BHG Challenge | Vikkie | koggar

[Vikkie]

BHG Challenge | Vikkie | koggar
http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/competitions/uploaded_thubnails/29-game-3d-art-981-1177180617-thumb.gif

Vikkie has entered the competition!

[Vikkie]

here's some concept sketches
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5747/sketch1gz2.jpg

and started modelling. I will develop both the concept and the model in the same time.

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/843/screenshot2wp1.jpg

best of luck everyone!

[Frozan]

interesting start i like it

[Vikkie]

Frozan - Thank you :)

I am not totally happy with the current concept. I'll probably do some more sketches this week and choose the best to work on. I will post 2-3 more huge creature sketches today, I hope you guys can help me pick one up.

[Vikkie]

ok finally I did some more concepts. the one that does not read well (in comparison) is a bull. I like the fish better tho, it has an anchor attached to it's tail and flails at it's wings(?) as weapons. I'm open to comments, critiques and anything you've got to say :)

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/5818/ca1gz4.jpg

[Vikkie]

hah, I just realised I didn't remove the helmet that I put for fun. if it wasn't messing up the scale I would keep it. any ideas? anyone?

[Vikkie]

started on the head, polygon counter says 882 triangles for now. my budget for the head is 1200 tris. my ref is a piranha photo that I googled.

comments and critiques are welcome.


http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/4871/kocakafa1kl0.jpg

[Vikkie]

currently at 1786 tris.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/395/kocakafa2ot6.jpg

[FredH]

Looking good so far. For the teeth, it would probably be simpler if you used planes with transparencies. This way, you can get alot more teeth in and you can use the extra polies for his body. Can this creature walk? In youc concept, it looks like he is standing? If he can walk, what if you gave him octopus legs instead? If he uses his fins to walk, he might look a little cartoonish, but if this is what you are aiming for, then this is the right aproach:thumb:

[george.vas]

Personally I liked your first idea better. Fish are really hard to come off as huge unless they are whales. I think if you put the ox head on top of the body you started that would have been a better way to go, again though that's just my opinion.

[Vikkie]

FredH - planes is a good idea, thanks :) Yeah it really looks like it's walking in the concept. actually it doesn't walk, it swims and leaps over the surface. Well I imagined it as a creature that destroys and sometimes eat ships. the player might encounter it while he/she is on a ship or underwater. thanks, I really appreciate the input :)

george.vas - I was thinking about putting some ship poles pokin g throuh it's belly or something around these lines, maybe that was it can look bigger...I thought about going the minator way but I like the fish better for now. Thanks for the ideas and coments :)

[waahh]

I'm a huge fan of seamonsters so I like the idea. You should add more fins than usual fish have and lots of barbels. To make it look bigger you could simply add stuff that everyone knows the size of. Like lots of harpoons on his back or something. And I think if you scaled down the eye quite a bit it would automatically look much bigger.

[kipiripi]

Yeah seemonster looking nice. but A fish will be too reguler structure for a Huge Boss character. I like your first idea too.I think you can mix them.
Somethink like,Fisher Giant carrying a huge fish on his shoulder.Anyway,keep up.

Devam,devam :) ...

[Vikkie]

waahh - scaling down the eye is a great idea! thank you :) and ı'll surely add a lot mode fins and barbels :)

kipiripi - I'll see what I can do when I finish the fish, the fish is near completion and will probably be done with today. If I end up having 2-3k tris left in my budget I'll try that :)
Tanistigimiza sevindim :)

[Vikkie]

just messing around in zbrush, planning what to do next... this is not the final result, I'm checking the model for unwelded vertices by smoothing and playing around also scoping for ideas.

I think the fish looks bigger now, with the extra fins and a huge belly and smaller eyes.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5543/zrender1jn6.jpg

[Vikkie]

defining the form again and adding stuff.

http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/5420/scr2ue2.jpg

[Vikkie]

adding details. I think I am done with the low poly model. 3714 tris. my next step will probably be unwrapping the model.

http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/975/scr3vg2.jpg

[Frozan]

man that looks so cool, i cant wait to see the finished product! have u figured out a solid color scheme yet?

[Vikkie]

Frozan - thanks Jeremy, I really appreciate your input. I was thinking about painting this fish with watercolours and see what colors I come up with.

will we be judged on our uvw map's tidiness? I'd rather unwrap the model flattened and hand paint most of the textures. that way I wouldn't have to worry about unwrapping the model for days :)

[FredH]

It's shaping up really nicely:) The horn like antennas on the top were a very nice addition. For the hair under the chin, hope you will use transparent planes here too. You can put a lot more hair this way.

For his large side fin, the joint looks a little strange. It looks like a piece of flesh that is flapping around with no bone structure underneath. I did a search on google to see how whale fins look like, and it looks somewhat like yours. However, their fins are lower whereas yours is in the middle of his body, plus sometimes they have a small more narrow joint where the fin meets the body.

