thanks kawe!
and yea this is viewport grab =D all the shots have been
annnd update:
dunno wat to do about the walls x x
i looked up some shots, and they all either have bricks which i didnt quite like, or 'nothing' - im assuming stucco?
should i go the stucco way? they're a bit bare, imho
anyway.
bedtime!
thanks for the support thus far guys.
keeps me going
haha thanks for the support rick!
im glad that i've made visble improvement, especially the fact that its within a months time.
that comment in its own was such a huge motivation boost.
its too bad im terribly ill, so i cant work as efficiently.
my brain was pounding, so i just let myself stop after i put the arches in place:
You've still got some smoothing errors on those pillars that are really hurting you. The scale of the bricks looks pretty off(HUGE) and some of the detail on the bricks seems really pixelated as well(decal?) Right now you have some major problems with material readability, nothing really reads as specific materials. You have some stuff thats maybe concrete, but has like a metal/plastic specular on it.
It's really hard to read the details within the pillar, something with the normals itself? Are you not using an AO? Because you have some pretty interesting things on the faces, and for some reason I can't see the material in there...
hm. i fixed the normals inside the pillar. i dont know how / why, but they'd become a baby blue colour for some reason, so i replaced that colour with the usual purple one
its better now i believe?
heres a little shot of the thing standing at a 'complete for the moment' in terms of meshes. a zoomed in version of the first shot is probbly wat ill be displaying, so everything needed is modelled, as is the point of this competition right?
now my issue is texturing. especially the specular maps cuz, as uve said, i fail at selling the materials. are there any general tips and hints as to what the speculars for the various materials shown here should be? glass, grass, concrete.
thanks for all the support guys! been great as always!
cheers!
edit: i might add blades of grass later, i have just about enough polies. this stands at 19,876 tris
The scale of the bricks looks really off, something about them are saying small bricks, but then their are huge.
I'd establish some base lighting(I know you got something going there but it looks a bit default, no shadows/fill, etc) then worry about specular.
Post one of your specular maps and we can probably see what might be going a bit wonky there and provide feedback beyond the standard "just look at real life materials to know what to do"
i'll try and figure out how to work the bricks. this was my third attempt at something lol, and they're beggining to bother me. i was trying to get the type of wall that the huge building where we find Cole Train in Gears 1 was. in case you want to know what type of material i was aiming for.
as of now:
lighting set up. didnt get rim lights in there, cuz i either didnt know where to place em, or they just didnt really help the shot look nice.
and here are my spec maps [two of em]:
and what about the spec maps? do they look 'right'?
one more question i had was, how do i get a shadow map for all the objects onto one 512* texture?
i'm completely clueless about that, so any and all direction would be great!
Sorry for not getting back to you, been a bit distracted.
Specular maps: Ok, keeping it over all dark for brick is pretty good, you may want to play with specular power or even a specular power map(not sure what it's called in max, but basically the spread of the specual, sharp vs. broad)
Also not sure why it's purple, if I have colour in my spec I usually go with a slight variation of the diffuse colour either more saturated or not depending on what your going for.
Also, instead of having the bricks super shiney I like to stick another pattern on there, like a grime pattern so you can have your unshiney bricks but bring out some interest with something shiney, like a stain or something.
So going for more of a sunset kind of feeling? I probably remove the rim light, it doesn't really make sense or at least it's too bright. Funny thing is if you type sunset manor in google you get retirement homes!
For your fill, I'd probably turn it down a bit to get some of the blacks back in your shadows as well and maybe give it a blue/purple tint(could be off on the purple, but might be a cool sunset thing)
Also like Vig mentioned the bricks are too big or the gap between them too wide. I think the models themselves are looking pretty good, but locking down that lighting will help you nail it and then you can add some detail bits if you get time.
yea it doesnt make sense. realized that later
and thanks for the tip on the purple shadows, i personally love it =D
heres a little update:
i haveta figure out the bricks asap, and then try and figure out wat bits of extra detail i can fit in the ~230 odd tris i have left.
