United3dArtists Archive

I have decided to do a Bond villain HQ for my entry into this months Modelling Challange. For those not in the know, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. was the original sinister outfit that Bond ( a.k.a Sean Connery) fought against and I'm hopefully going to include some classic\iconic props in the 3D scene. For starters I am working on the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. logo which could be seen on the ring worn by Blofeld.

Here is a better graphic of the logo that is depicted on the ring and a rough render of my attempt to make it in 3D:

Here is a piccy of a chair I am working on that incorporates the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. logo into its design. Trying to get a subtle blend of 1960's chic and evil meglomania.

All C & C most welcome.

Awesome so far!

Cheers, S.T.E.I.N.I.E.

Glad you likes. Here is an update.

Some detail added:

*Materialises*

Looking good so far, I like it

*De-materialises*

Some sweet artistry going on there!

Haven't thought about "S.P.E.C.T.R.E." in decades! heh

Thanks James. Thanks Steve, both for the comment and beaming in.

Just a small update:

Here are a couple of different lighting setups I'm playing with. Haven't really decided whether the "viewing port" is gonna look out onto a missile\rocket platform, some kinda lava stream or a shark pool. I might even turn it into a giant viewscreen of somekind.

WoW! look good B

Breech as usual I love it. I do have a question about the shark render. Please tell me if I am looking at it wonky. I notice you have a bluish light in the room, is that light supposed to represent the blue from the water? If so the direction the light is comming from seems wrong to me. It looks like it is comming from the back of the room, and not from the tank.

the inner shouldnt be just rock...

Thanks for all the C&C guys.

And no, rjeff, your not looking at it all wonky, you are indeed correct. I just couldn't seem to get the lighting levels correct inside the cave so I placed a fill light inside it. A few test renders proved this light too be a little harsh so on that particular render I thought I'd try and place the light towards the rear of the cave and try bouncing it off the ceiling. Ha-ha, and there was me thinking no-one would notice.

Anyways, here are the latest piccies. The HQ is getting an IT upgrade. the lower tier of the gantry is filled with servers whilst the upper will (eventually) house some control consols and vid screens. Another stab at a new lighting rig too:

Oh I like the volume you have going on there. That looks much nicer! Now just add caustics! Am I asking to much?

Looking good!

i think you will win this MMC :)

Real nice!

Have you considered adding a laser ontop of that sharks head?

Thanks for all the comments and support guys.

rjeff - I tried adding some caustics but was not too happy with the results. certainly sent my render times through the roof though. Probably need to experiment with it a bit more.

bitkar - Thanks for the vote of confidence, although as host of this months MMC I will probably make mine a non-competitive entry.

MikomDude - Now that is a great idea! Probably save that one for my Austin Powers version.

Anyhows, currently I'm working on some "stick figures" to place in the seats to give the impression a conference is in session. Still tons more I'd like to do to this scene but it looks like I will be outta time.

Don't quit working on if you don't make the MMC deadline.

This wip is like a tour of the place and we know that the bad guys only give the good guy a tour when ... uh oh!

oh ya, i forgot you made this mmc :D so its good news for others, incl. me ;p

Finis - I actually have another idea for this scene using the "set" as a backdrop so i will defo be working on it after the MMC.

Anyhows, here is my completed "stick figure". Not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination but hopefully it will texture up well and add some dyamic to the scene.

Some more updates. Added a differnt chair for the leader and the upper level computer consoles. Also added a giant viewscreen and a sidedoor. A lot of tweakink the scale of things and also repositioned the steps to the upper level.

You're making excellent progress on this scene! Looking good

Beaming in from outer space again, I'm starting to make this a habit, one might even think I'm a member here

Liking the 'stick man', you've got very clean meshes all round. The one thing that does catch my eye, I can see the intention and like the idea of the rock for walls, but for some reason at the moment the colours and tones of the texture seem to clash a bit with the smooth, well polished floors and clear cut supports and tiles...they're sort of just....there

This might be because the walls themselves are lacking a bit of definition to them, they look great in a clay/unrendered form but not quite in a rendered scene, the floor/support beams sort of...stop and head off into the wall, and it's not quite clear when the wall becomes the ceiling which makes the peice feel a little clostraphobic or cramped even though it's a big place

What do I suggest? A slight adjustement, maybe you could add lit borders where the floor and supports meet the rock, I suggest lightening the texture of the rock a bit, with slightly more uniform colours so the shadows get to have more say in the definition and add colour/light variation. Or, have a look at this aesthetic for walls and ceilings and so on with the specific colour scheme you're going for, clear cut difference between the wall and cieling

Of course...this would be a bit of a drastic change


Please don't take it as heavy critisism (however lengthly), I'm really not suggesting 'OMG U TTLY RUIN TEH PICTEUR', I can't really see anything glaring with the rest of your scene.

