COLLAB2021 – Team S.P.I.C.E.D. – NATURE BG

[Neil Jenkinson]

Thanks for replying , I assume your talking in Discord speak above, as I say I don’t use discord, I’m only following two servers at the moment and very rarely.  Searching CGCooke in the servers doesn’t find anything. So I think I need to start at the beginning.

Do I need inviting?

[Parker Bourassa]

If you follow this link it should get you in: https://discord.gg/cuGgBxKf
Or, you can paste that URL into the search box in Discord. That’s what I had to do.

[Adrian Bellworthy]

@theluthier you maybe reading this for the third or fourth time as I have mentioned it on some WIP threads.

Can you confirm or deny the evolution of this project. Are we set with a daytime scene as in the artwork or will it evolve into a sunset / sunrise / night scene in the future ? The reason I ask is we the S.P.I.C.E.D. team are thinking of rendering image planes for background objects and if the lighting is going to change then so will shadows, so do we render without shadows or do we avoid planes?

I know we are still early in the project but I for one like to have a idea of what the overall scene will be so we can work towards this, the time is a coming when we need to think about poly count, Image Planes Vs High Poly to Low Poly Baking.

In layman’s terms ‘We will need to preheat the oven for baking’.

Also I have some thoughts on ‘fading’ the sky from day (sunrise through to sunset) to night and was wondering whether to pursue this idea.

[Matt Dunn]

I’m curious about rendering the background to planes or maybe a cylinder in case we want to really move the camera around. Could we render a few images  with particular lighting  and then use the material settings to alter the background for any time of day? Does rendering an Environment Texture of the background make sense for this use case?

[Parker Bourassa]

Some low-poly insporation for my background peeps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-qzMGSGsCQ

[Adrian Bellworthy]

@mattdunn , so for the bushes and trees in the background, I think we will be using planes, or in fact I would say yes we are going to use planes. These planes can have constraints so they rotate and always face the camera to give the illusion, from a distance, of a solid object. The main area of camera movement will be in the foreground, our planes will be far enough away that they will not rotate very much. The mountains are different, being so much bigger the idea is to model and sculpt detail, then bake the detail to a low poly mesh. I had the same thought about different times of day, I don’t think we are going to go down that route, at least not within the 4 weeks of the Collab.

[Adrian Bellworthy]

Very interesting.

Those bug eyes when sitting on the bench!! What is that  he’s smoking??

What people get up to in the bathroom, drag queen with nipple tassels getting ready for her/his performance!!

Thanks for sharing this @pfbourassa 

Wouldn’t it be cool to create a free world for people to explore. Collab 2022, 2023, 2024 etc. etc.

[Kent Trammell]

I think a night-time version is beyond the scope of the project for now; certainly beyond April. So yes, lighting will have to be a blend of dynamic and static / cheated lighting (like baking shadows) for some areas. The FG I’d like to be dynamic with potential for cheating increasing as we go backward into MG and BG

If I can ever finish grading this week I’d like to spend some time on foliage R&D to get a better feel for what’s possible and optimal. Planes is definitely an option and likely for the furthest BG assets. But the BG tree clusters closest to the MG zone I’d like to keep 3D if possible. So maybe each BG asset has a 3D version and a 2D version?

[Kent Trammell]

Fascinating video @pfbourassa!

[Kent Trammell]

Forgot to tag you @adrian2301 ☝️

[Parker Bourassa]

I agree, the midground trees will need to look good from a variety of angles, and I don’t think image planes will cut it.
The ghibli method can probably be optimized by merging and decimating the geometry a bit, and baking (or applying I guess?) the new normals. Plus a few leafy planes like we talked about in the stream.

Maybe @ketre and I can work on figuring that out over the weekend.

[Adrian Bellworthy]

Team S.P.I.C.E.D.

Now into week 2 of COLLAB2021, adding detail is the focus for this week.

How do you all feel about the project so far?

My feeling is that the focus of this project is the Spice Vendors House and the Foreground, and rightly so to a certain extent, but the Background wilderness, where we reside, is almost an after thought, or not as important as the detailed dents of a lamp for example. It’s human nature for us out here in back country to feel alone and forgotten, but let me assure you that this team, in my opinion, is at least as important, or even more important, than all the detail that is ‘expected’ in the foreground. 

Take a look at these images

These are from Assassin’s Creed, Ghost Recon and Zelda breath of the wild.

Now, let me ask you, What would these images be without the background or a background that was an after thought?

From the results of week 1, I have no doubt this team, you people, have the ability to create something as visually stunning as these images. We may be creating a different style overall, but the background is where the scene comes alive, 

Humans make foregrounds, GODS make backgrounds,

And we the S.P.I.C.E.D. team are the team to rise above the foreground and reach to the sky and prevail in our quest for greatness.

@pfbourassa @tijnkroon @daddios @mattdunn @tiborbleuel @danmelt @theluthier 

[Neil Jenkinson]

Don’t worry too much my Mountains ‘O’ are becoming a bit of an epic. For saying there’s only a small part visible in the scene the mountain has taken a life of its own! As suggested by @theluthier the plan is when when you rotate it, it will be the mountain on the right too, that’s the bit lower down. Still initial sculpt getting the form to match the art work at the moment, will retopo later today and start the multi-res sculpt after that. 

[Adrian Bellworthy]

I have no doubt in your ability to create an Epic @daddios . The camera will move around the scene so to duplicate mountains and rotate them for a 360d scene makes sense.

[Dan Melton]

@adrian2301 , incredibly  motivational post!     @daddios — love the mountain!

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