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Sketchbook: MystiqueX

polycounter lvl 7
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MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
Current update:
New modeling series: WoW fan art
Concept 1

Finally done! Of course, now I don't like it anymore, so I'll have to fix it... Hopefully it won't take me another 2 years... :neutral: 



Software: 3DS Max, Zbrush, xNormals, Photoshop
Rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 2

C&C always welcomed! a.k.a I really want to learn, so if you see something wrong and have a minute to write a comment, PLEASE DO tell me! :D

Replies

  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
    Salutations!!

    ...Amazing work bro, amazing work. Few tweeks here and there and this piece of yours will be perfect.

    Welcome to the Polycount by the way. :)
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Thanks Nitewalkr!
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Work in progress...

    pirate_ship_wip01_by_mystiquex-d347fbw.pngpirate_ship_wip02_by_mystiquex-d347fjq.png

    pirate_ship_wip03_by_mystiquex-d347fql.pngpirate_ship_wip04_by_mystiquex-d347fy4.png

    pirate_ship_wip07_by_mystiquex-d347gkw.png
    Stay tuned for more ^_^
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    It's been quite a while since my last post, but I guess better late than never...
    Finally my small pirate ship made it into UDK and I started playing around with the lights. I'm sure there are plenty of great tutorials about baking shadows in Unreal out there, but if anybody feels kind enough to save me some searching time, it would be greatly appreciated. Obviously any comments, critiques and guidance are always welcome!

    Here I go..

    Supplies corner - always need plenty of rum when at sea :D

    pirate_ship_wip16_by_mystiquex-d3806wr.png

    The "average pirate desk" - I'm sure it's got to be pretty easy to make the lights work properly, it's just an adventure until I find out how to do it...

    pirate_ship_wip15_by_mystiquex-d3806tj.png

    The big picture - the following screenshots are a little older (2 days older...) but I figured since this thread is about the progress of my little project, I'd also show you the general layout. This will be the general look of it (I think), but it still needs plenty of other details.

    pirate_ship_wip12_by_mystiquex-d37qy0x.png

    The stairs - yes, I think this is my new favorite area, it used to be the table, but due to the shadow casting mess, I've demoted that :P

    pirate_ship_wip08_by_mystiquex-d37qxd2.png

    Standing in the corner - currently toying with the idea of adding a small sleeping area, so this corner might not be a corner afterall...

    pirate_ship_wip10_by_mystiquex-d37qxsu.png

    Would love to get any feedback on this. Spill it all out, I promise I can take it :poly122:
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    the supplies corner looks great, get some nice camera angles, and maybe a background outside so that you can see something out there and finish it all off. The table looks a bit big in comparison to the barrels and chair etc
  • Suidae
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    Suidae polycounter lvl 11
    I like the look of it. One detail you may consider is, since you have vertical posts in the center, adding knee braces to the top to help them flow into the beam above.
    hull_wooden_ship_3.jpg
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Well... I did decide to declare the project done, but you both gave me very good suggestions...
    @ Ged: Thank you! I lowered the height of the table and added some terrain outside, but it's not really visible unless you actually look through the window. Maybe I should have added an actual skydome.
    @Suidae: That is a very good point! Can't believe I haven't even consider it so far... I'll add the knees before my next update. Thank you!

    These were supposed to be my final screenshots for this project, but I have a feeling that's not even close to being true... How did that saying go?... "to finish 90% of the project it takes you 90% of the time and for the rest it takes another 90% of the time..."

    PS_screenshot_06_c.png
    PS_screenshot_07_c.png
    PS_screenshot_09_c.png
    PS_screenshot_02_bw.png
    PS_screenshot_05_bw.png
    PS_screenshot_00_c.png

    Also, my website is up and has a few more screenshots if anybody feels like taking a look. Please don't be too judgmental about the site - it's still in... (not even beta!) alpha phase... Oh gosh, I'm such a n00b! Efforting... efforting... :poly142:
    www.andradogaru.com
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    A new project (newly finished anyway) - high poly art nouveau Parisian street lamp.
    street_lamp_04_by_mystiquex-d54bdre.png
    street_lamp_01_by_mystiquex-d54bbox.png
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    And the final shot of the pirate ship
    pirate_ship_01_by_mystiquex-d543vvu.jpg
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Concept for Myst IV Revelations by Meinert Hansen

