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Sorcerer of Severed Heads
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I've only just gotten into the 3D world myself, so I still have alot to learn. However, the geometry looks pretty decent from what I can see in the first pic, atleast from that angle.
I haven't delved much into texturing beyond the very basics, so I can't offer much advice in that area. One thing I do notice is that it looks more or less like a model straight out of a game. If that's the look you're going for, then cool. I'm assuming that this is meant to look like it's made for a game, considering the poly and texture limits. However, if you're going for a slightly more "realistic" model (which may be hard with only 3000 faces to play with), then you need to play around with your lighting and materials.
Are you using 3DS Max? (I'm not sure if you've mentioned that already, and am too lazy to check).
If so, then you may want to give the metallic areas a more metallic look (ie: playing with the speculars/glossiness/reflection stuff). Maybe a very slight bump map on certain parts to give break up all the flat areas and to possibly make it look battle-worn?
Hmm... that's about the only 3D advice I can really give, I don't really know enough about it yet
This was all modeled in Maya, which is what I'm used to. It was never specified what program it had to be done in, so I'm hoping they'll be fine with a Maya model. It sounds like Max is used for game modeling more than Maya, so I'm thinking of taking a course in Max or something.
The model is meant to be for a game, so I'm not too sure how much I can mess around with materials. It's just using a default one, now.
And I noticed the empty space in the top texture myself. There was actually a piece of the ship's rear engine there, but it wound up looking good just textured black so I left it like that.
I'll look into some of the other things you mentioned. Sounds like some good stuff.
Don't put a highlight on every single edge. Keep it to the hard edges and corners. Also, keep them subtle.
Use large brushes to lay down base colors and then do fine detail with a 1 or 2 px line tool or brush. Avoid the sort of "painty" look you have by clicking down color instead of painting it.
When making circles, use the circle selection tool and/or the circle shape tool.
When weathering textures, try and keep in mind where things will wear or be damaged in day to day use. Don't just put scratches or paint chips at random. Also, get some custom brushes and use those at the very last step to give it just the right amount of weathering. They used to be easier to find than they are now, but just search "photoshop brushes" in your favorite search engine.
Don't be afraid to use real-world texture layers either, to give it that much more of a realistic touch.
And you might want to bake some shadows in as well, but this is optional and honestly a lot of engines do their own real time shadowing now so it's probably unnecessary. (To be fair, texturing itself is becoming something of a lost art, unfortunately.)
What do you mean by this, exactly? By hard edges do you mean only actual edges in the geometry, and not edges made in the texture, like the edges of paneling?
Highlight hard geometric edges, corners and the like. Panels should be highlighted too, but probably with a thinner brush and lighter than the edges.
It's difficult for me to explain, unfortunately. I think it's just something you kind of have to get a feel for, after doing a lot of texture work.
This whole thing reminded me a lot of Homeworld's ship designs, so here's an example:
It's kind of hard to tell, being so small and also ingame, but there's very little highlighting on there at all, and where there is, it's pretty subtle.
EDIT: I took a look at the stuff on your site. Most of your textures are very World of Warcraftey, which looks good on things like the barrels and the treasure chest, but the style doesn't work very well on this sci-fi ship.
This whole project was actually part of a job interview at a video game company. They got back to me and said I was 'not at the level they required for the position,' which is kind've a downer. But they are getting me some free training courses in 3DS Max (which I haven't used much, but I'm hoping to pick up the basics quick) so I guess they don't think I'm a lost cause.
I'm gonna work on the spaceship texture a bit more over the weekend, see if I can get it looking more realistic.
Here's some info on it:
http://pc.ign.com/objects/781/781319.html
As for the model, I've tried a bunch of different texturing methods based on some stuff I've seen online. I'm not crazy with the results, but I'll try some more stuff. I'm gonna try and tone down the edges on the panelling and fix some stuff here and there. I'll post more pics once I've reworked the whole thing.
EDIT - Found out where the reference pics came from. An anime called 'Sol Bianca.' Hence, the name change to avoid legal action (for reals).
Even got some engine glow effects put in there, although they're hard to see in the Max screenshots cuz of the shader used. It's around 3500 polys with a single 1024 texture, although I did a godawful job of laying out the UVs. Eh, new program jitters, whaddaya gonna do.
