http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/ quadspinner's gallery of images en-us 120 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/1049073

If the planet seems familiar it is because this is the 'Hero Planet' that e-on uses in its ads (even here on CGSociety) to promote Vue.

This was a fun little render that ended up becoming animated for the QuadSpinner Master Class trailer (you can see it on our website). The entire planet is procedurally created in Vue with an EcoSystem of little asteroids floating everywhere. A displaced sphere was used to create the little satellite.]]> Thu, 03 May 2012 11:56:35 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/1049070

A slightly older piece of work from 2010. I wanted to create a scene where raiders boarded a giant cruiser as it was entering a planet.

The entire environment was created in Vue Infinite. The models are stock models (I am, sadly, not good at modeling objects, just environments) which I retextured in Vue using the "Dark Knights" shaders that use fractal reflection.

Postwork in Corel PhotoPaint.]]> Thu, 03 May 2012 11:23:15 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/1049068

This volcano and its plume are fully procedural. The clouds are created with the new QuadSpinner HELIOS technology I am working on. This was one of the comprehensive demos for showcasing the strength and speed of the software. This is image is a single frame from an animation where the volcano erupts and the clouds animate. The entire animation is available on QuadSpinner.com/Helios.

Everything was created inside e-on software's Vue 10 Infinite, then taken to After Effects for minor postwork and color correction.]]> Thu, 03 May 2012 11:14:01 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/944471

Mustang Arch was a render purely for fun. I wanted a fantastic, yet believable environment. The total polygon count hit 75 million+ with all the HyperTerrains.

All materials used (except horses) are completely procedural.

More information on the making of this scene can be found on my blog: http://www.daxpandhi.com/post/Mustang-Arch.aspx]]> Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:56:39 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/917088

An amalgam of HyperTerrains merged seamlessly with a base terrain (4096x4096 Mesa). I think of this place as a little spot in the unforgiving canyons of Mar Sara.

One of the logistical focuses on this scene were horizontally displaced HyperTerrains that create flat, crumbly stone faces. The arch, and the bulges on the left, are a single HyperTerrain.

This image is my little tribute to the talented people at Blizzard.

More details and "making of" shots can be found on my blog at: http://www.daxpandhi.com/post/Raynor-Ridge.aspx ]]> Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:54:14 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/838905

STAR WARS: THE VIRIDIAN FORCE - Part 1 of 9

After a couple of stormtrooper squads go missing while on an important artifact hunting mission for the Emperor, Darth Vader is sent to investigate. Before he can go further into the deep abyss where the Imperial troops vanished he is forced to 'negotiate' with a rancor!

After LONG time I am finally ready to create my first real, proper Star Wars fanart series. I've been waiting for a long time, mostly because I did not want to do it unless I did it right. I set things up (characters) in 3dsmax, imported them into Vue where the environment was setup, especially the atmosphere/lighting, the characters were completely retextured using advanced procedural functions in Vue's Advanced Material Editor and SmartGraph Function Editor. The final render went through minor postprocessing in Corel PhotoPaint X4.

If anyone is wondering, Vader is holding the lightsaber in a partial Djem-So stance.

Partial models from Sci-FI 3D. Star Wars and related elements are the property of LucasFilm Ltd.


]]> Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:23:06 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/759082

As I often say, I am quite untrained when it comes to coniferous forests and snowy mountains, so I'm trying to practice with those situations, as well planning a trip through the north and south west of the US someday soon.

The terrain is World Machine 2, 4096x4096 resolution.

Total polygon count: 13,000,676,838

Done entirely in Vue 7.5 Infinite with minor color correction in Corel PhotoPaint X4.]]> Sat, 02 May 2009 11:55:26 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/754368

A quick scene to flex my Vue muscles. The idea was based on a little nook a few miles Northwest from Montezuma, Costa Rica, that I visited last year.

Created entirely in Vue 7.2 Infinite

Specs: 3 HyperTerrains and a procedural water surface displaced to hell and back. Created, set up, and lighted in under 25 minutes.

Polygons: 47,660,804

Render Mode: Ultra

Render Time: 25m34s

Single light source (Sunlight). Made heavy use of colored radiosity gain and indirect skylighting for the blue ambient light on the foreground. Made the render 3x slower, but well worth it. ]]> Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:03:05 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/752133

I'm working a new material variant of my Rock X material used in the previous Elysium series (most prominently in Elysium Seed). This completely procedural material is designed to create unique and minute rock formation details on a normal topographical terrain (as well as my HyperTerrains).

