have people made their entrance arch higher then the other arches? I just can't seem to get a nice cylindracal shape at that distance and height... -.-
Experimented with seeing how much mileage I can get out of my bakes after spending a bit more time in zbrush cleaning up the mesh (The column is too soft and will probably get poked with a hot MAKE SHARPER button)
So, apart from a reaalllyy faint rock texture at the bottom its entirely abused bakes of different kinds.
Still need to paint the green on it in.
Currently 1024/1024 - will probably reduce to a 512/512 at the end (If I remember)
Shauws - Your rocks are looking a bit lumpy at the moment, Might be worth going over it and tightening up some of those edges.
It also, since you have all of those rocks built. Might be worth experimenting with literally building the column in 3d, then re-projecting or projecting a column for your low poly, would hopefully give you a nicer silhouette and less issues with the normal map being projected onto a cylinder.
@shiv Thanks for the reply i was going for a more rounded stone, ill tighted up the corners tonight and see how it looks, do you think the stonnes would look better if they were more squared? And yah i was planning on using these stones and making the pillars and using the topology tools in zbrush to make a low poly pillar
Same problem here. I know what you mean. For my large arch: The absolute height of the element itself is the same as the small arches. Yet I pulled the arch-bend higher than from the small ones, so it is up to 60% of the elements height. The arch is still very flat... Looks fine in the whiteboxing. But I'm not sure whether the sculpt will look too fragile then... =/
@ Shiv
Is there a reason why all of your stones making your stairs are same size? Personally I think its a bit too generic looking. Well you gave each stone a nice own "face", so they still look fine. But I'd put in some variations in width and stuff. just here and there one with double the size to break that rasterized look?
I may be a total d-bag for mentioning this, but it's been bugging the hell out of me since I've started working on this.
This is a great image, but none of it makes any sense. I've already mentioned the construction issues architecturally speaking, but the art history and cultural aspects don't make any sense either. The tomb and the arches are heavy, primitive and blocky, but the statue is elfish, advanced and graceful. The armor designs are lyrical and light. It doesn't match the temple at all.
It's like a society that is awesome at sculpture and metal work, but have no concept of architecture. It's like putting the Laocoon in Stonehenge.
I'm not trying to be a d-bag here, but it's important to me to have a story behind fantasy pieces otherwise it doesn't have any inner life...
The rule of thumb when following concepts is: "do it like the concept, but cooler".
So if you think the pillars should be sharper and more defined to match the statue; or the statue should be rough and worn to match the pillars, go for it.
The rule of thumb when following concepts is: "do it like the concept, but cooler".
So if you think the pillars should be sharper and more defined to match the statue; or the statue should be rough and worn to match the pillars, go for it.
Also another rule: fix everything that concept is missing or is not logical.
It's pretty clear that on this concept entire structure would collapse, because of lack of supporting arches.
Also another rule: fix everything that concept is missing or is not logical.
It's pretty clear that on this concept entire structure would collapse, because of lack of supporting arches.
hmmm.. this is true to a lesser extent, but is superseeded by the ultimate rule:
I'm happy to adjust the concept where I don't think it works. Most possibly the statue will become older and more worn looking. That way I can cut off the out reaching arm and not have to do an entire limb! Win win
@Rockguy I love that first texture sphere! Could you give a brief run down of how it's made up? I'm starting to get my head around depth maps so you can blend in the moss from the 'deepest' parts first. Looks very cool
Finished the static meshes. I have the odd bit of rubble to do (forgot to update the arch over the stairs here) and the odd bit of detail that will be around the edge of the base etc.
Now starting to work on my textures cause I suck at them so need the next 2 weeks to do them. I also don't have zbrush or mudbox to sculpt in so that may cause some issues, will see about getting it on my pc if I can.
Hi guys, this is the first time I've attempted one of these challenges and the first time I've posted any of my work on the forum. So far I've just done a block out but I'm going to use this contest to brush up on my Zbrush skills.
First time doing one of these challenges and it gives me the chance to use Zbrush and UDK. Next I'm going to create basic pattern textures in B&W and import those textures into Zbrush as a template to build up the HiRes models.
