Polycount - Generals - [Daz]

[Daz]

Oh what the hell.....

"Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, how I love it."

-General George Patton

[Neo_God]

Sweetness! I don't know how Polycount is going to loose this one.

[lorddon]

Good lord! Daz now too?
Ok, whereTF is SouL? With him our victory will be not only probable but certain.

-LD

[Spark]

Awesome to see you joining in this Daz! Can't wait to see what comes outta this.

Spark

[MoP]

You can do it Daz /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Make us proud! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Daz]

Very quick playaround in OC. Not sure where Im going with this yet. The obvious disadvantage of a mount is Im effectively halving my polys for the general. Still, 2,500 for each should be managable

http://daz-art.com/quick.jpg

[MoP]

wow nice quick start there
check your PM's /images/graemlins/blush.gif

[Asthane]

[ QUOTE ]
Very quick playaround in OC. Not sure where Im going with this yet. The obvious disadvantage of a mount is Im effectively halving my polys for the general. Still, 2,500 for each should be managable

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah! But you see, it says you have unlimited specs for the platform /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[KDR_11k]

Also you can have an optional vehicle in addition to the platform and general. But I suppose that makes the vehicle something that won't be voted on so I'd leave the mount as part of the general. Anyway, we can use normalmaps, 2.5k should be enough for a lot of detail then.

[Asthane]

Or hey, you could even make the mount part of the general /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Er, wait, Rockstar already has a more awesome demon than I could ever do, I don't need centaur competition too >.<

[Mark Dygert]

Luke you must go to dagobah to complete your concept...

[gauss]

yeah the mount's going to make the pcount budget tighter, but it also helps make it easier to show that he's a big badass general. i'll be watching you Daz, heavyhitters like you aren't allowed to flake on this compo! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Daz]

aight, the Luke comment made me go back to the drawing board, probably for the best. Scribbled this up this morning:

Soon after Commander Pterra lost his wings in the Great Battle Of The High Plains, he was promoted to General. He uses a custom modified version of the SkyWing II for extremely fast transportation around the Battlefield. It has a holographic HUD for total observation of the War. Any controversy surrounding his newly appointed rank was quickly dispelled when it became clear that his tremendous tactical instinct, speed and ferocity proved fatal for any adversaries.

http://www.daz-art.com/pterra.jpg

[Cubik]

Hmm, you could intergrate that flier with his head and upperbody placing the main parts on his back, engine thrust a bit back, while strengthening his wings to allow them to change directions.
The HUD doesn't really work when he has to look down on his flier, might place it on his head where is usally is placed (or on the windshield). However he could be a sneaky high-height assasin-bomber and the flier might be see-through. Or make him more feral, right now he looks a little like a mischievious uncle.

Having a hard time seeing where you want to take this right now, but I'll definatly constantly check your progress on this since I know what you have made in the past /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[Daz]

I haven't really 'designed' anything in ages so any past work is a bit irrelevant as a point of comparison. I dunno about feral. Dog themes seem to be prevalent elsewhere in the contest, but the other stuff is good food for thought thanks. I'll have a re-think.

[Cubik]

Meant feral as in ferocious, dirty and mangy, not the actual dogs.

[Daz]

ah ok.

?

http://www.daz-art.com/3.jpg

[JKMakowka]

Very honest oppinion up until now?
Team up with a great concept artist /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Daz]

Whilst that would be the easy option, and of course get me a better result, thats not what this contest is about for me. In the job Ive had for a long time, Ive not had to do much in the way of conceptual design.
So entering this is about pushing myself, revitalising long lost ( or non existent ) skillsets and above all it's meant to feel like fun, not work. If I were to just make another model well duh, I can make models. That's a known quantity.
But thanks for your er 'critique'. Very useful. I'd look forward to seeing what you come up with, but you're probably too busy trolling the boards in an attempt to discourage people enough to give up.

[rawkstar]

hehe dude, just come up with something cool, i totally agree, thats why i love contests, theres no one here to tell you what to do and not to do, just make up your own thing

[Ninjas]

I think these are cool and I wouldn't get down on yourself yet. Just keep working the concept. I like the 2nd one you posted because it has some cool original ideas in it, and it is something other people aren't doing. What I think it needs is to be bigger and more badass. I think that the size of the character's head makes his body and vehicle look small.

[JordanW]

Daz, i look forward to seeing what you can design, one thing you may want to try is getting straight up loose and messy with your initial drawings, it can help you find interesting shapes and such. I really wouldnt worry about making as refined of drawings as your previous two posts at first. Simply drawing silloutes with a thick brush in PS or painter can help with this process as well. Anything that will get your focus off of the small details and more on the overall feel and shapes of the character.

[poopinmymouth]

One thing that really helped me was to think of the characters motivation, and the universe she lived in. Maybe try to come up with an idea of an interesting setting or character archetype first, and then slowly start to refine the looks and rules that would apply, and let that guide your shapes and ideas.

I really want to see a Dazpants original, so don't listen to numbnuts, I mean Makowka. 8-)

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/images/poop.gif (http://www.poopinmymouth.com)

[Daz]

OK good tips guys thanks. I used to have ideas and be able to draw once. You know, a long time ago, B.E.A

Will play around some more tommora. Going out to get drunk now. Perhaps that'll help and I'll do some scribbling later.

[okkun]

Being stuck in a production environment for too long does bad things to your traditional art skills, I can't even get close to my drawing skills from 10 years ago.

Lol, I just wrote this post on focusing on silhouettes and not fuction but I guess I should have read all the posts..

So, anyway lots of rough sketches first, I try to do atleast 10 thumbnails before I even pick a general direction(then I usually screw up and start modeling before I'm done, which is a bad idea). If you've done that please post it, doesn't matter if it's complete garbage doodles, we all know you can do the art.

[Mark Dygert]

I like the first concept you did, I didn't mean to scare you off the trail. I was mostly commenting on the fact that it was so undefined and vague. It does look a touch like a tauntun, but then a tauntaun looks like a furry T-Rex. i really think you should revisit the first concept since it is unique and just needs some love. If you remove the side horn coming from the jaw it would take care of my main tauntaun concern.

