so, my pace really dropped off with this... got my harvestor done and played more with the proportions... trying to get some implied lines with the silhouettes to point your eye at the center of the cross...
I've still got shitload more work to do... glowy bits to add, lots of textures to paint. more to come.,..
PS - the ark machine isn't even done being modeled yet,,, i left out some integral parts... like at the base of it in the center beneath the cross... There's supposed to be pipes and vents there that i'll add in this week to fill out the big flat grey area.
The one thing that is bugging me, is you look like you only have 1 smoothing group, everything looks so blobby and undefined (even though you have some good high poly source). I say go in and harden some of those edges on your base mesh, and see how the light reacts to that, cause right now the light is reacting all wrong (or it looks like it anyways).
Yeah if you're not on a budget throw more polys on the low!
Personally I'm not convinced on the texture. Ae's glowy cross was extreme but I liked it. But I also like the idea behind the project (taboo or not). The high poly work is inspiring!
I'll surely take your advice and work more with the low geometry. I'll also have to recapture some normals but it shouldn't be a big deal. As for now I'm pushing ahead with a bit more, playing with some color and lighting.
I'll do all of my spec maps this week. As of now there are still none.
the scale of the harvester is awesome, but it totally dwarfs the ark machine, as intended i suppose. i think that last shot kinda killed it for me, try and keep your shots rendered from a persons perspective in the final. it looks like its tiny when your angle is from 100 feet in the air. also this could be addressed by adding in some thing for scale's sake, control panel? an engeneer working on it? cranes? who knows...wait u do! use your imagination ps would be sweet if the people that worked on it were like cardinals from the church but with like military esque uniforms anyways cant wait for updates
gonna put in some doors and a ladder to help the eye with scaling cuz as of right now there is ZERO reference for the eye.
anyway, here's a wip on the environment. kinda rushing it cuz it's due friday afternoon. I will have 3 more months after this to polish up all my maps, add more details etc. so this is by no means close to finished, but coming together nonetheless
pop some under-lighting on that sucker (the jesus pod)- right now it just seems to have a harsh white light on it and it flattens it quite a bit. put a harsh orange light being projected from the base (al-a the scary flashlight technique) and a nice subtle blue bounce light from the foreground to fill out the darks should give your image a bit more punch- also the lighting around the statues is a bit rigid and doesnt spill out enough into the room. less brightness on them might also help give the jesus pod more focus.
also can you use decals? some trash and gunk decals on the floor would go a looong way, especially to help ground the statue things.
I've been following this for a while and I wasn't sure where it was going but I must say this came together pretty well. Your final scene is giving me a "Metroid Prime" meets "Too Human"-kinda vibe. I like it.
Damn, looking nice. I agree with the comment about dramatic lighting, even if it's just a super glow on the cross thing. However, the absence of such lights does give it a sort of sad, quiet feeling; that, or "freshly installed."
great guys thanks! I'll work more lighting out tomorrow evening when I get my renders going. Agreed on the white light, totally washing out the white texture.
still considering some texture changes but, then again, still have 3 months to iron out all the details and really make everything rock.
Hey it's looking nice. Thematically though I dunno. If I was an engineer designing a big ol' box of Jesus, I think I'd make the machinery a bit prettier - add some embelishments and whatnot. Given that you're passed that point perhaps an alternative direction might beto add a bunch of tributes from the People - loads of flowers and letters and bits and pieces lain around the base of the machine. It'd help give the whole thing a bit more personality.
Some of the hanging wires look like they could use a few more loops.
Looks pretty cool dude, I like that blue you have. Although I might try to get rid of that pure black by adding some more ambient light. (edit could be my monitor, and the fact that its really bright outside today)
I'm still messing around with this scene. going to start throwing it in to unreal tonight.
I've been continuing to mess with lighting and have been slowly gaining more control over the spec.. I plan on adding in a user console in the center of the room to give some scale to everything.
I want to take some finished shots of this to GDC with me, and any suggestions on how to present this well, and maybe some ideas that would make this scene look most appealing to prospective employers would be really helpful.
continued crits would be fantastic. :P Thnk you everybody
If you use a similar shot, zoom in a bit to get rid of the empty space. Maybe a low angle shot to get more of a awwwwwwe effect. Was thinking the statues looking down on you could get a more eerie feel, kind of like the big laser shooting statues from The Never Ending Story....
