Thanks so much @spacemt354 for keeping this thread alive! I didn't check on this in a while, didn't notice you posted the wipReel links,
was just about to paste #7.
Well i guess i should take the opportunity to give some updates:
The project is not in full hiatus BUT damn close to it,
i wish it wasn't so but during the past 2 years i had so much going on in my life
it was hard to keep coming back on the extremely complex work on the monorail and the park itself.
My mother passed away last summer and time has really flown ever since, not that it was surprising, but no less tough to stomach.
She had been ill for 7 years, with a steady decline, same as my father, who's been fighting cancer for the past 6 years.
He's fighting, in his own way, but for the past 2 or 3 years it's been more a question of time than of cure.
Before all this, in 2008, my baby twins died on the hospital table, literally.
So, to me it feels like i'm falling from one spike onto another, while looking into the blue sky every now and then..
And this is the very short version of the story.
Anyhow, this project has been like an escape, something i could fully dive into and play around with, with only my skillset at hand.
No time limits, no angry clients, no big teams, no one who would say "i want this different".
It might sound weird but ususally 3D modeling is a very time-tight job where the deadline is always dead ahead.
But then there's also my music.
My music is my emotional output, so to speak, within it threre are so many layers exhibiting parts of my mindset or emotional state,
and sometimes it's just music for the sake of music. It always depends.
Just the Epcot project itself, or my musical works would take up all my time, and time is the problem.
Between travelling between home,
my parent's place and my girlfriend's home town i was merely able to get the most basic things done during the past years,
which were client projects and working as a television actor,
and inbetween trying to finish my damn music album. And in some phases the Epcot model consumed most of my free time.
(i say damn because some of the tracks in question have been written as early as 2000).
And there's so much more i do and want to achieve, even if it's stupid to think i could get it all done, but i can't specialise on just one thing,
i would miss something, i do need the balance between music, acting or camera work and the 3D modeling. That's just who i am.
I'm sorry you all have to be so patient about this, but that's the max warp-speed currently possible with the ship i'm flying.
But hey, I'm a pilot, i fly, no matter how much the hull cranks. Just bear with me, this is gonna be unique ,
Wow, I can't even begin to describe how sorry I am for your losses and struggles the last few years. If anything I'm glad that this modeling gives you a release of sorts, and given everything it was the least I could do keeping this thread active. I hope and pray for your situations to improve and all the best going forward.Thanks so much @spacemt354 for keeping this thread alive! I didn't check on this in a while, didn't notice you posted the wipReel links,
was just about to paste #7.
Well i guess i should take the opportunity to give some updates:
The project is not in full hiatus BUT damn close to it,
i wish it wasn't so but during the past 2 years i had so much going on in my life
it was hard to keep coming back on the extremely complex work on the monorail and the park itself.
My mother passed away last summer and time has really flown ever since, not that it was surprising, but no less tough to stomach.
She had been ill for 7 years, with a steady decline, same as my father, who's been fighting cancer for the past 6 years.
He's fighting, in his own way, but for the past 2 or 3 years it's been more a question of time than of cure.
Before all this, in 2008, my baby twins died on the hospital table, literally.
So, to me it feels like i'm falling from one spike onto another, while looking into the blue sky every now and then..
And this is the very short version of the story.
Anyhow, this project has been like an escape, something i could fully dive into and play around with, with only my skillset at hand.
No time limits, no angry clients, no big teams, no one who would say "i want this different".
It might sound weird but ususally 3D modeling is a very time-tight job where the deadline is always dead ahead.
But then there's also my music.
My music is my emotional output, so to speak, within it threre are so many layers exhibiting parts of my mindset or emotional state,
and sometimes it's just music for the sake of music. It always depends.
Just the Epcot project itself, or my musical works would take up all my time, and time is the problem.
Between travelling between home,
my parent's place and my girlfriend's home town i was merely able to get the most basic things done during the past years,
which were client projects and working as a television actor,
and inbetween trying to finish my damn music album. And in some phases the Epcot model consumed most of my free time.
(i say damn because some of the tracks in question have been written as early as 2000).
And there's so much more i do and want to achieve, even if it's stupid to think i could get it all done, but i can't specialise on just one thing,
i would miss something, i do need the balance between music, acting or camera work and the 3D modeling. That's just who i am.
I'm sorry you all have to be so patient about this, but that's the max warp-speed currently possible with the ship i'm flying.
But hey, I'm a pilot, i fly, no matter how much the hull cranks. Just bear with me, this is gonna be unique ,
I just wish the day had 48 hours and every computer a double xeon cpu chipset...
SO, as you might have already deducted about what i'm trying to say,
yes i would want to keep working on this, and i will,
but currently i still lack the time and energy to continue with proper momentum.
Ok so much negative info, let's finish off this post with something positive:
You might have noticed the models are all-white (no pun intended),
there are no textures, there's no grime, no ... well .... nothing apart from neat geometry.
For now my tech is very outdated and rendering anything (models still run fluidly within the modeling pipeline)
takes forever at a decent resolution and quality.
Ok wait, that wasn't too positive, yet...
I am in the process of upgrading my system, yet slowly.
I'm hoping to have around 48 additional cores to my disposal plus some 28 cores for the actual workstation.
Even if i only get halfway there it would be a big quality boost and would significantly aid productivity.
This should be done by the end of August, but depends a little on the Xeon v5 rollout.
I will stick with v4's but they will drop a little in price only after v5 had its rollout.
This in combination with a change to my render pipeline, Arnold will replace MentalRay, should give some new wind to the project. Especially important is Arnold's ability to handle PBR shading, a key-note element of the whole project.
What is PBR? PBR is Photoreal based rendering. And in retrospect, keeping the model all-white was a pretty good idea, because it would have meant twice the work, if i hadn't waited. The difference to MR's shading system is, it is based on a real-world physical approach, giving me broader control over the texture assets and the overall look as i can apply one lighting rule to all the different instances. This is important for time-saving and overall quality, but also for the eventual, inevitable journey into Imagi...VirtualReality.
cheers,
ArtificialArtist
PS: Damn i made it through the full posting without becoming political. I deserve a shoulder clap. xD
The photo realism of that render is astonishing. Great job man, though it sounds like you could use a server farm your disposal.Some good news (for a change)
Almost done with my texture/shading-workflow test. This is done on a slow computer with compromises on the rendering quality, so there's still headroom in the material quality, detail too fine for the renderer to properly display at these settings.
I think i should be all set up to begin with shader treatment on the monorail cabin around October, that would be test #2 to assess
the asset management approach, on a larger scale than on the synthesizer model, this time around.
This vintage Virus-A Synthesizer is the first model done with my new PBR normalization workflow, this is gonna make a crucial difference for the Epcot project as everything can be moved into any light situation without having to adjust the shading (the look of the material) to have everything look photoreal. For Epcot this means, the only big challenge left is how to implement the floral system without killing performance to the point where it's not funny anymore.. and, of course, keeping thousands of assets and their respective material data neatly organized.
@spacemt354 & @Voxel Thanks for the kind words!
Don't quit. Fantastic work.
I'm really sorry to hear that - though am wondering like others what exactly they took?
That picture is blasphamy!Not to mention that, at least to me, it looks just like a revival of the Project Gemini project they designed in the early 2000's.
I'll let the pictures make the decision
View attachment 239021
Agreed. 110%.
I think the eerie similarities to projects in the past are a little too similar.
2016 - Our New Quick Service Bar and Grill at Wilderness LodgeI'll let the pictures make the decision
View attachment 239021
Agreed. 110%.
I think the eerie similarities to projects in the past are a little too similar.