Suggestions to help get those creative thoughts flowing again. (since I seem to have killed them)
You might be able to combine the two ideas you have going now? Instead of a flyer put him on a dino like thing? I see him standing on its back not sitting. Or sitting like a jockey would? Maybe put him on a mini throne surrounded by a force field, kind of like the pope mobile. Or how about drop the mount and have one of those chariots they used to carry kings and queens in? The type with 4 man servants on each of the 4 corners. But instead have jet thrusters on each of the corners. Or maybe it could be like an old horse drawn coach but more of a hovering mobile command unit (with no horse, but has a driver?). Have a little tower he can crawl up inside to survey the battle. Gun ports and cannons on the sides? It could be like a modern day civil war wagon.

Something people keep forgetting is these are generals not the troops fighting. Yes great generals have fought along side their troops and on the front lines before, but mostly in History. This be the future people... They don't have to be surrounded by power armor and have eye scars. I have yet to see a psychic who uses their mind to give troops orders telepathically. Some hot psychic chick maybe with alpha channel waves coming from her head? She could have blood coming out of her nose and an intense look of concentration.

It might even be refreshing to see a concept like the brain bug from StarShip Troopers. Something with no fighting prowls at all. The only thing that makes it a general is its brain and tactical sense. But I guess everyone on both sides wants to make a general that gets their hands dirty or rose thru the ranks (read: power armor with eye scar). Those types of generals get sniped by mine.

It might be best to keep your brains off the swords of the enemy.

[arshlevon]

i find the problem with sketches ( me not being a concept artist and all) is that they never quite come out like they are in my head. and i know whatever might be lacking i can make up for in model and texture. but you cant always convey that idea to other people, so where they see a lacking concept, you know exactly what you mean, even if you didnt spend time rendering every nuance. i have zero patience when it comes to drawing, i forced myself to render out decent concepts for this comp and it was the most unpleasent expereance ever. i have so much faith in your skills you could of posted a crayon drawing of a glow in dark monkey masturbating on naked old man and i would thought, damn i cant wait to see him model that. because i know the edgeloops are going to be perfect, and the texture is going to be spot on.
i am sure whatever you come up with we will like.
*cough*mecha-connery*cough*

[JKMakowka]

Lol, way to go Daz (lighten up a little will ya?).

I was just beeing a heretic to all the Daz fanboyism around here (yeah I really admire your skills too) and conteracting that was done to make your realize that your concepts posted in this thread are not so great... it's all for Polycount, right? (And harsh critizisem will make you work harder /images/graemlins/tongue.gif).

P.S.: I am chickening out and don't even enter anything. Too much other stuff to do right now /images/graemlins/frown.gif (and I suck).

[JKMakowka]

Ok after reading your comment in the other thread ('just give up') I will make some constructive critizism:

1. Concept: as already mentioned too stereotypic starwars-ish
2. Concept: The glider looks too 'bad 60ties Sci-fi parody ish' and overall it lacks mass. All of it seems flimsy and the creature looks more like one of those 'shoot down a dozen' annoying flying creatures you would find in a Unreal game than a general.
3. Concept: That seems like a good mount or something, but not like a general at all. And if it was a mount, it would be way to big compared to the general, thus shifting the focus away from the main point of the contest.

Ideas suggestions etc:
Go for a more gritty realistic approach as there is already to many deamon/fantasy/strange alien/perverse mutation entries in this competition.
What about a general of a mercenary army from a distant outlandish human colony or a space pirate like fleet?
What about taking up current space suit designs and morphing them into something more futurish (wenn looking really ancient and run down/fixed a lot, it would maybe fit to the background storys above).

Or what about something Battletech/Mechwarrior like? (the stand could be the top of a mech or something like that).

Just because currently everybody is doing a strange zbrush alien doesn't mean you have to do also.

[gavku]

Dude if your after ideas there's heaps that no one has touched: A more marine like hybid (I know there is a crab) but I mean like an undersea general. I'm also surprised that no one seems to have gone toward a necromancer/dark magic angle.
Also what about the little guy with supreme intelligence..alien or otherwise.

[kite]

I think your first concept has juice, it just needs some twist to differentiate it from SW. Perhaps role reversal? the beast is a horribly distorted human (or a whole family of humans) and the rider some kind of lizardy type thing. Optionally try making random silhouettes, they're a good quick way of busting out of a creative block.

[BoBo_the_seal]

Yeah the dino-rider kicks ass

- BoBo

[-kube-]

I agree, would love to see the mounted character.

[danr]

i completely understand where daz thinks he's at ... after so long with my head stuck up a schedule or a bug database, i can't even begin to pluck a non-generic concept out of my head, i must have thrown out about 10 so far. However, i'm thinking :

agree with what others ^^ have said about the dino-rider. It has a classical, inspiring, (anti?)heroic feel about it, that seems more in keeping with the contest theme than some of the self-consciously wacky ideas that are knocking around the place, especially around my desktop.

To my mind, there's nothing wrong with a well-worn theme if it does the "war general" job down to a tee. And as long as your bloke isn't wearing a parka and the mount doesn't go "munner munner munner" while it's running along, i'm sure you'll be fine /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Daz]

OK thanks for all your help guys. Definitely some good thought provoking stuff in here. Dan's right though. After a week of trying desperately hard to come up with something original, you're just too conscious of it and can't think straight. It's the same feeling as not being able to sleep 'cos you're too conscious of the fact that you can't sleep!

Some more scribbling and I'm still not too much closer to finding something that I like enough to sit down and spend days creating. However, something is compelling me to model a skinny humanoid and there are enough fatties elsewhere in the contest, so I think I'm leaning toward the evil skinny Nazi SS thang with Napoleonic and Mad Max influences thrown in /images/graemlins/confused.gif Might do a more finished sketch or might just start making stuff.



http://www.daz-art.com/dw.jpg

[MoP]

daz daz daz that new one is awesome! i like the idea of a freaky thin dude, and napoleonic and mad max influences are only gonna pile on the quality /images/graemlins/smile.gif
go go go! get a solid design down and flex your meshing muscles, knock us all for six!

[Ninjas]

There is nothing original under the sun, and if there is it probably sucks or someone would have thought of it already (on the other hand, some people could say my stuff is pretty generic). The point of doing a comp like this is to work on a character you like! This new stuff looks interesting.

[okkun]

These latest ones have way more attitude, not as original maybe but I agree with what Ninjas said. I also like that they seem more rough, I have to kick myself to not start filling in details.

[Josh_Singh]

one thing I will say for originality, It's overrated. Do something cliche and do it better than anyone's ever done it, and it's not cliche anymore. It's magic.
I fear your skills Daz.

