80's cartoon Post Mortem: Tell us what you learned...

[FICTIS]

Wasn't the deadline today (wednesday) at noon?

[mnartgirl]

So we now have till Friday to Post?

[TheRazorsEdge]

Oh cool! What time Friday? I can use every last minute of this unofficial extension. ;)

Cheers!

[robo3687]

i wanna know what the next topic is for certain...we usually have a confirmation of it by now....

[profchaos354]

Ya, I really want to know what time on Friday too, I will definitely keep taking my piece to the next level with every extra hour that I can get :D

[Airflow]

I thought it was 12pm today, no matter. More tinker time. :)

[AJ]

It would be fantastic if we've got a little extra time. I'd hugely, hugely appreciate the chance to finish!
:D

[JM-art]

This past night i worked on my entry to the 4 am, thinking i wont finish it when i saw this post..this golden post...good news realy.
Every competition should have this kind of extension, just for lazy people like me;) .

Cheers, good luck to everyone.

[MistaFraggadeliX]

Woohoo.... Think I just maybe get to finish after all :beer:

[mnartgirl]

Do we have to post now so we can tweak till friday?

[RobertoOrtiz]

Do we have to post now so we can tweak till friday?

You can post now and you can tweak until Friday.

i wanna know what the next topic is for certain...we usually have a confirmation of it by now....

I want to do a traditional sculpture challenge..

Either
HUMAN BODY - Cutaway

or
1 Face- 12 Expressions.

-R

[AJ]

You can post now and you can tweak until Friday.
Can we just post tomorrow/Friday...?

[RobertoOrtiz]

Can we just post tomorrow/Friday...?

No problem...

-R

[AJ]

Excellent - cheers Roberto!

[JasonTonks]

The deadline was today... I work like most of us here 40hrs during the week...


I find this slightly unfair.

[jasonfeiner]

yes, a deadline is a deadline, and if it was going to be extended it should have been mentioned days ago, not at 2am the day before it's due.

[JM-art]

The deadline was today... I work like most of us here 40hrs during the week...


I find this slightly unfair.

are you telling that if you needed the extra time you were complain too?

Cause i can tell you that even if i had finished on time i wouldnt mind the extended deadline.

Besides this is not the world championship modeling with thousands of dollars in prizes. I see this callenges like just an excuse to get better and maybe have something for the portfolio.

How do you see it? Just to win to the others?

Cheers.

[RobertoOrtiz]

Ok here is what Ill do..

everyone who posted on time, WILL GET A MENTION
as posted on time.
that way the voters will know that the entry was published
on time.

-R

[jasonfeiner]

are you telling that if you needed the extra time you were complain too?

Cause i can tell you that even if i had finished on time i wouldnt mind the extended deadline.

Besides this is not the world championship modeling with thousands of dollars in prizes. I see this callenges like just an excuse to get better and maybe have something for the portfolio.

How do you see it? Just to win to the others?

Cheers.

Of course you wouldn't mind the extended deadline, you didn't get finished in time.
Some of us worked very hard to make sure we met that deadline. That is the mark of a professional, regardless of whether or not this is a "world championship".
If i'd needed the extra time because I hadn't finished, I simply wouldn't have put in an entry. Then I'd get angry at myself for being lazy and unable to meet deadlines.

Anyone here who's actually worked at a studio knows what I mean, milestones are serious business. If you march into one without your work finished it could mean real trouble for you. I feel we should treat these challenges with the same professionalism and attitude that would be required of us on the job. Just my two cents.

[WyattHarris]

Oi, must be a lot of new guys, this comes up every challenge. Until Roberto gets the thread ready for posting you are usually free to update until then. Considering there are so many entries I wonder when the vote thread will actually go up.

[JM-art]

Actualy i do work in a studio and i know and i care about deadlines. But this is just for personal growing, and if i didnt finish for the challenge i just dont mind at all, because i can finish it later, no one cares, and i did finished more than 1 competition before deadlines. Anyway, im happy about what i learned from this challenge, so im ok with myself.

im not trying to prove im profesional, i leave that for my profesion actualy:D .

[robo3687]

I want to do a traditional sculpture challenge..

Either
HUMAN BODY - Cutaway

or
1 Face- 12 Expressions.

-R

i think the 1 face 12 expressions is an awesome idea, opens up room for a lot more creativity than the human body cutaway one.. plus it will allow people to practice modelling for animation and getting the facial topology right and all that jazz...so yeh i'd say the face idea is the better of the two...

[RageOfAges]

Of course you wouldn't mind the extended deadline, you didn't get finished in time.
Some of us worked very hard to make sure we met that deadline. That is the mark of a professional, regardless of whether or not this is a "world championship".
If i'd needed the extra time because I hadn't finished, I simply wouldn't have put in an entry. Then I'd get angry at myself for being lazy and unable to meet deadlines.

Anyone here who's actually worked at a studio knows what I mean, milestones are serious business. If you march into one without your work finished it could mean real trouble for you. I feel we should treat these challenges with the same professionalism and attitude that would be required of us on the job. Just my two cents.


Is there a reason you feel the need to belittle people who do not work professionally? Because that is what you are doing. You've insinuated that you are a better person than others because you work in a studio and you met the deadline. Some of us are amateurs and enter these challenges for the pure love of modeling. It's a loose forum that houses a really strong supportive community which gives constructive feedback no matter the experience of the entrant. If you're in it to try and prove to others that you're better, I think you've missed the point. For myself, A HUGE part of participating is watching how people grow in their skills from challenge to challenge, and feeling like I've become better and/or more efficient in my workflow from practice and observing others.

-Rage

PS: I congratulate you for having met the deadline.

[RageOfAges]

i think the 1 face 12 expressions is an awesome idea, opens up room for a lot more creativity than the human body cutaway one.. plus it will allow people to practice modelling for animation and getting the facial topology right and all that jazz...so yeh i'd say the face idea is the better of the two...

couldn't have said it better myself. Since Roberto brought it up earlier I've been really hoping he'd lean towards that.

[Airflow]

Its not somuch a deadline, more of a guidline. Well it worked in POTC :)

I dont think its a huge deal, or cheating, it makes for a more interesting challenge because more entrants will be in the runnings.
I actually finished in time, but never bothered posting it, to busy with my other entry, which I could have finished on time too, but its not somthing to get annoyed by. I worked hard, most people did, but rl get in the way, regardless. So just go with it, no prizes are at stake and its all freindly stuff on here. In my first entry I was kinda of the same mind, but thats not what this is about. Its an exercise.

