The Blowhole
polycounter lvl 12
Hey guys, I've started work on an environmental piece based off some Warhammer Online concept art. I thought I'd post my progress here for some C&Cs along the way, and hopefully a bit more motivation to help me finish the project. (I have a habit of quitting projects)
Anyways, Here's the piece of concept art I am attempting to recreate:
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/images/conceptart/CT1207_46.jpg
I've blocked out the proportions of the main elements of the scene:
And I've started to add high poly details to those main elements, I've done most of the pillar to the left of the scene:
Sorry about the crappy hosting, I'm looking at getting some webspace in the next few months.
Anyways, what do you guys think so far?
Anyways, Here's the piece of concept art I am attempting to recreate:
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/images/conceptart/CT1207_46.jpg
I've blocked out the proportions of the main elements of the scene:
And I've started to add high poly details to those main elements, I've done most of the pillar to the left of the scene:
Sorry about the crappy hosting, I'm looking at getting some webspace in the next few months.
Anyways, what do you guys think so far?
Replies
This isn't going in game or anything, It's an asset for my portfolio, So my goal is to strike a balance between aesthetic and functionality in game. Unless ofcourse you have different thoughts?
Nice project.
@ParaXum, I hear you. Essentially the stones are greeble and at the moment it really shows. I was going to run the blocks through mudbox after I was done, but I don't think it would be worth it (that, and my computer would explode). Once I create the low rez mesh and begin texturing, I'm sure it will look more like the source. If not, well I might have to alter a few things.
btw, did something to nagg you a bit
Also, that pic has made me realize my proportions on the boat are a bit out of whack, I'll have to fix that before I progress further. Did you whip that model up just then? Or did you plan to build a scene based off the concept before? The reason I ask is because when I first saw that concept, I found it hard to believe that nobody here has attempted it yet.
/edit: UnrealEd is giving me the shits.. Mostly because I barely know what I'm doing in it.. My normal map looks funky, and it keeps culling backfaces that I want visible (and I've fixed the normals). I think I'll stick to maya for the time being.
I don't really like it.. I think I'll continue on with the rest of the model, and reassess this object once I'm further through.
Thoughts? The texturing stages is where I feel weakest.
imade the model yesterday, because ... fun
IMO=
1- get rid of the horizontal lines in the greeble work, and try and get more horizontal.
2- pull a few in and out. select random bricks and put slight rotations on them, do this lots of times till the whole thing starts to look riregular
3- rebuild some new bricks around the key areas, that are larger, esp around the top, bottom, edges and stepped bits. do this by hand it'll be worth it.
4- unwrap uvs on high and do an automatic layout, applying a plain rock texture with a nice colour variation across it, the automatic layout will give you nice colour variation.
5- take model into Zbrush or whatever, and gentally apply the smooth in areas, this will split and round the bricks adding areas or greater wear and erosion, again top, bottom edges.
6- bake, normal, AO, base texture, and object norms.
7- use the AO and base texture as your base. duh. then use the AO as a mask (inverting and altering levels) to add dirt and greenery. then use the upwards axis channel from the obj norms to add some colour fading from sunlight, and maybe extra dirt and drips for everything facing downwards.
8- create an edge overlay to bring out convex edges- edge find on tangent normals, desat, alter levels so that map is from 128-255, apply AO as mask and play with levels to get rid of inwardly pointing edges, change to overlay.
Although I'm starting to rethink my texturing direction.. I was going to use photo reference and go for a more realistic approach to the model. The concept has a very comical style though, and I'm starting to think I should hand paint the textures and give them a more cartoony feel. I've been doing a few tests and I think it could be the way to go.
If I do that, then when I redo this pillar, there will probably be alot less detail in the bricks, which I think will be a good thing.
Here's an update.. I'm currently working on a new style of bricks for the pillar. I think the new direction I'm heading in is going to make it a much better peice.
Thoughts?
Keep it up!
UPDATE: I haven't given up on it yet. :P
I've been fiddling around with texturing alot! As I already mentioned it is my weakest point, and I tried alot of different things to try and create a certain style about the peice; here is what I've come up with.
I think now I can continue the rest of the model with a clearer direction.
Thoughts?
Time to get onto the hard part.. The textures..
These washed out no contrast renders are really doing a disservice to your work. You should up the contrast, add some shadows or ao. Anything!!! Seriously. It's an atrocious way to display your stuff.