[Mark Dygert]

Nice! I think you are really starting to hit a groove. I feel your skills starting to shine thru this last series of sketches.

I just finished watching a special on The Learning Channel about feral children. I think it would ROCK if you had a doctor patient combo, sort of brains meets brawn, trainer meets wild animal. Maybe have it take on a more twisted theme and have the doctor do evil experiments in sort of a Return to Castle Wolfentien sort of theme? His entire army could be a patch work of dead bodies, chemical treatments and brainwashing =) His prize creation, mount and most lethal weapon being his fiercest of monstrosities?

[Scott Ruggels]

Skinny S.S. dude! with napoleonic flair, but then think about the environments he's going to be in. Can he get in and out of a small hatch>? can he hold a conversation with other officers? does he look like a leader of men/women/monsters?

It was the production environment that srove me into my own little universes in my head, sort of a reflex from a stressfull homelife and a loathing of school at the time, just updated. I have places for my mind to water and enjoy the flowers, trees, clifsand giant monsters, but yeah my drawing skills have deteriorated quite a bit. I used to make money as a comic book inker if you can believe that,. but yeah, you need constant practice to keep the drawing skills up.

Scott

Scott

[Daz]

Got bored of drawing so started fleshing out a head. I think I'll go back to concept once I've a head I'm happy with

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update1.jpg

[Daz]

Ok haven't had much time to play with this. Revamped the face. That last effort was nowhere near evil Nazi Gestapo type. Everybody knows that thin lips are inherently evil!

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update2.jpg

[MoP]

They certainly are! He looks much more evil now, lots of character... nice work /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Valandar]

The faint smile and squinty eyes are just CREEPY...

[Tulkamir]

It's called a pedosmile (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=spot_the_pedo)

(Great model btw, deffinatly has the look for an evil general going on so far.)

[Zcubed]

Oh man, Tulkamir beat me to it!

This is looking great, Daz. I can already see a lot of character in the face. I'm expecting nothing but the best from you after watching that killer demo reel /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

[arshlevon]

tons of character there Daz, awesome.

[Daz]

Blocking out some basic shapes and proportions back in maya.

Hey Nosferatu! Napoleon called and he wants his costume back!!1

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update3.jpg

[poopinmymouth]

I'd hit it.

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/images/poop.gif (http://www.poopinmymouth.com)

[Daz]

Isn't it past your bedtime young man?

[JKMakowka]

Just make sure it doesn't look too much like your Starwars character from your 'reel.

But it looks like my attempts to make you try harder worked out just fine /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Zcubed]

Nah, I don't see much Grand Moff Tarkin here. Everything looks great so far. Are you planning to slap a shirt on this guy? He's showing a lot of skin for someone with a wiry physique, no?

That really just comes down to personal preference, though. I'm sure you know much more about infusing personality into these guys than I do.

I can't come up with any real crits, good stuff /images/graemlins/cool.gif.

[Daz]

OK since modeling vaguely and blindly was proving far too slow, I went back to the drawing board a little. This is what I'm currently building:

http://www.daz-art.com/Hagensb.jpg

I was trying to dress him and thinking about the fact that this is meant to be a THOUSAND years from now, so who knows what could be possible then. So I don't really know where he ends and his clothes start. I want a fairly organic feel, almost like the clothes have been grown.

In the unlikely event that he should face capture from the enemy, he carries the one and only last remaining thermonuclear grenade left over from the federation wars.

[rawkstar]

thats pretty sweet, zbrush EVERYTHING /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Timex]

cool , love it,the mucles must be perfects with zbrush /images/graemlins/laugh.gif.

[arshlevon]

Daz dosent need zbrush, he has talent. i mean look at that concept, he didnt even need a computer. he kind of reminds me of the docter in the amazing short fallen art, just executed way better.
http://www.fallen-art.com/eng/galeria.html

[Makk]

Hey Daz, could I see a close up of the boots. Im doing some myself and cant seem to get that natural round look like yours have.

[Daz]

which? The ones in the sketch or the old ones allready modelled?

[Makk]

ahh, the ones you modeelled in the pic above. Could you show the wires as well?

[Daz]

ah, they're old (from the German soldier) I was just using them as placeholder. But I've got a shot of them here: http://www.daz-art.com/kit.jpg

edit, oh and yeah, he kinda does Arsh! Still, it aint like the whole 'bald bloke in a trenchcoat' thang aint been done before /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[ebagg]

Very cool, I'm liking the external musclature, you should add something to his boots more in the style of his coat to offset the muscles and balance him out perhaps?

[Daz]

I looked at Zbrushing 'everything' Rockstar but there was just no way I was making that coat in Zbrush with holes in and stuff ( more holes to come in the lower back of the coat ). It just wasn't happening. Anyway, update on the model, he's about ready for Zbrush now ( mebbe ).

edit, we posted at the same time. Yeah good call ebagg.

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update4.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update5.jpg

[lkraan]

Looks great Daz. I like the mean and condescending look on his face.

His arms lookk a bit too smooth to me (Maybe you didn't work on them yet. In that case I didn't say anything /images/graemlins/smile.gif.
He is pretty skinny and his cheeks have even sunken in so I would expect his arms to b a little bit more skinny with pronounced and very loose and thin muscles and bones that are visible through the skin in some parts. Like arms on a skinny old person.

[aesir]

Im liking it Daz. Its very in the spirit of the brief /images/graemlins/smile.gif

(his crotch looks evil)

[Super]

Loving the face, looks very different. Me wants a pair of those boots.

[ScoobyDoofus]

To me the bare arms seem a bit out of character for one who seem so frail physically. Unless perhaps he comes from a very warm environment, in which case some other indications of this would be welcome.

Perhaps a Dune-esque Nasal Cannula (the nose tubes).

Then again, perhaps your going to muscle him out lots in ZBrush and I should just be quiet...

[Daz]

tell that to Mick Jagger! (http://www.haxby.net/media/musicians/MickJagger2_lg.jpg) /images/graemlins/smile.gif
I didn't see his physique as super frail so much as more skinny aging rockstar, and besides, Im too far along in Zbrush now to cover the arms up! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Ranzarok]

Daz, I really like the latest head, although I must admit I like the one with lips a bit better. Thin lips are da debil though. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Neo_God]

No I think the underturned lips add a wonderfully snide quality to him.

