The Big Picture Thread 2024-1

[sanbie]

Another great render Simon...pretty colours.

[Agent0013]

Simon, the giant nebulae look really awesome. The battle seems to be going badly for the attacking craft, since the big one has shields up.
Another well done space scene!

[Agent0013]

Planet Killer Approaches a Galaxy


The Sombrero Galaxy is known to be one of the largest spiral galaxies, boasting a many as 1.5 trillion stars. Because of this, an enemy of the InterGalactic Alliance (IGA) has turned their attention to it. They have a fleet of devastating ships they use to kill all life on a target planet, with just a few shots of their primary weapons. Being from a very distant galaxy, far out of the influence of the IGA, these ships travel alone, and have a defense against most weapons that can be brought to bear against them suffering little or even no damage. These ships are called Planet Killer Space Cruisers. and they have made their way into IGA intergalactic space, bringing their devastation with them. One ship can wipe out several hundred planets' lifeforms. They kill all life on any target planet, then they spread their own spores; turning the planet into a world they can then occupy.


Though the Planet Killers are not very large ships, they are extremely hard to deal with. Only one thus far has been destroyed, and the way it was destroyed was from within. The species that was able to do it found a world that was already taken and was able to shapeshift to appear to be one of them. Soon that being was allowed to board one of the Planet Killers as a replacement crewmember. Once aboard the being shifted shapes until it was in a position of authority, with access to sensitive areas. There the shapeshifter setup a cascade failure that eventually caused the ship to self destruct. by the time the ship exploded, the shapeshifter had made its wayb off the ship by joining an away mission. It then found a way to shapeshift to appear to be a large stone. Once the ship had moved on, it used its own tech to contact operatives of the IGA for pickup. The ship exploded before it made it out of the star system it was in.


Once the shapeshifter had made it back to the IGA Spy Ops Base, it was debriefed. It was able to divulge important information concerning the Planet Killer Space Cruisers. With the Planet Killers now focusing on the Sombrero Galaxy, that information must somehow help technology developers to invent good ways to defeat these ships. At least there is some good intel that can give direction to their efforts.


The IGA considers this to be top priority, and has put several teams together to work on the problems. For the time being, it is good that the shapeshifter has not been discovered to be behind the cascade failure. This means that there is at least one method immediately available to the IGA for fighting this threat. Shapeshifters are now being recruited and trained for this method.


SciFi Threat Space-Ship Enemy Giant-Galaxy Target Invasion

[Agent0013]

This comment is to relate what I did to do the image I just posted. As expected, the backdrop is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of the Sombrero Galaxy; perhaps the largest known spiral galaxy, much larger that our own.
I made the main body of the ship in Wings3D and UV mapped it. Shaders are used to texture it at this time, but soon I will make dedicated textures for it. The primary weapons mentioned in the story are from the Dystopia City Blocks; a block that is a well rigged planetary defense weapon. I placed two on the ship, one on top ahd the other on the bottom. I used certain parts of an astronomical props set I got a couple of years ago; one planet, and asteroids made from the same one, but morphed to be different shapes. I created my own lighting for the scene. One light is meant to be coming from the nearby galaxy, and another one is a backlight representing a near star that is close enough to give feeble illumination. Rendered in DAZ Studio's 3Delight.

[Agent0013]

For this render I did a special sky backdrop, that required layering of the images and components. I needed a good astro-photo that could represent the area the story mentions, that included bright stars and several galaxies. The ringed planet was made in Bryce, and is saved in my personal 3D models library in Bryce. There was an initial sky render I had to do to create the atmosphere of the world the outpost is on. That image is in front of the other components of the sky, with the ringed planet behind it, and the astro-photo behind the ringed planet. Once it was rendered in Bryce, with not landscape in the image, I brought the image into DAZ Studio as a Backdrop. I loaded the Outpost landscape, the Cargo Ship with a Genesis Female Pilot, and Michael 4 standing at the edge of the Outpost. I created my lighting to match the lighting in the backdrop , by matching the lighting angles so that all shadowing would look consistent. I rendered the scene in DAZ Studio's 3Delight.


Here is the story:



Launch of a Supply Run


In the IGA, there are countless freight, cargo, and supply ships that do the important service of transport and delivery of all types of products and raw materials. The number of these ships is unknowable, because there are billions of galaxies that are members of the Inter-Galactic Alliance (IGA). A large percentage of these ships are not capable of inter-galactic travel, and must rely on large inter-galactic carrier ships to get from galaxy to galaxy. By mandate of the IGA laws of commerce, the fees for a slot on a carrier are very low, as these cargo ships must make enough profit to keep their businesses running, and also sustain the lives of the workers and owners of these businesses. In some instances the transport services of these ships are actually part of a larger business, that operates as the producer of the goods, which they then transport, through long term contracts with the owners of private goods transport ships. In other instances the company owns and operates ships, as well as the facilities that produce the goods they transport.


