DWIII - 3D - Grindill - Darshvac

[grindill]

Edit: I've changed my mind and will now be playing with particle systems. The creature is now a darkness/void stalker demon.



Accounts from Naturalist/Shaper Hershion Juflomn

Date: 7830-3781
I have been given a great gift. A colleague of mine has brought me quite a rare specimen. From the rocky environs to the south, where hardly a soul dares to venture, I have been brought one of the rarest of fabled creatures, The Lightning Darshvac. really more of a bug than a creature. As the story goes, it can ionize the air around it and focus a stream of lightning to kill it's prey. I haven't witnessed this phenomenon yet, But the creature is intriguing none the less.

Date: 6103-9184
Still no response from the Darshvac. I've tried to feed it all manner of local insects and bugs but it doesn't seem interested. It sits on it's rock and appears to watch the food I have given it, but there hasn't been any feeding response.

Date: 7314-8231
Breakthrough!!! Unfortunately for my pet Qkstictigh I now know that the Darshvac prefers mammalian prey to hard-shelled food. My poor Qkstictigh got a bit too close to the enclosure and there was an immediate response. At first I heard the buzz from across the room and, just as I turned around to look, there was a small jet of lightning shooting into my Qkstictigh. Fortunately the hole made in the enclosure was too small for the Darshvac to escape. After an autopsy, it looks as though the lightning overloaded the Qkstictigh's nervous system and sent it into cardiac arrest. More experiments will follow.

Date: 1283-8310
the feeding program for the Darshvac has progressed nicely and it has grown a little but I'm afraid it has reached maturity. I've started testing it's molecular and DNA structure and I believe it could be replicated if I had the proper funding.

Date: 7133-8314
I've somehow managed to attract the attention of the Omnistrate. They say war is brewing and they are interested in my research on the Darshvac. I've shown them what I have so far and they presented me with more of the creatures. I can now start a breeding program. My experiments will center around breeding larger and stronger Darshvacs in the hopes of increasing their range.

Date: 3934-6301
Through genetic manipulation and selective breeding programs, I have managed to increase the average size of my Darshvic population to the size of a Hesptibay and they can shoot their lightning across the room and kill a small Grothnix. this is very exciting indeed. The Omnistrates funding has been increasing and their interest has been growing. Their suggestions and hints have been leading me indirections that I probably wouldn't have taken on my own. But this is fascinating work and I am eager to continue.

Date: 8314-9123
I think I have reached the outer limits of the Darshvac's bodily limits. The average size of my population is that of a Qythmak and I can look them in the eye now. Not that I would ever get that close to them without protection. My population and I have been moved to a new, larger facility and I have been given a special gift. The Omnistrate wants me to see if I can fuse the Darshvacs with an amplifier. They can already take down a Htryucg at over half a Thlas. The amplifier has such ingenious focusing channels that I believe, if we can get it to work, it will increase not only the range, but the accuracy and the penetrating ability. I can't wait to test this out.

Date: 7822-9834
The experiments with the Amplifier have proven most distressing. Not only for me but also for the Darshvacs. Half the population that has been fitted with the device has not survived and the ones that have survived have gone through some unexpected mutations. I would wish to cut back on the experimentation timetable but the Omnistrate needs me to continue my research. they say the fate of our world may rest in my hands. The war is escalating. I must continue.

Date: 8133-1034
Success, but at what price. They have grown strong. They have grown intelligent. One among them (Darshvac G-96) seems to be taking lead and organizing. I am going to recommend that the experiments be terminated.

Date: 7129-3199
Disaster. Darshvac G-96 has escaped. Although I suspect the Omnistrate to have helped it, I cannot prove it. And I don't know where it has gone. There have been talks in the facility of a wormhole, but I did not witness it. Maybe the Omnistrate thought G-96 was ready for the war. It was unstable. I wish to stop the experiments and exterminate the rest of the population. The Omnistrate is watching though and I must continue. May the gods save me from what I have done.



So, yeah, its some kind of a giant lightning throwing bug thing with metal bits embedded as an amplifier. I've got a concept in my head. I just need to get it out on paper. Ummm...Pixel.

[grindill]

Concept Sketch. Just trying to flesh it out.