[necromancer120]

Is there a reason you feel the need to belittle people who do not work professionally? Because that is what you are doing. You've insinuated that you are a better person than others because you work in a studio and you met the deadline. Some of us are amateurs and enter these challenges for the pure love of modeling. It's a loose forum that houses a really strong supportive community which gives constructive feedback no matter the experience of the entrant. If you're in it to try and prove to others that you're better, I think you've missed the point. For myself, A HUGE part of participating is watching how people grow in their skills from challenge to challenge, and feeling like I've become better and/or more efficient in my workflow from practice and observing others.

-Rage

PS: I congratulate you for having met the deadline.

Rage, I dont think you understood the post. He was not belittling anyone for their job or lack of. He was pointing out that, casual or no, a deadline was set and, having worked in a studio environment (something many of us want to do/already do), that deadlines are usually something you try and stick to hence the name 'deadline'.

I know its easy to misunderstand typed words so hopefully that helps you understand his view. Also, having stayed up and busted butt to meet the deadline, it tends to rub a little wrong, especially with only a few hours sleep because of trying to finish on time.

think of it as venting, not a personal jab at you or anyone else.

[RageOfAges]

Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying; and it is true that it is very easy to misinterpret conversation on a screen without tone, inflection, and body language to contribute. My apologies.

-Rage

[japetus]

Just think of it as the client pushing the meeting back a few days and, by the luck of the fates you have a couple extra days to make it THAT MUCH SWEETER. If you were done on time you can sit back and relax, if you still have more work to do, well you now have time to pump out a sweet model! :buttrock:

[necromancer120]

Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying; and it is true that it is very easy to misinterpret conversation on a screen without tone, inflection, and body language to contribute. My apologies.

-Rage

no worries, its all about making ourselves better and enjoying it! I just happen to be friends with him and know the efforts he made to complete this on time.

[RageOfAges]

Lol that's what I figured when I saw you were both from St-Louis.

[menthol]

I'd vote Human Cutaway :D

Cheersy!

[TheRazorsEdge]

Man, what a ruckus! lol

As Wyatt remarked, a lot of people seem to be new to a challenge such as this one and appear to be taking it a bit too serious. Professional in the field or not, we all have lives and responsibilities beyond this little, completely meaningless game here. This is no serious competition and no job, period! Nothing is at stake and there's no loot to get at! There's absolutely no need for indirectly elbowing other people here. Doing so only reflects badly on the one doing so. This is supposed to be fun and just fun alone, so chill out everybody and hang loose!

What's a few more days on the deadline anyways?! I for my part am very happy about it each time Roberto makes a thread or individual post like this one at the end of each mini-challenge. There's always room for improvement, regardless of anybody's level of proficiency. Regardless of how hard we work to meet a deadline, I feel everybody in their right mind should be grateful for the opportunity to tweak some more and be happy for everybody else who can make it across the finish line. :)

To give you guys some other food for thought, just think about how utterly flawed the whole thing is to begin with, just merely by being peer- and general cg-public-voted! ;)

Anyways, the question that's really burning on my mind, is: What time Friday do we absolutely need to have posted by?

Cheers!

[REZI-st]

yes, thats right. This all is only for fun and training our experience and skill, so why not move deadline to Friday. Many good works here are not done yet and most want to see final result :)

peace and good luck for all what else do for yours final entry:beer:

[simjoy]

Then I'd get angry at myself for being lazy and unable to meet deadlines. well ... i never got finished and would resent being called lazy, or of being unable to meet deadlines.
I've met every deadline set for these challenges, except this one. personal circumstances and real life got in the way.
I'm a recently separated father with three kids, and still finished the last one, but due to the Easter school holidays and my desire to spend time with my kids, didn't get this one done.

I dont know your personal circumstances (just as you dont know mine) but just 'cos you are a "professional" and work 40hrs and got it done (for all i know you had hours to yourself every evening to work on it) doesnt make us lazy.

If this was a competition (prizes, trophies, global fame) then yes, maybe you have a point. (although the recent big Steampunk challenge also had an extention due to technical problems, and that did have big prizes)

To be honest though 3D work is rarely "finished" so im sure even you could use the extra time to tweak,adjust,re render etc ...

at the end of the day this is and always has been a fun challenge with active constructive criticism with the sole aim of helping people improve their modelling skills.
Anyone in it for the "fame" has come to the wrong place .....

[RageOfAges]

The good nature of the participants in this forum never ceases to amaze me (*looks up) and you guys have had a huge impact on my modeling since I started paying attention to these challenges. For the first 4 or 5 challenges all I did was read the posts and throw an odd comment here and there when I felt it was my place to do so. Even doing only that, and not actually participating, It was a big help. Being able to have near real-time exposure to so many different workflows is priceless IMO. After seeing the nature of the challenge forum and the community it houses I realized that I didn't have to be god's gift to CG to enter, and that many people do not, can not, or don't care to finish their entries. This will be, for me, the first of the 3 challenges I've participated in that I will be able to post a final result, and that is due to the extended deadline. I still would have posted late, even if it meant non-eligibility for voting. Let's face it, there's no judges panel, and a lot of the votes come from friends, can be based on the integration of textures to the finished piece, etc. Basically, the votes don't really mean that much anyway, although they are a nice touch.

That being said, because of the reasons listed above, it is also a shock when someone posts a negative comment, because we're just not used to it, and perhaps some of us (*points at self) get defensive as a natural reaction due to this.

-Rage

[LMG]

I am really ok on the deadline being now on Friday. I just cant quite franquly see the convenience personally as im not going to be able to do anything ... but im ok on moving the deadline.

I know that many of you did work hard even didnt sleep as to finish the work on time but this challenge as many others are just excuses to start something and maybe sticking with it untill its almost done or fully complete.

Sincerelly
Leandro

[robo3687]

yeh its a good little community here in the hardcore modeling section....its actually the only place i really visit on cgtalk anymore....

its getting to be really good because the same guys take part in the challenges regularly and we all get an appreciation for each others work and some guys get some notoriety amongst the group for being awesome....or crazy.....lol....

i've been here since about the 7th challenge i think (whichever the 30 models, 30 days one was), and our next is the 20th...which is awesome...i can't wait for the 50th one....

on the subject of deadlines...we pretty much always go over....the date is usually 'the end of that week' and at the end of the day there's no prize so no one can really be 'cheating'

[menthol]

If your boss gives you extension, your expression should be...

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2787/48136900.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=48136900.jpg)

Oh okay, that wasn't really helpful :D But the wind has to change, so, next challenge?

[robo3687]

i want it to be

1 Face- 12 Expressions

already know exactly who my model is going to be for the face for my entry....

