Isengard - Hello Everybody! I'm new here.

[Rei Ayanami]

Thats pretty good for a first time work. Lots of detail but you bump maps (if anny) could do with some work.

*Tham whoa I gota be more carefull with this thing, kina knocked your tower down mate :hmm:

[Eru]

I know, still experimanting with that...
Anyway, the material here is just for show. I dont know a way to import it into 3dsmax along with the geomatry, and I'm gonna have to anyway, cause its the only way to import it into the ESC-Cons.Set in wich I'm building my mod for Morrowind.

[Eru]

Here is another picture, using a new experimanted material, and a new lighting set, Shown as a comparison between my creation, and the movie's Orthanc:

[On the left: Portion of a Wallpaper from www.lordoftherings.net]
[on the right: Portion of my creation]

http://dynamic5.gamespy.com/~chronicles/yabb/Attachments/OrthancInPrgress6.jpg

[ragecgi]

Looking GREAT so far dude!

[leigh]

That's looking great so far :thumbsup:

Would be nice to see a wireframe as well :)

The textures need work now - try making the whole thing darker, more glossy, and work on your bump map, because it is not correct yet.

Oh, and welcome to CG Talk :beer:

Leigh,
[Moderator]

[PhilWesson]

it looks good, but without using modeling lingo, the tower just looks too clean. the creators of the model (physical miniature) that was used in the movie said that they wanted isengard to look as if it were carved from one piece of obsidian. your isengard doesnt look carved. it looks built and decorated with frosting.
(this isnt really dave, this is his girlfriend :love: but i dont have my own cgtalk account yet :applause: ) good luck with the tower!

[phaedrus_cg]

looking good, I'd be tempted to leave the model as is & play with lighting to achieve the desired result...
mayas got mental ray now right?

[Eru]

First I would like to thank everyone for their welcom:)

Now, I feel I should mention to everyone that I'm a total rookie in the field of professional 3d creation. Other then a brief experiance with 3d studio 3 (the DOS version) about 5 years ago (in wich I've read a short book about it with just the basics of 3d modeling & animation, and modeling some very simple models & animation), so other then that I have close to 'ZERO' experiance in the field od 3d creation. I've read in this forum that some people have 'YEARS' of experiance. Well I have 'DAYS':hmm:
For the last 6 days I've been self-learning Maya completely from SCRATCH... H#ll I dont even know how to create a custom texture! I never had any sort of formal education about 3d whatsoever, and I relie purely on my own intuition. I 'was' hopeing to find some guidance in this forum, but if you choos to aid me, I would humbley ask for you to be as specific as you possibley can be. Suggestions like the usage of "...modeling lingo..." and "...maya's mental ray..." would sadly mean absolutely nothing to me. D@mn, to get from the first 2 pics I've posted, to the third one (in terms of scean's state-lighting, texturing ect.) took me more than half a day...

My thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this entire thread, and much more thanks to any who would be willing to provide specific guidance (meaning, understandable by beginners).

[Eru]

I'm resisting the temptation to post too many pics, but this one has a FAR better material & lighting set, based on the 'zoom out shot' in LOTR-TTT, as Saruman gives his speach to the 10,000 'uruk-hai's army beneath him. Is this better?:
http://dynamic5.gamespy.com/~chronicles/yabb/Attachments/OrthancInPrgress5.jpg

[William b. Hand]

This is a beautiful first project, Eru! I'm sure when you're done that it'll be an amazing addition to the mod! (give us a link??)
Wish I could give advice, but I have no such knowledge, yet.:thumbsup:

[Pizza]

The new materials still dont seem to fit it.. But the model is looking great.. good job!

[Eru]

I've started experimenting with various attributes of 'Mental-Ray', using Global-Illumination & Final-Gathering. Also I've added a nice Balcony :)
http://dynamic5.gamespy.com/~chronicles/yabb/Attachments/OrthancInPrgress7.jpg

[TheGhostDragon]

its really nice work man
I am also a beginner like you ...
keep up the good work ...

[Indy3]

GREAT!!!!

I am new to 3d Studio Max too and I wanted to make Orthanc too.

Looks great.

I have some questins pertaing to that model

How do you start making that?

Is it a box, patch what is it?

What ways did you use to make it and carve the building?

I would love to download that!!!!!

[Eru]

Actually, its not a box, nor a patch or whatever. I simply started modeling it peace by peace, each time modeling the peace itself on the side, then oriant and place it in the right place on the tower, and then duplicate it as needed. once I finish a "floor", I duplicate an entire floor 3 times more for the other 4 corners of the tower.

Thats about it.