The 4096x4096 terrain was designed in World Machine 2, and the scene was setup and rendered in Vue 7.2 Infinite. No postwork.

The scene contains a total of 95,255,963,604 polygons, and 1,521,132 trees. A little ungodly amount of numbers, but I wanted a little "otherworldly" quality and the excessive trees made it happen.

Render time was approximately 2 hours at Ultra render settings on a Core i7 975 Extreme with 8GB DDR3 RAM.]]> Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:22:16 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/722672

The story behind this scene will be posted on my deviantArt page soon (http://nukeation.deviantart.com) along with a complete deconstruction of the entire scene and screenshots of the Vue environment.

1.6+ billion polygons, with over 21k Ecosystem instances. 3 rock HyperTerrains in the lake.

Created entirely in Vue 7.2 Infinite/xStream.

C+C welcome!]]> Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:03:14 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/712946

I love it when sometimes a whole scene just flows together.

Deserts inspired by jungles
For a long time I wanted to create a scene with a dense foggy atmosphere - maybe a jungle valley - with lighting filtering through the tops of trees. As you can see this scene is WAY far off from that concept. Unless I have a professional agenda, I tend to let the scene create itself in an organic manner rather than planning it out perfectly.

I created a water eroded, carved out valley terrain (4096x4096) in World Machine 2. The terrain was imported into Vue and I applied a few different materials, finally settling in on my "Rock X" material with a little sand sprinkled on top a la Arid Peak and The Elysium Seed.

Experimenting with the lighting, I set up two huge cube primitives in the back of the camera to act as light reflectors/deflectors. They give the shade/darkness around the camera. The cubes are on the two adjoining sides of the terrain, the cam being in the corner.

The scene looked too "small", so I added the Arid Peak terrain in the background to give it some balance and a sense of scale. With the new terrain, the old lighting wasn't working, so I put the sun down towards the "western" horizon and gave everything long shadows. The darkness around the camera got intensified.

Suddenly, I thought that perhaps adding a water plane in the "hole" near the camera would create some cool reflections. So I did that. The material for the water was turned very reflective (70%!!).

The Oasis
It looked like an oasis. So I added some palms and other trees. But the scene looked too messed up. The trees were in the dark and I wasn't getting clear silhouettes from any of them. So I threw them all away, and decided something was wrong with the soil or that it was mainly rock and nothing could grow out here even if there was water.

The Statues of Korriban
After doing a few quick renders, the whole arid environment reminded me of Korriban from Star Wars - the old Sith homeworld with huge monolithic statues. Having one of those was an irresistable! Sucking at character creation, I ended up going to Poser.

I loaded up Michael 4 and gave it a good statuesque pose - kneeling before the Gods, kind of. Old Mikey got sent to Vue where I used the Decimate function to shake more than half his polygons off. I turned off the smoothing as well to give it a stone-cut feel.

Getting a variant of the Rock X material, Mike was imbedded into the face of the eastern mountain.

Sacred Journeys
After a test render or two, it was apparent the scale of the scene was shot with the introduction of the statue. To compensate I started thinking of why this statue existed.

The gait and overall feel of the statue wasn't evil - even though it was Sith inspired. It looked like "humble servitude" rather than "kneel before Zod!". So I figured the place was a sacred tomb or something where pilgrims visited. But it was way too remote and desolate to be a regular pilgrimage point. It was apparent then that this place was a lost sacred place.

The only thing that would make a lost sacred place interesting was if it was found! That was the answer to the scale issue too. I needed people!

The Pilgrims
Like I said before, I suck at character creation. So I went back to Poser to get a base. Instead of Michael 4, I needed Michael 3 this time. I was looking for low-detail people about 1/20 size of the statue.

I made 4 pilgrims/scholars/travellers: the leader of the group holding a torch, the emotional scholar who drops to his knees at the first glimpse of the holy statue, the tired one who is hunched over trying to catch his breath, and the last pilgrim who is caught up in complete wonderment of the whole thing.

If you don't know, Michael 3 has a fairly muscular build and a strong gait. I figured I could do something in postwork. All four of the pilgrims go the default (resetted) gray material to make them completely non-descript in terms of details. They were positioned against the statue, near the edge of the water.

The torchbearer got a thin cylinder primitive for a torch, with a big yellow Omni light stuck on top.

The scene still looked barren. Even though it was a desolate place, large statues dictate a civilized place - even if it was far off in the past. So I figured I needed some ruins.