[Daz]

Thanks to mr rockstar, Zbrush and I getting on a little better but man, we aint ever gonna be best mates ( zbrush and I, not mr rockstar ). Im gonna redo the thighs since I don't like how they came out at all. I also need to elaborate the boot design somewhat.

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update6.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update7.jpg

[thnom]

The reminds me of your famous star-trek(I think) piece. Looks just like him with a bit less meat on his face.

That muscle definition is really scary and doesn't look right IMO because he's too skinny.

[Valandar]

Thnom: It's not entirely muscle definition. From what I can tell of the concept, it's more like padding and possibly artificial musculature.

Looks great, whatever it is.

And as for muscle definition not being right for a skinny guy... I'm 5'9", 125 lbs, and I have better muscle definition than almost anyone I know.

[thnom]

5'9 125 lbs with muscle definition? I'm 5'8 @ 140 so I'd like to see a photo of that.

[Daz]

It isn't muscle definition. It's meant to be stuff he's wearing, hence its stylistically different and a different colour from his arms. It clearly doesn't read too well at the mo' then, but i'll try and make it more obvious by making it more stylized. I've never made anyomne from Star Trek, but I know what you mean /images/graemlins/smile.gif I didn't think it looked like him, but I guess it does in that he's a gaunt skinny bloke with a high collar. Bugger. Oh well.

[Mishra]

it doesnt look like he has hips, skinny guys have their hips sticking out a little. i should know, i'm 6'2" and 120 : /

[thnom]

Daz the face look-a-like isn't a dig, just something that stood out /images/graemlins/smile.gif if the muscle definition is meant to be a suit it probably would look okay in a render if it had specularity on it. Ya know get that plastic-stuck-out feel.

[Daz]

LOL, I accidentally used mod privelages and edited your post thnom instead of mine! Looks like Im changing comments ahahah!

Nevermind /images/graemlins/smile.gif If this thing ends up being bettter than Moff then he gets pushed out of my portfolio and this gets pushed in /images/graemlins/smile.gif I think I need to make the suit more stylized. I had a really hard time in Zbrush trying to get hard lines in between each muscle strip without the thing becoming insanely high resolution ( in which case I cant get it back into Maya ). Honestly I could have made it much qucker and easier in SubD.

*edit* and yeah, good call on the hips mishra.

[BoBo_the_seal]

Daz could you show some of your wireframes as you go? I'm doing a lot of highpoly modeling for marketing art at the moment and would love to see how you solve a few areas like the shoulders and lower bicep area.

keep up the great work!

- BoBo

[kite]

very cool work, the face is Evil with a capital E... brr

[Thegodzero]

Daz id pop out his hip bones to show how skiny he is. In the lower half try adding in tubes maybe? Something like the dune suits. Maybe even harden the edges to make it less human more stylized.

[shotgun]

ye anatomical goodness /images/graemlins/tongue.gif~~
that tight elastic plactic fantastic rubber suit is h0t

some wrinkles (folds) of the suit where they enter the boots (perhaps around the waist a fold or 2?)could make it clearer it's what he's wearing and not just something you snatched out of your mom's closet :O

[Daz]

Yowzers, haven't had much time to play with this. Plagued by technical issues too so thanks to mr rockstar for getting me out of a tricky spot there. Im a bit worried that Im not gonna be able to finish, but I could nail the rest of the hi-poly in a day ( just need to get the coat into zbrush and other bits and bobs ) ,low poly I could do in a couple hrs, so who knows.
Bobo, I would but all the anatomical stuff is zbrush'd so prolly isn't much use to ya. Will post some wires of the pre-zbrush stage tho. Good crits guys thanks. Anyway, head done:

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update8.jpg

and some battle comms/armband thingamybob:

http://www.daz-art.com/dw_update9.jpg

[killingpeople]

nice update

[rooster]

aw sweet, hes got a really cool scorpius vibe going on with the head details

[Makkon]

Hey, yeah! He does have a Farscape villian look. Great turn around, looks marvelous!

[gavku]

New head has heaps more character. Only thing that looks a bit out of place is the ears...don't know if its the rotation or a if they are a bit low. Maybe I haven't been looking at enough old men lately..hahaha

[bearkub]

great update, daz. As stated, I think you have almost nailed the head. Good stuff.

[JordanW]

Really nice Daz, what's the purpose of the lines on his face? will there be like glass over his eyes or something?

One thing I could suggest when working on other heads or even anything in zbrush is it looks like you could use the pinch tool some more. Parts of your head look like they could be a bit sharper and using the pinch tool carefuly can help that. I really like the head though, he definatly looks like he's up to no good

[rawkstar]

man thats a neat looking face you got there! /images/graemlins/smile.gif very cool.

[fogmann]

Marvelous job on the head! What I like the most is this mysterious Monalisa-like expression, almost a smile - it really makes you wonder what he's thinking of right now.

[ckaos]

Amazing work !
Scorpiusy indeed!
The only thing i find a bit out of place to be honnest is the thickness of the tubing on the head, it seems to be clashing a tiny bit with the "fineness of the rest", stupendous work anyway !

[oXYnary]

Daz, I like where its going, but Im confused on the chest area. Those diagonal areas below the chest armor on the sides. Are they costume padding? In some areas it look like the costume is thin/tight enough to see the underlying bony musculature. So this area is leaving me confused.

[Daz]

Well I would hate to leave you in that state oXY! /images/graemlins/smile.gif
The abdomen area isn't meant to be naked, it's just clothing that somewhat emulates the design of musculature. Like the Greeks used to do with their armour. I think I'll be able to make that more obvious at the texture stage.

One part of me thinks its not been fully thought through, the other part thinks jeez, this is a thousand years into the future, who knows what form clothing will take and what materials could be available. I see it as something that is flexible but strong, and yet retains its own shape.

Ya know, I dont watch Farscape and I just had to google this guy you are talking about and bugger me, I see what you mean. I guess subconsciously I must have seen him somewhere before.

[rooster]

or you just had the same idea, stranger things have happened /images/graemlins/smile.gif. check out farscape! great scifi

[Daz]

OK, pretty much done with the hi poly. I really need to crack on. Im hoping I'll be able to make him a lot more interesting with colour.

http://www.daz-art.com/gen1.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/gen2.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/gen3.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/ortho.jpg

[gauss]

mui excellente, some very nice handling of the coat material. it looks good and stiff, appropriate for this unsavory character. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[MoP]

Awesome Daz. Agreed with Gauss on the coat, especially the folds on the back look nifty. Face is nice and evil too.
Keep up the great work, and get it finished on time! CGChat must die, and this is the man to orchestrate their demise! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[ThE_BirD]

another thumbs up on the coat...excellent work on the arms as well:)

[JordanW]

lookin slick man. I like it a lot

[Valandar]

Right now with the amount of specular on that coat, it REALLY looks like leather. I like it!

