Thanks Funshark.
I'll try to do my best.
But next step is Z-Brush sculpt
and it kind of freaks me out.
Looking forward to see your
colorised version of
"Gacha-gacha-pon, gacha-gacha-pon"
I've tried to bake normals from high to low mesh.
Lots of artefacts and loss of volume...
Had problems to render correctly normals in Maya
so I'll use another soft some collegues told me about.
Sculpting in Z-Brush takes so much time!
Have to "gambaru".
may i suggest building your high poly machinery as subdivisional surfaces in xsi or maya instead of trying you sculpt it, it will go faster and look better in the end, try looking up tutorials on hard surface modelling
I'd give the same advice. ZBrush and Mudbox just arent the best tools for hard surfaces. Max, XSI and Maya are best for that. In Max you'd model the polys as usual and add a Turbo or Meshsmooth on the modyfier stack and chamfer the edges you want sharp...
As for the baking, in my opinion theres nothing better than the 3DS Max RenderTo Texture, Poop made the best tut on that, check it out! (Thanks PooP!)
Nice paint over !
If I were you, i would do these details in Max ( ohh .. you're in maya ). Hard modeling is really tedious in ZBrush, especially if you want a really clean stuff.
mifflefish, audi100, c023dev, GoSsS, thank you guys for your advices and support.
To tell you the truth I don't feel confident at all with High-res modeling techniques
(too much years on low-polys models...). I know you're right and that It could be
better with subdiv-surfaces. But my problem is that I don't have much time to try
new workflow now. Can only work 2 or 3 ours at night. I'll stick at what I know
this time. But surely I'll have to try what you told me about to progress.
Thank you for the tutorial link.
For the moment my only aim now is to finish the contest.
No matter if I "lose points" with some snaggy parts.
At the end of May my wife and daughter will fly back to Japan for a while.
I'll have time to give a shot to your workflow when they are away.
Slowly building each parts: It looks like a plastic toy.
I'll adjust the balance between maps later on. And try to bake
in other way, if there is time left (Yes render to texture in Maya is also a good tool).
well it does the job, just might look a bit wobbly. Just try ang give sub-div another shot?!
Another cool technique I saw a few times now is: Modeling the ruff hard surfaces in ZBrush/Mudbox and then taking that into a classic tool (Wings/Silo/Maya/Max...) and building up around that form, that way you get the best of both.
Another tip I could give you for polymodeling is maybe starting off with just one poly instead of a box and always extruding edges.
I like to go around the whole mass of the object first and then connecting/cutting more loops in to define the form as close as I want...
Almost out of breath with the normal map work.
Had a break and tried to put fiew colors on the
model. It still look like that kind of cheap toy you
can find in Japanese stores for kids.
Can't wait to start texture work more seriously
but have to wait the occlusion map to be done
to use it as a base for the color map.
Patience...
Nice job Gara !
I like your color choice for the overpainting, it's really cool ^^
For sure it's a quadruped but still remind me a dog more than a cat
I'm in a hurry to see more, good luck
I see dog mostly due to the posture- like a wolf bearing teeth, gorwling about to shred something. If was a cat it would look more sneaky and pounce ready.
Thanks Arkhange and Konstruct! So lets go for a wulfy-dog.
I still don't manage to find a name for it. It's always stupid names
like "Shitizen Clane" that comes to my mind (sick?).
I'm done with the normal-map and occlusion baking.
Next step is to reconsider color, and try to make
something less "plastic-chocolate" like.
May have a try adding noise on the normal map
and also put a specular map on the model though
I don't know much about specular and gloss map.
dude you are flying -- i can see you kicking your feet up and drinking a beer while the rest of us struggle with bake downs and texturing. awesome work! Any rendering plans? Unreal? Viewport? Mental Ray?
Thank you guys. Still it is a very simple robot compared to other entries.
I'll just try to do my best to improve my technique (wich is bad, lots of
dirt on baked maps). Anyway it is really cool to take part in this contest.
There is so many good works to see; it helps to keep high motivation
for building more and more. No idea of what to use for rendering.
I like Unreal editor but it lowers the texture resolution when saving packages...
Changed the colours a little.
Normal and colour map almost done.
It may be necessary to add other tones
because it is quite boring like that.
May be it is time for another paint over.
Looking sweet man, your steady pace is very inspiring. It might be cool to see some smokey like energy that trails off the back of the blades. Keep it up.
kd4sh > Thank you mate!
There is still so much to do. I fight with specular right now.
nrek > Yes, that's a great idea. I may use it in the beauty shot
if you don't mind Thank you for your support. I hope I can help
too someday.
