Gift to the Gods - The Dearest Sacrifice - Cordero

[Cordero]

Hi all! Nice idea, i'm definitely in!
I'll do two entries again, i'm hoping that this time i'll find them good enough to enter. Even if we are "unified".

I'm also looking forward to get to know the other forum members doing their best, "against" or "together" with the other parts of the forum!:D

My first entry is pretty simple: I'll do an altar, looking the scene from below feet level, giving some drama to the picture. There will be a half naked shaman, with all kinds of little stuff (a low poly guy under 10k). Some flashy smoke and glow all around him (2d stuff). I'm not sure if he will gold any kind of weapon, but i'm certain that on the altar, there will be a naked woman! (under 10k again) :D I also think, that the scene will show the spirit of the woman leaving her body, completing the sacrifice with the most beautiful thing on planet earth!:D

Its been a long time since i tried to model a woman, i wonder how it will go. I also wonder how i will manage to do the anatomy, which i studied recently by myself.. :D

So thats it for the first entry, exercising both my 3d, and 2d knowledge.
I'll post the first concept soon.

[xxxcubanxxx]

The idea sounds cool, I've thinking about making a woman too...such a beautiful thing. Looking forward to seeing how you tackle this.

[Cordero]

I hope you will join too Cuban! I would like to see what you have in mind!

This is going to be my composition for the final image. I'll do the base meshes tomorrow.
Coloring went bad, and i think this image shows what i have in mind basically. There will be a lot of little additions to the character, like some jewels, and tattoos. I also decided to add some gold/wealth around the altar.

Hope you like the angle of the scene, and the pose of the shaman!:D

[Stoneking]

Hey Dr. Cordero!
Glad to see ou here man,
I love the idea,
I think if the "camera" comes down a little bit,
like looking from down to te top would give it a little more sauce,
To feel like whe are bellow the Gods

Good luck with this one Cordero

CHeers

[Cordero]

Hey Fernando!

Yeah, i was trying to do that, but during the drawing the perspective i set at the beginning got lost...:D The final image will be from looking from down to top.

I'll show the lowpoly model of the shaman soon.

[Cordero]

Here is the lowpoly for the shaman. Nothing special, since i don't want him to attract too much attention. He will be in the hotspot, thats for sure, but keeping him simple. Maybe i'll add a necklace later on.

I went with the rasta hairstyle. I might have to do that again, and paste a cylinder with uvw, but thats the general shape.
I'll uvw this after i finished the girl model, and i will use this model on the final picture. The polyflow could be better, but i think it works.

I hope you like it! All kind of criticism is welcomed! If you think its trash, let me know why, maybe i could make it less trashy.
And if you think its cool, then leave comment, so i will know i'm heading in the right direction ;)

I'll start the girl model now. Never done that before, i'm curious!:D

[wargrafix]

So far, so good. Have you decided what kind of lighting you want in the scene?
________
ZOLOFT SETTLEMENT INFO (http://www.classactionsettlements.org/lawsuit/zoloft/)

[Cordero]

hey war! i'm glad you like it so far!
I couldn't decide whether i should go with night scene with blue/purple or sunset with orange/yellow.

But because i hate sunsets, i will go with a more moody, shadowy lights. which i think is harder to pull of, but i'll do my best.
I'm using vray for that by the way.

[Tarik2d]

Someone is working fast, best get some done today :p

[chunkymunky]

great start

[MightyReg]

great start

Copy paste that
You are really fast!

[Cordero]

Yeah, you better show us something sweet Tarik!
Thanks Munky!
o'Mighy is in the house!:D Thanks mate!

I'm almost done with the woman model, it was easier then i thought. I just realized that i have some problem directing the polyflow in the right way, matching it up with the major anatomy parts.. I will work on that on my next model. I already founded a method in my head to do it correctly:D we will see if that works..

So almost done with the two low poly characters. I think i'll set up the final render scene setup (without light ofc) before i move on to uvw and texturing, to see if i need to add more stuff on the two chars.

[Cordero]

Hey all!
The net was off in the last couple of days, but i continued working on this scene.
I finished both lowpoly models, i also finished the uvw for both the shaman, and the girl.
Also finished sculpting for both characters.
The renders from max contains normal map + disp.map as a diffuse, with some random color added to it. (rendered with vray)
The rigging is also done, and now i'm trying to set up the scene. Right now, it doesn't show much, so i only uploaded the part which i already finished.

A lot of errors came out during the process of sculpting and rigging. The polyflow is not really good for... well for anything. especially for rigging. Next time, i'll need to do this more "professionally". The sculpting is also i think not as good as it could be. Next time the goal will be photo realism! I think i could do that!:D (or at least try)

Oh, yes... the hair is missing on both characters. I think i'll do the shaman's with polygons, and the girl's hair will be made using hair and fur modifier in max. I'm wondering how that works.
Why hadn't i finished the hairs already? Because i'm scared of it:D:D

I considered switching to mentalray from vray. Simply because its a built-in stuff already. So this will be my first scene lit with mentalray. I hope it will be fine.

Hope you like the updates!
edit: i know the uvws could be lot better, but because it's going to be a "2d scene", i didn't think i should waste too much time rearranging them.

[gauravcg]

great work.....waiting for final!

[snakeeaterjns]

Hi Cordero! Cool work man, i like the ideia. I'm anxious to see the final image.
Good luck 4u.

[Cordero]

Thanks gauravcg and Snake!

I ran in to a little problem during the finishing touch of the rigging: how do i mirror the weights from one side to the other? I tried to use the Mirror Physique script by Juan Martinez, but it seems that it doesn't work with max 2009. Anyone has a solution for this?

