Sunday 30 December 2012

WSC Gantry Concept

Hi all!

Here's a quick (and for me that's about 20 minutes!) render of a from-scratch concept for the WSC lighting gantry, looking at basic shapes and trying to get a feel for functional layout.

Enjoy!


Journeyman Project Tribute: Animation Overview

Hello!

This was my first go at using camstudio; please excuse the fact that the sync drifts between the video and the sound (I'm still not sure why this is the case!).  Anyway I hope this proves to be interesting!

Topics covered are basic animation in the hallway and a quick look at some of the Cycles material setups.

Enjoy!


Friday 28 December 2012

Huge thanks!

Good morning all!

Since this blog was started back in March last year, there have been over 20,000 views!  I am both humbled and honoured by this; the project started as my own dream of making a modern version of Journeyman and I have been fortunate along the way to have people join the team who share that dream.

The dream wouldn't be anything without the encouragement of the fans though, and it is a real boost to have so much interest generated by people who love Journeyman.  On average there are 40 or 50 hits on the blog per day, and the recently started video updates have boosted those figures even higher.

The last few days have seen a flurry of activity and I attribute that in large part to the efforts of our new community liason, Ioannis "John" Kypraios, who has been beavering away on the official blog and Twitter feed - please check them out and follow at the following links:

https://twitter.com/JourneymanTribu

 http://journeymantribu.wordpress.com/

Don't forget to tell as many people as you can about these blogs too; fan projects are run "by the fans, for the fans" so the more people know about it and keep up to date with progress the better!

I was asked a while ago if I could put a progress meter up on the site; unfortunately not.  This is a fan project and not a 9-5 job so there are no timetables in place; we all work as hard as we can when we can but sometimes life gets in the way.  The technology is always changing which means that we can do things better.  I also don't want to be in the position where we announce a release date early on and people are then expecting that to be the case; taking inspiration from other projects I've been involved in over the years, "it'll be done when it's done" :)

I will continue working hard on the project as always, endeavouring to produce the best version that I can.  With the help of the talented guys and gals on the team I'm sure we will present you with a very polished version that you can enjoy :)  I am incredibly thankful that you're all along for the ride too.

All for now,

Andy

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Video Update: Prehistoric

Hello!

After some really nice feedback on the video updates, I decided to keep going.  They won't be every day, but just on new/updated aspects that I think you might find interesting.

With that in mind, here's a short update on today's work on the prehistoric area; very basic work here but should show you the way it's going.  Enjoy!


Monday 24 December 2012

Global Transporter: Collage

Hello,

Ok closing down the lab for now ;)  Just before midnight though (I don't want to disturb Santa when he comes around) I thought I'd add the following three work-in-progress shots of the model as it stands at the last save.  Enjoy!




Video Update: Transporter

Hello!

Here's a video update on the Global Transporter; I'm really enjoying doing these video updates and giving you some insight into the design process.  I hope you're enjoying it too!

Enjoy and a very merry Christmas to all :)


Transporter

Hi all,

Ok I've been doing some work on the Transporter; trying to get some textures worked out (not going overboard on this one; it's functional rather than aesthetically pleasing) and developing the model a little more.  Work very much in progress on this; got another concept in the works that is early days but am excited about it :)

Enjoy!


Saturday 22 December 2012

Special Pre-Christmas Project Update

Hello!

Here's a special video update from me.  A couple of points:

1) Please excuse the handheld shaking - this was a spur of the moment thing; I didn't have time to set up my camera or a tripod.
2) Please excuse the "erm" factor; this was completely unprepared and my first "live" video - I'm sure the quality will improve as we go along!

Let me know if you prefer the image updates or the new video updates; I'm happy to do either, whichever you feel is of the most benefit.

With that all in mind, enjoy!


Render Help Needed

Hi all!

At this time I'm rendering a few "walking" videos out for an in-house test of the game engine.  This means that I'm rendering the videos at 30fps, 1920x1080 resolution.  The disadvantage of this is that it is taking a very long time to render the videos out; made worse by the fact that Renderfarm.fi appears to be non-functional and has been for a while.

I'd like to put the call out; anyone who is able to install Blender 2.65a (the current version) and who is happy to set up or already has a Dropbox account, please get in touch with me by emailing AndrewCurry2 at g mail dot com.  There won't be any fancy user interface or renderfarms; literally exchanging emails and Blender files.  To keep things manageable I will delegate render batches of 10 frames per time, resulting files to be put into the designated Dropbox folder.

The faster we can render these, the faster the project moves forward.