The Ruins
I gathered some old models from here and there. Broke some columns, skewed arches, etc. The broken "gate" to the sacred place was created, along with some remnants of whatever architecture existed long time ago.

Render and Postwork
I rendered at Broadcast quality @ 1920x817. I also got all the Multi-Pass outputs as well - especially the object and layer masks. I would need them for some minor postwork.

I noticed that one of the pilgrims (Mr. Wonderment) was 30º off to the right. I rotated him and did a little area render of just him. That was overlayed on top of the big render.

The pilgrims were the first victims of postwork. No way could I have four perfectly fit M3s serving as pilgrims. I added robes and tattered cloaks, and "bent" their gaits. Torchbearer got a little fire painted on his torch, along with some glow from the torch on his arm, and the piller behind him. The object masks were heavily used for the glow effects to get the shape right.

Finally, some color correction and other minor tweaks and experiments, and I was done. I spent a total of about 3 hours (including test renders) on this image.

"Pilgrims on their way to find the knowledge of the lost Gods."]]> Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:31:46 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/712544

34.3 million polygons, 1 HyperTerrain "Pointy" in front, 1 8192x8192 standard terrain, 1 HD Tree (customized), and a full Spectral2 atmosphere. Modelled, set up, and rendered in Vue 7 Infinite/xStream. Minor color correction in CPT X4.

Part of the "Elysium" series, I wanted to create an image that captured the "birthplace of Elysium" - a seed of life among vast nothingness.

The desert look was inspired by the terrain near where I live.

C+C welcome! Hope you enjoy this image.]]> Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:49:26 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/711971

Created entirely in Vue 7, with a little DOF Pro for optical effects (grain) in Corel PhotoPaint X4.

The scene contains 37,037,054 polygons, including a procedural water terrain with displacement. The rock is a custom quad-displaced HyperTerrain modelled in Vue itself. All materials are completely procedural. No bitmaps were used in the entire scene.

The purpose was to come up with a heavily realistic water based on my recent expedition to Costa Rica.]]> Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:24:32 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710857

I used a large 8000x8000 custom modelled terrain with a 300,000 instance grass ecosystem on it, along with a Spectral2 custom atmosphere model.

Part of my Elysium series. This particular image was inspired by the look of the terrain when it (occassionally) rains in the arid region I live in.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:57:08 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710868

This image uses the new Spectral2 atmosphere model in Vue 7. E-on software is using this image on the official Vue 7 website to showcase Spectral2 illumination capabilities.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:23:41 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710859

Another image that uses my custom quad-displaced HyperTerrains in Vue 7. This image is also part of the Elysium series I am working on.

Approximately 6 billion+ polygons in this scene, including 192k ecosystem instances.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:59:45 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710867

One of my first scenes with Vue 7, I was experimenting with my quad-displaced HyperTerrains. The rock face here is a single cylinder primitive with four serarate displacement fractals applied on it.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:22:31 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710865

A spectral2 atmosphere, procedural terrains, and a quad-displaced HyperTerrain.

Created entirely in Vue 7 Infinite.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:19:17 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710864

This image was submitted to E-on software's 2008 Competition. It was selected as one of the finalists, but sadly did not win.

Custom modelled quad-displaced HyperTerrains, with several hundred thousand EcoSystem instances. Rendered in Vue 6 Infinite.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:17:32 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710860

I used a heavily detailed 8000x8000 terrain in Vue, with a mixed custom material. The atmosphere is a custom Spectral2 desert atmosphere I've recently created.

This image was inspired by the arid hills I live near.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:06:21 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710866

An extremely detailed (985,382 polygon) HyperTerrain with quad-displacement, modelled entirely in Vue 6 Infinite.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:20:37 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710863

A slightly old image inspired by Jurassic Park. Four procedural terrains sporting well over 200k ecosystem instances. Created entirely in Vue 6 Infinite.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:15:57 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710862

This image uses several layers of extremely low-density, and step adjusted clouds to create the complex sunset effect.

Rendered in Vue 6 Infinite.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:13:24 +0000 http://quadspinner.cgsociety.org/gallery/710861

E-on software, the creators of Vue, asked me to create their main marketing image, or "Hero Image", for the release of Vue 7. This image serves as one of the main marketing images for Vue 7, and was used in their Siggraph 2008 print material as well.

The image is comprised of one infinite procedural terrain and a custom Spectral2 atmosphere.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:11:25 +0000