[Toomas]

The palm (or the lack of it) looks weird and so does the wrist joint from the back view.
Im not a big fan of how the fake stomatch/groin changes so much either side of the belt.

Otherwise i really dig it.

[rooster]

superb, love the whole idea! The palm in the 3rd shot does look a little odd to me (or at least mine dips in more between the thumb muscle and the one opposite) could just be the lighting/angle, and of course everyones hands are different. Really looking forward to seeing it complete

[Weiser_Cain]

Anyone else notice this looks like something daz would do?

[FAT_CAP]

That's really nice DAZ - I wasn't sold on the concept at the start but it has come together very well... he's got alot of character in those last shots. His boots - especially the back- look a bit bland at the minute to me though.

[Hollowmind]

Sort of reminds me of the bad guy from Farscape. Very nice work, Daz. I kinda' like him in black and white, hehe. He's plenty interesting without color.

EDIT: Oops, didn't notice the Farscape guy's resemblance has already been mentioned.

[Zcubed]

Great stuff! That's a very sinister looking face. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[Marine]

is that pacman or a squished love heart on his hat?

[poopinmymouth]

Daaaaang, who says old people can't rock the house? Looking awesome buddy. 8-)

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/images/poop.gif (http://www.poopinmymouth.com)

[JKMakowka]

The weakest point is the upper legs, but otherwise I really like it.

[Psyk0]

Damn, nice character, i dig the relaxed evil expression. I noticed the ear is kind of low but i guess that's what happens when you turn into an old geezer.

[malcolm]

Hey dude, that looks badass. Can you show me which parts you made in zbrush and which parts you used smooth proxy for if any?

[Daz]

lo poly done and weighing in at 4,999 tris. Just need to unwrap and paint this bastard.
malcolm: helmet, boots, torso, belt, arm battle comms. are smooth proxy, the rest is Zbrush.

http://www.daz-art.com/lo.jpg

[Ninjas]

Looks awesome...man I think we are going to give those CGChatters a serious whuppin'

[MoP]

very nice stuff daz /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[chico]

nice to see someone modelling with class. Slick work man.
(however, to some people, it may lack of pipes and rivets ahah:))
very cool

chico

[Daz]

unwrapped

http://www.daz-art.com/uv.jpg

[Snowfly]

That UV map is packed! None of that wonky pelt mapping here. The model is turning out great.

[Joao Sapiro]

paint ! painty ! Paintyness !!!!!

[thnom]

Bootaful.

[b1ll]

ya know why I love ur stuff? Cause its fucking clean. Must be a joy to work with one of your mesh and uvw..

I dig man. I dig

[MoP]

that's a tight unwrap daz, great work... i wish mine looked that organised /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Jeff Parrott]

Ditto, insanely clean UVs.

[Daz]

Any of you guys done much normal mapping in maya 7.0? Cos I haven't so you'd better help me! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

2 major issues that Im having are:

1) The funky little areas where it seems like the rays cant quite get to. Any advice here? ( this is the highest sampling setting )

2) Oddly, it seems like this isn't 100% the normals from my hi poly, but I also see some triangulation shading artifacts that look to be coming from the normals of the low. Weird

http://www.daz-art.com/sampledNormals.jpg

One more thing. Anyone know If there's a way to get the surface sampler to use mental ray for a texture bake? I want to make an AO map, but I can't think of a way to do that without UVmapping my hi with the exact same layout as my low, and Im sure as hell not attempting that.

[RE3456]

hi Daz, I'm no expert here but I know couple things that might help you out, first did you soften all the edges on the low poly before you do the normal bake? also try freeze transformation on both models when you do the bake, it might eliminate some of those weird shadings you see on your normal map. Also what is the setting you used inside surface sampler?

[ScoobyDoofus]

Try Reset Xform or setting all your polys to smoothing group 1! Maybe manually tweak your projection cage?

/images/graemlins/laugh.gif j/k I know you're on Maya, but I have similar issues in Max.

I cannot wait to see yours all done man. Your work is always top shelf and an inspiration.

Good luck!

[Daz]

heh thanks guys. Yeah, I made sure all my edges on my low poly are soft and neither model has transformations.

Settings are currently:

tangent space map space, transfer in world space, sampling quality high, filter type gaussian and 3.0000, fill texture seams 1, search method: closest to envelope, match using: geometry normals.

[Bryan Cavett]

Just because you see the triangulation of the low in your normal map does not mean its wrong. The normal map is simply correcting the normals of the low through the map to look like the high poly. The normals of the low poly do matter when using the normal map and any changes to the normals of the low will effect the normal map and the way it is trying to correct them. I cant help ya with maya but I can tell that you are getting some weird errors on the arms and legs. The normals seem to be local space there and not tangent space like the rest of your map.

[RE3456]

okay Daz this is the setting I used, gernerally I keep my sampling quality in medium it usually gives me the best result. Also for the search method, I used inside envlope than outside envlope with 20% search depth. I'm not exactly sure if this is going to solve your problem but it might be worth trying. I really wish there is a better way to bake normal in maya like 3dsmax does /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[MoP]

Hey Daz: First off I think Maya's doing something weird... the back of the coat looks right but the normals on the arm look crazy, if the lowpoly surface conforms even reasonably to the shape of the high, then the normal map should never get that colour, it should stay a mostly consistant shade of violet like seen on the back-of-coat normals.

Also how are you setting up your models for grabbing surface info? I'm not sure how you do it in Maya, but... here is a screenshot illustrating what I mean (http://ldaustinart.com/paul/dazinfo.jpg) about the colour of the arm normals (that's a cropped version of my guy's arm normal map, note the mostly consistent colour, shouldn't really go to green or yellow or something's a bit wrong), also it shows how I set up my model for normal-grabbing - namely pulling apart the separate pieces that would lead to clipping issues and ray casting errors.
You should only really do this with pieces which aren't physically connected since if you detach a piece, the smoothing around it will change, and that'll lead to normals looking odd when you re-attach and weld.

