Sun Quiz Live is now… live!
Sun Quiz Live is an interactive online show much like the quiz shows on tv but better thanks to a slick point and click interface and live text chat. You can even make some money off of it. No, I don’t get royalties.
I was drafted in at relatively late stages of this project to create a virtual studio for use behind the presenters. The kit powering the live chroma keying, switching between cameras and sets, is Newtek’s Tricaster system. Consequently, this meant using Lightwave, another Newtek product, to create the 3D sets. Well, technically. The plug-in for producing the end files only works with Lightwave. After a few experiments it became clear that it was quicker to use my knowledge of Mental Ray in Softimage vs learning the Lightwave renderer which appeared inadequate for our needs. A quick work around was to build the entire set in Softimage and move it into Lightwave complete with baked in textures and lighting.
I was pleased with the results, but I still think that set would be ruined by a bit of rain.
Apologies for those who dislike fuzzy looking jpegs. The image above is a screengrab of the video.
Tags: 3d, design, lightwave, set, Softimage, tricaster, virtual
January 13th, 2010 at 06:22
The new version is much better what was with the bog standard Microsoft pics made it look crud but the new forest is ace
January 13th, 2010 at 12:31
Glad you like it. I threw that together in about 2 hours but was glad I did. Like you say, the MS pics were awful. I put them in as placeholders about 6 months ago. With so many other changes and developments to the project as a whole, particularly on the web development side, the issue of pictures in the background set fell by the wayside a little. I prefer the whole outdoors garden come forest thing anyway. It opens the whole thing up. I think the idea came from Matt Jones, the head of video at Illumina.
January 15th, 2010 at 16:14
cool stuff lol does look much better now
January 15th, 2010 at 16:35
Is there any chance of hanging a shandaleer from the roof so I can feel upmarket while playing? lol
January 23rd, 2010 at 17:44
Did you create the one with the boxes?
January 24th, 2010 at 17:50
Ah the Strike It Lucky style one, yes. I quite like that one.
February 4th, 2010 at 04:21
Hey, theres a sun quiz live group on fb, ill try and bring up the topic of set design on there