S_ource Watch out for the vertical lines where your stones match up, this will probably make the tiling more obvious and makes less sense structurally.
rockguy Nice material tests. First thing that jumps out is the amount of high frequency noise in the first one though. I would try to tone the smaller details down and focus on getting a little more volume, which should read a lot better.
Shuaws Looking Nice man, Only crit would be maybe too much detail coming from alphas and not form? could be wrong though.
Hannah Good start, watch out for the spaces between stones on the texture though. Once grout is in the space is usually even larger. I'd make it so the stones almost touch and then the grout plane will give you the spaces. I usually misjudge this and end up with massive gaps and having to re-bake a billion times
Started my blockout and base sculpt of a pillar.
Really want to learn things from this, so crits very much appreciated.
The "main" arch is the most emblematic, if you follow the artwork you'll end up with not enough space for the inner indent, not to mention for the arch support stones.
@desktoppirate thanks for the crits yah its the alphas I think I set all my details on desperate layers so I'll tone them down. I really like your pillars so far the bottom part looks great the column looks good there's just some sections that look slightly wrong or misplaced if that makes sense maybe I'm just being over critical I'm not sure but good job so far
@ desktoppirate- Nice pillars. You've definitely made the stack of rocks look like it could hold the weight of the arches. My only comment would be on the middle, second to the bottom, thin, parallel stones look off and attract too much attention. I'd suggest making that one stone.
TazN : Thanks , For the moment its just a normalmap done with the nvidia filter in photoshop, but I been cleaning the noise so the stone looks a bit more clean.
Yours have a good start with yours, wonder if you will implement the cavern or leave it as an open area.
desktoppirate : Thanks , yeah Im still cleaning the noise, I been using a simple brush to cover the moss and then have it as individual map that I can blend.
Nice highpolys you have for the pillar by the way.
@ Dave Jr:
I made my Entrance arch higher, but I made sure not to go TOO far up so there would be enough stones to make it look structurally sound, with the little ledge on the inside.
@TheKorruptOne
Nice start on the blockout. I don't know if its, me or the angle, but it looks like your pillars are a little too tall or too thin, I could be wrong though if you followed the side view of the concept. Also, try using imgur to host your pictures instead of attaching them, it makes it easier for people to view your work.
I've started on my 2 main textures, a lot of work still needs to be done to them, but its a start.
Here they are on the blockout in marmoset (just ignore the stretched uvs)
I'm not sure if the tiling brick-like texture works on the pillars, or if I should break down and actually sculpt a pillar. Any thoughts?
McFearson: I like your textures so far but I think the ground texture of the structure should be less looking like stones, more like cracked earth. Take a look at RockGuys or Guessmyname's on the previous page, they both have nice looking textures going on for it. You may even be able to improve it by adding some more contrast to the texture itself, and increasing the amount of tiling on the structure by 1.5 ~ 2.
Heres my block out so far Also first time doing these challenges as well like others here.
Not worried about to much just yet except for a good basic form and good proportions. Think I got it down, so next I will be moving onto creating all the actual modular assets, utilizing zbrush... should be interesting.
My pillars also deviated a bit from the concept, so I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it like that or not. Just a bit of liberty, but could easily be changed. What do you guys think?
This may seem like a silly question to some, but how is everyone else going at the pillars for sculpting (if that's what you are doing)? I don't much experience with sculpting overall, but I'd like to learn. My biggest concern is the bricks basically, like are you guys going in and adding blocks to the meshes to create the detail, or some other way, like an alpha? I'm not very good at it, so some insight would help
This may seem like a silly question to some, but how is everyone else going at the pillars for sculpting (if that's what you are doing)? I don't much experience with sculpting overall, but I'd like to learn. My biggest concern is the bricks basically, like are you guys going in and adding blocks to the meshes to create the detail, or some other way, like an alpha? I'm not very good at it, so some insight would help
I don't. I just made tillable texture. It's a way you will end up doing most of times anyway. Bet get to be used to it .
This may seem like a silly question to some, but how is everyone else going at the pillars for sculpting (if that's what you are doing)? I don't much experience with sculpting overall, but I'd like to learn. My biggest concern is the bricks basically, like are you guys going in and adding blocks to the meshes to create the detail, or some other way, like an alpha? I'm not very good at it, so some insight would help
ohhey lol. For the pillars I made and sculpted a texture that tiles horizontally. I took my UV'ed pillar from max and brought it into my sculpting program and just went to work.