I should ask if you're stacking those UVs, since that might cause problems - I grabbed the mirrored/stacked elements like the arm and leg and moved the 2nd version off the 0-1 range by exactly one UV unit, so that it's tiled across but the program won't try to render 2 sets of normals to one pixel at once, if you know what I mean? That could be causing these shading issues.

Also like RE3456 said, make sure your lowpoly has no hard edges at all, this will generate the best normal map.

Hit me up on MSN if you need any more info.

Hope you get it sorted!

Edit: Hahaha I spent far too long on that, 3 replies popped up while I was typing. I was gonna mention what Bryan Cavett said too, don't worry if you can kinda see triangle shapes on the normal map, it's just the normals compensating for the change in direction on the lowpoly.

[Daz]

Thanks Bryan and RE3456.

Awesome MoP you just nailed it thanks. I was 'stacking' yes /images/graemlins/smile.gif This is like the 2nd time ever messing with normal mapping for me. Ah PS2 dev. is so painfully simple in comparison /images/graemlins/smile.gif

So there's tons of very useful info for me here thanks mate. Onto breaking up the model and UV fiddling!

[MoP]

Cool. Cheques to the usual address /images/graemlins/smile.gif

As for "tons of very useful info", I stole most of what I'm talking about from Per128, who kindly put together this PowerPoint presentation on normal-mapping techniques (http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/per128//pc_docs%5Cedf_normalmapping.ppt). It's been hanging around for a while now but it has some handy tips in and it's worth a quick flick through. Thanks you crazy Norwegian!

[Jeff Parrott]

I think you when move the UVs over before you process the maps in Maya it creates messed up maps as well. You'll probably have to delete all the duped geometry until after you process the maps. Then move the UVs for the duped geometry in the 0 to -1 UV space. I've never done it on Maya 7.0, but that was the workflow in 6.5.

[JordanW]

Dont delete your duped geometry it's important that it's still there, lets say your arms are using the same UV space, if you delete the geometry of one of the arms, where that matches up to the body the normal map will be rendered incorrectly. I suggest just selecting all duped/overlaying UVs and just scaling them down and put them in a small area of the map then after the normals are rendered scale them back to their original spot.

[DDS]

Those UVs are fantastic. Congrats for your reel 2. You're a great example of why companies love guys carrying those years of experience...

[fogmann]

From what I can see, it looks like your high poly geometry was penetrating the envelope on couple of places, a bit on the face and the two tiny spots on the coat, which is easy to fix in Photoshop.

I also used Maya for normal map sampling, and to me it seemed like editing envelope instead of increasing its search depth helped to eliminate weird normal calculations and areas that turn out brownish (and render black). Basically, I left search envelope percentage pretty low, around 6-8%, and then tweaked the envelope vertices to completely enclose the high poly geometry, and also to be well related to the low poly mesh, so the rays get the good path to travel.

As far as AO baking goes, I don't think you can do it through surface sampler, from hi poly to low. Instead, when you have your normal map on the low poly, you could bake the occlusion with mental ray batch bake. I haven't actually tried occlusion baking, but GI and light + color seem to work fine and the details from normal map are transferred to the lightmap.

PS ~ I've read your awesome modeling tutorial and if nobody yet told you how to find n-sided polys in Maya, here's how: switch to face selection, go to edit polygons > selection > selection constraints... and check All and Next, and below that for order check Nsided and back in the viewport you'll see your nsided faces selected. Remember to check Nothing as constraint when you're done.

[Daz]

Many thanks all. Simply moving the previously stacked UV's into a range beyond 0-1 was all that it took.

Several obvious artifacts here, but progress is promising. This is the low with normal in Santiagos xnormal. Makes a great little viewer. The only reason Im using maya over it for generating normal maps is that the splitting up the mesh part would require exporting about 6 objs out of maya as opposed to just showing and hiding everything in one maya scene

http://www.daz-art.com/xnormal.jpg

fogmann, thanks for the tip. That's a neat idea using the normal map to generate an AO map. I'll dig around thanks.

[spacemonkey]

he's looking great! more /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[RE3456]

Hi Daz, I like the final result, looks great, so what settings did you end up using for surface sampler?

[aesir]

sweet normal map! Get moving on that texture!

[Daz]

OK Im almost in panic mode. I only have sunday. Colour only just begun. Need to rig this bastard too. Shite, this is gonna be touch and go. I knew I shouldn't have gone out tonight. OK, so showing normal maps in the viewport in maya no problem. But *rendering* normal maps nicely in maya is something else entirely. Can anyone point me to a shader or hypershade tut anywhere? Ideally it works in mental ray but I can get away with the maya renderer If need be. Thanks!

[rooster]

I'm right with you on the panic mode.. Its looking fantastic though!

[Vailias]

Daz: not sure what you mean render "nicely" but the certainly can render pretty well.

Maya 7 just attach it as a 2d bumpmap to any normal material that supports them, in the 2d bump attributes set the Use As field to tangent space normals, and pull the bump depth down a lot. I set it to 0.05 for the below render.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e28/vailias/Inquis_Compare.jpg

Note that the normals on the hat are inverted, as this is just converted via the nvidia ps filter, and the hat is upside down on the map.

[Daz]

Thanks Vailias. I only just got maya 7 so I didn't realise this was built in now.

I have a nice map now, but I can't figure out what to do about the mirroring. Maya doesn't seem to like it:

http://www.daz-art.com/normals_mirrored.jpg

Furthermore, a render looks completely and utterly broken.

Much that it saddens me to say this guys, I think Im just going to have to face the music here. I'm not going to finish. I have yet to colour or rig this guy. This is my first fully normal mapped character and I am just plagued by technical issues. Its just too much of a learning curve to get over in the rest of today. I had a blast and learnt tons though. Thanks.

[MoP]

worth finishing as a side project after the deadline though, right?
as for previewing the normals, what happens when you view it in Santiago's viewer?

Shame you're not gonna have time to finish, this guy was shaping up really awesometasticfully.

[Daz]

Oh I'll finish the bastard allright. Just not by the end of today, which is all the time I have. Haven't tried that yet, but its a bit moot If I cant even render out of maya which is what i need to do for the final stage. This is how a render looks:

http://www.daz-art.com/urg.jpg

p.s maya blows for realtime work.

[rooster]

He does look pretty evil.. not quite in the way intended though :/. One of our strongest warriors won't make it to the battle /images/graemlins/frown.gif. It'll look sweet when its done man

[okkun]

Exporting something thats been mirrored to a different package from Maya usually results in half the normals being inverted.

