Hello guys!
This here is my entry to this Weekend challange week long special edition.
I’d like some adivice and critiques over my materials setup, since I am still not so good at texturing.
I know there is some text that is hard to read in the “warning” sign. I will re-render the image bigger, and maybe with higher OSA once I get home.
By the way, I have been using Blender for about six months, and I had no prior experience with 3D.
Given that the green beams cross the portal horizontally and vertically, I find it a bit difficult to avoid them;)
The idea is that the ships would be small enough to fit in 1/4 of the portal. Maybe I should increase its size?
So there are two lanes between the tubes to the left and the right? In that case, there should be a line between them, just like on a real road. Otherwise: Yes, increase the portal size.
You have a point. I will redesign the lanes so that they help coordenate better the traffic in/out the portal.
Better yet, just rotate the portal 45°.
Rock star idea.
I suggest making the portal fill most of the ring and adding a ship or two in the scene to give a scale reference. That way no one will be confused by the green beams’ locations.
@maspeir e Sycosys: Yep, I could do that, but then I would get a 3/4 of the portal wasted.
@Asano: I was planning to add a ship, but I will be busy in this weekend and I do not know if I can get it ready (and good looking) untill the entries close, even if I just use the half done one in my wip thread.
I decided to keep with the idea I got from the conversation with Jonathan_S.
Here is the result:
how do you figure you loose 3/4 of the ring?
i don’t wanna be mean but that was mathematically wrong… have you taken geometry? graduated from some sort of higher education?
i included some pictures… there is, as suspected, zero percent loss in your available area…
you are simply rotating the circle and lines to line up more evenly with your “lanes” you indicated that hitting the green beams was bad… a 45 degree twist would remove that trouble by not having the beams directly in line with the lanes of travel… ** cough* Horizontal is incoming, vertical is outgoing… or whatever.
Nope, I was thinking about the ships going between the bars of the lanes. They would favor queuing for the botton triangle and not use the other 3 unless there were heavy traffic. More of a usage problem than a real loss of area.
But blame on me. I really was not clear enough on my comment.
why would folk queue up in only one lane when there is an in and an out. two ins, two outs… like any 4 lane highway in use today, granted it is a highway with 3d lanes but traffic would distribute to compensate… 
i play lots of space sim games… not an expert witness… the beauty of space is that you can be anywhere, traveling in any vector and facing any direction you choose.
i can fly sideways through the hypergates as long as i line up my flight vector with where i plan on going…
space is a free environment to travel in. would you expect every ship heading through the gate to arrive in a nice planar manner? ships will drop in from all directions to take advatage of the gate. another really fun thing about space is the notion that travel need not occur in only 2 dimensions, you gain a volume/depth dimension which cubes the volume of traffic which can be handled by any given highway in space.
Better, but I’m still not too sure about it. It looks quite claustrophobic. Maybe that’s because there’s no sense of scale; including a spaceship probably would give a better sense of the proportions of the portal (after all, there is no real-world counterpart to compare it to).
Also, the material of the tubes looks very plastic-like. I’d go more for metal. And since it’s in space, where there are a lot of micro-meteorites, there would be pock marks and so on.
And finally, the portal’s lanes start very abruptly. How about energy beams (not green ones, but some other color, since they would not be dangerous) that lead spaceships towards the portal, thereby reducing the risk of accidents? They could start wide and becom closer as they near the portal, like some kind of funnel.
And one last thought: Why are the green beams not protected by a cage or something? Right now they are the equivalent of a chainsaw in the middle of the road. I cannot imagine a safety inspector accepting that 
@Sycosys: You are right I was thinking to 2D. But I was also thinking about all this freedom of space you talked about. Too much freedom could create chaos so, even tough you still free to roam at space as you like, there are an easy to follow lanes to guide the ships using most of the portal area, wich is a more dangerous, accident prone area, requiring a bit more of control and order. Think about an universe you can buy spaceships like you buy cars today 
Better, but I’m still not too sure about it. It looks quite claustrophobic. Maybe that’s because there’s no sense of scale; including a spaceship probably would give a better sense of the proportions of the portal (after all, there is no real-world counterpart to compare it to).
I really hope I can find the time to add a ship, but I am not sure I will find it 
Also, the material of the tubes looks very plastic-like. I’d go more for metal. And since it’s in space, where there are a lot of micro-meteorites, there would be pock marks and so on.
For most amazing it can sound, I used the same material for the entire structure, but as I said, materials and texturing are my weak spot still… gotta try a bit harder on the tubes.
And finally, the portal’s lanes start very abruptly. How about energy beams (not green ones, but some other color, since they would not be dangerous) that lead spaceships towards the portal, thereby reducing the risk of accidents? They could start wide and becom closer as they near the portal, like some kind of funnel.
That is a good Idea, or I could go cheap and make the lanes start behind the camera 
And one last thought: Why are the green beams not protected by a cage or something? Right now they are the equivalent of a chainsaw in the middle of the road. I cannot imagine a safety inspector accepting that
Just tought a cage standing on 2 dimensions at the same time could cause some truble in space-time continous (lame sci-fi excuse).
I will also go for Asanos suggestion and increase the size of the portal.
It needn’t be a ship, just something that clarifies how big the structure is. Maybe a toll booth, or some astronaut floating around doing repairs.
Hello guys!
Here is another update and good news! I got some ships :D. I found some time I did not think I would have.
As for the idea off using energy beams to guide the ships, I even tought about searching for a Light Saber tutorial to check the materials but I will discard this idea now and keep the cheap idea. My saturday will be busy and sunday too, so I have only time for small tweaks.
On the list off small tweaks:
I increased the depth off all raymirror effects to 4. That made everything looks better imo.
You think the signs are too reflective?
So far so good
About the signs - I really can’t say, however they look kinda… out of place… I mean why not position one of them, say, to the left of the ingoing lane and one to the right of it? Also decrease their size a little bit That’s of course only one way to do it
About the reflectivity of the spaceships - I guess they need a geometry revision
Now about the lighting - I’m not sure if you did that, however if you turned AO on try turning it off and just placing some more position lights and stuff like that… After all it’s 1st - space and 2nd (I guess) - civilian transport system
Another suggestion - I’m not sure if the structure I see through the portal is behind it or, well, in it… If it’s in it you might want to render it in a separate pass and add a mist or something like that to make it fade more gradually… Otherwise it might be just me (that might just be the case as I think about it) but adding something at the end of it to define it better would be nice
Otherwise great work so far
P.S. Sorry if anything was mentioned already, didn’t read through the whole thread…
Hi I am back again with more updates. This image is going to be my entry.
@Lwerewolf: Decided to keep the signs in place, but reduced them a bit, they were really too big.
On the ships I just played around with materials, did not find the time to tamper with the geometry.
For the lighting a avoid AO because it increse the rendering time a lot on my slow machine :p. I added a sun lamp and everything got brighter an better looking imo.
Could not think about anything to do with the structure on the back, but the new sun lamp made it more apparent, so I think it will cover any interpretation problem.
I am really satisfied with the results.
Thanks everyone for all the tips and help, and don’t forget to take a look at the voting thread once it is opened.
nice
I’m curious why a Patrimonial loss?
My dad never gave me shit.
So couldn’t have ever lost anything.
Uh… I just used the wrong word… English is my second language. I will switch it to “property”. It will fit better.