The reactor thread

[David E. Gervais]

First let me say that that is a nice simple reactor design. I like it. (remember imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) That said,.. it took me about 30 mins to build this replica of your model in bryce (would be faster if I was a better modeler) I then applied a dirty chrome like texture to the whole thing then seelected the center core rod and gave it a glowing green beam effect (one of the default preset textures available in bryce) I then changed the core rod to red (just had to change the material color palette) and changed the sky to give the dirty chrom a different color to reflect. As you can see it doesn't take much to make a 'different' variant of the reactor.




Notice that I removed the Black 2D panel I placed behind the model to reveal the selected sky presets that are reflected on the chrome.

Anyway, I like to share tricks of the trade, and hope this little example will help give you ideas for your reactor.

If you have any questions just fire away.

Cheers!

[Timstone]

Very cool pics David. I like those a lot.
The model took me about ten minutes to build. I certainly have an idea to texture this little reactor, thanks to you.
The only thing is, I'm very bad at texturing. I'm doing my best with max 7, but I simply don't get the results you get. I guess there are too many options to change in max 7.

Maybe you can give a few setting you used to create these wonderful pics.


Edit:
I've just completed a few drawings for the next 4 reactors. They're all variants of this Version. I hope I'll have some time this evening to work on them.

[Aiken]

Nice reactors. Don't forget to send pictures to SJ, so he could include them to Image mod.

[Nodachi]

Timstone quipped:
The only thing is, I'm very bad at texturing.

Well, there's a bunch of BS! You do a great job with your textures. I have to rely on procedurals to get anything done so you've got me beat.

[Timstone]

Thanks Nodachi, but you haven't seen anything impressive from me (besides the planets and the Borg Cube).
In the modeling department I think I'm good enough, but I seldom have good ideas to implement. Or I have a very, very labourintensive method in mind.
Also the lack of time do practice is a huge limit.
But thanks for the kind words.

P.S. David made the four smaller pics, I just gave him the idea of the model (he recreated one of mine).

[David E. Gervais]

Tim, the textures I used in my replicas are from the built-in procedural textures in bryce. If you're looking for bitmap textures, I could always render and save some of the textures in bryce, but there is an infinate number and I don't have infinate time. And some of the textures are what is called 'complex effects' and deal with transparencies, volume, and layered textures.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do, just send me an e-mail and tell me what you want.

Cheers!

[Timstone]

Damn it!
The friend who became mother had some complications. It practically threw my whole weekend into chaos. On the bright side, I became godfather (I think that is how you call it...)! Woohoo!

I've made only a few drawings in the half hour I had to model this weekend.
Stay tooned!

[Shadow1980]

Ragnarok-X said:
I really like those reactors, the glowing gives them the certain touch imho. I already incorporated them into the b5 imagemod. Hope you like em, too

Really nice work, I like those a lot.

[Timstone]

Alrighty then, I've got three pics ready (without texture and colours ). Tell me if you guys like it or not. Maybe some more textureing tips.

[Fyron]

The third one looks awkward with the overly wide "wings" or whatever those are. Maybe the 3rd level could have the wings from the second reactor in the 4 cardinal directions instead of just 2? And one sphere on the top/bottom.