eve online - nebulae

nirokugraphic · June 18, 2009, 10:28:52 AM

Hey guys,

I thought it was high time I would show some work produced with Terragen2 for the MMO, EVE Online .

There was a recent expansion called Apocrypha and I was tasked with producing new skybox cubemaps for, what are referred to as Wormhole systems (Star Systems found only by travelling through a wormhole in game) .

http://niroku.com/content/image_md12_01_lg.png
http://niroku.com/content/image_md12_02_lg.png
http://niroku.com/content/image_md12_03_lg.png

I can't give much away about how they were produced (sorry) but at the same time I don't want to dispel some of the magic involved, but you can see these, and another 3 different ones in more detail and 360 degrees around you if you play EVE . I may put together a little video as a fly around but I'll see !

Additionally, Terragen2 was used on effect shots for an EVE trailer not so long ago for a previous expansion, Empyrean Age:

http://niroku.com/content/image_md01_02_lg.png
http://niroku.com/content/image_md01_01_lg.png

Big thankyou to Planetside for making this software so awesome . If only this thing had tighter integration with 3dsmax (preferably !) or Maya, it would kill Vue, in my opinion .

EDIT - because people aren't reading the last post . The links here are dead .

If you still want to see the work on this project: http://niroku.com/#ccp0001

FrankB · June 18, 2009, 10:33:35 AM

Hey, great graphics! Very impressive shots! Thanks for showing us these!

Regards,
Frank

Cyber-Angel · June 18, 2009, 10:41:15 AM

Its a pity you cannot go into detail how these great images where done; as these with a few modification's would look vary similar to clouds found in some paintings of the High Renascence notability in Italy. A great success.

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel

nvseal · June 18, 2009, 10:47:34 AM

Great work, thanks for sharing.

cyphyr · June 18, 2009, 11:07:10 AM

Hmm, err, umm, well you know I hate to say this but if this is the standard of "Planetary" graphics used in games today then God help us ...

I don't mean to be nasty but c'mon compare these to nvseals work, there is no comparison!!
I've seen VERY much better work showcased on this forum.
The ship models are good

It is just a shame that artists who can do the phenomenal work we see here don't get to work for the game, film and vfx companies. (or keep quite that they do lol)
Maybe the commercial world needs a turn around that the perfectionists here simply cant keep up with.
Oh well, keep it up

richard
~ disgruntled perfectionist ~

old_blaggard · June 18, 2009, 11:20:54 AM

I really like those nebula shots, and while the planets aren't as realistic as some others that we've seen, I think that they fit the art style of the models and the nebula quite well. Thanks for sharing: it's always good to see Terragen pop up in larger-scale use.

Tangled-Universe · June 18, 2009, 11:25:43 AM

I think the reason why people here aren't working in the industry is that in the industry everybody works & is experienced with Maya or Max or XSI or whatever. Then TG2 comes in the game and those people are just asked to work with TG2 as well and to learn it. Next to their "regular" work.

Here there are lots of guys great at TG2, but don't know a thing (or "just" average) of the other professional packages and the technical conditions/demands involved in production-work and how TG2-work is integrated in the pipeline.

TG2 is still not recognised by the majority of studios, hence the strange comments one receives when posting TG2 work at CGSociety for example. Most of the people or haven't heard of it or heard of it but don't have any clue what the program can or does and how it does. So you get suggestions like making an underwater scene or animate birds in it. Not literally but that kind of comments which strongly indicate the current thoughts about TG2 on sites like these.
Also when you read forumposts about TG2. They still think it's uber-slow and still think it's 3-clicks and render.
The pro's don't take it that serious, yet.
Luckily it's slowly changing.

Some very cool work like posted here above prove that for me

Martin

FrankB · June 18, 2009, 11:37:14 AM

TU: I posted a cloud render once at cgsociety and some of the commenters were asking if I could show the mesh for the cloud :-)

goldfarb · June 18, 2009, 01:24:48 PM

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on June 18, 2009, 11:25:43 AM
I think the reason why people here aren't working in the industry is that in the industry everybody works & is experienced with Maya or Max or XSI or whatever. Then TG2 comes in the game and those people are just asked to work with TG2 as well and to learn it. Next to their "regular" work.

Here there are lots of guys great at TG2, but don't know a thing (or "just" average) of the other professional packages and the technical conditions/demands involved in production-work and how TG2-work is integrated in the pipeline.

