Better Presentation: Nacire's Dominance War II Entry

[nacire]

Considering I had to turn in crappy fast renders to make the deadline, I decided to create a bit more of a presentation. I did work a bit more on the entry itself. I tweaked some of the textures, tweaked the pose and added the post effect flame for fun.

*One more thing I would change if I had the energy, would be to spend those extra polys around the facial area. Cheers!

Winning Pose


Beauty Shot A


Beauty Shot B


Construction Shot


Texture Sheet


Concept Image

[emysfit]

It all looks really good. I noticed your entry among the rest already heh. I'd pick you among the top for sure if I were a judge. I really love that sword too!

Good Luck

[nacire]

It all looks really good. I noticed your entry among the rest already heh. I'd pick you among the top for sure if I were a judge. I really love that sword too!

Good Luck

Wow! Thanks for the kind words Emysfit! With the amount of tremendous art submitted that is an awesome compliment! Thank you!

[FredH]

This is looking really good. I just hope you will have some time to rig and pose him for June/July. I am sure this guy would look even cooler if he wasn't in his default stance.

The sword has to be one of my favorite weapons in the comp. The ball of flame in the center was a great touch. There is only one tiny thing that could maybe be improved. His main frontal hip guard. If you shrink it, it might look better. It's already a great peace as a whole unit, but sometimes the hip guard looks like a big baby pampers. In the concept, it works better because it is smaller and more conformed to his body. In the model, it's just a tad too big.

Aside from that, He is looking great man. Congrats on a job well done:thumb:

_FreD_

[nacire]

sometimes the hip guard looks like a big baby pampers.

BWAHAHA! Too funny man. I definitely played with the scale on all of the armor bits and I think I actually made the shoulders bigger than the concept too. Overall the hip piece was just tougher due to the perspective in the concept. I'll do a few scale tests and tone it back to a less "big baby pampers" proportion!

[EVIL]

I'm totally loving the ball feet, one thing I think can be improved upon is the lighting, its looks a bit to bright and poppy .. tone it down a bit so it matches the concept more and I think it will look way better

Cool stuff man

[nacire]

Thanks for the compliment Evil, I agree the ball feet are awesome. Peet Cooper, the guy who designed the character felt they were a good representation of ancient dragons often shown clutching spheres.

To use Peet's own words, "When the contest called for 'Ancient', The first thing I thought of was ancient statues. I was really inspired by some Hong Tze statues that I like. Ive always seen dragons or asian lions clutching spheres so I tried to give him something similar. I wanted to make him feel like a statue. Like hes very heavy and ancient. As if he rarely moves, but when he does, he smashes the ground leaving cracks and small craters in his wake. No agility, all power. He is about 15 ft tall and unimaginably heavy."

Here is an update for you Evil. It's very similar in lighting scheme, but just toned back a lot with some altered hues.

[EVIL]

EXELENT! alot better dont you think?
It really makes the fireball in the sword alot more.. fiery and it pops out the normal map better.. I love it!

[george.vas]

Not sure I am feeling the fire... ...not that I don't think it should be on fire I just feel you could of done a better job with it. I like the lighting and new changes though. Nice job :thumb:

[TryForce]

Your entry is nice, indeed, though i would change kinda lot on it.

What i like most on your entry...the concept drawing. I mean, The colors: awesome! , the mood: great!

You had deeper colors as the lighting was simply awesome, the fireball was deep red as the red was reflected on the skin.

Also the background wasn't that bright as in your 3d final. Its always better when you use on Bright textured models a dark background as for Dark textured models a bright background. It would change the whole mood if you would have changed it.

The Pose isnt all to great on the final, though on the concept its great.... a deep look into the sword.... cool fire burning eyes.... and standing with the side to you.. bam!



Another point is : the feets.... how does he move with them? gliding? dunno its somehow hard to tell or to see how he moves with them.

I hate critising when i know i can't do better because this piece is an awesome work. Texture kick ass, Mesh just great, normal map...speechless.

Just would loved to see it more like on the concept, because this concept rules..... i remember how Oink said in his D.W.2 thread:"A great Concept is a Great Entry" heh.

(btw. i mean with bright: light, Whitecolored and all what blinds your eyes heh and sorry for my english if you dont get sometimes what I mean)

[FredH]

Oink's words "A great Concept is a Great Entry" is a real catchy logo for contests. Perhaps I will use it for every contest on gameartisans hehe I could put it as a conclusion for anything. Something like, "...and remember, a great concept is a great entry" type thing

nacire --> I am looking forward to the day that you rig his legs Otherwise, I like the balls, I am sure they would look great and menacing when he walks. However, for some strange reason, it looks like you put a few lights right on top of each foot. There should be shadows where the feet rest on the balls, however all I see is a strange light source where shadows should be. Perhaps if you turned on the shadows for your feet lights, proper shadows will fix this area.

Nice work otherwise:thumb:

[nacire]

George - Thanks for the compliments. Do you not like the fire in the darker render? Or just the one in the first renders? It was a post effect done in PS and I agree it could be done better and more thoughtful, though I do like the second incarnation good enough. I guess I could match the concept more and just had smoke coming off of it. What would you suggest to make the fire look better?

TryForce - Thanks for the honesty. I'm always looking to get better and crits are always appreciated. I agree the concept is awesome. I tried really hard to stay true to it, but it was being produced at the same time the 3d model was so some things fell a bit short. The pose changed because my quick and dirty last minute rig couldn't support the articulation the wrist needed to point downward like it does in the concept.

I also understand about bright model on a dark background, etc. but I guess I just kinda liked the bright rim light with the brighter background. Honestly though from other's opinions as well, it must not work as well in reality as it is in my eyes.

I tried fiery eyes on him too, but really like the greyish, icy iris on him. It kinda gives him a cold piercing stare. Maybe, I'll try another iteration just for matching the concept.

Lastly he grips the large spheres in his claws and stomps around crushing terrain and enemies under his massive weight. No gliding or sliding for this guy, just sheer brute force stomping.

FredH - Thanks again for the compliments. I have a finished rig, including a small facial setup ready to go as soon as I can find the time to weight the mesh. Concerning how bright the spheres are, yeah Im on the same page with you. I had to render out the normal maps in chunks due to the nature of the mesh and I didn't do my Ambient Occlusion maps at the same time, so I never got to bake shadows onto the spheres. Not to mention they have a strange UV layout that would not be ideal for an AO bake. I'll probably hand paint some shadows onto them for the wallpaper submission, but yeah that one sticks out like a sore thumb to me as well. ;P

So all in all...

Stick with the original pose.

Match the lighting better to the concept.

Get the shadows onto the spheres.

Try fiery eyes again.

Try a variant of the sword sphere where it is smoking and not burning.

Present him on a darker background.

[george.vas]

George What would you suggest to make the fire look better?

I think the first one was better for me I would keep the fire look on the sphere from pic one remove the actual flame and put smoke in its stead like in the concept. If you want to keep the fire though I would suggest toning it down a little and maybe try some fire in maya? Because that last one just looks flat to me for some reason but that’s just my personal preference, do what ever feels right to you.

[TryForce]

Lastly he grips the large spheres in his claws and stomps around crushing terrain and enemies under his massive weight. No gliding or sliding for this guy, just sheer brute force stomping.

hehe gotcha now

Not sure if you want to work on it now on, though wouldnt be bad to see it improved, way to go!