Hey all, haven't toiled around in Bryce much this month but after seeing a couple of cool pics online from the Nautical Festival here in Wilmington, it rekindled that quirky love I have for that damn lift bridge. I attached the one that's in my gallery along with the one I'm playing around with. I got rid of my disasterous DTE attempts in the original (it was my first pic after a 3-month hiatus and I hadn't learned much in texturing yet so that's my excuse...hehe) and went with some photo textures I had. I worked on a couple of things in this version, combining different photos and filters in Photoshop to get a new mat effect, and also working on the clouds plane. I saw Sambucus' pics and wondered how it's done, so I tried. All's it is is a big 2D plane in the background, not sure if I did it right but it turned out ok for starters. Overall, the bridge texturing turned out better than I thought, especially now it looks a tad more photo-esque. Anyhow, lemme know what you think, I may play around w/ it more before everything's said and done and throw it into my gallery, we shall see! :) MD

Oh, and you can't really tell it, but I added a grate roadway on the bridge itself instead of the solid concrete that I had on there before. MD

Maddog, Yeah I know what you mean I found myself doing other things this month too... Well it's summer... At least in your case it was something creative! Very good model! You've still got time to play with the DTEs - Agent Smith is giving us a little more time because of Siggraph etc ... Looks like a winner if you hurry. - TJ

Actually, already got my entry in the field...that was my mountain picture w/ the patio. This one I added in photo textures to make it look more realistic. The DTE at the time was greek, still is to a point, but with this month's great challenge idea, I finally forced myself to learn it some. As for being away from Bryce, it's just been one of those things. Low on the creative idea front, need to spend some time with the significant other (before October comes along, when baseball playoffs and Half-Life 2 will basically dictate my life...hahah), another project that I've been working has taken some time too, etc. Plus it IS summer, I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can w/ not having any money. Oh well...pity aside, glad you liked the model! :) MD

MadDog, Yeah I like bridges ... even ones that choose a bad week to quit smoking. Seriously, when I was a kid my parents took me to Golden Gate Park via 19th ave. almost every weekend. The first thing you saw, usually through a high fog, was the southern tower of the Golden Gate... Something about bridges says home. - TJ

The more you work on this Ian the more realistic it becomes. I really like the rust, dirt and grime you've added to the scene and I think the vegetation has a better colour now too. Catlin

Minor Niggle....you've got the yellow sign on the nearest tower wrong....great job anyway..I've been back and forth loking for comparisons and this is the only one that stood out......

this is quite good ian.. a little toying around with photoshop. the modelling has been top notch and i have nothing to say about it... its the textures only, becoz bryce most of the time makes the colors so bright they appear to be unrealistic... my two cents... eric

Nice improvement on this one Dog, the bridge looks much more realistic. My only gripe on this would be the three peers in the foreground. I cant quite put my finger on it but maybe they are a bit out of scale or something, but they just seem out of place.

Oh yea and the new sky looks great.

I seem to remember the piers actually being there (it's a real bridge), there's all sorts of stuff out on the river there..half-capsized ships, the USS North Carolina, the little mall area that got used a lot in Dawson's Creek..the grating was aptly named, it always grated on my nerves, especially at 11pm and the servers at the plant were out..;) but it did wake one up..;)

Yeah this picture was originally done from a picture I took down on the docks. It's actually a boat ramp but there are piers there. It's a place where I like to go sit when I need some time to myself...a little noisy b/c of that grating Pakled talked about...but a cool place nonetheless. It's cool because there really is so much to check out down there...the shops, the lonnnnng deck they call 'Riverwalk' I believe...very cool, it stretches from one side of downtown to the other. Some great shops and restaurants down there, one of my favorite features is the old boat building docks across the river from downtown, still standing after over 100 years. You can see the old tugboat that was left there after the 1890s, etc. I want to see about getting close to it for a picture but I don't think I'll be able to get to it through the woods on the other side of the river...I'll have to research it though. It's just a fun place to be. As for the bridge, I really don't know what it is, but I get so pumped up when I drive over it...hahaha...I keep telling myself it's just a bridge, but as far as I know there aren't too many lift bridges left in the world so that makes it special. I missed the chance of seeing it raised last week when the Nautical Fest came to town...oh well, one of these days I'll finally get to see it up. MD

MadDog, Before they modernized the San Mateo bridge, It had a lift gate, it was a lot more gothic looking though if I remember correctly, and there was this steep 15 MPH turn right after the liftgate as you headed to the East Bay on the two lane medianless roadway. I dont remember if the section actually raised up or if it angled up when a ship passed through. You were close enough to the bay though, that you smelled the salty water; not always a plesant odor especially at low tide. I always hoped that I'd see that one go up too, but I never did except once and we were too far back in line to see anything. - TJ

Great job Maddog! The bridge textures and the sky are much improved!

Wow, I'm really glad everyone is liking the skies better! It was a true experiement but I love how Sambucus gets the skies to look really immersing. I'll have to continue to toy around with this one and get it ready for the gallery. Now I just need to figure out a way to make the water look less plastic. MD

Looks great Maddog. The textures are really good. Honestly, I think the water looks good, too, but experimenting is half the fun!

Thanks mloates. I think my reasoning w/ messing w/ the water is pretty simple...the Cape Fear River isn't very shiny and clean like the first picture...hahah...I'm gonna work on a little specularity to go w/ the environmental effects but outside of that, on second glance, it doesn't look tooooo bad. But like you said, experiementing is half the fun...hehe...I'm hoping to lock this image up tonight because I wanna put it on disc before I go back to Ohio for the weekend. MD