Changed the colours once more. It's kind of hard to maintain
balance between colours, tone contrasts and texture...
Thanks to Funshark's advices it is better than before.
I'm off for four days. Gonna breathe pure air in south of France.
Back from south of France.
Thks for comments and advices.
Just a little update today (may be hard to notice the difference)
before I try to add reflects on the whole body.
Still I'm not sure that it is ok to use a CubeMap.
If I use one it may not be a 2048X2048 texture...
Worked a little bit on colours, specular map and added some noises.
Every trial with a Cube map is a failure (only get a rusty result, not
a clean reflection). I don't know if it because my gloss map is wrong
or if I ought to paste something in the texture's alpha channel...
lookin' cool dude -- not sure about the cube map -- what app are you using to render?
Crits thus far: can you push some of the depth in your normal map around the neck area? I feel like the bright green striations across the neck could totally be pushed further off the surface. That's all I have for ya -- looks killer :P
r4ptur3, yes you're right. Its kind of flat around the neck. Thanks.
I fixed it and now focus on the posing. I'll see if I can find good
pictures of animals like hyena or jaguar today.
r4ptur3 > Oh, I forget to answer about the rendering.
I use Xnormal for the moment. Cubemap on this model
gives it a "coal" or a "rusty" touch. I thought I had
messed up the gloss map at first, but it may be
because of the rather dark colour map. Have to try
again.
For now, my favorites posing are E and F !
Landing pose seems to be more interesting.
I think you should maybe break the symmetry a lil' more with playing on legs axis even if I know it's just test for now
Arkhange > Yes, probably E and F with slightly different legs positions.
Thank you for helping choosing. I wasn't sure at all.
Here is a first try (added a tongue too). Lets think about the pedestal.
hey sir great stuff its gotta be nice to be this far along already! and i dig the pose. on your gloss map, i haven't used that in xnormal, but i know in Maya you can get that rusty result if your samples/index of refraction arnt set high enough, gl with the shader!
Thanks woogity. If there is enough time left I will have a try in Maya.
The problem is that I know almost nothing about Mental Ray :poly122:
I may go for this kind of stuff for the pedestal :
It wants play with baball ^^ Sans dec, it's very cool ! (The light is too strong, in my humble opinion)
I see it very well as the pet of a CyberNinja (shadow dancer 2009 !)
Sephiel > Yes thanks for pointing out that.
I think I'll keep something rather strong for the
lighting but may be lower it a bit.
Pedestal almost done.
Time to try cube-map once more.
I started to work on the presentation shot.
Then I realised that the model had lots of weird shapes
(like the too long tail) that keep me from showing it
wide with a good camera angle... Cheated a bit
twisting the tail on the model seen from behind.
Oh men, it hurts. I've changed about 6 times
the composition and still I'm not sure that this
one is good enough.
Be carefull, You can't change 1000 h X 1200 w
to 1200 h X 1000 w. I asked Fredrik Hultqvist about that today.
Have to change the lighting for the model seen from behind.
Bed time, good time, you know I had my share
(sorry for that bad musical joke :poly136:)
Replies
nice work, as usual
Nice work on basemesh..
or may be Japanese dogs don't bite (wich is hard to believe though)
I'll try to do my best.
But next step is Z-Brush sculpt
and it kind of freaks me out.
Looking forward to see your
colorised version of
"Gacha-gacha-pon, gacha-gacha-pon"
Lots of artefacts and loss of volume...
Had problems to render correctly normals in Maya
so I'll use another soft some collegues told me about.
Sculpting in Z-Brush takes so much time!
Have to "gambaru".
As for the baking, in my opinion theres nothing better than the 3DS Max RenderTo Texture, Poop made the best tut on that, check it out! (Thanks PooP!)
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/normal_workflow.htm
(you can get a 30-Day trail of Max on the Autodesk site)
If I were you, i would do these details in Max ( ohh .. you're in maya
To tell you the truth I don't feel confident at all with High-res modeling techniques
(too much years on low-polys models...). I know you're right and that It could be
better with subdiv-surfaces. But my problem is that I don't have much time to try
new workflow now. Can only work 2 or 3 ours at night. I'll stick at what I know
this time. But surely I'll have to try what you told me about to progress.
Thank you for the tutorial link.
For the moment my only aim now is to finish the contest.
No matter if I "lose points" with some snaggy parts.
At the end of May my wife and daughter will fly back to Japan for a while.
I'll have time to give a shot to your workflow when they are away.
Slowly building each parts: It looks like a plastic toy.
