We are not alone 2004-05-02 - By Dave Angelini
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JB,
The stars change because tS kept crashing after completing about 30 frames.
The scene is rather computationally expensive given the volumetric light and
all the alpha maps that need to be handled for the trees (they are textures
only...therefore, making them sway might be difficult). So after the first
30 frames, I decided that I should probably reduce the resolution of all the
textures used....there were about 20 of them. The star change is from
reducing the resolution of the image used as a background after the first 30
frames or so. With reduced texture sizes, tS could render for about 70
frames before crashing.
If you notice, the background stars do not change perspective as the camera
slowly drops down during the animation. It does not stick out as a static
background loaded into tS as I cheated the shift in perspective by adding a
row of trees planes far off in the horizon line. You can see them as small
tree silhouettes against the horizon glow that is in the backgound image.
The shift in tree perspective is just enough to hide the fact that the
background stars are not static.
Also, if anyone is interested, I was a bit frustrated that I would have to
redo all my textures after the scene was completed. Initially, I thought I
would have to make of copy of each texture, rename the copy after reducing
its resolution in Paint Shop Pro and then re-map each new texture in my
scene. Ouch! Fortunately, I thought of an easier way which involves just
archiving the scene because during an archive tS just copies all the
textures you use to a new directory. I then just modified the textures in
that archive directory without renaming them and used the archived scene
file from that point on.
Thanks,
Dave Angelini
-- -- Original Message -- --
From: "jbaker" <jbaker11@(protected)>
To: <truespace@(protected)>
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 6:09 PM
Subject: Re: [TSML] We are not alone
> Great start, I really like it. I noticed that the stars in the
> background suddenly change to a different pattern. Also if it is
> possible, making the trees sway just slightly would help the scene come
> alive.
>
> -JB
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