Hey, guys!
I unfortunately find a lot of things to divert me from this challenge lately... So therefore I feel dead-slow of course.
But I think I have to put up a wip-update, since u guys already show a lot.
@ Higuy
Heres what I did with my pillar:
left side is what probably will end up as mesh in the engine...
right side is what I threw into ZBrush. Its the pillar cut into pieces (not only edgeloops!)
Yeaah... what was I thinking?
I put up the pillar that way becasue I thought:
- the mesh devided into sections would make it easy to form polygroups and subtools in ZBrush.
- doing so would make the sculpt very comfortable and save a lot of masking action
- The sections hopefully help to create versions of the broken pillars.
I didn't think about a simple tileable texture for the pillar because I hoped to get 2 versions of pillars (intact one and broken one) into one UVW-layout so they share one texture file... Im not quite sure anymore wheter this will work out...
Fact is, I think I wasted quite some time for the division of the pillar and could have had it waaaay easier. Now I see why a lot of dudes just make tileables and map the pillar onto it...
Well...
I'll go on along the way I chose but I think all of you can judge for themselves, which way is best in their eyes. Hope my case helps for your decisions ;D
Heres the sculpts I have already: Theyre all WIP and lack some detail.
this last one is the ugly duck of the things I did so far. I dont like it at all. I think I'll rework it. Its just plain ugly in my eyes.
Look awesome nBac, would you mind summarising how you arrived at this?, i havnt really worked with stone sculpting (or much sculpting at all) before, so i'd really like a few tips and tricks
Guessmyname - the stony floor texture is looking very nice I would suggest tiling it a little more (maybe 25%) just to increase the texel density. you could also maybe do some very quick paint overs of the diffuse with a dirt / grime brush at very low opacity and with a few different colours (be subtle!) just to give some variation over the surface. look forward to seeing more!
Fnitrox - looking very nice indeed, great work on the stone texture, would very much like to see an image of just your texture pages for that. I think the colours in the lighting for your 2nd image are certainly better, a really nice vibe and atmosphere
Mesh wise, how about making the pillars something 10% thinner, it feels quite 'heavy' at the moment
Shiv - I like the shapes and forms you have for you pillar man, it really reads like a very loosely and roughly constructed object, and still reads like something that would work, my only suggestion would be to reduce the noise on the texture a little and use highlights to pick out edges. The steps also suffer a little from noise and could use the same, and also I agree to vary the shape and size of the stones in the steps to add variation.
really interested in seeing the results of using the cry engine tessellation!
MerlinTheWiz4rd - good start on the blockout! I'd suggest bulking everything out a little (or reducing the radius of the entire temple)
Hannah - very nice start on the stone texture and very interested to see how this turns out for you, I'd recommend reducing the gaps a small amount between the bricks, although keep the gaps a little over exaggerated so the normal can do it's thing for the blockout possibly increase the height of the pillars some.
McFearson - I think your blockout shapes are fine! you have most of the scale working well. my only suggestion would be to reduce the width and depth of the 'feet' at the bottom of the pillars so they are less weighty, and also to slightly reduce the height of the statue.
A good start on your textures and I think the tiling stone does work on the pillars, if possible maybe reduce some of the noise in the stones and use highlights to define edges and shapes, also varying slightly the colour of each brick to give them less uniformity.
Sir_Dillon - good work on the sculpts, I like the stone steps, and the pillar base you have in the 3rd image is a good enough start. I would suggest using hpolish and other flattening tools to reduce the over all noise, define edges and shapes very much like you have in the stone steps and you will have it
Shuaws - really liking the sculpt on the tiling stone wall, the variation of size of stone really helps with the make-do build feel of it all
desktoppirate - sweet sculpt on the pillar dude, looking very nice indeed. I think you have got just the right amount of detail and shape defining forms that shout stone without being too noisy, great stuff.
your blockout looks pretty much spot on, although I find it hard to determine what the height of a person would be, either the alter in the centre is very high or the steps leading into the temple are very low thin steps.. just a small thing though, great start!
not all that much of an update from me. havn't had all that much time to play in max a few quick images of texture testing etc and everything still in 3ds max, I will need to start throwing everything into UDK soon!
