United3dArtists Archive

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 26 Jun 2009, 12:35

Here is an alternative version of the bank vault scene that I created for the MMC some time ago. The image is fairly small as I'm trying to save Prodigy some bandwidth.

If you'd like to see a hi-res version, just click on the My On-Line Gallery link in my siggy below.

nigec · Post by **nigec** » 26 Jun 2009, 13:25

Nice one BB, I would pf loved to see that version in the MMC

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 08 Jul 2009, 01:33

Thanks nigec. Lol, me too! Don't think I could have pulled it all together way back then.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 12 Jul 2009, 23:52

Finaly managed to finish off my Red Baron model so at least Snoopy has someone to let rip at now.
As always, full size picies available in my on-line gallery. Thanks for looking.

DesignDevil · Post by **DesignDevil** » 13 Jul 2009, 10:33

Really nice. Do you want to animate this as a short? Could be a funny thing

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 14 Jul 2009, 19:32

DesignDevil wrote:Really nice. Do you want to animate this as a short? Could be a funny thing

Thanks. Yeah, just something that would be really funny and let me put a good aerial sequence together. Got any ideas?

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 19 Jul 2009, 14:55

With a distinct, stylistic nod to Design Devil and his recent brilliant web banners, this is an image I have put together to act as a temporary homepage for my forthcoming website.
As per usual, the image can be seen at a higher res in my on-line gallery.

Musikman · Post by **Musikman** » 27 Jul 2009, 02:06

Hey BB, I have seen your Snoopy & RB before, but last time I didn't have a real close look at the texturing on Snoopy's plane, very sharp! You always know how to give the viewer lots of interesting fine details to look for in your models, very nice work!

I agree with Design Devil, it would definitely be cool to someday see them animated in action in their WW1 environment!

Best regards,

Musikman

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 02 Aug 2009, 22:45

Thanks Musikman. Well, if you like loads of detail, then you should really like the next piccie I'm gonna post. Should be finished in a week or two.

Steinie · Post by **Steinie** » 03 Aug 2009, 01:24

Breech Block is Back!
Did you say lots of details?...
I'm drooling like Pavlov's Dog.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 08 Aug 2009, 23:10

Steinie wrote:Breech Block is Back!

Err...sorry, didn't realise I had been away.

Just a case of head down beavering away on a whole load of tS projects. BTW a happy belated birthday Bob, hope you had a good one.

Steinie wrote:Did you say lots of details?...

Yep, but unfortunately, it might be a little too many for trueSpace's liking as when I try and render the scene, I get missing "bars" appearing up and down the image. So, to try and get the scene to render out properly, I will try breaking it down into background, middleground and foreground and then comp it all back together in PSP.

In the meantime, while I get all that sorted, here is a spruced up version of an MMC entry I did a while back. As always, a larger version is available for view in my on-line gallery. Thanks for stopping by.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 19 Aug 2009, 01:42

Some of you may recall this project starting life over on the other forum a good while back. Well, after working on it for what seems an absolute age, I have finally decided to put it to bed. That and the fact I had to do a lot of work splitting the scene into different parts as tS was not a happy bunny with the all the polys I had. Still, I managed to comp it all back together in PSP okay and I'm fairly happy with the overall result. The render took a bit of stick for its lighting quality on my on-line gallery over on the 3D Artist website, which I found quite bizarre as it was the one aspect of the image that I really was happy with. Oh well, onwards and upwards.

Code Blue

Code Blue.jpg

Steinie · Post by **Steinie** » 19 Aug 2009, 02:43

Hey I remember this one! I wish it was larger so that I could
admire it better. From what I can tell it looks great. I didn't expect
your surprise ending.

I'm glad you found time to finish it.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 19 Aug 2009, 03:39

Steinie wrote:Hey I remember this one! I wish it was larger so that I could admire it better.

Thanks Bob, much appreciated. Just click on the link to see a bigger pic.

http://www.3dartistonline.com/show_prof ... userid=126

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 24 Oct 2009, 07:28

Thought I'd better start porting over some more of my work from the other forum for all to see - before it gets lost forever. Here are some of my very first entries into the SMC (Speed Modelling Challenge). As you can see, not all that good and very basic in nature. But entering the SMC taught me a great deal (highly recommended to all) and as each challenge passed, I slowly started to get the hang of it all.

LeonRegis · Post by **LeonRegis** » 24 Oct 2009, 20:03

Wonderful, magnificent work Breech!!!
A lot of good images here... in which render they are rendered?
Words cannot explain how this is cool and good!