TG2 is still not recognised by the majority of studios, hence the strange comments one receives when posting TG2 work at CGSociety for example. Most of the people or haven't heard of it or heard of it but don't have any clue what the program can or does and how it does. So you get suggestions like making an underwater scene or animate birds in it. Not literally but that kind of comments which strongly indicate the current thoughts about TG2 on sites like these.
Also when you read forumposts about TG2. They still think it's uber-slow and still think it's 3-clicks and render.
The pro's don't take it that serious, yet.
Luckily it's slowly changing.

Some very cool work like posted here above prove that for me

Martin

as someone who is exactly what you describe I can give you some reasons for these attitudes/impressions of terragen...
production is a very different environment from what most people here seem to be involved in...the idea of a single frame taking 36 hours to render is simply not acceptable in production where changes happen many times a day etc...
the current terragen (and vue etc) workflow is simply not possible in this environment...
many of the things listed in the 'Your Top 5 Most Wanted Features' thread would change that (render layers, geometry sequences at the top of this list), I've been investigating how to get terragen to work in a real production pipeline for the past few weeks and trying to find out how others have used it (Stealth etc) successfully, because I see opportunities to use terrgen all the time...unfortunately it doesn't seen like anyone is revealing their secrets

environments generally are difficult to do in the standard 3D workflow - mostly achieved through a combination of geometry and matte paintings/comp tricks...the company I work for does the VFX for "The Tudors" and there have been a number of times I've thought that terragen would have been very useful - but it just doesn't have the right tools/workflow right now to be used, but I'm sure that will change in the future...
and it's only ridiculous snobs who sneer at "3 clicks and render"...

rcallicotte · June 18, 2009, 01:51:23 PM

Hey, this is nice....

Cemoa · June 18, 2009, 03:52:00 PM

Cool shots! I've played EVE online before and it was a very fun MMO. Very cool to see that TG2 was used for some of those nebula shots (the scenery in that game was spectacular).

moodflow · June 18, 2009, 06:23:31 PM

Excellent shots, and postwork.

I also played EVE for a couple of months, but had to quit b/c it was too addicting!

Now I'm addicted to DarkFall...

neuspadrin · June 18, 2009, 06:35:44 PM

Quote from: moodflow on June 18, 2009, 06:23:31 PM
Now I'm addicted to DarkFall...

oh... I'm sorry....

yeh i played eve trial a few times, and just recently actually bought it (7 bucks on steam promotional deal! woot!), though its not really my kinda game... looks pretty, economy is pretty awesome... but... feels slow.... lots of autopilot here n there, quick combat, then autopilot some more...

Though I have my eye on Jumpgate Evolution, looks fun

also have an eye on earthrise, and i currently both look forward to and dred swtor... too afraid of what they might do to it, and it keeps looking like a single player game with a monthly fee which i can't really justify as much as i love bioware (though i almost cried when i heard they got bought by ea)

Cemoa · June 19, 2009, 12:10:36 AM

Quote from: neuspadrin on June 18, 2009, 06:35:44 PM
Quote from: moodflow on June 18, 2009, 06:23:31 PM
Now I'm addicted to DarkFall...

Though I have my eye on Jumpgate Evolution, looks fun also have an eye on earthrise, and i currently both look forward to and dred swtor... too afraid of what they might do to it, and it keeps looking like a single player game with a monthly fee which i can't really justify as much as i love bioware (though i almost cried when i heard they got bought by ea)

I agree about swtor. I originally thought it was going to be a better version of Star Wars Galaxies which I played for a bit, but it is starting to look more cartoony and single-playerish than I wish for. Economy and player interaction are what I like in MMO's, I really could care less if it has a huge storyline. Though I do love BioWare, Mass Effect was awesome.

And that's the last I'm commenting on the subject before I start going on and on lol. To the OP, keep up the good work

If you experiment anymore with the program be sure to post what you come up with since those nebulae are sweet.

Oshyan · June 19, 2009, 12:15:14 AM

I think the nebulae are quite effective and beautiful. Good work! The second shots from the trailer are less exciting, though I'm guessing those are realtime from Eve itself, which certainly changes the standard on which they should be judged.

Anyway it's great to see Terragen getting use in the games industry. Thanks for sharing.

- Oshyan