Environment: Christmas Time

[Glasko]

Okay, here's the living room I started today. You can see the base of my fireplace and the little window corner.

http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip2.jpg

[jumbo]

It looks like it will turn out well. I especially like the Christmas tree. How did you make the branches? It looks like the polygon count went high.

The star is a bit too large and flat. I suggest scaling it down and giving it some more depth. The other thing I would change it the little clump of green pines extended out at the end of every branch. That looks unnatural; other than that, it looks good.

[Glasko]

It looks like it will turn out well. I especially like the Christmas tree. How did you make the branches? It looks like the polygon count went high.I created a single dry branch (box modeling) and a duplicate one right above it for snow, then I vertex-extruded the leaves seperately (it was messy at first, but it worked.) The strategy was to create one branch with leaves so that I could circle it around the tree and multiply it/scale/rotate the same branch up the tree. The polycount is high, but I especially wanted the detail. It's high enough that I'll have to import the tree last to keep workflow while I continue to build the living room. There's not animation or anything happening though, so the sky is the limit there. I'll just use use detailed bumpmaps for the bricks and carpet.

The star is a bit too large and flat. I suggest scaling it down and giving it some more depth.Hrm, well I could either model it further or paint some kind of bump map over it. I agree about it being flat and large.

The other thing I would change it the little clump of green pines extended out at the end of every branch. That looks unnatural; other than that, it looks good.Right on, I can delete them fairly easily.

[jondafonte]

I'm liking this alot, are you planning on adding alot more?

[Glasko]

Okay, I finished the brick texture. Obviously the fireplace is still missing a lot (namely the frame and the mantle)-- but so far it's coming along!
http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip3.jpg

jondafonte-- Yeah, I'm going to take my time with this one. It will be a good project. I'm not going for realism, but for detail (I'll spend a lot of time working on the presents under the tree), at least from my initial idea I'll let the image create itself this month :).

[Glasko]

Okay, as you can see I've put some work in-- here's a test render of the fireplace.
http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip4.jpg

[Frank Dodd]

Very nice work on this scene so far great progress, I like the objects you have created to date they are nicely detalied and built into what appears to be a solid design for the scene. Hopefully you will think about adding something into the mix that is a little different and eye catching to break away from a solid traditional approach and to catch more interest.

Good luck with your image.

[starman]

Wow this is gonna be really good, like the look of the living room and the fireplace looks excellent .Shall be droping in to see it coming along

[Aragorn26282]

Looks great, hoping you can realize a scene that contains the spirit of the Christmas. We have to feel that in that scene is really Christmas time:thumbsup:

[Glasko]

Alright, before you check out this concept sketch-- let me explain a few things. The actual lighting will be much softer and this will give the tree better contrast. I did some work on the carpet texture and I'm to a point where I really like it... you can also see that I got the window section modeled (the current window image is just a placeholder, I'll be creating a snowy backyard for it). I'm going to paint the image above the fireplace, and everything else has yet to be modeled! In this sketch the Christmas tree was just roughly pasted on the image to see how it would look. I'm going to do some kind of bump map on the Christmas star to give it more depth and I started modeling gold ribbon. In the lower left hand corner I'm going to model two children (An older girl and a younger boy in pajamas holding a teddy bear) and a puppy on the right hand side peaking out of a present box. I've conquered a few milestones but, as you can see, there's still some serious work to be done. As always, your comments and crits are very helpful. Get technical and detailed, my primary concerns with this image are lighting and detail.
http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip5.jpg

[Frank Dodd]

Its looking very nice, from this concept you have a lot more work to do on it though, as you state the lighting will be softer and I feel perhaps the majority of the lighting will be set to come from the tree itself. At the moment its looking like a solid, classic, traditional christmas image.

Good luck with the work.

[Glasko]

Okay, here's the child! I modeled him in Wings3D and drew some basic textures. I'm still working on the hair, any suggestions on how to go about it?.. Anything that specifically needs worked on?
http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip6.jpg

[starman]

Just a thought , would a soft red colour be good for the carpet ?

