MGAC 64: Wizards staff

[matsman]

Ha... 2000 tri's is really alot for a "simple solution" :) I'll see what I can do... started a new project today... trying to make House md (hugh laurie) as a game character...

and whaddayouknow he has a staff of power... :P

I'll see what I can modify to make it even cooler and closer to those 2000 tri's :D

[susia]

Of course you can go below the 2000 tris... I prefer going under the specs myself a lot of times than over. I just felt that if I will give too low budget people will shun away from the competition.

[kromano]

This seems very close to the blunt weapon challenge we just did. I'm not sure if I have any compelling ideas for this one. I haven't been able to come up with a design I want to finish in a long, long time.

Maybe I'll just try a simple series of elemental staves with different crystals embedded on the end.

Or just a classic pimp cane... I mean "wizard" cane, yeah. Wizard.

[Dekker3D]

i love staves!

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c163/iriad/stafflp.png
not baked yet, but it's the rough materials and shape. i'll be baking the normals, alpha, spec and AO when i finish uv mapping it.

1432 tris, folks!

[blacker]

http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/shrug.gifI'm not sold on this topic, but I'll try to finish (yes, FINISH) something. If I can I'll make something simple and mudbox it or since it's from a FPS view, I'll just model detail on the side facing the camera.

[matsman]

Did a quick concept yesterday... I'm going technomancer. Will post the concept a little later when I have actually did some 3d work on it too...

Dekker3d... I think it is missing something... that makes it distinctive for the user.
I got the feeling this is a stave that I could buy at wizards apparel.. it doesn't tell a story yet.

Okay back to work

[Dekker3D]

matsman: you're absolutely right. this is all procedurals though, i'm still going to add some glowing runes carved into the wood, and some engravings on the metal.

[f4cti0n]

I'm working 16 hour days until Monday, but if I get some time (HA!) I might have a crack at this

[xbiten]

Heya folks!

Made a concept tonight. I'm working a lot this week as well but I'll try to find some time to finish this.
I'm going for a forest druid staff.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/xbiten/flash/galeries/013d/ForestWizardStaffConcept.jpghttp://members.lycos.co.uk/xbiten/flash/galeries/013d/DruidsStaffConcept.jpg
Dekker3D: nice start. I like how the orb looks like it's filled with liquid...magical liquid :)

[Dekker3D]

great staff, xbiten! i hope it turns out as good-looking as on that concept. and thanks :)

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c163/iriad/stafflp2.png
sorry for the length, but it's not quite as easily read when i put it sideways. so, who can guess which mage this staff belongs to? mind you, i'm still tweaking the glows a bit.

- about the mage: i didn't pick a mage with a staff just like this.. just needed a name. i browsed around, and one of the greatest mages around is called trevor. now, does that help you figure it out? good luck guessing ;) -

[Artician]

Is it too late to join in on this?

[xbiten]

no, ofcourse not. Deadline is on monday.

[matsman]

Dekker3d: Ha! that looks to my like it came from an old westwood game called nox... but not sure if there was a trevor in there...

Anyway here is what I have so far... keeping it low... can always go higher... will finish it monday probably :) Totally different approach. If I have time will incorporate an imp into the mix... but probably not.

http://www.matstm.com/CGtalk/technomancer_post1.jpg

Bye to everyone :wavey:

[Dekker3D]

batteries :thumbsup:

can't quite see a lot of it yet, probably due to the lighting.. but honestly, i can't wait to see it. a technomancer's staff should be interesting!

and no, it isn't a westwood trevor... sorry. feel free to try again ;)
don't forget, it isn't necessarily a game character!

anyway, i want a clear reference, so i'll probably change it. anyone name a famous sorceror?

