THRONE ROOM - Madame Pele's Domain - William21984

William3DArtist

Hi Everyone,

I will be working on the Goddess of Hawaii's volcanoes, Pele's domain. I have a lot of great ideas for her throne with the legend of her favorite sister Hi'iaka. Pele carried and incubated Hi'iaka from Tahiti under her armpit or bosom in an egg before she was born. She hatched and was born in Hawaii. I will have Kilauea Caldera Crater keeping the egg warm as you can see shadow of her sister Hi'iaka dancing hula in the egg. She is the spirit of hula. I have a lot to concept with some of these ideas of my culture. Or as a second prop against the wall to her fiery throne. Lots of legends and stories to play with.

Looking forward to the sketches. Looking forward to getting my feet on fire with Substance toolset.

Software

3D Studio Max
ZBrush
XNormal
Crazybump
Photoshop
Substance Designer
Substance Painter

Realtime Renderer

Substance Designer or Painter

William3DArtist

Here is what I am going for. I did not finish my deadline so it is only part done for now. I will finish later.

I have Peles throne (1) sitting on top of Hi'iaka's egg(2) incubating it in the lava. Story says she carried this egg under her arm pit (3) sailing all the way from Tahiti and that since Hi'iaka was first hatched and born in Hawai'i it makes her the first Hawai'ian.
Hi'iaka(4) is the spirit of hula and that is why I have her dancing in the egg. These stories of gods and godesses all could have relationship to the first travelers of Hawai'i.

On top of the throne is the three Mauna's AKA Mountains(5) Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Hualalai which she formed.

The tree to the left of the throne is the Ohia Lehua(6) which thrives through the dry lava beds on Kilauea. It carries Pele's tear(7) high AKA Olivine crystals. Going back to Ohi'a Lehua.

Story goes that Pele was jealous of this man Ohi'a and this woman Lehuas love for each other. She turned herself into her beautiful young form and fell for Ohi'a and wanted him. He did not take notice because his love was only for Lehua. Pele fell in rage and and burned Ohi'a to death with lava because he did not like her. Peles rage continued on and killed Lehua. After talk with the other gods and godesses of Peles family they told her she did wrong. Pele grieved and grieved and felt bad for what she did. Pele took the twos ashes and created the Ohia Lehua tree to keep them inseparable. Ohia( 8 ) is the wood. Lehua(9) is the beautiful fiery red flower. The tree holds up the pele's tear and is next to her throne to remind her the heartache she caused for herself.

The 'ilio(10) dog you see frozen in the tear is peles little white dog. She will take him out when she goes on the surface. That is Tutu Peles favorite dog. It is said if you see an elder lady dressed in a white dress with a little white dog hitchhiking in Hawai'i you pick her up and don't ask questions and deliver her where need be. Because if you don't your house will catch fire engulfed in lava the next day. I will leave ilio dog out for the sake of a live animal not to be entered into the contest. For good measures.

I got my inspiration from Herb Kawainui Kane and reading books on Tutu Pele and her ohana and other gods. Mahalo if you read this long behind post.





Full image has way more story. Will tell if I can finish just the throne part at least.

William3DArtist

Here is some of my reference. So you can see what Ohialehua looks like, pele's tears, and the different formations of lava from pahoehoe to a'a. Thanks,

William

William3DArtist

Just blocking things out in Max. Still not sure to use UDK or Unity yet. Just started messing around with Substance Painter and it is awesome!!!


]

William3DArtist

Progress with blocking is coming along with base mesh. I did a redesign on how I will place the ohialehua tree in the scene. In top concept. Different topology on the egg forgot the quads. Scene looks way cooler silhouette is reading better.

William3DArtist

Found out today that UDK does not support PBR shader technology. Will have to upgrade and buy UE4. Looking forward to that. This contest is keeping me up to date. I love it. Learning a lot. I could only assume since it is Allegorithmics challenge that you would definitely have to use PBR shaders. This contest is awesome and will help me in the long run.

Spoon

It's 20$, so hopefully it won't break budget

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

William3DArtist

Spoon wrote: »

It's 20$, so hopefully it won't break budget

It does with me unfortunately. =( Will make it happen though. Got to take the risk to be a better artist. Found out Unity charges $75.00 a month and I am extremely familiar with using Unity. They give you Pro for 1 month for free which comes with PBR, but after that one month is up its $75.00 to keep it Pro, or $1500.00 flat, but 0 royalties. UDK ask for 5% royalties and $19.00 a month. Found a great article on reddit about price comparisons and royalties. http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/25yxl5/costs_of_unreal_4_versus_unity/

William3DArtist

I found out Marmoset will work in the Q and A.

m4dcow

If you are a student, with a valid .edu email address, you can try to sign up for the Github Student Developer pack, which includes a year of UE4 for free:
https://education.github.com/pack

William3DArtist

m4dcow wrote: »

If you are a student, with a valid .edu email address, you can try to sign up for the Github Student Developer pack, which includes a year of UE4 for free:
https://education.github.com/pack

Thanks m4dcow I will see if I can get it.

William3DArtist

New Stuff. The sculpt in Z Brush. Cant wait to get it into XNormal. Cant wait to retopologize.

William3DArtist

A change of concept and design placement of Gods. Thinking of getting the lava levels to rise and go back down in concept. I have a staircase coming down the lava tube to her throne and lava sculptures on side of her throne. Have a bridge running from cliff of tube to her throne made by the menehunes. Will keep having fun with this one.

William3DArtist

Here is the complete Low Poly version. Minus the OhiaLehua tree and tear. Only 995 Polys

William3DArtist

Here is the mesh with the Normal Map bake created in XNormal. Looking good so far.

William3DArtist

Textured with a Glow Map and it looks awesome!!!. Excited. Time to bring into Substance Designer and Painter. Way Cool. Excited to mess with the software. Time to create some PBR stuffs. I think Fresnel is one shader, don't know the others but excited to learn. This is so cool.

William3DArtist

Creating normal maps with Substance Designer for my tree. Learning the software from scratch. I dont want to jump too far ahead. Getting the most out of this competition would be learning these new tools. Thanks for watching.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlENVLycN34&quot;]&lt;iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JlENVLycN34&quot; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/ame]

William3DArtist

Still here guys. Just posting an update on some of my textures and a shot of my scene placement.I am using 1 4k tex for the entire throne right now. Next I am going to work on a magma bed and other rock parts such as a cave and bridge to throne.

William3DArtist

Some progress. Looking to change the lava texture and have the pu'us shoot out lava. Fun and learning lots.

William3DArtist

Final Submission

Madame Pele's Domain

Software Used

-Substance Designer
-3D Studio Max
-ZBrush
-XNormal
-CrazyBump
-Photoshop