Examples:
http://www.riptide.net/MCAN00765_0000%5B1%5D.gif
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/9/fish_album/fish4.jpg

Nevertheless, he is looking really good:) Keep it up man!

[Vikkie]

FredH - Thanks for the references! that heps a lot :D I knew something was weird about those fins. I will replace the hairs under the chin with alpha planes. they are just placeholders for now. Thank you :)

[Vikkie]

I fixed the joints for the fins (thanks FredH) and cleaned the chin to add alpha planes...the thing is I think Iit looks better with a clean chin. Maybe I'll add some kind of horns, or add more detail with to the already existing horns.

currently at 4108 tris, also need to add eyes :D

any suggestions anyone?

Mr.T once said: I pity the fool, who'll unwrap this model.

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/3449/scr4tk9.jpg

[FredH]

The joints are excellent now. They looks much more believable and much more sturdy for a giant creature:)

I guess this is just a matter of taste, but what if you made the fin narrower and a bit longer. Example:

[Vikkie]

That would look a lot better and probably function better too if it was a real life form. Contrasting the form between the fins would be great, thanks for the idea :)

[Vikkie]

here's the model finished. now to the unwrapping phase :)

If anyone can think of an easier way to unwrap this model, please share. I can use all the advice I can get.

[Frozan]

keep it up!

[Marcus Dublin]

Wow beautiful model Vikkie, the mesh constriction is really tight and it has terrific form to it. I’m digging the tentacle appendages and all the little spikes, cool stuff.:)

Marcus

[Vikkie]

Marcus Dublin - Thanks a lot :)

Frozan - Congrats for your new job !

Ok, I've been trying to unwrap this model for the last few days...I spent around 5-6 hours on it and I am stuck. I am trying to do it all in one map channel. First I break the model into 12 material IDs and it was a breeze but zbrush didn't seem to like it. Now I am trying to do it all in one mat ID and it's a pain :/
I'm not giving up tho...

[FredH]

hmmm, yeah, breaking it up into multiple ids is wrong. Everything should be on one uv channel and one material id. Are you using max or maya?

[Vikkie]

using max 7 :brick:

[FredH]

ahh, max, good good.

What you need to do is go into edit mesh, select everything and add a uvunrap modifier. Open up UVunwrap, select everything and shrink everything down to one pixel. Yes... one pixel. Put this pixel at the bottom left hand corner of your box. Collapse the stack so only edit mesh remains.

Now, apply a black and white checkered texture to your mesh. Set tiling to 50 and 50. Since everything is 1 pixel in your uvs.. you won't see a checkered pattern yet.

Now, start selecting faces (not vertexs) you would like to unrap. You should probably start with one side of your fish minus the fins. Remember, you can always mirror the mesh/uvs later for the other side.

when you have your polygons selection, with your selection active, add an unrap modifier to your stack again. When you open it up, you will see one select red dot in your bottom left corner. Remember, everything has been squeezed into that one pixel. With your uv selection still active, go into the uv top menu and find uv unrap (something like this. Don't pick the flatten uvs option). Use the default setting and press ok. Bam! your uvs will be unrapped and it will probably be messy.

After you hit unwrap, you will need to play a game of connect the dots. When you select a vertex, another one should light up somewhere. This means you should weld (control+v) these two vertexs together. (note, sometimes they don't light up.. beware) After hitting unwrap, in your view port, you will see the checkered pattern appear on your model. You have to use this checked pattern as a guide. You will need to move your uvs around until you make squares look like squares on your checkered model.

To make things easier, I am not sure if max7 has it, but there is a option called relax uvs in one of the menus. After you have connected all the dots, you can hit this button and your selected uvs will be automatically positioned so that the textured squares on your model line up. Sometimes, you have to hit this button more then one time for it to work properly.

When done, collapse your stack, hide your current polygon selection so that you don't mess up what you have already done.. and select new faces you would like to unwrap.

repeat the above process for the rest of your model.


If ever you would like to check how things are going, just add an unwrap modifier with no active mesh selection. Inside the unwrap, you will see what you have done so far. If things overlap, just press the checkered box on the bottom of the uv unwrap panel that says.. select by group or object (not sure what is says exactly).

Good luck.

Note... always save your file before you open a new unwrap modifier. Sometimes, max likes to crash when you open this modifier up.

_FreD_

[Vikkie]

FredH - Thank you is not the response you'll get for this...it would be too light.

I am not dead nor I did give up on the comp. I am just busier with school and work related stuff. I will be finishing the piece no matter what my schedule is like. Thanks everyone, everybody has been really helpful :)

[Vikkie]

... I am just busier with school and work related stuff. I will be finishing the piece no matter what my schedule is like.

heh...I regret to inform myself that I will not be able to pull this one off.

I had 2 finals today, yet I still have to prepare a 4 page comic book for tomorrow. well...I still feel like a winner, I learned a lot during the process. I need to work on my time management and cut down on my 3 hour sleep :)

I spent a week to figure out how to properly unwrap a model and if it wasn't for FredH I wouldn't have even come this far. So thank you all and I hope the best one wins.