#SE4 Speaker #3 - Kwok Topic :Kwok Skool of Planet Design

[tesco samoa]

Time July 16th 17:00 hours Pacific Time. 8 pm Eastern Time.
Guest Kwok
Topic : Kwok Skool of Planet Design .

Hi this thread will be used to post questions for Mr. Kwok to answer ahead of time. An abbridged Version of this thread will be posted with the minutes from the session on #se4 on the gamesnet irc server.

Those who cannot make it please post your questions here.

This thread will also be used for any follow up to the session on #se4.

Please do not ask away about SF or SEV... As these will be future topics that will be dicussed when the programs are released and will not get Mr. Kwok or the other members of the community in trouble with Aaron.

But you can ask away about Planet Design and the tools involved with creating them.

Questions about SEIV graphics in general.

We will be having a future topic on how to create shipsets etc... On a topic called SEIV Canon Shipsets . Natually Mr. Kwok will be invited back to that topic with other guest speakers.
So ask away.

As this will be a great time to learn some stuff about planet design.

I wish to take this time to thank Mr. kwok for his time and all the work he has done for the community.

Take care all.

Tesco.

[Captain Kwok]

Greetings.

I'll be using Adobe Photoshop 6.0, Moray and POV-Ray for any tutorial purposes. If you have these it might be helpful - Moray and POV-Ray are shareware and available Online if you want to download them:

Moray (http://www.stmuc.com/moray/)
POV-Ray (http://www.povray.org)

Feel free to use a graphics program you are familiar with, most of them are pretty much the same.

[Rojero]

Darn traffic i missed it again!
Oh Nnnnnoooooo!
hehe woops sorry fyron http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[ July 10, 2003, 08:54: Message edited by: Rojero ]

[Will]

Originally posted by tesco samoa:
Time July 16th 17:00 hours Pacific Time. 8 pm Eastern Time.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Rojero, look at a Calendar... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Fyron]

Rojero, could you please edit a line break or two into the middle of that long "no"? It is screwing with the forum formatting...

[tesco samoa]

Hi Kwok could you post some screen shots of using your graphics tools thanks

[tesco samoa]

reminder it is this wed.

[Fyron]

Reminder, #se4 now has an official web site at:
http://galileo.spaceports.com/~kazharii/irc

[Captain Kwok]

Originally posted by tesco samoa:
Hi Kwok could you post some screen shots of using your graphics tools thanks<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">http://members.rogers.com/capt-kwok/graphics/planetskool.jpg

Here's a screen shot, maybe I'll post more tomorrow eh?

I was going to put together a tutorial on my website, so don't worry about posting any screen shots.

[Captain Kwok]

I'm working on getting a tutorial with images up on my website around 6:00pm EST tomorrow before I present at the #se4 chat at 8:00pm EST.

[tesco samoa]

reminder it is tonight

[Captain Kwok]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
I'm working on getting a tutorial with images up on my website around 6:00pm EST tomorrow before I present at the #se4 chat at 8:00pm EST.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ok. So I didn't have as much time as I needed, but I got the first part of the tutorial up dealing with creating the bitmap terrain. I'll add the rendering and final touches segments before the end of the weekend.

Be sure to drop by tonight though, I will explain the rendering and final touch techniques that I use to obtain my results!

[tesco samoa]

well the topic is starting up in 10 minutes on the channel

[narf poit chez BOOM]

well where 40 minutes in.

[David E. Gervais]

Here is the planet I made, folowing Kwok's tutorial...

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058403597.gif (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058403597.gif)

I cheated a bit by using Anim8or to render the planet instead of a true 'ray-tracing' program like POV-RAY.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Fyron]

That planet will look bad in-game when it is on the wrong side of the sun. Generally, you should stick with ambient lighting instead of directional lighting, as you can not control where the planet will be in the system.

[Rollo]

here is mine. using the same tools as david. you can see why he is an artist and I am not http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058404289.jpg

Rollo

[David E. Gervais]

..and here is another planet with a different look,...

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058404639.gif (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058404639.gif)

Cheers,.. Oh and Fyron, I'm a lot less 'picky' about the lighting, as long as it looks good. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
That planet will look bad in-game when it is on the wrong side of the sun. Generally, you should stick with ambient lighting instead of directional lighting, as you can not control where the planet will be in the system.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That only matters on the minis.

The portraits can have any kind of fancy lighting you like.

[Captain Kwok]

I think all of Malfador's default planets have shading on the left side in the portraits at least.

[Katchoo]

Here's my masterpiece, known afectionately as the Condiment Planet!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058405044.bmp

Mustard lands and ketchup oceans, as Taz noted.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[David E. Gervais]

<center>BTW
<font size=6 color=#FFFFFF>Thanks Kwok,</font>
<font size=4 color=#FFFF00> that was a really fun session on #se4.</font>

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif CHEERS! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif </center>

[ July 17, 2003, 02:44: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

[Fyron]

Speaker 3 chat log:

1058406047.txt (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058406047.txt)

[Suicide Junkie]

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058406216.jpg

My Desert Planet, kindly rendered by the good Captain.

[Fyron]

http://galileo.spaceports.com/~kazharii/irc/skool.html

[David E. Gervais]

Hey people, my brother just found a neat plug-in for Paint Shop Pro/Photoshop that lets you create great looking planets in a few mouse clicks. Check it out here..

LunarCell (http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html)

Feel free to post coments, Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Captain Kwok]

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
Hey people, my brother just found a neat plug-in for Paint Shop Pro/Photoshop that lets you create great looking planets in a few mouse clicks. Check it out here..

LunarCell (http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html)

Feel free to post coments, Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh man, it looks like this program could easily obsolete my previous work. Oh well, it does look really cool and I think I'll give it a shot!

[Haelo]

Here is a few planets that were completely generated in Pov-Ray, without the use of any bitmaps.

Rock/No Atmosphere ('http://www.semigreenpenny.com/gfx/tmp/adina.png')

Ice/Atmosphere layer ('http://www.semigreenpenny.com/gfx/tmp/dora.png')

[ July 17, 2003, 08:26: Message edited by: Haelo ]

[jimbob]

Hey Haelo,

The primary image was also too big. Could ya link it too?

Everyone else:

Nice planets! Couldn't join the party, too much work, but it's nice to read stuff in my breaks.

[ July 17, 2003, 04:07: Message edited by: jimbob ]

[Katchoo]

Holy artistic wonders Batman!

That Lunar Cell program is awesome!!! Here's the Condiment Planet redone:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058415669.bmp

Oh, i'm gonna play with this bad boy now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

David, kiss your brother for me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[David E. Gervais]

Oh, and did any of you notice that there are a couple other plugins that might be usefull? Here's the plugin link..

Flaming Pear Plugins (http://www.flamingpear.com/products.html)

Aside from the LunarCell plugin, the Glitterato and SolarCell plugins look like winers too.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

P.S. I just had to post this nifty planet made with LunarCell...

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058443573.gif (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058443573.gif)

..editied to add planet sample.. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

P.S. now if these guys could just create a random 'SpaceShip' generator. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

..and here I used all three plugins to create a montage,.. neat eh?

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058451445.gif (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1058451445.gif)

[ July 17, 2003, 15:19: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

[Suicide Junkie]

There's a two-week limit on those plugins, apparently, so you'd better use them while they Last.