Skip to main content

Mithril Construct D&D WIP

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Something I built yesterday during my spare time - Ill be posting this guy in 3 stages : Low poly, High Poly Source and Low Poly + Normal Map & texture. Ive since turned a few edges and cleaned up the mesh a tad since these renders.

Stage 1: Low poly front.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/200411147715_Front.jpg[/i…]

Stage 1: Low poly back.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/200411147849_Back.jpg[/img]

Also heres a link to a full spin (with dodgy lighting included [:D])its ~3.2mb and encoded with DivX.

http://206.169.164.231/kalescent/mithrilconstructlowpoly.avi

It based roughly on the golems / constructs found in most D&D realms, with a few extra changes here and there.

Submitted by Makk on Tue, 16/11/04 - 2:30 AM Permalink

Lookin really good Haz :)
Has a nice chunkey feel to it.
looking forward to seeing the high poly version

Submitted by GoLDeN on Wed, 17/11/04 - 12:09 PM Permalink

Yeh he;s really chunky..I think the legs are a little too chunky all the way down, you could pinch them in at sections to fit with the flow of the rest of the models in's and outs..that was first impression anyways:)..
also that his head looks like and ant..is that intentional?.

Submitted by Kalescent on Wed, 17/11/04 - 2:55 PM Permalink

I shouldn't be working this late!

Thanks for the comments guys,

Golden : Yeah he is a chunky devil - hes even bigger in the concept from the D&D manual! I've toned him down some [:O]
The face is quite the mech type i think it will be a bit clearer once the high poly source is done and some texture is smudged over the mesh.

I forgot to add that the Budget for this guy is 2500 tri's ( currently at 2446 ) and 1 x 1024x1024 Diffuse, 1 x 1024x1024 normal ( with spec in Alpha )

I will get some time this weekend to finish up the High poly base and whack it into Zbrush 2.0 to paint some history into the metals and rocky surfaces that makes this hulky beast up. Once thats done ill post a render of the high poly source [:D]

sleep now..

Submitted by LiveWire on Wed, 17/11/04 - 8:06 PM Permalink

have you got a copy of the concept pic? i dont get into D&D so i have no idea what this is.

Submitted by panzer on Wed, 17/11/04 - 9:04 PM Permalink

Very nice. Like LiveWire I am not into D&D, Could you post a reference/concept pic.

Submitted by Kalescent on Thu, 18/11/04 - 2:03 AM Permalink

Sure thing [:D]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/20041116222918_Golem.jpg[…]

Ive added a few things on that differs from the concept. He has a magical power source located above and behind his head thats fed from a gem logged into his chest (encased in a crystaline substance) And also a big protective shield coming up off his back - just to protect the power source from foes attacking from behind.

Submitted by Kalescent on Thu, 18/11/04 - 2:38 AM Permalink

Golden : After looking at the concept and my model in a new day I can see the wisdom on your statement [:D] cheers for that! im going to beef up the arms a tad and un-bulkify the legs and do a bit of reshaping down the bottom where the shin armour meets the foot.

Submitted by UniqueSnowFlake on Thu, 18/11/04 - 5:24 AM Permalink

looks pretty sweet, like the feel of it.
Just a few technical things.. if his shoulder joint is going to be animated and roll around in the join your not going to be able to pull that off with how it is at the moment.

Submitted by Kalescent on Thu, 18/11/04 - 6:09 AM Permalink

USF: Yeah the boulder like shoulder part turns only slightly - most of the movement is from the thin arm piece which swivels round in the socket quite a bit. Ill post an attack animation shortly so you can see what I mean, Big double fist slam on ground type attack [:D]

Submitted by Kalescent on Mon, 22/11/04 - 5:23 AM Permalink

Updated the low poly mesh this weekend to better suit normal mapping purposes, ive tweaked the size of the arms and legs a tad too.

A new spin of him here :

http://206.169.164.231/kalescent/mithrilconstructlowpolyfinal.avi

Front :
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004112121058_Front.jpg[/…]

Back :
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004112121247_Back.jpg[/i…]

Im just blocking out the base mesh for the high poly version in max now - will post a shot of it before i export to ZBrush2.0 [:)]

Submitted by rezn0r on Mon, 22/11/04 - 8:40 AM Permalink

Looks very cool.

Just one thing... I know I'm being purile, but look at his loincloth thingie from behind... scary.

[:p]

Scott.

Submitted by MoonUnit on Mon, 22/11/04 - 9:23 AM Permalink

lol reznor!
looks great man, the final product should be fantastic

Submitted by Kalescent on Mon, 22/11/04 - 12:02 PM Permalink

Hes hung like a golem! Dang yeah I was supposed to fix that up - ill be sure to fix it for the final version [:P]

Heres a spin of what I got up to tonight. Just the head and some small details on the generator on the top to go - I was going to go full stick with extra plates and rings holding stuff together but descided against it I thought I might loose the integrity of the concept.

http://206.169.164.231/kalescent/mithrilconstructhighwip.avi

/to be continued..

