Ok... Edd's work has inspired me to take a second look at my light cycle model.

Let me start off with this view of my current model.


I've colored it a bit differently then I normally would. The spheres around the body edge are red, the cyclinders are green, and the tori are yellow. I'm almost sure MAGI had their model set up this way at one time as seen in this picture.


However this was changed going into the movie, maybe even by accident. As seen here.


and here:


(Note to self... replace this with a full size screen capture when you have the time to look for it)

I believe this is how the model looked in the movie.


This change removes 3 cylinders and 2 spheres and simplifies the cut out used for the main body itself (it drops one point off a prism). So I could maybe see this change being made to speed up the render times. MAGI has done this before I believe, look at the tread detail seen on the MAGI tank here:

http://www.tron-sector.com/gallery/show.aspx?ID=828
that also isn't seen in the movie. I like that detail so I put it back in my model however its easy to remove. So I thought, ok... why don't I model the light cycle both ways. Personally I think I like the smooth edges better and I'm inclined to think it was a detail dropped in favor of faster render times.

Also this thread gave me an idea that I hadn't thought of before.

http://www.tron-sector.com/forums/default.aspx?do=top&id=329437
I view this as sort of a hybrid of the above two solutions. It removes 1 cylinder and 2 spheres but adds a second prism which is needed to cut out the inner part of the main body so it only removes 2 primitives and I've got to add a complicated intersection to get the torus to merge with the cylinder the way that it does. That said I suspect this model would render just a hair slower then the first one above.


Now all that said I don't want the render times to dictate the shape of my light cycle. I just want the shape that looks best. Here is where I wish this site had a polling option like some other forums. Anyways... please if you have an opinion as to which of these shapes look the best please post.

Thanks,
Carl

By the way... there is one thing that makes me think this whole change was an error. Look at this picture.


The inset is the image I worked the most from when making my model. If I try to copy it as close as I can I end up with what you see here. The torus just isn't cut propery to line up with the sphere. You can see the side details here on the MAGI model so I think this is the same one that was used in the film. Is it possible a math error was introduced when these details were added that simply wasn't caught it time? If so this model MAY be the most accurate but its the one I like the least.

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Hey Carl,

I was wondering where you have the other files you have worked on there. I want to give it a try on one of my other machines here. To see how long it wuld take to render. I know that you had posted here some samples that you were working on that we could try out with POV. I just wnated to see how my old aptiva would hold out on recreating them over here. Its just for the fun of seeing it being drawn up on the computer screen. I know that you worked hard on those images. And they are great pictures that I ahve seen here. Don't give up on all the hard work there. They are really great.

Mr. Sinistar Wrote:I think I took a picture that proves the correct "outer shell" look:

Thanks... that's the image I made a note to myself above about. I see you found it before I did.

Mr. Sinistar Wrote:As you can see, it's the hybrid version. I don't like it that much either.

By "hybrid" are you refering to my 3rd style in my first post? That was the one I called a "hybrid" of the first two. If you ask me this looks more like the "bastardization" of the first 2 styles seen in my third post.

Mr. Sinistar Wrote:You can also notice the color variation of the "inner" torus in that photo.

Yes... I'm still not totally convinced that isn't a result of the lighting and not a real color change present in the model.

Thanks,
Carl

Compucore Wrote:Hey Carl, I was wondering where you have the other files you have worked on there. I want to give it a try on one of my other machines here. To see how long it wuld take to render. I know that you had posted here some samples that you were working on that we could try out with POV. I just wnated to see how my old aptiva would hold out on recreating them over here.

There is a link to my light cycle model in this thread.

http://www.tron-sector.com/forums/default.aspx?do=top&id=303566
Is that what you are after? If you want more let me know but I haven't cleaned my tank or arena models up to near the degree that I now have my light cycle model.

Compucore Wrote:Its just for the fun of seeing it being drawn up on the computer screen. I know that you worked hard on those images. And they are great pictures that I ahve seen here. Don't give up on all the hard work there. They are really great.

Thank you for the kind words. I still love to play with these models and I certainly don't plan on giving up. Its just that my day job and life can really slow me down at times.

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Wow!

Carl - those are very impressive comparisons and I love how much effort you've put in to making the subtle differences stand out like that. Very nice work!

I'm also impressed with the light cycle model comparison you showed in the other thread. While both models are very well done, again, I think your light cycle model is the most proportionally accurate model to the ones in the film... even though they seemed to have changed slightly in some of the scenes. I never noticed that! Excellent detective work!

In answer to the question - which model do I prefer - I prefer the first illustration you showed in this thread - the one with all the curved/smoothed surfaces intact. It's odd how the models differed like that in the film.

Carl, I also think the fully smoothed/rounded edge looks best. The sharp edge stands out a bit too much, though technically you could argue it's the most "accurate".

But honestly, I think you are right when you say it was either a mistake or a measure taken to cut down rendering time. Most likely the latter. You hardly notice the sharp edge when the Light Cycles are in motion during the film, yet it probably shaved a minute or two off the rendering time for each frame.

Tori Wrote:Those are neat! I like that they have different colors on the actual light cycle dealymabobjig.

Sounded out slowly... dealy ma bob jig. Hmmm... Ok, that's a new one on me. Is that just another word for whatchamacallit?

Learn something new every day.

Carl