My thinking is the blue is a bit cold looking and also you might be have snow outside through the window so maybe a red carpet would compliment the scene :)

[Glasko]

Just a thought , would a soft red colour be good for the carpet ?
My thinking is the blue is a bit cold looking and also you might be have snow outside through the window so maybe a red carpet would compliment the scene :)That's a good idea. I'll probably end up reworking some of the colors towards the end of the composition, but a dark red carpet may actually compliment the scene better and the eventual soft lighting better. Thanks for the comment!

Here's my latest work on the child. Some comments at 3DFightClub (http://www.3dfightclub.com/) was that the face wasn't porportioned correctly. Three things I'm going for with the child.
1. Cute
2. Shocked
3. Not necessarily "realistic" but anatomically correct.
Here's a wire of what I've developed; (I used a virtual mirror and there's still some strange bunching along the seam I need to fix)
http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip7.jpg
Thanks for the comments so far! I needed a good, abitious project this winter and I'm more than happy with where it's going.

[jumbo]

It has definitely progressed well. That reminds me that I ought to work on a Christmas scene, too. Keep up the good work.:thumbsup:


I think the proportions on the kid's body are somewhat off, too. The legs are too short for the body.

[Glasko]

http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip8.jpg

Okay! You can see some significant work done on some key aspects of the image. Some key points;

-I've been trying some new color schemes and POVs, as the child is finished (only I just noticed his left hand is backwards). Keep in mind that he's shocked at all the presents (or in this WIP, future presents http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif)

-Picture frame is completed (created a bump map for it). The image inside is obviously a quick placeholder and I'm going to render a "painted" Irish landscape for it. I'll post some concepts for it later.

-The fireplace is almost done. I drew the bookshelf and the candles (I'm also thinking to add milk and cookies and mistletoe, but that would be added late in the game). I still need to model the fireplace tools that will hang right next to it. Stockings are done!

-The tree is clearly a placeholder, but it's to scale. I'll model some wavey gold strips around the tree and I want to hang some candycanes (already modeled). There will be a circular rug right below it.

-I'm going to rework the windows a bit, they'll be scaled vertically and I'll model/stretch the blinds at the top. Window image is still in WIP.

-Obviously there are no presents yet, but I'm not going to skimp http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif. Some of the presents won't be in boxes (I'm thinking a classic firetruck with a bow around it, a few airplanes and dollys.

-Lighting and shadows are still totally prelim. The tree itself is a mass of tiny arial lights and the fireplace and candles will emanate soft light next to it. The final lighting will be reletively soft.

- There will be no postwork after the final render, so I plan on some high resolution renders. Thanks for all the comments and crits... I don't usually keep WIP threads and stay religious with them, so this is a good experience and I want this work to be perfect.

[Glasko]

I'm going to put text from an Irish Proverb over the painting when I'm finished with it;

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

If you couldn't tell by the names on the stockings, this is an Irish family :).

[Glasko]

I created a chair for the image (again, modeled in wings3D like everything else). Any comments on it?
http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip9.jpg
Rendered Chair

http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip10.jpg
Smoothed Chair cage

[Glasko]

http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip12.jpg
This is a quick lighting test. (and by quick, I mean 8 hours of unfinished rendering at 800x600 that I eventually decided to resample for quality -- the larger was highly pixelized). That's right, this is going to be a renderbitch when I hit that button for the last time. Partially, because ALL the lighting is coming off the tree in the form of arial lights shining through little glass bulbs :). I love the shadows cast on the back wall. There will be a lot more presents and I'm still absent some important objects to the scene.

I'm just so happy I actually got that high-poly tree imported into the full scene. This project is finally melting together!

[jumbo]

I think the legs are too short, especially on the chair, but also on the kid.

Great job, though, it's really turning out nice.

[Glasko]

Everybody, thanks for the helpful comments! The work is just about finished. Here's some new models;
http://www.3dfightclubforum.com/phpBB2/files/christmasimagewip13.jpg

[Glasko]

Finished! :) (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=189956). Thanks for all the comments and help along the way, it was a fun project

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