CG Stuff & Things

Well, well! Another week already! What is this, week #7? Goodness. I suppose this is a good time to explain my thing-a-week initiative. Well there I've already half-explained it. We're making good time! I found myself getting bogged down in big projects. Big projects that I spend too much time on and eventually lose enthusiasm for. Looking at folders full of unfinished projects I needed a change. Thus began THING-A-WEEK. The premise is simple; start and finish a CG project each week. Doesn't have to be anything mind-blowing, just revel in the satisfaction of actually finishing something. So far it's worked out pretty good! My good buddy Cougan has joined me in this endeavor and his relentless success helps keep me focused!
Anyway, here's this week's:

Right away I'm cheating because this was one of those big projects but this week I wanted it done. Hey, thing-a-week was my idea. I can bend the rules. So this, for the uninitiated is a corridor aboard the Enterprise D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The series' amazing blu-ray debut inspired me to create something from the 80's icon. Us CG artists can get swept up in the grittiness of the world so I also wanted to do something clean and elegant. People have called the Enterprise D the 'luxury hotel of spaceships' so it seemed like a good choice.
This was a good opportunity to get to know Blender's new Cycles renderer; see what it could and couldn't do. It handles light really well! I was surprised at how good it could make a scene look with minimal setup. There are some things I'm going to improve in the future but for my first big Cycles render, not bad. Tune in next week for another exciting image!