Quick-Crit 2008-2009

[Futzy]

Get rid of the scrollbar down there - let the content take up as much space as it needs. Scrollbars interfere with usability and look fugly anyway.

I'd also go ahead and either widen the content out or fill that space somehow, even if it's just pictures or something. Looks really boring and empty right now.
Those text boxes were just concepts. The navigation bars were originally on the left, but i moved them to the top to make more space and I don't need to make them any wider for a concept. The white one is the one we are using.

[Llama Juice]

WIP design. I want it to be bigger. I'll probably make it wrap further around.

I found a way to make it feasible price wise. AKA do it yourself.

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/ShirtFront.jpg
http://www.llamajuice.com/img/ShirtBack.jpg

[Con]

How exactly did you make it?

[paladin]

silk screen prolly

[Llama Juice]

bought a 2 pack of white shirts ($4.50)

Bought some green dye ($1.27ish)
Bought some black dye... which... it isn't really black.. it's really dark blue... ($1.27ish)
I mixed the green with a little bit of the black to get the color I have there (rinsed out a bunch to desaturate it.)
Bought an exacto knife ($5)
cut out some tagboard and made a giant stencil
Bought a can of black spray paint ($2ish)
tacked it all down (shoulda used adhesive spray rather than tacks... but ye know.... didn't know that beforehand) and sprayed it. If you're going to try it... less paint = better. It doesn't crack and such then.

Rather simple stuff really. :P

[MetKiller Joe]

Wow, that's cool.

Edit: D: can't rep.

[paladin]

spray paint will wash out after 3-5 washes :\, at least in my experiences

[Llama Juice]

It faded a bit after the first wash, but I was glad it did. I like the faded "retro" look.

The spray paint i bought said that it's good for fabric, so that's why I got what I did. I'll be experimenting with other paints and such though over the next month probably.

[ICEE]

I want one... I mean it would say ICEE, but I want one.

[paladin]

In high school we used spray paint for our spirit shit. After about 5 washes everything was blurred into a giant ball of black/blue. But cool if it works for you.

[Llama Juice]

I'll be experimenting, finding different ways to do it... try different paints... see what I can find that's most cost effective/easy.

Some other people use normal fabric paint and rollers over a stencil, then heat seal it with an iron or possibly a hair dryer? I have a hot air gun (hair dryer on crack) so I'll probably try with that, but... *shrug* we'll see how this all goes.

[Sever]

You should learn silkscreening. Take a class for it - it's not only a great way to make your own shirts, but it's also quite fun!

[Llama Juice]

Yea, I looked into that briefly and decided that I don't have the space for it. :/ lol

[Sever]

Don't have the space for it? Bullshit. All you need is space enough to lay your target fabric flat, which you obviously already have. All it takes to do your own is a piece of framed silkscreen, your stencils, ink, and a few tools - it can be as large or as small as you want. When I did it, the one that I used was about 18 inches square, but the teacher had a bunch of other examples that varied in size and complexity.

[English Mobster]

New Gridlock-y things:
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/escalators-4.jpg
Not a fan of the tiling at the top there, but it's something I'll have to fix. And yes, those windows ARE ew.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/gridlock_render_1-6.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/trainstation-5.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/westgate-4.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/petermarks-1.jpg

[Disaster]

You'd be better off abandoning tiling textures for most of the buildings and using unique unwraps. Right now, the tiling texture consistency looks really bad.

[English Mobster]

I've been thinking of using unwraps for the majority of the buildings. I don't think ALL of them need it, but definitely the exterior of the escalator area and the train station need them.

[=sw=warlord]

Biped nearly done, i've started on doing the smoothing groups so hopefully a few of the things looked off before now look better.
I've relaxed the arms a little and moved the posture a bit as well.
I've put the halo 1 stock biped next to mine to show a comparison of mine and the stock.
I decided to leave the bad that was on the stomach out as i didnt like it design wise as i said before this isnt a complete true to origin model more of a modernisation and reimaginated version.
Any C&C would be greatly appreciated.
Im looking forward to getting this rigged and Sandbox2.
http://i37.tinypic.com/2nis8kk.png

[Llama Juice]

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/trainstation-5.jpg

When I saw this image I was like "Is this English's work?" because you always do some horrible ugly triangulated mess of destruction on your buildings. Last time you posted something like this we all gave you tons of reference to look at, it'd be cool if you actually referenced some broken buildings (or even look at how Bungie did it) and tried to replicate it because as it stands your destruction looks beyond terrible.

[mech]

This thread needs to be split.

Well, I'm going to be playing at a show Oct 31st and need crit on a some I'm working on. It's a little sloppy because I was improvising different Ideas, I want to know what you guys think.

Ignore that last minute or so.

http://www.filefront.com/14729007/scoop4.wma

Would you rave to this? There's going to be alot of people and I want to get them moving.

(http://www.filefront.com/14729027/scoopo2.wma)

[MetKiller Joe]

This thread needs to be split.

Well, I'm going to be playing at a show Oct 31st and need crit on a some I'm working on. It's a little sloppy because I was improvising different Ideas, I want to know what you guys think.

Ignore that last minute or so.

http://www.filefront.com/14729007/scoop4.wma

Would you rave to this? There's going to be alot of people and I want to get them moving.

(http://www.filefront.com/14729027/scoopo2.wma)

There is little to no bass here. Check this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74_LM_MUNx0) out. Yours is like a higher quality version of the background music in like Sim City or something I'd expect as the background music for an RTS. The sound is interesting, but you want to work the woofers a lot more if you want to get people moving.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74_LM_MUNx0)

[mech]

I'm going to have this hooked up to a half stack, thing is, I'm using a cheap 100 dollar keyboard and can only play 1 sound at a time, hence the lack of bass. But, I can mix two sounds together to make a deeper tone which gives the impression of bass, so it should be pretty good.

What do you think off the over all jams though?

[=sw=warlord]

3973 Polies.:realsmug:
Model complete i guess unless anyone here can give tips and advice on any issues you might see with it.http://i33.tinypic.com/kaqwjm.png

[neuro]

giant feet, skinny ankles.

[=sw=warlord]

giant feet, skinny ankles.
Anything else i should work on while doing the ankles?

[flibitijibibo]

This thread needs to be split.

Well, I'm going to be playing at a show Oct 31st and need crit on a some I'm working on. It's a little sloppy because I was improvising different Ideas, I want to know what you guys think.

Ignore that last minute or so.

http://www.filefront.com/14729007/scoop4.wma

Would you rave to this? There's going to be alot of people and I want to get them moving.

(http://www.filefront.com/14729027/scoopo2.wma)There are things in here that are addressed in your post, but to make sure I don't make any holes, I'll list whatever I heard. Number of things:

1. Lead is awfully sloppy (rhythmically speaking). I assume you recorded yourself with a MIDI keyboard?

2. Lead could be up an octave. In the lower range used, it tends to blend in with the chords. Depending on what system is used at the show, it could be nearly impossible to hear it.

3. Lead needs less echo. In the more complicated sections, it just sounded like a glissing mess.

4. Drums could use more fills. What I mean by this is rather than just "bass, snare/clap, bass, scare/clap," feel free to put a unique fill at the end of each set (8 measures, 16 measures, or the end of a particular phrase.) Actually, you could probably add another beat into the normal line (use cymbal/hi hat on an "and" maybe?).

5. Be VERY careful with your embellishing tones. There were a couple of notes in there that just sounded plain wrong, improv or not. Be mindful of the key (things like dominant 7th would be alright), and if it's going pretty far off key, either use it with chromaticism or resolve it ASAP.

6. Tritones: Use responsibly. :gonk:

7. Repetition: Good in short bursts. Don't let things go on for too long, and certainly don't toss them out after one run.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_form
Forms are an easy way of repeating ideas without monotony. Depending on how long this is, you could go from simple AABA to something lolhueg like AABACABA.

[ExAm]

giant feet, skinny ankles.
His boots are huge, his feet inside the boots appear to be on over an inch of platform, so I wouldn't say it's his feet that are huge, and therefore the ankles don't seem that skinny to me if you think of his actual foot size.

[paladin]

3973 Polies.:realsmug:
Model complete i guess unless anyone here can give tips and advice on any issues you might see with it.
*img*

He looks like he has 70's platform boots on.

[=sw=warlord]

He looks like he has 70's platform boots on.
The boots he has on normaly look like that sadly.

[paladin]

That may be, but they are not as apparent as yours.

[=sw=warlord]

That may be, but they are not as apparent as yours.
That might be because i havent applied smoothing groups to them yet i've only smoother some areas so far.

