Gusti - I did try to do the feathers like that but they looked to much like leaves, but for you i'l give it another go =P
Snader - thanks for the confirmation =D
Richwderbly and Mgoblue412 - Thanks for your crit both your suggestions are on the to-do list and I will post up a render when I have done them.
Gilesrusceo - Thanks a lot i'm working hard on my texturing at the moment to get it to a good standard and i'm really enjoying doing stylized stuff
Andreas - I will go back to the broad leaf and try to get a good middle ground to see how it works
Really unsure about the texturing on this it still has a way to go yet but I'm tempted to scrap it and come up with another texure. Though it will get covered in other foliage I am wondering if their is a better way of doing it I feel like something is wrong but I cant put my finger on what it is, any insight would be really appreciated =D
You might be able to push the contrast a bit with the feathers. More dark darks and light lights. Kind of like how you have it for Aku Aku's "grass goatee".
The crates look a lot nicer, they have a softer contrast and blend nicely. Whereas the ferns with the stripe get's a bit distracting, especially if there'll be a lot scattered about. Maybe drop the accent, seems to harsh (the racing stripes I mean), and tweak the contrast on the leaves -- dark darks / light lights.
I'm shocked I've only discovered this thread now, I really like the style and just looking at your stuff get's me more inspired. It looks awesome and thanks for the shader tutorial, I'll be playing with that!
And about the grass, I like how it hangs off the edge, which hangs fairly neatly (a good thing), then looking at the grass that isn't mask it becomes messy, going in different directions (not so good a thing). After staring for a minute that's about all I see messing up my aesthetics. Try having them match more in flow, either messy or neat.
Good Luck. I'm now following!
*EDIT: I came back to this for reference and a quick how-to. Looking at the shot again, it might be the fern. It's a curved shape whereas everything else is triangular more so.
Thanks Butthair, a lot of useful advice I will be adding it to the to-do list along with the rest of the crit, lists getting a bit long now =P
Update on the edging, also made some rocks which are dotted around the scene. Still need some ivy, background trees, roots and some more different foliage.
I'm currently working on my own fanart environment thing, so Its nice to see someone else working on one as well. You better show this to naughty dog when you are finished. haha keep it up dude!
Thanks guys =D I'm hoping to show my progress to Richard Lemarchand at eurogamer though I dont think he worked on crash it will still be cool for someone at naughty dog to see it =P
So I was thinking earlier, When you create an opacity mask in UDK at what point does the mask decide whether to render a pixel or not? So to find this out I did an experiment. =D
When I create a opacity mask it usually goes into the alpha channel on the diffuse, spec or normal of that texture, meaning the texture is saved as a 32bit TGA, but in that alpha channel I can have a gradient from black to white which could essentially be my spec. so to find out what range I could get I created a gradient texture and plugged it into the opacity mask in UDK.
Turns out the range on UDK to mask something kicks in at R,G,B: 158, giving you a fair bit of gradient that would otherwise go wasted
Now if some clever sod could figure out a way to change this so that instead of R,G,B: 158 it could mask at R,G,B: 0 or 1 then you would have an even larger gradient to use.
So im trying to do rocks and i'm failing miserably, any advice or crit will be appreciated, I have looked at some of the rock tutorials on here and around other parts of the web but no luck so far getting a style that works
AzzaMat, I'm not sure what you're talking about with the gradient thing, but I'm intrigued to know what you mean.
As for rocks, from just that image, it looks like your doing it all in zBursh? Sculpting and painting? I'm guessing you retopo as well, not sure if there might be problems there, but it might be that you need to sculpt deeper. I mean, really deep. The rocks crack through, so sculpt the same.
I use to paint in zBrush, but I'd get the artifacts you have on the grey rock. Try only painting in accented edges and cracks, than paint the rest in Fotoshoppe. It's a suggestion, don't have too.
Looking at the brown rocks, I see a normals problem where they "dip" inward from a plane change, creating a sort of bowl. It might be the swizzle on your XYZ's for it, zBrush I believe likes to invert the to Y+, and xNormals has the same preference, but UDK and I believe mac as well, prefer Y-. Maybe that will solve that, or else they might be too strong overall.
Sorry about the gradiant its not explained well. When you bring a mask into UDK it limits the gradiant to either black or white even if you put in a gradiant alpha into the opacity mask. When it works out what pixel to make black and which one to make white it has a cut off which I mark in the image above. This means you could create a spec map in the channel within that limit and use that as the opacity mask as well. Hope that explains it a bit better.
Thanks for your crit on the rocks i'l give it another go, im just gonna keep making them and hope I get better =D
OH, now I get it, and that is f*king genius. Thanks for explaining that. That is an awesome thing you did, I don't even know how you came about the idea, but right on.
For the rocks, all I use is trimDynamic, for cracks I use damStandard and Rake. TrimDynamic helps "cut it up", achieving that stylized rock look (I did this in a scene where everything is rocks).
