I'm fairly new to 3D so I'll have to learn as I go, but I'm going to enter and hopefully complete this challenge. So far I have come up with this concept:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/scottgcau/200472719373_concept.j…]
It is going to change a bit from this. It needs to be uglied up a bit and refined. The front view looks ok to me but the profile needs plenty of work and the head probably will change the most.
I think this fits the brief. Hopefully it has some originality to it.
Also, I am new to modeling with games in mind. I take it that only polygonal meshes are used for games, not Sub-d surfaces, or NURBS, etc. What sort of display options for a mesh would give in indication of how the Model will appear in a game? Does smoothing in Max carry over into the game version, or would it appear with the hard edges of the polygons visible in the game? Same thing with Maya if I altered normals in Maya to smooth the mesh.
>>I know where I'd be aiming if this geeza came lumbering after me.
>>Agree with Jackablade - some nice exposed gonad's ripe for the kickin' or shootin' hes got there
Don't think I didn't realise that everyone would sooner or later get that idea. Maybe draw more female gamers to the genre [:)]
>> heh - I dare say that will be a smidgen over the available polycount as it stands
I dare say you'd be right. The idea is to work in Zbrush until I have a final concept, draw the desired mesh points/edge loops onto the model as a texture, then create front, side, and top views to use when modelling the low res mesh.
Don't know if this is the best way, but it's a lot like what Weta Digital did with LOTR only I'm making a virtual maquette instead of one made from clay.
quote:Maybe draw more female gamers to the genre :)
Um, did you mean to put a ?;)? instead of a smiley? You don?t really think that a big hairy set of monster gonads would be attractive to the ladies, do you? [:D]
Cool idea though. I?d love to see that thing animated in a game when it takes a hit to the family jewels. Potentially very funny stuff there ? yet enough to fit into every guy?s worst nightmare! Now that?s true horror!
quote:Originally posted by palantir
quote:Maybe draw more female gamers to the genre :)
Um, did you mean to put a ?;)? instead of a smiley? You don?t really think that a big hairy set of monster gonads would be attractive to the ladies, do you? [:D]
Cool idea though. I?d love to see that thing animated in a game when it takes a hit to the family jewels. Potentially very funny stuff there ? yet enough to fit into every guy?s worst nightmare! Now that?s true horror!
I probably should have used the [;)] and I don't think the hairy monster balls would attract girls but the chance to do painful stuff to them might.
The best and easiest way to show and improve your ideas is drawing, most commonly with a pencil on paper. The point in concepts is to go though ideas you have and see which one should work the most effectively. You can do this by thinking of something and then drawing it from your head and then change what you don?t like about it.
quote:Originally posted by goodgod
The best and easiest way to show and improve your ideas is drawing, most commonly with a pencil on paper. The point in concepts is to go though ideas you have and see which one should work the most effectively. You can do this by thinking of something and then drawing it from your head and then change what you don?t like about it.
Are you familiar with Zbrush? It took only a few hours with Zbrush and a graphics tablet to do this concept(if I knew what I was doing it would have been much quicker). Pencil would be faster still but this way I get not just an idea of what it may look like from one angle, but an actual 3D model where I can look at the concept from any point of view. Changes are easily made and if you don't like anything you have done you can just undo it and try something different.
i love my pencils
......... i even have a special box where i keep them
my cheap-ass graphics tab gets pulled out when ever i need to do painting in ps
draw and draw and draw and draw dont worry so much about art... just draw
draw strong lines lines. with form. lots of them!
easy transition >>> drawing - mesh creating.....
you are allready showing signs that you have a talent for form....
Hey thats a really cool way of working, don't know if you planning on this, but you could burn to texture the lighting of all the detail of this model down onto your low poly one and have lots of your shading on your texture done. Infact i might try that for my character. Like a normal map but jump burn it into the texture since you can get all that detail in zbrush reasonably quickly.
Change of plans. I don't think it really fits the brief that well as it stands. After watching Resident Evil last night and thinking back over other movies I have seen in the past, it struck me that there are a few things that absolutely must be incorporated into any concept that I come up with:
* It's origin must be from some kind of unseen/unknown force that is able to take over from within. This maximises the paranoia because not only must you face all the evil monsters trying to kill you, but the people helping you could also become one of them at any time. So even when you are in a group of survivors you feel you are on your own. Plus the further you get into it, the harder it gets. Kind of like build-up tiggy.
* Upon first sight of the creature you should immediately feel two things:
1) You should be scared witless.
2) It is clear that this being should not exist. It is a perversion. An abomination.
* The expression of the creature should say:
1) I am really pissed off and I'm going to take it out on you.
2) Seriously, what the hell were they thinking when they made me? I am an abomination. I don't like it one bit. And I'm going to take it out on you.
