Love the red highlights. Not sure about those lantern things, but they aren't horrid. I'm just not sure that you need them. Sure they add some lighting contrast on the rock walls and they allow for some depth of field but they seem a bit out of place to me. I think the reason they seem out of place to me is because they make the entire piece seem a bit more playful and fairy-like instead of a decrepit Demon's throne.
i really really love each and every piece of this environment, but the lighting is still a huge letdown for me
as others have already stated the contrast is something im having problems with. while i never been to a lava cave, i'd imagine, if lava would shine and sparkle like in your environment, the environment itself would be lit much much more. i don't know something in my head tells me, that theres something wrong with the way the space is lit. i think lava that is so bright would emit much more strong light to the surrounding than it is in your scene. and that's whats throwing me off on this piece. my eyes expect way more light that the lava lighting level suggests, yet all i get is some red spotlight lighting on the surrounding rocks and the rest stays totally dark.
the contrast is so harsh and i think that's the reason why people were bothered with losing focus on the scene.
i really thought in motion it might be different, but after having watched the video, im getting the same vibe from it.
i'm no video game master, so i don't remember too many games with lava in it, so i just did some random google searching
it's clearly not the genre you're shooting for, but still i feel it represents what i'm trying to say, yet fail to deliver
i'm so bad at explaining stuff :P
i know, the video's already done, and you're probably not gonna rework it, yet it may be an indicator towards the future to digg even deeper into lighting your game environments.
your reel looks wonderful and sure it's just a matter of time, till you land an awesome quatro AAAA studio job
This turned out great and it was especially a pleasure seeing the level in motion on your reel. You weren't kidding you really did go all out on this. Major props, it's a stellar piece. My only crit would be that it looked like the lava waterfalls were falling a bit too fast for the type of consistency molten lava is. In general I think it's pretty slow moving and very thick/rubberband like.
At anyrate, good luck with your job hunt, your stuff is really solid. :thumbup:
Truly inspiring man! Not only is this stuff job worthy, but "good job" worthy.
Hope you have a good resume and cover letter made up, just as important as your portfolio. If you want crits on 'em don't be shy about sending a copy over.
Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you guys know that the video series is now fully up on Vimeo, and ready to be completely destroyed by you lovely folks.
De-Constructing "Demon Throne" - A Postmortem / Tutorial Video Series
This is a Postmortem / mini Tutorial video series I have recorded to hopefully help those who are starting out on their first larger scale Environment.
Through this video series, I explain (in-depth) the evolution of my UDK Environment piece, "Demon Throne", as well as showing a basic process of taking a High Poly base from 3D Max, bringing it into Zbrush for sculpting purposes, then taking it back into 3D Max for baking. I also breakdown one of the texture maps that was used in the scene.
I'd love to hear what you guys think... I know its probably pretty painful to listen to at points since apparently I can't talk and move a mouse at the same time, but HOPEFULLY someone will get something out of this, which will be more than worth it despite all the hateful things you will say.
Thanks again for all the help guys, couldn't have done it without you.
sir you are awesome! Hope I find time to watch all these vids !
When I was looking through the whole thread and see your improvement I was impressed and at the end you 've posted some cool vids! Awesome thanks!
Just started watching, really cool. Im about to embark upon building an environment for the first time, and this looks like just the thing to watch. Thanks so much for taking the time and sharing this with us:)
srly, one of my favourite scene using udk (i love darksiders/comics style)
I can try to find some solution to download FLV videos from vimeo, but, just in case, do you have any link, where we can direct-download it? To be honest i'd like to convert them for my psp, that way i can learn some stuff while i'm stuck in subway ^^"
btw, thanks a lot! huge work you did for us, and people who are intersted on this scene.
@Orb: You can download files off Vimeo if you're a member and within 2 weeks of it being put up I believe. If not just grab flashgot plugin for firefox and download the FLV
As for downloading, I'll be finding some way to host it up on a site soon enough. I was thinking about using my own server, but I don't want to max out the bandwidth.
So i'll find a place to host the full download (at better quality too) soon-ish I hope.
Wicked environment! Really loving your work man. Grats on the new job and thanks for doing the postmortem. Already learned a good bit from watching your section on texturing. Big thanks!
Hey man, watched the video. you are really not confident in the way you talk about your work. and there is no reason that you should act that way, your stuff is really great looking, anyways I really liked watching the evolution of this piece while you were making it , and now actually hearing what you where thinking why you made it was pretty interesting. good Idea with the video. I really like the environment.