I've moved some way from the design of the pillar in the concept into something that I hope has a little less noise and bit of unique-ness to it. would love to know what you guys think?
of course any crits, comments or suggestions are welcome.
desktoppirate Yeah i tried to get it look good tiled but i missed that for some reason. Will look out for that next time but it doesn't seam to be very noticeable anyway.
And also, i did use a pre made tileable texture for the stuff in between the stones so i guess my stuff doesn't really count in the challenge anymore but i feel that it is a waste of time to do it if you don't need to, and i understand that the goal is to learn but i feel its better to put time on other stuff if already can do it.
S_ource Yeah its not too obvious now its baked, but I've had troubles with that it the past so I'd consider it next time. looking good though man
L3XICON STOP BEING A BEAST! looking sexy dude, I'm liking the little glyphs you've added especially. Did you do a unique texture for the pillar in the end?
nbacnice, probably the closest to the concept image so far I think, is that tessellated or did you model out the geo?
Sir_Dillon Good start, I'm liking how you've approached the pillar. I'd say to try and harden up some of the stones though as they look a little soft (but it could be that matcap). I like that little indent on the pillar base too man, good stuff
RobertHedlund Thanks for the advice man, I really noticed that after you said. I eventually decided to merge the middle 2 stones though, instead of going for one large one
rockguy Thanks!
Shuaws yeah I can see what you mean man, I was trying to get that look of stones sort of falling out etc. but they do look wonky. Hopefully it looks better now its baked down and I moved/scaled a few of them? Really nice update on the texture btw! now get some colour in there
Update! The pillars were fun to sculpt, but it took a while since it's a unique texture. A few seams from the AO, but I'll fix that :poly136:
Sir_Dillon: Thank you man!! that picture actually helped me alot with the sculpting process !
Lexicon: Thats an interesting approach man, it looks cool. I think the top of your pillar (the small flat piece at the very top) should be thicker though, so it fits between the bricks at the top of the structure maybe? Right now it seems as if its just kinda sticking out infront of them.
Shuaws: Nice texture man, normals really pop along with everything else. Only thing I would suggest is that some of the rocks are really flat and skinny looking and just look a little odd being smashed between way bigger ones, but maybe that's just me.
I did try my hand at sculpting for the pillar, this was the outcome:
It's not the greatest thing in the world, but I'm happy with it only because its a big improvement over the sculpt I tried to do last night without any insight into it. I guess next will be an attempt to do the other items. I will also probably try to keep the texture sheet for this also have room for the destroyed section textures as well, as that seems the most efficient. (Now to figure out baking lol) Any critcism towards it would be awesome and will help me with my next sculpts . I didnt get a whole lot of time to work on it today since I was fooling with my car and such, but I also managed to import my base mesh into UDK for the lols:
Yeah the UV's are terrible and everything, but hey, its a WIP and all the assets will be replaced in the long run anyway
Hmm, Id like to join. I have not done anything 3D out of work in a while. And I never finish anything. So, I'll focus on doing this asap. I need something to show that I can do this stuff I can't be doing 3d shoes for the next 3 years. I'll do a blockout and an asset list. Not too late to join I suppose? Looks like a easy scene (w/o the cave area)
I want to build a blockout in 3Ds Max,
Sculp the pieces by Ark/Pillar/Steps/Top Pieces,
Make Variations from the *clean* after zbrush sculp (break or destroy on Zbrush)
Topogun pieces.
Compose scene with created assets in UDK
My focus here is on asset creation while still composing the scene.
I want to make the least possible amount of work, and yet compose the most organic as possible ruins w/o making it look too modular.
Sorry for late post, servers for my e-mail were down and I couldn't remember my Polycount details.
@L3XICON - Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I noticed that with my original stone texture so I decided to redo it to reduce the gaps (picture below). Thanks for pointing out the issue with the pillars, I need to play around some as the blockout is still a bit muddy. Your pillars are looking pretty sweet! I love the quirky feeling to the brickwork.
