Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Steven Twist

#98

Thanks Mike,
you’re comments are always helpful. I’m having serious doubts at the minute as to whether to carry on with the contest or not. I’ve got a big art project coming up, along with christmas, and some very good computer games, and I just don’t know if I’ve got the effort to carry on.

However, I think I will for now, as I’m close (I think) to finishing off this character, and then I can get onto something less tedious like the robots (which are fun to model) or the environment, coming back to the female character at a later date.

I think this will be my last set of alterations to the character, then I must start on the texture, otherwise I will run out of time.

Thanks for the comments, they’ve given me the push to carry on,
Steve

#99

My final refinement to the lead male model, I’m going onto texturing now because otherwise I’ll run out of time. If I have time I may come back to this model and work on areas like the ear. However, I’m pretty sure that the ear wont be that clear in the final image anyway, so it should be ok.

C&C are most welcome.

#100

Steve ,
Look forward to see any updates
Mike
My GSO entry
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=180886

#101

I’ve finally textured him - and I’m so proud of the end result.

The texture is really quite simple, there’s just a diffuse colour map used in conjunction with 3ds max 7’s SSS (Sub-surface Scattering) shader for mental ray. I used a UVW-unwrap modifier to apply my texture and setup the UVs, and then tweaked all the settings of the SSS shader to get the feel I wanted.

Please feel free to criticise or comment. I will hopefully get onto the clothing next. I’m so pleased to be finally getting this guy near completion, he’s taken up a lot of my time recently.

#102

Hi there! Nice progress, and this last step with a texture is a big and great one! His head textured looks uncomparable better! Really great job:thumbsup: Now work only on the eyes shader. I advice some reflections from the hdr maps… I’m looking forward to seeing next updates!

#103

Hey, thanks for the comments, that’s made my day.

Yeah, it’s a huge improvement, he’s gone from looking very alien to quite human, which has really made me happy.

I totally agree with the eye comments, I think I’ll wait until I’ve done the environment so I can use renders of that for the reflections.

#104

Hey Steve ,
Great job on the texture :thumbsup: , the character is coming along great. The skin texture itself is really good ,its a very believable result. One comment , I think we see too much white in the eyeball, if you could close the eyelids a bit I think it would go along way.
Keep up the good work.
Mike
My GSO entry
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=180886

#105

Thanks mmoir, I think you’re right about the eyelids, I’ll bear that in mind (and most deffinately experiment making changes at some point). I can’t wait to get onto doing the clothing, that’s going to be good (if it works). Thanks for your kind comments about the texture, I’m very pleased with it as it makes a big difference to the overall appearance of the model.

Thanks again to everybody who’s stopping by, it means a lot.

#106

Your texturing work is really good, but about the model itself I think that you have to change a little the upper eyelids and the ears. Anyhow your work looks great

#107

hi steve long time no …:slight_smile:
very good job :scream:
i realy superise to see this lots of update here :eek:
good luck:bounce:

#108

LuisNCT - yeah, the ears are pretty dodgy, and the eyelids need a little tweaking. Thanks for the comments, I’ll try and address the problems in the next day or two.

visualact.com - thanks, yeah I’ve had a sudden spreee of updates - more to come soon!

#109

I’ve started modelling the cathedral like structure that’s visible in the background. I was going to wait until I’d modelled and textured it all before I uploaded, but seeming as it’s taking longer than expected, I’ve uploaded what I’ve managed to get done so far, and hopefully will get a bigger chunk completed tomorrow.

C&C Welcome.

#110

This is a nice concept.
Hope to see the other stages .
good luck!:slight_smile:

#111

• C’mon Steve, hurry up :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Good advances so far!

#112

adel3d - thanks, hopefully get another chunk completed later, and I’ll upload another update as soon as I do

Climax - the deadline is fast approaching - too fast for my liking - I’ve got a lot of work to do - thanks for stopping by.

#113

I’ve had a slight setback… I’d managed to texture the entire model previously shown, and had saved… I was rendering it out to upload here and my computer reset itself - I don’t know why, it’s a hardware problem I think, something’s overheating, or just stops talking to the other components - anyway, I thought it was a little irritating, but knew I’d saved my file.

When I rebooted, and launched max, I tried to load my file - and to my horror it’s become corrupted - I dunno why, because I wasn’t saving at the time it rebooted - but I’ve got a previous save (with 50% of the model complete) - and I might be able to get the rest of the model from the corrupt file by merging, but if not, I will have to model it again - which is a setback.

I didn’t post this yesterday when it happened, because at the time I was seriously considering pulling out of the contest - I’m going to be very pushed to complete it by the deadline as it was. Anyway, I’ve calmed down now, and I’m going to have to work pretty hard over the next month or two to pull this off… so hopefully, by the end of this week, I will have the cathedral structure finished and textured. I’d also like to get the city in the background done by the end of the weekend - but things always take longer than planned.

I’ll post my next update as soon as I’m done - I sure hope that my PC doesn’t do this again,
Steve

Edit: - I’ve managed to get all my model back (phew), so all I’ve lost are my UVs.

#114

learn to save more often, I usualy save my progress over quite a few files so I have a history… if something like that does happen, like a power failure, I have a backup so at least not the entire thing is lost.

glad to hear u saved it…

#115

Thanks Versiden - I dunno why I had so few saves this time arround - with the male character, I’ve got about 15 progressive saves, I guess I got lazy - and it taught me a lesson.

Shouldn’t take me too long to catch back up with what I lost, but it’s something I could have done without.

Another thing I need to catch up with are other people’s threads, lol - I’ve got 43 Unread CG-Networks emails about different threads with new posts on… ahhh!!!

#116

Ok, here’s the texture work I’ve done on the main building - I know it looks quite simple, but seeming as this is a background element, that will be lit with quite a dark blue, I didn’t see it neccessary to spend lots of time working huge amounts of detail into it - especially as the deadline is fast approaching.

I’m not sure how big it’ll be in the final image pixel wise, but it will probably be about 500-600 pixels high - which is quite large, sort of the same size as in the render here.

The rest of the cathedral shouldn’t take too long as quite a bit can be made from duplicating a simple section.

Next update should be soon.

C&C welcome.

#117

Hey Steve,
Nice start to the Cathedral, thats a bummer about your computer setback. Hope you recover from this quickly
Mike