Oh and when I was working on my demo real while I was in school I ran in to the same problem of trying to bake z brush models in max , when they were way to High poly for it. When I learned how to bake in z brush it changed My world. like night and day. and its not very difficult. no need to uv map before you start sculpting either. let me know if you would like the steps or you can try and find the process on prologics website.
Oh man defiantly share, I remember when I first started using zbrush on this old ut3 mod, the guys said it couldn't be done, so it's been stuck in my head since then.
But yuh let me know about that process, would save me a boat load of time... and plus I still need to learn xnormal as well.
Awesome stuff, watched through some of them. Ill definitely have to finish watching the rest.
I'm just starting a new project, these gave me a nice boost of motivation.
Nice insight to your workflow. Very informative.
Thanks for the time you put into making these available.
1, Ok so your finished sculpting your detail in z-brush, now you want to make you low poly model in max and you want to make it reflect the silhouette of your High poly.
(I usually export a low poly version of the model from zbrush to model over with the low poly in max to get the silhouette just right)
2. when you have you low poly mesh uv mapped and ready to bake you import it into z brush just as you would any model as an obj format.
3. now that you have both models imported you want to start with the High poly model. you want to lower the subdivision levels to the lowest level or close to the lowest level (z mapper doesnt like high poly counts). (Important) Once you do that make sure and go to the texture menu on the right side of your screen and click the disable uvs button. only do this for the high poly model since we want the uvs from the low model.
4. now we go to z mapper . with the High poly model selected, click the z mapper button on the top left of the screen. In z mapper click the open configuration button and pick 3d max tangent spaced normals best quality. Then go to projection tab. click the button calledCapture current mesh . (this stores you high poly model). Now click the z mapper button again to exit z mapper. [FONT="]5. now go to you low poly model and go straight back in to z mapper. you High poly model should still be there and now all you have to do is hit[/FONT] Create Projection normal map. give it a minute to bake the texture. Now you should see your normal map applied to the model. ( if it looks correct move on to step 6, if not you could try adjusting theRaycasting Max Scans Distance. It works kinda like a cage. if this doesn't work you may need to go back to max to adjust your model.)
6. now that your normal map is made all you have to do is go to thetexture drop downat the top of your screen, and click theexport button to export your normal map.
Tada, z brush normal baking made easy and Our lives get simpler
Jason - Thanks a lot for the videos. Very insightful and I really enjoyed seeing how you worked on the environment - A lot of good stuff/tips in there. The last texturing one was really good.
Thanks a lot
I'm almost positive Zmapper was removed in 3.5. More of pixologic's incomprehensible mental flailing...
lol yeah Im still using z brush 3.1. welll really I havent felt the need to upgrade because it works fine for me. aaahhhhhh poor me. lol
you right though. and heres why
Projection of Details from a High Resolution Mesh to Different Topology. This was actually the main reason why ZMapper was developed in the first place. However, thanks to the projection features that now exist in ZBrush (the ZProject Brush, as well as Tool>SubTool>Project All) you can now do such projections without needing ZMapper. What's more, you have much more control. Project All has settings that you can use to refine your projections. The ZProject brush lets you project specific areas. Masks can protect parts of the model from projection if you know that they will create problems. After projection, you can also clean up the results before creating your normal map. (With ZMapper, what it gave was what you got. You had no way to refine your results.)
dude i cant thank you enough for these! im currently working on a character thats nearly done sculpting, but i have a plan for an enviroment piece already for when its done! this tutorial thing will be very handy
Hey Jason, awesome piece of work you've done here! I really love it! massive inspiration for me to start working again now that I've finished my course at University.
Big thanks for the video's man, they helped a lot! was great seeing how you went through the process of the scene and an even bigger thanks go out for explaining your texture process I r big Fan
some tips for the future:
just encase you want to do another video in the future make sure to create some notes before hand so you have some sort of script to go off so you will know what to say and if you forget anything the hints will give you a nice guide (you probs know this/do this anyway :P)
MOAR confidence in talking about your work! your hugely talented man, don't worry so much about it!
I noticed several time's where you said "I dunno", I used to do this until I started writing build reports about my projects (I do it for all of them lol). I write them so I know if I need to go back and look at how I did something or if someone else wanted to know how I did something, I can just refer back to my build report to see the process I went through. <-- they don't need to be in huge detail, just notes about the steps you took are fine this will also help with note taking for scripts for a video walk through.