Submitted by rezn0r on Wed, 24/11/04 - 5:17 PM Permalink

Looking really good man. Those late nights are paying off. [:P]

Can't wait to see your paint job. I can see this dude running around in NWN2.

Scott.

Submitted by LiveWire on Wed, 24/11/04 - 8:12 PM Permalink

had a quick go at ZBrush yesterday. havnt the slightest idea how to use it. i painted a lot of stuff filling up the screen, made a Zsphere and defprmed it, then started a new file and couldnt figure out how to do it again :?

Submitted by Kalescent on Thu, 25/11/04 - 1:37 AM Permalink

Zbrush will do that - the best investment would be to spend a few hours learning how to setup your interface and going through a few of the standard zscripts about guiding you through a document. And seek a few tutorials from

www.zbrushcentral.com

You should be well upon your way in a short amount of time - personally I think its an extremely fast way of producing something - either high or low polygon in a pretty short amount of time ( Zbrush 2.0 is alot better than 1.55 ) especially working in conjunction with max / maya.

Reznor: Yeah they are getting a bit excessive, but I just can't help myself - about NWN2.... well.... [:o)]

Submitted by MoonUnit on Thu, 25/11/04 - 3:08 AM Permalink

looking awesome man, well done!

Submitted by Kalescent on Sun, 19/12/04 - 4:08 PM Permalink

Finally got around to working on this beast again!!! [:0]

Ive decided to post a couple of renders to show the stages and normal map progression.

Front:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004121813256_Normal1.jpg…]

Back:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004121813355_Normal2.jpg…]

This first bunch is just the main punches, and playdoughy type ins and outs, next will come the finer scratches, nicks and dents.

Also this is a raw normal map render, wont be tweaking any seems until the normal map is complete.

Heres a link to a full spin of the progress so far..

http://206.169.164.231/kalescent/normalmappedconstruct.avi

Onward to scratches and dings!

Submitted by palantir on Sun, 19/12/04 - 9:07 PM Permalink

Cool! That?s looking really good.

Are you planning on using this guy for anything in particular, or is it more of a personal side project type thing?

Looking forward to the next update. [:)]

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Sun, 19/12/04 - 11:03 PM Permalink

Not sure if this is what you meant by the arm animation, but i think I agree with USF.. Modelling the arm as a seperate element probably would have worked better.. Like a ball socket. Have to see it animated i guess.

Submitted by denz on Sun, 19/12/04 - 11:52 PM Permalink

shmick :)

Looking forward to the animation.

Submitted by conundrum on Sun, 19/12/04 - 11:59 PM Permalink

thats turning out great, you have a habit of really bringing the best out of your models when rendering. you certainly did the dents very well, it would have been easy to go over the top but you managed to keep it fairly subtle. looking forward to the texture and animation

Submitted by Anuxinamoon on Mon, 20/12/04 - 12:31 AM Permalink

OoOoO! Isnt it great when everything just works fine on the first raw render? [;)]
Awesome stuff! [:D]

Submitted by Kalescent on Mon, 20/12/04 - 12:50 AM Permalink

How stupid of me LOL [:O] - Yes USF / Bob - the ball part of the arm will be dettached, and I always planned it to be - Im just realising its not reflecting that in any of my renders, what a tool. I admit defeat! I need more sleep [|)]

Thanks for looking out for me [:I]

Palantir: Cheers! Personal Project, though im going to spend a fair bit of time on him polishing him up.

Denz: Cheers [:)] Ive custom rigged him already, but wont begin animation until my textures are finalised. Another 2 passes on the normal map to go before texturing begins.

Conundrum: Cheers! Yeah I always try to show off the model as much as possible, with good lighting, that enhances whats already there, not too much - you dont want to show something thats going to be too far from impossible to achieve in game.

On the flip side, here are some max default lighting renders with and without the normal map, all I've done is added a 60 / 40 Spec and Gloss material which I'll replace with a good spec map once ive finished with the textures.

Front:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004121821495_Default.jpg…]

Back:

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004121821503_Default2.jp…]

Submitted by Anuxinamoon on Mon, 20/12/04 - 10:04 AM Permalink

wow, this thread must kill anyone who has a dialup connection [;)]
Looking good though! [:D]

Submitted by 3DArty on Mon, 20/12/04 - 10:54 AM Permalink

I love it now if only I could model like that.[:p]

Submitted by Makk on Mon, 20/12/04 - 10:58 PM Permalink

wow, really like the cracks and scratches you've put in there.
Sorry, but nothing else to crit :P
Looking forward to seeing it textured

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Something I built yesterday during my spare time - Ill be posting this guy in 3 stages : Low poly, High Poly Source and Low Poly + Normal Map & texture. Ive since turned a few edges and cleaned up the mesh a tad since these renders.