[RageOfAges]

i want it to be

1 Face- 12 Expressions

already know exactly who my model is going to be for the face for my entry....

let me suggest either Goku or Vegeta. :D

[robo3687]

let me suggest either Goku or Vegeta. :D

lol....nah....olivia wilde :thumbsup:

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6429/015htq.jpg

[RageOfAges]

I wanna model this guy.

http://facemelt.us/crazy_face

[RobertoOrtiz]

Man, what a ruckus! lol

As Wyatt remarked, a lot of people seem to be new to a challenge such as this one and appear to be taking it a bit too serious. Professional in the field or not, we all have lives and responsibilities beyond this little, completely meaningless game here. This is no serious competition and no job, period! Nothing is at stake and there's no loot to get at! There's absolutely no need for indirectly elbowing other people here. Doing so only reflects badly on the one doing so. This is supposed to be fun and just fun alone, so chill out everybody and hang loose!

What's a few more days on the deadline anyways?! I for my part am very happy about it each time Roberto makes a thread or individual post like this one at the end of each mini-challenge. There's always room for improvement, regardless of anybody's level of proficiency. Regardless of how hard we work to meet a deadline, I feel everybody in their right mind should be grateful for the opportunity to tweak some more and be happy for everybody else who can make it across the finish line. :)

To give you guys some other food for thought, just think about how utterly flawed the whole thing is to begin with, just merely by being peer- and general cg-public-voted! ;)

Anyways, the question that's really burning on my mind, is: What time Friday do we absolutely need to have posted by?

Cheers!

You my friend should write poetry...
Fine post.

I will be posting the Plug on Saturday Morning (I am going to a midnight screening of Trek II)
...
and to all keep in mind.

We are here to have fun. That is the key.


-R

[TheRazorsEdge]

Great! That means all Friday is available to tweak and fuss over tiny details. :)

Many thanks, Roberto! Have fun at the screening!

Cheers!

[RageOfAges]

Saturday AM? That means on Friday I have time to go to work at midnight, come home at 8, Work on my Smurfs 'til Noon, Actually get 8 hours sleep for the first time in what seems forever, Get up, work on my Smurfs 'til Saturday Am. I'm definitely gonna have a complteted entry!

Thanks Roberto!

[angel]

I'd vote Human Cutaway :D

Cheersy!

currently working in the medical animation business I'm bias towards this one:buttrock:
I think it is a bigger challenge.

[razeverius]

wow so that means you guys have been together thru alota modelling challenges eh?:D. Human Cutaway, is that like the machine thing where you see the interiors? lol. I've just starting modeling humans so maybe this could speed up my learning and my final exams at school are over and it's vacation for a month so. Yeah! I'd love to see the new challenge n join :bounce:

[WyattHarris]

I was originally going to make a snarky comment but you guys changed the tone so quickly I feel calm again. :D What first attracted me to these challenges was how even though it was for fun it still brought out such amazing entries. I mean freakin' Rick 'Monstermaker' Baker himself competed once, how cool is that. Then you see guys like Albert Feliu, Samar Vijay and Kris Kosta, I just had to start competing.

But speaking of deadlines when I was pushing to finish last night my boss called to interrupt me. We have a client in Singapore and last night was their daytime so I had to stop and troubleshoot their PC issues from across the world. Talk about adding 1 last hurdle to overcome.

[WyattHarris]

Mind if I change the topic? What did you personally learn during this challenge?

For me I think this has been the most productive challenge for me yet. I finally cracked the ZB->LW riddle that's been bugging me for 2 years, thank you Rage for the eureka moment. With that handled I could finally start utilizing many of the features in LW that I had been putting off learning because I had no need for them.

The other good thing is I learned, pretty extensively I might add, is how not to use ZB and LW together. Things that I had been doing, without thinking about it, in ZBrush just don't work well in LW so I'll have to keep that in mind the next time.

Oh, I also learned my PC can handle rendering 5.5million polygons in LW and 1 GB in texture memory, don't know what the limit is yet. :thumbsup:

So what about you guys, make any personal progress this round?

[JM-art]

Mind if I change the topic? What did you personally learn during this challenge?



I learned a lot about the Maya-Zbrush workflow.


The main thing i learned, was that this is a realy bad idea:

To pose the character before taking it to Zbrush for detailing.

Why? well it is pretty obvios, but i didnt realize the importance until i made the mistake...

Because without the chance to scuplting with symetry, its not the double effort you have to do, but 3 times because you have not only to do the same in the both sides, but the constant comparison between the two sides...IS A PAIN. So please dont do this at home.

Surprisingly i had not issues with the displacement and colour maps. I was a little skeptic about i could get them right, and now im much more confident about this topic.

From a long time i wanted to finish a character using this workflow and this challenge gave me the perfect excuse. This challenge (and all of this kind) did a lot for me, im very happy about participating in it, and im unhappy for the fact that (mostly because i begun later in the last week) i didnt have the time to share more and to post the progress, wich ill try to do next time if i organize better.

About the next challenge, the human cutaway looks great for me, but the other alternative of the 15 expression is very good too, so, we always win:applause: .

cheers:thumbsup: .

[grantmoore3d]

Yay! I think I may actually have the time to participate in this next round now that school is over and done with. I would love to try my hand at the human cutaway, great excuse to study anatomy more in depth!

[profchaos354]

I learned two main things that aren't even specifically about modeling.

I actually had a lot of technical issues while that I can avoid in the future while I was rigging my characters. It resulted in me having to completely re-rig some parts of them two or three times. You can kind of tell that part took me a long time during the competition because of how my post kind of dies once I really get into rigging and then just recently picked back up ^_^.

The other thing I learned is that I really need to upgrade my computer.

OH! Also a third thing, I need to stop using such high res textures.

[Airflow]

I learned a lot about the Maya-Zbrush workflow.


The main thing i learned, was that this is a realy bad idea:


I think this is dependant on what your doing. For my character it was easier to pose then sculpt him, the muscles on the raised arm and leg react differently to the lowered ones, the opposite muscels in each limb are flexed, so it would be an error to use symmetry sculpting in my case, and though I had to scuplt the entire mesh, and paint it with no symmetry I still have a decent level of asymetrics in the sculpt. Nothin organic should ever be completly symetrical.

I learned on this a few things about mudbox, and max and vray.
I also learned I need more ram, infact a whole new pc, My scene files were 500mb in size at the end of the Mummra project, mainly due to the cracked floor and hi poly version of mummra, (the displacment would not work properly for some reason, got real close but no cigar).
I learned that Im a better box modeller than an extrude modeler (max thing), an that modelling organics makes your hard surface modelling much stronger.