AK
@dur23, Yeah, the renders are pretty shit. I'm working on making them look nicer, and doing a high rez beauty shot. I found this tutorial here: http://www.artemstudios.com/08Portfolio/Tutorial/MaterialRenderingTut.htm but it's for max. I wish I knew how to get a similar effect in maya.
@Jeffro, I agree that the silhouette isn't working in my favour at the moment. The strong silhouette in the concept is what makes it stand out at me. I think once I fix the render settings it will hopefully pop out alot more, and if not I might need to play around with the depth of field.
@ A.Kincade, I'm going for kind of a mix.. I'm using photoref for the textures but trying to fade out the finer details and oversaturate the colours to give it the comical feel of the concept.. Whether it works in my model's favour or not will soon be revealed. :P
Now to the texturing!
I don't know how much you know about maya shaders, so if i leave something out that you don't get, include overly simple things, just yell at me.
1. open the hypershade, create a new blinn or phong
2. select the material, open the attribute editor(ctrl-a)
3. notice the little checkerboard next to right of the 'color' and 'ambient color' attributes
4. click on the checkerboard next to 'color', and the 'create render node' window will pop up. click the 'mental ray' tab, and scroll down to the 'textures' rollout. You should see a node named 'mib_amb_occulusion'. click it!
5. the attribute editor should switch to the newly created node and you'll see a handful of attributes in the 'parameters' rollout.
set 'samples' to at least 64, 128 is good if you have a decent processor.
the 'bright' attribute is basically going to be the color of your obect
the 'dark' attribute is the color of the areas where geometry is close or touching(i.e. crevices)
set 'spread' to 1
'max distance' is, well, the max distance that is going to be measured from a surface to detect another surface. depending on the scale of your scene, you probably want to keep this pretty low, if you notice big fuzzy dark areas on things, you probably want to lower this.
SHAZAM! now you have a material with an ambient occlusion node plugged into the 'color' channel. now you want to repeat the process for the 'ambient color' channel, only in that ao node, set your dark to around .1 and your bright to .3 or .4, and copy the other settings.
you'll also want to play with the eccentricity, specular rolloff, and set your specular color to around .5
don't forget to assign the material to your objects( I do it all the time!) and set your renderer to Mental Ray, and I usually use the 'production' preset.
This has made me realize that I don't think I've ever written directions for creating a shader before, so if someone notices something I left out or that could work better, feel free to jump in.
Ill follow this up by saying....I havent read a single thing in this thread, im simply commenting on the photo i see. So if this has been adressed already, sorry
nice work again! hope u texture it.
I'll update sometime over the next few days, Just need to finish the low rez of the boat, then texture it.
I've been plodding away at this for weeks, and I have learned so much during the process. This is the first time I've ever gone into this much detail with textures, this is the first time i've really dived into normal mapping, AO baking and plenty of other things. I'm very happy with the result, but I'm sure there is plenty of room for improvement. Thoughts?
One crit... the blue on the pillar pops too much for me. It keeps drawing my eye away from everything else. I think it's a combination of the color overall in the scene as well as needing more variation to break it up.
add a dirt/grime pass, bleach the wood that faces the sun, distinguish between the materials(metal wood and stone all look far too similar if not the same atm) and then make a propper spec map
the work looks really solid in terms of normals and great conceptual style, just needs a few hours more polish to be really memorable. nice work man.
SHEPEIRO prety much said it all. just take it a bit further with the materials, and you got your self kick ass folio piece.
solid work.
lol, nice and to the point.
You're definitely right. I finished that peice at 3am, hence the excitement. I'm sure that I can push the texture alot more, and I will. Especially on the actual boat part of the model, which is quite dull at the moment.
Thank you all for the encouragement and also the crits. I'm glad that you guys think the normals look ok, in regards to the spec map though, is there anything I should know about making a good spec map?
I'm getting around to adding a greater contrast between different materials, I think that the glass is the worst offender, so that will be the first challenge I'll tackle. I haven't altered the spec yet either. Do you think I'm on the right track?
But yeah, I've gone through and made the windows look like windows.. I'll grime up the rest of the texture a bit, and hopefully it'll look sweet.
Thanks for the advice.
- If you go night, make sure to add in some moon light
- Push grime and soot into some areas that probably aren't touched that much.
- Adding specularity will really help define the materials and the setting.