The great A'Tuin

BeserK

Howdy peasants

I'm making a screen saver with a programmer friend of the Discworld from Terry Pratchett's series of fantasy books. Started on the turtle, and need some advice, this is where I'm at now, and I'm not sure what comes next... you see, I'm still a pleb of a 3D artist, never even made a normal map before.
Does the texturing come first, or do I slap it into mudbox for some high poly magic?

He/she is sitting at around 3500 polys at the mo'.



p.s. You can scream at me for anything else that looks like faeces!

Ged

great subject, you gonna zbrush it at all?

BeserK

Was going to use Mudbox actually, Zbrush is far too smart for me.

Rhinokey

you watch any of the tv/movies of discworld? hogfather or color of magic, one of the few things in those movies i liked was the look of the turtle and elephants. yours is lookin good, but rember to keep the back flat enough that the elephants can stand comfortably!

BeserK

@Rhinokey: I did watch one of the movies, and the turtle looked great! I was thinking about that and I reckon it would look better if the elephants had slightly bent legs to accommodate the curve of the shell, maybe I can find a healthy middle ground?

Valandar

Maybe particle effects around the rim of the Disc to show the water pouring off the edge?

pior

The pressure's on now! Great subject matter!!!
Cant wait to see how you ll represent the Disc on top, could be a lot of fun with nice realtime clouds, the fireball pushed by the scarab(=sun), all that!

BeserK

@Valander: I was thinking an animated texture with alphas for the water, maybe particles would work better... hmmm

@Pior: Thanks a million! We will try to stick to the books as much as possible, , apparently the discworld has s domed atmosphere, lots of frustrating fun also, I think the scarab bushing the sun might be an Egyptian thing, don't remember ever seeing that in the books, please let me know if it's in there!

Still trying to find out if I need to lay out UVs or start with the mudboxing... help!

pior

Yes it is an Egyptian thing, and yes it's in the books :P Not all of them tho, but I am pretty sure it appears in the one that takes place in the DiscWorld equivalent of Egypt (with the genius camel doing calculus). Not part of the 'main' disc looks tho... maybe ...

Nistrum

that jingo? been a long time since i read it

pestibug

Pior is right, but not all the way, yeah there is a scarab pushing the sun, and the night sky is in fact a huge goddes hovering above the land.
The only thing is, in that story all that takes place in another dimension. (time/space collapsed and the belive of people becomes reality).

So, in the end, on the normal disc none of these things would be visible.

pior

pshhhhhhhhhhhhtttt

pestibug

facts m'boy, FACTS!

Ged

that was in the book pyramids if I remember correctly. Alot of the discworld involves anthropomorphic characteristics though, like the clouds even have personality haha

NoltaN

Berserk - I'd start with the mudboxing, Your base forms may change some so just save UV'ing for after.

Richard Kain

The scarab pushing the sun is only in Pyramids. In all the other books, the sun is just a small burning ball revolving around Great A'Tuin. Also, don't forget that they have a moon as well.