The ship in this scene is owned and operated by a family mining company, that is based within a loose star cluster located near several galaxies of an inter-galactic group. The family owns the mining outposts, as well. Their product is the raw materials they mine, of which there are several. These materials are packaged in re-usable containers of the appropriate types for each type of material. All of the materials extracted from their mines are of very high value.


This family owns a sizable fleet of cargo ships, which they operate themselves. None of these ships are capable of inter-galactic travel, so they have a contract with a carrier ship corporation, for multiple slots aboard each carrier they take passage aboard.


The family includes cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and any that have married into the family. It is a family that is quite large, with its own governing body, elected from within the family. Profits are split fairly among all members of the family, to keep things as fair as possible. Yes this includes the children in the form of trusts and allowances.


Pirates do still exist in the area, so it is only prudent that each of these ships are well armed. The carriers are all very well armed, and have a percentage of military personnel assigned to operate the defenses.  But if a goods transport ship becomes the target of pirates, their personnel must be proficient with their own defenses. For this reason, all family members charged with operating these ships have been members of the military defense forces aboard the carriers. An agreement between the carrier corporation and the mining business established this system of service. Thus, members of the mining family are part of the military defense forces aboard the carriers they take slots aboard, to carry their ships to the different galaxies they deal in.


SciFi Space Inter-Galactic Habitable-Moon Mining-Outpost Cargo-Ship Supply-Run-Launch

[Llola Lane]

Lots to see in that space scene Agent0013... well done.  Good thing we can zoom in.  Thanks for sharing... and the storyline too. ;)

[Agent0013]

Cyber Innovations Supply Entrance


A member of a family of Nobles, Lady Vanille Sheraton, is the owner and CEO of Cyber Innovations; a corporation that leads the cybernetic animal industry. Their products range from Cybernetic Whales to Cybernetic Insects and Arachnids. The miniaturized Cybernetic parts are a specialty of their corporation alone. The market for the many different Cybernetic Animals is quite diverse, as they will build yours according to what features you wish it to have. There is a large market for Cyber Pets, Cyber Guard Animals, and a fair market for other applications, such as military, law enforcement, exploration, and even espionage.


They are able to keep the prices low, due to the fact that the production lines are run by cybernetic machines, and auto-design software. They do employ a large human workforce, as monitoring and programming personnel. Their employees are all paid well, and have the best benefits, including owning stock in the business. On top of this, certain cyber Animals are produced to work and earn extra wages for each employee.


How is this corporation able to do business this way? By relying on the innovations of their employees, who have a stake in keeping it successful. And the Owner/CEO only pays herself enough live well, and do the work she does for her corporation. She only makes a small amount more than the top paid employees. Most of her extra funds goes back into the corporation, for the constant improvements and advancement of the technologies they build, sell, and use.


SciFi Business Cybernetics Character Female Nobility Owner CEO CyberAnimals

[Agent0013]

The Jumpgate Facility


Secret government facilities have the highest level of security systems available. One has to practically jump through several hoops to make it to the secret project, even if they are part of the team working on it. For a Jumpgate Facility providing instant travel to worlds lightyears away, any traveler must go through many security checkpoints. Nothing goes unscanned. Arrivals from the other side of the Jumpgate go through these security checkpoints too, even though the other side also puts them through such scans.


For this image I used some recently acquired products from DAZ with some older products from DAZ. The walls of the facility and the Laser beam security barrier are from the Sci Fi Construction Set, that I got almost 14 years ago, also from DAZ. There is the vertical control screen that is next to the JumpGate Arch, and the security scanning equipment controlled by the female character next to the Laser Security Barrier, a lot of handheld scanning equipment is on the roller cart to her left. Victoria 3 is used as the security scanning officer. Michael 3 is used as the person being scanned in the walkthrough scanner. Aiko 3 is used as the person coming through the Jumpgate. The special effect of the Jumpgate is done using four DAZ Studio primitive planes with my own specially made spiral images pasted in the proper channels under the Surfaces Edit tab. I used several lights to light the facility interior, including two linear point lights parented to primitive cylinders to make ceiling lights. The backdrop seen through the far window is an image made by me in Bryce 7.1 Pro giving a glimpse of the outside surrounding the facility. The Render engine used in DAZ Studio is the 3Delight render engine. Post work was done in PD Howler 12, to add the glow around certain lights in the image, and in the center of the Jumpgate special effect.

[Agent0013]

This thread is now locked.

[darkangel]

LOL Llola you win this one...but PLEASE give the image a name not rendertime...LOL