Sheesh... Yeah, hard to find a bright side in cases like this. I'm sure we all have stories like this to share... Back in the old airbrush album cover days (back when they were 12" across- and dinosaurs roamed the Earth..) I'd spend 2-3 weeks painting a cover, cutting frisket paper and doing elaborate lettering... And twice I had them destroyed in the mail. No such thing as digital backup... So I had to do them over from scratch. These two covers ended up being some of by best work, as I was determined to find much more economical ways of creating the same piece, and economy in art can often equal more elegant answers.

I hope you are able to look back in a week or two and say, damn, that was frustrating but it sure was productive...

As for the Guyomech update- as it turns out, drawing impossible shapes on paper is way easier than doing a precise digital
rendering of the same. Hope to be posting version 2.0 late tonight.

Sometimes I do indeed! Scratching is a lot more immediate, I prefer something a little bit smoother most of the time.

Art, as has already been said, that sucks! But hey it could be a whole lot worse. This project is still in early stages really. By the way I think what you have already is pretty legit, you're getting pretty good with 3D.

Art - what OS are you running? If you have Windows 7 you can try to get the file back using Previous Versions.
http://windows.microsoft...equently-asked-questions

Art, that really sucks man. I've had it happen quite a few times and it's never fun.

I'm not sure about zbrush but 3dsmax has an auto backup feature. Seems like zbrush would have something like that too considering it's level of sophistication. Hopefully you'll be able to recover at least some of your model. You've got some awesome 3d skills for sure, I can't imagine what you'll be able to do once you start working with Max.

I'm surprised you're not working on a 64 bit platform already. It makes all the difference in the world when it comes to 3d I'm finding. I'm fortunate to have an asus u56e laptop and it runs like a dream. They are going for around ~$450 on ebay right now. The only thing is that it refuses to run mudbox which is an awesome organic modeling program that compliments 3ds max nicely. It would be an awesome program to use for the tentacles and aya vines I've got planned for my scene but it's no bueno on this laptop so I'll try to use zbrush instead. It'll be my first time working with zbrush so I'm really not sure what to expect.

Stalepixel - Your piece is coming along awesome. I'm really digging the colors and vibrancy of it.

Orion - From your sketches and descriptions, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you've got in the works. Interesting concept art so far for sure.


Here's what I've got so far. Just the bare 3d shapes and then with the 2d fractal background. I've still got some other ideas in mind but my modeling skills are really rusty so it's taking some time to relearn a bunch of stuff.

Love the iconography Mel. I think it would be really cool to see the DNA strands linked into the center the way the chains are.

I thought I'd post some sketches of mine. I'm going to keep playing with some ideas tonight and probably start my final piece tomorrow.

Some promising building blocks there! Digging the transmitter, the way it seems to be emitting crazy overlapping chaos pixels... The little mandalas are great too...


Here's my impossible shape, cleaned up and modified some. Not sure what kind of a finish ill be putting on this thing but probably a bit more flash/bang. Background? Not sure. Possibly flanked by a pair of simpler shapes...? anyway, this is round 2.

mm nice to see new work guys, all great stuff.

your shape looks especially creamy guyo, really smooth and lysergic and biteable
i wonder if it would look cool with a metallic or stone texture

Love your shape Guy....makes my brain fizz trying to follow the 'Escher impossibility'...
( I can see the Jpeg Artifacts though...perhaps save it as a .png file that will remove them)

Here's my update on the Book of FAQ...

updating here as I add stuff...for some reason html makes it look a lot darker than it actually is

heart stopping moment when I thought I'd lost my layers...

You guys are amazing.... that is all

Cyb- that's perfect, really a great example of the kind of thing we are looking for. Unless you have an itch to keep working on it, you may be done.

I set that to a low compression setting on purpose to keep the load time quick... Ultimately I'll be emailing the .psd straight to Daeda. At this point it's just a shape and needs a lot more. I'm thinking of doing a rusty metallic version for a different project, but for this one, the "fun" category, I'm going to play with a few brightly colored eye candy variations. Some kind of party background too, but I need to come up with something that feels hyperspatial. A little stumped, so for now I'll keep messing with the shape.

