awesomeeee
Dominance War II: Gavin_G
SeanB
#102
Sweeet. I kind of miss the earlier renders, with less noise in the textures, and I have to agree that the blue is a touch “painted on” for the arms. If it’s crystal there, it would be nice to see it translucent and less saturated, but overall, a really great model.
GavinG
#103
Hey, hey. Thanks guys, I really appreciate your feedback 
I’ll post a new version either tonight or over the weekend. A friend pointed out that the spec on his midscetion may be too uniform, taking away the effec tthat it pops out. So, I may also play around with that to see if I can make that effect look better.
I’ve also added some blue colours into his skin, just general skin colourations and veins.
SkyePhelps: The colours for his arm pieces and his mouth are a combination of self illumination and spec maps. Using those ot makes them stand out a lot more
Thanks again guys, stay tuned for updates
Gav
GavinG
#104
Yo,
Here’s an update with the changes I mentioned earlier…trying a different lighting setup. Also, becaus eth eimages are really big, I’ve provided links to other versions plus the other images for submissions. Feel free to give some feedback I’m having a hard time with presentation for some of the sheets and am wondering how much of an issue it will be. I assume the point is to just show the work, not have anything fancy.
This is a version using sharp textures and a strong blue light setup to the right. I’ve given the arms blue chunks some colour variation along with more colours in the body and modified spec on the midsection (although I don’t think it seems very different :P) I think out of all of them, I like this one th emost…but would love to hear a vote for everyone’s favorite (or a favorite that can be changed slightly)-
This is the 3rd option, much like the one above just using textures that aren’t so sharp.
Sorry for all the links, guys, I just didn’t want to post so many large images if people didn’t want to see them
Cheers,
Gav
SeanB
#106
Looks great, just a few changes, make it a she and give her a cape and a ninja sword. 
OK, I like the face, hands and belly beast in verion #3, they seem to read more clearly than those same areas in version #1. I think those parts of the anatomy would read better if they used the softer textures, while the rest of the body was sharper, as shown above.
The pose is a little static. He looks strong, and determined, but he’s not doing anything. Since he doesn’t have a weapon to hold, about all you could do is give him a more menacing hand gesture or show him taking a step. Maybe those actions are for the beauty shot. In this render, the left forearm and belly beast are blending together a bit. Same thing for right hand and thigh. I think that could easily tweaked in lighting or with a little Pshop fudge.
I don’t know what they’re looking for in the texture map collages, I think you just need to show the maps and label them clearly. :shrug:
Your construction image could be jazzed up a bit. You do need to show lores, high poly sculpt, and normal mapped lores, but not necessarily two angles on each. It winds up looking very similar. I would use the top three, reserving the rest of the space for a small sideshot of the lores, and a couple of closeups of the face and bellybeast.
Awesome. 
erik_j
#108
I like the texture version you picked out too.
however I agree with SeanB that on some areas like stretched skin areas like upper chest, biceps, parts of the back etc, it would be nice with a bit smoother skin… (I guess that goes mostly to the diffuse as the normal is smooth there)
And I think you should experiment more wildly in PS with colour variations on the diffuse, backing up your real texture, so you can really find out how much variation is way too much and how much is too little, because I still find the skin too monocromatic.
like hooves are usually not same colour as skin nor fur on hooved animals (oftenly divided in two colours like some bone-colour and black for horses or something).
and maybe make some wide ridges on the hooves so they can catch reflection as more (long) facetlike areas… kind of like human unpolished nails. as the thin ridges kind of has the same “facet”-size as the rest of the rougher areas. that might be a big thing… adding some larger facets in the hard areas for catching spec… maybe not
the barklike parts would be great if the hue wasn’t just the same warm yellowish skinhue as the smoother parts etc. look at the way an old burch tree looks with the smooth parts from white to red while the rough bark-like parts are dark gray to black. hope you don’t mind me comparing it with bark x¨D I think it really looks great so nothing bad in the likeness imo
so just shooting in the dark to convey my impression of how it could look even better
but if you think you don’t have time, I’d leave this for last because it’s not worth jeapordising the deadline, but don’t take half a day off if you finish early without trying something out, I would suggest
wish you the best! hope you bash alot of polycount enemies down the ranking! 
