XMAS2006 - mcmiller - Trimming the tree

[mcmiller]

Bah humbug! I had a few ideas around the tree-in-space or tree-on-alien-world theme. But I've noticed that a few others already have proposed WIPs along the same lines. I'm modeling everything from scratch -- from the tree to the astronauts. No lifted-objects here! But it's taking longer than expected, so I may not finish. But here's a few of the latest caps of the meshes in progress. Tree is based off of a Bill Fleming tutorial. Astronaut is inspired by cover art on old Heinlein novel.

[evil_genius_180]

Dude, that's pretty cool. I know you just started on him, but the astronaut reminds me of the space dude in the classic Nintendo game Air Fortress.

[mcmiller]

Fixing proporations and adding detail to one of my tree decorators... Even if I run out of time to finish before the contest deadline, I'll likely have a nice scratch-built retro astronaut to play around with.

[evil_genius_180]

It's retro-tastic.

[mcmiller]

Last screen cap before deadline... Cone is actually placeholder for finished pine tree and ornaments, but my comp's ram can't handle the increased polys from all the branches, needles, and ornaments in a timely manner... so you're going to have to take my word for it.... Original concept includes a deep space scene with nearby nova or flared sun in the background that's roughly positioned near the top of the tree (allusions to fabled Christmas star). Astronauts in deep space are trimming a traditional Christmas tree even though they are in an inhosptible enviroment that's far from home.

I've spent most of my time modeling the tree and astronauts from absolute scratch. But like others, I've found that the competition's timing was a little awkward with holiday shopping and family events taking precedence over modeling. Still, after all the work that I've already put into it, I may try to finish this after the competition is over.