[McKronic]

Intense back story, concept seems pretty unique also

[grindill]

Just a little update on the concept drawing. I was thinking some kind of caged lightning thing attached with spikes to the creatures back. Lines would lead out from the sphere to the tips of horn and claws to channel the lightning. More updates later this weekend.

[haikai]

it has a pretty interesting shape so far. color schemes with red, white, and blue are kind of awkward for me since it ends up reminding me of the american/french flag. i wonder if a little variation on the size and spacing of the bone spikes along its sides would help. the white of the bone is bright next to the blue shell/skin and stands out a bit much. i'm interested in seeing how its face develops and how you incorporate the back story visually.

[grindill]

The colors are definitely not set in stone. The red fleshy bits would most likely be a lot darker. I was actually hoping to make the shell bits iridescent. I'm having a bit of a problem coming up with a shader that will work though since everything has to be hand painted. the problem with iridescent quality is that it changes with the angle that you view it from. I can't quite figure that one out on a single hand painted map. :(

I've been studying a bunch of bug pictures and the face will most likely have some big pinchers.

I'm probably going to be changing the lightning sphere cage to the pyramid logo. that will tie the creature in to the forum.

[ParsleyButter]

I've had some success in the past with iridescence by hand painting different colors in my specular maps. Of course, this isn't physically accurate, but you can get rather nice results out of it, and it should help sell the idea in your renders, I think.

[kravo]

The colors are definitely not set in stone. The red fleshy bits would most likely be a lot darker. I was actually hoping to make the shell bits iridescent. I'm having a bit of a problem coming up with a shader that will work though since everything has to be hand painted. the problem with iridescent quality is that it changes with the angle that you view it from. I can't quite figure that one out on a single hand painted map. :(

I don't want to question the 3Dtotal admins-I read you post in the DW Questions topic- but using a little more advanced shader isn't prohibited, in fact: "For all final images, all shaders that ship with UT3, HL2, Crysis, idTech4 and Xnormal are allowed. Standard, non node-based shaders within Max, Maya, and XSI are allowed. No manual HLSL editing via code, and no node-based shader creation."
which means you CAN make the iridescence shader you showed us.
But english isn't my native language, so PLEASE correct me if I got that wrong!!!

[grindill]

Well, I've done a bit of digging and my research shows that falloffs won't be allowed. Only Bitmaps. Check out Post #351 by poopinmymouth.

http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2171&page=18

Specifically

The only thing allowed is subbing out the texture maps with your own

and even more specifically

You are not allowed to add a fresnel node, or a ramp, or anything else that wasn't there.

I guess that sums it up pretty well. :( Oh well, gotta work within the rules. I'll just have to paint it on.

Later,

[grindill]

I think I've found the model for the bugs head. Take a look at this thing.

[kravo]

that's a cute little fellow. I defenatelly wouldn't like him under my skin:smug:
Hey Grindill, if you need more reference photos of bugs, you might wanna check out this site:

http://fotozz.hu/kategoria_oldala?fotok_oldal=3&Kategoria_ID=5

It's in hungarian so you'll most probably find the navigation difficult, but under the thumbnails the words mean:
első - first
előző - previous
ugrás -jump to
következő - next
utolsó - last

it's no rocket sience

It's a cool site, my colleague always shows 6 -10 MP pictures about weird thing, incl. bugs :)

[grindill]

Kravo, thanks for that link. Some pretty nice picture there. I'll be pulling a few for my inspiration page.

Worked a little on the artifact today. Just testing some things out.

Later

[omnicypher]

i really like that artifact! it would be cool to have a screensaver with one of those bouncing around the screen and spinning.

[jac3d]

hi, i see some good concept can u add more draw detail?...good luck

[grindill]

Worked a little on the concept sketch today. I'm thinking that I'll take off the rows of bones around the shoulder pads and elbows and continue the line of spikes across the top of the shoulder out to a bigger bone spike on the shoulder tip. Kind of tie it in better with the head and arms. I might reduce the size of the plate that goes down the center of his back to make more room for the artifact.

Bigger mandibles. Must have bigger mandibles. MWAHAHAHAH!!!!

[grindill]

Carapace colors. I'm partial to the one on the lower left. Light blue to Black with a hint of purple thrown in.

