[TheEndless]

While I really like the new renders, (if I'm getting annoying then just ignore me), it seems to me that an Alien race that has perfected space travel across galaxies will probably have figured out how to avoid oxidation. :p

Looks really cool, though! Please do tell us what shader you used.

[Kvaalen]

Sure Philip, the shader is called Simbiont and can be found here:
http://www.darksim.com/html/simbiontlw.html
It's a shader and a procedural texture nmade with DarkTree:
http://www.darksim.com/html/darktree2_5.html
An awsome procedural program, and one of the stuff it can do is export the procedurals you make to the shader. Too bad it isn't free.

Endless: Here is the more metalic look, I just didn't have time to render it yesterday.

[Kvaalen]

Endless: It looks like we wrote at the same time.
Who said those were aliens?

[TheEndless]

Who said those were aliens?

Damn! You got me on that one!

From what I can see on the metallic one, I like it...

[Kvaalen]

I think I like the metalic one better too.
I added more detail and a bit on the back too, I'm not going to be adding too much since it won't be seen.
I'm trying to render those ships now in layers but it is taking sooooo long!
I hope to have some thing to show by tonight.

[RiGLEY]

hey Kvaalen !

I have downloaded that simbiont plugin, and i like it a lot ! It contains some really good procedural textures.

[Kvaalen]

I like that shader too, It has awsome procedurals. I ususlly bake its texture since it can take a long time to render and that way I can add my own additions too.

I was hoping to have un update yesterday but I only had time to render the many layers of ships.
Now I'm rendering the grass, it has been 3 hours and it has only rendered 20% (because of the raytraced shadows), so I suppose I have 15 hours left to render!!!!!! *Sigh*

This is the second scene I've made with lots of ships, the first one was a long time ago (one of my first animations) and it was with 1000 ships!!! I can post the animation here if someone wants to see it.

[RiGLEY]

iwant it i want it !!!
and i also want to see the last image you posted... it looks good, but i can only see a little part of it...

[Kvaalen]

So here is the link to my earlier try at making a space ship army and I think it is pritty good for one of my first animations (and models :p):

http://mapage.noos.fr/samuelLK/army2.avi

As for the last image I posted, I only see a part of it too.
So I posted it here again.
Does anyone see the full thing above?

I aborted the rendering since it was taking too long and I had stuff to do on the computer.
Now I'm trying to fake the shadows by baking the ilumination on the ground and applying it to the diffuse of the grass.
But I'm still raytracing the shadows on the close ships.
If sasquatch suported the front projection I wouldn't have to bake it but it doesn't.

It has now done 20% in 20 minutes, so it looks like I have 80 minutes to go.

[Mark]

Looks sweet Kvaalen.

A piece of advice thought (not sure how this is going to look, but...) if you're going with the chrome/painted look for the ships, I'd at least try dirtying them up a little. May add some to the render times, but should make them look a little less CG. (at the very least I'd try to add some sort of carbon scoring around the muzzle of the weapons).

Regards,
Mark

[Kvaalen]

Thanks for the ideas Mark but I was already planning on that.
I like the to think of the idea that what ever those things are their origin is from a "ship emitter" that is in the battle field, meaning that they get created within seconds from nothing by a mother ship and go right into battle.

Just an idea I had but I'm not making it an official bio of the ships. :p

If I were to do that then rust, scratches, dirt, laser marks... would not be logical but I want to add those so I won't go by that.

I'll post an update of the ship as soon as I get some decent textures on it.
For the time being here is an update of the scene its self. Not much: a shack, ships in the background and shadows on the grass. I'll be adding the foreground ships once they are complete.

[Kvaalen]

Here is un update of the ship, I hope I didn't exagerate too much.
There won't be any closeups so It doesn't have to be perfect.

It's still all procedurals.

[Kvaalen]

I rendered the foreground ships, I know they don't look like they are part of the scene but the shadows should do it.
My problem now is that I don't like the layout of the scene, the swarm just doesn't fit.
I was wondering if I should put 3 big ships (not these fighters) above the city instead of having the swarm, I think it will look much better.
What do you think?

[DigiMatt]

yay kvaalen, those fighters are looking very cool now.. I agree that a couple of larger ships above the city could make a better scene, would give a little of a independence day feeling to it

great work!!

[RiGLEY]

hey Kvaalen, the new pics are awesome ! the ships look much better this way!
a little advice though... give the ships some rotation in different axes.(banking or whatever i dont know in english)