First of all, let me say that when it comes to people posting comments on my work, I never have any issues regarding what it is they have to say. My stance is that by posting an image on a forum such as this I'm automatically opening myself up for critique and if I were the type of person that took offence at what peoples' genuine opinions were then I shouldn't put my work on view in the first place. Secondly, the mere fact that people feel prompted to contribute any kind of comment after viewing my work is always welcome news regardless.

As for your particular comments Steve – argggghhhhhhhhh...it's like your inside my head. I have never liked the texture on the walls from the very start. But the fact is it is a high res, tileable graphic and has an equally good, matching bump map. Thus to date I haven't found anything better to replace it with. Most of my other “rock” type textures tend to be very greyish whilst at least the colour/feel of this current one is more subterranean. I have dabbled with all kinds of normal/height/displacement maps but not found anything that dramatically adds that sense of depth. Well, nothing that would render out sometime before Christmas anyways.

I understand what your saying regarding the wall versus the floor. And the comments regarding the supports. Conceptually, the idea was to try and portray that the cavern was not a natural feature but had been created by a huge feat of civil engineering. The supports were added to suggest there was a huge mass of rock overhead and thus further suggest they were very deep underground. And the huge, polished marble type slabs on the floor were added to suggest that money was no object when it came to furnishings/materials. However, all these concepts were slowly added over a period of time as opposed to thought of as a whole and hence that perhaps explains why the ideas don't quite gel as good as they could.

With regards to lighting, I did indeed want to add floor level lighting but a couple of early experimental renders proved disastrous as the shadows they created just highlighted the fact the rock walls were very clearly constructed of low res polygons. Of course I could light the scene from above, but then I would have to model/show where that light source was coming from and at the time, you know how time runs out during an MMC, it just wasn't an option. Plus it would probably still cast polygon shadows on the wall. So as it stands, all the light is coming from the viewport until I can figure a neat way of getting some secondary lighting in there. That in turn means all the lighting has a blue hue which probably doesn't do the brown rock face any favours. And of course, the final problem is that I am trying to do all this in modo and get to grips with its infamous shader tree set-up.

So yep, right there with you Steve on all the C&C and many thanks for taking the time to post it. Love the piccie too as it is a very clear illustration of the right approach. Now I am no longer constrained by the MMC, I think I need to step back and have a rethink on some of the concepts/materials. And read up a lot more on how to use the modo render engine.

Now, just get out of my head will you!

Latest test render. Not quite sure if the red colouring is a good thing or not. Does it help draw attention to the boss man and thus provide a focal point for the image? Or would replacing the colour with, say a Royal Blue, be just as effective but at the same time have more in common with the images current colour palette?

Nice progress you have made on this scene. It's really super-villainy!! One thing ruins it though, all the guys in the chairs have the same hair and the same pose, you should really change that.

Doin' great work here Breech.
I would say the red is better (for attracting attention to this area).

Great! Agree with Dragneye on the red and MikomDude on the sameness of the people. I think this one shows the size of the cave better.

very good progress...

but few things imho:
- maybe tooo dark (on my screen)
- the shark texture should be a little darker :) (btw do you have area light from that window, should be there)
- the tiles are toooo large (big is good, but this is too much)

I think the more distant shark would not be reflected in the floor at that viewing angle.

Thanks for all the great feedback guys and I have worked on ALL those issues to some degree or other in my latest rendering. Might do a few more tweaks over the weekend otherwise I think I have taken this as about as far as I can.

Very COOL.... Deep ambient blue everywhere... Also, love that FLOOR ! ! ! Kinda like to walk around in there and
look around..

I wish I could do work this awesome but, if I had to knit-pick...

What the heck are Fireman doing looking at Main Frames!?
"Come on Charlie squirt on them, I dare you..."
"shhhh, here comes the Boss..."

Looks great!

interesting update....

about the lighting - what about to add some spotlights ponted to a cieling as a indirect light. I think there in cave would be some lighting. This could add some more effect.

Jimmer: Thanks, glad you likes.

Steinie: LMAO! MI6 are suffering from cut-backs too, y'know. So because of the rather hefty expenses bill from the Armourer and Q Branch for Bond's last mission, M is having to resort to more economic measures to try and shut-down S.P.E.C.T.R.E's new HQ. Hence she has sent in the dreaded Health & Safety team.

Bitkar: Your right of course, the exposure of the image is too even and it desperately needs some spotlights to help add a bit off oomph to it. But I have tried adding them before and all that happens is you get a lot of triangular shadows cast on the rock/cave surface because of the way it has been modelled.

Anyhows, did a few more tweaks and this is the final, final render as I am keen to move on to other projects. That and Deus Ex is commanding a lot of my time. A big thanks to everyone for their support and artistic contributions.

I like this light setup! it ended up very well! gratz, nice work and good luck with the next one.

Thanks bitkar; defo another case of the community helping to haul this one over the finishing line.