[grindill]

Update on the concept sketch. I think it's just about ready to go to 3D. The legs will be pretty similar to the arms.

[khemist000]

Frankly for colors, I like the right most 2 on the bottom. The darker colors give just a hint of mystery and power without being too moody. There will be some nicer contrast too because the bluish areas will stand out. Great start so far!

[grindill]

Thanks for the input. But, I think I accidentally tricked you a bit there. Not my intention. the lower left one and the two lower right ones are the same color schemes. I was just playing around with the tatoos and messed up the specular. Oh well. Thanks for the input.

[kravo]

I still like the green one. It's a pity it doesn't have much to do with 3Dtotal's colours :)
I agree with Khemist000, the ones in the lower right corner look good.

[grindill]

Bad me, bad. I've been neglecting this for other stuff. I finally got a few hours to start on the base mesh. Still VERY much to do still.

BACK TO WORK SLAVE DOG!!!

[grindill]

Worked some more on the carapace and spikes. Of course, just after I took these snapshots MAX crashed and it looks like it wasn't autosaving. GRRRRRR!!!!:cry: So, now I get to do it all over again. :grr::wall:

[grindill]

OK, After much self flagellation for not saving properly, I have gotten back to where I was last night. I think it turned out a bit better. Currently at 1860 tris and running out fast. C&C welcome.

[grindill]

I'm leaning towards changing my character to a darkness/void demon monster. Here's a quick mock-up. What do people think?

[Puckducker]

I think I'd advise not to change your design. It's getting pretty late to be changing designs, and I think your initial design is pretty good. You're new design, while cool, might be a little generic, and I think it'll be tough to bring it across effectively with a low poly model too.

You've got a good start already, I wouldn't dump it just yet.

[Conejo Blanco]

Yeah, with the new idea, you're grappling with a whole huge issue, and I'm dealing with the same issue, just a lot less: how do you create darkness flowing out on a low poly model? I've got to figure out how to do that coming out of my character's lamp... you're trying to do it with the whole character! I wouldn't recommend it, I don't even know how this can be done yet!

[grindill]

The mock up there has less than 8000 tris. And I'm pretty sure I can lower that even further if I need more room than that for modeling the head, hands and artifact. One nice thing about a smoke character is that you don't have to model the body in high detail. Just enough to get the particle system to work.

Conejo Blanco: I've done it using a particle system with instanced tris that face the camera and have a noise map applied to them (noise map will be a bitmap of a noise map in the final). Then tris are scaled randomly so that they look different and I'll probably have a couple different noise bitmaps just for variety. It may not look like much as a mesh, but it looks good once rendered.

[grindill]

I'm getting the particles more in line with where I want them and how I want them to look. Total tri count in the particle system is now down to 6000. That leaves 3000 for the head, hands and artifact, which will probably be a ring, bracelet or crown. Something that can attach to the more corporeal part of the creature. Tonight it's off to model something.

[grindill]

Working on modeling the hands and face. I think the hands are completed. The head still has a ways to go. Total poly count without the particle system is 2056. That still leaves almost 1000 for finisheing the head and modeling the artifact. I might have to cut something down a bit. But that can happen later.

What do people think?

[grindill]

Just a bit more work. I've decided to go with a crown for his artifact. Much work still to do.

[Conejo Blanco]

Awesome work so far, but are you sure particle systems are allowed?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

your going to need an alpha on those arms to help bend in, or fade out the ends so they fit with the darkness.

Can't wait to see how your going to texture all of those particles with the 2048 texture map.

[Conejo Blanco]

Hey man, that particle idea doesn't seem to be a problem at all, which begs the question... how do you make particles that always face the camera? I'd like to use a similar thing, but very sparsely (probably need no more than a dozen particles), yet I'm not familiar with how to do such technically innovative things!! If you can give the quickest of tutorials, I'd be much obliged!

[grindill]

Thanks for the comments.

BiG ToE: Yup, definitely going to need an alpha fade on both the forearms and the neck regions. That'll all come with the texturing. Texturing the particles shouldn't be too much of a problem. Currently I've only got a couple noise maps on them. The hard part will be mapping them so that they fade out since I can't use a "Particle Age" map to fade them out (No Node based shaders). I'll have to map about 30 individual levels of fade. Ughh. Oh well, at least I've only got a head and hands to map otherwise.