So I'm going to watch some more movies and then come up with a new concept. I think I'll just draw away this time, then take the best concept and try and develop it further in Zbrush.
Well, it's been a while but I am finally going to put something else up here. This is what I ended up going with for my concept:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/scottgcau/20049520306_NewConcept…]
My idea came from pretty much every scary monster type movie that I can remember including Alien, Predator, Pumpkin Head, Dog Soldiers, Resident Evil, etc. The idea is basically an alien life form that acts much in the same way as a virus(or a virus that can think). It starts out very small with maybe just a few cells and when it comes into contact with other living tissue it starts to go to work. It will grow undetected within the host until such time as it is ready to take control. Then it will force it's way out of the body and subdue it's host so it can then get into the control centre of the body and take over. The possiblilities are endless for how the aliens can transform the host. The aliens each have different personalities and will come up with different ways of utilising the biology of the host to produce an effective killing machine. Not all of their ideas will work particularly well, but they can keep modifying the host until they get something that works. The tranformations require energy so they have to eat a lot(people, dogs, oatmeal, whatever) in order to change. Plus, anything new that it eats will provide it with ideas of how it can change itself.
In addition to the concept above, I will make it so you can see his entrails hanging out and they have been modified into tentacle like appendages, one of which has been used to bore into the side of the guys head in order to reach the brain. His eyes will have been ripped out because they interfered with the way the alien controls the brain. Depending on polycount, I'll put him in a hospital robe and maybe give him a little hair.
I have serious doubts that I will have it all done in time. I'll get the modelling done but texturing will probably not be finished.
I'm wondering about a possoble shortcut with the UV mapping. Would it be possible to use the automatic UV tiles created in Zbrush? The texture should look fine applied to the model, but the UV's and textured flats will not be very readable. I have looked at the judging criteria and it doesn't say anything about the UV layout being a factor. Maybe it is included in the other criteria (How effective it is as a game model?).
that looks sweet dude. Like it was said,you definately have a good feel for form/anatomy, which is what i love about zbrush :)
The concept looks pretty cool to me.
With the auto UV's. I'm not sure how much they are a factor witht he judging. But what I see might be a problem is that you obviously would be painting it in zbrush? I'm not sure how much control you would have compared to somthing like photoshop in terms of texturing. But then again, I havn't done much texturing in zbrush :).
Looking forward to what you do with the lopoly.
Rannyroy - Truly, I am really learning most of this as I go. Aside from some quick half completed tutorials, what you see here is my entire experience with Zbrush. If you can draw, you can get good results in Zbrush without much practice. I guess having a graphics tablet helps there too(even my cheap crappy one). I do have a bit more experience with modelling though the way I'm doing it in this case is pretty much the equivalent of tracing a drawing. Believe me, my inexperience will show through in the topology of the model and especially when it comes time to do the texturing.
Denz - I have seen a lot of work done completely in Zbrush with excellent texture work, so it can be done. Whether or not I can figure out how to do something decent within the time available is the big question.
Here is where I was up to as of last night.
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/scottgcau/2004915194727_WIP_1509…]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/scottgcau/2004915194820_WIP_1509…]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/scottgcau/2004915195021_WIP_1509…]
Time is against me but I will submit something whether it is finished or not.
Zbrushes auto mapping is not an optimised way of UVW mapping so therefore its not engine friendly for games.
When an edge is split in the unwrap it creates more vertices, the more cuts, the more verts and that takes memory, thats one of the reasons people try to have as little a number of seams as possible. [:)]
Too answer your questions:
You could use automatic unwrapping but if I was judging I would mark you down, luckily I'm not judging. [:P]
Also it does ask for UVW flats, that implies the judges will be looking at them.
The judging should be based on whether or not the modelling/uvmapping/texturing etc is of a standard that would work in a game, not just the cool factor.
No submission from me... as if anyone will be surprised[:p]. I wasn't really on track to get a proper entry in anyway but I also had my place broken into on friday so I lost time with police reports and trying to account for all the stuff that was taken.
This was really a learning experience for me all along so I am not too worried that I have not finished. For anyvbody who may be ineterested, this is kind of what the finished model would have been like:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/scottgcau/200491984158_WIP_1909a…]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/scottgcau/20049198355_WIP_1909b…]
I learned plenty on this one and I will be back for future comps.
I've had a quick look at what has been submitted so far and my money would be on Goodgod at the moment but I'm sure there will be plenty more entries between now and 12 o'clock. Good luck to all.
Mmm ZBrush-y goodness. I know where I'd be aiming if this geeza came lumbering after me.
You'll get all the smoothing groups and the like in game just as you see them Max or Maya (albeit probably mip-mapped so not quite as pretty texture wise)