I wouldn't recommend hPolish for most of the stuff (if you use it), it tends to form slopes and make blobs that are ugly and aren't needed. TrimDynamic at 75-100 (or whatever) is good for me, it cuts really clean and is flat.
For cracks, tightening them up when everything is done is a good idea. The pinch brush helps make more of a point. Moving the edges so they lip up a bit helps heaps, for accented edges as well as a really good looking normals.
Good luck to ya.
(That art test for aNet just wrapped up, if I have time, I'll do you a rock tut. You got awesome stuff, I don't like being stuck, I don't want to see you stuck either.)
WIP Tree, Used speed tree to make this still has a few tweaks before I bring it in but so far im really enjoying using it once you figure out were everything is its really easy to use
Update on the tree work not sure about the spoty tree will keep working on it. Also not sure why the leaves are so dark on some of the trees, will look into it.
hey azzamat, will you be releasing any of the textures that are made ?
i'd like to try to make something myself but i do not feel like stealing any of your work.
well great job on what youve made so far!
thanks
I didn't click on this thread with big expectations, but dammit this is awesome. Great colors and what looks to be a solid interpretation of the game. I especially like Aku Aku and your 'squid monster' scene.
Thanks alot guys I havent done much lately cause i'm pretty busy with uni stuff but I will update stuff soon. Once its finished I will release the UDK level for people to rip apart and all that good stuff =D
I have found that I have a bit of spare time again so I have started doing a bit more work on my Crash Bandicoot scene. I have created this aztec brickwork for the steps. Not sure on it though. Any advice or crit would be appreciated. =D
This is literally my favorite game of all time. I still regularly throw it in the PS1 and play it. I am really excited to see how this turns out. It looks great so far.
Working on rock textures, my first attempt was not great
But Im much happier with the second one though its still unfinished any critique would be appreciated =D
actually you can get all the way =P make sure you are using the crash game type and use double jump, though i warn you, once you get past the stairs it gets even less detailed and empty
Makes me want to remake something myself...
I hope the default (and confusing) front-end and player mesh are there because of the lack of time, not some stupid oversight? Other than that, this is perfect. (I sure will whip out the ol' gray box to double-check that )
It's either floating hands, default inventory or rewriting the entire pawn.
Took me some willpower to turn the game off once I started "comparing"...
Anyway, some crits after playing the original:
- Object and scene fidelity ain't perfect. I understand that doing it pixel by pixel the same thing isn't the goal here but try to keep the color palette and object alignment the same.
Getting some of the textures out of the game for reference would help a lot.
Example: The boat is too bright, the head is way off and it should be tilted towards the camera.
- Level layout needs work, scale is off in a couple spots. I hope the lack of the split is temporary. Shadow boxes are way too small.
- Wumpas should spin a bit faster, while 1-ups and masks shouldn't rotate at all but hover.
- Camera should not spin or move horizontally at all, it's just fixed on the rail and only the vertical angle depends on your altitude. The collision usually never allows you to go off-screen.
- Foliage borders have variable height throughout the entire level.
I'm curious how did you make the rail camera. Matinee?
Ha I wish it was that easy, its a custom camera script that I found while trauling the internet. Its brilliant you can make a rail track and the camera moves along it in relation to the player its perfect as well for creating a side scroller =D. Also thanks so much for taking the time to compare and play I will add the critique to my to do list.
A spline is fine too...
Use an old utility called PSicture to extract textures if you ever need to do it. (Just pop the disc in and scan, everything should show up)
For getting sound out there's a similar program named PSound and for music, use PSF files and rip to wave using your music player of choice.
didn't have much luck with PSicture unfortunately, shame it would have been nice to see the original texture sheets from the game =(. Thanks anyway. fortunately all the orignal sound is available to download so I have that already, just need to add it. Will do some experiments with creating tiki style pillars and stuff over the next few weeks.
Hey AzzaMat, I've been following this for quite a while and have been highly impressed with the amount of talent you've put into modelling and texturing alike. I map for Source SDK, and believe it or not, following this thread has inspired me to pick up modelling and stylistic texturing. Anyway, I can totally help you with ripping the textures from Crash 1. I've ripped a ton already from the first level, sunset vista (or lost city), and road to nowhere. I've been attempting to make a map with them:
But yeah if you want me to upload some of the textures from the first level for reference, I'll gladly oblige.
Replies
Snader - thanks for the confirmation =D
Richwderbly and Mgoblue412 - Thanks for your crit both your suggestions are on the to-do list and I will post up a render when I have done them.
Gilesrusceo - Thanks a lot i'm working hard on my texturing at the moment to get it to a good standard and i'm really enjoying doing stylized stuff
Andreas - I will go back to the broad leaf and try to get a good middle ground to see how it works
Thanks everyone for your crit and posts
The crates look a lot nicer, they have a softer contrast and blend nicely. Whereas the ferns with the stripe get's a bit distracting, especially if there'll be a lot scattered about. Maybe drop the accent, seems to harsh (the racing stripes I mean), and tweak the contrast on the leaves -- dark darks / light lights.
