struve - well I'm a detail whore but I totally admit I might have to scale up some of the stitching to get it to read ok - I'll see how its goes and make changes when my rendermesh is ready
Rhinokey - no need to be that downy clown! Its a good point to bring up the missing medium range stuff and I agree its possible for it work against me. I want to minimize larger shapes that might require polies in the rendermesh because he has so many appendidges that will eat into the polycount. To keep him visually interesting I added the detail and intend to create contrast through material changes. I guess we'll know how it turns out in a few weeks!!
So i need to do more mudboxing for the various tentacles and get them ready to roll. Head needs some tweaks and the crown is still rough. Hoping to have the detailmesh finished this weekend so I can get my rendermesh done next week and make some headway with the textures and shaders.
Very cool stuff Tim, I love his pose and armour. Bloody love what you've done with the legs too, very cool idea to bunch up the tentacles and clamp them together with the boots to form squishy tentacle-feet... great stuff!
However one fairly major crit I'd give is that the big tentacle on his back is looking pretty basic, even though you seem to have gone quite a long way with detailing... it's suffering from that thing where there's not enough basic interesting shape (ie. it's just a cylinder) and then it's got wrinkles and stuff on top.
I'd probably drop down a couple of sub-d levels and push the shape into something more tentacley (flatter on the bottom, rounded on the top with a frill-like area around the edges).
Apart from that it's shaping up really well, keep it up!
I'm kinda agree with MoP on the tentacle stuff, but exept that point, I'm completly speakless... AWESOME DESIGN and EXECUTION. I like the fact you came back to some kind of "real" legs. I wasn't liking that much the older idea. Now, he's perfect, I think
well, there's the update i was waiting for, and apart from making me fall in love, giving me a random erection, and causing alot of drool on the keyboard.... it hasn't done much.....
lol, this is FRIGGIN AWESOME! i like the fact that the legs are back, it wouldn't be "complete" without them...
wow, im really speechless... i don't even know what all to compliment....
Holy freakin WHAT???? That is withou question the coolest thing I have ever seen. Ever. It is so cool in fact (with its legs instead of snake body), that I am going to construct a shrine to hnor not only its visage, but also its creator, the divine Spacemonkey. I will start a religion based upon worshipping it. And that's just the WIP. Fanatastic!
hehe yeah, lots of tiny details and the silhouette is looking great, but not a whole lot on the mid scale detail stuff, just scale some of those smaller pieces up, when its done should look right at home for gears of war
that's a pretty confident stance for an invertebrate trying to be a biped...the suit's really effective. it's a shame he's got close to human proportions though... it was a perfect opportunity to go crazy with long limbs etc.
you know spacemonkey i just want to stop in and say that this entry is impressive for a lot of reasons, but i'm most impressed with how much progress it represents against your only REAL competition--yourself, from last year.
last year was far from bad, but i think this year shows just how much further you've come in all areas--notably in the concept and overall ingenuity/consistency of the design. but i'll keep my mouth shut from now until you get your baby to its finished, glossy shine. keep the updates coming, man
MoP - I took your adivce and I changed the shape quite of the tentacle - I dont think the rendermesh pic I am posting really represents it so I'll probally have to tweak and I'll certainly post a finished highpoly screen too
rawkstar - if this part time project looks anything like something gears I will be very happy
Snowfly - interesting idea's if there wasnt a pressing deadline I think it would have been fun to play with the pose/proportions and really emphasize the alien aspect
Sectaurs haha
gauss well your astute advice or observations are always welcome, as are everyone else's! This is definately working out to be more fun than last years and your right its all about seeing how far everyone has pushed themselves in the last year.
hawken, heh I hope we win, I certainly think we have enough talent in these forums to retain Dominance
onelung, kipiripi thanks guys your guys are doing some great work over on the cgchat
SkullboX thanks
Depth of field fakery inspired by mops great renders
Lots of mesh and normal map tweaks to be done but I think I have a solid base to proceed with! Sadly I couldnt render an ambient occlusion map on my crappy pc.. not enough ram (1gig)
My only crit is that it looks kinda bussy from this view, my eyes are drawn an all different directions at once till I force them to look at specifics. Maybe a few less spikes?
Awesome work! I couldn't tell that it was the lowpoly, it is right?
