CSS Faith enroute to Alpha Centauri from 3D R&RJiS!

Sir, thanks! I am using the free 'Blender' for 3D Modeling, and 'Poser Pro' for the animation. All of the scenes are being done in Poser. This 3D starship model base was made by DL Maffett using sketch-up which resulted in the shape but it would not render very well in 3D. I then found 'Vanishing Point' and they 'improved' the 3D model by cleaning up the extra polygons, adding the cool texture to the outside that allowed it to render in 3D, and they also added the engine exhaust, which is so cool because inside Poser you can use a wheel to make it longer or shorter. There are two 3D animating suites I am aware of, Maya is the industry standard and very expensive and is very complicated, but is all in one package. Poser is 10 times less expensive adn very easy to use, and results in pretty good quality as you can see, but does not include any 3D modeling capability. To get around this I downloaded the Free Blender 3D software at blender.org so that is what I use for 3D modeling. At this point I wish I had just sprung for Maya, but we all live and learn. But then again, the journey I have taken in trying to work Poser and Blender to create a Maya quality look has resulted in me meeting many wonderful people that have helped with that. Basically it all depends on your financial situation and desired output. If money is no object and you are trying to produce a Disney quality cartoon, you have only one choice, Maya, but if you are just trying to animate your story so it can be seen and enjoyed, then a combination of Poser and Blender can do everything you need. My problem is once I get something done it is not good enough. Take the uniforms. I tried for 6 months to basically 'make' conforming outfits in Blender and I was successful in creating a 3D model fro Raegan and RJ and then in the poser setup room turning them into a 'conforming' suit which moved with the characters. The problem was, once I had them, they really didn't look very good, and I wanted more. I wanted professional uniforms. So I got with Mr. Phil Cooke of PhilC designs and had him 'make' 4 conforming outfits, boy girl man woman, and now I am just copying them in Blender, changing the colors, and then turning them into conforming suits for the other characters you see. You can definitely tell between the PhilC professional ones and the copies, because I haven't really figured out the texture mapping tool in Poser, but hey it works and looks 10 times better of the original ones I had made by myself. If you go to the story web site and Facebook page you can see the way we did it and the levels we achieved. Let me know if you have any questions. Go R&RJiS! God bless. Rich Collins

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Richard Collins December 29, 2014 at 2:37pm

Sir, thanks! I am using the free 'Blender' for 3D Modeling, and 'Poser Pro' for the animation. All of the scenes are being done in Poser. This 3D starship model base was made by DL Maffett using sketch-up which resulted in the shape but it would not render very well in 3D. I then found 'Vanishing Point' and they 'improved' the 3D model by cleaning up the extra polygons, adding the cool texture to the outside that allowed it to render in 3D, and they also added the engine exhaust, which is so cool because inside Poser you can use a wheel to make it longer or shorter. There are two 3D animating suites I am aware of, Maya is the industry standard and very expensive and is very complicated, but is all in one package. Poser is 10 times less expensive adn very easy to use, and results in pretty good quality as you can see, but does not include any 3D modeling capability. To get around this I downloaded the Free Blender 3D software at blender.org so that is what I use for 3D modeling. At this point I wish I had just sprung for Maya, but we all live and learn. But then again, the journey I have taken in trying to work Poser and Blender to create a Maya quality look has resulted in me meeting many wonderful people that have helped with that. Basically it all depends on your financial situation and desired output. If money is no object and you are trying to produce a Disney quality cartoon, you have only one choice, Maya, but if you are just trying to animate your story so it can be seen and enjoyed, then a combination of Poser and Blender can do everything you need. My problem is once I get something done it is not good enough. Take the uniforms. I tried for 6 months to basically 'make' conforming outfits in Blender and I was successful in creating a 3D model fro Raegan and RJ and then in the poser setup room turning them into a 'conforming' suit which moved with the characters. The problem was, once I had them, they really didn't look very good, and I wanted more. I wanted professional uniforms. So I got with Mr. Phil Cooke of PhilC designs and had him 'make' 4 conforming outfits, boy girl man woman, and now I am just copying them in Blender, changing the colors, and then turning them into conforming suits for the other characters you see. You can definitely tell between the PhilC professional ones and the copies, because I haven't really figured out the texture mapping tool in Poser, but hey it works and looks 10 times better of the original ones I had made by myself. If you go to the story web site and Facebook page you can see the way we did it and the levels we achieved. Let me know if you have any questions. Go R&RJiS! God bless. Rich Collins
Sven Jacobs December 29, 2014 at 1:18pm

RG2Cents: Last I knew, they were using Sketchup. Check it out.
RG2Cents December 29, 2014 at 9:21am

Hey! What 3D platform are you using? (if you don't mind my asking...)

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