[susia]

Here is my staff. I really wanted to push my time (again) and it's roughly done in about 1h~

The Nature's Dangler

http://i38.tinypic.com/ivwhdv.png

http://i37.tinypic.com/34tcpih.png

You can find all the .psd project files + the obj in here. Do whatever you wan't with em'. :) I don't care, but don't credit the work for yourself.

http://rapidshare.com/files/132618617/staff.zip.html

I'll comment the work later...I have to go fish right now. :)

[Bobbeh]

Hello all,

Figured I would post some WIP of my staff. Still have a little bit of work to do around the top area before I move on to the Low-Poly. Anyhoo, let me know what you guys think. It's a little late to start changing things now, but it would still be nice to know.

the goods...

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p170/SachielDesign/MGAC64_Staff_WIP.jpg

[XepptizZ]

I definitly like the detail. But I can't shake the feeling of it seeming a mixture of old fashioned streetlanterns from upperclass London and Startrek Voyager. The thicker bottom part and the squarish top is probably what's causing it.

[Bobbeh]

*sigh*...I know. I've tried several things and it keeps looking like a lamp post.

Maybe if a wizard was holding it, it would not seem so much like a light pole. =]

p.s. it still looks like a light pole if i take away the thick part at the bottom =[


*edit* i think im just going to take away the caged portion on the top and make it more cylindrical and see if that helps.

[susia]

Bobbeh: I wouldn't start changing it much, to me it looks very victorian style, old scifi Jules Verne, thus a great staff for a steampunk setting. I'm loving the detail too and it definately needs a 2048 texture map to make all the nice accents to come alive. Imho make the lowpoly, bake it, and start texturing it. :)

[Dekker3D]

bobbeh: don't turn it cylindrical. you'll make people cry :(
it looks awesome, no matter how much it looks like a street lamp!

and susia, wow. it's a stick. but it looks great with those textures... *envy*
your uv map ..... has a lot of black though. i guess there's nothing to be done about that, but you could use the space and a few tris to add some floating runes or stuff like that. doesn't look like your stick is anywhere close to the 2k tris anyway, eh? :P

[xbiten]

Bobbeh: Yeah don't change it. I think it looks cool. really sci-fi:ish. I think it will look really cool if you drop the cage but I don't think it's necessary.
susia: I think you're pushing it to much. Take the time and make something really hardcore that I know you can. You got a lot of unused uvspace, either you can make the texture non-square or pimp the staff. That's just my two cents. Hope I didn't come out too harsh at you.
hehe I'm not going to finish this time either. I decided to clean my computer's inside and decided to change the cooling paste on the processor. I thought I had some at home but apperently not :P. Right now I'm sitting on my laptop where I don't have the files. So I have to wait until tomorrow to get some cooling paste from the job. Sorry guys!
Good luck everyone!

[susia]

Thanks for the critique it's only 34 tris right now. Yeah I know there is alot of wasted texture space that could easily be filled just by giving more edges to the staff and breaking them, but on the other hand it would make annoying seams to work with. Or maybe adding a cool alpha map for spell effects. But my main point was just to aim for speed I didn't care much about optimizing the texture space etc. It's really basic stuff, but hey... sometimes it is relaxing not to push your head for fresh ideas too much? :)

[Bobbeh]

Whats up guys, thanks for all the comments. I ended up re-doing the top part last nite so heres the results.

I still have the version how it was previously so don't worry =b, Im working from the bottom up on the lowpoly so i still have some time to get feedback between the two styles.

so critique now!

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p170/SachielDesign/New_HP_WIP.jpg

[susia]

The wasteeeed UV space bothered me so much that I did the frikkin' alpha. So no space wasted anymore. :)

http://i37.tinypic.com/x3czyh.png

[Bobbeh]

No wasted space is more better. ;]

Only thing I'm seeing, and this could just be the angle of the ss or whatever, but the color of the gem is sorta blown out compared to previous shots. Again I dunno if this is cause of the angle or cause of the new 'aura' stuff around it.

P.S. Whats your vote for my staff, the old version or the new one?

-bobby

[susia]

It's because of the angle and the default 3dsmax directx shader isn't the most accurate displaying glow maps, but it gets the job done.