[FRain]

4. Drums could use more fills. What I mean by this is rather than just "bass, snare/clap, bass, scare/clap," feel free to put a unique fill at the end of each set (8 measures, 16 measures, or the end of a particular phrase." Actually, you could probably add another beat into the normal line (use cymbal/hi hat on an "and" maybe?).




this this this this this this this this this this THIS.

I was unable to be the drummer in jazz band (because our always-menstrual director wants someone with "experience" and our drummer only plays (bass bass snare, bass bass snare) and in that song theres even a WHOLE FUCKING SECTION of him to mess around and all he plays is that.

[Advancebo]

WIP animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-D1qBdVRt4

[Cagerrin]

Am I seeing it wrong, or do none of the gas bags deflate?

Because that's the first thing I think of in terms of Engineer deaths. Either that or a carrier form-esque pop.

[ODX]

Am I seeing it wrong, or do none of the gas bags deflate?It's a WIP, so of course, almost nothing is done, and there's almost nothing to crit but the ungodly slow movement of it falling.

[Advancebo]

The bags were deflating, its just I made the whole engineer shrink as it died.

Anyways, it was pointless, ICEE told me Halo CE doesnt allow scaling in the animations. So I will have to try something else.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

ICEE told me Halo CE doesnt allow scaling in the animations.

Uh, yes it does. Look at the flood carriers.

[Boba]

New Gridlock-y things:
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/escalators-4.jpg
Not a fan of the tiling at the top there, but it's something I'll have to fix. And yes, those windows ARE ew.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/gridlock_render_1-6.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/trainstation-5.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/westgate-4.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/petermarks-1.jpg

are you even fucking trying to make a map or do you do this just to frustrate everyone

[ICEE]

Uh, yes it does. Look at the flood carriers.

Is there something in particular you have to do to get it to work correctly then? in my experience all thats ever happened was the models would start at the tiniest scale they reached in the animation and remain there

[CtrlAltDestroy]

blitzkrieg doesn't export scale data correctly iirc, though the exporter i released should

[Advancebo]

blitzkrieg doesn't export scale data correctly iirc, though the exporter i released should

Oh ok :downs:

[Spartan094]

I really don't feel like fixing the feet atm since they are all in one gbx_model and I tend to mess up the bones while doing so.
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/55dde1c7f2845ab8b1cd895d747272898fc64c20.png
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/6836138c3c9bf6ddc373d38786f454b6bc96bb2e.png
And heres a visor update, look way better.
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/560701df445f61eedc54866d3dc427d030f210c5.png

I need to fix some uvw's on the visor and some other parts, maybe tone down the brightness.

What ya think?

[FRain]

Looks good, except for that the armor looks too "glossy" as if it just came out of an assembly line. There should be some damage done to it.

[DEElekgolo]

Your fake normal mapping is done wrong sir. I see pre-defined highlights from the normal map all over, especially in the visor.

[Futzy]

So I decided to do the Editor in Chief's job and make the header for this issue of the newspaper
Hers:
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/6084/printk.jpg

Mine:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/2853/minemg.jpg

[Llama Juice]

IqcPlCNUPl4

Hey there, so my previous menu that I posted was a bit too crazy for my game. I had to tone it back a bit on the Maya side. We're going to still get the flipping of the letters in, but we're going to be doing that all programatically. The other menu managed to break something in a teammate's laptop (he was exporting the animation for two days straight....) and so we had to come up with another solution to it. In the mean time I made the background of the menu and animated that. We'll see how it goes this time around :P

also, you won't be seeing this much of the actual menu, it will cut off on the left just about where the pipes end, on the right just after the gears.

[Heathen]

I figured out what is nagging me about your stuff.

Your textures are too uniform, they should change for different parts of maps and junk. Like different parts of buildings,, and they all look like stone.

[MetKiller Joe]

Your background animation goes slow then fast, unless you wanted it that way.

[kid908]

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/2714/stargatemilkywayv510110.jpg

I see the problem. It was quite hard to see in max considering the repeating pattern gives me a headache. I'll fix the curve and make an indent in the hull for it. Fun Fact: there are 360 of those fuckers on the gate if the cheveron areas aren't cut out. :gonk: So many.

I had to remake those cosmetic patterns :gonk: (had to remake it about 3 times to get to where it is now so it took several hours) God was it hell, but it was for the best. Hopefully it looks alot better now for those complaining about the low poly sided temp hull.

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1743/101709.jpg

@Heuro: I've seen many different sizes for the stargate in the show. I've made the thicker ones before and it doesn't look very well so I decided to try making the skinnier version.

[Cagerrin]

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/TalonX/randomstuff/WIP/20091017162829_37m28s.png

Need to do some work above where you can see here, to make the upper part look like it slid out and up to reveal the... whatever it is... power core or something.

original ref:

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/TalonX/randomstuff/WIP/dmntn_core_ref.jpg

[rossmum]

So I decided to do the Editor in Chief's job and make the header for this issue of the newspaper
Exam exemptions? Wow. That's some education system you've got there. :ugh:

[Advancebo]

http://www.xfire.com/video/1699ff/

Fixed the physics, but awaiting a new one.

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/a3a3ef87b99d2effdb4a2f6cd8c0ac5f631b3dbf.png
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/a5450a62eed38112163280be18cc515e015952b6.png
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/9835a8127012d87691123e960e8de4263b9e88c2.png
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/1c15194b738dcbb7d87275cf703c34a95406b2c3.png

Tagging, Animations, Porting, etc by Advancebo
Model and textures by Bungie

To do:
Fix the turret
Tweek physics
Get new shaders

[SnaFuBAR]

Your scale is WAY off.

[Hunter]

That does look pretty big haha.

Edit: the turret does)

[SnaFuBAR]

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow

[Rob Oplawar]

+rep for post #5555

[Ki11a_FTW]

i would be afraid of posting pics of this without new shaders :|


eh, ill post my shadow for the hell of it

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5618/shadowxz.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/shadowxz.jpg/)

we have the seats too but its a seperate vehicle and i was to lazy to attach it :smith:

[Hunter]

Wow, nice. Seems a bit high though.

[Disaster]

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii256/echo216/natural_selection_2_armory-max-r-1.jpg
Just a simple sci-fi piece I wanted to model. Concept art is from Natural Selection 2. Its not 100% accurate but I wanted to be a little creative.

[SnaFuBAR]

looking pretty damn good buddy

[Hunter]

I agree ^

[paladin]

JONUfaorpag

Flour sack jumping over an obstacle, I chose a circular saw. :realsmug:

68 frames @ 24fps

the animation is on 2's. These are the construction lines, so the lines aren't uniform. I am mostly looking for consistent volume throughout the animation.

I noted on the assignment that:


the hang time is about 2 frames too long and that I have fixed that, just not re exported the avi.



after the bag drops the animation sticks. For some reason DigiCell is being a dick and thinking Ive added an extra frame and I cant get rid of it, so there is an extra frame on the land frame.

[Heathen]

i would be afraid of posting pics of this without new shaders :|


eh, ill post my shadow for the hell of it

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5618/shadowxz.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/shadowxz.jpg/)

we have the seats too but its a seperate vehicle and i was to lazy to attach it :smith:

maybe its the quality of the images, but that looks like shit.

[Ki11a_FTW]

its a stretched out picture of the sapien viewport

[Boba]

i would be afraid of posting pics of this without new shaders :|


eh, ill post my shadow for the hell of it

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5618/shadowxz.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/shadowxz.jpg/)

we have the seats too but its a seperate vehicle and i was to lazy to attach it :smith:
looks like a fucking graboid

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

i would be afraid of posting pics of this without new shaders :|


eh, ill post my shadow for the hell of it

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5618/shadowxz.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/shadowxz.jpg/)

we have the seats too but its a seperate vehicle and i was to lazy to attach it :smith:

I know that map!
:v:
Its derelict!

[Siliconmaster]

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1350/marinefrontbloom.jpg

Thought I should revisit North Galeton. The city has been lonely for a long time now.

[Advancebo]

Your scale is WAY off.

No, its the right size :downs:

Delta made new shaders:

[size=1]--- Original message by: delta49[/size=1]
The shadow is scaled correctly. I went in max, imported the halo 2 model and scaled it to the correct size, then compared it to Bo's model by importing it. It fit perfectly. It might just look incorrect because: 1. The seats were never actually used in Halo 2, the time you saw the three in the tunnel, they were all carrying ghosts. And 2. We've never seen a spartan sitting on the seat normally (unless it was modded). Anyways, I fixed up the shaders. Keep in mind this might not be the final look:
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3245/saf67.png
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/63/adhf78.png

[Higuy]

To be honest those shaders look horrible. Way to shiny, looks like plastic

[Spartan094]

Those shaders are terrible, looks like plastic, way to shiny (its over done really), and I sense a bad multipurpose for it. No fake bumping either to help it out?