I think what kills the bricks is the deep black grout, that and the lack of depth around the inner edge of the bricks, you're gonna want more than a couple of pixels width if you intend to keep with that black grout ( same goes for specular highlights).
i should have time to break up the colour a little here and ther
i dunno if i have enough tris left over / time to do something too amazing about the windows
just a quick question before i haveta leave:
do the green lines look like appropriate places for vines to grow?
i'm thinkin the green would look nice over the dull brown walls and pillars?
i'm personally happy with the piece.
any final tips and suggestions?
lighting? textures?
i wont be home till like, 1 am tomorrow. i hope its not too late to submit then?
submissions go in tomorrow morning? or later today?
Good job man, looking good. Heres a quick paintover that might give you some ideas that would be cool; time permiting of course.
1. Lighting, I'd try to add some more blues into the shade/shadow areas and intesify the colour and light source of the sun. I went a little extreme on the image
2. Add some different material types to your texture, like metal for some trim to make them pop out in the light with a high spec.
3. Could add some detail to the ground so the tiles are a little different from each other.
4. Add some detail to the windows, they looks really flat and made of rock, try to make them more like smooth glass that shine with a spec or reflection; also could use some detail ont he inner frame.
5. For the final image crop out your image on the top there so it looks like the building keeps on going higher. On my crappy paintover I added too much grain and sharpened it too much, but you get the idea, maybe try some light fog for atmosphere.
6. One last thing that I have no suggest for, but if the back of that arch way is facing the camera and is the closest I'd probably fix up the texture(looks like a noticable seam and bluring) If you had more polys I'd probably put the vines there and a flower or two poking out, would break up the silouhouette and look cool.... okI guess I had a suggestion for that.
Also these are just ideas and sure there are better ones out there, but think your set looks pretty cool and with anything could keep going further and further with it.
@ tumerboy: effin BRILLIANT idea! thanks =D. i was plannin it, but completely forgot, so thanks alot for the reminder!
@ murdoc: thanks for the extensive tips. unfortunately, i cant do the stuff wit the windows, cuz the tex space is shared with the door window, and its extremely tiny. other than that, i did my best to implement ur ideas and suggestions
i did what i could before i felt the need to collapse in bed. still in 'wrap up mode'. i'll see what else i can do:
theres a Polycounter Tag nearby
cheers guys
and thanks for all the help through this competition so far!
Replies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Palladio
You might want to check up on him
i know such minimal number of architects, its unfortunate x x
changed the upper level a bit, after looking at some images. just a tiny bit of work before i go to work.
cheers!
and yea this is viewport grab =D all the shots have been
annnd update:
dunno wat to do about the walls x x
i looked up some shots, and they all either have bricks which i didnt quite like, or 'nothing' - im assuming stucco?
should i go the stucco way? they're a bit bare, imho
anyway.
bedtime!
thanks for the support thus far guys.
keeps me going
the arches that i'm gonna use
gonna have to speed up x x
took a bit of a break cuz of lacking motivation, now i'm tryna get back on track!
im glad that i've made visble improvement, especially the fact that its within a months time.
that comment in its own was such a huge motivation boost.
its too bad im terribly ill, so i cant work as efficiently.
my brain was pounding, so i just let myself stop after i put the arches in place:
now i must sleep
cheers!
its better now i believe?
heres a little shot of the thing standing at a 'complete for the moment' in terms of meshes. a zoomed in version of the first shot is probbly wat ill be displaying, so everything needed is modelled, as is the point of this competition right?
now my issue is texturing. especially the specular maps cuz, as uve said, i fail at selling the materials. are there any general tips and hints as to what the speculars for the various materials shown here should be? glass, grass, concrete.
thanks for all the support guys! been great as always!
cheers!
edit: i might add blades of grass later, i have just about enough polies. this stands at 19,876 tris
I'd establish some base lighting(I know you got something going there but it looks a bit default, no shadows/fill, etc) then worry about specular.
