[TEAM] Football, ranek & mrkuwa

ranek

Hey so mrkuwa and I are trying out for team. This challenge is awesome!! mrkuwa is doing the enviroment and I'm gonna try to get a team done before the month is out. Our team is the Tokyo Tarantulas. Its a spider something bug team from japan. We are going for football. Football in Japan, thats a stretch. Here is some of my ref. and a start of a sculpt. If I can get to it, I hope I can knock out a team before the deadline. Can't wait to see the other entries.

TehSplatt

looking good

ranek

Thanks teh! I'm not that well versed in game meshes but I'm gonna try to hang. Got some sketches of how the gear is gonna come together, but the lowpoly convert. hmm a little worrisome. We'll see how it goes! Any crits welcomed. I could definitely learn a thing or 2.

mrkuwa

Hello, this is the other half of Tokyo Tarantula. There is going to be giant spider on each sides. Dish thing at the bottom is a spider web.

ranek

redundant . building armor for something with an exoskeleton. working on this made me laugh out loud today. too funny

ranek

going to put spikes on his shoulders and then get to the linebakers. once this sucker is retopo'd ill put up his lower mesh when i get a hot sec. just want to get to textures!

MDSchee

holy crap! this is ambitious. are you making a whole team also?

ranek

umm. lol ambitious is a pretty good word... we are gonna try! but this is kinda stupid fun. really?! a spider dude in a football getup. I don't know if it really gets better than this. lol. cracking me the whole way. I was watching the cartoon this morning and its as violent as I remembered it to be. Both me n mrkuwa don't have any experience in low poly for LOW Poly things and this is perfecto. Thanks to skank's workflow post we are gonna give it a shot. need to make big moves this weekend tho!

mrkuwa

Hey there. Just wanted to post update. Blue parts are going to be alpha spider webs. Thinking of making spiders eyes into spotlight. Like ranek said, we don't much experience with low polys and game engines, so any advices/comments appreciated

ranek

six arms is killing my polycount, but at such low numbers how close are we getting to this. I know skankzero is at a distance away. I gotta work on my topology but I'll get the gear and start texturing today. hopefully!

skankerzero

ranek wrote: »

six arms is killing my polycount, but at such low numbers how close are we getting to this. I know skankzero is at a distance away. I gotta work on my topology but I'll get the gear and start texturing today. hopefully!

The contest is over on the 31st.

I'm almost done modeling all mine! hopefully I'll be uvmapping today and start texturing tomorrow.

This is coming along really well so far. 6 arms will be a challenge, but I know you can do it!

ranek

@ skankerzero: 31st? yes I got some time! whats' xmas?? lol And thanks for the comment! As for getting there, Im trying to get on your level! I can't wait to see what you have in store. We'll do our best to play catchup on our end. I have a feeling what you got is gonna be gross. But I do have a question about games that are made at these resolutions though. The distance at which the viewer plays these games at will dictate where you place your polys. A foot ball game you would generally see these players at this distance. Where in your best opinion place the concetration of you poly's for a team sport such as football? I feel that you have more movement and the face is not as important. This is where I think I have to chince out on. Obviously I'm looking for polys. so far his legs look like origami.

skankerzero

in the case of football, yes, the face isn't as important if you have helmets on. Movement is key.
I would have to see some clean wireframes on your character to really be able help you with placement.

I don't think my entry will be gross this time around. Hopefully it will be cute and silly. We shall see though. The texturing style I'm using for these is very 'illustrative'.

DrunkShaman

You know what, you just gave me an idea of just sculpting the pices on it instead of making new pieces.

Thanks.

And amazing work sir.

ranek

thanks for the advice skankerzero your techniques is what is helping us through. ! and the compliments Nitewalkr! I'm learning a whole bunch from this low poly jam. Okay I have to admit its alot harder than I had imagined, but I tell you what. I know me some normals now. Didnt get to go too crazy with texturing today .my mudbox is jankypops right now. Just trying to finish up so I can get the linebackers and then tweak some of the characters for star status. I can't wait to see the rest!

Baddcog

That's looking pretty mean ranek, good work.

ranek

thanks badcog! still wrapping my head in mudbox. still has seems by bringing in the high mesh and applying it to the low.

mrkuwa

Hi, there, modeling & uv is almost done. Can't wait to texture this thing

ranek

The base was from a gorilla project i used back in the day. but gonna try to knock it out tonight and texture both of these guys . now knowing about sharpen might change up my texture game. oh n change them fingers into claws or 3 fingered hands. very aware of polycount now. Ha

mrkuwa

finished modeling and uvs. adding details to the spider part.

ranek

repaint and gonna bake it cleaner this time around. gotta finish it but that pesky work thing is killin me.

skankerzero

excellent! Can't wait!