I never done any covenant shaders before on any of the weaps, vehicles and such. Could I have a go at making the shaders on it

Oh, newly redone bitmaps again for the h3 spartan since inferno didn't like it
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/9089376f3f4d875aa85e5d8c60095381a9c637bc.png
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/56b195245b8abcde2f87212b3f5c3157ebbce9bf.png

I might re-uvw back the chest plate back to normal so it will show the dents on the right, and I don't care if the fake bumping is wrong

e: atleast somebody crit it to know what I need to fix or so

E: brought back the indents on the spartan, last image for this post
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/adcea71db07b34c636d4e3aabb9d38cf0a855368.png

[Trulife8342]

just want a quick crit on this http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2889/modacity.png

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

Looks nice, now
MW2 PICS >:U

[Ki11a_FTW]

not really gonna give much away on this, but yeah WIP.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8179/hl2jailbreakinthalls.jpg (http://img12.imageshack.us/i/hl2jailbreakinthalls.jpg/)

[Rob Oplawar]

I always had mixed feelings about the environments of Half Life 2. There are some truly inspiring vistas, but they never seemed to get away from box modeling. Seems everything in the game, with the exception of characters and weapons, is made from extruded boxes. :/
[/ot]

[Llama Juice]

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/NewBuildingMaybe.png

5279 tris

A possibility of an art direction for my game. Currently we're going with a prague look to it all... which doesn't fit the story/game at all. I'm going to try to propose this to my art director when he gets back from his honeymoon lol

[BobtheGreatII]

I always had mixed feelings about the environments of Half Life 2. There are some truly inspiring vistas, but they never seemed to get away from box modeling. Seems everything in the game, with the exception of characters and weapons, is made from extruded boxes. :/
[/ot]

Yeah, one of the many problems using Hammer... :saddowns:

[=sw=warlord]

Got an update on my spartan biped.
Arms are now unwrapped and textured.
http://i37.tinypic.com/r8z9qc.jpg

[Llama Juice]

Your fingers look terrible sir.

[=sw=warlord]

Your fingers look terrible sir.
Yeah ive still got some work to do on the hands but other than that the mesh is unwrapped and has a basic undercoating for colour.

[Spartan094]

The hand plate looks weird, fingers are ok.

[kid908]

Progressing along with this one.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6650/stargatemilkywayv510210.jpg

Just got bored and rendered this one. The ground material is horrible on my part, sorry. Yeah, the bottom is suppose to be a reflection.
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6650/stargatemilkywayv510210.jpg

[Con]

Very nice, how far are you going with this?

[kid908]

All the way.

[Llama Juice]

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/bldg_2b_SP_tex.png

chopped the tris down a bit, down to 4117 now, was at 5279.

[Snowy]

Looks cool

[NuggetWarmer]

Working on a Barneysecurity guard model for Operation Black Mesa. Ignore my base human mesh.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u27/foxymccloud/Modeling/Barney.png

[Llama Juice]

That's one beefy tie you have there sir, is it filled with sand?

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/bldg_2b_SP_tex2.png

Been workin on this piece some more :P.

[NuggetWarmer]

it's a clip on

[Heathen]

Its still thick.

[Corndogman]

I think it looks fine tbh. It has a bit of a cartoony look to it being that thick, but I think it might also look bad it's too thin. It'll probably look fine once its textured and all.

[MetKiller Joe]

That's one beefy tie you have there sir, is it filled with sand?

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/bldg_2b_SP_tex2.png

Been workin on this piece some more :P.

Those beams on the front still looked tacked on. They don't seem to have a purpose. I'm talking about the ones that go up and then onto the platform, not the ones that frame the windows; those look better now.

[Llama Juice]

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/bldg_2b_SP_tex3.png
http://www.llamajuice.com/img/bldg_2b_SP_tex4.png
http://www.llamajuice.com/img/bldg_2b_SP_tex5.png

I think I'm done with this for now. I'm not sure if I like how bright the roof is or not.. but *shrug* I gotta take a break from it.

E: @ MKJ they are just kinda tacked on... I didn't really know what to put there, so I tossed some beams in there to break up the surface somewhat. I was considering removing those and running some pipes up the wall, but pipes require more polys than I have to spare at the moment :/. As is I'm already nearly twice my allotted poly count lol. If you have a better idea of what to toss there though, let me know :P

E2: added that last image in there, 'cause lighting is fun.

[paladin]

Hey there, that looks super good.

[Pooky]

Those beams on the front still looked tacked on. They don't seem to have a purpose. I'm talking about the ones that go up and then onto the platform, not the ones that frame the windows; those look better now.

Moreover, it looks like they could trip someone who was walking along there, that's just not good design.

[ICEE]

Liking that building. Interesting artistic style you've gone with here.

So im practicing with character animations, since i really havent got much experience in animation past FP. Starting slow, using poses for now.

I will name my next son after you

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z295/iron_clad_photo/animations/Carryingtheinjured.jpg

Sit your spikey ass down and eat your goddamn tea. if you get the reference you are cool and not a wimp
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z295/iron_clad_photo/animations/Cid.jpg

E: if anyone wants to texture this staff let me know.
EE: Lag did the model and the render setup. I dont know much about rendering

[Advancebo]

Pretty nice, you should start animating with simple walking animations.

[ICEE]

I'm quite capable of making walking animations. I'm trying to get into more theatrical work here.

[killer9856]

Have the elite stab a marine, and thrash him around

[=sw=warlord]

Derp.
http://i35.tinypic.com/1037twx.png

[Llama Juice]

There's a few weird smoothing errors going on in the chest plate, but overall it looks alright.

I do dislike the sharp angle to the top of the "bill" on his helmet though. The part where the "bill" connects with the rest of the helmet. That looks kinda strange.... might be like that normally... but creative license sir, make it awesome.

Anyhow...

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/bldg_3a_SP_tex1.png
http://www.llamajuice.com/img/bldg_3a_SP_tex2.png

Gotsa make a town... so I gotsa make a lot of buildings.

[ODX]

Not to be rude, but you've showed that 4 times (I believe) in the last 3 pages. Would it kill you to make a thread for it?

[Llama Juice]

First time showing it, but sure. *runs off to make a thread*

[ODX]

First time showing it, but sure. *runs off to make a thread*Oh I see, it's a different building. But yeah, it would be nice to have a thread where we could easily see all of your buildings being made and crit them without having to go back page upon page.

[ICEE]

Have the elite stab a marine, and thrash him around

If i can bother teh lag to send me his brutes too, i was thinking of doing some elite v brute fighting poses

Maybe if i make my best puppy dog eyes...

[n00ber]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RANK_rQm41o&feature=channel
:C i know theres no fingerwork whatsoever when the left hand moves out of the screene, ill fix it later

[SnaFuBAR]

I really don't know why everyone does it so awkward with the "thumb on top of mag" reload. You wouldn't reload like that unless the gun was inline with your stomach. Act out the reload. If it's anywhere near shoulder height, your fingers would be pointed up, and thumb up, probably pressed against the back of the magazine to assure it's being seated in the magazine well correctly. You're going to bend your arm at the elbow.

While it's smoothly done for the most part, it's just contorted and weird and just anotomically awkward.

[ICEE]

I really don't know why everyone does it so awkward with the "thumb on top of mag" reload.

This. Just because bungie did it doesn't make it good.

[Spartan094]

I might start trying at animating FP instead of simple 3p biped animations since it's getting me quite interested....

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/454aea6c86109eff32102c2c63b6df38c4768dea.png
Don't mind the mark vi chest (again)
I fixed the feet (finally) but I still have one problem, it isnt casting any shadows. The .biped has the does not cast shadow unchecked, any solution? Next to do is fix the visor's abit.

[kid908]

The Empty Glass:
http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs50/i/2009/299/5/f/The_Empty_Glass_by_kid908.jpg

http://kid908.deviantart.com/art/The-Empty-Glass-141566517


Got bored and decided to make a photorealistic render. I had to turn off several lighting effect to get a reasonable render time so it's not super photorealistic. I had to sacrifice GI and many caustic photons, but considering the amount I sacrificed, this came out quite well.

[SnaFuBAR]

Your diamonds are not breaking up light into different colors, and therefore, will never look like diamonds, only facet cut glass.

