UGAC - Master Chamber - Rogelio Olguin

[Auctane]

Rogelio, glad to see you are planing on joining in. Your train in the Juggernaut challenge was awesome! I hope ot see some more great work out of you in this challenge.

[RO]

Thanks somnambulance :) I hope to get this goning now since I am getting done with some of my last projects.

First real post for this contest. Some pillars for a large room. This is only using a normal map atm and the poly count is way down. I plan to have only four of these pillars in the middle of the room with some vines growing on them with a nice fountain in the middle with some kind of statue. I ll do a concept for some stuff for this room. But the style will be mic of roman and gothic with also art deco inspired. The ceiling will be open to a nice sky. I want to get a very lush feel with this court yard I guess you could say. Something that you might see in a rpg alike to oblivion with more styliziation to it.

My plan atm is make every main mesh needed for this project with normal map. So for the later pages all you will see is grayed out normal mapped low poly objects. Ill leave the textures towards the end. My plan is to add nice design styles and colors all over the construction. I will also attempt to do all my textures by hand since I tend to use photosource a lot on some other projects. This mostly depends on my personal speed of course if I see things are not working out ill take some short cuts on the textures lol. Ill try to keep you guys posted from now on what i am doing and ill also post the highpoly shots on some of the models.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-1.jpg

[Pdude2K5]

hey dude,
So far looking good, very nice looking normal map, whats the normal map resolution?



-Pdude

[RO]

I think 1024x1024. If I need to lower them ill scale them in photoshop. Ill stat with big ones for right now and figure out the res later on so it fits the texture res for this contest. I tend to make my maps always bigger than normal than optimize when making game content.

[RO]

Ok this time way more detail on the noraml. The little details were done in photoshop and put into the normal map.

Polys with the four pillars it is 2128 So still have a lot :)


http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-2.jpg

Wanted to show the top arch finished. This is just normal mapping and lowpoly objects no texture yet.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-3.jpg

[RO]

Sup all again more details for today. Some fish statues and a little leaf decor trim for the pillars

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-4.jpg

High poly of the fish model

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-4HM.jpg

You know the normal map looks better than this lol.

[Auctane]

Those fish are great! There is so much detail there, but the 90º angles still have a really hard edge. May use too many tris, but I think it would help a lot if you could afford a bevel on those hard edges.

[Matski007]

really liking the intriquite detail in this, keeping my eye on this un, i think its gonna look awesome

[RO]

Those fish are great! There is so much detail there, but the 90º angles still have a really hard edge. May use too many tris, but I think it would help a lot if you could afford a bevel on those hard edges.

Thanks :) Yeah I still do not like the 90%s. Ill leave them like this and when I see I have enough poly counts to go ill add some bevals to them. I have lots to do on this scene. I also want vines crawling up all over the pillars so this might hide alot of the 90%s and stuff. All depends how it will end up.

[Wayne Adams]

insane detail...nice. Are you gonna do any damage to it?

[GradiusCancer]

Cool fish, but I don't care for how the columns are thinner at the bottom. It weakens the structure.

[System404]

cool detail on the columns. can't wait to see the rest of this.

[RO]

My daily night update. This wall section took all day to make.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-5.jpg

[RO]

System404: Thanks I really like the pillars also. I was scared the normal would not be able to get a twisted pillar when I was making it but it did. I was very suprised.

GradiusCancer: Thanks. Not sure ill change that ill see if the normal mapping can take it and if it can ill reduce the tapering of it but I still like the general shape even if it is not 100% real.

Wayne Adams: I really do want to have a spot that is damaged and really broken up. I think ill do some broken stuff near the floor. since these are huge structures I want to keep this pretty ok with the exception of the wear and tear it has.

Edit: I just realized I have reached passed 20,000 tri... Damn it to hell lol.

