i am new at this : \

genuine90

hello to everybody, i am new here, which means that i am also kinda new at maya, so basically here is my piece
it is a feudal japanese kitchen, so reference are a bit hard to come by

as people can see that i am playing around with light fog and other stuff, any critics at all would very appreiciated http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot1so9.jpg
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/2214/screenshot2nr4.jpg

genuine90

i also noticed that the lighting makes my objects looks edgy, i am guessing normal mapping is needed
can people teach to make good normal map and light fog?

Kin

Nice room, I like how it is full of different props and how by doing so makes it very interesting. I'm not an expert in lighting, so I don't know if it is the render or anything, but the beam of light seems a little strong. Great start overall. Are you going to add more little details so there are a few surprises for people who take the time to look at everything?

genuine90

fix the light fog
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/3562/screenshot3tk4.jpg

noritsune

hey - you're off to a good start!

there's a few things I would suggest to fix right off the bat.

- your objects (barrels, urns) still have hard edges. Since I see you're using maya, select the object in question, then go to Edit Polygons > Normals > Soften/Harden Normals (I am guessing at the titles here) and choose All Soft. As you get more comfortable with that tool, you can soften or harden individual edges. Learning to do that is an excellent way to get more bang for your polygonal buck.
don't think that normal maps will solve this problem - adding normal maps to a scene is a significant decision and will change a lot of your process. I'd leave them out, since it looks like you're just starting out.
- Your lighting setup is extremely high-contrast, but it looks like your textures are extremely low-contrast. It's going to be important to balance these out - I'd suggest taking the contrast in the lighting DOWN by adding an Ambient Light (color of your choice), and bringing UP the contrast and activity in your textures significantly.
- make a decision about where this scene is intended to be viewed from. Is this a 1st-person scene? if so, then place the camera there for your WIP renders. Doing so will tell you if more detail needs to happen at eye-level. If it's meant to be viewed birds-eye, like your current renders suggest, then it's time to start thinking about the exterior, or surroundings, or remainder of the building.

nice job softening the beam of light - a great improvement. Consider rendering with radiosity or ambient occlusion as well! that is, unless you're trying to duplicate the specs of some unknown engine.

Por@szek

The barrel need be smooth. Try to add some other lights, in corners for example, green, blue or red, will add a nice mood. Try to break a color sheme. Add a little contrast and sharpen also should help.

genuine90

i concur that my textures are very low contrast, perhaps adding green (moss) can help..

noritsune

if you want to post one of the texture flats, I could try to suggest something more specific?

genuine90

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4302/walltexturedz6.jpg
wall texture
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6900/pottexture2ua8.jpg
urn texture
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/6884/ricesackxv5.jpg
barrel/drum texture

lots of yellow, which is also the sun's color

steady

hey dude nice work so far, keep goin.

When posting with images from imageshack, you can use the '' tags and link directly to them, this way we dont have to click on each one, wait for the annoying popups, and then close the window again.

noritsune

thanks for posting those. so your textures are pretty near solid colors - time to change that! add a million overlays, patterns, and stains. paint ambient occlusion and basic lighting INTO the diffuse layer, to bring a focus to certain part of the object no matter the lighting conditions. Character textures frequently get brighter around the head and chest area, and darker toward the extremities and less-important parts. there's no reason a pot or barrel texture couldn't try to do the same thing!

these textures, and making them more interesting, should become the first priority as you keep working on this scene. good luck and keep posting!

genuine90

cool, i will do this from now on, thx a lot
reference for a feudal japan house is also hard to find, anyone have any site, games, movie suggestion?

easterislandnick

Its a nice start, good to see some trying environments as a starting point not characters! Have a look at the films the Twiglight Samuraii and The hidden Blade. Both are pretty good, slow burning Samuraii films and as they are chacter not fighting based have loads of scenes inside houses and kitchens.

Matabus

For starters, You have the top and the bottom of that thing unwrapped on one page and they are indenticle. You can just lay your uvs for the bottom in the same spot on your page as the top saving you a whole mess of room ... hell, you could even cut it in half and mirror it saving even more.
Baby steps.

genuine90

working on other rooms now, might be a while before update

genuine90

i am kinda done the three rooms, could add more props, but right now i need help on textures




my textures are kinda flat and hard to relate with other texture, can people help out?
Can everyone also teach me how to make normal map..
thx a lot