What was really cool is that I got to import the model into a demo version of the SotS game engine, resulting in the following dogfight:
Engine thruster effect combined with the engine glow from the model came out really cool looking.
PEW! PEW! PEW!
Lasers! Isn't that a hoot?
So, yeah. Now I'm a modelling god in both Maya and Max. Nothing can stop me now! Except for microscopic germs.
Wow, that looks awesome. Especially these little effects like the light cones emitted by the red dots.
You, Sir, are my hero of simplicity ;D
- great animation focused website http://www.catsuka.com
What can I say, I love this game.
By the way, that's meant to the corrupted Vaelastrasz in the background, not Nefarius' dragon form.
Loki
You know, I really hope to Odin that they do something like this for Ultimate Loki when the last issue of Ultimates 2 comes out. Have you seen him right now? Short Norweigan guy... mm-mm. Not gonna do it for the prince of mischief. He doesn't even have horns. I mean, come on.
Lashlayer
Done in anticipation of the Broodlord being felled by my WoW guild. It's only a matter of time.
Primordial One
What if dinosaurs survived to this day, and also developed psychic powers, and got small and fat, and their limbs atrophied and became vestigial? They'd totally look like this guy I bet.
Phantoon
Anyone remember the Phantoon from Super Metroid? Fuck that guy. Fucking bullshit boss. Pic is unrelated to Metroid in any way.
Jauntaur
I think the Centaur has been the greatest thing to ever happen to fantasy artists. Really. I mean, now, to come up with a new monster, just take any existing fantasy monster, in this case the 'Coeurl' or 'Displacer Beast', and place an anthropomorphic upper torso of itself on it's neck. Bingo, new monster! I probably could've carried this thing off without the extra snarl of tentacles. But I've found that so many creature designs can be improved by adding rampant, unchecked mutation.
The details like the lines and burns still look too large, tho. It kinda looks like a miniature model or Unreal Tournament weapon as far as the size is concerned. Or yeah... something out of Warcraft (in space). The latter might of course be a valid stylistic choice.
I'm an amateur in all things graphical, but maybe it'd help to work with a larger texture before scaling it down?
I played Sword of the Stars - was a good strategy game but the fighting engine was, in my opinion, terrible - so I auto-resolved all my fights
I wish I worked for a game company tho
Are you making anything for the launch of BC?
stout's Amazon Wishlist | my lastFM
It actually was a huge texture. I just need more practice!
I do like the more cartoony style of Warcraft models, and truth be told I'd probably come up with better looking results trying to model orcs or catapults than spaceships, but I think it's important for me to get better at all styles of texturing, especially given that I'm trying to make a career out of it. I'm getting better at using more references in my textures, so I think the quality of my 3D stuff will steadily improve.
Aigh, haven't gone back to that AQ pic in a while... I find that if I work on any one thing for too long I get bored. Must force myself to finish! Blackwing Lair almost done!
And yeah, I will be drawing something for the BC launch. Probably won't be done by tomorrow, but hopefully by the end of the week. I think it's some of the best lineart I've ever done.
Speaking of WoW, a certain lucky fellow in my guild recently got ahold of the Thunderfury, and in his honor I made this:
I agree, your inking is fucking awesome, really really well done
I'd like to see how the coloured stuff looks with some more heavily inked outlines? But that may just be me
I have been thinking about doing that to a couple of my recent lineart sketches, particularly the Jauntaur pic. Just need to find some time.
Here's another creature I just finished:
No need to carry around your spells in a book when you've got the undead noggins of half a dozen wizards to hold the knowledge for you.
Overthink things? Me??? Never.
I don't really know how to explain the whole size to weight ratio thing, so I simply won't.
hey man.
iss coo.
Random Tidbit: yeah, while I was figuring the weight, I remembered hearing that human heads weigh, on average, 8-10 lbs. I did consider that some of the heads were ogres and whatnot, and probably heavier, but then, I didn't know how much "blood/tissue/bone density/bone weight/etc" factored in, but then my head exploded and I didn't want to think about it anymore.