Cheers guys, it was alot of fun.

[razeverius]

i learned..how not to be lazy and just play computer games a lot lol..

hhmmm, i did learn how to model "more" properly,and make sure my wires are all alright coz before I kept modeling the wrong way just to get what I want:rolleyes: and i never really thought I'd make a more human like robot unlike the Dreadnought of warhammer:shrug:.

what else...looking thru the temp file to look for a maya back up scene and learning bout incremental save(thanks snows) oh, and another thing is doing render passes which i never really tried back then oh and a stupid mistake i made. I should UV map a model first before posing them :D. Hope to join the other challenges since school is over:twisted:

[mnartgirl]

I have learned not to give up on doing my own projects! This has been really great and I plan to start entering more often.

I've also realized how much practice I need on rendering and modeling backgrounds. I am still struggling on the foliage for my scene. I just have a temp up in the final post, miss understood thought I had to post to be able to revise.

(by the by RobertoOrtiz I would appreciate not being included in the entries that finished by the dead line)

Thank you all for your help you guys are really amazing artists.

[RageOfAges]

Great Idea Wyatt.

For this challenge I actually learned quite a bit.

1)know and respect the limitations of your hardware.
2)There's no need to export 2k displacement maps for objects and subtools when rendering out a 2 k final image. If the head, for example, takes a quarter of that render, ideally all you need is a 512 disp map for it.
3)While I have no limitations to the amount of reference I gather, I find my conceptual stage ends there. What I need to do is to finalize my concept BEFORE proceeding to the creation process. This is something I always have trouble with because I get so eager to start modeling

If I can keep these in mind on the next entry, I belive I`ll do quite well.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to ask people to suggest what they prefer for the next challenge: Anatomy: Cutaway or 1 face, 12 expressions. I'm sure it'll be easier for Roberto to decide if he has more feedback.

Apart from that, this challenge has been a blast and, because of the number of wip's I've been able to follow, has had a huge impact on my workflow.

Cheers and good luck to all during the voting process.

-Rage

[robo3687]

well as for what i learnt

- i'm now better at organic modeling
- i can kinda rig things now....kinda
- i now know that the best light setups are often the simplest
- i also know that its best to pick one idea and stick with it...thats my biggest problem with these challenges, always changing my mind....


as for the next challenge i really would prefer the face one as the anatomy cutaway seems creatively restricting to me....plus we've only just done a cutaway challenge

i've also gathered a crap load of reference for olivia....which wasn't exactly the hardest task in the world :love:

maybe for future challenges roberto should narrow the choices down to 3 or 4 and then put up a poll to let us decide what each challenge will be...it might encourage more community involvement too...

[REZI-st]

I learned / trying:

Finally I try rendering in XSI :D To now Iam only modeling and maping in XSI :) But Iam not newbe in rendering. Previously I working in MAX/MR/Vray. Now I know that XSI rendering is good too but I must learn a lot of still. hehe

and I hope that I have time for next HMC :) This is my firts entry and i like it because finally I can do something personal what I like.

[WyattHarris]

1. Put more time in the planning stage. My "flying by the seat of my pants" workflow bit me in the butt again but like Rage said it's hard to not just jump right into the fun stuff.

2. Put more time into the base mesh. I need to take the time to properly learn how to model: feet, hands, ears and noses. After making so many I realize that they are all afterthoughts and it shows in the big renders.

3. You may need 1 million polys to get good polypaint results in ZBrush but once you finish and create your texture it looks good on the low poly models. The megapoly levels aren't always necessary after that.

4. Manage and put some thought into my file system. This is the first time I've ever had a project go over 1GB in assets alone and alot of that was not needed. Decide which models REALLY need 2k textures.

5. I learned to not be afriad of giving it a try even if that try sucks. The next one will be even better and the practice is more important than the immediate result. Too many times I've phsyced myself out simply by stared at a blank canvas and thinking there's no way I could do it good enough. Maybe not the first or second attempt but if I keep at it it'll get better and better until it's how I want it.

6. Watch those deadlines, they come up fast everytime. :D

[JM-art]

1. Put more time in the planning stage. My "flying by the seat of my pants" workflow bit me in the butt again but like Rage said it's hard to not just jump right into the fun stuff.


5. I learned to not be afriad of giving it a try even if that try sucks. The next one will be even better and the practice is more important than the immediate result. Too many times I've phsyced myself out simply by stared at a blank canvas and thinking there's no way I could do it good enough. Maybe not the first or second attempt but if I keep at it it'll get better and better until it's how I want it.



This two things are key for me, and for what i see they are very comnon in general too.

Mostly your point five its very important imo. Its very important not to be afraid of bad results, in fact we shouldt see as bad results, but more like mistakes than in future oportunities we wont make, wich eventualy could end in very good results.

A lot of times i find that, more than the things we do, are very important the things we dont have to do. How do we know what not to do if we dont make those mistakes? because even undestanding very well what a guy say in a tutorial, is when you put your hands on it when the issues appear and solving them by yourself is the way to learn in depth. There is a set phrase that say that the mistakes are your friend. The key here is recognize them, and a strong autocritique about what we do. We shouldt compare ourselves with people who dont know nothing about 3d, and think that we are years ahead of them, we should compare with the best and see how much we can improve. Im saying this because when i was studying i saw a lot of people very proud of very mediocre stuff, and how much can you grow with that attitude?

Cheers.

[Airflow]

Very true statement. I agree, always compare your self to the best in that feild or its not worth competing. Now if we could just get Bay Raitt to come back and do more 3d :)

One face 12 experssions.

[LMG]

One thing Iv learned is that Im much of an undefined person. :argh: I do have thouthands of ideas and when i came up with something i say: yeah, that would be great, it just happens to me that its never a sure thing. I do have a plan but I do not allways stick to it.

Other thing I had learned is that inorganic modelling is at times more hard for me than organic, its just im not that structured i think ... or something else i cant quite understand.

Other thing iv learned is just a little bit more of mental ray. I was used to use VRay at work, but mental is something i was using at home so this was a very nice way to stay close with it and try to understand it a little bit more in depth.

Last thing but not less important is that I got really burn on my flesh that there is a big difference about 32 or 64 bits systems. I almost cant quite render anything on a 32 bit systems, max seems to explode and close dramatically. Even using Vray and proxys there were times It crashed, so iv learned that even a simple laptop with a 64 bit system (what i used for this challenge) did made a difference when managing hard poly counts on memory.