@desktoppirate- Blockout is looking pretty stellar, scale seems spot on. Are you planning on putting it in UDK or keeping it in Marmoset?
@Higuy - Really nice start on the pillar. However, looks like you've sculpted on a too-low subdivision level so some of the details look a bit low-res (especially around the base). Perhaps try blocking in the main details on a lower level, and then increasing the subdivisions for the cracks and scratches and stuff?
________________
Okay so I've been working on my textures this past couple of days.
The floor tile:
Still a WIP as I need to rebake the normals (for some reason the sampling in Maya is messing up, so I need to rebake 2x the resolution and downscale it in Photoshop). The diffuse is still a bit flat/dark so will be polishing that up too.
And the re-done brick wall tile, freshly baked. About to start on the diffuse but put it in to NDo2 to post:
Hannah: Thanks for the info, I'll try to keep that in mind next time. One thing I realized after sculpting that is that an edge loop was also messed up on that block, so that also added to the fuzziness as well . Perhaps if I have a time, I'll go back and try to improve it, but I already started the texture for it. By the way, nice tillable rock texture, it looks quite nice, excited to see what the diffuse may look like . Your floor tile is also quite nice, not sure if you plan on adding more detail to it, but its kinda flat and doesn't pop as much, might be the normals like you had said. Def some good stuff though.
Desktoppirate: Awesome pillars so far man, they look great along with your blockout. For some reason they look like they might be able to be a tad taller though, but perhaps that just me
I've also started texturing: I did the pillar and the brick pieces that are on the base structure. Decided to make them their own model since I would like to use them elsewhere in the map, and it was good practice for baking/sculpting/texturing (still have to make a spec). Might try to go back and add some large cracks to them, however I may be able to simulate that with decals, however, I'm not exactly sure how that works in UDK yet.
Got a small seam on my pillar texture, think it might be the AO and some of the grunge in the texture, not sure yet but going to try and polish that up.
Here is also a small render from 3ds illustrating it all as a whole so far.
Gonna try and make some small details like candles and a cloth to lay over the tomb, but that will come much later Prob gonna try and make some tillables now, I think I will use those for the bottom base.
Hey guys, I'm in too.
Did a quick block out and was making a tillable rocks texture. I'm having an issue with the ZAppLink. Texture gets darker in Photoshop as seen below.
Any idea , what's wrong ?
@cmtanko ive never had this sort of problem before. I dont use zapplink very much, i used xnormal for my first texture im not sure if you have used it before
Zapplink was easier and this never happened.. I'll try MRGB(never tried). @Shuaws: I do use xNormal as well, but I made this tilable texture in Zbrush(2.5D) so cannot export it as a Hirez mesh,. thats why cant use xNormal in this case.
Replies
have people made their entrance arch higher then the other arches? I just can't seem to get a nice cylindracal shape at that distance and height... -.-
So, apart from a reaalllyy faint rock texture at the bottom its entirely abused bakes of different kinds.
Still need to paint the green on it in.
Currently 1024/1024 - will probably reduce to a 512/512 at the end (If I remember)
Shauws - Your rocks are looking a bit lumpy at the moment, Might be worth going over it and tightening up some of those edges.
It also, since you have all of those rocks built. Might be worth experimenting with literally building the column in 3d, then re-projecting or projecting a column for your low poly, would hopefully give you a nicer silhouette and less issues with the normal map being projected onto a cylinder.
Same problem here. I know what you mean. For my large arch: The absolute height of the element itself is the same as the small arches. Yet I pulled the arch-bend higher than from the small ones, so it is up to 60% of the elements height. The arch is still very flat... Looks fine in the whiteboxing. But I'm not sure whether the sculpt will look too fragile then... =/
@ Shiv
Is there a reason why all of your stones making your stairs are same size? Personally I think its a bit too generic looking. Well you gave each stone a nice own "face", so they still look fine. But I'd put in some variations in width and stuff. just here and there one with double the size to break that rasterized look?
This is a great image, but none of it makes any sense. I've already mentioned the construction issues architecturally speaking, but the art history and cultural aspects don't make any sense either. The tomb and the arches are heavy, primitive and blocky, but the statue is elfish, advanced and graceful. The armor designs are lyrical and light. It doesn't match the temple at all.