But thats just how I do it! hope that helps some how, but I'm sure you know all this anyway
Awesome work man, really love the style! keep it up!
Glode - Man those are some good ideas I'll keep that in mind for sure.
And yuh... moar confieence indeed, I think it has something to do with being my first video and I didn't want to say something and be incorrect, cause I knew this video series would be geared towards newer artists, so I don't want to tell them false information.
Great work man! So you mentioned that you watched some tutorials on texturing and that you would paste the links for them, but i haven't been able to find them. Think you can pass them along please? Thanks.
As I mentioned on your hallway thread, I am watching the videos, pretty sleepy so will do that tomorrow for sure. But, I went through this thread quite in detail. Fantastic final output.
Look forward to see the videos, all of them. Have seen first 2.
If you can make it available for download would be great.
Replies
And here is my school demo reel -
http://vimeo.com/10966247
Last day of classes... I'm finally done, but back to work I go
i really like you lighting it turned out really well
good luck on the job hunt !
Getting close to being finished!
the reel isn't too shaby either.
as others have already stated the contrast is something im having problems with. while i never been to a lava cave, i'd imagine, if lava would shine and sparkle like in your environment, the environment itself would be lit much much more. i don't know something in my head tells me, that theres something wrong with the way the space is lit. i think lava that is so bright would emit much more strong light to the surrounding than it is in your scene. and that's whats throwing me off on this piece. my eyes expect way more light that the lava lighting level suggests, yet all i get is some red spotlight lighting on the surrounding rocks and the rest stays totally dark.
the contrast is so harsh and i think that's the reason why people were bothered with losing focus on the scene.
i really thought in motion it might be different, but after having watched the video, im getting the same vibe from it.
i'm no video game master, so i don't remember too many games with lava in it, so i just did some random google searching
http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz136/lostsaga/lava1.gif
http://nostalgeek.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/lava_ballad_by_orioto-noscale.jpg
http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/144445-preview-starcraft-ii-single-player/Lava-620x.jpg
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JXdzUmD1C5U/0.jpg
it's clearly not the genre you're shooting for, but still i feel it represents what i'm trying to say, yet fail to deliver
i'm so bad at explaining stuff :P
i know, the video's already done, and you're probably not gonna rework it, yet it may be an indicator towards the future to digg even deeper into lighting your game environments.
your reel looks wonderful and sure it's just a matter of time, till you land an awesome quatro AAAA studio job
This turned out great and it was especially a pleasure seeing the level in motion on your reel. You weren't kidding you really did go all out on this. Major props, it's a stellar piece. My only crit would be that it looked like the lava waterfalls were falling a bit too fast for the type of consistency molten lava is. In general I think it's pretty slow moving and very thick/rubberband like.
At anyrate, good luck with your job hunt, your stuff is really solid. :thumbup:
Hope you have a good resume and cover letter made up, just as important as your portfolio. If you want crits on 'em don't be shy about sending a copy over.
Good luck on the hunt!
De-Constructing "Demon Throne" - A Postmortem / Tutorial Video Series
This is a Postmortem / mini Tutorial video series I have recorded to hopefully help those who are starting out on their first larger scale Environment.
Through this video series, I explain (in-depth) the evolution of my UDK Environment piece, "Demon Throne", as well as showing a basic process of taking a High Poly base from 3D Max, bringing it into Zbrush for sculpting purposes, then taking it back into 3D Max for baking. I also breakdown one of the texture maps that was used in the scene.
Video Here - http://www.vimeo.com/album/227064
I'd love to hear what you guys think... I know its probably pretty painful to listen to at points since apparently I can't talk and move a mouse at the same time, but HOPEFULLY someone will get something out of this, which will be more than worth it despite all the hateful things you will say.
Thanks again for all the help guys, couldn't have done it without you.
When I was looking through the whole thread and see your improvement I was impressed and at the end you 've posted some cool vids! Awesome thanks!
P.s. Your voice sounds like mine and it scares me
I can try to find some solution to download FLV videos from vimeo, but, just in case, do you have any link, where we can direct-download it? To be honest i'd like to convert them for my psp, that way i can learn some stuff while i'm stuck in subway ^^"
btw, thanks a lot! huge work you did for us, and people who are intersted on this scene.
@Orb: You can download files off Vimeo if you're a member and within 2 weeks of it being put up I believe. If not just grab flashgot plugin for firefox and download the FLV
<takes another drink>
Oh you love it rens!