[paladin]

Diamonds look :nsmug:

[SnaFuBAR]

Also, having your "kid908" thing in your render scenes kind of detracts from them. Gives a bit of a sense of self importance and "look at me" rather than being about the quality of your work.

[paladin]

Maybe make it small. I have some little things that go around the base of wine glasses so when you have a bunch of people over you knows whose is whose. Make a little thing around one of the glasses.

[Advancebo]

Needs caustics on the diamonds.

[=sw=warlord]

It's done i guess.
Although im not sure what to think, i think it needs alot of improvement but im not sure how to go about it as i don't have photoshop only paint.net so im hopeing i can make some decent shaders in 3ds max and bake them onto the bitmaps.
if anyone can give tips and adive i would greatly appreciate it.
The stuff spoilered are the different bitmaps i've made.
Im hoping someone here can tell me how to improve or atleast what to improve.
I realise my UVmapping is absolute crap but its my first and hopefully its a good start.
http://i38.tinypic.com/21bndbn.jpghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/the_dark_warlord/Abdomen.pnghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/the_dark_warlord/arms.pnghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/the_dark_warlord/chest.pnghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/the_dark_warlord/chest.pnghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/the_dark_warlord/head.png

[kid908]

Needs caustics on the diamonds.
Caustic is on.

@SnaF: I can not find a tutorial on how to create the breaking of white light into the visible light spectrum. If you have a link or tut, I'd appreciate it.

The logo was just something for the glass to reflect. I'll find something else to replace it with.

@Paladin: My wine glass don't have those =\ did It come with such objects on it?

[Llama Juice]

@Warlord. Why do you have so many unwraps for your one model? Put everything on one map.

[=sw=warlord]

@Warlord. Why do you have so many unwraps for your one model? Put everything on one map.
Because i want to retain as much detail as possible, im going by the standards crytek used for their bipeds which was have a bitmap for each segment.

[kid908]

Because i want to retain as much detail as possible, im going by the standards crytek used for their bipeds which was have a bitmap for each segment.

make the bitmap larger...

2048^2 is a large enough bitmap. But if you need, halo will accept bitmaps larger than 5120x5120.

[Advancebo]

make the bitmap larger...

2048^2 is a large enough bitmap. But if you need, halo will accept bitmaps larger than 5120x5120.

Largest I was able to compile was 2048.

[paladin]

@Paladin: My wine glass don't have those =\ did It come with such objects on it?


you buy them seperate. I got them as a stocking stuffer a few years ago :/

[=sw=warlord]

make the bitmap larger...

2048^2 is a large enough bitmap. But if you need, halo will accept bitmaps larger than 5120x5120.
Note where i said "Crytek" not "Bungie", im putting this into crysis not halo but considering this is as good a place as any to get feedback i posted for feedback here.

[MetKiller Joe]

To be quite honest, warlord. Spreading your bitmaps over 3-4 textures is easy, and it doesn't force you to think about UV space/arrangement, texel density, and detail that you can paint onto it depending on those factors.

You are taking the easy way out, imo, and using "Its Crytek's method" as an excuse (even if you aren't, that's what it looks like to us, and probably any future employer). It is also inefficient using that method because it will eat resources.

If you are trying to only practice photoshop texture painting, then I guess it is sorta justified, but you are still painting depending on an unrealistic set of factors.

[=sw=warlord]

To be quite honest, warlord. Spreading your bitmaps over 3-4 textures is easy, and it doesn't force you to think about UV space/arrangement, texel density, and detail that you can paint onto it depending on those factors.

You are taking the easy way out, imo, and using "Its Crytek's method" as an excuse (even if you aren't, that's what it looks like to us, and probably any future employer). It is also inefficient using that method because it will eat resources.

If you are trying to only practice photoshop texture painting, then I guess it is sorta justified, but you are still painting depending on an unrealistic set of factors.

I don't even have photoshop so i've been trying to bake the bitmaps with enough detail i wont need to get photoshop.
I can try to condense the bitmaps more but i doubt there is much more i can actualy do besides the chest and abdomen.

[MetKiller Joe]

I don't even have photoshop so i've been trying to bake the bitmaps with enough detail i wont need to get photoshop.

So, what do you plan to do for your diffuse? Polypaint in Zbrush?

Even using GIMP would be better than not using anything to paint your diffuse other than Zbrush. What you are suggesting would, again, be inefficient to implement.

As for the UV templates, compress everything so it fits into one square then start from there resizing and scaling pieces relative to their size.

[Llama Juice]

@Warlord, your idea of getting the most detail in possible... while not painting anything is more than retarded.

Also... what size are you planning on keeping these at? 1024X1024? 'cause if you have each of those at 1024X1024, then one 2048X2048 is just as many pixels. You could fit all your stuff there into one map easily, and by splitting up stuff you're losing so much useful space. You could fit most of the hand's map into the helmet or the top left map that you showed us. Try to bring your unwraps into one map.

Does Crysis have separate chunks of armor or something that you can put on your character? That's the only reason I could see for them doing what you're doing. If you're splitting up the actual mesh into separate parts... so that you could have different legs on your same torso... then I see that method being useful... but as is for one character like this... you're just being silly.

At best, if you're going to be making separate helmets that can be swapped out... then those can go on different maps while keeping the rest of the body all on one map... but other than that... keep it all together.

[=sw=warlord]

@Warlord, your idea of getting the most detail in possible... while not painting anything is more than retarded.
A: im a sculpter not a painter
B: i don't have photoshop nor do i plan on getting it illegitimatelyIm using trials for 3ds max.

Also... what size are you planning on keeping these at? 1024X1024? 'cause if you have each of those at 1024X1024, then one 2048X2048 is just as many pixels. You could fit all your stuff there into one map easily, and by splitting up stuff you're losing so much useful space. You could fit most of the hand's map into the helmet or the top left map that you showed us. Try to bring your unwraps into one map.
I have tried this and kept on getting texture bleeding so i gave up.

Does Crysis have separate chunks of armor or something that you can put on your character? That's the only reason I could see for them doing what you're doing. If you're splitting up the actual mesh into separate parts... so that you could have different legs on your same torso... then I see that method being useful... but as is for one character like this... you're just being silly.

Actualy Crytek used separate bitmaps for arms legs and torso, you can easily see for yourself by opening the .pak files.
No there is not a different perm because as far as i know the korean nanosuit is entirely different.
This applies for all the bipeds, including the aliens.

At best, if you're going to be making separate helmets that can be swapped out... then those can go on different maps while keeping the rest of the body all on one map... but other than that... keep it all together.
As i have said i am trying to keep it all simple while have it working at the same time, if i scale one peice larger than the next then the pixel distribution would be shot to pieces and if there is one thing ive learned from snaf or neuro its that you do not want that.
.

[MetKiller Joe]

Originally Posted by Llama Juice http://www.modacity.net/forums/styles/modacity/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?p=480286#post480286)
@Warlord, your idea of getting the most detail in possible... while not painting anything is more than retarded.
A: im a sculpter not a painter
I have not seen one good artist that shows off his/her work without having some skill in making their own textures. This is no excuse.
Some studios, granted, have dedicated texture artists, but modeling and texturing go together.
B: i don't have photoshop nor do i plan on getting it illegitimatelyIm using trials for 3ds max.
That's fine, you can still use GIMP. Though, seriously, you can probably get a cheap copy of CS on ebay, and it will do 90% of what you need to get done.

Does Crysis have separate chunks of armor or something that you can put on your character? That's the only reason I could see for them doing what you're doing. If you're splitting up the actual mesh into separate parts... so that you could have different legs on your same torso... then I see that method being useful... but as is for one character like this... you're just being silly.

Actualy Crytek used separate bitmaps for arms legs and torso, you can easily see for yourself by opening the .pak files.
No there is not a different perm because as far as i know the korean nanosuit is entirely different.
This applies for all the bipeds, including the aliens.

So, because Crytek uses that method, it isn't wrong? I mean, maybe there is something to their pipeline you are overlooking, because by itself, this method is resource wasteful and inefficient (much easier to manage one texture than 3 different ones).

At best, if you're going to be making separate helmets that can be swapped out... then those can go on different maps while keeping the rest of the body all on one map... but other than that... keep it all together.
As i have said i am trying to keep it all simple while have it working at the same time, if i scale one peice larger than the next then the pixel distribution would be shot to pieces and if there is one thing ive learned from snaf or neuro its that you do not want that.

Scale the pieces first relative to the largest piece's texel density (pixel density/distribution), that may help out.
.