Cya

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 24 Oct 2009, 20:34

Thanks leon, much appreciated. All my work is done in tS 7 - modelside using the Lighworks render engine.

Here's some more of my very early stuff for your perusal:

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 28 Oct 2009, 20:50

A couple of more SMC entries I dug out:

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 30 Oct 2009, 05:03

Some slightly tweaked stills from my The Last Tomorrow animation which is currently undergoing a bit of a makeover:

tahnoak · Post by **tahnoak** » 31 Oct 2009, 10:13

Breech....thanks for sharing all this great stuff. I had no idea you had such a vast array of projects ongoing.

Funny that I recognize most of the little bits and pieces that make up the "under construction" banner from the individual scenes that you made them for.

Steve · Post by **Steve** » 31 Oct 2009, 23:56

Breech, that SMC you did with the spider walker, how did you manage thefoliage, I'm still a little perplexed how you did it...would make a great tutorial and I see that image is missing from the gallery

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 01 Nov 2009, 09:55

tahnoak wrote:Breech....thanks for sharing all this great stuff. I had no idea you had such a vast array of projects ongoing.

Thanks tahnoak. I'm afraid it's really more a case of I get bored very, very easily and find myself quickly moving on to something else.

Weevil wrote:Breech, that SMC you did with the spider walker, how did you manage thefoliage, I'm still a little perplexed how you did it...would make a great tutorial and I see that image is missing from the gallery.

The reason for no Spiderbot pic is because my PC crashed a few weeks ago and I had to get a new hard drive. I have just about everything backed up to CD/DVD somewhere, but a 350 gig library is an awful lot of discs to sort through. If I can't find it soon, I'll just copy the image over from my 3D Artist's Gallery. As for how the image was done, your going to be extremely dissapointed as it was all faked using just a good backplate and a little post work. Lining it all up to look right and matching the lighting was a complete pain as I remember. You weren't expecting me to model a Spiderbot and an entire forest in a under 2 hours were you?

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 08 Nov 2009, 18:12

Here we go, as requested, one Spiderbot. Enjoy.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 30 Nov 2009, 01:44

The images below are of Thunderbird 4, a submersible craft from the 1960's children series of the same name.
The first image is the original SMC entry, whilst the the second was created about 12 months later using more sophisticated modeling and render techniques.
I love going back to revisit old work as it is a great aide in gauging your progress.

LeonRegis · Post by **LeonRegis** » 30 Nov 2009, 02:00

SUPREME WORK!

How you did the thunderbird light?
You create all that forest?

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 01 Dec 2009, 02:04

leonregis wrote: SUPREME WORK!
How you did the thunderbird light?
You create all that forest?

Thanks leonregis, much appreciated. With regards the forest, no unfortunately it is all faked. I didn't have the skills back then, plus the model was restricted to the 2 hour limit of the SMC. Could probably manage something today, there are some pretty good tree generating apps/software around these days.

With regards the lighting, all done in tS with volumetric lighting. Just select the volumetric setting in your light's panel box and use Simple Volumetrics in the Forefround Effects Shader.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 17 Jan 2010, 04:05

Here is another image rescued from that other site.

This was an MMC entry so if your interested in how it was all put together then check out the making-of thread via the link below for a whole load of fab piccies.

http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/s ... 149&t=7346

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 04 Feb 2010, 06:23

Another image rescued from you know where and without doubt, my personal favourite. Created as a non-competitive entry into one of the old texture competitions.

Most of the models in the scene were created by the very talented Georg (where are you these days man?).

Hopes you likes as much as me.

theuns · Post by **theuns** » 04 Feb 2010, 07:58

WOW! Shows you what a big difference good textures make, amazing BB. Where did you get the textures you used for the image?

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 05 Feb 2010, 04:09

Thanks theuns. I'm quite fortunate that over the years I have managed to amass a library of about 6,000 textures. A lot of them are from the likes of 3D World magazine which normally have a full collection on every CD. I also re-invest any money I make from Turbosquid from selling my models into things like the odd Texture Collection CD. But even so, whenever I start a new project my first port of call is always Google. I find that as technology increases, the range and resolution of images available tends to keep pace so I'm always on the look-out for fresh new material. In addition, particularly so with this image, I am now starting to apply multiple layers in the Material Editor which again tends to give everything a pretty realistic and unique look. HTH.

theuns · Post by **theuns** » 05 Feb 2010, 20:15

i've always wanted to buy some Marlin Studios texture CDs, they are great...

how much do you make on average with your models on turbo squid per month?

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 05 Feb 2010, 20:49

Hi BB,

I'm interested in your TurboSquid experience too. I see your Squid Level is clear so you have totaled less than $150?