I've always been a fan of audience participation hehe ;)  Please get in touch if you can help.

Best wishes and thanks for reading,

Andy

TSA Hallway: Scanner Test

Hello!

As a result of a sleepless night I thought I'd post this animation I was working on earlier.  It is a low-resolution render of walking down the TSA Hallway with the scanners running.  Enjoy!


Monday 17 December 2012

Welcome to the TSA...

Hello!

Here's a quirky little shot I wanted to share with you...not exactly groundbreaking but I knew the model as a whole was working when I saw this and it instantly took me back to the original (time travel not involved!).

Lots more progress has been made on the Hallway model but rather than showing you the same things I wanted to share this.  Enjoy!


Sunday 16 December 2012

TSA Hallway: Current WIP shot

Hello!

Here's the current work-in-progress shot of the TSA Hallway.  I've been putting a lot of time into this area, reworking the meshes and doing a lot of texture work.  After spending most of the day on the left-hand side, some very quick mirrors in Blender let me see the whole effect.

Once the mirrors have been applied, it'll be a case of editing the meshes with photo textures to make sure they're not exact mirror images; I want the whole thing to feel organic, and that effect will be spoiled if you see the same texture on your left and right.

Without further ado though, please enjoy the below shot :)  As I watched it render, part of me wanted to reach out and touch the rock.  That's how I want the final game to be; I want you to feel as though you're there.  That sort of realism takes time; a lot of time.  I'd like to take the opportunity for being so patient; I know you want to play it as much as I do.



TSA Hallway: WIP 360 Degree version

Hello!

Here is a 360 degree interactive version of the current WIP TSA Hallway.

Enjoy!


From the archive: 2006

Hello all!

Here's a trip down memory lane for me.  Back in 2006 I was doing all of my modelling work with Bryce and had a crack at making Pegasus using this - result below.  After many hours of painstaking work I ended up with this version - glad to see my modelling skills have moved on since then!

Anyway I'm just putting this out there for nostalgia reasons.  I was really proud of this model at the time but it doesn't even compare to the current Pegasus.

Long live the dream!


Saturday 15 December 2012

TSA Hallway: Cycles Rework Shot #002

Good evening!

A late post here; been going great guns on the texturing and optimisation.  I thought I'd post up this render to show off the work so far - enjoy!


TSA Hallway: Cycles Rework

Hello!

Here's a work-in-progress shot of the retexture and optimisation of the original TSA Hallway.  Work has gone into the rock texture as well as optimising the meshes and removing all non-seen faces/vertices etc.

In truth this should have been done as the modelling went along but I wasn't disciplined enough at the start of the project to consider this, but now that the scene as a whole is pushing 2 million vertices (hallway, TSA command room & upper floor plus Pegasus and Pegasus chamber) I think that some improvements are warranted!

Anyway I'm going to keep busy with the work, but in the meantime, enjoy!


Friday 14 December 2012

Pegasus: Two Videos

Hello!

I'm on a major Pegasus workflow at the moment!  Here's two videos to show off current progress; one is a five second looped flyover of Pegasus as it stands at the moment.  The other is an animatic of the Pegasus opening sequence.

Enjoy!



Pegasus: Up Close

Hello!

Here's a test render of Pegasus in Cycles and the new textures, lit with just the emitting objects in the scene.  Next step is to start work on the Pegasus interior, keeping it close to what was seen in JMP as opposed to PP.


TSA Hallway

Hello :)

Here's an updated shot of the TSA entry hallway looking back at the main door.  I've been putting a lot of work into the rock texture, trying to give it a surface without making it look too jagged or rough.

Enjoy!


Tuesday 11 December 2012

Pegasus: Cycles Overview

Evening all!

Here's an overview shot of Pegasus taken from near the back wall.  Work still in progress although I've got a lot done to the textures of the tubes this evening; metalwork is coming together nicely.

Enjoy!


Monday 10 December 2012

Pegasus Texturing

Good evening!

Just a quick post before heading for bed...burning the candle at both ends here.  Might have to find a modern-day equivalent for that phrase...burning the...erm...bulb at both ends?

Yeah still needs some work.  As does Pegasus!  But more progress has been made - check out the shots below.  Enjoy!



Sunday 9 December 2012

TSA Scanner Hallway: Texture Work

Good morning all!

Here's some shots of the work going on in the scanner hallway.  A huge rework for the rock texture and a render showing the supports etc without the main scanner rings.

I hope you like them!



Saturday 8 December 2012

More Pegasus Cycles Images



Pegasus: Cycles Texture Work

Hello!

