Was all that detail in the Naga Sculpture from an alpha? Any possible insight to your workflow for that asset?
Hehe. Thanks, I think.
Well, I did it in a few different ways. The detail on the shell behind the snakes was created with shadowboxes, so they are separate pieces that I then merged back into groups to keep my subtools from getting out of hand. The detail on the back of that shell and the midsection of the pedestal was created from a couple different alphas I had. I painted masks to apply only portions of the alphas in projection master using the directional brush. That way I was able to make a couple alphas look like they were more complex than they actually were. The snakes on the pedestal are also from an alpha I made of one of the snakes that I projected onto that section (I still had to sculpt back over that, but it gave me a really good base to start with). The only other thing I did was to paint masks for the snake scales and use offset or inflate (I can't remember which I used in this case) to give me a good base to start with for the scales.
You did that entire back part in shadowbox?? I understand you could make the base mesh, but not those intricate details that pop out, I thought they would be masks as it would be impossible to do in shadowbox - however I suck at at it so I may just be a newbie arghhh .
Yeah, I made all those pieces with shadowbox. I would append a plane to my tool (I may have had to make a polymesh 3d out of a plane before I did this - but you can append that same plane over and over), and then go into shadowbox mode. Then I would just paint out the basic shape I wanted for an individual piece. Then you can subdivide it a few times and sculpt in the rest of the detail you want. Since these pieces are pretty small I didn't have to subdivide it a ton to get the detail I needed, so I could still merge several pieces together, so I could duplicate them and mirror them where needed. It actually wasn't that bad to make all those pieces this way.
The geo can be a little weird that you get out of shadowbox, but I didn't run into any problems with these pieces since they were pretty basic shapes.
Ah I was under the impression you sculpted/positioned/basically did that whole back piece in shadowbox. So you made each individual shape in shadowbox and then just duplicated them around, that makes a bit more sense. (please correct me if I'm wrong lol!).
Thanks for explaining your processes for everyone, I've learnt a tonne reading this thread, means a lot to me.
Alright, I have another update here. I've obviously tweaked the lighting and a bunch of material settings and placement issues, and I've added in the bridge, nagas, and background mountains.
I can already see a couple of issues this morning that I didn't see last night. I think I'm going to have to add in a couple of boulders and small rocks in a few places to fill some areas out a bit and block out the background a little bit more. After that, I'm going to call it done.
I'll also post another shot that actually shows off the bridge.
Def looking great Schultzy. Some distance fog for post effects are gonna help your background big time once you decide what you want to do for background environment shapes Also your idea of more rocks cant ever hurt! I'd like to see another rock formation (smaller type of formation) on the left of the scene. The first pic of the two above this post, you can see where the negative space would benefit from it. Looking great!! As always!
Thanks a lot, Judd! Yeah, I'll play around with those background mountains a bit more, and try and fill up some of that negative space. I sculpted out another small rock I should be able to place in a few places to give a bit more rockiness to some of the edges of my main rock.
A couple of last shots before I call it quits. I added in a few more rocks, tweaked a bunch of little things.
I am curious if anyone knows how to save to a .jpg without having your color information shifted. I would like to save in some sort of compressed format but with the least amount of color shifting. The image I have in Photoshop has a lot less blue and more yellow, which I like a bit more, but when I save it as a jpg or a png, even when I try and tweak some settings in "save for web" in Photoshop I still get the same color shifts.
A few points that I think could be improved are:
-Have a more interesting texture for the tree trunk, right now it seems to generic.
-Add more micro detail to the rock texture, right now it seems a bit weird and low res.
-Make the bricks on the wall pop, they look flat and uninteresting.
-Perhaps shift lighting a bit so that not everything is well lit, or use color correction
to punch up those shadows.
Just a few quick ones that bugged me at first glance.
A few points that I think could be improved are:
-Have a more interesting texture for the tree trunk, right now it seems to generic.
-Add more micro detail to the rock texture, right now it seems a bit weird and low res.
-Make the bricks on the wall pop, they look flat and uninteresting.
-Perhaps shift lighting a bit so that not everything is well lit, or use color correction
to punch up those shadows.
Just a few quick ones that bugged me at first glance.
Thanks for your feedback.
(1) I feel like the texture matches the tree I was aiming for fairly closely. I could push the tiling amount to bring it out a bit more.
(2) Well, I might be pushing those texture maps a bit too far. I am surprised to hear that though. I thought I had that micro detail, but I could be wrong. I could see if I can push it out a bit farther in the shader/texture.
(3) I agree with you here. They are getting sort of blanched out in the shader. I should switch that up.
(4) I was trying to get that uneven look without making it too dark in the shadows. I may have pushed the shadows too far up in my LUT file. I'll look into that.
MoreDread: You're right. Good call. I have a few clumps that still don't look the way they should. I've been so focused on the other areas I forgot about them. I was going to post an update I made over the weekend, but I'll wait until I get those branches fixed.
Replies
Hehe. Thanks, I think.
Well, I did it in a few different ways. The detail on the shell behind the snakes was created with shadowboxes, so they are separate pieces that I then merged back into groups to keep my subtools from getting out of hand. The detail on the back of that shell and the midsection of the pedestal was created from a couple different alphas I had. I painted masks to apply only portions of the alphas in projection master using the directional brush. That way I was able to make a couple alphas look like they were more complex than they actually were. The snakes on the pedestal are also from an alpha I made of one of the snakes that I projected onto that section (I still had to sculpt back over that, but it gave me a really good base to start with). The only other thing I did was to paint masks for the snake scales and use offset or inflate (I can't remember which I used in this case) to give me a good base to start with for the scales.
The geo can be a little weird that you get out of shadowbox, but I didn't run into any problems with these pieces since they were pretty basic shapes.
Thanks for explaining your processes for everyone, I've learnt a tonne reading this thread, means a lot to me.
I can already see a couple of issues this morning that I didn't see last night. I think I'm going to have to add in a couple of boulders and small rocks in a few places to fill some areas out a bit and block out the background a little bit more. After that, I'm going to call it done.
I'll also post another shot that actually shows off the bridge.
Let me know if you see anything else. Thanks.
I am curious if anyone knows how to save to a .jpg without having your color information shifted. I would like to save in some sort of compressed format but with the least amount of color shifting. The image I have in Photoshop has a lot less blue and more yellow, which I like a bit more, but when I save it as a jpg or a png, even when I try and tweak some settings in "save for web" in Photoshop I still get the same color shifts.
A few points that I think could be improved are:
-Have a more interesting texture for the tree trunk, right now it seems to generic.
-Add more micro detail to the rock texture, right now it seems a bit weird and low res.
-Make the bricks on the wall pop, they look flat and uninteresting.
-Perhaps shift lighting a bit so that not everything is well lit, or use color correction
to punch up those shadows.
Just a few quick ones that bugged me at first glance.
Thanks for your feedback.
(1) I feel like the texture matches the tree I was aiming for fairly closely. I could push the tiling amount to bring it out a bit more.
(2) Well, I might be pushing those texture maps a bit too far. I am surprised to hear that though. I thought I had that micro detail, but I could be wrong. I could see if I can push it out a bit farther in the shader/texture.
(3) I agree with you here. They are getting sort of blanched out in the shader. I should switch that up.
(4) I was trying to get that uneven look without making it too dark in the shadows. I may have pushed the shadows too far up in my LUT file. I'll look into that.
Pdude2K7: I will. Thanks again for the input.
MoreDread: You're right. Good call. I have a few clumps that still don't look the way they should. I've been so focused on the other areas I forgot about them. I was going to post an update I made over the weekend, but I'll wait until I get those branches fixed.