I really do not want to lower the polys so what ill do is do two version one for this comp and one for my self. Since I plan to put these to work for real once UT2K7 come out. Ill change my plan a bit now. The ousdie walls consist of 9,000 tris so I will not use those. Ill make some other walls that are lower in poly for this. Ill also delete the leaf thingies. since those take a bit and are useless for the real scheme. Ill add the statue fountain with the polys I get from that and the wall around with some nice trees and a sky box of some sort with some flooring. I was going poly happy with this comp. Forgot it was only 20,000 polys :|

[Wayne Adams]

Glad to hear it'l have a little damage to it. That sucks about passing up the tri count limit, but I'm sure that won't stop a guy like you. Cheap up the low poly, and keep at it, dude. ;)

[RO]

another wall section for the outer rim of the level. Now to get to some more intresting stuff. The big peices are set now. Just have to go into the details now.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-6.jpg

and just a basic layout shot so you get the idea. anything outside the walls is going to be trees and background.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACroglayout1-1.jpg

[Shadow Spoon]

Looks very nice. You have some good detailed normal maps.

I can't figure out the scale in the scene. Could you do just a stickfigure drawing beside some of it?

[GradiusCancer]

Zany mix of styles you’ve got going on here. I reckon colors could really bring it all together. I like the cracks and wear you’ve got on this wall.

[RO]

Thanks :)

Ill add a red box that represents the play height and width on the next shots from now on. For a basic idea the player is as high as the lower part of the pillar peice.

[Auctane]

Looking good! Perhaps a bit over critical - To me it seems a bit strange the way those fallen pillars have fallen, looks more like they were placed there which would say that it is under construction. Gives a feeling that conflicts with the rest of it, maybe the texture would change that.

[RO]

Here is the statue and the red block player model :D Still doing a stand for it but since it is not done i did not put it in.

The statue was hell to normal map... I tried normal mapping the whole thing together but at the end I had to rethink it and broke it up in peices than glued it together. The biggest problem were the polys that were too close to each other. I tried moving the cage and stuff but it did not help.

somnambulance: Your right I took the leaning ones off I had to reduce more polys for some other sections so those were extra detail that really did not add much to the scene.


http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-7.jpg

[Wayne Adams]

Thats turning out great. I love the leaf wolf howling pillar....Makes wanna go play Rygar....Those damn rolling spike ball things! DAMN THEM!

Keep it up, Rog.

[AndrewRaZ]

if you're using max, i've found that the cage is just about worthless in most cases. i tend to turn it off in the baking options and just use an offset depth. for some things though, you just have to break it up into pieces like you did.

[RO]

Doing some tilable normals to get the main flooring sorted. Going to start on trees soon also. I am going to do some other stuff for a bit so I will not update much but ill make sure to come back within a few days.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACTiletex1-1.jpg

[JuddWack]

Looking great. Are those tileables done entirely in photoshop?

[RO]

The stone path and rock one were first done in max than I added some details in PS. The other one is all ps.

[Pdude2K5]

Hey man,
I really like what you have done so far!, The hand painted normal maps in photoshop are great as well as the normal mapped objects, btw what are you using to
normal map high poly meshes (nvidia Melody, Polybump, Render to texture?), either way it
looks great:thumbsup:.

Are you using realtime directx in the viewport to preview the meshes or are you
just applying the bump map in the bump slot and then rendering(which is
what you seem do be doing) if so then i'd suggest using realtime directx shader in
the viewport it gives you much more accurate results to how it will look in a game engine
(Cant wait to see your models in Oblivion:)), Check out this site it has alot on normal mapping and also some great directx viewport shaders:

http://www.bencloward.com/resources.shtml




-Pdude

[RO]

Using Render to texture, so far it has worked really well. Than some added details on PS.

Yep been rendering all of these.

Nice site ill look for that and test out the direct x shaders. The offset mapping is something I have been wanting to test out.

[RO]

Some texturing. Pls excuse the brown background color for a bit... that is the main color the sky will be.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-8.jpg

[Stefan-Morrell]

hey RO...this looks wickedly impressive!..love the style you've got here


a minor crit for me is the stone tile,the one made in 3dmax,,those curves along the grout lines,I'm not sure tiles would ever take such a curved shape.

other than that..keep at it man!..looking very good:thumbsup:

[RO]

Hey Stefan nice to see you here :)

Thanks, I had an idea a while back on a style and structures like these but I really wanted to leave them intill I knew the normal mapping workflow.