    My goal is NOT to redo the original model, but to try and follow the concept as well as possible and texture it in 2 different styles: one dark and gloomy and the second one colorful and joyous (maybe try to mimic Mr. Afremov's style)

    I know I still have to do:
    - the cow cranium on the barrel
    - put together the journal on the bed
    - put a rooftop (I'm thinking of going with some sort of leaves instead of the sticks)
    - add nails to the wall drawings and the fur
    - adjust the roof beams' ropes

    Looking forward to some C&C! Do your worst ;)

    Model, render, screenshot: Softimage
    lake_house_wip_01_by_mystiquex-d55jiwg.png
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Finished the "papers" texture for my little environment.

    lake_house_wip_03_by_mystiquex-d56ss0w.png

    Model, render, screenshot: Softimage
    Textures: PS CS4

    Stock used:
    Leather covers for the journals
    Parchment papers

    C&C always welcomed.
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Sculpted the wood planks for the floor, walls and windows. Should be enough so it's not too repetitive...

    Wood-Work.png
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Normals for the wood, bed and fur.
    Working on the treasure chests.

    wip_006-1024x632.png

    Model, render, screenshot: Softimage
    Textures: PS CS4

    C&C always welcomed.
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    I'll play with the bake more before I start adding color, but here is one of the chests so far.
    lake_house_wip_07_by_mystiquex-d58ee5x.png
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    All done with the high polys for now, time to move on to putting some colors in and fixing the baked AO and CM.
    props-wip-03.png
  • [Deleted User]
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  • sybrix
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    sybrix polycounter lvl 12
    I really love the beautiful lighting you've got going on in your pirate ship. Would you mind sharing what type of lights/setup you used? :)
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    kinetic: Thank you very much, hopefully it will look even better with some textures :)

    sybrix: Thank you! Basically everywhere there is a lamp, I have a shadow casting point light (and there is a glow map for the glass); I have a spotlight at the top of the stairs with rendered light shafts; spot lights at the "dark side" windows and a ton of bounce lights everywhere I needed to get rid of too dark shadows. It was a trial and error process, so I doubt it's "the perfect way" to do it, but it did the job. Glad you liked it! I'll upload some screenshots to give you a better idea.

    Back to my current little fan project, I finished the high polys yesterday (the only one left is the skull, but I'm saving that one for later), so today I got to play a bit with painting the diffuse textures.
    Everything is sketchy, but it should give some idea of where I'm heading with it.

    wip_013-1024x632.png

    As always, feedback & critiques are welcome and much appreciated! :D
  • Snowfly
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    Snowfly polycounter lvl 18
    These bakes are great, I love this sketchbook :-) The diffuse isn't doing them justice just yet though, but I'm sure you're on it.
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Snowfly: Thank you very much. The bakes themselves still need a bit of tweaking (especially the normal maps), but yes, there's a ton more to do for the diffuse and then finally get some appropriate spec maps. Thank you for the encouragement!

    sybrix: As promissed, here is the lights setup. As I said, I'm pretty sure there is a more efficient way to do it, but this is what I used. Hope it helps!

    udk-light-setup-877x1024.jpg
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    These are the basic textures I'm thinking about using. There are still a lot more details that need to be painted into the diffuse, but I think at least I'm done with the normal maps fixing.

    I still need to set up the 2 different lighting moods, but that will have to wait a little bit, since I'm taking a break to attend SIGGRAPH :D

    wip_035.png

    Comments and critiques would be much appreciated!
    Thank you!
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Oh, and these are my textures so far.
    textures.png
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    I'd say the dark and gloomy part is done. Time to move on to the bright and cheery.

    The unprocessed, straight from XSI version:

    wip_045.png

    It felt too warm, so I did some post-processing in Photoshop and ended up with this:

    wip_050.png
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    A few minor adjustments to the dark version

    wip_053.png

    The daylight version is done

    wip_062.png

    And I think this is it for this little fan art project

    wip_064.png
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    One more...

    Started working on the environment art test for ArenaNet.

    Currently at 2340 tri.

    Working on the diffuse textures for now. Still have to do the inside of the roof and grass+plants.

    wip_011.png

    wip_010.png
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Well, it`s all starting to make sense - I suck at lighting :(

    AD_AN_house_wip_007.png

    Still just the diffuse maps and alphas for the plants.
    Next on the to do list are normal and spec.

    AD_AN_house_wip_006.png

    I know the internship for environments was canceled/ found its winner early, but I'm trying to educate myself not to leave stuff unfinished anymore. Especially since there isn't much else going on anyway.