I like it a lot but I'd soften the lights of the statues as they're really competing with your main focal point for my attention. I might darken everything across the board, but make sure the weapon or center piece is more illuminated than the statues. I'd soften the highlight on your main piece a little too. It's a bit distracting.
I much prefer the camera angle and lighting in the new one, the angle gives a much better sense of scale, but it would be improved by getting one of those statues in the right foreground, subtler colours in the yellow lighting work much better, but may lack a bit of the contrast that images before had in this area, try putting a little back in but not too much
like the last image, I'd possibly add a nice little ambient light to bump up the blacks. It might be just this monitor but i've looked at it on 2 and it looks about 20-40% black.
I continued to tighten up all my spec maps and worked the lighting a bit more. I followed Shep's advice and brought a bit more color back in to it, but I still think i need to work with it more. I also pulled the camera in a bit more.
Mr. Dekard: after I finished working on some specs it ended up pulling a lot more light out of the scene where it was previously much darker, thanks for the advice sir
I'll be continuing to work on this for a few more weeks so any comments and critiques that could help me out would still be much appreciated. Thanks everyone
ok here's a littlebetter lighting setup... i think I'm going to call it quits in Max and move into unreal now.
Replies
I've still got shitload more work to do... glowy bits to add, lots of textures to paint. more to come.,..
PS - the ark machine isn't even done being modeled yet,,, i left out some integral parts... like at the base of it in the center beneath the cross... There's supposed to be pipes and vents there that i'll add in this week to fill out the big flat grey area.
The one thing that is bugging me, is you look like you only have 1 smoothing group, everything looks so blobby and undefined (even though you have some good high poly source). I say go in and harden some of those edges on your base mesh, and see how the light reacts to that, cause right now the light is reacting all wrong (or it looks like it anyways).
Good luck
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/process/tips/examples/vertex_normal_construction.jpg
DOWN WITH THE BLOBBYNESSSS
Personally I'm not convinced on the texture. Ae's glowy cross was extreme but I liked it. But I also like the idea behind the project (taboo or not). The high poly work is inspiring!
I'll do all of my spec maps this week. As of now there are still none.
-Woog
anyway, here's a wip on the environment. kinda rushing it cuz it's due friday afternoon. I will have 3 more months after this to polish up all my maps, add more details etc. so this is by no means close to finished, but coming together nonetheless
fire away :P ty
also can you use decals? some trash and gunk decals on the floor would go a looong way, especially to help ground the statue things.
Not sure 'bout the purple haze.
still considering some texture changes but, then again, still have 3 months to iron out all the details and really make everything rock.
cheers :P
Looks pretty cool dude, I like that blue you have. Although I might try to get rid of that pure black by adding some more ambient light. (edit could be my monitor, and the fact that its really bright outside today)
It was great to meet you in class today. Your work is coming along. Stay focused and work on the lighting and spec as discussed!
Cheers,
Tyler
I'll take my time over the next weeks during break to tighten everything up in the scene as suggested.
Thanks again!
Adam
I've been continuing to mess with lighting and have been slowly gaining more control over the spec.. I plan on adding in a user console in the center of the room to give some scale to everything.
I want to take some finished shots of this to GDC with me, and any suggestions on how to present this well, and maybe some ideas that would make this scene look most appealing to prospective employers would be really helpful.
continued crits would be fantastic. :P Thnk you everybody
I continued to tighten up all my spec maps and worked the lighting a bit more. I followed Shep's advice and brought a bit more color back in to it, but I still think i need to work with it more. I also pulled the camera in a bit more.
Mr. Dekard: after I finished working on some specs it ended up pulling a lot more light out of the scene where it was previously much darker, thanks for the advice sir
I'll be continuing to work on this for a few more weeks so any comments and critiques that could help me out would still be much appreciated. Thanks everyone
ok here's a littlebetter lighting setup... i think I'm going to call it quits in Max and move into unreal now.