I like them both, but the new version has more sensible design to it. Although the previous one looks like a lantern it has some qualities I also like... but I guess I would go for the new design... I hope you manage to pull out the bake look good on 2000tris.

[Bobbeh]

I've recently discovered that my render to texture dialog is on my other display. (I came to Austin for the weekend to visit the gf who attends UT Austin) SOOOOOOOOO I only brought one monitor with me, and the RTT is appearently on the other display because its not coming up.


=[


Someone bake it for me D=

[Bobbeh]

There was no way I was getting it under 2k tris with the hoses. Im going to leave them there for the bake and texturing. Whatever I submit here will be sans the hoses though.

Tri-Count w/hoses - 2,432

Tri-Count wo/hoses - 2,000

On to the unwrap...

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p170/SachielDesign/Staff_LP_Count.jpg

[Bobbeh]

Heres another WIP shot. Unfortunately I have to drive back to Houston tonight so I won't be finishing this in time so I'll just put up what I have done so far.

Its pretty scrappy as is, missing glow, a real spec map, and the normal is just straight out of the bake. Also the diffuse is not fully fleshed out either.

Anyway, heres the goods...

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p170/SachielDesign/WizardStaff_MGAC64.jpg

[matsman]

Sorry guys... was just too d@mn hot to sit behind my computer... and today and tomorrow I'm participating in a 3dsmax seminar hosted by 3dpalace. And that takes more or less the whole day...

So I don't think I am going to finish...

So good luck... love all the entrys so far. Hope to compete in the next one...

Greetings!

[blacker]

Heres another WIP shot. Unfortunately I have to drive back to Houston tonight so I won't be finishing this in time so I'll just put up what I have done so far.

Its pretty scrappy as is, missing glow, a real spec map, and the normal is just straight out of the bake. Also the diffuse is not fully fleshed out either.

Anyway, heres the goods...


Scrappy!? That looks really nice! I know it's WIP, but that passes for finished in my book. That would not look out of place in Too Human.

Anyhow. I've had no time to work on this aside from concepting. I'm out.

[susia]

Bobbeh: Normals turned out good!... overall everything looks really great! Just please finish it!

The texturing is a nice start, but I don't think the rust grungy stuff works that well for the design... It looks solid technically, but it looks like the staff was found from the local sewers right now so it's really hard for me to buy that concept for a hightech piece like that. Hmm... though the color scheme looks good. I'd try some scratched of painting and metal underneath it.

Oh and btw... Bobbeh you win the competition and get the choose the next title, congratulations! :)

[Bobbeh]

Susia: wo0t. I agree with everything you said, I was just in such a frenzy to get as much as i could done, and the AO bake wasn't that great so I was trying to hide it by throwing grunge everywhere ;]. I plan on finishing it, and I'll letyou know when I do.

P.S. So do I just sorta make a thread like yours for the next comp whenever, or am I suposed to wait for some sort of PM or something?

[matsman]

Hi, done my max seminar... just got back, was fun, great people :)

Congrats Bobbeh, you deserved it!

An yes... now it is your turn to start a thread, moderate it as good as possible, and judge the entry's if possible with some critisism and reasoning why you choose what, for ideas and limitations you can look up some older MGAC's by searching this forum for MGAC since that is always part of the title.

Also look at the small printing in the MGAC challenge title image, all the information should be there.

Basically you can copy the first post and fill it in with your own information :) take the time to mill it over and come up with a good topic :thumbsup: good luck

[xbiten]

congrats Bobbeh!! a really great entry. I agree with susia, great color scheme. I would really like to see the finished version.

[kromano]

Congrats Bobbeh, welcome to CGTalk as well!

Generally speaking, the winner creates a new thread when they have a topic, usually within a week of the competition closing down. They post criteria in similar format to the first post of this thread and for the convenience of others, post a link to the new thread here to let people know the next competition is up.

Average timeline is 1 week to complete your entry but I've seen frequent extensions offered in the past when there weren't many entries or when there were many entries but weren't quite finished yet.

[Ahuri]

Great performance Bobbeh!
Congrats!

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