I'm shocked I've only discovered this thread now, I really like the style and just looking at your stuff get's me more inspired. It looks awesome and thanks for the shader tutorial, I'll be playing with that!
And about the grass, I like how it hangs off the edge, which hangs fairly neatly (a good thing), then looking at the grass that isn't mask it becomes messy, going in different directions (not so good a thing). After staring for a minute that's about all I see messing up my aesthetics. Try having them match more in flow, either messy or neat.
Good Luck. I'm now following!
*EDIT: I came back to this for reference and a quick how-to. Looking at the shot again, it might be the fern. It's a curved shape whereas everything else is triangular more so.
Update on the edging, also made some rocks which are dotted around the scene. Still need some ivy, background trees, roots and some more different foliage.
When I create a opacity mask it usually goes into the alpha channel on the diffuse, spec or normal of that texture, meaning the texture is saved as a 32bit TGA, but in that alpha channel I can have a gradient from black to white which could essentially be my spec. so to find out what range I could get I created a gradient texture and plugged it into the opacity mask in UDK.
Turns out the range on UDK to mask something kicks in at R,G,B: 158, giving you a fair bit of gradient that would otherwise go wasted
Now if some clever sod could figure out a way to change this so that instead of R,G,B: 158 it could mask at R,G,B: 0 or 1 then you would have an even larger gradient to use.
also playing with marmoset it makes things puuuurdy
Someone recently offered to code for me so I should be able to turn this into a playable demo at some point =D
As for rocks, from just that image, it looks like your doing it all in zBursh? Sculpting and painting? I'm guessing you retopo as well, not sure if there might be problems there, but it might be that you need to sculpt deeper. I mean, really deep. The rocks crack through, so sculpt the same.
I use to paint in zBrush, but I'd get the artifacts you have on the grey rock. Try only painting in accented edges and cracks, than paint the rest in Fotoshoppe. It's a suggestion, don't have too.
Looking at the brown rocks, I see a normals problem where they "dip" inward from a plane change, creating a sort of bowl. It might be the swizzle on your XYZ's for it, zBrush I believe likes to invert the to Y+, and xNormals has the same preference, but UDK and I believe mac as well, prefer Y-. Maybe that will solve that, or else they might be too strong overall.
Thanks for your crit on the rocks i'l give it another go, im just gonna keep making them and hope I get better =D
For the rocks, all I use is trimDynamic, for cracks I use damStandard and Rake. TrimDynamic helps "cut it up", achieving that stylized rock look (I did this in a scene where everything is rocks).
I wouldn't recommend hPolish for most of the stuff (if you use it), it tends to form slopes and make blobs that are ugly and aren't needed. TrimDynamic at 75-100 (or whatever) is good for me, it cuts really clean and is flat.
For cracks, tightening them up when everything is done is a good idea. The pinch brush helps make more of a point. Moving the edges so they lip up a bit helps heaps, for accented edges as well as a really good looking normals.
Good luck to ya.
(That art test for aNet just wrapped up, if I have time, I'll do you a rock tut. You got awesome stuff, I don't like being stuck, I don't want to see you stuck either.)
i'd like to try to make something myself but i do not feel like stealing any of your work.
well great job on what youve made so far!
thanks
Great work overal, I'm especially enjoying the color choices.
Still having a lot of trouble getting a nice art style for the tiki statues and other things like that. Also my stylized rocks still look abysmal
But Im much happier with the second one though its still unfinished any critique would be appreciated =D
http://www.moddb.com/games/crash-bandicoot-hd/downloads/wip-crash-level
Too bad you can only get halfway up the stairs
Goodluck on finishing the level. I'll keep an eye on this one
I hope the default (and confusing) front-end and player mesh are there because of the lack of time, not some stupid oversight? Other than that, this is perfect. (I sure will whip out the ol' gray box to double-check that
Weird i dont remember the floating robot hands :P
Took me some willpower to turn the game off once I started "comparing"...
Anyway, some crits after playing the original:
- Object and scene fidelity ain't perfect. I understand that doing it pixel by pixel the same thing isn't the goal here but try to keep the color palette and object alignment the same.
Getting some of the textures out of the game for reference would help a lot.
Example: The boat is too bright, the head is way off and it should be tilted towards the camera.
- Level layout needs work, scale is off in a couple spots. I hope the lack of the split is temporary. Shadow boxes are way too small.
- Wumpas should spin a bit faster, while 1-ups and masks shouldn't rotate at all but hover.
- Camera should not spin or move horizontally at all, it's just fixed on the rail and only the vertical angle depends on your altitude. The collision usually never allows you to go off-screen.
- Foliage borders have variable height throughout the entire level.
I'm curious how did you make the rail camera. Matinee?
http://www.josephcecot.com/programming/unrealscript/
Use an old utility called PSicture to extract textures if you ever need to do it. (Just pop the disc in and scan, everything should show up)
For getting sound out there's a similar program named PSound and for music, use PSF files and rip to wave using your music player of choice.
But yeah if you want me to upload some of the textures from the first level for reference, I'll gladly oblige.