Sincerelly
Leandro

[PeterR]

.If it's possible - thinking about "level of detail" while modeling;P
.Optimize meshes,collapse stacs just when I started to run out of FPS in viewport..
attached things display faster..
.Plan time so I know what i can roughly do ,so I can have some time for rendering purpose so that my render is as good I can make it..
Learned some tricks to push 2kk scene with some displacement through mental ray on 3gb ram 1.6/1.2k and 4 oversampling:P(nothing fancy but It kept crashing ..)
also ,when deadline comes you become faster and faster up to infinity;D

last thing - procedural/composite terrains and etc. can make big headache

well i didn't have enough time to think how to make great long grass areas on mental ray/max ,in that area vray seems better..

[Rofideo]

What I learn

Don´t challenge WyattHarris in a charisma challenge (lol, a lot of people takes care of you, bacause you´re a nice person)

I like it a lot, many people sharing their skills, giving a hand when you ask for, full feedback. Is awesome! Then you find is a nice part in the day wen you see a guy/gal posting a coment or share their super secret stuff. Its like a family workshop.

Thanks everybody!

Well I learn to try it, Am shy cause you only see good works around, but every one is trying hard pushing for bether quality.

First time I try poly hair, its nice, just learned here.
Its one of the first times I use render pass, and must to considerate when you render a turnaround, Take about 10hours for 30 frames of occlusion:surprised
And many "little things" scouting in the forums Rage, Razor and Robo your´re a Cool Guys

See you.

Hey Roberto - 12 expresions could be nice

[Rofideo]

Other thing I had learned is that inorganic modelling is at times more hard for me than organic, its just im not that structured i think ... or something else i cant quite understand.

Last thing but not less important is that I got really burn on my flesh that there is a big difference about 32 or 64 bits systems. I almost cant quite render anything on a 32 bit systems, max seems to explode and close dramatically. Even using Vray and proxys there were times It crashed, so iv learned that even a simple laptop with a 64 bit system (what i used for this challenge) did made a difference when managing hard poly counts on memory.

Sincerelly
Leandro

First Industrial designers must say the same but viceversa

Second I agree with that My PC Usualy crash with soo many textures but in 64 Bits there is no problem. Sweeet

[angel]

Hummm.... what I learned... To remember to always check for non-manifold geometry. That I need more than 2 Gigs of RAM and in order to do so I need a new system lol yeah that'll work :) I also learned a few cool tips and tricks by looking at everyone's threads, specially the Maya folks since I still do most of my modeling in Lightwave.

But the absolutely best thing (not a thing I learned but more of an experience), being my first HCM challenge was meeting everyone, made a bunch of new friends whose skills and dedication are inspiring. :thumbsup:

[AJ]

I learned a lot about transpose & working with multiple subtools. I had a great time entering this one, it's a been a long time since I've worked on a full (human) figure & there's plenty of room for improvement!

One tiny thing I would add, I know it's all a bit of fun but for those who've picked themselves in the voting thread... you're not doing yourself or your work any favours!

Congrats & good luck to everyone who finished!

:D

[RageOfAges]

One tiny thing I would add, I know it's all a bit of fun but for those who've picked themselves in the voting thread... you're not doing yourself or your work any favours!

While most of me agrees with this statement, If they truly felt they deserve a vote in that category, then nothing wrong with that. Being critical of your own work is one of the hardest things for me. So someone who can efficiently look at their own piece (bias-free) and judge it to be the best in a category, I say hats off to them.

-Rage

[angel]

I don't know... voting for yourself to me its kinda weird... I don't condemn it tho. If my work is the best in any given category that's for others to decide in MHO...

[RageOfAges]

Like I said, I've got mixed feelings about it, but who are we to judge?? oh wait, I forgot. We ARE the judges :D

-Rage

[Boijc]

If it were anonymous voting, everyone would probably vote for themselves, then condemn self voting.
:)

[samartin]

I too found the voting for yourself to be very odd, maybe it's a cultural thing. I've never heard of this voting for yourself, I would never give myself an A+ when I was at school even tho' it was the best homework I ever produced.

Actually there was a time I had to mark myself during home economics, we all had to bring in pack-up and mine was abysmal, full fat coke, ham and cheese slices on white bread and a choc bar. It was supposed to be a healthy packed lunch! I did mark myself quite low as I remember...

[AJ]

My sentiments are - if you're work is good, people will tell you. If it needs to improve, people will tell you. If you say it's perfect, you'll cover your ears & won't hear anything.

*edit* - I've just re-read that and it sounds much more aggressive than I intended... I don't mind anyone voting for themselves, I just find it strange you'd enter a challenge to improve yourself and at the end go "Yep. I'm fantastic!" :p :D

[profchaos354]

Oh man, I didn't realize voting for myself was going to be so shunned X_X Sorry if what I did annoys people...

My standpoint on it was that I try to step back and really look at all the projects and try to rate them without as much bias is as humanly possible. I mean, when I started my project, I set out to make something a piece of art that I genuinely loved and I thought I accomplished that.

On the contrary, AJ, I'm actually extremely open to any and all comments and critiques and I STILL would love to hear them on my piece. I really want to make this piece as good as possible for my portfolio, so I would love to hear your guys' opinions. I've actually got some ideas that I might try out to improve the piece (have actual eyes instead of white planes, redo the rig and try to avoid some of the small issues I was having, getting normal maps finished, and put the colored tape on the weapon handles).

I actually was having troubles getting opinions critiques on my thread. My thread wasn't getting as much publicity as a lot of others so most of the opinions that I received were from my personal friends.

So again, sorry if voting for yourself is looked down upon, I was unaware and tried to make an honest opinion out of it :(

*edit* Woops, I forgot to add, I don't think any of the peices are "perfect" in this competition just because there isn't enough time in this mini challenge to really reach what I would consider a "perfect" peice. Though, PasKal's was pretty dang close, I love that peice :D

[vshen]

IMO I don't really mind about the "voting for yourself" coz I think it's just lighthearted fun since this challenge is nothing serious with prizes involved. Most important thing is you walk away from it learning something and be able to be involved with fellow artist who can push you and inspire you.

I don't think people who vote for themselves don't think that their work is the best, but they did work hard on their piece and if it's their way of giving themselves a pat on the back for their efforts then why not?

On another topic.... I am currently developing my portfolio and I was wondering that now that the challenge is over, I was wanting to further develop my model and actually putting it on a scene so it will be included in my portfolio. Is it okay to post it in the 3d Finished Gallery section when I am done?

Sorry if it's a stupid question or not, I just don't know the procedures if it's allowed or not or looked down upon.

Also, it was pleasure being involved in this challenge with you guys, it was fun and can't wait for the next one.

[moonangel]

Its your model, you can do with it, whatever you want.

