Monthly Archives: November 2016

100 Days, 100 Renders— Day 100

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Perhaps it’s appropriate that my final image would be an ambitious misfire. I’ve occasionally created accidental long-exposure-style images from time to time. I’ve wondered about doing a sci-fi long exposure since I saw one in the 2002 edition of the Ships of the Line calendar (which sadly doesn’t even have a thumbnail online I can link to). My big mistake was having it be a daylight image. The ships orbiting Babylon 5 are so underexposed you can hardly see them even if you know they’re supposed to be there. There were also some technical gambles I took with lens flares and antialiasing that didn’t pay off. I think the concept is worthy of a second attempt based on what I learned, though.

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100 Days, 100 Renders— Day 97

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As a little birthday treat, I decided to recreate one of my all-time favorite VFX shots. I got a lot of speckling after I had to reduce the render quality to get something that I could put up today, and the decision to use a photo of the Earth with such a prominent aurora in the background was a daring choice that didn’t really pay off, but the most important part of the image to me was how the shuttlebay interior turned out, and it looks good.

100 Days, 100 Renders— Day 95

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Another adaptation of a season 1-era Babylon 5 publicity shot. These would probably be easier to match if I knew the focal length used for these shots. Of course, it’s also unlikely that Ted’s model is a point-for-point match with the original model, especially since it’s based off of the remade model, which I’m certain has a few proportional differences.

Though I suppose I could’ve tried using Lightwave’s new-to-me camera-matching tools. It looks like there are fairly clear perpendicular lines for all three axes around the solar panels. I may revisit this in a week, when I have some free 3D-time.

100 Days, 100 Renders— Day 94

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“It was an early Earth president, Abraham Lincoln, who best described our current situation; ‘The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial though which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, our last, best hope of Earth.’”