Title is self explanatory for this one; reworking Pegasus for the Cycles render engine and getting into some photo mapping for textures and bump maps.  Still early days but great progress being made thanks to this fantastic renderer!  Enjoy!!


Scanner: Phone Wallpaper

Hi,

Just a quick note; I rendered out a phone wallpaper (res 720x1280) - feel free to download and enjoy!


Scanners: Cycles Rework

Good morning all :)

I've been doing a fair bit of experimentation using Cycles, the new Blender render engine.  It allows for a far faster workflow as you can see in real-time how the environment and materials are looking.

With this in mind, here's a work-in-progress rework of the TSA Scanners.  Enjoy!


Sunday 2 December 2012

Hello!

After a large PC upgrade recently I've been messing around with Cycles and re-visiting some of the existing environs that I'd started work on.  With that in mind...enjoy!


Andy

Sunday 11 November 2012

Project Update

Hello all!

Just a quick update.  I've had to take some time out from the project recently due to personal reasons.  However, I am keen to get back into it and the rest of the team have been doing some fantastic work behind the scenes so watch this space!

All for now,

Andy

Saturday 15 September 2012

Titles...with music and VO!

Hello!

Here's a version of the titles with music and voiceover!  Everything is still work in progress but wanted to share this...really excited :)

Andy


Sunday 9 September 2012

Update

Good morning everyone!

An update on the project - things are still moving on at a good pace but there have been some exciting developments that I can't talk about at this time - watch this space for more :)

Andy

Sunday 1 July 2012

Mars Gantry Walk Anim - first version on Renderfarm!

Hello all!

The first video is now in the queue on Renderfarm.fi, session number 9715.  Let's render as much as we can to get the queue down so that this session can render :)

Also, a huge shout out to the active members of the renderfarm.fi team; smp55, BryanS, will1701a, tecssil, jrod5 and Wongfive who have helped render sessions so far!  Keep it going :)

All for now,

Andy

Saturday 23 June 2012

Mars: Train Building - first 30 minutes

Hello!

Here's the Morimoto train after 30 minutes of modelling.  Very low detail at the moment, but it should give you some idea of how it's progressing :)

Enjoy!


Morimoto Gantry Update

Hello all!

Here's the latest intel from the Morimoto Mars Colony...construction is going well on the gantry, and the site manager promises to begin construction on the transport station very soon, once they can begin moving materials across the gantry.

In the meantime, he's sent us this lovely shot this morning.  Can't see many workers out there though; must be enjoying the Martian sunrise!!

Enjoy :)


Monday 18 June 2012

Progress Update - Monday 18th June 2012

Hey hey :)

Some fantastic progress has been made over the last few days.  I won't go into a huge amount of detail, but the first pass of a couple of the environments has been started and the first very basic tests been loaded into the Aware engine.

These tests are looking at a) the current status of the engine and b) the current quality of the environments, specifically highlighting issues with modelling/texturing/compositing/game implementation.  Issues are being identified and fixes being put in place to prevent future crop-ups of the same issue.  While this will take a lot of time at this stage, I believe that it is critically important to get this right now rather than have to come back and fix a swathe of issues that could have been avoided.

Work is, as ever, in progress; I would like to say thanks to you all for sticking with myself and the team so far.  It has been a rollercoaster since I started the project almost 14 months ago and I'm loving every minute.

Also (and not for the last time), a massive thanks to Presto Studios for their vision back in the early 90s.  Without them I wouldn't be working on this project, and without their blessing I wouldn't have the heart to do it.

Long live Journeyman.

Andy


Saturday 16 June 2012

Equirectangular Mars Gantry

Hello!

Another stage in the development testing - this image was output as six cube faces then stitched into an equirectangular output.  I thought I'd share it - gives an interesting perspective on Mars :)

Enjoy!


Thursday 14 June 2012

VR Test Shots

Hello!

Six shots below comprise the first part of the VR test using Adam's Aware Engine.  I'm very excited; we had our first tech demo the other day which went very well indeed, so I'm eager to see how the rendered shots will look in the engine!

I thought I'd share the shots - enjoy :)







Monday 11 June 2012

Helping with Rendering

Hello!

I've been helping "crunch" renders on www.renderfarm.fi for a good while now, and use this service myself for the big rendering jobs/tests (especially at hires).  It is a free service to both render and contribute too.

At this time, I have set up a rendering "team" called Journeyman Project Tribute, and would be incredibly grateful if you could sign up for a FREE account, download BOINC onto your PC and start crunching :)

BOINC uses the resources of your PC to render other projects (including Journeyman runs).  You can set how much of your processor you want to use, or in multicore PCs how many of the cores to use for rendering.

