Doktor Gonzo

I've seen it both ways, too. I guess it's a matter of personal taste. I have mine "rightside-up" in fighter mode/inverted in battroid, as in the mythology of the show fighter mode was what was shown openly to the public, while battroid mode was originally a "military secret"...

He had battroid and fighter mode shots of a cannon fodder sans packs, back on the early pages of this thread. 114, might you possibly have an interest in participating in out "Maross World CG Poster Project"? And you, ZeBi, as well? We are producing a large group render of all of our models posed together, with intent to print it. Details may be found on the previous pages of this thread...

I agree. Les, Mech, wanna try bringing the back spot up by, say, 50%? As for clipping out though Az, I'm hoping we can get around that. Is everyone's software capable of rendering out to either TIF or SGI format? These preserve alpha channel infomation - so not only will cutting be unneccessary, but translucent parts like canopies will also be compositable properly....

Sounds good Rod - just add your intended render rig to the list above, and we'll get going on the lighting production....

VERY nice. ZeBi, might I suggest that you check out another thread in this forum, "Mass CG Project"? We have a little enterprise in progress that might be of interest to you....

Mechmaster, New textures look great! Lighting is cool too. What does everybody think of this example? Like it for the poster?

In all probability you're right. Still, what can it hurt?...

Here we go: Petition This one has pretty broad-based support and 40,000 signatures already - looks good...

MM, That's a great idea. Towards that end, let's get together a list of all the renderers that will be used- that way we'll know how many lighting rigs will be required. Here goes: RENDERER LIST Cinema4d - Mechmaster, LParisek Maya (Software /w/ faked Global Illumination) - Doktor Gonzo

Yeah, that cover DOES suck mightily - but y'know? I've always had a strange thing for cloaked/hooded robot gunfighters. call it a weird obsession.... Oh, and there's a decent HK boot of Nausicaa to be found in the Studio Ghibli DVD set

Looks great Les! Everybody be sure to click the link - the full version isn't just bigger, there's a lot more to it (the thumbnail is only the bottom half of it)

Awesome! It's great to have you with us on this! Tober, could I pester you for a link to fighter and/or battroid mode pics? I'm trying to crunch out a rough mockup of what this thing might look like...

Vic, Since this is the "formal sign-up sheet", we're all adding our own names/models to the list. So to get in on this action, cut-and-paste the list into a new post and add your stuff! Also, several of us are working on mockups of what a final shot might look like, so it might be cool to post some renders of your model as well, so we can include them in our proposals....

Looks good! Les P and I are working on a similar mock-up ourselves - will post tonight when we get done with it...

That's not bad at all! I'd just suggest uncrossing the legs, finding a slightly less flippant leg pose, and sticking a gunpod in the free hand for that slightly more martial feel! Also, how does it look when viewed from an angle closer to face-on to the Monster, for comparison's sake?

Wolf, I am in total agreement. I had the exact same thing in mind - an armada of replicated valks (and destroids too - in fact, lparisek just suggested that we give the crew of mecha "on deck" some anchoring symmetry by having 2 Monsters back-to-back in the center rear, their guns facing outwards at a 45 degree angle, and have the destroids and the "standing" battroids arrayed in ranks in front of/underneath them. Les suggests that it would give a great sense of presence and solidity to the center section of the image, and I tend to agree. I had another idea to add to this one, which he liked - how about having a model sitting astride one of the monsters, like Kamjiin did in a late episode of the series? It would give a great "Dr. Strangelove" vibe to that section, and give a little more verticality to the "standing" section. I nominate one of Mechmaster's VF's for the task, since they seem so flexible/poseable.... we might also use some of these guys kneeling in the extreme foreground, to give us even more of a "tiered" effect....) Around this "ground crew", we stick a cloud of valks, in all modes and at various distances, hopefully capturing the look of the pic I've attached below. I'm all for having multiple instances of everybody's pieces, at distances ranging from tiny background motes to extreme-closeup bits of arms, legs, feet sticking into the edge of the frame from beyond it. What say?

MASS CG PROJECT MASTER MODELS LIST VF-0S Focker - Brianw76 VF-1A Battroid Cannon Fodder - Mechmaster VF-1A Max TV Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Max TV Super Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Millia Super TV Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Hikaru Colors - Brianw76 VF-1S Strike Hikaru Colors - Aztek VF-1S Max Strike DYRL Colors - Datterboy VF-1S Focker Colors - Doktor Gonzo VF-1J/GBP-1S Armoured Valkyrie - Mechmaster VE-1 ELINT - Aztek VF-4 Lightning III - Vinnie VF-9 Cutlass - MasamuneEd YF-19 - Brianw76 SF-3A Lancer - The Woz MK-II Monster TV Colors - lparisek MBR-04 Tomahawk TV Colors - lparisek MBR-07 Destroid Spartan - Mechmaster ADR-04 Destroid Defender - Mechmaster SDR-04 Destroid Phalanx - Mechmaster SDF-1 Macross - Wolf13 Mechmaster, we'll take you up on that - we'd been needing a cannon fodder!

