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Necromancer Project [UDK]

polycounter lvl 10
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Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
Latest Work on last page:
Kid_Final.jpg
Wiz_Final2.jpg

Needing Feedback!
____________________________________________________

Hello! I'm working on a environment that is set in an underground catacomb lair of a necromancer kid.

I've created the environment blockout, and put up base models for everything. Now I'm in the process of creating hi poly models and texturing. There are alot of models in the environment that still need some reworking.

I haven't thought of a good texture style for it, but I will be developing that this week.


These are 2 types of ghosts enemies that will be in environment (I plan to give them transparent low halves of their bodies and particle effects to make them ghostie):
smallGhost_whole2_zps875d0f1e.jpg
bigGhost2_zps6950585b.jpg

This is an example of the kind of architecture style I'm going for:
column5_zps2fd68068.jpg

And these are a couple of screenshots of what I've got so far in my environment (Oh! And a note! All texture work is completely temporary, I will be replacing that brick texture. It was just to help me while I was creating the pieces.):
9_zpsf7a6247e.jpg
10_zps32270694.jpg

I look forward to doing much more work to it in the next week.

Replies

  • AlphaMeow
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    Gasp!! I love those pillars!
  • Lily
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    pillar lover +1 ^_^
    the scene somehow looks like WOW...
  • Rednaz
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    Wow, those pillars! :D I wanna see what the normals look like in the scene! Nice start :)
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks for the pillar love! Im going to be doing normals tonight, but I got some more sculpting done.

    Stone Stairs... With some "acid" damage at the bottom of the steps because that part is submerged and gets worn away by the green liquid.
    stairs_zps235831f9.jpg
  • Rhoutermans
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    Rhoutermans polycounter lvl 12
    I hope that smile will bake well on the pilar :) I like this overall- tracking!
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    So I prolly spent more time than I should have on this. A little shame. I added bevels to all of them. Moving on to the baking!

    stairs2_zpsee60279b.jpg
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Sad face.

    Theres always usually something that messes up in the baking process. In this bake of the column, I have a missing polygon (no idea where thats coming from, I've checked the normals like crazy), and some weird jagged/bumped features (like on the teeth for example).

    column8_zps46a1c21e.jpg

    column7_zps022e3341.jpg

    column6_zpsf65a7b79.jpg
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    column10_zps8a224681.jpg

    Found a better result. :D It involved me using the "Sculpt Geometry Tool" in maya, to bring the low poly mesh out more. I'm using Nex for my low topologizing, and I guess the initial results aren't bake ready. Atleast for highly detailed areas like the face on the column.
  • Lord Waffles
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    Lord Waffles polycounter lvl 10
    I love the style of this work, looking really good so far. Looking forward to seeing more!
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Some lighting update:
    12_env_zps05df8f2e.jpg
    13_zps8228b32a.jpg
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    tile brick attempt 2:

    Still sculpting it. I wish I could make this faster!
    brickFloor_zps27616d28.jpg
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Another failed run at the bricks. But I'm getting closer.

    Env14_zps11030445.jpg
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    The evolution of my floor: Im curious, which do you think looks the best?
    stoneFloor.jpg
    stonefloor2.jpg
  • Bombshell
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    Bombshell polycounter lvl 10
    I personally like the second one, just needs more contrast, I think the main reason is the dark between the bricks (on the 3rd) stands out too much.
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Ah, I brought back the woobly tiles. I will make contrast in grout. I decided to use my new bricks for the wall textures.

    Environment progress:
    Env15.jpg
    Env17.jpg

    The waterfall and water texture is killing me! My inspiration for the water is: http://gulienallard.free.fr/images/Screen_DM01.jpg & UDK's bio blob material.

    I've tried doing some Flow Map stuff, read thru some water tutorials. But I can't seem to wrap my head around the logic of creating a water material. I've dabbled with the nodes, and came up with what you see in my screenshot.

    On to more baking and sculpting.
  • ironbelly
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    ironbelly polycounter lvl 9
    on the floor I'd go with the second one as well.. the first looks like you're trying to hard to put cracks and details in
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    ok! Well, I'm going for the second one now. lol. I'm not happy with its current normal map state. So I may do some zbrush "plastic surgery" on it.

    I did a stair step test. I have another step set that I will low poly and add to this one (to add more variety) It's pretty modular, so I feel happy feelings about using it all over the place. lol.
    stairs3.jpg
    stairs4.jpg

    Sleep time now.. yessss...
  • 4evra
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    4evra polycounter lvl 4
    Lily wrote: »
    pillar lover +1 ^_^
    the scene somehow looks like WOW...


    my first thought exactly :)

    i cant find anywhere the picture of the exact place that looks close to this scene,he's another one that's close at overall

    http://greenleewow.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/19exteriorhub.jpg
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    wow! Holy crap! I wonder who designed that environment, because we almost conceptualized the same idea. Blows my mind a little! And a little weird (for me), lol. But I can honestly say, I didn't use this location as reference or even knew of it's existence. Plus mine is more detailed. haha! Ah well. :)
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Ughhh! TRIM, WHYYY?

    wallColumns2.jpg

    I have a feeling it's a lightmap thing. But my question is: Why isn't it doing that wierd lighting thing to everything else I've baked? And what is causing it? I've laid my uvs horizontally, vertically, split the uvs on the corners so that the 4 sides of faces were separate islands, and then even tried the lightmap UV set.

    Could it be my bake? This is what my normals look like:
    wallColumn_normals.jpg

    I'm moving on to my next object, but UGHHHHH.
  • dirigible
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    dirigible polycounter lvl 8
    Gotta triangulate your low-poly before you bake. That's why you're getting such weird, harsh shadowing in engine.
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    @ dirigible: Oh man.. I did that, and it still didn't work! I've tried so many other things too like adding bevels. :( It's really bumming me out in a frustrating way. I loved that column.