I agree those tiles have been screaming at me the cruved shapes really are bad. Np it was mostly practice to see how to make normal mapping tilable textures. I plan for a diff flooring once I am done with this.

[RO]

Did some more texturing modfied the old ones a bit and made the statue and side walls. Ill try to get most of the model done next week and really just polish this up for final. some textures here are using spec maps also besides the color map and normal map.


http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-9.jpg

[RO]

Doing a bit of setting up for the final render of my level. Some fog and trees added. The bits and peices that are left are details for the flooring a few textures for the clouds and that is pretty much it and some textures for the last two stone peices the fish and that wall deco thing.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-10.jpg

[RO]

I have been messing with the shader linked here I belive for parallax mapping and it is very cool to see it in action in the view port.

But...

I am having a hard time finding a way to render parallax shaders normals maps in max. Is this even possible or am I wasting my time looking for a way to do this? I am using the defualt scanline render for max. I have looked and can not find an answear to this.

So if anyone can link me to somewhere or tell me how to go about this it would be awesome! :D

[AndrewRaZ]

i've been having the same issue, especially with some of the more complex shaders, such as the layered ones, which don't even render in the viewport at all.

the only possible lead i've found is a hack that only half works so far, and it involves rendering as a preview (animation menu-> make preview) instead of a scanline render. it basically takes a screengrab of your viewport at each frame of the animation. however, in order to get higher quality, you have to turn your viewport settings up, and the viewports don't seem to have any anti-aliasing either, which leads to jagged edges. on top of that, ray trace shadows are a pain to do real-time. i know it can be done, i've seen them demo it, but i just can't get it to work.

edit, i'm assuming you're using Ben Cloward's offset mapping shader for Max, as that's the only one i've been able to find myself for Max. apparently the "software render style" slot at the bottom is what the software renderer uses, but obviously it renders differently. i guess you might have to just do that and try to get it as close as possible. unfortunately, until unreal 3 comes out and we can do all that fun stuff ourselves by putting shaders together visually, we have to hack stuff.

good luck, and let me know if you get it to work, or even fake it!

[RO]

thanks :) Ill work on it and look around so far it seems it is only view port usable which is nice for testing out future tech stuff. But no good for presentation.

Ben Cloward's offset mapping is really cool and is easy to use. I have heard of this problem with other people but never really paid attention to what it was beecause I did not know how to normal map. From what I remember stefan from one of the old Gacs had the same issue.

Oh well :|


Ill keep looking but I really think this is just a view port thing.

[bcloward]

Hey guys, I'm glad you like my offset mapping shader. If you're interested in doing something similar in Max's renderer, try Fabio Policarpo's relief mapping plugin. You can find it here:

http://fabio.policarpo.nom.br/relief/index.htm

I haven't tried this out myself yet, but as I understand it, it achieves results similar to offset mapping - but without all the artifacts and drawback - and it works in the renderer instead of the real-time viewport.

Give it a shot!

[RO]

Thanks so much ill give it a shot.

Edit: Gave it a shot and it is awesome! Why in the world would i want to create displacment maps with this... I wonder... it is faster for rendering and looks good also. Ill note this for future projects and test it on higher poly objects to see how it works out.

[AndrewRaZ]

the reason for the displacement map is relief mapping actually displaces the surface of the object inward, thereby 'faking' an actual displacement render that can change the surface of the object. if you look at some of the tech demos, you'll see that it actually changes the silhouette. it's really cool stuff, much beyond standard parallax mapping.

btw, downloaded the plugin myself. very cool stuff.

[RO]

Yeah after testing it out I saw the diff. I was thinking for like some envio stuff for a future short story ill have to do for my school instead of using displacment maps ill use this since it saves time. Of course where I need the close up detail of displacments ill add this.