Conejo Blanco: Yes, Particle systems are allowed. I specifically asked that question in the Questions thread.

I'm using Particle Flow in 3dsMax. Here is the flow chart that I'm currently using. Since I didn't want to use facing shapes because they are rectangles instead triangles, I had to make them instanced shapes. At the point when I got the particles where I wanted them (Red Circled), I stopped them and told them to go towards the camera and face the direction they were going (Green Circled). Then, immediately, I told them to stop where they were (Blue Circled). Hope this makes sense. If not, let me know and I'll try to explain further.

Later

[grindill]

Just a little more work on the crown tonight. Not as much work as I'd have liked to get done, but it was St. Patrick's Day. I know, where are my priorities? These are definitely not the final textures. I just put something there to look cool.

[grindill]

I've mapped my particle system. Here's a render and also the current Diffuse Map and the UVW Unwrap. The row on the bottom is the first set of maps and the row on top is the second set. I've flipped the top row upside down so that the tri for the particle system can fit in there nicer. This leaves me lots of nice space for the head, hands and crown. On to Unwrapping those next.

[L3XICON]

love the idea of the new character, hope you have time left to do it justice :D really like the head model, it has a lot of character, but the shadow, black particles at the moment to me look a little 'fluffy' almost like black cotton wool. its a great idea, and looking forward to seeing more :D

[grindill]

Thanks L3XICON, words of praise are always nice to hear.

After much hair pulling and sacrificing of fluffy woodland creatures, I think I've got the head mostly unwrapped. All I can say is RoadKill was a great help. I can't praise this program enough. I used it to get the basic unwrapping done and then took that back into max and fixed a few things. Namely the tips of the ears. I think I've still got a bit of work to do on the chin and the tip of the nose, but I'm fairly confident that it's turning out OK now.

Next I'll do the hands and crown which shouldn't be nearly as difficult as the head.

[grindill]

Good morning fellow modelers. It's been a productive night. I've been working on getting the particles to look better than the last shot and I've also been working on getting some maps done for him. Just basic blocking for right now like getting the arms and neck to fade out and putting color into the eyes and stones of the crown.

Unfortunately it looks like Mudbox is out of the question at this time so I upped the head ploy count in max and pushed things around a bit till the computer crashed. I made a normal map from that so things are smooth but I'll have to draw in the final details with the NVidia plugin. Oh well, it could be worse I guess.

C&C welcome.

[grindill]

OK, Dilemma time. I've got 895 Polys left and don't quite know what to do with them. I could go back to my fully modeled 3DTotal Logo (450 polys, see bottom of page 1) as the crown center piece, but I don't think it really needs it. Someone suggested feet but I thought that might ground the character too much. I'm liking his floatiness. I could add Particle system wings or maybe just up the particle count on the main body. What do others think? Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

[Holo]

maybee 2 more arms ;P

[BiG ToE-3DT]

you may need a weapon to fight with.

[kicksachi]

Your character is really SPOOOKY!!!

[Holo]

you may need a weapon to fight with.


Man's got a point. :smug:

[grindill]

Do Wolverine or Sabertooth need weapons? I don't think so. My thought was that not only does the artifact turn him into darkness/void, it would also allow him to suck things life energies into the void that he is through his finger nails. I guess I could model a second set of hands as an FX layer to show this.

Just made this up really quickly to maybe show my idea. The Red areas would, of course, be transparent to show the hand underneath.

[Conejo Blanco]

You can probably drastically reduce the number of polys in those arms, and then put extra effort into the soul-sucking arms.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

yeah, if your weapon is doul sucking, you need to make sure that idea gets across in your final renders, or it will just look like a dark cloud with a head and hands.

Do Wolverine or Sabertooth need weapons? I don't think so.

My close personal friend, Wolverine, is a weapon, and when his claws come out, that's when you know you made him mad. That, or he is about to make a sandwich.

