Big delay after having what may have been the worst week of my life. Sat down yesterday and just decided to get this shit done at the cost of some refinement. Still a couple of bits that aren't attached. Abdomen is clearly not wide enough at the moment.
I don't want to spend much more time on the high poly as I haven't done much in the way of normal mapping and all the other associated textures before and I don't want to wind up rushing them. I'll nail down the wings and mouth parts tonight and move onto the next stage.
right ON! beautiful job bringing her to life so far. this is almost exactly as i pictured the model coming out.. very good to see that even a very shitty week doesn't hold you back, man. from what i can see from the latest update, pushing ahead doesn't seem to have caused any real issues. your geometry is looking very solid and i'm keen on seeing how you end up coloring "her"... hopefully something feminine that, like the shapely carapace, is beguiling but with more than a little hint of creepy. but that's not for a bit--let's get the geo finished up to the quality level you've established so far. keep us posted!
And after spending nearly a week just building the low poly (5 sets of curvy limbs. What was I thinking?) its time for nomral mappery.
Anone got any tips on getting better results? I'm using Mudbox to bake. Its not very high resolution and is suffering from a bit of pixelation. Is there a good way to work around this? Its not too bad but its pretty evident in a closeup like this.
I've also got a couple of fat seams which seem to be immune to pixel padding. I can probably paint them out but if theres a better option I'd be grateful to hear it.
Theres also a dent in the forehead on the normal map (not very clear in my crappy screen grab) That doesn't seem to be part on the high poly.
Naked and normal mapped. I would have attached the wings but alpha sorting and viewport high quality rendering don't work happily together. I'll have to do the finals on copy of Maya 8 at work I suppose.
Took my quite a bit of mucking about but I think I'm more or less happy with where this is going. Probably a few changes to nail down still.
I'm going to have a go at some funky irridescent specular maps. She'd look great with a bit of waxy SSS too. Does anyone know of a game suitable shader for Maya (or an appropriate cheap hack)
Well the models are done but until I can get to work and get my hands on a copy of Maya 8 with its functional alpha sorting they ain't going to look pretty.
Well, I'm all submitted. Presentation isn't particularly amazing but after spending way too long trying to coax Mental Ray into doing my bidding (and failing) I didn't feel terribly inclined to spend a lot of time doing fancy stands and lighting.
Anyway, despite the general lack of quality of my entry I'm happy. My gaol in this competition was to learn some new techniques and I've learned plenty. Who knows, perhaps next year I'll be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Spacemonkey, Peppi and Fogmann (and the rest of you god-like artists). You never know, it could happen.
The subtleties might be lost when scaled down this much, but the diffuse that you showed looked like its almost entirely a solid color with some noise thrown over it, which is unfortunate. Such a nicely developed critter deserved as much thought put into the diffuse.
Final product turned out well, but makes me sad for what could-have-been.
I just ran out of time due to a lot of commitments and distractions, a host of technical problems and the fact that I didn't really have any idea what I was doing. There is a little bit of fine detail in there giving the carapace some texture, but I really did need another few days to experiment with what worked and what didn't.
Anyway, with the knowledge gained from this project, I'll be able to do much better next time.
do you have any values in your blue channel? Your normals look a tad flat. Getting some lighting in your diffuse would have helped too. I really liked the idea. Creating a dual character that can transform is quite a task.
I added an ambient occlusion layer as a multiply on the diffuse. Maybe I should have intensified it a little.
I'm pretty sure the normal maps are working fine and the flatness is just due to my crappy lighting work. I had real problems getting any sort of lighting working nicely with normal maps and alpha sorting so I wound up with a very basic rig.
I need to hunt down some good tutorials on all of these things.
Replies
I don't want to spend much more time on the high poly as I haven't done much in the way of normal mapping and all the other associated textures before and I don't want to wind up rushing them. I'll nail down the wings and mouth parts tonight and move onto the next stage.
Anone got any tips on getting better results? I'm using Mudbox to bake. Its not very high resolution and is suffering from a bit of pixelation. Is there a good way to work around this? Its not too bad but its pretty evident in a closeup like this.
I've also got a couple of fat seams which seem to be immune to pixel padding. I can probably paint them out but if theres a better option I'd be grateful to hear it.
Theres also a dent in the forehead on the normal map (not very clear in my crappy screen grab) That doesn't seem to be part on the high poly.
use poopinmymouth's normal mapping tutorial if you dont know how its done..
I'm going to have a go at some funky irridescent specular maps. She'd look great with a bit of waxy SSS too. Does anyone know of a game suitable shader for Maya (or an appropriate cheap hack)
Anyway, despite the general lack of quality of my entry I'm happy. My gaol in this competition was to learn some new techniques and I've learned plenty. Who knows, perhaps next year I'll be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Spacemonkey, Peppi and Fogmann (and the rest of you god-like artists). You never know, it could happen.
Good luck to the rest of you.
realy cool!
I love the design heaps, congrads on finishing.
Final product turned out well, but makes me sad for what could-have-been.
Anyway, with the knowledge gained from this project, I'll be able to do much better next time.
I'm pretty sure the normal maps are working fine and the flatness is just due to my crappy lighting work. I had real problems getting any sort of lighting working nicely with normal maps and alpha sorting so I wound up with a very basic rig.
I need to hunt down some good tutorials on all of these things.