Looks great. You don't happen to have a guide on building these shapes do you? Or is it just lots and lots of perspective practice?

How about adding landscape to the background? The way Escher would show a horizon in the distance. Or maybe floating midst a Dali-esque landscape. To give it a sense of scale.

Just wanted to say great work so far everyone! This colab seems to be coming together very well! Just wish I'd become a member in time to be part of it.

Really digging the impossible shape Guy, with the right surface detailing that will really be a mindblower. If you're doing that in 3D I'm especially impressed, I used to do 3D modeling/animation for a living, and I'm not sure how I'd have tackled that one. Or is it a digital painting? I can't tell! Seems like it might look cool as part of a repeating pattern, like with another one on each side flipped upside down, then another row of them above and below, but with the focus still on the center object and the others only partially seen around the edges to fill the space (and implying the individual is just a small part of the bigger picture.)

I like the Book of FAQ a lot too Cyb. I think it definitely has the right feel to it. IMO the background and composition on this last one is perfect. The part the book is sitting on reminds me a lot of Andy Thomas' work. I just discovered him recently and was really impressed. Might have to experiment with some similar ideas myself sometime.

Hope you're able to get your data back, Art! I've definitely been there, probably still have imprints on my forehead from banging it against the keyboard. Actually almost ALL of my old 3D stuff is sort of lost right now, trapped on an obsolete media (4mm DAT tape) that I can't access, saved in the old win NT bakcup format which I wouldn't even be sure how to open anymore. 3-4 years of work I can't even look at, or show off. Frustrating.

And that snake animation is Suh-Weeet! Daeda's overall design is really cool too. I actually like the original frontpage a lot but this is looking like it will be a good replacement, and it's awesome that it's being put together by the members. But if a small criticism isn't too out of line, personally I liked the way the vines looked much better in the original drawing, without the "twist". I thought it was more "Natural" and organic looking, and less busy. But I'm sure it'll end up looking great either way. What kind of media will it be finished in?

Anyway keep up the great work folks, seems like it's coming together fast I'm really looking forward to seeing the results!

Nils- I just drew it on paper, messed around with it a lot, then drew it again in Photoshop using simple select/ fill commands, tons of layers, and lots of trial and error, moving stuff around...

But for anyone wanting to explore these kinds of impossible shapes, I have three words for you: isometric grid paper!

I never knew about this paper, I can't draw but I love impossible shapes.

I just found this site

free grid paper

Ah yes, 3rdI, very useful! Print some and try drawing on it- no drafting skills required, just imagination!

Here's a drawing done by a friend of mine using isometric paper, as an example:
http://www.mikecoletatto...galleries/art_68224.html

Very cool, I'm gonna print some off at work tmoz and get scribbling.

Cheers Guyomech.

Another new version...can't tell if I've given up too much readability in exchange for flash/bang... too tired right now to be an accurate judge. Still trying to decide if I want to etch a pattern in the thing, too. Thoughts, anyone?

Nice Guyo, personally I like both versions but prefer the first one. The triangles throw it off a bit for me. I'd love to see some etching on that bad boy though.

Ooooh that's pretty...kinda looks like bubblegum....makes me want munch on it...

I'd like to see a few different versions...maybe rusty metal with rivets...or high polished chrome reflecting hyperspace...

But I spose that doesn't fit in with Fun....perhaps true cartoon colours...RoadRunner style OR shaded like Roger Rabbit...!


interesting site I ran across:
http://www.colorschemedesigner.com/

Mostly this. I like the triangles themselves, clean with an obvious impossibility that my minimalist side loves. But they feel a little out of place with the rest of the piece that is more decorative and embellished. I think the line weight difference adds to that contrast as well. All of that said, it is cool that you turned the entire thing into a hyperspatial hexagram.