[grindill]

Well, working an extra 30 hours of overtime last week didn't help me any for the competition. But, I've been getting what hours in on it that I can. I've been working on the maps and the pedestal. I've also made a set of FX gloves for him but they aren't mapped at all so I left them off for now. Maybe tonight for that. Those will be used for showing him sucking life energy from the living things around him.

Well, here is a quick composite of him onto the pedestal. I'll make the pedestal smaller and have to work some more on positioning things. the flowers at the front are just placeholders. I've also rigged him so his pose will change to show him reaching out to the bushes to suck their life out.

The Normal and bump map will eventually have to be combined.

Let me know what you think so far.

[ryvick]

his right arm doesnt look like its coming out of the mist. since the smoke is not covering those parts it looks like its floating. also the hands look too rigid.

[grindill]

Just playing around more with the pose and the pedestal. The FX gloves that are there do not have their final mapping. I just made something up really quick. Tonight's job is to finalize those and the hands.

[grindill]

Getting a lot closer I think. That FX gloves are mapped now and I think I'm happy with where I've pushed the body particles. I still need to texture the hands but I've got the maps all worked out for that so it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Famous last words, right?

C&C welcome.

[grindill]

Here's the back shot also.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

now that I think about it, the hard part will be showing the front and back renders for the winning pose shot and still be able to tell where the front render ends and the back render begins.

[Monk-o]

You’re likely to encounter a character like this in a dimly lit and dark environment where no one would be able to appreciate all the effort you put into the details of his body. The black smoke and its transparency would simply fade or blend-in with the background and would all but disappear. To counter this effect, you might consider a light source (the same as the one coming from the eyes) emanating from the center of his body so that his body appears to glow from within.

Just a thought ….

[newhere]

Looking good but the pedestal is kinda weird for me. to me it is like when i look at the model it feels like the model has a bit of a soft side for flowers and butterflies. if you can make the bushes and flowers look dead then that will make it more appealing.

[Tetsuya]

aside from the other comments, you could try shoving an opacity map on the hands so that they will disapear into the smoke? because it sort of looks funky currently

[grindill]

OK, I've worked a bit more on this guy. Here's a front, back and beauty shot. I'm fairly happy with the winning poses at the moment. The beauty shot isn't complete at all, Just posing him a bit. Still have more posing to do. I'm also thinking of sticking a head shot in the lower left corner of the beauty shot.


Monk-o: Yeah, I'd thought about that. And wondered about making the artifact a glowing necklace that hung down to his chest to highlight that area also. But, If I was a darkness creature, I'd kind of want to blend into the shadows.

newhere: I worked more on the pedestal trying to integrate him into it. What do you think now? Is he killing enough stuff? I actually played with the idea of having him killing the plant behind him but holding the butterfly in his right hand. It got a bit silly though so I dropped that idea.

Tetsuya: There is a fade on the arms and the head. Maybe I shouldn't have modeled the whole forearm. Hopefully what I've done with the particle system over the weekend has integrated it a bit better.

[Conejo Blanco]

I would suggest toying with the hands to make them more clawlike, right now the last digit on every finger is exceptionally long, making it look like he's got long fake nails on, rather than really big, skeletal hands. Otherwise, lookin good!

[grindill]

I've spent some time rendering out the final images. Here, for your consideration, are the winning shot, the texture sheets and the concept sheet. Tonight I work on the beauty shot and the construction shot. This weekend I might actually sleep a bit.

[grindill]

Here is the construction sheet.

[grindill]

Finished. I decided to stop fiddling with it and just submit. Here are the final shots. Winning Pose (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3218/2405058312_87de7d0450_o.jpg), Beauty Shot (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2368/2405058764_f278c8b1c5_o.jpg), Construction Sheet (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2074/2405058596_bc606f295e_o.jpg). Click Previous Text for full sized versions.

[grindill]

And here are the Texture Sheet (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2404232103_b298607e5e_o.jpg), and Concept Sheet (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3259/2404232407_ab6e01159b_o.jpg). Once again, click the text to view full sized versions. Enjoy, I'm going to bed.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

how does it feel to be done.

[grindill]

Feels good. Really good. I can't wait for the next competition. :D

[Conejo Blanco]

Congratulations! I just finished, myself, and it's a massive relief. Well done man, looking forward to next year (though I can't really think about that now, I was up all night working on mine).