Book Staff

Forg3d

Hey guys!

So I'm doing a little personal project here. I think it's a magical book staff that kind of grows into the ground as the user casts spells. Or something... Doesn't need to make sense in this case. It's just for fun. haha...

Crits and comments welcome!

Alright, here's latest, and close to final.




Here's my concept:

Fred2303

very cool concept and a nice start too. im gonna follow this!

Jar3d

Those are some nice mushrooms. Looking good dude

Darkleopard

Nice start. Will be watching

Forg3d

Hey guys,

I'm glad you like it. Should be a fun project. I got a little more time to work on it this weekend. So I thought I would post an update. Not a huge update, but one nonetheless.

Also, I apologize for the crummy image quality... I do all my work on my Asus EEE slate, which has a 12" screen, so screen grabbing images doesn't turn out so well, but it's late and I didn't feel like hooking up to my big monitor, so these will have to suffice for tonight.

BrianP

really cool idea. love where it is going. although the wood at the bottom of the handle part is very streight and is almost reading as planks like on a dock rather than bark. mabe add some overlapping bark bits that break that line.

Forg3d

Thanks Brian! Do you mean on the actual handle because if so, I am wondering if you are referring to the leather wraps. I will work some more on the handle either way. I was going to start on it next. Will post more soon!

PredatorGSR

Looking cool. I think the wraps could be a lot better, they don't really have depth and thickness right now, they seem to just have highlighted edges that are a little weird. The bark looks cool, but I think you could sharpen up some of the edges and avoid them been too rounded on the ends, maybe try a little jaggedness? A couple of the overall log shapes for the bark seem a little mushy and limp, maybe think about knuckling them a little more like avery talked about in that livestream.

The rock shard I think could have much sharper angles so that it feels different from the bark. Right now everything has a similar soft consistency that I think you could improve by defining the materials a little more uniquely. Take a look at some of the sculpts that Adam (at Vigil) has done, his edges are always super sharp, and it results in really clean bakes that hold up well even at low resolution. One of the crits I got on some of my early sculpts were to avoid too many of those soft edges because it makes the cavity map/texture look lower res than it actually is.

It's gonna turn out great, keep at it. You were probably going to do a lot of this stuff anyway as you refine the sculpt, but stuff to keep in mind.

KennyTies

This is so awesome and unique. I feel like some vines would make this really pop! Keep up the awesome work and I cant wait to see were you push this.

Forg3d

@PredatorGSR - Thanks. Yes, for sure about the wraps. That was kind of the initial blockout of them. I worked on them a little more last night, but now have to do a damage pass on them. As far as the bark goes, I agree. I am definitely trying to get sharper edges and more defined lines. And that is a good point about trying to differentiate the rock from the wood... Will try to work that out. Thanks for the advice.

@KennyTies - Thanks for the input! Ya, I am going to try to do some sort of vine or hanging moss, I think, but I'll probably do that towards the end. I think it would be cool too.

Anyways, I will post an update as soon as I have a little more to show.

Forg3d

Hey all!

I know its been awhile. I went home for a short vacation and wedding and then my parents visited me here in Austin, so it's been a crazy couple weeks. So I didn't have much time to work on my sculpt, but did do a little last night, so I thought I'd throw an update up.

Here you go. The top half of wood is still WIP, well it all is a little... haha.. but that's what I'm currently working on.

Anyways...

Darkleopard

Awesome work

BoBo_the_seal

Nice Idea. It's looking good. I think the bark is reading more like rock at the moment. I think it's because it's all at the same surface depth.

- BoBo

Forg3d

Thanks. Ya, that's a good point Bobo... I will work on pulling and pushing some of the pieces. I think that will give it a better feel. Will post an update soon!

Baddcog

nice work. But the book seems so flat, pages could use some shape.

Forg3d

@Baddcog - ya for sure! I actually haven't even started the book yet. It's going to get some love soon!

Forg3d

Hey Guys, New update! Not a huge update, but check it out. I'm still refining the top log a little, but I changed it up as you can see if you look at the shots above.

Anyways, here you go.

Jar3d

Those are some nice looking mushrooms. And I like what you're doing with the book.

joshmtyler

This piece is wonderful. I'm curious as to how you even started this guy. Base mesh in other program, dynamesh, or something else? There is so much character here.