Do you sell exclusively on TurboSquid? If so is it because you just prefer to or are you a SquidGuild exclusive seller?

If you sell your models on many sites please identify the good ones and give any advice or information from your experiences (sites good/bad for percent of money you get, simplicity to use, number of sales or amount of money made there ...)

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 06 Feb 2010, 02:20

The trouble with Turbosquid is they now take a whopping 60% of the sales. Or is it 55%, can't remember now. On top of that, being in the UK, I have to pay a US tax fee, so that is another 15% chopped off. If you sign an exclusivity deal with them, you get a bit more of the sales (50%) and thereafter your percentage is on a sliding scale as you go through the different bands. If you were selling hundreds of models and were at the top end of the scale, you could easily make a living out of it. The trouble with me is, once I have completed a model I rapidly loose all interest in it. What I should be doing is converting them all to obj format. The truespace cob format isn't really a seller. The trouble with converting a model to obj format is that to achieve professional looking results, you really need to do it by hand. Using the LUUV plug-in is a) not entirely effective and you end up with holes in your geometry, and b) the geometry it does add is pretty hap-hazard and can look a right mess. The trouble with adding all the extra geometry yourself is that it can make a complete mess of your UV maps and texture maps so you might have to re-do all of those as well. But that is if you want professional looking results. However, if your selling stuff and people can write and post reviews of your models, then really, that is the only way to set about it. So professionally converting a model is a lot of hard, time consuming work. Being users of tS, we don't really appreciate at just how well the software handles N-gons and holes with absolute ease.

The other problem is the choice of models available on Turbosquid is horrendous. Deciding what to model, to what standard and what to charge for it is a minefield. For instance, some of my models didn't sell until I put the price up. Go figure.

That all said, I am very impressed with Turbosquid. And it has been very nice to get e-mails from pay-pal saying they have just credited my account. Whilst I admit I haven't made a great deal of money, I have sold enough stuff to encourage me to start taking it a bit more seriously. I have just signed an exclusivity deal with them (I have never tried anywhere else anyhow) and this year intend to invest the time needed to convert all my models to the obj format. That should easily triple what I have on offer at the moment and I only need a couple of good sales to take me up to the next band. So I will see how it runs through 2010 and then take stock of the situation before deciding whether to invest even more time. HTH.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 06 Feb 2010, 02:46

Hi BB,

That helps. Thanks.

In my attempts to start an online art gallery business I too encountered the "higher price sells" phenomenon. Customers in some fields apparently find a high price to be a marker of quality.

Lately I've been making my models so they have only quads and tris. Maybe luuv will work better with that but I'd have to know that the final product is what I modeled.

I'm going to get Blender when 2.5 is closer to finished. Maybe it can write more standard or popular formats.

Since my financial circumstances are dire (job not paying the bills and hard to get a job) I'm looking to monetize everything I do. So I might make things specifically intended for sale as my 3D hobby.

Enough about that. This thread is about how awesome your stuff is. Your stuff is awesome!

LeonRegis · Post by **LeonRegis** » 06 Feb 2010, 12:56

That last image is just amazing Breech! Looks really real, I don't know what lacks but is really close to the reality (maybe the lightning).

About the selling discussion I can advise you guys to discuss it here: vi ... 9&start=10"

Also I'm interested in it and it's good to have all information in one thread, if you don't mind could I copy your posts there (giving credit of course)?

Good Job!

marcel · Post by **marcel** » 06 Feb 2010, 16:17

Other infos about business here:
vi ... f=6&t=1463

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 08 Feb 2010, 03:08

Thanks for the kind words all.

With regards to:

leonregis wrote:Also I'm interested in it and it's good to have all information in one thread, if you don't mind could I copy your posts there (giving credit of course)?

It's okay by me.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 12 Feb 2010, 01:02

leonregis wrote:That last image is just amazing Breech! Looks really real, I don't know what lacks but is really close to the reality (maybe the lightning).

I think that might be slightly due to the fact that the Texture Competition it was created for did not allow post processing of any kind.

So here is the same image again with a slight tweak in an image editor. I'll let you decide if it's an improvement or not.

Also attached is the scene before any textures were applied for those of you who like these types of shot to learn from.

Enjoy.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 26 Mar 2010, 05:26

A couple more piccies rescued from you know where. Enjoy.

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 26 Mar 2010, 19:13

hm, the shack is quite nice! I think you should make some grass there. not only a texture, it would look even better

the matrix phone is great!

