Character: Draedus War Golem

[XepptizZ]

Love it so far, but please tell me he'll have legs.

Also, wouldn't mind beefing up the artilery of his a bit.

[retardedmonkey]

Yeah I really like this guys so far! One thing that I noticed was the yellow in the gun....maybe add a plane and some alpha map because it looks empty, it doesnt look....hmm...glowy enough. But everything else looks real good, great job so far!

Oh yeah the actual body could use some more color, maybe add another color into it. And the head...skull...looks pretty plain too, get some more color into it!

[weasel.acuh5o]

XepptizZ: I'll leave his legs the way they are, that was one of the starting points for the design. as for the bigger guns... I'll add some probs to give a hint at the scale on the finished base, but he's about 3 meters high, so I think the guns will be ok :P

retardedmonkey: as for the glowing I think your right... might be a good idea to try that out. I tried adding a bit more color to the main body, but it ended up looking more like a racing car than a walking tank. the general idea is too keep it still more or less military, with just the engineers painting 'their' tanks to show their affection for it with smaller details. think fighter jets.

[retardedmonkey]

Hmmm yeah your right....when you think of it as more of a walking tank, my suggestion is stupid. But I have realized what might help out...scratches around the edges. I just did a texture with a good example of what I mean, but I cant post it because of nda. But if you add some scratches around edges and sharper corners, it could help define the model more, and give it more variety as its mostly grey and black now. Also it looks like you have screws populating this guy, it might help to paint some lighting into them...give them more depth,hmm, ill post what I mean up in a few, gotta paint it.

[weasel.acuh5o]

But I have realized what might help out...scratches around the edges.

yeah, I already did that. I think it just doesn't show enough because the grey is already such a light color. thanks for the tip though, I'll probably change and tweak it a bit as soon as I find time to work on it again.

[MindTraveler]

Very cool looking and definitley 40k style. :D

What is Uni?

Looks like you got some solid Crits. Keep up the work.

-Anwar

[retardedmonkey]

Ok dont know if you still wanted to see this, but this is what I meant. I didnt do much, just added the scratches to some areas, and some different color dirt instead of the black. Just makes it seem a little more interesting....oh yeah and you said you have scratches already, maybe up the contrast on your texture because you cant really make them out....and the grey isnt too light you can have an almost white scratch.

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/7986/20060501armor013ah.jpg

[Peddy]

he looks good, but im concerned about movement. is he jointed at the 'waist' or is it a single piece. if hes not jointed, he will be swinging wildly when he walks, almost more of a pivot than a walk.

[weasel.acuh5o]

retardedmonkey: hey, thanks for all the effort :D due to texture limitations it won't be quite as easy/good looking as that I think... the uv layout is nowhere near as good as it could be (noob here, wasted some space keeping all parts in the same ratio, important or not :/) and the thing is still pretty big. this is a 1:1 shot of the textures - adding fine scratches at this resolution proves quite hard for me, but I'll give it a try anyway... not sure if using the pencil instead of brush in PS will help (is there no way to turn down antialias on the brush?), but we will see. thanks again :)

http://weasel.acuh5o.com/posted/2006_05_01_armor_05.jpg

peddy: dammit, somebody noticed. he could actually rotate around the top view center axis (at least the model could). I seriously doubt this thing could walk, but if it did it would have to shift all it's weight to the leg in front, then heave the rest of him so he can put the next foot ahead... which would look like a very massive mech or a drunken clown. let's just say he wouldn't be very fast, but I wanted to have tiny legs and a massive torso in the first place, so I guess that's the price I pay. (edit: forgot one thing to say: 'maybe not the smartest move, but I was going more for the design this time')

[ts-falcon]

hey man, i love the texture work on this guy, the head is so badass. lol i know youve head this before...but the legs man...the legs.. one of the key things ive learned with design is to ask the design a few questoins, such as: would this thing work effeicently...if it wouldnt, why would anyone build it.? what is the purpose of this creature/character/vehical etc.... and does the design help it achive the purpose sucessfully? in this case most of it fits, but to me it look as if this thing was ever toppled by a rocket or something, there would be no way it could ever get back up and anihilate the enemy. maybe treads or some type of triangular tank tracks would be better? anyways, just remember to always ask questions o your designs, iron out every possible thing that helps it be grounded in reality. overall though this is some very high quailty work..nice normal map by the way, what did you use to generate it? keep up the sweet work man! :D

edit: oops didnt read with my full attention. there is no normal right? good bum in anycase!