I wonder if you could use a tweaked version of the blue channel of your normal map as an ambient occlusion map? I did some tests and it looked ok. Or I could just be talking and seeing bullshit
Are you using a bump map with a normal or is it all normal mapping? If it is all normal mapping I can see why your CPU is having troubles making a AO map, too many things for the computer to think about. I suggest that you try and use your Normal map only for the really large/med stuff and use a Bump map for the small details (if you are not doing so already). This would make it that the computer has less surface area to read and you "should" be able to create an AO map. It will also cut down render time. And if this works and you feel you still want to use only Normal map you should have a decent AO map that it will look like you were able to do with only a Normal map.
first it was hard to see it with all of the tears in my eyes, than it was hard to cry for help when i was choking on the fact that it is the low poly...
game over, that is insane, if this wasnt so long already i would say that i am speachless.
polycount is 5,509 still have the tongue to add to that and then I'll distribute the polies as I need to the tentacles (for the final poses)
Thanks for the suggested methods guys.. I tried to render to texture from my normal map today and I got a blue screen.. my graphics card fan is broken so I have to cool it with a regular fan .. so I'm thinking I might have to replace the old thing!
so far no AO map, I might try rendering on my laptop.. but I'll see how it goes.
oh yeah colour change.. I just not feeling to cold tones right now so I'm firing it up.
Replies
the encouragement is great, thanks all
struve - well I'm a detail whore but I totally admit I might have to scale up some of the stitching to get it to read ok - I'll see how its goes and make changes when my rendermesh is ready
Rhinokey - no need to be that downy clown!
So i need to do more mudboxing for the various tentacles and get them ready to roll. Head needs some tweaks and the crown is still rough. Hoping to have the detailmesh finished this weekend so I can get my rendermesh done next week and make some headway with the textures and shaders.
However one fairly major crit I'd give is that the big tentacle on his back is looking pretty basic, even though you seem to have gone quite a long way with detailing... it's suffering from that thing where there's not enough basic interesting shape (ie. it's just a cylinder) and then it's got wrinkles and stuff on top.
I'd probably drop down a couple of sub-d levels and push the shape into something more tentacley (flatter on the bottom, rounded on the top with a frill-like area around the edges).
Apart from that it's shaping up really well, keep it up!
lol, this is FRIGGIN AWESOME! i like the fact that the legs are back, it wouldn't be "complete" without them...
wow, im really speechless... i don't even know what all to compliment....
I think this guy has a great silhouette too - very cool
-caseyjones
-Dread_Reaper
M!
still, great execution.
the excessive use of tentacles has cemented this entry deep within my heart, in a special place.
The slap has struck again! CGCHAT FTW!
well nothing to say mor ejust whaou.!!
last year was far from bad, but i think this year shows just how much further you've come in all areas--notably in the concept and overall ingenuity/consistency of the design. but i'll keep my mouth shut from now until you get your baby to its finished, glossy shine. keep the updates coming, man
yay!
Cridder ,vahl ,gwad ,Jaco,Renaud Galand,indian_boy,Japhir,rooster ,foreverendering, struve, Graff Pirate, caseyjones, warby, Dread_Reaper, Bashomaru,Xaltar, FistFullofSlap
MoP - I took your adivce and I changed the shape quite of the tentacle - I dont think the rendermesh pic I am posting really represents it so I'll probally have to tweak and I'll certainly post a finished highpoly screen too
rawkstar - if this part time project looks anything like something gears I will be very happy
Snowfly - interesting idea's if there wasnt a pressing deadline I think it would have been fun to play with the pose/proportions and really emphasize the alien aspect
Sectaurs haha
gauss well your astute advice or observations are always welcome, as are everyone else's! This is definately working out to be more fun than last years and your right its all about seeing how far everyone has pushed themselves in the last year.
hawken, heh I hope we win, I certainly think we have enough talent in these forums to retain Dominance
onelung, kipiripi thanks guys your guys are doing some great work over on the cgchat
SkullboX thanks
Depth of field fakery inspired by mops great renders
Lots of mesh and normal map tweaks to be done but I think I have a solid base to proceed with! Sadly I couldnt render an ambient occlusion map on my crappy pc.. not enough ram (1gig)
My only crit is that it looks kinda bussy from this view, my eyes are drawn an all different directions at once till I force them to look at specifics. Maybe a few less spikes?
good work man
and for the ambocc : you may want to consider this tool :
http://www.rusteddreams.net/faogen.html
I wonder if you could use a tweaked version of the blue channel of your normal map as an ambient occlusion map? I did some tests and it looked ok. Or I could just be talking and seeing bullshit
Also, I'd like to say that while it's busy, IMO the spikes actually are pulling my eye to a common point (His head).
and this looks indeed very cool
keep on rollin .. (<.. thats me
poit
Why not rendering it in parts so you can render the ambient occlusion map?
My two-bits. This is looking really great
i love it!
game over, that is insane, if this wasnt so long already i would say that i am speachless.
well played
polycount is 5,509 still have the tongue to add to that and then I'll distribute the polies as I need to the tentacles (for the final poses)
Thanks for the suggested methods guys.. I tried to render to texture from my normal map today and I got a blue screen.. my graphics card fan is broken so I have to cool it with a regular fan .. so I'm thinking I might have to replace the old thing!
so far no AO map, I might try rendering on my laptop.. but I'll see how it goes.
oh yeah colour change.. I just not feeling to cold tones right now so I'm firing it up.