Recon by theSea

Vue • Science Fiction • posted on Jan 13, 2010

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Description

Gotta love the giant fighting robots... I've been promising a friend a Battletech render for ages and here it is, finally. Vue8i render. 4 hours and change. Madcat Mechs were downloaded from RDNA sometime back. I'm not sure they are still available. I loaded the mech into DAZ Studio and then exported as a Collada model, which imported into Vue with the rigging intact, so I was able to do all of the posing in Vue with the new bones system in Vue 8. I did some fun things with material layers to dirty up the mechs a bit... pretty much the same techniques that were used on the rocks in 'shattered temple' with a layer of dirt on the undersides and streaks of dirt on the horizontal surfaces. I'm liking Vue's shader system more and more. The foreground terrain is two ecosystems - some rocks courtesy of LaurentR's "Sculpted Rocks Collection" and a layer of grass and flowers using Cornucopia plants. And yes, I thought having the battle mechs standing in a field of flowers would be an interesting juxtaposition. Midground terrains are tree ecosystems which use the good old cherry tree and a meta node to change the color of each tree so you don't get that 'one tree' forest effect. There is also a hyper terrain that uses some of Dax Phandi's materials visible. Background mountains are procedural terrain fractals created and textured using the techniques outlined in the 'Peaks' series. Clouds are from Dick 'Eonite' Scherzinger's "Cloudscapes" collection. Atmosphere is a Global illumination spectral atmosphere with volumetric sunlight, light quality was set at 2, atmosphere quality at 4 and the sun was given a 2 degree softness value. I think softening the Sun is a key step in getting realistic looking outdoor renders. Postwork in Photoshop included some levels adjustment and adding a desaturated & blurred, high contrast version over the image in screen mode to fuzz the glare out. Then I merged these layers and ran a sharpen pass to crisp things back up. Titles and framing completed the image. All and all a fun little project that was done in not so copious spare time over the last week or two. I hope you enjoy it. As always, I appreciate any comments you may choose to leave, although constructive critique and suggestions for improvement are especially appreciated.

Comments (25)

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Tholian

9:39AM | Wed, 13 January 2010

A very well done project for those into that universe. Excellent detailing and explanations as usual. Thank you.

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Half-Baked

9:42AM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Excellent image!

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Seaview123

9:53AM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Yes, you just gotta love giant battling robots, that's why the Transformer movies did so well. Very nice work on this picture!

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kftate

10:27AM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Very cool image and great models. Excellent work!!

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PhilW

11:30AM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Your superb attention to detail really shows in this excellent and realistic render!

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Hubert

11:42AM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Great scene!!

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Ailig68

12:50PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Good render, i like the detailed info...thanx.

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faroutsider

1:33PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

I look forward to your mini tutorials almost as much as your renders. Excellent work (on both)!

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Rutra

2:02PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Lighting is very good. Especially in full size view it becomes notorious that the sharpening done in post was a bit excessive, IMO.

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texboy

2:03PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

good work! I loved the fighting suits in Avatar; these look like they might have a head and lounge area!!

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arcas

3:17PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Nicely done. Great environment. The mechs sure look natural there.

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Topaz_Rose

6:24PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Great work..now my son wants me to make an image like this, with a healthy dose of "Halo" throwen in. I am constantly amased at the images you create they are detailed, evocative and narrative driven. Great work my friend!

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DarkStormCrow

6:33PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Excellent cats, well done...

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vidyashakti

6:46PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Just finished watching Avatar and I have to admit, I felt like a kid again watching Star Wars;-)

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scifibabe

8:18PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

These are some way cool robots. Great looking scene too. Wonderful lighting. Nice!

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geirla

9:55PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Excellent render! Thanks again for the detailed explanations. Bone system in Vue 8, huh, maybe I ought to make another try at running Vue when I get a new system.

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Xanthmann

10:06PM | Wed, 13 January 2010

Fantastic work across multiple progs!! Out of curiosity, is Battletech ever going to release a Doctor Claw to go with the Mad Cats? (Sorry, couldn't help it).

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