It's like a society that is awesome at sculpture and metal work, but have no concept of architecture. It's like putting the Laocoon in Stonehenge.
I'm not trying to be a d-bag here, but it's important to me to have a story behind fantasy pieces otherwise it doesn't have any inner life...
So if you think the pillars should be sharper and more defined to match the statue; or the statue should be rough and worn to match the pillars, go for it.
Also another rule: fix everything that concept is missing or is not logical.
It's pretty clear that on this concept entire structure would collapse, because of lack of supporting arches.
..the Rule of Cool 8)
@Rockguy I love that first texture sphere! Could you give a brief run down of how it's made up? I'm starting to get my head around depth maps so you can blend in the moss from the 'deepest' parts first. Looks very cool
Finished the static meshes. I have the odd bit of rubble to do (forgot to update the arch over the stairs here) and the odd bit of detail that will be around the edge of the base etc.
Now starting to work on my textures cause I suck at them so need the next 2 weeks to do them. I also don't have zbrush or mudbox to sculpt in so that may cause some issues, will see about getting it on my pc if I can.
rockguy Nice material tests. First thing that jumps out is the amount of high frequency noise in the first one though. I would try to tone the smaller details down and focus on getting a little more volume, which should read a lot better.
Shuaws Looking Nice man, Only crit would be maybe too much detail coming from alphas and not form? could be wrong though.
Hannah Good start, watch out for the spaces between stones on the texture though. Once grout is in the space is usually even larger. I'd make it so the stones almost touch and then the grout plane will give you the spaces. I usually misjudge this and end up with massive gaps and having to re-bake a billion times
Started my blockout and base sculpt of a pillar.
Really want to learn things from this, so crits very much appreciated.
The "main" arch is the most emblematic, if you follow the artwork you'll end up with not enough space for the inner indent, not to mention for the arch support stones.
Yours have a good start with yours, wonder if you will implement the cavern or leave it as an open area.
desktoppirate : Thanks , yeah Im still cleaning the noise, I been using a simple brush to cover the moss and then have it as individual map that I can blend.
Nice highpolys you have for the pillar by the way.
just need to finish the top and bottom of the pillar its not unwrapped properly
I made my Entrance arch higher, but I made sure not to go TOO far up so there would be enough stones to make it look structurally sound, with the little ledge on the inside.
@TheKorruptOne
Nice start on the blockout. I don't know if its, me or the angle, but it looks like your pillars are a little too tall or too thin, I could be wrong though if you followed the side view of the concept. Also, try using imgur to host your pictures instead of attaching them, it makes it easier for people to view your work.
I've started on my 2 main textures, a lot of work still needs to be done to them, but its a start.
Here they are on the blockout in marmoset (just ignore the stretched uvs)
I'm not sure if the tiling brick-like texture works on the pillars, or if I should break down and actually sculpt a pillar. Any thoughts?
Heres my block out so far
Not worried about to much just yet except for a good basic form and good proportions. Think I got it down, so next I will be moving onto creating all the actual modular assets, utilizing zbrush... should be interesting.
My pillars also deviated a bit from the concept, so I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it like that or not. Just a bit of liberty, but could easily be changed. What do you guys think?
I don't. I just made tillable texture. It's a way you will end up doing most of times anyway. Bet get to be used to it
ohhey lol. For the pillars I made and sculpted a texture that tiles horizontally. I took my UV'ed pillar from max and brought it into my sculpting program and just went to work.
I unfortunately find a lot of things to divert me from this challenge lately... So therefore I feel dead-slow of course.
But I think I have to put up a wip-update, since u guys already show a lot.
@ Higuy
Heres what I did with my pillar:
left side is what probably will end up as mesh in the engine...
right side is what I threw into ZBrush. Its the pillar cut into pieces (not only edgeloops!)
Yeaah... what was I thinking?
I put up the pillar that way becasue I thought:
- the mesh devided into sections would make it easy to form polygroups and subtools in ZBrush.
- doing so would make the sculpt very comfortable and save a lot of masking action
- The sections hopefully help to create versions of the broken pillars.
I didn't think about a simple tileable texture for the pillar because I hoped to get 2 versions of pillars (intact one and broken one) into one UVW-layout so they share one texture file... Im not quite sure anymore wheter this will work out...