(BTW: Its in Maya, not 3dsMax)

[Waters]

the sky reminds me of something out of bryce, is that a ramp mapped to a sphere, or did you use bryce?

[BiTMAP]

the tower of Isengard IS a single peice of stone created way before anyone remebers (i don't even remeber rightnow after reading who made it) It is a single peice of stone and it can't be destroyed. So your edges need to be beveled and worn down so that it looks older and carved instead of as block as it is. Also may I suggest something that helped me when i started, Dont bother with materials or fancy renderings, just get it so that the model is reasonably evenly lit so that we can see the details, then try and have little to no compression on the images when you save it so that it is more sharp. I also believe as for the 4 "posts" you could save your self time by making each one a copy of the first and then move a few points around here and their to get rid of the symetry. It will also save you when you UV map. Also Go through tuts and see how you can apply them to what you are doing.

[Eru]

First of all, I know all about Isengard & Orthanc, I've read all 3 original (meaning, in English even though I'm from Israel...) 'Lord Of The Rings' books Thank you vary much...

Second, you should really 'READ' all the threads on a post, cause its been noted before.

Third, I started this thread by saying its my first 3d model in a professional 3d program, and I'm totally new to Maya, and I'm still self learning it, all in orded to lower expactations from everyone.

Fourth, since I'm new to Maya, I dont really know how to UV Map. I bearly understand what it is. And what is "tuts"?

Anyway thanks for your advices...:)

(BTW, if you have any idea on how to 'melt / forge' all the peices into a 'vague' one, please do tell)

[BiTMAP]

Originally posted by Eru
First of all, I know all about Isengard & Orthanc, I've read all 3 original (meaning, in English even though I'm from Israel...) 'Lord Of The Rings' books Thank you vary much...

Second, you should really 'READ' all the threads on a post, cause its been noted before.

Third, I started this thread by saying its my first 3d model in a professional 3d program, and I'm totally new to Maya, and I'm still self learning it, all in orded to lower expactations from everyone.

Fourth, since I'm new to Maya, I dont really know how to UV Map. I bearly understand what it is. And what is "tuts"?

Anyway thanks for your advices...:)

(BTW, if you have any idea on how to 'melt / forge' all the peices into a 'vague' one, please do tell)

no need to be rude. I was reinforceing others posts. And the beveling process is something that will help things look as one object. If you mean connecting all the meshes... uhm the "pieces" when you select a whole object..? then you use commands like merge and such, I'm not sure what maya calls them as i'm not a maya user. Also tuts, sorry, Thats short for tutorials.

[Eru]

I started UV-maping thwhole Orthanc model, using a high-res picture. Here's what I've done so far:

IsengardInProgress12.jpg (http://www.thatforum.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=177514)

[_The_Paladin_]

Good but needs more detail.

[Eru]

This weekend I decided to invest every time I have into putting my new idea, for the Orthanc model, into motion, full throttle. The idea is to finish modeling and texturing the bottom 1/4 of the tower, but this time on the "INSIDE" also!!! You heared it right. The model will be both Exterior AND Interior "combined". Something that currently does not exist in morrowind at all. After just 2 days of work, I made a significant progress, and here is the resault:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1068339388.jpg

[William b. Hand]

Lookin' good! I'm not suprised that you say you're doing the inside as well since I remember you saying that this is for a mod, right? Are there any sorta blueprints or reference for the interiors, or are they gonna be purely of your own design? -- It's been awhile, but I'm glad to see you haven't given up on this model :)!
Okay, gotta walk my dog now!

[Eru]

I am using my imagination on this one.

Here is a preview picture, of the interior:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1068464883.jpg

[commy]

the outside pic i can draw a line right across the model on the top side its looking nice on the bottom its looking nasty(ish) those fins are a pain to texture because there so thin any tiling or stretching shows up right away sadly so ure gonna naeed to find a way round it (maybe blend in some procedrals?)

anyways keep it up :)

[Eru]

After palying some time with 'Final Gathering' of 'Mental Ray' for Maya, here are some final pictures of both exterior and interior:

P.S: After I post these pics, I'll be working on a 'Fly-By' movie (using the same level of photo-realism, of course...) in which the camera circles around the tower, from the outside, then gets inside, swirls up the stairs, and takes a short trip at the upper level, and finally exists through the balcony, going backwords facing the tower, and ends up where it started. The movie, therefor, will be designed to be watched in a loop, will have a short sountrack, and will be DivX compressed. To be released in a couple of days...