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 19 Apr 2010, 15:56

Thanks bitkar. The shack image was made for a previous forum challenge which had strict rules on entry conditions. That's really why the image has kinda remained as is; it reminds me of all the challenges I had to overcome to get the image up to speed. I always feel If I tinker with it too much, I will loose those memories and the lessons I learned with them.

Anyhows, my last completed work was the Bond scene, the WIP of which can be found hear: vi ... ?f=5&t=729

Enjoy.

theuns · Post by **theuns** » 20 Apr 2010, 11:24

Wow! Very nice Breech Block.. did you make the helicopter and car yourself? Love the dust cloud and motion blur effect...

marcel · Post by **marcel** » 20 Apr 2010, 16:03

Just a note: if the car is not blured, this mean that the camera follow the car with the same speed, then it move back. But the blur in the background gives the impression that the rocks move forward (you should look at the scene, hiding the car to realize but this is only what I feel). The white line on the road should be blurred in the same direction as that of rocks. But it is artistic interpretation, not reality. the important thing is that the result is superb.

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 21 Apr 2010, 06:49

to be honest, I like the idea, the scene, the models, but I think that the lightning should be much better. Also the ground texture kills the impressiion a little bit (too simple ground, too uniform texture). You should give it some more time, its worth it.
Maybe making the wall polygonal at the close distance would make it look better too, not texture only. Some details could be good, as some trafic sing in the bg, rocks on the ground, pieces of grass, or whatever. Maybe a sun at the cameraview with some raylights would would be worth trying. Maybe placing camera a little closer and giving it much wider field of view could be more interesting (then giving the sky a little of a gradient). Imho its too grey, without shades, shine, contrast, "without life". But it has potential!

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 21 Apr 2010, 22:56

Thanks for all the terrific feedback guys.

But hey, where were you all when this image was still a WIP?

Theuns - The car was originally imported from Poser and then underwent radical surgery in tS to change it to the correct variant. Plus all the weapon mods of course. The helicopter was built by me from scratch and you can see some great piccies of it slowly being built in the WIP thread.

Marcel – Man you've got an eye for detail. Y'know what? I think you could be right about the direction the motion blur goes in. But as that effect was created in post as opposed to in-camera, I'm really kinda tied to the way my image software's algorithm creates that effect.

Bitkar - Yeah, there was quite a bit of debate on the lighting levels in the WIP thread. I even had a few images of the scene with rain and lightning effects. In the end, matching the lighting on the car to such a moody backdrop caused all the car's details to be lost so I ended up opting for a brighter environment. In addition, I actually did invest a huge amount of time on getting the rock face more jagged, the ground more realistic with spillage onto the road here and there; only to see all that work disappear when I created the motion-blur effect. Doh!

marcel · Post by **marcel** » 25 Apr 2010, 18:08

I thought you are tied to the way your image software's algorithm creates th blur.
The best way to know how the blur would be is to do that (for a futur project):
1 - create a keyframe 0 for the cam and the car.
2 - Go to another keyframe move the cam and the car together in the direction of the movment.
The car need to be in the same place on the view cam, only the decor change.
3 - render a motion blur picture with a motion blur frame to 10 or 20 (more is better). To select a motion blur for a picture, choose "animation modeler", then select the motion blur option. now select "current frame only". The blur option is gray but TS render a blur picture. Avoid to choose the first or the last image as current frame. The render should show a clear car and a real blur for the décor (more blur near and less blur far).
You can also use different lenght of blur to test with a low resolution image for a quick render.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 03 Jul 2010, 21:52

Thanks for the above tip Marcel. I'll have to give that a bash some time.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 05 Jun 2011, 15:22

Another of my SMC entries. This time a Boeing 747-400 Jumbo Jet in Virgin Atlantic livery.

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 06 Jun 2011, 11:33

veeery nice jumbo! almost like a photo. I think you could fool me with this one ;)

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 11 Jun 2011, 19:08

Another couple of piccies I found on my hard drive when I was having a big clearout.

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 13 Jun 2011, 12:25

very nice chopper indeed

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 31 Aug 2011, 02:43

Thanks very much bitkar. Must admit, that is one of the best models I ever made. A whole lot of interior detail went into that one as well. There are a load of piccies on the Bond WIP if anyone wants more details.

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 13 Sep 2011, 23:20

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. H.Q.

This is an image I made for one of the forums' MMCs'.

You can find out more details about the creation of the image in the relevant WIP thread:

vi ... f=5&t=2755

Breech Block · Post by **Breech Block** » 18 Apr 2012, 20:26

My first real attempt at a character; the Manchester United striker, Wayne Rooney.

theuns · Post by **theuns** » 01 May 2012, 18:01

Wow! Love that character, well done

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