    Any critiques/ suggestions are more than welcome. I'd really like to know your thoughts.
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Done.

    Andra-Dogaru-ArenaNet-house-all-1024x699.png

    Andra-Dogaru-ArenaNet-house-v1-1024x699.png

    Andra-Dogaru-ArenaNet-house-v2-1024x699.png

    Andra-Dogaru-ArenaNet-house-v3-1024x699.png

    Andra-Dogaru-ArenaNet-house-v4-1024x699.png

    Andra-Dogaru-ArenaNet-texture-layout-488x1024.png

    I had a few more ideas, but I need a new project. Maybe some other time.
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Little while ago I finally decided to make the switch from XSI to Max. So now I'm in the practicing stage. I took up doing 3D a little bit late, so there are tons of "old" concepts that I never got to explore in their moment of glory. Now, also heavily inspired by Fanny's post on doing textures for WoW, I'm starting a new modeling series for myself, based on some of my favorite concepts for the world of Azeroth.
    My goals would be:
    - practice 3ds Max
    - practice Zbrush
    - practice painting stylized textures in PS
    - get a better understanding of the WoW style
    - (hopefully) get faster with this workflow
    - post/communicate more often

    So here are my rough beginnings:
    1. Blocking in the low poly
    house_1_wip001.jpg

    C&C always welcome.
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    2. Sculpting individual assets in Zbrush

    house_1_wip002.jpg
    house_1_wip003.jpg
    house_1_wip004.jpg
    house_1_wip005.jpg

    Thing is I think the wood looks OK, the stone pillar is meh, but works, however the stone totally drove me mad. It just doesn't look quite right. If anybody could tell me what I'm doing wrong, I'd be in your debt forever.
    Also made videos of the sculpting process for all of them:
    Wood
    Pillar
    Stone

    C&C always welcome.
  • rodgon
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    rodgon polycounter
    Very cool stuff in here MystiqueX! Keep going! Cheers!
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Thanks a lot, rodgon!

    Small update - roof shingles
    house_1_wip006.jpg
  • Valliant
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    Valliant polycounter lvl 4
    Really nice looking stuff, MystiqueX :) My favourite is the pirate ship supplies corner, turned out great.
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Thanks, Valliant! Funny thing is that despite the pirate ship project still looks pretty much the best visually from my portfolio, I really think the small projects that followed are an improvement - less geo, better planned uv layout, better texturing, not to mention proper NM. I probably should put more effort into presentation. :)

    So I spent a lot of time lately savoring the latest Vertex (yeah, like everybody else here, I was already up-to-date with most projects showcased, but it's still a great read). Managed to finally tore myself away from it to get a little bit of work done, so here's the update:

    Finished sculpting the remaining pieces and plan out the the UVs.
    Marmoset render of just the normal maps. For the windows, doors and smaller ornaments I will go straight into painting the diffuse.
    house_1_wip008.jpg

    I was pretty pleased with how the roof texture turned out.
    house_1_wip007.jpg

    Next on the to do list:
    - fix badly baked NM
    - play around with the uvs for the repetitive assets
    - add a decals map for some variation - wall cracks, protruding bricks, missing shingles
    - start working on the diffuse maps

    At first I was planning on making one big texture for the entire building, but that meant adding extra geo to the roof in example to avoid nasty seams and stretching. Besides, I can easily reuse the tiling textures for other similar assets. On the other hand, logic tells me that in this case the game engine will have to load a greater number of textures for just one specific building.
    So I have to ask: which is preferred/more efficient - one big texture per building or multiple smaller ones that get reused?

    C&C always welcome! a.k.a I really want to learn, so if you see something wrong and have a minute to write a comment, PLEASE DO tell me! :D
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Can't decide on the color scheme yet, but I'll just leave this one here for a little bit.
    house_1_wip009.jpg
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Quick fan art piece




  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    The dagger acted as a self-confidence boost, so I figured I should finally finish the previous project as well. All I had to add were the windows and the lamp. Of course, one learns a few things during a period of 2 years, so although the project is pretty much done, it will have to be HEAVILY adjusted... soon... sometime... :neutral:


  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    Some minor adjustments.

  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
    So I'm trying to get a few weapon concepts done. I think they're still a little boring, so any C&C would be much appreciated. Thanks!
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
  • MystiqueX
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    MystiqueX polycounter lvl 7
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