The 24 Hour Challenge

I put on a little challenge for myself over the weekend: design a scenery item, from start to finish, in 24 hours or less. The rules:

The model cannot be just a simple box build.
The model must go well with the other projects I’ve been working on.
The model must cover at least one full 6×6″ tile.
In order to successfully beat this challenge, the model must be ready to build before time runs out.

After 23 hours, plus change, this is what I ended up with:

Podtel 6. Helping space hookers spread space herpes since 2136.

It’s a seedy capsule motel belonging to the Podtel 6 chain. There are 24 efficiency-sized pods, each with its own balcony, stacked in 4 rings of 6 pods. The rings aren’t glued on, they slip over the core structure like doughnuts on a stick. I imagine each pod is basically just a single open space containing an airplane-style bathroom, a small closet space, a nasty bed that probably hasn’t been changed in weeks, a really tiny table with burn marks on it, a couple of mismatched chairs, and a slightly dented flatscreen on the wall for watching overpriced softcore porn and so forth.

It looks the way it does primarily because I didn’t want to do a boring box build, so any practicality or realism issues that I overlooked can be blamed on that. I’ve included a taxicab in the render for scale, so you can see how big the thing is. I also took a few minutes to accentuate the obnoxious glowing animated advertising screens and blinky lights on the thing in Photoshop.

It’s in PDF format and ready to build right now, the instruction graphics have been rendered, and there’s at least one “box art” style render for it. I didn’t think I was actually gonna beat the clock, but I surprised myself. I also don’t think I’m gonna give myself another one of those challenges for a while, because that was kind of intense.

I also haven’t decided what exactly to do with this thing yet. I’m gonna have to think about that some, since it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind during the challenge.

37 thoughts on “The 24 Hour Challenge”

Tomas July 13, 2011 at 10:57 AM

You have no idea how happy I am that you are starting to do scenery again. This screams out Infinity like no other buiding out there. Please, more! I want to build cities with buildings styled like this.

If I can have 1 small remark…
I really prefer the glass you did for the Brio and the police interceptor. After seeing that, going back to your old, stylized glass seems a bit flat to me. Especially when put on the same building as the highly reflective looking add on the top. Apart from that, I think it is brilliant.

Christopher Roe July 13, 2011 at 1:53 PM

Chimp Helmsman: I love those hex houses–I already had an idea for townhouses with neat shapes, but those hex houses would be awesome in a subdivision.

Tomas: Oh, it's *not* my old glass. It's a combination of the privacy screens being drawn, a more neutral reflection map so I don't have to see the exact same "unique" window reflection on all 24 pods in the renders, and a modeling shortcut I took to stay within the 24 hour deadline.

It's essentially one pod model and one texture duplicated 24 times, so the texture needed to be as neutral as possible in 3D. Random natural details and reflections are more efficiently applied towards the unfolded frames. You only need to do it once for each unfolded frame containing glass rather than creating 24 new 2048×2048 textures, and I'm a big fan of keeping things as simple and quick as possible in the workflow department.

If that didn't make sense to you, don't worry about it. The unfolded pods' glass won't look like that.

AoM July 18, 2011 at 2:13 PM

Chris: You've got my money as soon as this one is available. It looks great. Stacking the rings without gluing them makes me think they can be removed as well. It doesn't immediately make storage easier, but if turning the rings on their sides next to the central shaft fits better in the open space I have in my terrain bin at the time, then I'll be happy to have the option available.

TOPO: Once you get your hands on this one, you might be able to remove the balcony walls and add in walkways with railings (perhaps with construction similar to the catwalks from Derelict II) to add in some more variety for your Infinity games. I know I'd love to try doing that if I could find the time to learn enough modeling and texturing to make it happen. I've got an idea for a way to make the walkways removable, but I'll have to wait until I see the actual model pieces. I'll shoot you a sketch or two if my idea seems feasible.

I hope you won't mind if we do end up doing this, Chris.

AoM July 18, 2011 at 2:16 PM

And another thing… Why do they have to be space hookers with space herpes. Why can't they just be future hookers with the good old reliable herpes they come standard with already? 😉