[=sw=warlord]

When i said i do not have photoshop i literaly mean i cannot afford it at all.
I have 3 birthdays comming up as well as christmas to put my money towards and seeing as employment isnt the easiest thing around here right now because everyone is being laid off.
I trust cryteks judgement in making arms and legs different bitmaps as obviously they are the experts on this not me.

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

Honestly, I think the reason for multiple bitmaps is so they can fit more detail into it, rather than having one lolhueg texture with wasted space within it.

[=sw=warlord]

http://i38.tinypic.com/fjkrp3.png
Better?
That has chest, abdomen and head in one bitmap.
For the texturing my idea was to get the model unwrapped and then make a decent set of materials in 3ds material editor and bake those onto the diffuse.
Im guessing that wont work correctly?
Im just following what it says to do in my 3ds max book i got.

[mech]

I trust cryteks judgement in making arms and legs different bitmaps as obviously they are the experts on this not me.

Welp, Crysis was terrible with optimization. It was a giant look at me.

You doing this to your model doesn't make any sense at all since you don't have a mesh for normal map and AO baking; it's going to look terrible ingame, hth. You say you're trying to get as much detail from your bake. Your model is very basic and has no detail.

2048^2 is max you need for any character.

[=sw=warlord]

Welp, Crysis was terrible with optimization. It was a giant look at me.

You doing this to your model doesn't make any sense at all since you don't have a mesh for normal map and AO baking; it's going to look terrible ingame, hth. You say you're trying to get as much detail from your bake. Your model is very basic and has no detail.

2048^2 is max you need for any character.
I would say crysis had fairly good optimisation but because it had pretty much every graphical technology of the time it was too far ahead of peoples computers at the time.
I've seen quite a few developers documentaries on it and from what i've seen it has just as good as unreal its just the shaders were too damned dynamic.
Unfortunitly because i strive to keep my self legitimate i never had a chance to get used to photoshop and so have to rely on and free programs.
i learned 3d modeling from gmax initialy but since moved on to using the various 90 day demos and by the time im done its time to reformat anyways.

[ExAm]

In Warlord's defense, GIMP is absolutely terrible.

[Llama Juice]

I would say crysis had fairly good optimisation but because it had pretty much every graphical technology of the time it was too far ahead of peoples computers at the time.

Think about that one for a minute. Then think about when Halo 2 Vista came out, and why it wouldn't run on most people's computers. Same reason.


As i have said i am trying to keep it all simple while have it working at the same time, if i scale one peice larger than the next then the pixel distribution would be shot to pieces and if there is one thing ive learned from snaf or neuro its that you do not want that.

TBH it's more important to not waste texture space than have slightly different texel densities.... just don't make it drastic.


Honestly, I think the reason for multiple bitmaps is so they can fit more detail into it, rather than having one lolhueg texture with wasted space within it.

To load in several textures all with insane amounts of wasted space is less efficient than loading in one large texture with some wasted space. If you put all of the stuff on one map, you can usually scale everything up just a little bit to make it take up more space and get more detail in there.

[=sw=warlord]

Think about that one for a minute. Then think about when Halo 2 Vista came out, and why it wouldn't run on most people's computers. Same reason.
Are you seriously trying to compare halo 2 vista to Crysis?
Wow...


TBH it's more important to not waste texture space than have slightly different texel densities.... just don't make it drastic.
Well i've seen snaf and neuro bitch about pixel density being off quite a few times and since their both in the profession i would guess they knew what their doing.


To load in several textures all with insane amounts of wasted space is less efficient than loading in one large texture with some wasted space. If you put all of the stuff on one map, you can usually scale everything up just a little bit to make it take up more space and get more detail in there.
I am doing the best i can with what i have, considering this is the first actual full scale unwrap i've done i would like to say i started off on a good perch, i have now condensed the chest abdomen and head into one bitmap so that will cut down on alot.
I will see if i can put the legs and arms together but if i go any further i can say now i will have issues and im not too keen on getting some nasty texture streching.0QeUcxgLxxE

[Llama Juice]

You're only going to be getting stretching if you scale the UVs non uniformly, or if you're not accounting for how your texture will deform when you rig and animate the mesh.

If you scale it equally in U and V then you won't get stretching from that.

E: didn't see your bold stuff in the quote.

I was using H2V as an example to demonstrate your flawed logic of "Well it doesn't run on most machines, so it must be optimized."

Also, I'm not saying that Snaf and Neuro don't know what they're doing. They both are extremely smart people who are great artists, I'm saying that you're taking what they told you a bit too literally and wasting tons of space because of it. I'm not in the industry yet or anything, but I know what I'm doing here, I'm about to graduate from college with a BS in Game Art. I know my shit too sir.

[=sw=warlord]

You're only going to be getting stretching if you scale the UVs non uniformly, or if you're not accounting for how your texture will deform when you rig and animate the mesh.

If you scale it equally in U and V then you won't get stretching from that.

E: didn't see your bold stuff in the quote.

I was using H2V as an example to demonstrate your flawed logic of "Well it doesn't run on most machines, so it must be optimized."
I wasn't using that logic i just pointed out that crysis uses that much graphics tech that it would be a very valid reason why it was slow for people, Halo 2 vista has no reason to be that slow because the original xbox ran on a underclocked celeron cpu and 64mb of ram, but somehow hiredgun managed to kill it.

Also, I'm not saying that Snaf and Neuro don't know what they're doing. They both are extremely smart people who are great artists, I'm saying that you're taking what they told you a bit too literally and wasting tons of space because of it.Im not just taking what their saying but also what im reading a rather large book on making nexgen bipeds by andrew gahan called "3ds max model for games"
I'm not in the industry yet or anything, but I know what I'm doing here, I'm about to graduate from college with a BS in Game Art. I know my shit too sir.
Im glad about that and don't think i dont appreciate the help, but as mentioned i am still learning, it has been a rather large learning curve to go from making simple daleks to a assault rifle to a monitor and now a spartan.I appreciate all the help i can get but sometimes it just feels i cannot express what i am trying to say..
Well heres the bitmap i've got so far.
http://i35.tinypic.com/24wr1i1.png
Yes alot of wasted space but much better than before...And now 3ds max has crashed....

[English Mobster]

After I got done making this render, I noticed ANOTHER rouge batch of polygons.
FUCK YOU ROUGE POLYGONS!
...They're mocking me...
Old:
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/escalators-5.jpg
New:
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/newescalators.jpg

[mech]

I would say crysis had fairly good optimisation but because it had pretty much every graphical technology of the time it was too far ahead of peoples computers at the time.
I've seen quite a few developers documentaries on it and from what i've seen it has just as good as unreal its just the shaders were too damned dynamic.
Unfortunitly because i strive to keep my self legitimate i never had a chance to get used to photoshop and so have to rely on and free programs.
i learned 3d modeling from gmax initialy but since moved on to using the various 90 day demos and by the time im done its time to reformat anyways.

I've been working with CE2 for the past two years, the SP and MP were terribly optimized. Not just from an art perspective, but code too.

[neuro]

.
Well heres the bitmap i've got so far.
http://i35.tinypic.com/24wr1i1.png
Yes alot of wasted space but much better than before...And now 3ds max has crashed....

that's just 3ds max telling you unwrap is terrible and should start over.

[Con]

that's just 3ds max telling you unwrap is terrible and should start over.
Let's be a little more constructive.

[Disaster]

Let's be a little more constructive.
There is not much to say about it. He rendered out a pretty shitty complete map and filled his uv clusters :allears:

Atleast use smoothing groups. And add definition to the texture? You can't tell what any material is. There is no "material." Just colors.

[=sw=warlord]

There is not much to say about it. He rendered out a pretty shitty complete map and filled his uv clusters :allears:

Atleast use smoothing groups. And add definition to the texture? You can't tell what any material is. There is no "material." Just colors.
Actualy it has smoothing groups thanks.
The reason it has no "material" is because i have not really messed with the material editor before and cannot figure out how to make a decent ceramic material.
It's all good and well saying hurr ur doin it wrong, but when the person your shouting at dosnt know how to do it correctly then it helps to tell them how to do it correctly.
I've now got GIMP so hopefully i can do a few texturing things in that, i've been told it supports custom brushes and filters? if anyone has any suggestions then please, suggest away.

[Disaster]

Actualy it has smoothing groups thanks.
The reason it has no "material" is because i have not really messed with the material editor before and cannot figure out how to make a decent ceramic material.
It's all good and well saying hurr ur doin it wrong, but when the person your shouting at dosnt know how to do it correctly then it helps to tell them how to do it correctly.
:ugh: You should seriously watch a texturing video.