    Heres the newest thing I've finished modeling. On to low poly baking now. Please o please don't look like my columns. lol. Next stop is zbrushing my statue vomiting the green soul water.
    coffin3.jpg

    But I'll be back to post my examples of my crazy trim. Maybe theres some so small and simple that I'm missing. :(
  • dirigible
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    dirigible polycounter lvl 8
    Evolvyn wrote: »
    @ dirigible: Oh man.. I did that, and it still didn't work! I've tried so many other things too like adding bevels. :( It's really bumming me out in a frustrating way. I loved that column.

    Heres the newest thing I've finished modeling. On to low poly baking now. Please o please don't look like my columns. lol. Next stop is zbrushing my statue vomiting the green soul water.

    But I'll be back to post my examples of my crazy trim. Maybe theres some so small and simple that I'm missing. :(

    Hmm...
    Based on your screenshots it SHOULD be correct, but...try reversing the green channel in your normal map?

    If that doesn't work then if you post your files online I'll try to troubleshoot. You're using udk?
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Deal! I'll try that out. And yes I am using UDK. I'll be back with my bakes and the files.
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    So I did more tests, and still no avail. Bleighh!!
    trimProblem2.jpg

    Maya File of beveled, non-beveled, and my mid poly reference.
    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/60882005/Thesis%20Public/trimHelp.ma

    High Poly Mesh
    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/60882005/Thesis%20Public/wallColumn_normalTwist_hi.OBJ
  • dirigible
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    dirigible polycounter lvl 8
    WM2sA.png?1
    What I did:
    I split the uv's for each side of the pillar, and I hardened all uv seams. Then I set the soft normals mode to Angle and Area weighted. This reduces shadowing on the low poly model, and keeps the normal map from having to correct as much.
    ua75C.png
    I baked out from xNormal using a projection cage (just a slightly inflated copy of the low poly).
    Took it into unreal, gave it some crappy lightmap UVs, and baked lighting.

    I noticed something in that last step - without lightmap UV's, unreal will use vertex lighting. When it was using vertex lighting I was getting errors similar to the ones you were getting. Make sure that you give your model lightmap UV's.

    Also, about triangulating the mesh before baking - make sure you keep it triangulated. So when you export it for UDK, it's already triangulated.
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    wow, ok. I'll give that a try! I did something yesterday that kinda helped, but took up alot texture space to do it. But yours looks really good! Especially if it didn't use the beveled edged model, which lowers the expensive cost of beveling & wasting texture space (which is what I did). But thank you so much for taking the time to look at it! I never knew about that Vertex Normal Method option. I always thought limghtmaps were for models that had overlapping UVs.

    trim2.jpg

    I am needing some help on choosing a statue face. Sounds silly, but I do. Anyways, here are the options. Note that I have a curled wing option!

    vomitStatueChoices.jpg
  • dirigible
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    dirigible polycounter lvl 8
    I like squinting bulge eyes. Makes it look like he's really puking the green stuff out.
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Some updates on textures, but still chugging on the work. Need to work on better lighting, and tweaking some textures.

    textured1.jpg
    textured2.jpg
    textured3.jpg
    textured4.jpg

    Theres going to be a wizard and a necromancer kid character in this environment that I plan to make after the New Years. Just a heads up. So the wizard looking character is just a stand in.
  • Deras
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    god this is awesome :D
    - really enjoying the looks of this already, plus the faces on the coulumns are awesome xD
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Statue progress.
    nov29.jpg

    Been working on the refining models, and adding textured details. There are other areas I've been working on, and I will be showing screenshots of those soon!
  • Rhoutermans
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    Rhoutermans polycounter lvl 12
    awesome! I like the feel of the scene. It does feel very yellow-ish overall tho, brown-ish stairs walls/pillars :) But guess ur still working on it all, if so my bad ;)
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Hey!

    I've been gone, but not idle! I am going to be polishing my environment more, and retexturing a few things that have been bothering me. Like the walls and the stones. I noticed that my colored lighting had been screwing with my texture color, so it'll be a big retexturing and lighting project for me. I plan to have the environment done by March, but in the mean time, I felt that I had to move on to my characters that I wanted to place into the scene.

    kidTurnaround_sm.jpg
    wizardTurnaround_sm.jpg
    Scale2.jpg

    First up, my Necromage Kid (aka necromancer)! A wip render of the kid of what I've got so far.
    kid3.jpg

    Next is my Wizard who is still needing his hair, fabric folds, and fleshy detail.
    wiz4.jpg

    Should have both character done sculpted by Tuesday.
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    wiz6.jpg
    Stiil needs more work.
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    wiz7.jpg

    Last modeling progress shot before I post the finished sculpt. For both my Necromage Kid and the Wizard.
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    Hey, I woud love some feedback on these guys!

    I plan adjust the head size of somebody. Either the kid or the wizard, because I feel that they have too much of a big difference. I know in movies like the Incredibles, and Wreck it Ralph, the head sizes don't match up, but I feel I'm doing it a little too much. They don't ever stand next to each other in my environment, but I feel compelled to make them look right if I ever posed them together.

    Here is my zbrush sculpt with a flat texture polypaint.

    Kid_Final.jpg
    Wiz_Final2.jpg
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    bump! Needing Feedback! :)
  • Azaraen
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    Azaraen polycounter lvl 10
    HeadSize_elove.gif

    Made some adjustments in photoshop that I think will help them look more consistent when standing side by side.
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