Elephant Dream

[mrys]

Did you saw that: http://orange.blender.org/

Few years ago I was trying to use Blender, free 3D package, but found it difficult to work. Interface is a little different then in other 3D applications and has a Linux roots (personally I'am not fan of "penquin"), what is clearly visible. But what I see now suggest, that Blender becomes very good even in more ambitious projects.

This film, Elephant Dream, is IMO very cool and shows big potential of Blender, which has no rival in price/possibility rank. Blender is for free.

[Martocticvs]

Thought this was another JSF thread to start with...

[mrys]

Thought this was another JSF thread to start with...


:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

[roshent]

It looks cool, I understand it makes a point in regard to free software, but I fail to see the point of the story.

[kevjon]

Unfortunately with 3D software you also need a good render engine to complete the artwork. I've seen some pretty good renders with yafray (which I think is also free) but don't know if it has issues when it comes to adding specular and bump maps which for aircraft work is pretty important. Perhaps someone who might have used it could let us know.

[mrys]

It looks cool, I understand it makes a point in regard to free software, but I fail to see the point of the story.

Me too:lol:. Film looks cool, but I'am not sure what was about....
But for see what soft could makes it is enough.

I was never used Blender and its renderer, so could not say to much about how specular and bump maps working here.

[kevjon]

Alvaro on the old MM used blender to model & yafray to render and was even writing a tutorial about modelling aircraft with blender on cgtalk in the blender section. Unfortunately he never completed final renders of his WIP's so we never got to see what can be achieved with these two pieces of software. The I-16 he did with blender looked very good though.

These are both good alternatives if you don't have lots of cash and want to do some 3D work. I've never used them and wouldn't have time to learn them but its great to see this free software being used for quality work.

[Sphynx]

If anyone new to 3D wants to get started with Blender, then they can't really go too far wrong with the tutorials over on www.SciFi-Meshes.com and www.Industrial-Meshes.com. They are mine, but they been proven to work by anacdotal evidence and have collectively had over 25k hits since they were original put up - so I don't mind pushing them.

I'm not too big a fan of Yafray now as it is a bit slow compared to alternatives - that being the internal renderer within Blender itself. Now that it has AO, there is not too much that you can do with Yafray that you can't with Blender direct with good configuration of your scene - that is, if you don't really want to get down to the nitty-gritty stuff. If you visit a Blender gallery on say, Architecture, there is not that much difference nowadays between a good Yafray render and a good Blender render. From what I hear as well, there may not be too much future Yafray development taking place.

While the traditional pair-off is Blender / Yafray, especially once the direct configuration panels were added to Blender, remember that Blender has other export options available. There are lots of people developing scripts to do all sorts of things - thats one of the benefits of it all being open source. There are people on Elysiun (now BlenderArtists) who are exporting and rendering in everything from Kerkythea to Maxwell Render.

Blender has an extremely fast interface once you know it - I even dropped out of a multi-part competition after winning the Cinema4D studio after I realised that I did not actually want to go on and win any more of it - the interface simply did not compare. Blender had is negatives, but they get fewer and fewer with every release and a number of people (myself included) now use it for a wide range of professional applications.


Elephants Dream is a very 'arty' film, if you see what I mean. There is the obvious storyline of the old man introducing the 'machine' in which he lives (which nobody knows where it came from etc.) to the apprentice, and trying to explain how great it is. Unfortunately, the machine manifests your thoughts and emotions, so the very difference between the two preconceptions and how they currently perceive the machine is at the heart of the problem. So much so that ultimately, the young man's own attitudes place them in danger...and well, if you've seen it, you know the end. There are a few sub-plots in there as well, but you need to dig.

Don't however, be confused by the title - it has nothing whatsoever to do with the storyline. Apparently, the title is a reference to an old Dutch bedtime story tradition. A bit like in English (and other languages) you get 'And they lived happily ever after...', there is a Dutch one which goes something like 'and the Elephant came and blew them all away with his trunk...' - hence, Elephant's Dream referring to the bedtime story.

Oh wait, we are back to the F-35 again aren't we...

[kevjon]

Thanks sphynx. I didn't know blender had a rendering engine of its own. Some of the renders in the gallery on the Blender website look quite good.

[krazycolin]

does anybody remember POVray? or am i seriously dating myself???? and no, i'm not that narcissisicticiiickcy.... (wow... i have alot of troubles speeling that one)

[Sphynx]

From what I hear on the forums, it's still in quite a bit of use.

[mrys]

does anybody remember POVray? or am i seriously dating myself???? and no, i'm not that narcissisicticiiickcy.... (wow... i have alot of troubles speeling that one)

Not only remember... I'am still using it!