hehe 
same here, first time normal mapping,
but i´m working with xsi and zbrush tried some mapping @ school today, but it worked not so smooth i expected, so if someone knows a good way to export the normal map just tell me
@ jObe
i really like your last one 
good tweaking, the structure looks pretty real
and now the face
Aha! So are those progress shots from within ZBrush or are they from Maya? And what’s an orb?
shots are taken directly from ZBrush.
Orb is a tool that helps you render a normal map from a ZBrush generated highpoly mesh.
got the normal map for the root done and mapped the basemesh.
I’m now messing with the texture for the root and do the face afterwards. Heres how it looks like at the moment in Maya, just did some basic coloring, still a lot of work to do.
working forwards, the face still isnt normal mapped yet, texture for the tree still not done as well - its kinda hard for me to texture an object with a normal map since i cannot paint in shadows, what i am VERY used to.
worked some more.
added a spec map.
worked on the texture as well, its still a 1024 resolution.
Need to work some more on that normalmap face
oh, and alphas are still missing.
ok ,thats it, im done !
it took me faar too long to finish this little baby, but since i never did anything with normal maps before i took my time and redid a few things when i wasnt happy with it, just for learning.
I had a great time making this prop and want to thank everyone for their feedback.
The Model:
Triangles : 1000
1x ColorMap with Alpha 512x512
1x SpecMap 512x512
1x NormalMap 512x512
The rendershots are taken directly from the Maya preview panel, no special rendering was used.
I’m still happy about crits, feedback or suggestions.
whatcha mean by ‘get to work’?
Dont you see it in Maya? Or are you having problems with ORB? Describe your problem and i might be able to help ya
Well, I found a solution for mental ray. But when I render things with the maya render, all I get are streaks. I think I’ll work up the new version and try again. If I have any problems, I’ll be bugging you soon!
jOBe great work this project is sold. all it needs is a well lit beauty render (put it in the light golden sun with a dim blue back light) maybe do some post on it too…
nice
but you should work more on the details, currently it looks a bit blurry, hey you have 512x512 pixels there, use them! The moss could definately use more depth and contrast to the bark itself, currently it’s just “floating” from moss to bark, thats sad, you have there great colors but nor real depth information, same on the face… use what you have, there is still some space upwards on the quality-scale
The stoneface looks pretty great. Agree too with Neox on the bark texture. The texture could get some more love, fake radiosity around (maybe some fake water-caustics on the base of the prop…), just popping ideas here…
Great work so far!
agreed.
i’ll take the feedback and sit back from the prop a few more days, got a lot of other deadlines to handle this week. Hopefully i’ll get to work on the texture before 16th, using your input.
thanks for that.
ok, i made a try on the texture.
since my current texture was handpainted only i searched for a nice wood texture and made a overlay - pls tell me if you think it helps the tree texture or not, i cant tell what looks better atm.
I like it, =)
the stone is the best…I think more sharpness in the tree and moss would help greatly. The idea for added fake caustics would be keen, but since that is something that would be better generated in-game, I don’t think it’s necessary.
-KDX-
I hate to ask but could you help me out little bit JOBe, how does the alpha method work? I know the basics but my renders are weak, its like the textured parts are see through? am I missing something?
by the way, your model looks sweet maan
your gotta create an alpha channel in photoshop thats grayscale, whats white is shown in Maya, whats black isnt - then export the file as a 32bit tga and tadaaa - you got an alpha channel.