The siege

[chewedon]

Looks more like a game :)

I like your characters.

[paintbox]

Great start if you are a starter in 3D and/or Blender, and if you can do the animation as well and publish it I think you can look back at a very good learning experience.

Good luck!

[Warder]

I should mention that the human models were done in makehuman, except for the armor and all that. the orc was my first full organic creature.

[Michael-Williamson]

I think that thecastle doesn't have any context, from your shots I can see the mountains, but the whole thing doesn't "sit"

the first thing I'd try is adding a road to the main gate... even if it isn't your idea to make it well trodden, it'd be nice to see that line (look at richard long, who toolk arial photos of lines he'd created in the desert by walking and dragging his foot....

perhaps a moat or at least a ditch surrounding the walls to slow the ease of attack for seigers... look at as much historical referance as you can... then adapt it to YOUR fantasy.... castles look the way they do now, but when they were genuine defensive measures then wooden structures would overhang the parapets to facilitate dropping burning tar on those trying to mount ladders and seige engines against the walls... within the walls would be aall sorts of wooden structures that we cannot percieve today...


I'm not some kind of historical accuracy freak, just think you need to imply some more stuff to make it feel real, even if it s a fantasy....

final thought, the castle shots all look a bit flat... too much ambient light? they really could do with a bit more dynamic range in the tonal value...

hope that helps... I think you seriously need to look at the texturing though!

Keep at it and give yourself tough targets.... does your stuff hold up against the best you've seen? how could you get it there?

hope thst helps, but it's your show, do it how YOU want!

take care

mike

[Warder]

Michael-Williamson: thank you for the crits history is my favorite subject. the biggest detail problem for me is that I am working with a computer that has only 256mb of ram. so I am constantly taking things out and wanting to put more detail in.Now that I think about it maybe I will start adding those details. thanks for the great crits. also about the lighting could you explain your suggestions a little more? I am horrible at lighting at the moment.

[Michael-Williamson]

Lighting is a tough subject, but here goes....


The biggest thing to achieve is dynamic range.... if black is rgb 000 and white is rgb 255,255, 255 if the darkest part of your image is 64,64,64 adn the brightest is 200,200,200 then you're not really using the full dynamic range.... In blender, hemi lights seem to be "equivalent" to "ambient", but I'm pretty new to blender myself... too high an intensity on these types of lights limit how dark things can become in your image, thu's reducing the dynamic range for shadows etc...


If you're new to lighting you should really start with some basic three point lighting (often disnissed as a cliche, but it s pretty fundamental...


Put a point, (or directional or spot, but the latter need the direction to point at the camera) behind and above your subject ( try intensity 2 or higher here . this is usually called the "rim" or "hair" light and will usuallyt be white... put another light in front (and to the top left) of your subject( and pointing at the subject)---- again spot lights are good, but need to point at the subject. set intensity to 1 (which should be the default) In day light this light can be tinted a bit yellow.. This is the key light which we'll pretend is the sun. And then add another light in front right topabove the subject. The impresiionists would traditionally make this a blue/purple colour. This is the fill light and you should start with an intesity around 0.5. If you desire you can add a light below and in front of the subject (usuallly with a low intensity (0.2) and coloured blue/brown to simulate bounce light from the floor. if you don't have any other lights in the scene this is a pretty good basis for most situations.

My daughter is watching the entire Pixar catalogue on dvd on a daily basis... (which means that I am tooo.. The animation in monsters inc gets better with every viewing, they really got the perfomances down there!t

they use this technique a ton!

[yorik]

This is a very precious tip... thanks!