Try releasing the normals and making sure the mesh has all the normals going in the right direction, Maya has a nasty habit of hiding normal errors.

[RE3456]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh I'll finish the bastard allright. Just not by the end of today, which is all the time I have. Haven't tried that yet, but its a bit moot If I cant even render out of maya which is what i need to do for the final stage. This is how a render looks:



[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Daz, I had the exact same problem on my general's ship when I did the mirroring (from x to -x), after some research I found that you simply can't mirroring a geometry with NM on it, not in maya anyway. Technically you still can do it, what I did with my ship just flip some part of the square UVs horizontally and it turns out alright, but obviously it won't work with the character as the UV is asymmetry after flipping. I could be wrong but thought I'd share my experience anyway /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Daz]

okkun thanks, but the models normals are fine. Its the normal map UV's that are the issue.
Yeah I figured that was the case man thanks. Im basically hosed. At a major stretch I'd have been able to colour and rig and pose this guy by the end of the day. But now I have to re-UVmap it, there is just no way /images/graemlins/frown.gif Thanks again man. Gutted.

[vahl]

you can use another normal map with reverted green channel on the mirrored parts

[JordanW]

Daz, have you tried using other cg shaders that can just give you a viewport render? it basically comes down to if the person who made the shader gave it the ability to handle mirrored UVs

[Vailias]

Daz.. just a thought, which may not work, but it looks to me as if the parts which are having normal problems would look correct from their backface. Have you tried inverting the normals for the polygons experiencing the errors, and making sure the material renders double sided?

(or what vahl said.)

[Daz]

That did the trick nicely thanks vahl.

It's really not the viewport stuff that's the big stumbling block though. *rendering* normal maps in maya requires a PHD in nuclear physics or something, and I've just spent waaay too much time trying to figure it out. I can't believe it's this hard. RE3456: thanks for the link to those shaders, but I still found it an absolute nightmare. I must be stupid .
Anyway, I ploughed ahead anyway knowing I couldn't possibly finish and this is as far as I got with colour and spec. Way too much work to do to get it done in time but oh well, I tried. If Alias actually recognised that people use their software for making videogames I might have gotten closer.

http://www.daz-art.com/colour.jpg

[spacemonkey]

its a shame Daz, the face is looking tight. I think he easily could have been a winner judging by your usual standard for finished characters /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[RE3456]

[ QUOTE ]
If Alias actually recognised that people use their software for making videogames


[/ QUOTE ]

tell me about it /images/graemlins/mad.gif I end up just doing hardware render for my character and it really sucked. I think I'm gonna start learning 3dsmax. I should have done what you did on the character and just make another NM for the mirrored part but I thought that would break the rule for having 2 NM 1024 maps /images/graemlins/confused.gif
As far as the shader goes, now I feel a lot better before I thought it was just me being stupid of not knowing how to use the shaders, now I know we are both stupid /images/graemlins/laugh.gif J/K Anyway it's really a shame that you won't be able to finish this character for the contest but I'm still looking forward to see the final product, the texture looks awesome, keep up the good work.

[Daz]

Honestly I find it absolutely staggering that maya 7.0 cant render normal maps properly out of the box. Im not even asking for mental ray. The software renderer would be fine.
Both those shader 'solutions' started to make my head bleed. I just dont have time to mess about making extremely complex shader networks. Crazy. I guess this is something I need to sit down and properly figure out when I have time later.

LOL, lots to fix but I am still hanging in there by a thin thread!!

http://www.daz-art.com/pose.jpg

[Rick Stirling]

Don't let it beat you Daz! Get it finished!

[firestarter]

Quite frankly... you rock sir!

[vahl]

yah I do like it too, glad the trick worked ^^

the thing is that right now it looks a bit too "plastic", and I know you can do way better than this, I saw your highpoly texturing, you can really do exactly the same (even faking SSS) with normal maps nowadays, i'd be very happy to see it rendered like that german soldier.

I really love the style of this entry, very clean, good job, especially for a second normalmapped model ( though I wasn't expecting less from you ^^ /images/graemlins/smile.gif

would be a shame if you're not gonna make it in time indeed, but if that happens, still finish it, you're so close, and it's such a cool character /images/graemlins/smile.gif KEEP IT UP MAN, lots can be done in 8 hours !!!

[gauss]

hell yes, Daz, there's no need to throw in the towel yet. just a few more tweaks to get the materials to read and this is a worthy entry! /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[Daz]

[ QUOTE ]
the thing is that right now it looks a bit too "plastic", and I know you can do way better than this, I saw your highpoly texturing, you can really do exactly the same (even faking SSS) with normal maps nowadays,

[/ QUOTE ]

Hah easy for you to say sat there in front of Max /images/graemlins/smile.gif Thanks for the words of encouragement, but I think you may have missed my note above. I am completely roadblocked by not being able to render normal maps out of maya. They simply render as greyscale bump maps and looks awful.
So the above is simply a viewport grab, and that, in maya, is highly limited.

OK so what is cool is that it turns out I dont need to be where I was meant to be today! Yay, so I am in with a fighting chance with several hrs.

So, NOBODY in this entire comp has had to render normal maps (render, not viewport display) for their entry that can help me with a shader or some pointers? Please, pretty please. I would owe you big time. I can't get neither the pixero nor the headus one to work. I'm off delving into the search archives of cgtalk for now, but that shit is really starting to eat into my time /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[vahl]

hehehe yah, except I'm a maya/xsi user /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think you can use normal maps as displacement maps in mental ray (only got reported that fact, works in xsi, haven't tested in maya yet)

I also found a maya 5-like shader to render tangent space normals ( was working sometimes).

http://www.drone.org/tutorials/normal_maps.html


you can also export your model as OBJ and render it with derton's model viewer for doom3 ( easy to find on http://doom3world.org, if you have doom 3 or quake 4 though, pior rendered his girl with that one and I was planning to do the same thing)

here's a model (300-ish tris) I rendered last year with the tangent space shader above ( no tweaks, very quickly rendered
http://wip.global-illusions.com/blind/blind_normalmaptexwip3.jpg

[Daz]

Ah thanks. Yeah I mean all the solutions out there are just immensely time consuming. Displacement mapping in mray? Ive looked at that stuff before and its really complex. Not that Im not grateful to you for the links of course, but this is something maya should be able to do out of the box.