Hmm.... good question. It might speed this along to actually set out a time table, and maybe delegate some tasks. I don't want to be at all pushy, so anybody feel free to overrule me here, but I'm going to take a stab at outlining the next big tasks we need to accomplish, along with some thoughts: (a) agreeing formally on the overall stats of our intended final project. i.e. the shape and size of the render. My initial suggestion: let's aim for a true movie poster one-sheet format. For one thing, this might be easiest to actually have printed if the finished art turns out to be worth this - ditto finding a frame. One sheet dimensions are 27" X 41". What say? We'd also need to decide on print resolution. I'd suggest either 300dpi or (more likely, as we only have desktop photo editing power here) 150dpi. For reference sake, 27" X 41" at 300 dpi is 8100 X 12300. 27" X 41" at 150 dpi is 4050 X 6150. What do you guys say, to both the dimensions and resolution? (B) deciding on a lighting scheme, which we will all adopt for our renders, for the sake of uniformity. I suggest we keep it to a three-point lighting scheme, plus an ambient Illumination. That typically means 3 spotlights: one high, angled down, and at a -45 degree angle from forward, pointing down at the right shoulder (of the Macross); one at shoulder level, angled straight, pointing at the left shoulder; and one low, almost directly behind the scene, angled up towards the middle of the back, to pick the models out for the backdrop. In terms of light color, I suggest one bright "hot" source (most likely the high, right-shoulder light) tinted slightly yellow to represent the sun; one softer, indifferent white source (the other shoulder spot perhaps), and one dim blue spot (the light from behind). The ambient light should maybe also be blue. Anyway, this is just an idle thought - would anyone be willing to take their model and do some mockups, show us some choices? It would be most helpful... © finalizing a general layout (meaning a pose and angle on Wolf13's Macross, and a general arrangement of the elements of the shot) and generating an "animatic" - a rough image of the background elements, so that everyone knows what angle to shoot their models from. I suggest we stick with the angle we've established - the Storm Attacker Macross, basically waist-up, with its right arm thrust forward, hugely forelengthened, into bottom center of frame. Our Destroids and whichever battroids we wish to have standing all posed together here. A huge halo around this of fighters, GERWALKing valks, and flying battroids arranged around this in a dense cloud. Sound good? (d) This might be the gnarliest point - prior to actually rendering anything, we have to further refine the list of included mecha. This means getting a final and accurate head count, deciding on which mode(s) the VFs will be seen in, and determining the relative size and placement of each image. What makes this tough is that, in my opinion, creating the best image possible means that we probably shouldn't and can't guarantee fair and equal treatment to everybody. Some mecha might be bigger in frame than others, some might wind up occluded in the back, etc. My gut feeling is that this is a better way to go than compromising the quality of the final product, even if it means that my own work gets short-shrifted. But I certainly don't presume to speak for everybody. What do the rest of you guys say? And I welcome opinions on how, if we do decide to do things this way, we should handle making these decisions on composition and placement, and on resolving any disagreements that might arise. ---- Anyway, at this point, we'll have standardized, and everyone could get started designing and tweaking their individual renders. These would be sent to the persons doing the Photoshop work, who would arrange and combine them, posting WIP shots which we could all make comments and suggestions on. Whew. Okay, timeline for this? That depends on how fast we can go. But how about a deadline of 1 month for doing all the (a)-(d) preliminary stuff above? That means we all start producing our actual working-towards-final rendered components for the 2nd week of November. Does that work for you guys? Also, who thinks they can take on the task for one of the lettered points above? I'm willing to do any of 'em that you guys are willing to trust me with, or I would happily hand 'em off to someone else - I know for a fact that several of you guys are much more qualified than I am for this sort of thing... Either way, I think we should delegate these tasks to people willing to do them, and get moving on them right away. If we do, we should be in good shape to have this ready to go by, say, the end of November, and have an actual finished image, perhaps even an actual poster-sized print, ready for greedy little mitts by the end of the year...!

Cleanup.... MASS CG PROJECT MASTER MODELS LIST VE-1 ELINT - Aztek VF-0S Focker - Brianw76 VF-1A Max TV Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Max TV Super Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Millia Super TV Colors - Datterboy VF-1S Max Strike DYRL Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Hikaru Colors - Brianw76 VF-1S Strike Hikaru Colors - Aztek VF-1S Focker Colors - Doktor Gonzo VF-4 Lightning III - Vinnie VF-9 Cutlass - MasamuneEd YF-19 - Brianw76 SF-3A Lancer - The Woz MK-II Monster TV Colors - lparisek MBR-04 Tomahawk TV Colors - lparisek SDF-1 Macross - Wolf13

We all use different software - Lightwave, Maya, 3DSMax, Cinescape, Rhino - there is no one best, unless it is the one that you yourself are most skilled in using...

Absolutely - we'd love to have it!

Tidying... also, suggest you guys indicate with the VF's ifou intend to contribute a Super or Strike variant. MASS CG PROJECT MASTER MODELS LIST VF-0S Focker - Brianw76 VF-1A Max TV Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Max TV Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Millia TV Colors - Datterboy VF-1J Hikaru Colors - Brianw76 VF-1S Hikaru Colors - Aztek VF-1S Focker Colors - Doktor Gonzo YF-19 - Brianw76 SF-3A Lancer - The Woz

OKAY. I think it's time to re-compile the list of the models we anticipate using for this render. This time, to make sure we're not speaking for anybody out of turn, I suggest that everybody cut-and-paste the list into a new post and add their own models to it. I'll start. MASS CG PROJECT MASTER MODELS LIST VF-1S Roy Focker Colors - Doktor Gonzo

WOZ, That's really nice! First Lancer CG I've seen! Can we assume, since you're posting it in this thread, that you're agreeable to its use in the upcoming Macross World group render/ door poster?

That is pretty damn sweet Rod. Makes me wish mine were half as detailed. Writing is on both sides.