Tadao215

love those hands!

ozoman

Excellent work....can't wait for more updates. Great teamwork

kanegt

Excellent work. :thumbup:

cptSwing

From what i hear, the japanese national team isn't actually half bad..

as a former linebacker, lovin' it

DockRock

This is shaping up real nice, can't wait to see the finished project!

ranek

thanks for the shout outs peeps! Yeah busy with several jobs in the in pipeline but I'm learning a ton from you guys! Trying to make a total switch to games. its definitely the cats meow. had to step up the game after seeing everyones entries. Crazy sick. btw dockrock your piece is what promted that linebacker. that one your working on kinda kills. working on the manager and the quater back then to retopo. cant tell you how much fun this is. posting up soon.

mrkuwa

Starting on texture. I am not too happy with the gravels, I might change it to grass. Any tips and tricks for making tile-able grass anyone? Trying to learn mudbox for texturing too. Like ranek's said, seeing everyone's entries is super inspiring.

Giinyiz

Yo. For grass, use Maya's Paint 2d Paint Effects and Paint on the canvus. (it's a little out of the norm, but it works. Then use the tiling technique in photoshop. Then use crazy bump to extract a normalmap and stuff out of it.

mrkuwa

Did some crash course on mudbox, and continuing on texture, I think it's about half way done? Thanks for the tip, Giinyiz. I never thought of paint effect. I will definitely try that.

mrkuwa

So I have run into problem with the spider. I cut the uv in half, flipped it and overlapped it with other side to save the uv space. However that messed up my normal map. It makes sense because my uv is flipped, but isn't it how game mesh is made for symmetrical characters? I don't know much about it though, advice anybody?

BIGSOG

looks like the normal is inverted on one side....

MattQ86

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1343668
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap#Mirroring

Today's zen realization:

Polycount is the answer to all questions on Polycount.

cptSwing

export your tangents to the baking app and to UDK

mrkuwa

Thanks for the tip guys, my normal is not flipped anymore . Trying to learn UDK over the break so I can light the scene with it.

ranek

just got back in n damn...its gonna be a long week of catchup. I'm behind on this one. this is my qb thus far. started yesterday. a little sloppy and the poly count is still a bit high. its at 2800 or so. retopo'ing the big guy. Gonna try to knock it out. fingers crossed. happy new years peeps.

SsSandu_C

Happy New Year! This looks really awesome. Hope you find the time to finish this I would hate to see that much work being overlooked in this competition but In my eyes from what you made so far sir you are a winner, if you know what I mean. So keep going and and if you don't
find any energy to go on... here's a song that pumps me up
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULS27Wak6-8"]Skrillex - Reptile Theme (Full Version) - Mortal Kombat 2011 - YouTube[/ame]

g2000

Cool set of monsters you got there,hope you can finish it,my fav is that big guy,keep going!!!

ranek

Thanks for the comments peeps!
@SsSandu : skrillex is def in my playlist . add that with some redbulls on the side and you have a heartrate that has the same rhythm pattern as a pound of poprocks. wouldn't have it anyother way. Listening to it as we speak!
@ g2000: thanks mate! It'll be an interesting finish but definitely gonna get there. Thats what duct tape is for right?

TylerFluharty

This is great stuff! Cool seeing a team working together on this theme.

ranek

i think i have some flipped normals. might have to re uv the big guy . the big guy is at 1k maps today.

mrkuwa

Done with holiday food coma and udk crash course.
The stadium is successfully exported in udk, the lighting is one of the default one for now but I will make it into night scene.

mrkuwa

I feel like my mesh is wield. Lighting and shadow looks strange sometime...

skankerzero

laser eyes!!!

MDSchee

"I feel like my mesh is wield. Lighting and shadow looks strange sometime..."

havent used unreal for a while, but are you using light maps or vertex lighting. I think you have to set the actor properties, uv set, and something. too long

anyway hope this help if you havent seen it. http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LightingReference.html

ranek

Its getting there....Lol

skankerzero

go go go!

deadpixl

If you're having lighting issues, check that link for sure also something I learned this week that helped a lot, in the mesh view you can auto generate a second map of uvs if you're crunched for time. They're not the greatest uv's but they'll work in a pinch if you have good mesh flow.

leslievdb

i should have payed more attention to the stages, really like the work you guys are putting in this . Also cool and fitting characters.

Anyway gj and i hope you finish in time ^^

ranek

this is what i'll be doing for the rest of the day Ravenslayer. Thanks skanker gonna be an ugly finish but gettin on it now!