GavinG
#110
Wow, thanks for the great response guys. Taking your advice, I’ve made a few changes. I’ve tweaked the lighting slightly, attempting to make his hands not get as lost. I’ve altered the hue a little on his body, trying to break it up some more and made his hooves a lighter colour. Before they were mostly borwn/pink…now they’re closer to a bone colour.
I really wanted to make this guy look more “organic”, as if he were a creature of the land…I guess that explains my choice of using boring browns 
I tried doing some colour variations, some REALLY extreme ones, and…i dunno…I just personally like this one more
I’m going to keep fiddling with it, but I think I’m almost getting ready to call it finished. I’ll be at work all day Monday…so, I’ll most likely be submitting my final tomorrow night, heh.
The hoof was a great suggestion, even though I think it’s a small detail, it makes a big difference. Thanks for the tip
The construction, texture and concept images kind of weird me out. I’m trying to think of something creative for them…but I dunno, maybe it’s just best to keep it simple? So, I’m considering the texture page and concept page to be final (or at least 99% final)…the construction image though, I’m not sure, I want to show multiple angles just to show off my sculpt and stuff…but I do agree that it’s not overly interesting.
The pose is kind of basic, I’ll totally agree with that But like you said, there’s not too many things that can be done. I could have him rear up as if he’s charging or something…but I don’t think that would really suit him. Plus, I’m a horrible rigger…so…yeah
For the beauty renders, I’m thinking of attempting to show him at 2 or 3 different angles…trying to show his back half as well.
Anyways, here it is with the minor tweaks mentioned above. Again, it’s not a huge stretch from my previous update…
Cheers, thanks again guys for the amazing feedback. I’ll still be tweaking this guy a little over the weekend and also preparing the other images.
Gav
erik_j
#111
well slight changes was probably what was needed because I think it looks good now! and if I saw it for the first time I’d probably think it looked perfect… hope so!
btw, never saw the details in the hands before, they look really great anyway! make sure you don’t hide them in the final renders!
fx81
#112
your entry is looking great. i like the color contrast. one thing i dont like is the pose. i guess someone mentioned it already but i think you can try something simple like a rearing horse would have.
anyways good work. this makes me want to finish my entry
GavinG
#115
Cheers guys, thanks for the awesome support.
Allllrrriiiiiggghhht, About to call this one finished. Here are the latest images for submission. I have 2 options for the Construction image and 2 for the Beauty image. If you guys wanted to help me decide, that would be awesome. I’m posting the one that i think i like the post but will also post a link to an alternative version. Let me know what you think
Winning Pose
[b]Textures
Beauty
[/b][left]Variant - Beauty #2
[center]Construction
[left]Variant - Construction #2
[center][b]Concept
[/b][left]Thanks again for all the support guys, this contest has been a blast. All the helpful crits and comments have been amazing. I’ll give it a few hours to get some input and then will probably submit the finals before going to sleep (work’s going to keep me busy tomorrow )
[/left]
[/left]
[/center]
Gav
[/left]
[/center]
jbrophy
#116
Fantastic man. I must admit knowing yours was being worked on has kept me working on mine many a late night. Thanks for the motivation as well as the crits. Best of luck
GavinG
#119
Thanks guys, i appreciate it
J: that’s good to hear man…I’m really glad you finished your guy, I didn’t want to have to hit you
erik_j: I agree with you after taking a break and looking at them. I’m using #2 for both:)
dpizzle: thanks!
I’ve submitted my finals, they’re going to be the ones shown above excluding the construction and beauty which will use the #2 variants. Thanks again for everyone’s input, this competition has turned out to be really fun. So many amazing looking entries are showing up as the deadline approaches, heh, I’ll probably spend another week just looking at all the ones I missed
Thanks…Now on to the next project :twisted:
Gav