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/9178-tutorial-texturing-metal-crate.html
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/7148-tutorial-ten-top-tips-texturing.html
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/10055-tutorial-texturing-cannon.html
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/42-tutorial-hard-surface-texture-painting.html

http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=46
I point you to this particular sub forum on CG Talk

[=sw=warlord]

Would this be any better in terms of UVwrapping?
Got both arms and legs in one bitmap now.
http://i36.tinypic.com/245g31c.png

[DEElekgolo]

Lots of distortion. Also post the uv wireframe instead of a baked map.

[MetKiller Joe]

Would this be any better in terms of UVwrapping?
Got both arms and legs in one bitmap now.
http://i36.tinypic.com/245g31c.png


Put everything on one bitmap, please. You are still wasting a lot of space. Enlarge your largest piece and start rearranging.

[kid908]

I'm still lost on how he plans to bake a norm map from that model...

from the 2 bitmaps you've posted, I can prob fit them in 1 large bitmap. You're trying to save pixels for details that, at this point, doesn't exist.

Helpful hint: use multi-layer texture to achieve desire material effect. It's still best to paint the texture.

[=sw=warlord]

I'm still lost on how he plans to bake a norm map from that model...

from the 2 bitmaps you've posted, I can prob fit them in 1 large bitmap. You're trying to save pixels for details that, at this point, doesn't exist.

Helpful hint: use multi-layer texture to achieve desire material effect. It's still best to paint the texture.
Who said anything about making a normal map?
I said i was making the diffuse map through the material editor because i no very little in photoshop due to the dislike of having to obtain softrware illegitimately and so have never had the chance of using photoshop.

[English Mobster]

Let's try again:
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/escalators-6.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/westgate-5.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/trainstation-6.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/gridlock_render_1-7.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/petermarks-2.jpg

[Ganon]

it just looks so sloppy :l

[Llama Juice]

Every texture looks like a placeholder.

Try to hide hard lines between textures on the same model.... and never again use that black haggard ugly stuff that you used in the last image there.

[ICEE]

not all of the textures look entirely bad to me they just all seem misused. The only ones that jump out at me as really terrible are the ones in the last image that look like a desaturated photo of trash, and the windows

[paladin]

not all of the textures look entirely bad to me they just all seem misused. The only ones that jump out at me as really terrible are the ones in the last image that look like a desaturated photo of trash, and the windows

I think its because he only has about 5 textures, and because theyre all very different hues, they stand out and have harsh edges.
Like Llama said, try and blend them.

[teh lag]

Let's try again:
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/trainstation-6.jpg

That's not what damage or a sidewalk looks like. I'm talking specifically about the part in the middle - it doesn't look right by any account.

[English Mobster]

I know; I said "Fuck it", and just put a not-destroyed building in its place.

[Heathen]

Get you a texture artist brosef.

[Ganon]

http://zgaming.net/zgshack/images/m24j80qbdno6649h9tqm.jpg

wat up video editing all up in dis

[Advancebo]

http://zgaming.net/zgshack/images/m24j80qbdno6649h9tqm.jpg

wat up video editing all up in dis

looks like revelations?

[Ganon]

we'll see soon ;]

[ICEE]

and what exactly are you looking for crit on..?

[Ganon]

and what exactly are you looking for crit on..?

idk, does my timeline look well organized sweetheart?

[Cagerrin]

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/TalonX/randomstuff/WIP/20091031191027_10m16s.png

Based on this (http://www.majhost.com/gallery/TalonX/randomstuff/Inspiration/Terrain-Buildings/Halo/4522.jpg), but I didn't really like the near part of the tower so I went in a different direction with it.

[Gwunty]

OHH MY GOD <3

[Advancebo]

Looks a bit thin.

[Heathen]

yeah, beef it up just a tad.

[Sever]

Certain areas are just... off. Most of it is great, but some parts appear lacking or out-of-place. Work it over a few more times then it'll be great.

[SnaFuBAR]

A bit anorexic and visually flat. It needs tapers in different directions. Check out my tutorial.

Just try to keep in mind that monolithic structures taper towards the top. Your piece will be much more substantial if you start thinking this way.

[Cagerrin]

Certain areas are just... off. Most of it is great, but some parts appear lacking or out-of-place. Work it over a few more times then it'll be great.
Working on it. Pretty sure it's a result of my modelling it as much as possible from the angle in the concept.

A bit anorexic and visually flat. It needs tapers in different directions. Check out my tutorial.

Just try to keep in mind that monolithic structures taper towards the top. Your piece will be much more substantial if you start thinking this way.
I cannot for the life of me do tapers properly, even with the tutorial. Probably because a lot of my towers have fairly complex shapes and tapering ends up with a good number of nonplanars, which I'm fairly anal about not having in models.

[Advancebo]

Accurate Picatinny Rails:

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc292/Advancebo/railpicatinny1.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc292/Advancebo/railpicatinny1_wire.jpg

I modeled a piece of it (shown on the bottom), then just used the Array tool to lay them out.

[Hunter]

You could make them so much lower poly.

[DEElekgolo]

I think because he made it so it is modular, the quads near the bottom are like that.

[Hunter]

If you cut a bit out of that model so there are two modules it would be 14 triangles without the bottom. it could easily be 10 triangles.

Its only 4 triangles but it will save a lot when you have a long rail. You could always make them like they did on Call Of Duty 4 which is 100% inaccurate and just looks retarded. Especially on the barrel on the M4 Carbine.

[legionaire45]

Image links are dead, but you may get something out what's left of this: [link] (http://www.modacity.net/forums/showpost.php?p=384464&postcount=34)

[Advancebo]

I assume this is what you guys mean, or at least from reading Legionaire's thread.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc292/Advancebo/rails2.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc292/Advancebo/rails3.jpg

The top teeth mounts thing are each a seperate object, but the base is one long 9 sided object.

So, 5 sides from each teeth, plus 9 sides from the base.

[FreedomFighter7]

Can someone tell me what a shader is? I've assumed it was a graphics modifier. Some code that takes the finished rendered frame in real time in a game, and applies effects to it.
PS: what the hell's a rail and why is it so important?!

[ICEE]

Rails are used to mount Attachments.

[Rob Oplawar]

Can someone tell me what a shader is? I've assumed it was a graphics modifier. Some code that takes the finished rendered frame in real time in a game, and applies effects to it.
PS: what the hell's a rail and why is it so important?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shader
remember my earlier rant about looking things up for yourself? that took me two fucking seconds to pull up.

[Advancebo]

MA3CS Assault Rifle:

http://www.xfire.com/video/17d366/

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/6605c7a72341030c437e922ee210861614c743bd.png
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/26f2b3e38d780ef34754c5587c8cb49989a710ee.png
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/bc12f4d98f8a0060c02f4fa1f11395eebf7d3303.png

Model by Advancebo
Tagging by Advancebo
Animations by ?

Still needs an unwrap, a texture, and new animations.
And need to fix the reticle problem, and the sensor bug.

LOL PICATINNY RAILS

[ODX]

Animations are by Hayabusa.

[ICEE]

its cool except for the counter

[kid908]

its cool except for the counter

I don't like the design =\ it just looks odd. IDK why, but it just does.

[Ki11a_FTW]

i kinda like it, except make it a dot-site

[Heathen]

i kinda like it, except make it a dot-site

I think its supposed to be, cept its shitty atm.

[English Mobster]

Let's try again.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/parkinggarage.jpg
Taking Snaf's advice and completely remodeling Gridlock.
Things going off to either side are monorail tracks, shield generator is just there to show why one side of the garage is so bland (so people don't escape the map).

I don't want to fuck up again, so what do you guys think?

[MetKiller Joe]

Question is: Are you happy with it?

Because there isn't much to crit.

[SnaFuBAR]

Dunno why you have that big chamfer at the door going all the way to the window edge. That looks bad. Look at the odst concept art if you want to see how storefronts should look. You're yet again trying to do an odst theme without actually understanding the stlye. There are no real lone shop buildings, everything is connected. This is turning out to be just boxes with stretched octagonal holes, though admittedly so far you're modeling better.

[§partan 8]

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/7651/820901.jpg
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9295/850902.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1738/9060901.jpg
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/231/83996518.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2986/37727327.jpg

[English Mobster]

Dunno why you have that big chamfer at the door going all the way to the window edge. That looks bad. Look at the odst concept art if you want to see how storefronts should look. You're yet again trying to do an odst theme without actually understanding the stlye. There are no real lone shop buildings, everything is connected. This is turning out to be just boxes with stretched octagonal holes, though admittedly so far you're modeling better.
It's a parking garage, sorry for not clarifying that in my post.

