Hello! the gladiator dude is finally done. Here are some renders! Enjoyed a lot working on him. I imagine him being some kind of slave. Quiet, towering, and very dangerous. In his collar it says 'Damnatvs anima' which means 'Cursed soul' in latin (Or so was the intention 😂)
I picked this one because it's a full exterior rather than an interior to contrast with the previous entry. It has two major materials, wood and metal. But the metal has different texture variations to explore. Who doesn't like a good rusty metal or worn painted metal? The wood is worn too so that's a good opportunity for some weathering practice. The building has fairly simple angular shapes so it's not too rough on modeling except for the details within those larger shapes. There are a few props/small details but it's not overwhelming.
On the same scrapyard/reclaimed motif there are also these:
These are a little more visually interesting but are also more modeling and detail intensive. They're very big too. If you did a modular approach you could just make a kit and then reproduce several of these concepts. It would be a good exercise in thinking outside of the concept to be efficient and practical from a level design perspective while preserving the aesthetic and details of the concept. Though that may be a little too abstract for a 2-month challenge.
And I'm calling this one done and dusted! Since the previous post, I've added various sign post assets throughout the environment, added dirt/moss/leaf decals and fog throughout the streets, added some fencing around the loading area, worked on the lighting for the interior of the fishmongers, updated textures/materials for the brick walls, bunting and benches and played around with post-processing a ton.
I've created some video flythroughs, prop shots and material breakdowns for an ArtStation post. Looking forward to the next project!
Looks pretty good, but you could push this over the top by re-aranging your assets on the cherry blossom tree. Yours looks a bit unnatural and artificial as the blossoms all point up. I'd study up a bit more on the structure of these trees and I'd also see if you can soften it somehow, the harsh shadows are not doing the piece any favors. It should fee light, and like a cloud...yet currently it's a little rough looking due to all the AO and shadows. You could look at the cherry blossom trees in Overwatch (sorry the map escapes me atm, but could be a good resource). Understood it's stylized, but I do remember those trees looking great. Also I'd expect to see a few petals littering the ground a bit more naturally...because the contrast isn't enough you're loosing a lot of the impact/contrast. This environment is screaming for a bicycle, car, or rickshaw.... The patterns on the awnings are also a bit tight, will always be noisy when viewed at a distance....Almost done...Keep going.
So much has happened in the the two years since I started. Another thing you may have noticed is that there is no insulation in the house. Newer homes (past 20 years or so) started getting insulation. What makes this hard is lack of a garage. I have no work area at all so I can't leave my tools out. I had to buy a locker for them.
Did drywall, ceiling and started fixtures. I don't like the window framing, so gonna rip them down and do again.
This is the smoking room. It will be used for working out/dance.
Ceiling is plywood. I am thinking to do a dropped light fixture instead of the bars here.
Toilet. Now I can sit and not hit my head on the ceiling.
New bath, I did the walls with micro-cement and made it black. This was hard work too... sucked. The idea with the bath now is that there is a door to go outside in the summer so kids can play on the deck and come inside and clean off. This idea was from my wifes mom.
The house is black
The entire 2nd floor has 5mm sound dampening material under the floor. I also ran gigabit networking to all the rooms. My oldest son doing work I didn't want to do
Cool thing about doing this is new toys.
Smoking room flooring done.
Dead tired that day...
Doing an island kitchen with a real stove. Can't wait.
We're much farther along than what is above. Just about ready to do flooring downstairs.
It was the best of times. It was the strangest of times. It was the scammiest of times. It was the time when I started wasting a scammer's time when I had never even gotten a scam attempt from them yet. These were days of glory and confusion. Mostly confusion.
We shall start at the beginning.
When I so tragically lost contact with our previous contestant, Jess Peterson, I spent all of 5 heart-wrrenching seconds searching for them on Telegram when I instead happened upon another scammer: Ellen Smith, who was most definitely not from Electronic Arts. And so it began, this sordid affair...
A simple opening. Like a pawn making the first move on a chessboard. What side had the advantage now? Hell if I know, I was playing backgammon.
Besides creating a sense of desperation on my end to make the scammer drool and drop their guard a bit, once again - like Sean Connery doing a bad Russian accent - we play our dangerous game. And, again, the greatest tool in my arsenal is the truth. I can wield it when the scammer least expects it, and they are NEVER ready for it.