As for downloading, I'll be finding some way to host it up on a site soon enough. I was thinking about using my own server, but I don't want to max out the bandwidth.
So i'll find a place to host the full download (at better quality too) soon-ish I hope.
Oh and when I was working on my demo real while I was in school I ran in to the same problem of trying to bake z brush models in max , when they were way to High poly for it. When I learned how to bake in z brush it changed My world. like night and day. and its not very difficult. no need to uv map before you start sculpting either. let me know if you would like the steps or you can try and find the process on prologics website.
But yuh let me know about that process, would save me a boat load of time... and plus I still need to learn xnormal as well.
I'm just starting a new project, these gave me a nice boost of motivation.
Nice insight to your workflow. Very informative.
Thanks for the time you put into making these available.
1, Ok so your finished sculpting your detail in z-brush, now you want to make you low poly model in max and you want to make it reflect the silhouette of your High poly.
(I usually export a low poly version of the model from zbrush to model over with the low poly in max to get the silhouette just right)
2. when you have you low poly mesh uv mapped and ready to bake you import it into z brush just as you would any model as an obj format.
3. now that you have both models imported you want to start with the High poly model. you want to lower the subdivision levels to the lowest level or close to the lowest level (z mapper doesnt like high poly counts). (Important) Once you do that make sure and go to the texture menu on the right side of your screen and click the disable uvs button. only do this for the high poly model since we want the uvs from the low model.
4. now we go to z mapper . with the High poly model selected, click the z mapper button on the top left of the screen. In z mapper click the open configuration button and pick 3d max tangent spaced normals best quality. Then go to projection tab. click the button called Capture current mesh . (this stores you high poly model). Now click the z mapper button again to exit z mapper.
[FONT="]5. now go to you low poly model and go straight back in to z mapper. you High poly model should still be there and now all you have to do is hit[/FONT] Create Projection normal map. give it a minute to bake the texture. Now you should see your normal map applied to the model.
( if it looks correct move on to step 6, if not you could try adjusting the Raycasting Max Scans Distance. It works kinda like a cage. if this doesn't work you may need to go back to max to adjust your model.)
6. now that your normal map is made all you have to do is go to thetexture drop down at the top of your screen, and click the export button to export your normal map.
Tada, z brush normal baking made easy
and Our lives get simpler
Thank you very much Timothy
I'm almost positive Zmapper was removed in 3.5. More of pixologic's incomprehensible mental flailing...
Thanks a lot
lol yeah Im still using z brush 3.1. welll really I havent felt the need to upgrade because it works fine for me. aaahhhhhh poor me. lol
you right though. and heres why
Projection of Details from a High Resolution Mesh to Different Topology. This was actually the main reason why ZMapper was developed in the first place. However, thanks to the projection features that now exist in ZBrush (the ZProject Brush, as well as Tool>SubTool>Project All) you can now do such projections without needing ZMapper. What's more, you have much more control. Project All has settings that you can use to refine your projections. The ZProject brush lets you project specific areas. Masks can protect parts of the model from projection if you know that they will create problems. After projection, you can also clean up the results before creating your normal map. (With ZMapper, what it gave was what you got. You had no way to refine your results.)
for more reasons why zmapper is no longer in z brush go here
https://support.pixologic.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=39
Big thanks for the video's man, they helped a lot! was great seeing how you went through the process of the scene and an even bigger thanks go out for explaining your texture process
some tips for the future:
just encase you want to do another video in the future make sure to create some notes before hand so you have some sort of script to go off so you will know what to say and if you forget anything the hints will give you a nice guide (you probs know this/do this anyway :P)
MOAR confidence in talking about your work! your hugely talented man, don't worry so much about it!
I noticed several time's where you said "I dunno", I used to do this until I started writing build reports about my projects (I do it for all of them lol). I write them so I know if I need to go back and look at how I did something or if someone else wanted to know how I did something, I can just refer back to my build report to see the process I went through. <-- they don't need to be in huge detail, just notes about the steps you took are fine
But thats just how I do it! hope that helps some how, but I'm sure you know all this anyway
Awesome work man, really love the style! keep it up!
cheers again for the walk through!
And yuh... moar confieence indeed, I think it has something to do with being my first video and I didn't want to say something and be incorrect, cause I knew this video series would be geared towards newer artists, so I don't want to tell them false information.
But yuh I totally agree, I'll keep that in mind
Look forward to see the videos, all of them. Have seen first 2.
If you can make it available for download would be great.
Girish.
use this: http://keepvid.com (it works with vimeo too)