[WyattHarris]

Hey vshen one more time, that is the coolest looking Ninja Turtle ever, great job.

I've posted a few of mine into my gallery and 1 to the 3D Stills. Just follow the guidelines for that thread, make sure its finished and all the rest and should be fine.

If you see me vote its because I don't think mine is a high enough caliber to win so I vote for the best. If you don't see me vote its because I think mine is good enough to win but my vote would be too biased to be fair. That way I let you guys decide if I deserve it. I won't be voting this time because I think mine is good enough. I see all of its errors and flaws but I still judge it good enough. So I leave it up you.

One last thing I learned. Make sure you know what crashes your software better than any other feature and be sure to save before you crash. No problem right? :beer:

[lucerro]

My sentiments are - if you're work is good, people will tell you. If it needs to improve, people will tell you. If you say it's perfect, you'll cover your ears & won't hear anything.

*edit* - I've just re-read that and it sounds much more aggressive than I intended... I don't mind anyone voting for themselves, I just find it strange you'd enter a challenge to improve yourself and at the end go "Yep. I'm fantastic!" :p :D

I like a few others did throw a vote in for my own model, and I do understand how that looks , in fact I'm usually the one urging people not to vote for themselves in this type of thing. However on this occasion I was exceptionally happy with how the robotech model I submitted turned out, (I should have posted more pics of the toy for comparison) and I felt it needed a vote. If this offended anyone I apologize as this was totally not my intention to offend.

Thanks and excellent work from all!

[RageOfAges]

I learned that no matter how hard you try to keep a thread on topic, it always seems to digress... :D

-Rage

[waterlilly]

What I learned

1) How much I like everyone here. Even though its a competition, peeps are very nice when it comes to c&c, and sensitive to other people's differences in skill level. It lends to an environment of positive encouragement really helped to drive me to finish the model on time.

2) I need to upgrade to x64, had memory & crash issues despite having 4 gigs (which I understand a x32 can't use or recognize it all).

3) In making a model with a complex costume that hides the body, it is important to have a "dummy" body underneath to remind you of where the underlying limbs are in the pose. This is important for getting the cloth draping and folds to look right.

4) In an asymmetrical pose with lots of cloth, symmetrical modeling is pointless with the exception of the face. In this case, pose first, then detail.

5) Next time I need to insert more polys into areas I expect to have lots of detail in the end, ran into problems where the polys were too homogenous and I didn't have enough polys to hold displacement detail for the decorative dress drim/complicated cloth folds unless I went above 7 subdivisions. eek!

6) Related to #5, when sculpting for cloth I need to think ahead on where the wrinkles and folds will be and prepare the base mesh differently (more detail) before moving on to zbrush.

[JM-art]

What I learned



4) In an asymmetrical pose with lots of cloth, symmetrical modeling is pointless with the exception of the face. In this case, pose first, then detail.



Yes, but mostly for the body in general i think its important to make the mayor proportion sculpting first with symetry, and only when it looks good and almost finished, then you can rigg/pose the character and do the last final details and forms of muscles more bulged or stretched etc without the sym...but knowing that the proportions are the same and saving lot of time with the symetry sculpt.

Another thing...the next time i will try to organize the proyect more like..

week one: concept and research.

week two: base modeling.

week three:sculpting.

and so on to the finish result.

i say this because it happens to me that when i think that a step of the process will take 5 hours, it will probably take 10 or 15...and because i always let all to the last minute...shame on my:surprised. This happen to anyone here too?





...

[jhasse]

Well i learned how to manage zbrush more than before...:cool:


this past week a also learn how not to pay income tax, did you know income tax is voluntary act is not mandatory? the truth will make you free

jeje je cool no more income tax

[RageOfAges]

this past week a also learn how not to pay income tax, did you know income tax is voluntary act is not mandatory? the truth will make you free


but if you don't pay income tax and then no one else pays income tax. whose going to maintain the roads, railroads, water purification, take the garbage to the landfill, provide public transportation, pay off the national dept, provide school for children, build and maintain national and state parks...the list goes on and on and on...

-Rage

[WyattHarris]

i say this because it happens to me that when i think that a step of the process will take 5 hours, it will probably take 10 or 15...and because i always let all to the last minute...shame on my:surprised. This happen to anyone here too?
Nope, never, I'm always on time...... lol :D, almost held a straight face.

And jhasse, do more research. I don't know who is giving you information but it takes a lot of legal defense and mucho dollars to fight off the courts when you go this route. You will get thrown in jail for not paying your taxes.

That's what happened to Wesley Snipes (http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/24/snipes.sentencing/).

The supreme court ruled back in the 30s, I think it was the 30s, and yes you have to pay taxes. Unless of course you make below the poverty level but that's not what it sounded like you were saying.

[asier cubero]

Well, this was my first challenge. The theme selection forced me to enter. I couldn't say no, I'm too weak. I heard voices in my head from my 80's child personality. I would lo ve to participate in a challenge similar to this one.

I already had decided to go for a 3d Aioros, but knowing myself, I needed a deadline to make me work really hard. I usually start but don't usually finish works or take too long to complete. Thanks to this, I've been able to see where i can arrive to. I've got a better result than expected. I'm really happy with it. So just with that point, this challenge has been worthy.

As it rewards to the deadline... the first thing I thought was: Oh shit, I could have gone to bed before if I had known before. (I had already finished the character)
Tuesday afternoon the thought was: Oh shit, I still have three days to improve the scenario, think, think.
And then back to the computer and the hours of uncountable and exhausting crative fun. I work better under pressure, but I really enjoy it. And the scenario improvement really really worths it. So, I can only thank you for making me see I can do good things In a short period of time.(I still haven't had a 3d professional job, so lack the experience)


Furthermore, I've learnt I still don't know how to go from zbrush to 3d Studio Max using displacement maps. (you can see it the hair tests) So I finally exported high resolution meshes.
Apart from this, some other details about how to avoid problems when modelling and getting results more efficiently.

And but not least (maybe the most important), a throne with two skeletons as armrests should be in the IKEA catalogue right now. IN THE HEADLINES¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡


To sum up. I love the whole experience. (my mother doesn't, she thinks I changed my timetable drastically in a bad way [and I did]. She is my first 3d widow [don't know if you name it like this in english])

[jhasse]

but if you don't pay income tax and then no one else pays income tax. whose going to maintain the roads, railroads, water purification, take the garbage to the landfill, provide public transportation, pay off the national dept, provide school for children, build and maintain national and state parks...the list goes on and on and on...

-Rage

first watch this movies:
Zeitgeist: Addendum (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912)
Zeitgeist, The Movie (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594683847743189197)

let me know what you think?

