Mech kid

AustinH · Jun 2010

Hey, guys I hope I'm asking for help in the right place. I'm currently working the background and lighting to present a character but I'm having trouble figuring out a good way to merge the skybox and the ground without making it look funny.

You can see my work in progress here...

Austinhuntley.blogspot.com

wake · Jun 2010

hey man-- I'm not up on 3D (yet... I'm learnin too), but what would help is if you just linked some of your images directly, like this:

in the future, what you want is put the url here

and you'll be able to post your images directly. That way people won't have to navigate to your blog and will be more inclined to post crits.

Good luck.

Ott · Jun 2010

Well, unless you make your ground giant-sized like the world would be, it's going to look pretty odd and fake to have a sky that just comes up from the ground 4 feet behind the character.

I'm no character guy, but some of the common techniques are to simply use fades, solid colors with some overlays, stylized images as a backdrop, or blending the foreground and the backgrounds together. Here's some ideas:

http://www.dominancewar.com/2009/en_wallpapers_4.php
http://easyaspi.us/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/976c6_sfrender3.jpg
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attach/1/Longhaul-Character-Render-1_1242336523.jpg

AustinH · Jun 2010

Thanks, I'm usually a lurker so I never post stuff much thanks for the image tip. I've seen the guile picture before but I never noticed the ground fade.. I think I might use a mix of the fade and the gradient technique. Thanks a lot for the input. =D

AustinH · Jun 2010

Okay here is my final image.. any critique on the presentation is welcome. =D Edit*... Does anyone know how to render out the ambient occlusion pass properly on cards in XSI? I just made a partition and hide all the cards but this doesn't work well for areas like the cards near the wood.

LMP · Jun 2010

I'd like to see the pose be a little more dynamic feeling in the presentation. That's my first impression.

AustinH · Jun 2010

In what way... Wider stance? I'm really not sure of what to do with the hands. His left hand looks pretty gibbled in the pic atm. He doesn't have a weapon atm either so that's out of the question. Ahh, I just noticed when I was photoshoping it together that I took a chunk out of his hand.. rofl.

JohnnyRaptor · Jun 2010

Pretty cool, but you need to push all the textures (diffuse, specular, normalmap, etc.). Right now it comes across very flat.

Also work on the lighting. Right now its a bit undramatic and doesnt have the woah factor. If u check the link posted above for the dominance war wallpapers, theres some good examples there of how to pop! your character with the lighting. try create some contrast

El Junk · Jun 2010

I like the fade-to-black around the border and the haze looks okay for the ground, but I wonder if the character would look better without the red aura.

gsokol · Jun 2010

Why did you get rid of the arms? I liked that. Yea pose is too boring right now. Focus the images more on the character and less on the backdrop.

AustinH · Jun 2010

Thanks for the feedback. =D I'll try pushing the normal map a little and change up the lighting.. I'll post a wireframe later on today with new new image.

AustinH · Jun 2010

AustinH · Jun 2010

Ugh.. I still don't like it. I'm gonna play around with the lighting more.

gbencharski · Jun 2010

Hey man,

I would increase saturation on the grass, and add some cards to create a more "3D" look. Right now you're using 1 card and it comes across very flat where is crashes and creates a tangent with the ground.

In addition your bricks look muddy right now. You may want to play with your normal map and try and get some better detail out of them.

As far as the lighting goes - maybe try some slightly darker shadows and increase the brightness of the key light as well as rim light.

I think the comments about increasing the saturation of some of your textures from the other users is a great idea. Right now it would seem it is lacking in contrast between the different elements within the character and environment in which he is standing.

Best of luck,

GB

AustinH · Jun 2010

Okay, Here is my final image.. thanks for all the critiques =D

Kewop Decam · Jun 2010

Why is that 13.5K tris? Can I see the wireframe?

AustinH · Jun 2010

Scroll up. Each leg is 3600 tris. The kids body piece.. not counting the head is just over 3000 tris.

Mech kid

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