It’s once again been a long time since I updated my blog! I need to remember this more because it helps me better think through things I’m working on. Luckily, the PASS Time JACK is here to save the day.

This time around, I bring more Blender renders that I made as a pseudo-charitable act! I made a series of these stylized renders for a group I am a part of, 4v4 PASS Time. I’ve mentioned them in previous posts. It’s a community based around a specific game mode in Team Fortress 2. Fireside Casts, a small match-casting organization partnered with 4v4 PASS Time to cast cup matches, sells these posters. I earn no money from the sale of them.

Each of these renders, and a few other pieces I’ve been working on in the meantime, feature an object called the PASS Time JACK. It’s the centerpiece of the game mode and acts as the “ball” in this team handball-type game.

Lux JACK

The first render, technically made last in the group, is the Lux JACK. It’s conceptually the least exciting, but it was a lot of fun to make, and I think it turned out very pretty. It’s the only render out of the five to use a spectral rendering engine. This means that the engine calculates the path of light by wavelength i.e. red light bounces and refracts differently than orange light, yellow light, etc. It means a massive uptick in render time but also gives a much more physically realistic result.

Mirror JACK

As far as I can remember, Mirror JACK was the second of the five I began working on. Early versions of four of these renders were in production before I ever considered the idea of selling posters of them. The JACK is contained within an icosahedron of mirrors that nearly perfectly reflect it over and over with very little energy loss, producing a very extensive “hall of mirrors” effect. The first version just had the color of the light stay the same for all reflections.

The second version, and the one that I originally planned to release as the poster, used the Light Path node to set every recursion in the reflection to a different color. One bounce is one color, two bounces is slightly different, and so on. This is done by using the ray depth parameter of the light path node. Ray depth keeps track of how recursive a particular light ray is. I remapped the range and fed it into a color gradient to achieve the effect I was looking for.

I went through a feedback process for the renders after I got some negative feedback about this render in particular. Because of the low focal length and brightly-colored lights, people felt the image was too noisy altogether. I adjusted the scene to be able to increase the focal length and adjusted the coloration of the lights. To improve readability, I also added minor rim lighting and reduced the maximum number of reflective bounces. I’ll post a comparison element below to show the old and the new version.

Temple JACK

Temple JACK is a pretty simple piece from a BTS perspective; there’s not too much to talk about. I originally planned on having a second, landscape poster in the same setting from a completely underwater view. However, the lighting just wasn’t working out right, so it was scrapped.

I do honestly love the thought of the PASS Time JACK somehow ending up unbelievably massive. It’s really funny

Spirit JACK

Spirit JACK is my most inspired/conceptual poster out of the set. The idea came to me from the art design of the spirit world in the Kung Fu Panda movies, especially the third one. The lighting work done in the area during the final fight of the movie is phenomenal and beautiful, and I wanted to try my hand at an environment similar to it. This poster started in portrait orientation, but feedback let me know that it would look better in landscape orientation.

I later remade Spirit JACK into an improved animation, utilizing the new JACK model I created for projects like this. It features an improved molten gold field, better glitter particles, an improved JACK light and surface, and some cool moving shattered rocks. You can find it here on YouTube.

Sky JACK

Finally, the fan favorite. I have to agree with them; it turned out really nicely. Sky JACK was, like the others, a lesson for a certain area of Blender shaders I wasn’t yet familiar with. This is how I first learned to work with volumes (for the clouds). Sky JACK, in comparison to some of the others, had many publicly released iterations before I arrived at the layout for the final poster. The JACK used to be floating in the middle of clouds or wedged between two rocks; it felt more complete to set it on something flat and solid.

Truth be told, I started writing this blog post months ago when the JACK posters were first released. Since then, I worked on a cool remake of the PASS Time JACK model from the ground up. You can see a video of some of the features here, and I’ll most likely write a blog post about it soon after this one’s published.