Fact is, I think I wasted quite some time for the division of the pillar and could have had it waaaay easier. Now I see why a lot of dudes just make tileables and map the pillar onto it...
Well...
I'll go on along the way I chose but I think all of you can judge for themselves, which way is best in their eyes. Hope my case helps for your decisions ;D
Heres the sculpts I have already: Theyre all WIP and lack some detail.
this last one is the ugly duck of the things I did so far. I dont like it at all. I think I'll rework it. Its just plain ugly in my eyes.
have a nice weekend guys!
cheers!
first tileable piece - collum
Fnitrox - looking very nice indeed, great work on the stone texture, would very much like to see an image of just your texture pages for that. I think the colours in the lighting for your 2nd image are certainly better, a really nice vibe and atmosphere
Mesh wise, how about making the pillars something 10% thinner, it feels quite 'heavy' at the moment
Shiv - I like the shapes and forms you have for you pillar man, it really reads like a very loosely and roughly constructed object, and still reads like something that would work, my only suggestion would be to reduce the noise on the texture a little and use highlights to pick out edges. The steps also suffer a little from noise and could use the same, and also I agree to vary the shape and size of the stones in the steps to add variation.
really interested in seeing the results of using the cry engine tessellation!
MerlinTheWiz4rd - good start on the blockout! I'd suggest bulking everything out a little (or reducing the radius of the entire temple)
Hannah - very nice start on the stone texture and very interested to see how this turns out for you, I'd recommend reducing the gaps a small amount between the bricks, although keep the gaps a little over exaggerated so the normal can do it's thing
McFearson - I think your blockout shapes are fine! you have most of the scale working well. my only suggestion would be to reduce the width and depth of the 'feet' at the bottom of the pillars so they are less weighty, and also to slightly reduce the height of the statue.
A good start on your textures and I think the tiling stone does work on the pillars, if possible maybe reduce some of the noise in the stones and use highlights to define edges and shapes, also varying slightly the colour of each brick to give them less uniformity.
Sir_Dillon - good work on the sculpts, I like the stone steps, and the pillar base you have in the 3rd image is a good enough start. I would suggest using hpolish and other flattening tools to reduce the over all noise, define edges and shapes very much like you have in the stone steps and you will have it
Shuaws - really liking the sculpt on the tiling stone wall, the variation of size of stone really helps with the make-do build feel of it all
desktoppirate - sweet sculpt on the pillar dude, looking very nice indeed. I think you have got just the right amount of detail and shape defining forms that shout stone without being too noisy, great stuff.
your blockout looks pretty much spot on, although I find it hard to determine what the height of a person would be, either the alter in the centre is very high or the steps leading into the temple are very low thin steps.. just a small thing though, great start!
not all that much of an update from me. havn't had all that much time to play in max
I've moved some way from the design of the pillar in the concept into something that I hope has a little less noise and bit of unique-ness to it. would love to know what you guys think?
of course any crits, comments or suggestions are welcome.
desktoppirate Yeah i tried to get it look good tiled but i missed that for some reason. Will look out for that next time but it doesn't seam to be very noticeable anyway.
And also, i did use a pre made tileable texture for the stuff in between the stones so i guess my stuff doesn't really count in the challenge anymore but i feel that it is a waste of time to do it if you don't need to, and i understand that the goal is to learn but i feel its better to put time on other stuff if already can do it.
Still some touching up to do, getting there.
L3XICON STOP BEING A BEAST! looking sexy dude, I'm liking the little glyphs you've added especially. Did you do a unique texture for the pillar in the end?
nbac nice, probably the closest to the concept image so far I think, is that tessellated or did you model out the geo?
Sir_Dillon Good start, I'm liking how you've approached the pillar. I'd say to try and harden up some of the stones though as they look a little soft (but it could be that matcap). I like that little indent on the pillar base too man, good stuff
RobertHedlund Thanks for the advice man, I really noticed that after you said. I eventually decided to merge the middle 2 stones though, instead of going for one large one
rockguy Thanks!