I have learned so much just on this comp alone I am glad I entered it.

A new render coming soon.

EDIT

been messing around with the relief shader. Used it o nthe archs, pillars, and tiled floor. Changed the fog a bit also. I have 18900 polys atm... Still got a bit for small details. I need to make a very simple wall around the permiter so I can aviod the look of nothing behind the big walls. Ill add some dried leaf alpha textures on the floor and dried grass in places. I also need to make some rocks perhaps... and well whatever I can squeeze out lol.

I went through all the textures and lowered them so It would fit the texture budget given. Made no diff in the long run really. I tend to work big and optimize later.

edit2: the dirt texture is from max image files... will be replaced. The one I make will be close to the color and saturation as that anyhow.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-12.jpg

[RO]

Well guys I am done with the whole scene. This does not mean I am done. I plan to make a small movie of 30 secs that shows up close shots of the model and a small rotation flyby of the scene.

The textures pretty much filled the whole 4096x4096 space. Ill get shots of that soon also. The polys ended up at 19999 yeah lol... So even if I wanted I could not add anything more.

Thing is I really like this project and I think ill keep adding into it, but not for this comp. Ill make a new thread on the main game fourms and keep adding to this work.

Things I wanted to do is add way more foliage and small details which I had to delete in the long run which I honestly hated to do, but still I managed to squeeze this to my max and made this work for this comp. The thing is I also want to keep making models for a future UT2K7 level once it comes out.

At the end I learned a lot. Belive it or not this is pretty much my frst experiance with normal mapping for games. And I had only made one normal map prior to this project for a highpoly model I was making. I learned a lot more than I would have thought. Thanks everyone who kept me going with crits and comments. Also the people who gave me links to scripts and shader effects.

Well enough of that here is the main render. Ill have more renders coming up but tis late. :D

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACrog1-16.jpg

[sheppyboy2000]

And with that... I've lost.

[Ghostscape]

And with that... I've lost.
The whole point of the UGAC is learning, and you learn by doing :D

[sheppyboy2000]

Bah, I wanted to win. Not really but still. Never expected to win first time out (or even get remotely close) but since I won't be participating in the next one (snagged an illustration freelance job), still wanted to make a significant impact in this one.

Gratz, Ro. I have a long way to go to reach your abilities.

[RO]

Thanks man :)

Keep at the project your doing, I like the bar and dance idea. It can look damn sweet given some time on it. The models were sharp already just needs some good texturing.


A lot of good works going around like that destroyed lab/torture room one is nifty esp with the new things added. I am trying to win yes of course if I said otherwise that would be a lie entering a comp etc, but even if I do not win I have learned a lot. People are still making stuff for this comp so I expect many of the designs to look sweet once you have the final touch done for the last shots taken.

[braincell84]

Hey RO, this is surely one of the most complete and best looking entries for the competition at the moment. However, I'm concerned with if you may have missed the subject a little? This needs to be an interior, and 4 pillars and a fence hardly make it an interior with visible trees, grass, etc. Perhaps you could somehow enclose it so the judges dont discard you purely for missing the subject.

It's really nice work, it makes me think how such a scene would run in realtime. I mean cos the render is pretty high res + antialiased and you have a sort of foggy noise and bloom in there. Rendered works always make me think of how it could be implemented in a realtime engine :) I guess i'm just becoming obsessed with shaders. In fact, i've been experimenting so much with shaders and stuff that I increasingly doubt I'll finish my entry on time with the rate i'm going.

[RO]

Thanks :)

yeah I agree I missed the point. I saw that a while ago so if it is discarded because of that oh well. I have np with that I am just happy of doing this work heheh :)

I am pretty sure this would run well considering gears of war is using three times or more polys and texture space easy.

[Pixelgen]

As always your level of detail is high. I just love your style, it looks like your own which is re-freshing to see. On the centre statue, what is it ?. They look like a set of mean ass dogs. From start to finish how meny hours did this project take.

