City - Animation

I posted a still of this model back in December with different lighting. See info here http://tinyurl.com/2mbubs

UFO animation

Dug this out I did late last year and added a sound effect I found online. I did this in Vue and Particle Illusion.

Transport Ship - Work in Progress

Just started this as part of a background vehicle for the SF Film that Emmett Hagen and all the guys over at Sun Gate Films are in the process of doing pre-production on. This is the nose section of a transport ship.

101 Projects for Artists and Illustrators

Quite a nice list if you're stuck for something to do. Artistic block etc...

http://tinyurl.com/2kxn7k

Rings

Just something shiny done in Vue that I thought I'd post. Hope you all had a good weekend !

Low Poly Corridor Anim

I posted the original pics of this Low Poly Corridor and some frames from this animation back in January last year http://tinyurl.com/267vj7
Anyway here's the anim itself which I never posted with it. Not too sure if the person is running away from something in this POV Shot or he's been caught short and he's running around looking for the nearest toilet. Let's hope it's not a Zero Gravity one :)

Mining Lander - Work in progress PT 2

Here's a bit of an update on the Mining Lander, Drakath had mentioned the scale, so I've placed in some figures and some catwalk detail on the ship. The walkways on the arms leading to the engine pods are accessed by a hatch in the arm floor at the end where arm joins the main ship.

Starbug Model and CG Starbug - WIP

OK for those who know and associate the name 'Starbug' with the UK TV series Red Dwarf then this isn't that ship. :)
I built this model from kit parts and junk around 10 years ago, the main body of the ship is the engine from the 1/24 Scale Airfix AV-8A Harrier Jump Jet. Seen as the grey part in the pic where I'm constructing the model this part is also used on the underside of the AT-AT's in The Empire Strikes Back and on the back of the Jawa's Sandcrawler in Star Wars, sorry that's the geek coming out in me, some people spot trains I spot kit parts ! :) The 2 sides pods are exactly what they look like, Ping Pong balls, now when I was a kid they used to have a visible seam around the middle, these days they're totally smooth and the seam appears to be on the inside if you hold them up to the light, this makes them better for modeling with as you don't have to cover the join. Detailing was done with styrene card and kit parts and the cockpit/eyes were done with 2 EMA Plastruct domes. Once I'd stuck the domes on I thought this had an insect feel to it so I decided 'Starbug' would be a good name, the fact I also painted this green which is the colour of Starbug in Red Dwarf was purely a coincidence. For anybody who hasn't seen Red Dwarf then a piccy of their 'Starbug', which is a great design and miniature can be seen here. http://tinyurl.com/3azwsd
The only part of the model I didn't really like after I'd finished it were the engines on the back of the ping pong balls, they came from the Airfix Saturn V Rocket kit. I had a picture of this ship published in the UK magazine Sci-Fi and Fantasy Models International in the late 90's.

So here we are in 2007 and I was looking through my old art folder and happened across the pics I'd taken of the model and thought I'd have a go at building a CG version, I say version as I'll be making changes to the ship, mainly trying to rectify that engine problem. The other thing I've been able to do is give the Cockpit/Cockpits a compound eye look which I never really attempted on my original model. This is all I've done up to now, texturing as I go. Any suggestions for the engines would be appreciated as I'd be quite happy to dump the whole ball and engine if there's a better solution.

For fans of the Red Dwarf 'Starbug' take a look here at David Sisson's site, a guy who does amazing scratchbuilt models of the Gerry Anderson models and other stuff. When I say miniatures he builds them at more a Studio Scale size so these aren't just things like look like Airfix kits. http://tinyurl.com/3coqep

Planet - Base 2 - Redux

I've done an alternate render of the pic I posted in November, I've made a few adjustments to it as well. Rendered in Vue, built in Studio Max 7.

Original pic can be seen here http://tinyurl.com/yqvbdm

Corridor Concept work

Ok now I know this doesn't look much like a corridor yet, Hazel over at Sun Gate Films who's in charge of set decoration has started raiding shops like IKEA for objects to help dress the spacecraft interiors etc... She's sent me a selection of stills of things she's already bought in bulk, the aim being that I can recreate these objects in CG so when I'm doing my work I can incorporate these into the designs. Above is one of the objects that I've built which is a lid off a storage box 13 x 9 inches. I'm planning on adding these to the final corridor design and some of the other sets that are being built for the spaceship interior, they'll make great panel details.
The picture of the lid I've rendered for fun in Blue Plastic like the actual box but once on the set these will be all sprayed the uniform cream/light brown colour like my previous concept work.

IKEA was used heavily by the set builders on Babylon 5 for set decoration, they do have some very interesting light fittings. Also on her travels Hazel has uncovered some boxes in storage near the Bavaria Film studios which she says has set dressing used on the 1985 film Enemy Mine directed by Wolfgang Peterson. I mentioned to her that Galaxy of Terror had what appeared to be some sort of food storage cartons on the walls of the spaceship, the orange detail at head height, from what I heard these were from McDonalds, they don't look too bad on the set, also these sets have a similar feel to those of the LV-426 Colony in Aliens, funnily Aliens director James Cameron was a Unit Director and FX man on Galaxy of Terror.

Wikipedia says: Most of the sets of the science fiction series Babylon 5 contained IKEA components. One reason for this was to reduce the cost of set construction; Babylon 5's producers were proud of always filming episodes on time and under budget.

Mining Lander - Work in progress

One of those models that I started a while back probably in Max 3 and I look at every now and again and do some work on, I've done some new renders and have some ideas of what detail is needed to finish this ship before I start texturing it. Latest work has been in Max 7.

Hyperdrive - Shuttle Craft - Build your own

Now in Kit form ! :)

Here's 2 other posts about this ship.

http://tinyurl.com/2utth5

http://tinyurl.com/yre9o5

The Tripods

Figured I'd post this as a filler whilst I'm working on other stuff, using my old Tripod model made in Max 7 and rendered in Vue. This is based on John Christophers The Tripods not War of the Worlds