Stage 1: Low poly front.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/200411147715_Front.jpg[/i…]

Stage 1: Low poly back.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/200411147849_Back.jpg[/img]

Also heres a link to a full spin (with dodgy lighting included [:D])its ~3.2mb and encoded with DivX.

http://206.169.164.231/kalescent/mithrilconstructlowpoly.avi

It based roughly on the golems / constructs found in most D&D realms, with a few extra changes here and there.


Submitted by Makk on Tue, 16/11/04 - 2:30 AM Permalink

Lookin really good Haz :)
Has a nice chunkey feel to it.
looking forward to seeing the high poly version

Submitted by GoLDeN on Wed, 17/11/04 - 12:09 PM Permalink

Yeh he;s really chunky..I think the legs are a little too chunky all the way down, you could pinch them in at sections to fit with the flow of the rest of the models in's and outs..that was first impression anyways:)..
also that his head looks like and ant..is that intentional?.

Submitted by Kalescent on Wed, 17/11/04 - 2:55 PM Permalink

I shouldn't be working this late!

Thanks for the comments guys,

Golden : Yeah he is a chunky devil - hes even bigger in the concept from the D&D manual! I've toned him down some [:O]
The face is quite the mech type i think it will be a bit clearer once the high poly source is done and some texture is smudged over the mesh.

I forgot to add that the Budget for this guy is 2500 tri's ( currently at 2446 ) and 1 x 1024x1024 Diffuse, 1 x 1024x1024 normal ( with spec in Alpha )

I will get some time this weekend to finish up the High poly base and whack it into Zbrush 2.0 to paint some history into the metals and rocky surfaces that makes this hulky beast up. Once thats done ill post a render of the high poly source [:D]

sleep now..

Submitted by LiveWire on Wed, 17/11/04 - 8:06 PM Permalink

have you got a copy of the concept pic? i dont get into D&D so i have no idea what this is.

Submitted by panzer on Wed, 17/11/04 - 9:04 PM Permalink

Very nice. Like LiveWire I am not into D&D, Could you post a reference/concept pic.

Submitted by Kalescent on Thu, 18/11/04 - 2:03 AM Permalink

Sure thing [:D]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/20041116222918_Golem.jpg[…]

Ive added a few things on that differs from the concept. He has a magical power source located above and behind his head thats fed from a gem logged into his chest (encased in a crystaline substance) And also a big protective shield coming up off his back - just to protect the power source from foes attacking from behind.

Submitted by Kalescent on Thu, 18/11/04 - 2:38 AM Permalink

Golden : After looking at the concept and my model in a new day I can see the wisdom on your statement [:D] cheers for that! im going to beef up the arms a tad and un-bulkify the legs and do a bit of reshaping down the bottom where the shin armour meets the foot.

Submitted by UniqueSnowFlake on Thu, 18/11/04 - 5:24 AM Permalink

looks pretty sweet, like the feel of it.
Just a few technical things.. if his shoulder joint is going to be animated and roll around in the join your not going to be able to pull that off with how it is at the moment.

Submitted by Kalescent on Thu, 18/11/04 - 6:09 AM Permalink

USF: Yeah the boulder like shoulder part turns only slightly - most of the movement is from the thin arm piece which swivels round in the socket quite a bit. Ill post an attack animation shortly so you can see what I mean, Big double fist slam on ground type attack [:D]

Submitted by Kalescent on Mon, 22/11/04 - 5:23 AM Permalink

Updated the low poly mesh this weekend to better suit normal mapping purposes, ive tweaked the size of the arms and legs a tad too.

A new spin of him here :

http://206.169.164.231/kalescent/mithrilconstructlowpolyfinal.avi

Front :
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004112121058_Front.jpg[/…]

Back :
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004112121247_Back.jpg[/i…]

Im just blocking out the base mesh for the high poly version in max now - will post a shot of it before i export to ZBrush2.0 [:)]

Submitted by rezn0r on Mon, 22/11/04 - 8:40 AM Permalink

Looks very cool.

Just one thing... I know I'm being purile, but look at his loincloth thingie from behind... scary.

[:p]

Scott.

Submitted by MoonUnit on Mon, 22/11/04 - 9:23 AM Permalink

lol reznor!
looks great man, the final product should be fantastic

Submitted by Kalescent on Mon, 22/11/04 - 12:02 PM Permalink

Hes hung like a golem! Dang yeah I was supposed to fix that up - ill be sure to fix it for the final version [:P]

Heres a spin of what I got up to tonight. Just the head and some small details on the generator on the top to go - I was going to go full stick with extra plates and rings holding stuff together but descided against it I thought I might loose the integrity of the concept.

http://206.169.164.231/kalescent/mithrilconstructhighwip.avi

/to be continued..