BarnabyJones

I like the style you went with for this one it would be interesting to see it colored but overall nice piece (=

Jeff Parrott

I really love the design of this. So organic and great. The wood parts I really am not a fan of though. I think you could push the design of that area bit better. Same can be said for the cloth bits. The lighting is a bit distracting atm. I would rework the red/blue harsh shadows.

What's your plan for the diffuse map? Just curious how you're planning to handle that.

Forg3d

@Jar3d - Thanks dude. I appreciate the feedback.

@joshmtyler - I did a very basic blank in 3ds Max, mostly just simple shapes like cylinders, then brought into zbrush and Dynameshed all the wood stuff. Pulled roots out with snake hook brush and just kept dynameshing them as I went to keep geo in them. Mushrooms were just spheres, once again, dynameshed.


@BarnabyJones - Thanks! Ya, I think it will look really good textured. Unfortunately, I will be putting that on hold.... I'm currently working at Vigil games, but they had a big layoff, and I will be out of work soon.. So I am going to put this in my portfolio as a sculpt, but am going to start a new environment project soon, as I am an environment artist and think it will be a more important piece in my portfolio.

@Jeffro - Thanks man, I'm glad you like the design. About the wood, I understand... It is actually on my to do list to do another pass on all the wood. I am going to rough it all up a bit... It's a bit to uniform and smooth right now... Not reading like I want it to. Finding that balance between stylized and rough, is tricky... haha. The cloth, is not started in the previous wips. Below you can see where I'm going with it. Worked on this last night. As far as the diffuse, this project was mainly a piece for fun and to work on sculpting stylized stuff, so it wasn't totally created with optimal texture space in mind, since EVERYTHING is asymmetrical, . If I do end up texturing it, it would require a pretty big map. Probably a 1024. But like I said, it mainly was a sculpting piece. I don't know if that answers your question about the diffuse? As far as creating it, I would bake out my maps, then I always grab a couple maps from crazy bump, created from the normal maps, then bring it back to photoshop, do some layer blends and hand paint the rest in.

Also, I'm changing the center thing to a stone,that will have some cool runes and stuff carved in it.

Anyways, here's an update from last night.

Forg3d

Hey Everyone! Well, I'm just about wrapped up on this project. There's a few minor things I might change, but I'm itching to get started on my next project and I'm pretty happy with how this guy has turned out.

I'll probably post up one more after this one of the final shots of all angles and maybe a few adjustments, but here's a taste.

Jar3d

Don't forg3t you owe me 20 bucks.

Rockley Bonner

Hey op ive read your "about" on your website and found allot of myself in it. Your story is very inspiring as well as your work.


Are you going to texture this piece?

Anuxinamoon

Oh wow the progress is really cool. I was looking at the shots as a scrolled down thinking... all he needs to do is to get the wood texture right by varying the widths of the cracking and having some somewhat less 'noisy' areas to help break it up.

Great to see the final image and you did just that! Looks ace! :D

Iciban

hey, just curious on what brush you use for adding those detail onto the tree

Forg3d

Thanks everyone, I'm glad you all are enjoying it. I appreciate all the feedback for sure!

@Iciban - I did it by using the clay tubes brush to rough out the shapes of the bark, then it was kind of a combination of masking off certain pieces of bark, trim dynamic on them, and using the Orb cracks brush to cut some detail into them.

Thanks again!

Iciban

I keep hearing about this orb crack brush. I can't seem to find it tho. WHere can I find this brush?

Next

here u go!

tha wiki entry
http://wiki.polycount.com/OrbCrasher

tutorial on how to use and make them
http://vimeo.com/26399689

ZBP tha download!
http://orbart.free.fr/Orb_Cracks.ZBP.

cheers Next

edit: to OP looks really nice keep going

LuCh!

nice, i love the little curl in the bark! that would gte you some cool guy points from Vigil!

LuCh!

LuCh! wrote: »

nice, i love the little curl in the bark! that would gte you some cool guy points from Vigil!

ow, just found you work for Vigil, that makes sense! xP

nyx702

Looks awesome! I want to pick it up and cast some spellzzzz.