When Zombies Attack!!

[Dr. Feelgood]

...you better've won

[tom120934]

What about merging all our vehicles in a great large scene when the contest will be over ? The SMC anti-zombie convoy !

There will be a few issues to cover :
- Who will gather the models ? I think that most people wanting to join the scene won't allow their model to be spread widely.
- Rendering power needs. As a starting point, I have access to a dual Xeon (8 cores, 2.66GHz) with 8 Go of RAM, running Windows 2003. A cluster / rendering farm may be a good idea, but I don't have one by my side.
- A common software to gather the scene. Blender can be a good idea, and it will be the only software available on my proposed computer.
- Fleet disposition and environment : I'm pretty sure all of us can agree on a given repartition of the convoy. For the scene, something simple will be enough.
- Shaders / renderer : at least a large clay render, as a proof of concept. It will be a PITA to convert all the shaders to a single renderer.

Anyways, if we take care of such issues, we can come up with an astonishing picture to promote SMC.

So, what do you think people ?

[tinpau]

Hmmmm ... this sounds like a ton of fun.

Count me in...

My vehicle will be the ZomBlow 9000.

Some ideas, but still working out the final details


Tinpau

[doom18]

i've told you i'm in ... i have 3ds max 7 ... just tell me what format you'll need it ..

[tom120934]

To supply me with your model, a .blend or a .3ds file will be fine.

But before to proceed, please note that I proposed myself to gather models and create the whole scene, but with a serious constraint as I only have Blender as available software.

I think we should wait for several opinions : a fleet with 2 or 3 vehicles will not be what I've in mind. If anyone else want to do the gathering job without the constraint I bring, no problem for me of course

So let's see how many contenders will agree on the idea !

[caribcanuk]

sounds like a cool idea . im in but still a noob at this rendering stuff lol. my experience is in game models lol.

[Nitro-x]

Originally Posted by Masakari987

If you want to model a Hummer (but want to avoid making an H2), you might wanna take a look at the new HUMMER HX Concept It already looks like a mean zombie-killing machine.

I like this one , i'll be more difficult to make (no Blueprints) , but i 'll manage , thanks Masakari

[JaZu]

Hm... well I was thinking about that if we make a "compilation" convoy, not a compiled max-scene.
What do I mean? We make one, simple scene, which has a fixed lighting, a fixed camera angle. Also the positions of the models should be fixed already.
Then, distribute this scene to everybody, and everybody will render their models seperately, each will put their model in their numbered position.

Then, either render against a blank background with alpha, or manually cut the image of their car from the render.

Then, one of us compiles ALL the seperately rendered and cut images into one background in photoshop etc.

The positions in the convoy could be ordered by your position in the contest.

Just a thought.

[tom120934]

I think it's a good idea. Some advantages (e.g. : simple than requiring anyone to share the model) and some drawbacks : as there is more than one renderer used by the contenders, the look of the models will greatly differ : scene lighting will be different. Also, it will prevent to get shadows casted by one vehicle onto another.

But as I'm really low skilled in 2D graphics, maybe others can come up with solutions.

About the positions in the convoy ordered by the result of the contest, it's really nice but I've thought we should get inspired by naval fleets : bigger vehicles at the center, lighter ones on the front / side / rear to escort them.

Just a thought, too

[Johnas]

Sounds like a good idea indeed. We can think of that when all has finished their models.