A front view:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1068570629.jpg

And here is a close up of the Back-Side of the tower:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1068570688.jpg

Lets get inside:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1068570718.jpg

[Eru]

Now a close up of the front Gate:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1068570774.jpg

And again, lets get inside...:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1068570824.jpg

Keep an eye for my up-comming movie!!! (It's going to be a killer... ;) )

[DoctorStopMo]

Great job, Eru! Can't wait to see your finished film! :)

[Eru]

Here is the last picture I am going to publish befor publishing the movie. This is the final configuration of lighting & background, and at last I am fairly satisfied, so it is this configuration which will be used to render the movie:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1068592555.jpg

[Eru]

I know I promissed that the previous picture would be the last one, and I wanted to start rendering the movie, but after seeing how dark it is inside, and how you cant see the detail of the balcony, stairways,gate, bottom pillars, etc. I have decided to pospone the movie and sit down to fix-up some stuff...

So, here is a list of things fixed:

-Balcony: Slightly Re-Modeled, and completely Re-Textured.
-Main Gate: Completely Re-Textured.
-All bottom Pillars structure: Completely Re-Textured.
-All stairways (including main one): Completely Re-Textured.
-Sky: Re-Textured.

Also I decided to implement several key features of 'Mental Ray' for Maya. Each of the following features was enabled (applied), then each of those features's attributes was tuned, tested, then fine tuned and retested again and again, until all the attributes fit in perfectley:

-Final Gathering (bouncing of light rays from surface to surface, illuminating each other)
-Global Illumination (emmitense of photones onto surfaces, illuminating them as the 'real-life' sun would)
-Depth of field (determining ranges of focus effects)
-Motion blur (bluring the objects, as the camera sweeps by them, calculating in 3d, so the final movie would look as if it was photographed in real life)

Bottom line is, Orthanc is now perfecty photo-realistic (as much as possible) INSIDE-OUT!

Here is how it looks from the outside right now:

http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069038616.jpg

[SpiritWalker]

Very cool

im from israel too :) (14 and a half years old)

[BouseThral]

Awsome !!!

[Quester99]

Awesome. Simply awesome. The last pic is kinda blurry, but still good.

[William b. Hand]

That looks SO much better, Eru! The texture maps were bugging me, but I wasn't gonna say anything... Hee hee

Good deal. Kinda wish that this pic wasn't suffering the motion blur, but thas okay..

My only remaining irritation is the ground. I think the texture on the earth looks bad. The blurred stretching of that texture doesn't even read like the tower is a part of it, and the busy pattern detracts from the detail in the tower textures. Something more dirt-like with wider swaths of dark scorched foliage or whatever would look great, but right now it looks like a stone table-top.

Sorry for such a late suggestion, but - if you're still tweaking - I think it'll help your piece a helluva lot to do that.

Cheers on the project!

[RealViper]

The model is fine, but some of your textures doesn't fit. For ex. your closeup from the front gate: The texture direct left from the gate has a cut.

Or look at your stairs inside, there the texture also doesn't fit.

BTW, can I see a solid picture without texture and 2nd as a wireframe?

Keep on modelling.

[Eru]

Here are some in-game ScreenShots from morrowind, if anyone is interested:

OrthancFinal01.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455525.jpg)
OrthancFinal02.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455561.jpg)
OrthancFinal03.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455594.jpg)
OrthancFinal04.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455632.jpg)
OrthancFinal05.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455735.jpg)
OrthancFinal06.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455822.jpg)
OrthancFinal07.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455872.jpg)
OrthancFinal08.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455910.jpg)
OrthancFinal09.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069455951.jpg)
OrthancFinal10.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069456022.jpg)
OrthancFinal11.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069456066.jpg)
OrthancFinal12.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069456110.jpg)
OrthancFinal13.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069456180.jpg)
OrthancFinal14.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069456208.jpg)
OrthancFinal15.jpg (http://mwsource.com/forum/uploads//post-8-1069456248.jpg)

[Eru]

Well, Its "Show-Time" people!!!

Here is the link to the Highest-Quality, Highest-Resolution version of my Orthanc Fly-By movie:
Orthanc__high-q__800x600.avi (http://www.fileplanet.com/files/130000/134008.shtml)

P.S: Since it's compressed at the highest quality possible (8000 bps!!!), you might need to push the 'stop' button on the media player a few times, afer it starts (depending on how fast your PC is), to restart the playback, before the movie plays out correctly! I'll soon have a 'lower-quality' version published, that should play out fine on any PC...

[Garma]

I didn't read through the whole thread I'm sorry, but I jumped through it very quickly, but one thing strikes me. AFAICS you are using the final gathering as a texture and that's not good dude :/ can we see a render without GI en FG?

it has come along nicely though nice work.

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