to the surface. The main tendrils around the crater were created using splines converted to a mesh for which I used a displacement map to control tapering. The Greeble plugin was used again to add detail to some of these splines. I converted some of the edges of the resulting geometry into editable splines and used them to create the electrical arcs.

Foreground
The foreground rocks were poly modeled in 3DS Max, then heavily subdivided before being taken into ZBrush for displacement painting. The main branch of the foreground tendrils was achieved with lofts. I used Extrude Along Spline on the successive branches. The model was converted to an editable poly so that edge loops could be selected to tweak areas of the tendril.

One of the modeling techniques I used was inspired by the Lots of Robots DVD by Andy Murdock, where a Volume Select modifier was used in combination with a procedural map and a Delete Mesh modifier to simulate water. Since such maps are usually 3D, this meant I could carve out holes in a model and tweak the results procedurally.

Egg concept
To create the eggs (as shown at right and bottom of page), I scaled a geosphere over time, and used the Snapshot tool to create onion-like layers. Once the new objects were attached I used Volume Select/Map/Delete Mesh to cut holes in the resulting mesh. A Solidify modifier was then used to add thickness to the various layers. Relax and Meshsmooth were then used to soften the obvious polygonal edges of the resulting 'egg'. While the stack was intact, I tweaked holes in the mesh by simply adjusting the map in the material editor. I used Greeble to add detail across the surface for some of the egg concept tests. A similar technique was used to produce the layers in the midground, although much of this detail is obscured by the fog in the final image.

Tendrils
I experimented with particle systems to model some of the tendrils. By creating a snapshot over the life of the particles, I was left with geometry describing their paths. I also used particle spawning to generate more organic L-system style geometry. The advantage of this approach is that it’s procedural and very easy to generate variations and by using various space warps. The disadvantage is that the geometry can become very heavy. I used fairly simple geometry for this reason, but experimented with a variety of object instances for the particles. In the final image, the particle generated tendrils were rendered separately and composited to keep render times down, Greeble was also used over the surface, while the additive transparency material added extra detail. Facing particles were also used over various surfaces. They weren't intended to be building lights as such, but did help give a sense of scale.

Below: The 'egg' creation technique

Shaded foreground model

The 'egg' concept

Fine tendrils

Texturing

As the geometry contained a lot of detail, there was not much texturing required for the final scene. I had originally used raytraced materials in early test renders, but since the scene was supposed to be somewhat 'unreal' or 'surreal' I dispensed with raytracing quite early in the project.

Although I used a lot of procedural modeling, I avoided using too many procedural texture maps in the final scene. The reason for this is that I wanted to be able to animate a camera move on the scene for showreel purposes, and procedural maps can be problematic as they tend to flicker. I did create some of the original maps using SimbionMax, but these were converted to bitmaps early on for manual editing.

I experimented with additive transparency on geometry very early on with some of the first egg and tendril tests. Coming from a gaming background, I have used additive transparency quite extensively for special effects. The main drawback is that, being additive, it can bleach out very quickly. On the final image, additive transparency was used mainly on the tendrils coming from the central crater, and the finer tendrils in the foreground.

Lighting

Since most of the lighting was to be faked either by self-illumination maps or additive transparency, the lighting was fairly simple. An attenuated omni light was used to light the main crater, and a few area lights were used on the foreground. A Brazil skylight was used to create an ambient occlusion pass, which was rendered separately, and used in the composite.

Rendering

I decided to break the image down into layers to allow tweaking of individual elements in the composite. I also added fog passes using standard Max fog, and Afterburn Combustion for the gas around the foreground layers. The layers included
 - Extreme background
 - Background (crater area)
 - Midground
 - Foreground
There were also passes for each of these layers:
 - Atmospherics (foreground_atmos.jpg)
 - Ambient Occlusion pass
 - Self Illumination pass

Compositing

Apart from assembling the main elements
- Discreet Combustion was used for overall colour correction
- Volumetric effects on some of the illumination passes (using Trapcode's Shine plugin)
- A subtle lens flare to add a little glow to the crater (by Knoll Light Factory),
- Displacement using a Displace operator on the electrical arcs to make them look more organic (using themselves as the source footage); and
- A slight zoom blur to add to the feeling of movement.

In the end, the foreground tendrils and eggs were mostly silhouetted against the background, with small pockets of light to break it up. I also added a fair amount of fog and gas as I found some of the earlier renders to be a bit too busy and energetic. Adding the layers of fog not only increased the sense of scale but also provided the scene with a sense of desolation.

About Me

I'm 36 and live in London. My first real experience with 3D was with 3D Studio (DOS) R2, although I'd toyed with some of the 3D programmes available for the ST and Amiga, and had been creating 2D graphics before that. I studied Animation at Bournemouth College of Art and Design, then at the Arts Institute and currently work in the games industry. I have also worked producing CG effects for a short film. I mainly work with 3D Studio Max and am currently learning Maya. At present, my spare time is taken up working with a colleague on a short film which mixes 2D and 3D. We are currently previsualising shots.

The Alienware challenge has provided artists with the opportunity to showcase and improve their skills in a large community of CG enthusiast and be recognized for it. Thanks to all the artists and comment posters who made this such a rewarding contest.

Final model

Lighting experimentation

Foreground detail

Related Links
Steve Green’s challenger gallery
Lux Mortis by Steve Green
The Alienware Challenge 2004

Words and images by Steve Green