We did in fact have so much snow my wife got her dog sled out, and both our Siberian huskies ran themselves gleefully stupid.
But back to Ellen.
Yeah, the cost of living out here is nuts. What she doesn't know is that Bigfoot and I have never been seen in the same place at the same time. Shhh... it's a tax dodge.
Oh hey, there's that too. I suppose I need to sound credible.
I have never "robbed" a bank in a former Soviet republic. I have been sent a worthless check from one, though! Shipping Russian flight sims is a... interesting experience. Also my apologies to my animation team friends, I love you all, you're awesome people. Please check the world files back into Perforce so I can get to them now, thanks.
After that, I got a hearty:
(sigh) Really, Ellen? I'm giving this my all and I just feel like you're not contributing as much. C'mon, WORK WITH ME HERE ELLEN.
At this point, anybody else that remembers the era in the Seattle area during mid 90s when Airhead candy was basically a form of fiat currency for kids, can probably pin down how old I am, maybe what school I went to, and even my blood sugar levels. I still hate Airheads to this day.
Also, no, I won't work on smut. Not for that little, anyway. Please. We're talking 10x normal rate at least.
The normal maps expand consciousness. The normal maps are vital to space travel.
I had a classmate that actually experimented with hand-painting texture maps (literally gouache on printed UV maps) in art school. It was hideously time consuming but it sure looked cool for the small chunk they got done before they abandoned the idea.
I'm glad you approve, Ellen. It makes me almost feel a little twinge of sympathy. ...it's gone now.
I had to jump off unexpectedly because I have a 5-year-old and 5-year-old things happened, so Ellen pushed the issue the next day and I got back to her when I damn well felt like it.
We got hail and lightning but the roof was already in bad shape. As far as Ellen knows, though, I am constantly beset by natural disasters, weather, and the past-trauma from hostile classmates. She's not wrong... she's just an idiot.
Here's where I tried something new, for variety's sake. Let's see what we get...
Oh crap, I think I spooked her.
Soccer is boring. Was FIFA 2015 even any good or was it just another roster update? I've never played it. I also won't play it anytime soon.
Don't you skate on me yet, Ellen... We're crafting a masterpiece, you and I. And we are not done yet. I'm not done yet, anyway.
Note: this would make me approximately 2200 years old, since the Punic Wars were in approximately 180 BC (240ish to 160ish, they lasted a while). While I never quite got to play the card, my plan was to lock her up by demanding she add "sergeant" the next time she said "yes", just to see how much I could yank her chain. Because I seriously doubt she is actually she, or has human feelings. This is a scammer we're dealing with, after all. I'm pretty sure they divide asexually and consume radiation from old nuclear test sites.
But no dice. She just barreled ahead as if I wasn't there. I'm feeling very ignored here, Ellen. I want to talk to HR.
Part of me wants to bust out that line in an actual job interview just to see their reaction. Here was Ellen's: nothing. She's a machine. In fact I'm starting to wonder if they might actually be using some kind of chatbot system with a human supervising. Nobody could have read half of this and been this stupid. Except Ellen, the scammer. Ellen has been this stupid. So I stand corrected: one person has read this and is still this stupid.
I've never even set foot in Umpqua, sorry Umpqua. I only thought of it because I drive by one of their branches on the way home.
Ah, here's the heart of the scam, and now I legitimately have to be careful - the fake check scam can blow things up pretty thoroughly even if you don't bite, if you aren't careful. So it's time for me to either set the hook and fillet her, or pull the ejection handle. The burning question: ...why not both?
I'm acting committal here without actually agreeing to anything just to cover my ass. And now the fish or cut bait moment: she has to agree to something I'm demanding. Will her stupidity and greed override the obvious right in front of her? Will the scammer take the bait? WILL IT ALL CATCH FIRE AND END? IS EVERYTHING RUINED FOREVER?!
...and just as quickly as it started, it was over. She was gone. I was alone, and nobody had called me sergeant. I never got to tell her to send her check to an address that was actually the county sheriff's fraud division. I never got to tell her how I really felt.
Ellen [whose name is almost surely not actually Ellen], you're an idiot and I feel like I have indigestion after talking to you. There, that's better.
It ends. Not with a bang, or a whimper, but a WTF. Fitting, in a way. It was brief, but... honestly, just brief. It's probably for the best.
Fare the well, probably-not-Ellen. We will all remember you... just not the way you hoped.