Later mate...:scream:

[RO]

Thanks Pixelgen :)

The center statue was inspired by the feathered serpant god called QUETZALCOATL

http://www.unexplainable.net/artman/uploads/image5_reli.jpg

Though from the start I changed the idea a bit and those are some kind of dog howling with features.

The theme is a mix of many but the main theme I want to bring out was some kind of aztec style. Lets say the people who built these have a lot in commen with aztecs but got furter in "technology tree". Since I am from Mexico I really like the building style and art. Shame a lot of it is being destroyed by lack of the gov taking care of it.

Edit: Sorry did not mention how long it took to make this stuff sorry. I started the contest a bit late than everyone else had some things to do before starting this. But aprox this took three weeks time. I worked around 8-12 hour days on this. I made one object per day pretty much. The weekends I took a break usally. The statue took me two days. Mostly due to the fact that it was not rendering the normals correctly so I had to figure it out. at the end I devided it up into big chunks and than rendered it than put it together again.

I made a small movie of this work with a slight flyby and some texture flats etc. The main title is GAC... I did not put U to the gac since... Unoffical sounds so bad lol.

Oh yeah right click and save as pls.

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/RogelioOlguinChamber.mov

[Pdude2K5]

Congrats on completing your entry for the competition Rogelio:thumbsup:, The video looks awsome
and your final entry is top notch, Hope to see you in the next challange as well:).

Good Luck




-Pdude

[AndrewRaZ]

your entry is looking really great. i think it would stand out a lot more if you were to use the lighting to its full advantage. right now, it looks more like an ambient kind of lighting situation; a light setup with more contrast could help you establish more of a mood and make it look more like an environment than just a collection of props. i think what you have is great, but i also think you can push it further.

[Auctane]

Looks great RO! I really like the video, I think video does a lot more justice to environments than pics. I may have to make the request on a extention so I can put a video together too :D.

[RO]

AndrewRaZ: I agree the lighting needs work. If I get time I may go over it. But things are starting up again for school here. So I have to prepare myself.

somnambulance: hehehe yeah the video does add more to the work. I agree with extention a lot of nice works going on that are on the verg of being done bt still need more time it seems.

Pdude2K5: If the next contest has to do with envio stuff ill get in. But I think Gac needs another cha comp. I liked that megaman idea put up in the last comp for ideas. maybe we can do that instead of an envio. I would enter that. I do not have a lot of knowledge about making cha so If I enter a cha comp that might help me get better.

[Pixelgen]

Yes the lighting needs work. Looking at the flyby I feel the centre piece of the chamber is set in the wrong surroundings. A rainforest of sum kind, a bit like the ruin temples you see in Indonesia would have suited better. The change of setting would let you use a greater rang of colors, that couldhave inriched your project. :wise:

Can you post a few pics of the uv maps with the textures on, I read something you said about not needing to paint shadows on textures cos normals render them.

PS I sure you no this but I am p2xelgen of beyond, a few sites had name in use:D ...

[Synthesizer]

Very nice work RO! I love the amount of detail you've put into this. I kinda feel like you went overboard on the fog and blur though, it covers up all of your hard work. The movie was great, but too much blur, I'd like to be able to see it better. Great textures!

[requiem2d]

Great ambience, I love it :D

[RO]

----test post for final----

INFO

Name : Rogelio Olguin
Specs : 19,998 faces
WIP Thread : Click Here (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=382898)
Movie : (Right click Save as) Click Here (http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/RogelioOlguinChamber.mov)
Description : This is a court yard of a lost civilization found in a dried out planet, that resembles Aztec architecture.
TEXTURES

HighRes Texture : Click Here (http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACHighResTemplate.jpg)
http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACLowResTemplate.jpg


FINAL RENDERS


http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACF1-1.jpg

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACF1-2.jpg

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACF1-3.jpg

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACF1-4.jpg


WIREFRAME


http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACF1-5.jpg

http://onlinewarriors.beyondunreal.com/GACF1-6.jpg

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