I cant get that drone shader to work at all. Gives me very funky results. I just dont know enough about the math behind it all to be tinkering around. I just want something that works off the bat and nothing seems to.

I dont have doom3 or quake3 installed but thanks.

That said, Im beginning to get results out of pixeros shader, but theres still some odd shit going on with sharp hi-lighting in some places but not others. Im gonna keep going with it instead of looking at 4 different solutions at once. Thanks for your help man.

[pior]

Hmm just to clarify things, you actually don't need D3 nor Q4 to use that dertons thing, its all standalone /images/graemlins/smile.gif Vahlou YOO FOOL /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

It also seems like the updated version of the viewer available from doom3world is not the greatest in terms of nmap rendering. Beh. I ave an older version sitting on my HD if you ever need it. If you want to see stuff in that app just pm me or send me your files over, I can set it up for you.

Yet I also think that focusing on one specific redering solution is smarter /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Loving your results so far Daz, especially the way the modelling translates perfectly on the nmap model. I'm not quite sure about the color choices on the suit tho. Yet I know the final image is going to be killer, ha!

On a side note : do you have access to color specular? ATM it looks like every material is 'highlit' in the same way (= white highlights on everything) which makes the piece look a bit like a painted figure. I your shader don't allow colored spec, you might be able to get a more contrasted look by completely killing the spec in some spots.

Good luck General Hitman!

[Super]

What exactly is the problem you're having in Maya? I've yet to try it for this very reason, seems insanely difficult. I tried searching around a bit but you've probably only found the same. I dug out the Gnomon ZB/Maya DVD and watched how Meats Meier did it, he seems to be able to render them ok using some bullshit network with like 11 Nodes thats available at www.headus.com (http://www.headus.com)

*EDIT* Shader: http://www.headus.com/au/samples/norm-MR/download/killeroo-poly-norm-MR-mb.zip - he just plugs his map into file node and renders away.

Failing that, maybe this one is some use: http://www.pixero.com/downloads_maya.html

This whole Maya Normal Mapping thing stinks, I was under the impression it was a simple bump2D node now too but I guess not.

[vahl]

np Daz /images/graemlins/smile.gif I know for the time consuming thing, unfortunately, and yah, maya should be able to do it out of the box now.

for the model viewer, I just did a quick test and it seems you don't need doom3 to make it work, though the viewer isn't perfect ( seams, no alphas, no spec color....) you can still make your own 3-points lighting, add shadows, ambiant lighting, etc

you don't even need to set your models up for doom3 for this, the object I tested only had a diffuse and a bump map

here's the info page on derton's model viewer:
http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1281

can't wait to see what you'll come up with for your final render ^^

Edit : pior just told me that spec color was working in derton's viewer, my bad, sorry :P

[Daz]

Super, the issue is that normal maps simply render as bump and there is no alias or quick and easy solution for rendering them properly. Furthermore, even when you do finally figure it out by whatever 3rd party solution you find in the darkest recesses of the intermaweb, it requires *different* shaders than the type needed to get normal maps to show in the *viewport* ! So, as you can imagine, with multiple materials, it starts to rapidly become a MASSIVE pain in the arse.

Anyhoo, many thanks all. I *finally* got the pixero shader working, but the whole issue just killed my time.

I didn't make it. /images/graemlins/frown.gif Waayyy too much to fix. This as far as I got. But I learnt tons and had fun. That's the main thing. Go polycount entries!

http://www.daz-art.com/render.jpg

btw, I'll carry on and finish this guy anyway probably.

[Marine]

if i'm understanding your problem right, and i'm probably not, you can get maya to render normal maps fine in viewports, but it all goes tits up when you try and use the renderer?

i'm using maya 7.0.1 (in case there's any other versions) and it renders normal maps fine in viewports and renderer. http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/marine/normalrender.jpg
l-r highpoly with diffuse, lowpoly with normal, spec and diffuse, and lowpoly with normal only.
maybe it's a graphics card issue?

[Daz]

You are understanding the problem perfectly Marine /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Normal maps render fine in the viewport, but render as bump maps in the software renderer.

Your render is Maya hardware, not software though. Or am I missing something here? I guarantee that If you rendered in software or mental ray it wouldn't render as a normal map, but as a bump map. Thanks though.

[MoP]

boo, different colour background and that last image would have been fine for submitting! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

shame you didn't get it done on time, he was looking great, stop going out and socialising and be a shut-away bastard like the rest of us /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Marine]

yeah, used hardware
there is a work around you could try, linking the normal map's outColour straight into your materials normalCamera, cutting the bump2d out of the shader, it seems to work in software

[Daz]

Blatantly didnt work mate /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Hah, fun with Photoshop. Im surprised I didnt get the lens flare out.

Figured if I didnt finish this guy up tonight, chances are I would probably never pick him up again, so here's my first complete normal mapped char. Yay! Thanks to all those that helped me along the way, especially the mopster.

http://www.daz-art.com/beauty.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/maps.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/wire.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/hi.jpg

[MoP]

Submit it, they might allow a late entry due to bitch-ass software problems? /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Kickass work anyway, the only bits i'm not sure about are the blue breastplate, and the shiny metal ab coverings... the blue just doesn't seem like any specific material, and the lines/scratches on the metal are looking a little too uniform and unrealistic.

however everything else is great, the face is really top quality (as always from you /images/graemlins/wink.gif ), and it works very well as a stand-alone character.

good job despite maya's best efforts to defeat you /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[lkraan]

Awesome Daz!
Yeah, what MoP said...submit it!

[SkullboX]

Very sweet entry Daz. The only real comment I have is something I also critted in the first verion of your reel, which is the pose of this character. It just doesn't make much sense.

First off, the pointing hand is in a very odd position. The writst is bent in a way that is very uncomfortable, and I think that shows. Generally when you point your finger with your elbow bent, your hand is on the same plane as your arm. It is possible as is, but very unlikely if the elbow is turned like on your pose (act it out, it's uncomfortable, you feel this in your shoulder). So I'd either strech the arm, or rotate the hand so it's on the same plane. I'd probably have done both, as well as lift the shoulder a bit.

There's also the distribution of weight, which I think should be shifted to his front leg. You could also put his weight on his back leg (commanding troups behind him sort of pose), but right now it kind of lacks motivation.

Apart from that, excellent entry, I hope it gets in after all!

[kite]

for such a rush job, it's really great work daz, well done. I'd give fred a buzz, it'd be a shame not to see it in the comp because of software problems..