[retardedmonkey]

About your problem of not being able to texture in the scratches at that resolution....just up the resolution 2 times what your final texture will be. Like if I am making a 1024 texture I start with a 2048 and then shrink it down once I finish it. And most of that finer stuff looks better when its done that way....at least thats what I have noticed.

Um about keeping everythin at the same ratio....dont worry about that, I did that and got yelled at for it, because not everything needs as much attention with the texture. I try to unwrap and make the closer to the screen, and more important (larger) parts.....bigger. So just try and figure out what you want to have the most detail with the texture....if something just needs a simple color to it then just make it kind of small on the map.

[weasel.acuh5o]

lol i know youve head this before...but the legs man...the legs..
while I agree to a certain degree that design should serve a purpose, it really doesn't have to all the time. I decided what I wanted in an early stage (slow moving sentry) and thought of ways how to realize that idea (bulky, limit movement, small legs), so I think it's ok like this. the issue with falling and not getting back up can be found all over the place (the ed from robocop :P, mechwarrior, w40k dreadnaughts etc couldn't get up either). thanks for the concern though, I guess this one is really just a matter of opinion. (hope I didn't sound too rude, comment appreciated)

good bum in anycase!

well, thank you sir. I guess.

as for how the bump was created: done in photoshop wil layer effects to get smooth bevel towards the edges. yes, it's a shitload of layers, but I wanted to see if it could be done this way. I might convert it too a normal, but somehow feel bad about it... if I wanted a normal I should have done a high res mesh instead doing it in ps.

just up the resolution 2 times what your final texture will be. Like if I am making a 1024 texture I start with a 2048 and then shrink it down once I finish it.
been there, done that. looked (surprisingly) better in 2048, but now I need to go over it again to put in whatever was lost due to shrinking it down. :)

I'll post a updated version in the next few days. it's not going to be anything major, but I hope I can get rid of some minor stuff.

edit: I just took a look at the legs again (funny thing is none of the people on my course thought they were too small... small yes, but not crazy small). maybe it's just the perspective in the first render, I'll try rezising them slighty, but only +10 or 20 percent, that's the absolute max. we'll see.

[ts-falcon]

hahah nice bum....man my spelling...:P bumP...anyways... yea you are right, it is still a very cool design. about converting to normal map, id give it shot, it already looks spectacular wih only a bump, but with a normal....itd still have all that sweet detail even when looking at things from sharper angles. and with a bump that nice, it woulndt br very hard to generate a good NM from it :D come on man, somtimes ya just gotta giv'er cant wait to see this thing completed!

[weasel.acuh5o]

sorry for the delay, but my university assignments are wreaking havoc with my personal projects. meh.

anyway, I changed the textures quite a bit. looks a lot better now imo and is, except for some minor, things done. which is good, because I just can't see it any more.

one minor thing though: I initially had bumpmaps (handdrawn, wanted to give it a try) and then converted them with nvidias normal map generator for photoshop. thing is, I seem to be loosing some detail in the process. not quite sure why, but if I compare the bumpmapped base to the normalmapped one, the cracks (for example) seem wider. I'm guessing it's because the plugin blurs the map a bit, but even after two hours of tweaking around and trying various stuff (converting the 512x512 bump to 2048, then generate the normal map, then size it down again), I still haven't got a solution for it. it's not a big deal, but just in case it's something one of you has encountered and has a solution for it, I'd be more than happy to hear it.

other than that: thanks a lot again for all the help and support. glad to be on this forum. :)

ps: just noticed that I still gotta fix an issue with the eyes. should be glowing.

http://weasel.acuh5o.com/posted/2006_05_19_armor_02.JPG

http://weasel.acuh5o.com/posted/2006_05_19_armor_01.JPG

[WesleyTack]

wow, excellent last update!
really nice work on the normal maps, they add a lot to the character, and i love the design aswell, you said you are fairly new to this, well you aint no more :)

[ts-falcon]

dude, thats awesome, love the cracked ground near his feet. totally awesome. nice normal, although the buriness is cause you were downsizing it. for anythign less than 1024 you should paint it at the target resolution, it is faster and more efficient. atleast thats what a bunch of game industry buddys of mine told me repetedly...and what would they know right :D. super sweet 4 stars from me man!

[weasel.acuh5o]

simon.wt: thanks a lot! :D

ts_falcon: thanks again for the help. painting it in directly doesn't seem like a bad idea, I'll definitly give it a try.

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