[jhasse]

Nope, never, I'm always on time...... lol :D, almost held a straight face.

And jhasse, do more research. I don't know who is giving you information but it takes a lot of legal defense and mucho dollars to fight off the courts when you go this route. You will get thrown in jail for not paying your taxes.

That's what happened to Wesley Snipes (http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/24/snipes.sentencing/).

The supreme court ruled back in the 30s, I think it was the 30s, and yes you have to pay taxes. Unless of course you make below the poverty level but that's not what it sounded like you were saying.

income tax is a voluntary act, the IRS they just want to confuse you to believe that is the law, even my economic teacher and logic teacher admited that income tax is a voluntary act because all of us are protected by the constition the our founded father left us. IRS is only administrative deparment no thing more they don't have the right to take your money and nothing else because their is no law for them to do what they do.

about wesley snipes all lawyers knows the income tax is voluntary act they just get paid by IRS and Judges too to shut their mouths to miss leaden to believe people have to pay income tax.

take care

[axiomatic]

i learnt that i never have enough time :)

[catnip]

Well, here are three things I learned from this challenge:

1. I learned more about how to use ZBrush displacement and normal maps in Lightwave.
2. I learned more about my current computer's limits! ;)
3. I learned that I'd better pick something harder to model next time! :)

[WyattHarris]

income tax is a voluntary act...
This is so way off topic it'll be the last I say on it but you sound like you still need to be warned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
If you don't trust Wikipedia then here is the 16th amendment on USConstitution.net (http://www.usconstitution.net/constamnotes.html).

It has nothing to do with the IRS. The 16th amendment was ratified on February 3, 1913. That means long before we were ever born congress passed the law and then the states ratified the amendment as part of the constitution. That means it is the law that there can be an income tax. Your teachers are dead wrong and will get you thrown in jail. I too bought into this nonsense years back but if you do proper research and not conspiracy crap you will see it is not voluntary. Those guys that preach this idea, including the ones I originally listened too, ultimately get thrown in jail themselves.

[RageOfAges]

This is so way off topic it'll be the last I say on it but you sound like you still need to be warned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
If you don't trust Wikipedia then here is the 16th amendment on USConstitution.net (http://www.usconstitution.net/constamnotes.html).

It has nothing to do with the IRS. The 16th amendment was ratified on February 3, 1913. That means long before we were ever born congress passed the law and then the states ratified the amendment as part of the constitution. That means it is the law that there can be an income tax. Your teachers are dead wrong and will get you thrown in jail. I too bought into this nonsense years back but if you do proper research and not conspiracy crap you will see it is not voluntary. Those guys that preach this idea, including the ones I originally listened too, ultimately get thrown in jail themselves.

Man I tried SOO hard not to reply to this recent shift in topic, but it's way stronger than me.
I just wanted to add to this, Wyatt.

Using common media tactics, it is possible to "prove" virtually anything you want to. What people need to understand, especially when dealing with propoganda such as zetegeist or Michael Moore films, is that what they DON'T tell you has much more meaning than what they DO tell you.
Also, Zetegeist was a really stupid "film" IMO. If you look and listen closely, there is virtually no solid scientific or factual evidence to backup their cases. Verifying and checking up on these so called "facts" on the internet is an exercise in futility, because the fist few pages of results you get link to conspiracy sites anyway who all recycle their info between them.

-Rage

[RobertoOrtiz]

Guys..

Stay on topic.

-R

[jhasse]

This is so way off topic it'll be the last I say on it but you sound like you still need to be warned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
If you don't trust Wikipedia then here is the 16th amendment on USConstitution.net (http://www.usconstitution.net/constamnotes.html).

It has nothing to do with the IRS. The 16th amendment was ratified on February 3, 1913. That means long before we were ever born congress passed the law and then the states ratified the amendment as part of the constitution. That means it is the law that there can be an income tax. Your teachers are dead wrong and will get you thrown in jail. I too bought into this nonsense years back but if you do proper research and not conspiracy crap you will see it is not voluntary. Those guys that preach this idea, including the ones I originally listened too, ultimately get thrown in jail themselves.

ok guys let stay on the topic, roberto is right. You win Harris :curious:

[jhasse]

Man I tried SOO hard not to reply to this recent shift in topic, but it's way stronger than me.
I just wanted to add to this, Wyatt.

Using common media tactics, it is possible to "prove" virtually anything you want to. What people need to understand, especially when dealing with propoganda such as zetegeist or Michael Moore films, is that what they DON'T tell you has much more meaning than what they DO tell you.
Also, Zetegeist was a really stupid "film" IMO. If you look and listen closely, there is virtually no solid scientific or factual evidence to backup their cases. Verifying and checking up on these so called "facts" on the internet is an exercise in futility, because the fist few pages of results you get link to conspiracy sites anyway who all recycle their info between them.

-Rage

je je je ok let stay on the topic, ok :wise:

[japetus]

I think the major thing I learned was how to use mentalray. I use other render programs at work, so it gave me a chance to explore mentalray. It's nice that max ships with such a great renderer. I'm also proud of the fact that I stayed with the project for the duration. All too often I get sidetracked or lose interest, but I'm glad I made it to the end! Great job everyone, you guys kept me going :)

[axiomatic]

Things I Learnt and Likes
my goal with modelling challenges right now it to start modelling in a way that allows both animation and the generation of high quality stills.

to this end i focused on cloth modelling and, despite not finishing, felt i made some good progress. particularly, i was happy with my modelling of cloth using a low-poly base mesh. i think that this is important to me because nCloth for maya responds well to using low res meshs, post smoothed down the history tree.

i also learnt some more about zbrush pipelines, particularly for LW through the discussions on it in other peoples threads. despite me being a maya user i found this interesting. thanks to wyatt, rage and some others for their contributions there.

i particularly enjoyed razorsedge's WIP as i felt his modelling made use of some interesting techniques (syflex, low poly etc) so that was good.


