ancient pillar need crits

Olli.

this one is going in a scene for my portfolio so i want some crits to make it better
Im not trying to aim for any specific civilization with this, I took the shape of the pillar from the egyptians, the stripes on the pillar are from rome and later im going to be adding aztec style hieroglyphics on the bare strips under and above the sripy part. I might add the markings later in photoshop.


milieu will be a ruined temple in a sort of small oasis type setting in a desert.

JamesWild

I'd say sharper edges on some of the wear (pinch? not a heavy ZBrush user) and a bit of noise here and there.

praetus

It really feels like it's lacking any type of hard edges. I know that it might be worn down a bit from the elements but even places where I would think the pillar would have some sort of roughness feels doughy at the moment.

Olli.

im sort of torn here because im sculpting using dynamesh, and its already maxed out at 1024 rez so i cant really get any sharper details in.. ill probably have to switch over to the old topology mode to get through with the finer details in the end.. baring in mind this'll be a game prop with a texture of 512 or 1024 squared so i probably wont bother going in to micro detailing.

right now my tablet has somehow lost all sensitivity and i find it quite hard to sculpt without the pressure tools so i'll have to figure this problem out before i continue

WarrenM

There's no way that pillar should be maxing out the res in ZBrush. What's the poly count on it at the moment?

Olli.

the polycount is only 747k but like i said im using dynamesh, and the resolution slider is maxed at 1024, meaning i cant increase the texture resolution any more.

i know if i convert to non-dynamesh i'll be able to have a crapload more polygons

WarrenM

OK, I don't fully understand dynamesh but I've had dynamesh sculpts up in the millions of polygons but I don't quite know how to make it do that at will.

Olli.

afaik dynamesh somehow replaces the normal topology of a model with a bitmap of some sort (like a heightmap maybe?) So i dont know what the actual dependancy between polygon -> resolution is, but i can say that the slider on my end is maxed out.

heres the current progress. Now going to convert to static topology and start applying noise to cracked surfaces

cdevens

Do you have any reference that you are working from? The symbols don't look like they fit. The column looks like a Roman, doric (I think) column, but a lot of the shapes look more Mayan than Roman. Also the ends of the capsule shapes on the main column look really soft, they should be more defined. The rest of the damaged could be sharpened up a little too, it looks soft rather than broken or worn. I have had issues with dynamesh too. The documentation on the Pixologic site says that it is based on your mesh size and that your resolution was relative to that. I read it a while ago so I don't remember where exactly it was, but it may be worth a search. Also make sure that projection is on and blur is set to 0 when you dynamesh.

Kino1428

cdevens is totally right. Romans didn't put those kind of symbols at the base and top of columns. And they would be the first thing to erase with damage and erosion.

If you put the symbols aside, the softness of those details would mean they have been eroded by water current and not simple aging I guess.

Olli.

cdevens wrote: »

Do you have any reference that you are working from? The symbols don't look like they fit. The column looks like a Roman, doric (I think) column, but a lot of the shapes look more Mayan than Roman.

Olli. wrote: »

Im not trying to aim for any specific civilization with this, I took the shape of the pillar from the egyptians, the stripes on the pillar are from rome and later im going to be adding aztec style hieroglyphics on the bare strips under and above the sripy part.

Think of it like the temple in AVP. That was supposedly constructed by the first civilization, so it had features from all other major ancient civilizations in it.

here are some pictures i've used as reference for various parts of the pillar:

the big vertical stripe indents on the column:
http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00hvkQlZPIbBuo/Natural-Stone-Column-Roman-Pillar.jpg

inspiration i used for the hieroglyphics (I made the actual shapes myself but the format i copied from the aztec scriptures
http://www.stanford.edu/group/kircher/cgi-bin/site/wp-content/uploads/kircher_119-659x1024.jpg

I've tried working on the softness of the details sharpening them up:

Olli.

alright I've fixed most of the stuff people have noted. Sharpened up the wear on and also defined the top and bottom of the stripes better.

If anyone has any more crits i'd be glad to hear them. I might go ahead and put some wear on the hieroglyphics and then call it done unless someone can spot something wrong.

edit: heres a tilted version

cdevens

Sorry about missing the text at the top. Like many others, I am guilty of focusing on the pictures and skimming the text. I feel like it is hard to give feedback when you are pulling from so many completely different civilizations. It seems too easy to wander between ideas, looks, and materials. Between your last two posts it looks like you went from stone to sand. If you had a clear reference, or at least a group of refs that were consistent in style, it would be easier to give feedback and you would have a solid goal. It would make you push yourself to make sure that the asset fit the reference and materials.

Olli.

alright thanks ill try make up a moodboard before taking up my next asset. I guess it might be a bit cheating to let yourself just make whatever you want, without any restrictions to real life counterparts. Im generally really bad at concepting, a long google search didnt really yield any results close to what i had in mind for my project, so i guess i just figured i'd wing it.

The material was going to be sandstone from the start. the reason the early pics are gray is because i just used the matcap_white material in zbrush for sculpting.

OMGiFARTED

i agree with cdevans...usually when someone mixes in different styles into one thing...it's really hard to make something unique like that. in regards to you r model. it's still looking very doughey. Dynamesh is not supposed to be used when you want details. You use dynamesh to get the SILHOUETTE of an object and to prep your model for high details so that you dont have the pain with dealing with polys taking more detail than others. I stress SILHOUETTE because it is the most important thing to achieve when you're sculpting. I think you got the silhouette down, which by then you should maybe have about not more than 200k. When you have the broader details in the pillar (ie. the stripes of the pillar from rome) trying use clay polish. what that does is tighting your edges together and makes your model less doughey. After that, that's when you go in there and add your small details (ie cracks, hieroglyphs). check out this link : orbart.free.fr/Orb_Cracks.ZBP

That is a great crack brush you could use. And if you could find his website(i tried looking for it) you should check it out. he has some really good artwork that should inspire you.

OMGiFARTED

i found his website btw:

http://orbart.free.fr