Post one of your specular maps and we can probably see what might be going a bit wonky there and provide feedback beyond the standard "just look at real life materials to know what to do"
as of now:
lighting set up. didnt get rim lights in there, cuz i either didnt know where to place em, or they just didnt really help the shot look nice.
and here are my spec maps [two of em]:
cheers!
The blocks look too big to be joined with mortar. They look like stacked blocks, but they float, kind of odd looking.
so should i stack em one on top of the other aligned like:
|____ |
|____ |
_____
|____ |
|____ |
|____ |
|____ |
__ ______
__ | |____|
__ | |____|
and what about the spec maps? do they look 'right'?
one more question i had was, how do i get a shadow map for all the objects onto one 512* texture?
i'm completely clueless about that, so any and all direction would be great!
cheers!
Specular maps: Ok, keeping it over all dark for brick is pretty good, you may want to play with specular power or even a specular power map(not sure what it's called in max, but basically the spread of the specual, sharp vs. broad)
Also not sure why it's purple, if I have colour in my spec I usually go with a slight variation of the diffuse colour either more saturated or not depending on what your going for.
Also, instead of having the bricks super shiney I like to stick another pattern on there, like a grime pattern so you can have your unshiney bricks but bring out some interest with something shiney, like a stain or something.
Example:
Spec Example of your Bricks
this is what i've got:
i changed the spec maps like you said.
and added a 3rd light for the rim lights, and changed the general ambience to more orangy
For your fill, I'd probably turn it down a bit to get some of the blacks back in your shadows as well and maybe give it a blue/purple tint(could be off on the purple, but might be a cool sunset thing)
Also like Vig mentioned the bricks are too big or the gap between them too wide. I think the models themselves are looking pretty good, but locking down that lighting will help you nail it and then you can add some detail bits if you get time.
and thanks for the tip on the purple shadows, i personally love it =D
heres a little update:
i haveta figure out the bricks asap, and then try and figure out wat bits of extra detail i can fit in the ~230 odd tris i have left.
thanks for the quick responses murdoc!
cheers
is this better?
i dunno if i have enough tris left over / time to do something too amazing about the windows
just a quick question before i haveta leave:
do the green lines look like appropriate places for vines to grow?
i'm thinkin the green would look nice over the dull brown walls and pillars?
cheers!
and thanks for all the help so far!
i'm personally happy with the piece.
any final tips and suggestions?
lighting? textures?
i wont be home till like, 1 am tomorrow. i hope its not too late to submit then?
submissions go in tomorrow morning? or later today?
Nice job man, you came a long way working on this!
1. Lighting, I'd try to add some more blues into the shade/shadow areas and intesify the colour and light source of the sun. I went a little extreme on the image
2. Add some different material types to your texture, like metal for some trim to make them pop out in the light with a high spec.
3. Could add some detail to the ground so the tiles are a little different from each other.
4. Add some detail to the windows, they looks really flat and made of rock, try to make them more like smooth glass that shine with a spec or reflection; also could use some detail ont he inner frame.
5. For the final image crop out your image on the top there so it looks like the building keeps on going higher. On my crappy paintover I added too much grain and sharpened it too much, but you get the idea, maybe try some light fog for atmosphere.
6. One last thing that I have no suggest for, but if the back of that arch way is facing the camera and is the closest I'd probably fix up the texture(looks like a noticable seam and bluring) If you had more polys I'd probably put the vines there and a flower or two poking out, would break up the silouhouette and look cool.... okI guess I had a suggestion for that.
Also these are just ideas and sure there are better ones out there, but think your set looks pretty cool and with anything could keep going further and further with it.
@ murdoc: thanks for the extensive tips. unfortunately, i cant do the stuff wit the windows, cuz the tex space is shared with the door window, and its extremely tiny. other than that, i did my best to implement ur ideas and suggestions
i did what i could before i felt the need to collapse in bed. still in 'wrap up mode'. i'll see what else i can do:
theres a Polycounter Tag nearby
cheers guys
and thanks for all the help through this competition so far!