[TNTxGRAVE]

are you using the skin or physique modifier? because the Skin modifier has a mirror weights function built in

[Cordero]

i use physique.. so the question still applies:D

[Stoneking]

Hey Dr. Cordero,
Looks really cool man, congrats,
The UV's looks great also

Cheers

[Cordero]

Thanks Fernando! I'm happy that you like it.

Here is the first render of the first try for the final setup.
A daylight system with mental ray, and the mapped girl, and the shaman. There will be some kind of lightning from the hand of the shaman up to the sky, and i also plan to copy the girl above the shaman with some "spirit/soul" effect, make it blue, or something. So it'll have some motion to it.
I'll setup the night scene now, and i'll apply some texture, and add more geometry to the "building"
I hope you like it.

[MightyReg]

It's starting to take form! Maybe you could put your camera a little bit closer to the characters, since they are the center of attraction? It's just that right now they're not taking much screen space.
You could also make the shaman's left shoulder more apparent, since right now we don't really see it following the arm gesture (I suppose this is due to the posing).

[Cordero]

You are right about the zooming, and the shoulder. Didn't notice the bad deformation.. which is weird, considering how ugly it is:D Thanks for the heads up, and i'll change the camera distance.

[paulius-st]

good modeling. nice progres. though i see physic mistakes. a shamans hand that is raised looks wrong. when muscles stretch they dont inflate - they deflate and remain the default form. and ofcourse the boobs. either the chick had some nice boob job or the gravity in there is realy low. :) . when a woman lies on her back her breasts do go down around the ribs. the same is with the muscles. hope i wrote this corectly, if not then sory for my bad english :) . wish you luck, looking forward for updates - this is going to be one of them impresive images i expect to see :). cheers

[Cordero]

Yeah, the boobs is on the "should fix that" list:D Thanks for the reminder... i would have gone easily until the final render when i would have noticed that i forgot to fix them...
About the biceps: i think i'll try the bulge part of physique to fix it. I wanted to use that for a long time now. I liked the strong arm feel of it, but i guess i went over the top with that, so i'm gonna flatten them out a bit.
i guess i'm back to skinning again after finishing some basic lights:D

[Stoneking]

Hey Cordero, your fast man!
Looking forward for the next up!
this is really going in a awesome way
Cheers

[Cordero]

Thanks Fernando! I'm really glad you like it!

Here is the next update. The view is more or less final. Most of the lightning isn't explained at all, because the fire effect is missing, and also the soul "transfer" from the girl's body up to the sky is also a missing effect. I want to do them in 3d, and not cut them on the screen in PS. In fact, i want to do most of the work in 3d!

I'm really moving on to the geometry of the altar now...:D

edit: the moon will be replaced with something more flashy i think.

[Stoneking]

Love it, really dramactic, the lights looks great
Congratulations man
Cheers

[Insania]

Good work. Well done:D

[Tarik2d]

Not sure if the camera is a little bit far away for the characters, but I guess once you have the smoke and what not in it will give a better idea. But looking good still :)

[chris_solo]

yeah great progress Cordero! light is nice.

[Cordero]

Thanks Fernando! I hope you like the new update too ;)

Appreciate your comment Insania, i'm happy that you like it!

Thanks for the advice Tarik, I moved the camera a little bit closer! I hope this is not too "crowded" now with the effects on:D

Thanks Chris! Could you let me know, if you will write the tutorial on alchemy, or not?

So this is the new update. Freshly rendered from max ;)
Fixed the stretching, modified/added new lights and added some new geometry, like the "torch".

I played a lot with the effects! I think i'll add some clouds to the scene, for more drama, and some balance. Most of it isn't final yet, but i need you to take a look at my progress!
Hair on the girl is still waiting for it's turn...:D I'm also not sure about the lights, i'll play with them one day i think:D The textures will be better at the end.

At the start, i thought all of the effects will be added in PS after the rendering. Now it's seems that it could be a dynamic 3d scene, ready for animation... So it's already worth doing this scene!:D

I hope you all like it!

[wargrafix]

Here we go now! I like the angle of the shot.

But, shouldn't the moon be casting shadows and lighting in the scene?
________
COACH PURSES (http://icoachhandbags.com/)

[Stoneking]

Hey man, lookig great,
Love the efects!
Keep rocking
Cheers

[Cordero]

Thanks for the tip wargrafix, i really missed the moonlight:D I added it, i hope this is better now.

Thanks Fernando! It means a lot, that you like it!

That's the final shot for this scene. I enjoyed doing this a LOT! Now, i think i will learn more if i start over from the start with a new scene, and because learning is the first priority for me now, i stop here.
Next time i wont left out anything during the modeling process... because the hair for the girl was ignored during the whole work, and now at the end, i can't place it properly in to the complete, lighten scene.

No additional Photoshop work was done on the final picture ;)

So, i'll start the next scene now. I have a tablet borrowed from my friend, to take a look at how it works. And i also have a new idea in my head, with a really dramatic scene, where the gift to the god of war wasn't performed properly, and the god slaughtered all people around the altar.
I think i'll start a new thread, and there, i'll explain all things!

Thanks for all the support during the making of this picture it kept my going. And if you have anything to say about how i could improve my work flow, or any comment on the final image that could be done better next time, please leave it here, so i can do a better picture next time, which you will find more entertaining;)

See you on my other thread ;)

[wargrafix]

Right, now we talking! Really adds some depth to it.
________
Drug Tests (http://drugtestingkit.org)

[paulius-st]

this one came out well. i like it. though why this girl is unfinished? the idea is great. well done. congrats on finishing it :) cheers

[Cordero]

Thanks for your kind words guys!
If you have time, check out my new entry ;)

[Stoneking]

Hey Cordero,
Great work , congrats
If you throw some paint in it it will add even more to it!
Cheers and good luck on the other concept
Cheers