If you sign up, please comment here so I can add you to the Jourmeyman team.  It would be great if we could all contribute; not only would we be helping render Journeyman scenes faster, but helping other artists as well :)

Best,

Andy

Sunday 10 June 2012

Back to basics...clay render

Hey :)

It's been a while since the last update - been working more on Pegasus (I will get it finished one of these days!) as well as working a few other things behind the scenes.

I thought I'd post up the clay render - I think it shows off a lot of the detail that you might not otherwise see once the final lighting and animations are all done - enjoy!


Wednesday 9 May 2012

May 2012 Update

Hello!

Wow, May already?  How did that happen??

The project is ongoing, as always.  I haven't had as much free time recently as a lot of time is taken up by work and studying.  However, progress is being made on the Cycles front (early tests using ATI cards, Blender 2.63 and Catalyst 12.5Beta with OpenCL 1.2 drivers) are working really well.  I'm looking forward to the day that I can rework a scene and have all the textures appear in Cycles as they do in the Blender renderer.  I have two ATI 5850 cards so rendering will be nice and speedy on those once all the features are worked out!

In short, while there haven't been any updates recently, work is still going on in the background!

All for now,

Andy

Tuesday 6 March 2012

TSA: Pegasus Texture Push v2

Hello!

Here's a couple of updated shots from work done last night - one up close and personal and the other "overview" shot.  One thing I'm slightly concerned about is that the overview shot looks more like a model rather than full-scale; however I'm not going to worry about this until the "launch" animation comes back.  If it still looks phony, I'll look and see how it can be changed.

In the meantime, enjoy!



Sunday 4 March 2012

TSA: Pegasus Texture Push

Hello!

Well, once again I've been spending a good bit of time trying to get Pegasus looking as good as I can, and I'm quite pleased with the result - I hope you are too!  Enjoy!

Monday 27 February 2012

TSA Hallway: Test Metal

Hello all!

Ok, I've been playing around with textures a lot more, and the texture paint ability in 2.62.  The shot below is a result of that playing :)  Made with textures from CG Textures.

I think that taking the time to do a lot more texture work will really help the realism and believability.

Enjoy!

Sunday 26 February 2012

TSA Hallway: Latest Version

Hey all!

As stated previously, I'm focussing almost exclusively on the TSA.  As part of that, from JMP we have the scanner hallway.  Still a little work to be done on this before I consider it production ready - enjoy!

Thursday 23 February 2012

TSA Scanner Head - Test 1

Hey all,

Here's the first test of the TSA Scanner.  Gives me chills for some reason...possibly because at one point I didn't have the manual with the entry code and I kept trying to guess it.

Incorrect code entered, access denied.  Oh the memories :D

New Team Member - Adam B

Hi everyone!

I'm very pleased to welcome Adam B to the development team.

Adam has been working on a custom-coded engine called Aware - see http://code.google.com/p/aware-engine/ for more information.  It is still in its early stages, but after speaking with Adam recently I'm very confident that it is ideally suited for Tribute.  We have discussed the first tech demo / proof of concept and work is underway.

So, please join me in offering a heartfelt welcome to Adam!

Andy

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Journeyman Title Sequence: TSA Logo

Hello!

In the same rationale as the main logo, here's the TSA logo :)  Enjoy!

Monday 20 February 2012

New Title Sequence

Hello all!

Here's the "revisioned" main title from the title sequence.  Please enjoy and let me know what you think!

Best enjoyed in fullscreen.

Saturday 18 February 2012

TSA Command Centre Door: Opening Test

Hello all!

Still working on the TSA...I've actually made this my complete focus.  The "original" TSA will be the first environment to be completed i.e. all modelling, texturing, lighting, rendering, animation, interaction, sound effects, music and navigation will be completed before moving on to the next area.

With that in mind, enjoy the test video below :)

Andy

Tuesday 14 February 2012

TLC for the TSA

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, but I'm back with a vengeance :)

Here's an update on the entryway for the "original" TSA.  Getting into more detailing and starting to rough in the lighting setup.  Enjoy!

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Alternate Pegasus: Monitors

Hi there and a very Happy New Year!

A test of a basic model and animation setup for the interior of the "alternate" Pegasus.

Enjoy!

Monday 2 January 2012

Mars Generator: Shot 2

Here's a work in progress shot of the Mars Generator section - attempting to get the heat effect of the energy beam nailed down.  Enjoy!