Category Archives: Up Above Down Below
More Balloons….
I have been playing around with more materials and textures for my balloons… I think they’re getting better….
Rollercoaster Environment
I’ve started to create the planets to go into my environment. I have arranged my planets like if it were an eclipse at the moment with the sun at one end to give a bit of light off. I have played around with different maps to create my planets.
Mercury…
Venus…
Earth…
Mars…
Jupiter…
I then added some ambient occlusion to see if this helped with the lighting and made the planets look any more realistic.
Attempts at Balloons
I have started applying what I have learnt from tutorials to my 3d models of balloons. These are just my first attempts and I have plenty of time to play round with the materials in order to make them really realistic.
I tried out a few different materials and played around with settings to see what effects I could achieve. The green and blue balloon were not as sold as the red one and are quite difficult to see.
I added a white plane to see what coloured backgrounds would do and I realised that the balloons looked completely different on the new background. I will have to take this into consideration and perfect the material on one balloon before applying it to all.
Rollercoaster Spline
I sketched out some initial ideas for the types of loops, turns and drops to be included in my rollercoaster. I looked at other rollercoasters and thought about my own experience to decide on some key things to include.
I then started to create the basic spline of my rollercoaster in 3ds max from which I will build the frame and have the camera follow this path. I have created the rollercoaster to go around one of the planets. I haven’t decided which planet it will be or what the planet will look like yet so I have used a basic sphere to represent it within my spline. The image below demonstrates the spline twisting and turning around the planet. I want this scene to be very slow and drawn out bringing suspence to the rider. I will use sounds of heaving breathing and possibly a heartbeat getting faster in order to portray this and make it seem more scary.
The rollercoaster will start with a very slow climb up one side of the planet curving with the shape of it. When it reaches the top it will have a sharp turn and suddenly drop down the other side of the planet. This can be seen below. The rollercoaster will pick up speed and basically freefall down the other side of the planet again curving along with the shape of it. I will introduce some screaming sounds along with the breathing. In order to make the sudden drop a bit more scary I will prolong the drop by holding the rollercoaster at the top for a few seconds, moving very slowly over the last bit so the viewer can see the fall before them. This will follow with a loop the loop with the rollercoaster slowing down as the rider reaches the top of the loop and then quickly picking up speed again as it starts to descend down the other side.
It will then climb up part of the rollercoaster which is completely vertical, possibly shoot up this part simulating a rocket. The rider will not be able to see where they are going as the drop over the other side. It will then flip back to normal so the rider is sitting upright again but bounce along in a straight line like in the image below. This simulates the bounciness of balloons but can also be made to seem scary as the rider is thrown around a bit.
The next part of the rollercoaster is supposed to represent a black hole and spirals around and around, getting tighter circles, gaining more speed the closer to the centre it gets. When it reaches the middle there will be a sudden vertical drop and I may have some kind of lights to almost ‘blind’ the rider so they can’t see where they’re dropping to.
They will then be able to see again but only to realise they are in the middle of a loop the loop slowing down at the top again but then suddenly picking up pace as it drops down the other side. This will be the end of the ride and after this it will slow right down and stop.
I will hopefully be creating a storyboard style drawing in order to illustrate the illustration and what will be happening. I have been thinking about having a mix of having a view on the rollercoaster and as a bystander. I want to be able to create a contrast between the viewer and the rider. The viewer will see the balloons and see a relaxing floating structure, whereas the rider will be thrown around all the twists and loops scared of the rollercoaster. The sounds will represent this as well. As there is no sound in space because it’s a vacuum, the rider will only be able to hear themselves due to them either wearing a spacesuit or being in a carriage with air in. The viewer from a distance will only be able to hear themselves for the same reason. Therefore the viewer will have no idea the rider is screaming.