Shuaws yeah I can see what you mean man, I was trying to get that look of stones sort of falling out etc. but they do look wonky. Hopefully it looks better now its baked down and I moved/scaled a few of them? Really nice update on the texture btw! now get some colour in there
Update! The pillars were fun to sculpt, but it took a while since it's a unique texture. A few seams from the AO, but I'll fix that :poly136:
Lexicon: Thats an interesting approach man, it looks cool. I think the top of your pillar (the small flat piece at the very top) should be thicker though, so it fits between the bricks at the top of the structure maybe? Right now it seems as if its just kinda sticking out infront of them.
Shuaws: Nice texture man, normals really pop along with everything else. Only thing I would suggest is that some of the rocks are really flat and skinny looking and just look a little odd being smashed between way bigger ones, but maybe that's just me.
I did try my hand at sculpting for the pillar, this was the outcome:
It's not the greatest thing in the world, but I'm happy with it only because its a big improvement over the sculpt I tried to do last night without any insight into it. I guess next will be an attempt to do the other items. I will also probably try to keep the texture sheet for this also have room for the destroyed section textures as well, as that seems the most efficient. (Now to figure out baking lol) Any critcism towards it would be awesome and will help me with my next sculpts
Yeah the UV's are terrible and everything, but hey, its a WIP and all the assets will be replaced in the long run anyway
@desktoppirate: thanks... btw what did you mean by color im assuming something other than grey tones?
@Higuy: thanks man yah i would change that but ill save it for the end if i have time, i want to get the other textures done but thanks for the tip.
Thanks for the comments im going to sleep its been a long day for me ill work more on this scene tomorrow
I want to build a blockout in 3Ds Max,
Sculp the pieces by Ark/Pillar/Steps/Top Pieces,
Make Variations from the *clean* after zbrush sculp (break or destroy on Zbrush)
Topogun pieces.
Compose scene with created assets in UDK
My focus here is on asset creation while still composing the scene.
I want to make the least possible amount of work, and yet compose the most organic as possible ruins w/o making it look too modular.
@L3XICON - Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I noticed that with my original stone texture so I decided to redo it to reduce the gaps (picture below). Thanks for pointing out the issue with the pillars, I need to play around some as the blockout is still a bit muddy. Your pillars are looking pretty sweet! I love the quirky feeling to the brickwork.
@desktoppirate - Blockout is looking pretty stellar, scale seems spot on. Are you planning on putting it in UDK or keeping it in Marmoset?
@Higuy - Really nice start on the pillar. However, looks like you've sculpted on a too-low subdivision level so some of the details look a bit low-res (especially around the base). Perhaps try blocking in the main details on a lower level, and then increasing the subdivisions for the cracks and scratches and stuff?
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Okay so I've been working on my textures this past couple of days.
The floor tile:
Still a WIP as I need to rebake the normals (for some reason the sampling in Maya is messing up, so I need to rebake 2x the resolution and downscale it in Photoshop). The diffuse is still a bit flat/dark so will be polishing that up too.
And the re-done brick wall tile, freshly baked. About to start on the diffuse but put it in to NDo2 to post:
Desktoppirate: Awesome pillars so far man, they look great along with your blockout. For some reason they look like they might be able to be a tad taller though, but perhaps that just me
I've also started texturing: I did the pillar and the brick pieces that are on the base structure. Decided to make them their own model since I would like to use them elsewhere in the map, and it was good practice for baking/sculpting/texturing (still have to make a spec). Might try to go back and add some large cracks to them, however I may be able to simulate that with decals, however, I'm not exactly sure how that works in UDK yet.
Got a small seam on my pillar texture, think it might be the AO and some of the grunge in the texture, not sure yet but going to try and polish that up.
Here is also a small render from 3ds illustrating it all as a whole so far.
Gonna try and make some small details like candles and a cloth to lay over the tomb, but that will come much later
(totally place-holder texture...)
I started with a rough blockout in Softimage and Imported it into unity.
Advice about furter steps would be great
Did a quick block out and was making a tillable rocks texture. I'm having an issue with the ZAppLink. Texture gets darker in Photoshop as seen below.
Any idea , what's wrong ?
@Shuaws: I do use xNormal as well, but I made this tilable texture in Zbrush(2.5D) so cannot export it as a Hirez mesh,. thats why cant use xNormal in this case.