Things I Learnt and Didn't Like
i have this, perhaps irrational, dislike of poly modelling anatomical form without following muscle flow and there were a number of WIP's where the creators were not making use of edge loops etc in defining muscles and joints and all that good stuff.

what bothered me about this was that, for a lot of them, this worked perfectly fine. i mean the outcomes still had anatomical detail.

this has made me wonder about how poly-modelling is changing with tools like zbrush and mudbox providing billion poly displacement approximations without breaking a sweat.

i think though that this probably comes down to Animation vs. Illustration, and the need for deformations however i'm not necessarily convinced of this and have decided to investigate how well this less involved method of modelling works along with other possible things like driven displacement textures.

so yeah, i like modelling anatomically but if it's just a waste of time doing so then i want to know about it. efficiency and moving forward and all that :)


I think the major thing I learned was how to use mentalray. I use other render programs at work, so it gave me a chance to explore mentalray. It's nice that max ships with such a great renderer. I'm also proud of the fact that I stayed with the project for the duration. All too often I get sidetracked or lose interest, but I'm glad I made it to the end! Great job everyone, you guys kept me going :)

@japetus: if this was your first render using MR then i'm even more impressed. it didn't look like the shaders were complicated (i'm guessing mostly simple MIA materials?) but they all came together so nicely, accomplishing a cohesive style that captured both the interpretation and the original cartoon. i think you can be justifiably proud :)

my only crit of your render would be the backpack which i think ended up feeling a little flat. i was thinking perhaps a more ceramic/glazed texture (fresnal ref, ior ~1.4 ref 1.0, diff slightly off white etc) just to give it a bit more presence.

so yeah. just thought i'd mentioned that i think you learned the thing you set out to do well.

[japetus]

Axiomatic: Thanks for the comments. In retrospect it would have been a good idea to give a bit of reflection to the jet pack. Kinda wished I had chosen a pose that showed it off a bit more, I had put some nice details up there. Oh well, I guess that's why we have the ortho views too right? :D

[WyattHarris]

i also learnt some more about zbrush pipelines, particularly for LW through the discussions on it in other peoples threads. despite me being a maya user i found this interesting. thanks to wyatt, rage and some others for their contributions there.

@japetus: if this was your first render using MR then i'm even more impressed. it didn't look like the shaders were complicated (i'm guessing mostly simple MIA materials?) but they all came together so nicely, accomplishing a cohesive style that captured both the interpretation and the original cartoon. i think you can be justifiably proud :)
No problem bro. Amazing how easy it is once you get the specifics down.

Now I have a question for you or anyone else that wants to answer. I've seen messages before about Mental Ray and that its tricky but it give such good results etc. etc. Coming from the Lightwave side, with small bits of experience in 3DMax and Maya, the process is you make the model, you texture the model, you prepare your scene, set your render options and you render. Usually that means hit F9. If your using FPrime its a little different but still its not that complicated. Mental Ray sounds like a separate program but if its just for rendering what is all the talk of shaders etc? If the answer is too long and complicated, point me at a wiki or info page that gives the basics.

One more of those questions that I never bothered to ask.

[japetus]

Well at least in Max, if you have a 3rd party renderer like mentalray, brazil, or vray, they have their own custom shaders you can use along with standard max shaders. At least for my uses mentalray has come a long way in simplifying the shaders. MR has Arch/Viz shaders which are pretty easy to get a grasp on. As far as rendering goes, it is all contained in max, although I believe mental ray has to "convert" the scene at render time, but it is all running in max, so you don't have to open a new program to render anything with mental ray (at least in my experience with max).

[angel]

In Maya is pretty much the same, you just pick a different renderer like when you pick FPrime. In addition, with Mental Ray you can write your own shaders, most 3rd party renderers allow for this... I'm not a coder so I just thank the many code heads out there writing shaders.

MR for Maya converts the maya nodes; the scenes are translated in order to get them rendered, just like LW, the geo has to be triangulated at render time.

You can learn more here
http://www.mentalimages.com/products/mental-ray.html

I made this glass shader (I still need to upload it to mrmaterials.com) The scene provided uses Photons, and it is illuminated by a poly. I was trying to duplicate a mr material for max.

http://vertexangel.com/images/misc/green_glass.jpg

[WyattHarris]

You can learn more here
http://www.mentalimages.com/products/mental-ray.html

Your explanations are much simpler than theirs.

That doesn't sound so bad but there must be something about it that is difficult since that's what I always read about it from others.

Plus from their FAQ,
"How many licenses do I need to render on a multiprocessor machine and/or on a network of machines?
One license per cpu."

Yowza, makes me appreciate LWs 999 free render nodes.

[japetus]

Your explanations are much simpler than theirs.

That doesn't sound so bad but there must be something about it that is difficult since that's what I always read about it from others.

Plus from their FAQ,
"How many licenses do I need to render on a multiprocessor machine and/or on a network of machines?
One license per cpu."

Yowza, makes me appreciate LWs 999 free render nodes.

Well nowadays, obviously you would need max or maya running on the farm and thus you would also have a license of mentalray. So I suppose you have as many licenses of mentalray as your chosen 3D app. Don't know what htey are talking about for multiproc machines...i have a 4 processor machine at work and a 2 at home and definately no license problems. I was a little intimidated by it at first, but it's really not bad once you get into it. It's always the same challenge of learning what their terminology means and what settings means this vs. what you learned in another app. Not bad and I love to use it for it's excellent skin shaders and Architectural meterials (that come with some nice presets for starting points).

[angel]

In MR for maya you get 8 nodes with one license of Maya if I remember correctly, still not as good as LW 999 nodes but I end up rendering with RenderTitan if I need to anyway, otherwise rendering overnight has been ok.

[Oberyn]

Hrm...

I learned:



that zbrush models with more than 10 or so subtools can get tedious reeeeeally fast (which translates to = Subtool Master is very helpful sometimes).
that modeling and sculpting bandages is a giant pain in the ass!
that if you have a model with lots of subtools, it's probably a good idea to try and break each and every one of them before sinking time into a sculpt that you may have to throw away later.
to consider the prominence of a character on a turntable. The turntable is supposed to display the character, and probably shouldn't compete with it unless it's part of the design.
taking into consideration the previous lesson, one shouldn't waste hours of work on a turntable you won't use. Especially when there is more you could do to your character. :P
it's a bad idea to create geometry in zbrush and then reconstruct it, when a simplified mesh could be generated in maya/max in about 15 seconds.
that mentalray doesn't seem to like lighting double-sided objects that have no depth.
not to overdo texture resolution unless you have a machine that can handle it.
to count teeth.
how to sculpt and paint ROTTING FLESH! Yeaaaaaaaaah! And maggots?

My next focuses in learning are:



about mentalray. I run into issues too frequently, so there are obviously gaps in my knowledge.
about hard surfaces in zbrush. I see so many great hard surface models built, sculpted, and rendered entirely in zbrush. The how of that just eludes me.
about a better way to meet up subtools for organic models. For this particular model it wasn't so important because there were things hiding the seams; but I won't always have that luxury. I've seen some multi-subtool organic models that seem to meet up perfectly, and I want to know more about how they do it. And I don't mean just the polys meeting. They light as if it's one mesh as well. I'm stumped.

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