more animation now: much higher res and you can see the planes much better (DivX 5.0 codec)

http://www.alanwoods.co.uk/files/planeTest.avi

feedback as always is much appreciated

Ok textured now. Pretty much done I'm gonna add a bit more detail to it later if I get time

Hey Pure_Morning - nice plane and nice animation - I like the billowing smoke and most of the plane motion - I wonder tho if a plane can do a flat turn like that - doesn't it usually require a bank? It looks a little unnatural. Also the speed is hard to get a feel for - obviously the camera is following the plane or they would move faster but with nothing to show that movement they seem to float. The affect of having several planes is great but maybe concentrating on one for a bit would allow you to explore the motion a bit more. I think when you watch an animation with a fast moving machine you want to be aware of natural forces like gravity, air flow and the vibration of the engine. Okay - hope the c + c is helpful in some way - looking forward to seeing more. :)

no that's great, any C+C is welcome good or bad! :D The thing with the motion is that it's not keyframed. It's all generated before hand by a flocking system I have written. Thus I dont control how much the bank and roll etc. I have kinda sorted it for the next render but it's really hard to sort it out completley (lots of nasty rotation matrices and vectors etc). Also it's worth noting that the planes are toys and so i can take a bit of licencse with the motion etc. I know that's not entirley obvious in this render but hopefully you'll be able to see it clearer in the next one (coming tomorrow morning once the frames are rendered at uni)

As for the speed (again controlled by the program!! :)) I am going to hopefully model a kids bedroom and have them flying around in it so that will help give an impression of speed. (I hope!!!).

Thanks again for the C+C it was really good to get some really objective opinions on it :D

ok more animation. I'm quite happy with it so far there's a couple of little problems still to sort to do with turning etc.

Lets hear what you think! :D

http://www.alanwoods.co.uk/files/spiral1.avi

ok finished the texturing for now.

ok I've made a quick start on the kids bedroom. Nothing too fancy. I cant take credit for the inspiration though it's a very similar copy to the kids bedroom in toy story (thank you pixar!!) ;)

Hey Pure_Morning - watched the new animation - quite the improvement - really pleasing to the eye to watch :) The first dive really gives the feeling of being high up and diving down. Cool. nice stuff especially knowing it's being controlled by the flocking programming. Sweet. I think you're going to have a really nice project here.

thanks ereitz I'm really glad you enjoyed it. What do you think of the bedroom idea? I started modelling it earlier as you can see from the pic. I've done a bit more and brought in a short piece of animatino to go with it (I'll post that tomorrow). There's gonna be loads of problems with the planes flying through floors and stuff (cause of the difference in the scales of the flocking system and maya) but I think I can fix them. I'll post more tomorrow

glad you're enjoying it

Alan

ok I've made a start on the floor of the bedroom. A nice simple wood texture with a bump map on it.

Comments / impressions?

I think the wood texture is too big.I looks like a tiny little bed on a huge plank of wood :eek: Try making the texture smaller and give it a bit of variety.Nice texture tho :D

Ok I have done a bit more on the bedroom. There's a bit of a problem with the lighting but that's just cause the GI is being obscured by the walls.

Black Robe: Thanks for the comment, i agree i think it is too big especially when you gte up close to it. I will do something about that in a minute

:)

Another bedroom pic

slowly getting there :D

Hey puremorning.. sorry man, i totally forgot about this thread! In those renders, the floor is picture perfect and the wallpaper is wonderful! If you want to make the wallpaper even better add some dirt marks or defects to the texture :). The bed as well is looking great, you have some great wood texutures! I look at the sheets though and think that you should scale them up a bit to look thicker.. seeing i have never had a bed without covers at least a inch thick of feathers :). I dont know, maybe you dont if you live in a hot place.. but it just seems normal to have that kinda puffy feel to it. The planes are great, wonderful job i dont really see any problem with them, other than a few sharp edges :). Keep it up man :D.

excellent crit M!! :) You're right about the bed, I'm still working on the covers I'm gonna be puffing them up soon (not sure how yet!) and I dont live in a hot place (well not for 9 months of the year anyways!!)

The wallpaper was actually just a test that worked out quite well so I will dirty it up a bit I think (it is a kids bedroom after all! crayon marks on the wall etc!)

The straight edges on the planes are my nemesis at the moment: if i smooth or subdiv the planes the texture "swims" see my thread in the texturing forum (no replies yet :() My only option is to smooth and then re-texture which I really dont wanna have to do!!!! we'll see how the time goes.

Thanks again for the crit :)

Alan