EVE General Discussion

An Introduction to the software and basic concepts of CGI

Hexagon. Is a mesh modeler. Here is where you can make practically any shape possible if you know how and have the time

Daz Is a charecter modeler . Here you can clothe and pose model and backgrounds and render images.

Bryce is a landscape creator, It has tools to create water and sky and cloud effects, you can also render images in Bryce

Daz and Bryce also have animation tools, though I don't know how robust they are.

Some basic concepts and how they work together to create an image

Mesh - Also Objects - These are your items, created from squares (more accuratly 2 triangles forming a square) you can do almost anything given enough time skill knowlege and effort.

Textures - Also Bitmaps - This is the colour applied to your mesh at it's most simple a plain colour . A bitmap is a 2d file used for the purposes of defining how the surface will look. You can apply many diffrent bitmaps to many diffrent ascpets of a surface to create a final effect.

Lights - Spotlights, omni directional lights (like light bulbs) , theres many diffrent abjects you can use to bring illumination to the scene.

Camera - Not a lot to say really does what it says on the tin.

Action- Well the render button anyway, this is what you hit when your ready your computer thinks about it for a while (used to be bloody ages believe me, fairly snappy now in comparison) and shows you a beatifully rendered image of what the camera could see.

A basic workflow pretty much follows that order

-Create objects and surface

-Put things where you want them to be

-Light the scene as realistically as possible

-Find your best camera angle

-Hit render ... Wait

-Be not entirely happy and go and repeat some stage until you are.

Simples.

Enjoy

Perhaps your first task might be to search your suites directory tree and find what types of goodies come with it (daz just tells you) and see what you can do given what you now know.

OK nice to have some feedback, Cheers.


Does sort of coincide with my plans for the next step which will be hopefully how to model a ship using Hexagon.

In fact given your background experience and portfolio is there anything that you have front side and top images of that you would like to send me and I can base the tutorial around creating one of your designs


/Edit also stages 2 and 3 aren't as easy as they first sound, 2 at least is a complex subject and being able to accuratly create the lighting for a complex scene is an artform in itself. Don't be put of though becuase in one way you are right they are initially the easiest first stages, but being competent at them is what will really bring your image to life.

//edit also lols think my rig was an AMD 400 Mhz thing when I first started rendering. Hours man Hours and Hours for a decent render that was 12 years ago though

Tell you what Mr Fox since you have a large portfolio anyhow perhaps you would like a Sub forum to yourself to display that , and description/ingame ideas and such ?

I would imagine your works presented as a whole would be rather immpresive