[Sel]

Jay, you do not seem to understand what this thread is for, it's for work that you don't have another thread for.

You have a thread for your level stuff, there is no reason for it to be posted in both these threads.

[English Mobster]

I post things in here because if I just post things in my other thread, people tend to ignore things there until the fail in the model reaches critical mass and I have to start over.

I'm trying to prevent myself from having to do this entire thing over again this time.

[Ganon]

people ignore them


because they are bad hth


check out good people like CAD's thread and notice the difference :]

[SnaFuBAR]

It's a parking garage, sorry for not clarifying that in my post.
That has no impact on what I mean. You still would not for any reason make that chamfer there. Support beams go there. Cutting through where a support beam would be is ridiculous, and makes no sense visually.

[English Mobster]

Your point stands.

Thanks for the crit.
*Scurries off to make changes*

[paladin]

Nice Golden Eye map thar

[Llama Juice]

In reference to this pic...

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2986/37727327.jpg

What engine are you planning on putting this in? Well over half of the detail in that could be normal mapped in and I would suggest doing so.

Also, add stuff that changes the overall shape of the object, those are the only polies that really matter usually. I know it's fun to toss around a shitton of polies to make stuff look good, but with stuff like what you're doing there it's not really worth it.

Now of course, if your engine can push a shitton of polies, then rock it sir.

[Hunter]

Yes Advancebo, that's what I ment :)

[Disaster]

Let's try again.
Taking Snaf's advice and completely remodeling Gridlock.
Things going off to either side are monorail tracks, shield generator is just there to show why one side of the garage is so bland (so people don't escape the map).

I don't want to fuck up again, so what do you guys think?
ODST style architecture is very smooth. There are hardly any sharp edges.
http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/JKLSKESUDLD/concept_art/environments/Halo3-ODST_EnvConcept-12.jpg

Now there are angular shapes. However, these angular shapes are very smooth. Don't be afraid to use triangles. Halo can take a lot more triangles than you think. It just requires good portaling. Pretty much everything is made out of metal. I don't think there is any concrete in the picture and there is no rust at all.

Most damage is done in the form of dents, scratches, debris, and broken glass.

http://nerdiest-kids.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/halo3-odst_envconcept-06.jpg

If you look at this concept art, there are a few sharp edges and alot of angular patterns unlike what was in the previous concept art. However, this style is completely different from what you have shown in any of your gridlock pictures.

You also need to get better fucking textures. The textures in gridlock are terrible and make my eyes bleed.
E: you have hte texture materials all wrong. Its almost as if you never looked at the concept art. Your textures are also way to noisy. In the concept art, the textures are smooth and have common angular patterns etched into the surface. Almost like the forerunner but more modern in a sense.

[Higuy]

It just requires good portaling.
this this this thissssssssss

Halo can take up to around 30k polys without clipping in most parts in the playing field. Anything past 35k is gonna require portals to run smoothly and have no clipping. Halo can take up to around 75k per BSP with good portals before getting lagged with major clipping. Use triangles wisely, but don't be afraid to use them at all. :downs:

[Heathen]

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/7651/820901.jpg
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9295/850902.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1738/9060901.jpg
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/231/83996518.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2986/37727327.jpg

Dam right?

That was my second favourite level and it was the fucking first one.

[SnaFuBAR]

In addition to Disaster's recent critique, I will add what I PM'd to English Mobster, because I think it could benefit everyone who would like to convincingly portray a scene.



Stick to copying what you see, but pay much closer attention. I really don't have any modeling tutorials for this architecture type.

Really just pay more attention to how things are connected. I mean that literally. Everything is connected. When you go with separate structures like parking garages or stores, you're completely breaking the design language. Everything is multi-tiered, connected, built into, around and on top of each other.

Pay close attention to the way a surface translates from one to another. Not everything is a completely angular move from one surface to another. Sometimes you will see that there's a soft radius from the front of an overhang to the roofline, things like that.

You're also getting the scale of a lot of things very wrong, such as your escalator, though I think that may have to do with being able to read the concept art. For an untrained eye, the perspective could seem forced or overtly dramatic.

Also, the way you're doing damage is for brick and mortar type of buildings, and it doesn't portray that very well, even. The buildings in New Mombasa are metal. Look at the concept art, how the metal is sheared up like a torn tin can or an aluminum tin can. Paneling gets bent, crumpled, etc.

Take a look at this concept art.

http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/JKLSKESUDLD/concept_art/environments/Halo3-ODST_EnvConcept-12.jpg

you can see here that the hood of the car, the two street lights, the palm trees, etc, all fall in ONE direction. This is because of the blast wave. Everything in a small location such as this will fall in one direction. Away from the center of the blast, just like with the damage from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Tunguska blast site.

All of these things must be taken into account when attempting to convey the scene.

[Con]

you can see here that the hood of the car, the two street lights, the palm trees, etc, all fall in ONE direction.
This is retty trivial, but that's the gull-wing door of the car, not the hood. You'd think that the shockwave that snapped trees like toothpicks would rip that door off, but it didn't.

[English Mobster]

Learned to texture (well, metal stuff, at least):
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/newbuildingextrusions.png
Yay or nay?

[Disaster]

Its an improvement. Its still to noisy and the scratches are pretty bad. The ODST textures are also dark with a high amount of specular.

[Heathen]

too cartooney or cell shadey?

I dont know, but it looks too clean...yet too cloudy.

I'd have to see it ingame.

[English Mobster]

So down the brightness, up the contrast a bit, and clean it up a bit?

[Llama Juice]

It doesn't tile properly either. It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look real either. You only scuffed up the one weird panel on the wall, why no edges around the windows?

Also on the bottom left part of the windows there's a weird edge on the top part.
..._________
./^ Right here
|
.\_________

[Heathen]

AHHH, they're windows!

:P

[English Mobster]

They're windows?
:raise:

[PenGuin1362]

I actually have an old model of dam that i started on. it's modeled and uv'd up to the first two sections right up to the dual sliding door section. If you want to finish it, be my guest

[Llama Juice]

They're windows?
:raise:

lul that's what I made out of it because of how you have the braces going across the dark places... and frames around them Makes them look like a futuristic window inset type thing. The darker color looks like the traditional bungie blue for their glass.

[SnaFuBAR]

This is retty trivial, but that's the gull-wing door of the car, not the hood. You'd think that the shockwave that snapped trees like toothpicks would rip that door off, but it didn't.

mis-observation, but regardless, all the damage in the scene is telling. v:maddowns:v

[§partan 8]

I actually have an old model of dam that i started on. it's modeled and uv'd up to the first two sections right up to the dual sliding door section. If you want to finish it, be my guest


The funny thing is that I don't know if I want to finish my dam model. I don't think the gameplay will be good on that map.

[n00ber]

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2483/headfrontview.jpg

the lines are not my fault, its the uvs. i know the ears are weird, because i sux at making custom ones so i just googled up some ears and photoshoped them in. i am new at skinning so yea. the eye brows suck also i know.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/1166/headtextureh.jpg

E. oshi-, need to resize image :C
EE. oshi-, forgot to post link to the model: http://www.fpsbanana.com/models/974

[English Mobster]

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/westgate-6.jpg
I haven't fucked up yet, have I? :ohdear:
Obviously no smoothing done at all.

E: @noober: Unless the eyes are going to look different, can't you just overlay one eye on the UVW on top of the other and use that space for something else?
Also, to solve the UVW problem, just color about 2-3 pixels outside of the borders. It'll show up like that ingame, if you're not careful.

[Ganon]

roads still look wrong

[Rob Oplawar]

I haven't fucked up yet, have I? :ohdear:
Much better. Keep doing that.
e: actually, scratch that. You still have shit triangulation. Try using poly instead of mesh, to get a better feel for modeling in quads. Also, try to be more deliberate about your positioning. A lot of the geometry looks rather haphazard, for example, the lamp posts.Try to do more than just extrude edges (or whatever technique you're using) until you've got the shape; try really thinking about the shape you want to produce, where its boundaries and visual edges are, and what its construction might look like. You don't have to be an architect or a mechanical engineer to think that lamp posts are going to be more than one piece, and yet yours look like they were cast solid.


jesus fuck
That's extremely unsettling. I don't know the first thing about skinning, but I know you're doing it wrong.
e: looks like he's related to Buster.

[English Mobster]

I'm using Poly, although my triangulation does suck, largely on the funny thing to the far right of the picture and the sidewalk border to the far left.
E: @Ganon: The reason why the road looks like it is sloping downhill would be because that road is going downhill.
Unlike my last one, this model has an even slope on the road the whole way down.

