Mars 3D

[MikomDude]

I figured out how to add shadows but it lagged a lot, as for the going through walls, it would be nice if you could open doors and stuff but for now floating through the walls seems simpler. I'll keep experimenting a little with DX studio, maybe I'll figure out how to walk around in the scene and interact with things.

As for the way these hubs are built, yes, it's expensive. They are each assembled on Earth then launched separately into space where they are all put on the Mars Colonizer in orbit. Then they launch the colonizer to Mars, it enters orbit, deploys the hubs according to a specific flight plan making them land in places of easy retrieval. Then when the colonists arrive (in a different spacecraft) all they need to do is assemble each component building this structure. Originally my concept had the crane/explorer vehicle they used for assembly but I decided not to make it because the scene was already pretty complex.

[Fenerit]

Hi MikomDude, great project! If your animation shows terrains for the "arrival" and landing, feel free to try my Mars' haze shader for ShaderLab 2.4.

http://blaastar.byethost15.com/8217/index.html

[Finis]

Another great logo. You should do logos as a job. Nice renders. Looks Mars-ish.

Where did the corridor between the work modules come from? Where was it on the ship during the journey? I think the stairs take too much space in the main module. That is very expensive space so stairs etc. would be minimized. With Mars' light gravity ladders might be used instead. Stairs would probably be narrow and steep. There could be a launch pad or area with robo-ship to send scientific samples back maybe launch/retrieve satellites. Maybe a construction module to build more stuff from local resources. A vehicle for exploring? Inflatable agro-domes? Tethered balloon for instruments?

Will you model the colonist's ship?

[MikomDude]

Another great logo. You should do logos as a job.

Thank you! I would love to do logos for a job but... is that even a real job? Logo-designer?

Where did the corridor between the work modules come from? Where was it on the ship during the journey? I think the stairs take too much space in the main module. That is very expensive space so stairs etc. would be minimized. With Mars' light gravity ladders might be used instead. Stairs would probably be narrow and steep. There could be a launch pad or area with robo-ship to send scientific samples back maybe launch/retrieve satellites. Maybe a construction module to build more stuff from local resources. A vehicle for exploring? Inflatable agro-domes? Tethered balloon for for instruments?

So many great suggestions though my first reaction to reading this was "Whoa, so many polygons. Truespace ain't gonna like this..." Hehe. I don't think I'll be making any changes to the scene now, I'm glad I got as far as I did and trueSpace is nearly giving me a heart attack every time it freezes for a short while.
I agree about the stairs, I should have made it a bit smaller. Though the reason I made them big was so that more than one person could be going up and down the stairs. The hub is built very much for comfort since the colonists will most likely be living there all their lives. This is also why I didn't build a launch site for a return rocket, it may be possible to return after 20 years or so when a full colony with several sites like this has been established but not at first. Also, all research is done on Mars.

The hubs themselves have various functions, one being the cultivation of plants, mainly for food. Building things from local resources would totally be possible and maybe after the second or third Mars sites have been created, then maybe people could start a huge project like a large scale mining operation.

I did have one other building on my concept, it was a garage/cover to protect the Mars explorer vehicle from dust storms. This was partly made from materials found on Mars.

As for the corridor between the hubs, it was deployed along with everything else. Originally it was contained in pieces in a shell along with a couple of other smaller components on the Colonizer. Look on the image below. It was contained in the part called "Equipment, Materials and Building Blocks". As were all the rigs holding everything up and some other components for outside use as well as materials for repair and building new things on Mars. Basically anything you see on the render that you can't see on the Colonizer was a part contained in that shell.

Will you model the colonist's ship?

Hmm, maybe. I was thinking of building the Mars explorer vehicle separately from the scene. However making the colonists space vessel could be interesting. It would be smaller than the Colonizer, it would have to have life support.. hmm yes, maybe I will.

[Finis]

Yeah, graphic artists do logos for hire and publicity companies design "identities" for products, brands, and companies.

Something is not right with your TS and that poly count problem . I just rendered my cartoon character with 96,000 SDS polygons on model side V 7.6. You could post process several renders together to do more complex scenes.

You put some thought into this mission. Good to consider that the colony is one of several. That is often overlooked.

Good point that they would do the research there not send samples back. If they had something so important (like native life) that samples had to go back then a mission would be sent for it. After they were there long enough, several years maybe, bodies would adjust to the low gravity and they could probably never come back to Earth's gravity.

The colonizer vessel could stay in orbit providing a platform for science and communications. Empty fuel tanks could be relocated during the journey to be armor vs. small collisions. The tanks could be placed in geosynchronous orbit to serve as ground navigation aides.

[MikomDude]

Actually, after I recently sorted out my tS problem most problems I had before stopped. However I'm still on edge every time I switch between the model-side and workspace side. It's a psychological thing.

Without the various hubs the colonizer is but a skeleton however using it as a communication satellite/relay isn't a bad idea. It might help speed up data transmissions a little, depending on the relative distance between Earth and Mars that could be anything from 4-5 minutes to 30 minutes. You better get a high-speed internet connection if you want to download something on Mars without it taking a year or so

[MikomDude]

Here are some concepts for the Mars Explorer vehicle.

[Draise]

I like the second one, a new concept!

[MikomDude]

Here is a little update on the Mars Explorer.

It is starting to look a little like an old Lego model I once built of a Land Rover Defender that didn't look one bit like a Land Rover Defender but was a cool Lego model nonetheless. A nice piece of useless info there.

[Draise]

That's looking very fine! The wheel geometry is awesome! And yes, it does look like it's made from Lego.