Submitted by rezn0r on Wed, 24/11/04 - 5:17 PM Permalink

Looking really good man. Those late nights are paying off. [:P]

Can't wait to see your paint job. I can see this dude running around in NWN2.

Scott.

Submitted by LiveWire on Wed, 24/11/04 - 8:12 PM Permalink

had a quick go at ZBrush yesterday. havnt the slightest idea how to use it. i painted a lot of stuff filling up the screen, made a Zsphere and defprmed it, then started a new file and couldnt figure out how to do it again :?

Submitted by Kalescent on Thu, 25/11/04 - 1:37 AM Permalink

Zbrush will do that - the best investment would be to spend a few hours learning how to setup your interface and going through a few of the standard zscripts about guiding you through a document. And seek a few tutorials from

www.zbrushcentral.com

You should be well upon your way in a short amount of time - personally I think its an extremely fast way of producing something - either high or low polygon in a pretty short amount of time ( Zbrush 2.0 is alot better than 1.55 ) especially working in conjunction with max / maya.

Reznor: Yeah they are getting a bit excessive, but I just can't help myself - about NWN2.... well.... [:o)]

Submitted by MoonUnit on Thu, 25/11/04 - 3:08 AM Permalink

looking awesome man, well done!

Submitted by Kalescent on Sun, 19/12/04 - 4:08 PM Permalink

Finally got around to working on this beast again!!! [:0]

Ive decided to post a couple of renders to show the stages and normal map progression.

Front:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004121813256_Normal1.jpg…]

Back:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004121813355_Normal2.jpg…]

This first bunch is just the main punches, and playdoughy type ins and outs, next will come the finer scratches, nicks and dents.

Also this is a raw normal map render, wont be tweaking any seems until the normal map is complete.

Heres a link to a full spin of the progress so far..

http://206.169.164.231/kalescent/normalmappedconstruct.avi

Onward to scratches and dings!

Submitted by palantir on Sun, 19/12/04 - 9:07 PM Permalink

Cool! That?s looking really good.

Are you planning on using this guy for anything in particular, or is it more of a personal side project type thing?

Looking forward to the next update. [:)]

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Sun, 19/12/04 - 11:03 PM Permalink

Not sure if this is what you meant by the arm animation, but i think I agree with USF.. Modelling the arm as a seperate element probably would have worked better.. Like a ball socket. Have to see it animated i guess.

Submitted by denz on Sun, 19/12/04 - 11:52 PM Permalink

shmick :)

Looking forward to the animation.

Submitted by conundrum on Sun, 19/12/04 - 11:59 PM Permalink

thats turning out great, you have a habit of really bringing the best out of your models when rendering. you certainly did the dents very well, it would have been easy to go over the top but you managed to keep it fairly subtle. looking forward to the texture and animation

Submitted by Anuxinamoon on Mon, 20/12/04 - 12:31 AM Permalink

OoOoO! Isnt it great when everything just works fine on the first raw render? [;)]
Awesome stuff! [:D]

Submitted by Kalescent on Mon, 20/12/04 - 12:50 AM Permalink

How stupid of me LOL [:O] - Yes USF / Bob - the ball part of the arm will be dettached, and I always planned it to be - Im just realising its not reflecting that in any of my renders, what a tool. I admit defeat! I need more sleep [|)]

Thanks for looking out for me [:I]

Palantir: Cheers! Personal Project, though im going to spend a fair bit of time on him polishing him up.

Denz: Cheers [:)] Ive custom rigged him already, but wont begin animation until my textures are finalised. Another 2 passes on the normal map to go before texturing begins.

Conundrum: Cheers! Yeah I always try to show off the model as much as possible, with good lighting, that enhances whats already there, not too much - you dont want to show something thats going to be too far from impossible to achieve in game.

On the flip side, here are some max default lighting renders with and without the normal map, all I've done is added a 60 / 40 Spec and Gloss material which I'll replace with a good spec map once ive finished with the textures.

Front:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004121821495_Default.jpg…]

Back:

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/Hazard/2004121821503_Default2.jp…]

Submitted by Anuxinamoon on Mon, 20/12/04 - 10:04 AM Permalink

wow, this thread must kill anyone who has a dialup connection [;)]
Looking good though! [:D]

Submitted by 3DArty on Mon, 20/12/04 - 10:54 AM Permalink

I love it now if only I could model like that.[:p]

Submitted by Makk on Mon, 20/12/04 - 10:58 PM Permalink

wow, really like the cracks and scratches you've put in there.
Sorry, but nothing else to crit :P
Looking forward to seeing it textured