[Warder]

heres some quick updates. I tried a basic 3 point setup my original sun set up and then 2 spotlights. the first is at .100,the other 2 are at .500. sculpted a bit of a road and the mist and world settings are changed. I like how much better it looks already.

on another note my textures look pretty bad at a distance but good when I get close. something with them being UV mapped.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_3pointlightview5.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/3pointlightview5.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_3pointlightview4.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/3pointlightview4.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_3pointlightview3.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/3pointlightview3.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_3pointlightview2.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/3pointlightview2.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_3pointlightview1.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/3pointlightview1.jpg)

[Warder]

I have been working on clouds. their really basic from cogs tutorial .
it can be improved a lot ,but it will fill the sky.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_cloudspoint2.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/cloudspoint2.jpg)

[yorik]

Well I think it's getting better! What I most like is the general mood, like greyish sad winter day... I always like when you can feel the atmosphere.

Just a thing, here on my computer it appears all very bright... Is it on purpose? Otherwise you could maybe reinforce a bit the contrast in your scene, lower a bit the overall lighting... Using Ambient occlusion set on "both" is a very good way to improve contrast... sometimes even too much.

[Warder]

I am not sure why it looks bright, but are you using an LCD monitor It seems like they are brighter.

[Warder]

well I was put back on the project. my thumb drive that had all my recent updates on it broke, I have some older .blends that I grabbed, and blender was able to recover my entire character file with all of their rigs and actions, etc. so here is some updates to that. I made the snow better and I think the whole seen looks better at the moment. I still have to redo the clouds. Also I made a plane duplifaced to my orc model. 330 something orcs on my screen! I rendered and almost crashed my comp at 700 mb memory used and 5.5 million faces. had to use task manager to exit. so I have to find a good way to get all the characters on screen.

heres the images:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_farviewcastle.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/farviewcastle.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_closeviewcastle.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/closeviewcastle.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_topviewcastle.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/topviewcastle.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_frontviewcastle.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/frontviewcastle.jpg)

[fktt]

i like the snow texture :)

you should add some trees! ;)

[Joat]

I think the thing that breaks the illusion in this the most is the snow on the surrounding ladscape vs. no snow at all on the castle. If you could make some snowpiles against the outer walls, it would help. But what would help even more is if you make the hill where castle is a bit less snowy. If castle is built by the hillside in this way, the hill would have to be so steep it wont easily be fully covered with snow. Check the snow ladscapes on mattepaintings here in cgtalk, and you'll quickly discover there is almost always some plain rock, trees and other geographical elements visible no matter how snowfilled the scene is.

The snow, when covering the scenery so thoroughly, makes your castle seem small. You need features on the scenery in scale with your castle.

I hope this helps.

[Michael-Williamson]

here's a paintover... (hope the attchment works!)

more craggy mountains, more "occupation" of the surrounding landscape (sculpt and texture moreimpact, drift snow against the castle walls, dig defensive ditches, add more road trails, maybe the road is more travelled and has less snow... perhaps there's a frozen moat around the castle)

stronger sense of directional light...

and a bit ofcolour.

Personally I think that the towers are all too unniform in height... The concentric defenses of the castle could be stepped upward in height a bit more too....

[Warder]

thanks I am working on it and taking in all suggestions here is an update.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_newmountain2.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/newmountain2.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_newmountain.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/newmountain.jpg)

[Warder]

eres an update with some rocky mountains and and the army placements with cubes
I am still playing with nodes.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_thesiege.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/thesiege.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_soldiersview.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/soldiersview.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_mountains2.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/mountains2.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_mountains.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/mountains.jpg)

[Warder]

I fixed the tiling issue with nodes and added some things.

the first is with ao and ray tracing
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_texturestiledwithAOandraytracing.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/texturestiledwithAOandraytracing.jpg)
just AO
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_texturestiledwithAO.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/texturestiledwithAO.jpg)
just tiled
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_texturestiled.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/texturestiled.jpg)

I think it looks pretty good. long render time though.
well off to make some clouds I guess.

[Joat]

Good progress!

The castle blends in much better now. You could try making the geometry simpler, expecially on the mountains. It would help with the rendertimes too. But it looks nice already. Keep it up!