I'll adjust the balance between maps later on. And try to bake
in other way, if there is time left (Yes render to texture in Maya is also a good tool).
Another cool technique I saw a few times now is: Modeling the ruff hard surfaces in ZBrush/Mudbox and then taking that into a classic tool (Wings/Silo/Maya/Max...) and building up around that form, that way you get the best of both.
Another tip I could give you for polymodeling is maybe starting off with just one poly instead of a box and always extruding edges.
I like to go around the whole mass of the object first and then connecting/cutting more loops in to define the form as close as I want...
Only worked a little on the shields plugged in the head tonight.
Had a break and tried to put fiew colors on the
model. It still look like that kind of cheap toy you
can find in Japanese stores for kids.
Can't wait to start texture work more seriously
but have to wait the occlusion map to be done
to use it as a base for the color map.
Patience...
Oh my! I thought I had a dog,
but it may be more looking like a cat... Nevermind.
Cats are fine too.
I like your color choice for the overpainting, it's really cool ^^
For sure it's a quadruped
I'm in a hurry to see more, good luck
really nice work dude-!
I still don't manage to find a name for it. It's always stupid names
like "Shitizen Clane" that comes to my mind (sick?).
I'm done with the normal-map and occlusion baking.
Next step is to reconsider color, and try to make
something less "plastic-chocolate" like.
May have a try adding noise on the normal map
and also put a specular map on the model though
I don't know much about specular and gloss map.
-Woog
I'll just try to do my best to improve my technique (wich is bad, lots of
dirt on baked maps). Anyway it is really cool to take part in this contest.
There is so many good works to see; it helps to keep high motivation
for building more and more. No idea of what to use for rendering.
I like Unreal editor but it lowers the texture resolution when saving packages...
Normal and colour map almost done.
It may be necessary to add other tones
because it is quite boring like that.
May be it is time for another paint over.
very nice, keet it up!
There is still so much to do. I fight with specular right now.
nrek > Yes, that's a great idea. I may use it in the beauty shot
if you don't mind
too someday.
Changed the colours once more. It's kind of hard to maintain
balance between colours, tone contrasts and texture...
Thanks to Funshark's advices it is better than before.
I'm off for four days. Gonna breathe pure air in south of France.
contrasts are better, well balanced
Thks for comments and advices.
Just a little update today (may be hard to notice the difference)
before I try to add reflects on the whole body.
Still I'm not sure that it is ok to use a CubeMap.
If I use one it may not be a 2048X2048 texture...
Every trial with a Cube map is a failure (only get a rusty result, not
a clean reflection). I don't know if it because my gloss map is wrong
or if I ought to paste something in the texture's alpha channel...
Crits thus far: can you push some of the depth in your normal map around the neck area? I feel like the bright green striations across the neck could totally be pushed further off the surface. That's all I have for ya -- looks killer :P
I fixed it and now focus on the posing. I'll see if I can find good
pictures of animals like hyena or jaguar today.
I use Xnormal for the moment. Cubemap on this model
gives it a "coal" or a "rusty" touch. I thought I had
messed up the gloss map at first, but it may be
because of the rather dark colour map. Have to try
again.
Landing pose seems to be more interesting.
I think you should maybe break the symmetry a lil' more with playing on legs axis even if I know it's just test for now
Thank you for helping choosing. I wasn't sure at all.
Here is a first try (added a tongue too). Lets think about the pedestal.
Can't see the front legs details anymore though.
-Woog
The problem is that I know almost nothing about Mental Ray :poly122:
I may go for this kind of stuff for the pedestal :
a pedestal with flying peebles.
I see it very well as the pet of a CyberNinja (shadow dancer 2009 !)
I think I'll keep something rather strong for the
lighting but may be lower it a bit.
Pedestal almost done.
Time to try cube-map once more.
Then I realised that the model had lots of weird shapes
(like the too long tail) that keep me from showing it
wide with a good camera angle... Cheated a bit
twisting the tail on the model seen from behind.
Oh men, it hurts. I've changed about 6 times
the composition and still I'm not sure that this
one is good enough.
Be carefull, You can't change 1000 h X 1200 w
to 1200 h X 1000 w. I asked Fredrik Hultqvist about that today.
Have to change the lighting for the model seen from behind.
Bed time, good time, you know I had my share
(sorry for that bad musical joke :poly136:)
The backview is a bit dark compared to the frontview. Is it because of the DW'rulez?
About the composition, maybe a posture like a turning cheetah will give it a more "hunting" style (Exemple).
Anyway, can't wait to see more!:)
GL!