[Disaster]

Yes. the road. Keep the road surfaces planar except for angular slopes (even though the slopes have a smooth rounded surface.

http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/JKLSKESUDLD/concept_art/environments/Halo3-ODST_EnvConcept-12.jpg

See the road. Model everything just like in this picture as this is a good representation of all architecture in ODST.

Make your road wider and not as set into the road. Make the curb ramp longer. Make the road planar except in specific locations as shown above.



E: Extruding edges is a shit way to model bsps like this. Make every piece individually. Make the lamp posts in a different mesh with its own unique shape and details. Do the same for buildings and anything else made. Then, in max, combine the assets together in the final map model.

[Disaster]

.
Your black seam is caused by a lack of edge padding on your texture.

[n00ber]

That's extremely unsettling. I don't know the first thing about skinning, but I know you're doing it wrong.
e: looks like he's related to Buster.

i know it suxs D: he looks like hes on crack or sompthing :/ ive never textured face or anything like that before so its bound to suck. lol why you stealin my sexy pix for your avatarness :C

[killer9856]

Dis, how'd you get so smart at this stuff?

Hey Mobster, could I get a whirl at texturing that?

[Disaster]

Dis, how'd you get so smart at this stuff?

By making errors and figuring out what causes the errors. On alot of textures I made in my spare time about a year ago, I would get alot of dark black lines arround the UV seams which, through trial and error, I found to be that the black space around the texture was bleeding through to the actual texture because of compression and the way rendering engines blur textures to prevent a pixelated appearance.

[killer9856]

But how did you learn all the NEW techniques? Where'd you find the way to improve your skills

[Cagerrin]

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/TalonX/randomstuff/WIP/20091102134754_10m50s.png
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/TalonX/randomstuff/WIP/20091103180949_6m49s.png

Tried tapering it in a few different ways, but even at 1° it ends up looking rather fat somehow, so I reverted it.

idk about the glass, if I keep it I'll probably move the 45° bits all the way to the end.

[NuggetWarmer]

@killer

uhh

you're seriously asking that?

trial and error

It's like asking a caveman how he learned to make fire.

[Disaster]

@killer

uhh

you're seriously asking that?

trial and error

It's like asking a caveman how he learned to make fire.
Well thats not always true. I learned some of the things I use in my workflow from friends.

[English Mobster]

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/westgate-7.jpg
Did I fix things, or make them worse (lol)?

[bobsam]

I like everything except the lightpost.

[English Mobster]

Lightpost removed, no issues there.

Going to just start with a base and remake the lightpost as its own object, as suggested earlier.
Since there will be mulitple lightposts, all I need to afterwards would be duplicate them.

Also, I don't like that wall at the left. I'm going to go place some shops or integrate it into something before Snaf yells at me again. :3
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/Mudkipz47/westgate-8.jpg
Last post for now, unless someone tells me to fix something and I make another render to prove it. :p

[Gwunty]

Do us all a favor.
Don't randomly inset/extrude for detail, it looks both hideous and retarded. :gonk:

[SnaFuBAR]

btw con some very important observation! that car does not have a gull wing door but a scissor door!

[Llama Juice]

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2483/headfrontview.jpg

the lines are not my fault, its the uvs. i know the ears are weird, because i sux at making custom ones so i just googled up some ears and photoshoped them in. i am new at skinning so yea. the eye brows suck also i know.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/1166/headtextureh.jpg

E. oshi-, need to resize image :C
EE. oshi-, forgot to post link to the model: http://www.fpsbanana.com/models/974

Few things... overall you're doing it wrong.

The eye for example... you painted the eyelid on the eyeball for some reason... your geometry should make that shape for you, you shouldn't have to paint it on. Plus... when you go to move that eyeball (because you did make a cube, and smooth it a few times... then stab it inside his head...) you'll want to be able to actually move it around without the eyelid following it like that... not fun.

Also, use photo reference for everything there, not just the ear. You're still a novice at this stuff, so you don't know how to add which colors into certain places to make the diffuse map look realistic. Right now you just have a flat "skin" tone with shades of gray painted on top of it.... that's not what people's faces look like unless if we've been standing over a fire all day with smoke and stuff billowing in our face to just dirty it up.

Lets take this guy for example.

http://www.cg-underworld.org/Bushidou/ART/rambo_render2f.jpg
http://www.cg-underworld.org/Bushidou/ART/rambo_profile2.jpg

Look at how the different colors in his face blend into eachother, and where the different colors are.

For a better look at how it should look in your texture... looky here.
http://www.cg-underworld.org/Bushidou/ART/rambo_texture.jpg

Notice how pretty much anywhere that there is small amount of flesh between the skin and bone you end up with a more yellowish tone (cheekbones, bridge of nose.. stuff like that) and notice how anywhere that a lot of blood would go through you end up with a lot more red in that area (cheeks)... and areas that are more... sensative? (eyelids and lips) have some blue to them.

These references are a bit shoddy becuase of how he used straight photo reference for most of it, and so you get a lot of shadows and such from that already built in. If you're going to be painting it all rather than using a photo reference you'll want to run an Ambient Occlusion pass on your model to get a base texture file to start with which will basically be shadows and such for your map.

Pictures from the rambo model came from here.
(http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=68684)

[English Mobster]

Do us all a favor.
Don't randomly inset/extrude for detail, it looks both hideous and retarded. :gonk:
If the camera would zoom out a little bit, you would see that that little "inset/extrude" in the corner there is actually a bit more than that.

[Llama Juice]

If the camera would zoom out a little bit, you would see that that little "inset/extrude" in the corner there is actually a bit more than that.

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/No%20extrudy%20bits.jpg

Extrudy bits.

[Con]

They're a cheap way to add detail, and it doesn't really work.

[Hunter]

Attempted this (http://gorillaartfare.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/rifle2.jpg) and failed miserably... I seem to suck at modelling nowadays.

*Closes 3ds max and gives up*

Here is a render, it looks like shit. Literally...
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/martynball/l95_1.jpg

[Siliconmaster]

They're a cheap way to add detail, and it doesn't really work.

Unless you're doing forerunner stuff. Lol. Then it works to an extent, as long as you mix it up.

[Higuy]

Unless you're doing forerunner stuff. Lol. Then it works to an extent, as long as you mix it up.
It works great on anything else too; unless thats all your doing and doing it alot.

[Advancebo]

Attempted this (http://gorillaartfare.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/rifle2.jpg) and failed miserably... I seem to suck at modelling nowadays.

*Closes 3ds max and gives up*

Here is a render, it looks like shit. Literally...
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/martynball/l95_1.jpg

):

[Heathen]

I dont even know where some of those details came from D:

[n00ber]

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5193/scenerywip.jpg

idk i was bored. wood textures arent mine, i got them from cg textures, tho the uvs are mine. ignore the horrable uv on the crate on the right right now. trash can textures are mine tho

[Advancebo]

There ok, for simple shapes.
The pallet could use nails so they look together. And the trashcan has too much grunge, and I dont really see how it could get scratches. I suggest making it more stainless steel, or plastic.

[DEElekgolo]

Texture work could have been better.

[n00ber]

tis stainless steel. i only used 1 grungebrush at 20 percent opacity :C. whatever, i guess ill take some of the grunge off

[Spartan094]

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc286/Brandon094/haloce2009-11-0419-54-47-03.png
http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/6b76687c8e56d66091626e8cf8ea677af4d92c01.png
^the bottom one is just to show the difference bitmaps from MP and SP and the visor has been fixed which shows on the top...

Don't ignore my post like you guys did awhile ago since the only crit I can get is from halomaps mostly which bites sorta. The brightness is fine on it, it's just a part of the map that dims it or so. Anything I should fix other then the CQB visor. I aimed for a clean look on the MP like in the retail so.

E: damn rubber, to black, gotta fix the multi-purpose

[teh lag]

Campaign looks a touch dull (the color, not the reflection) to me. The visors also look a little under-saturated.

[Spartan094]

Campaign looks a touch dull (the color, not the reflection) to me. The visors also look a little under-saturated.
The campaign color is actually the halo 3 retail color values that delta4097 gave me, even so I think I should brighten it up abit. And the visors, which one are you talking about, 1st pic or 2nd? since the 2nd picture is old and the 1st picture is the most recent

[Llama Juice]

tis stainless steel. i only used 1 grungebrush at 20 percent opacity :C. whatever, i guess ill take some of the grunge off

Try modeling something from a reference picture. Try modeling this flashlight.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/1641/14075g1.jpg

Your call, either the left or the right one.