[Warder]

heres another update. I hid the cubes and took some shots at angles. any suggestions to make it look better. I really do want it to look good. I am trying to find a way to add my armies. sequencing is so much work and I cant open mysql port on my firewall to use blenderpeople. well I have been doing more animations. I have enough to start a simple battle,nothing complex.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_mountains4.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/mountains4.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_mountains3.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/mountains3.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_mountains2-1.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/mountains2-1.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_mountains-1.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/mountains-1.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_siegepreview.jpg (http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/?action=view&current=siegepreview.flv)

cheers

[Warder]

no comments?

[PanzerMKZ]

Ok so you got just 256. Y not talk to some to see if they might be able to get you more ram. Also since you are already into swap y not increase the size of swap?


Panzer

[Warder]

actually I have a comp in my other room that has a gig,but I cant use it all the time.My parents bought a new laptop with 2gb of ram and a core duo 2 proccesor.

[Warder]

heres 2 vids of my progress with fire. lot better than last time. I think I need less smoke though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QR9XYr9yyU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z_zqzlM9Ts

I am redoing all textures

[PanzerMKZ]

well if it is on then maybe now is the time to learn about render farms and such. Drqueue is an example.



Panzer

[Warder]

well I am re texturing the characters and here is the new head for the orc so far. ao ,ray and materials all baked to one layout. I have to just do the same with the body.
still a lot of work to do,but it will get better.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/orcfacenormalmap.jpg

[Warder]

hi everyone..some may remember a project i was working on a while back.
I decided to start a new thread because that was quite a longtime ago and really wouldn't help much.
I took an absence from the project for a lot of reasons and now I feel the urge to start again. I still have all the files..and most of the models are created..but I have quite a bit of texturing to do...then all the finals..lots of animations to redo and fix and add..anyway i just wanted to show some new stuff that i did..I tweaked the terrain to try and make it better and adjusted snow and such with the new particle system..but i still have a lot to do in that area..anyway
and crits..negative and positive are appreciated..i'm making a new UV for the human models right now..I hate texturing so all help in that area is greatly appreciated.

heres the old thread:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=80583

I have a basic summery of why the 2 forces are fighting and a checklist of what I can see that I still need to do..so i thought I would share it.


Quick story summery(open for change):

THE SIEGE

A murderous horde of bloodthristy orcs, attacks a castle hoping to take over and use it as their new stronghold for the long dark winter...but the humans are not willing to give up their home..knowing the orcs will not spare them and delight in the shedding of blood. Can the orcs take the castle? or will the humans outnumbered,but using the defense of their castle and armor hold them off? One thing is certain...many will die...(just had to add that lol)

To Do List

Textures:
swordsman(unfinished)
Orc
bowman
fire
smoke
ladders
battering ram
torches(done..besides fire)
weapons

Particles:
fire
snow
smoke

Modeling:
battering ram
Ladders
torches(done)

Placement:
armies(gonna have some major issues)
cameras
lights(mostly done I think)
Paths(character movement)

Animation:
runcycles
walkcycles(touch up)
attacks
falls
deaths
carrying ladders, torches
basically a lot of stuff


so as you see I still have a lot do do

I have both the essential blender book and Introducing character animation in blender..so I can get a lot of help from those

heres another shot of the characters..the bowman is about just as far as the swordsman..just gotta add the materials over and set the indexes

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_characters.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/characters.jpg)

added smoke and new snow and a better texture for the castle
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_castlefaraway.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/castlefaraway.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_frontcastle.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/frontcastle.jpg)



edit)

battering ram comping along..trying to fix the cartoony look that it has..maybe better textures will help..gonna have fun animating it.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/th_batteringram.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/sealsareus/batteringram.jpg)

also I have a low poly chicken that is rigged and has some ncie animations..very simple..maybe I'll texture it and add a few walking around and pecking in the city..won't really be seen much though

a lot of little progress ahs been made..to be honest I am starting to not even care about texturing and just get the animations and such done..it will be awesome to see it all in action..setting up the armies and compositing everything together is gonna be rough though..high...high...poly!!

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