Liberty Prime

thomascheng

Hey guys. I'm new here and working on improving my skills on 3DS Max. I made this a while ago in another package, but I figure I posted here for feedback. Yes, I know the scale is off and its a high res mesh. I plan to bring this model into max and zbrush to improve the texturing and create some fine detail normal maps.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tjVQkW9Afs"]Liberty Prime Spotted at Walmart - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg6zY2RzPQc"][/ame]

krimzondestiny

Lol, I think this is great. What do you mean by

its a high res mesh

? Aren't meshes supposed to be hi-res in film? Any rate, what are you looking for feedback on?

thomascheng

Thanks for the reply. I guess, I was concerned that I was using more polygons than I needed too. My next step is to recreate the textures. The first time around, I was short on time, so I create the texture you see in the view completely using procedural textures without UV. I'll definitely post more once I start painting on the model.

1tch

In film there really isn't a budget on polygons providing your render time isn't ridiculously insane. As for your textures, most of the time the materials in renders are generated using procedural. I would hate to UV the high res version of this character for a custom texture haha. If you're planning on doing it, I'd suggest using the UV Master plug-in for ZBrush. Will save you a lot of time, esp if you're doing it by subtool.

The video looks great!

krimzondestiny

Well, I've had experience in film and games. Resolution is only an issue with games because of the limitations of hardware with real-time rendering, so you fake a lot of detail with the various texture maps. In film, you can pretty much add as much resolution as needed in order to get the look you were going for. You can still use tricks in order to fake certain details and make rendering more efficient, but it's not as big of an issue.

Don't take this the wrong way, but i'm not exactly sure Polycount is the place for visual effects for film, which may be why no one has responded to you. They may not be able to give you any useful advice because most of us come from a game background as opposed to film.

When I first saw your video, I was really impressed. The only thing I had a problem with was the burn effect on the screen when the robot shot the lasers. I was thinking the outside edges of the burns should be more saturated to look more like it's burning, but I wasn't sure if that was any matter to you in the first place. So did you do this completely in 3DS Max? Not to say i'm not interested in seeing what you come up with. I'm looking forward to it actually. Good luck man.

Emil Mujanovic

This is pretty cool. The compositing was done really well though one thing for me sticks out really bad and it's the burning film at the end.

1 - It's shot in digital, played back in digital, so the burning film doesn't make any sense and break the whole video.

2 - Okay, you could argue that it was shot using film and it's a playback of that film. Well, burning film is a result of when a single frame of film stops in place and the heat from the projector light melts the film. But in your video, it's still in motion, meaning the film reel should still be rolling and the burn marks wouldn't remain in the same place on the screen.

If you wanted an effect that would read better and seem more believable (for the lack of a better word), you need to do something like digital distortion and static.

For example:
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/286/e/d/digital_distortion_by_samblye1-d30npsi.png
http://4photos.net/photosv2/91693_digital_distortion.jpg
http://movementsandnonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Jens-Hesse_dat01_swimming-horse_2010_120x86.jpg

thomascheng

Hey guys,

Thanks again for the replies. Completely valid on the film burn issue. I'm currently in the VFX industry, doing a few things here and there, but I'm actually more interested in videogames and would eventually like to head into that industry. This particular model was done using Lightwave 3D, but I am very interested in learn and mastering 3DS Max right now, especially for gaming.

One of the things, I like to try and do is create a low resolution version from this high resolution version. I know that it is done many times with organic models, using zbrush to retopologize it, but I'm not exactly sure of the process of doing that for mechanical models.

Would appreciate any thoughts or ideas on how I can do this. Thanks.

Emil Mujanovic

To build the lo-poly mesh you wouldn't have to re-topo in ZBrush but that is one method you can take to building your lo-poly mesh. Also the process of doing organic stuff is pretty much the same as doing hard surface/mechanical when it comes do building a lo-poly and baking.

My process for characters is that once I have my hi-res (which you do), I'll bring that into TopoGun and build my entire lo-poly mesh (or a really solid start on one - you can do this in ZBrush re-topo as well). I'll then bring that first pass mesh into a 3D package (I use Maya, but any 3D package is fine) and will clean up the mesh a little and refine it in areas where I think it needs more geometry. I'll also import the hi-res model as well to lay over the top to make sure it sits right. However I'll drop it back a few subdivisions in ZBrush (if it's a sculpt) so that way Maya doesn't lag out with too may polygons on screen.

Once My lo-poly is at a level that I'm happy with, I make the UVs and then bake my normals. For normal maps I'll either bake them in Maya or sometimes I'll use xNormal. It's a lot easier in xNormal but I like the bakes in Maya just a little more, I find I get a crisper bake.

Then it's off to texturing.

Before I started using Topo-Gun, I would have built my entire lo-poly in Maya from scratch using either a box modelling method or patch modelling. Which ever works for you really.

I hope that helps.

thomascheng

Thanks Emil. That does help a lot. It at least give me a direction to explore.