Gift To The Gods - Golden - Bryan Carr (Krallis)

[Krallis]

Well I realise now that my previous idea was not realised enough and that it wouldnt look great once I had it set up.
I have a new idea and i will share with you the notes I have made on it so far.
Let me know what you think please.

Gift To The Gods

Inspiration for this is provided by the egyptian mythos.
The picture will consist of a citizen kneeling before a statue of an egyptian god and offering it a canopic jar.
The kneeling citizen will be in direct contrast to the god statue.
The statue will be made of stone and plated in gold leaf, the citizen will be wearing a very basic set of egyptian style clothes that are ragged and torn.
The canopic jar will be duamutef.
The god statue will be horus, an over elaborate version of the falcon headed god horus. Thestatue will have a receptacle in his chest that shines with a golden light bringing an air of mystery too the piece.
The sacrificial chamber in which the characters are placed will be small , almost corridor like and it will be lit with a few torches and the golden light from the statue. The statue will be in a recess in the wall and several crumbling steps will lead up to him.
I will require the following assets.
-Materials for walls/floors
-Torches to light the walls
-Egyptian citizen
-Statue of horus
-Statue Surround (recess)
-Steps and canopic jar.

[wargrafix]

Nice ideas! 2d or 3d?
________
Washington Medical Marijuana Dispensary (http://washington.dispensaries.org/)

[Krallis]

3d. I can do that. Im a terrible drawer

[Krallis]

Let me update you on my progress. At the moment ive almost finished the torch, this whole project is a learning process for me and im using this stage to nail the workflow and develop my uv mapping skills.

[andrewhall1234]

sounds interesting, i'm sure this idea has great potential

[Krallis]

Yep, provided I can pull it off, I hope to learn from this aswell.

[Krallis]

I honestly dont know if ill be able to do this.
Ive spent the last few days attempting to get a good normal map but it aklways has visible seams and joins and stretching where there shouldnt be. And I cant polypaint .
And I have no idea how to fix my normal maps, they also dont seem to want to carry over the detail.

[paulius-st]

good idea. so why not posting some images? if you get all sorts of stretching than your uv's are bad. try some tutorials on the net. as i remember they have good tuts on youtube. and about them "i cant, i dont know how, this bad, thats bad" - dont know how to do it - learn how to do it.
good luck. :)

[xxxcubanxxx]

Yeah post some pics, so we can help better. This is just the beginning don't give up just yet.

[Krallis]

Im not giving up. I will post some pics soon.

Im working on horus at the moment (i want to get him a reasonable way alng as he is a core part of the piece)
Ive found a tutorial on organic unwrapping so I will us eit to unwrap horus.
Ill get some pics once ive done a bit more than the basic head and chest

[paulius-st]

i dont know the method youre going to use but i suggest oelt maping .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjqY8i_-Xe0
its a fast and easy way to make good uv's.

[Krallis]

Thank you.

*Pelt

[Krallis]

Here are some picture of the horus model so far.

Torso, breastplate, helmet and deltoid guards.

I still have shaping to do on the torso as its a tad misshapen (im not too worried about the abs section because that will be drastically altered to form a cavity anyway). The deltoid guards are roughed out atm my next move is to finish shaping them and then finish the arm and thingh armour.

Criticisms welcome and actively encouraged.

[Krallis]

I had another idea.
I am going to place the statue of Horus' upper body on to a rocky formation or spike that leads down to the temple core. The rocky formation will have the golden light shining out of it aswell as if it is carrying it down to the gods at the center of the temple.

Anyway im doing some minor adjustments on the body and preparing for ZBrush.

[Krallis]

Update. The arms will be sorted in ZBrush. The shoulders are off aswell, but again im going to sort it in ZBrush.
A bit more work to do on the upper body, finalising the armour design and such.

[Krallis]

Update. Here is a hires version of the base mesh.
Ive been attempting to unwrap my mesh with xsi fnpeltmapper.
But its a nightmare. So i will try different techniques.

[Krallis]

Hey, a quick update.
Ive got the torso unwrapped pretty damn perfectly.
Im even enjoying it, theres something satisfying about it, its like a little puzzle.

Ill get pics up later when ive done more.

[wargrafix]

A Horus armor right? Nice model work so far.
________
600 (http://www.bmw-tech.org/wiki/BMW_600)

[Krallis]

Thanks.
Thats the really hi-res one.
I actually went back and got a slightly lower res model for unwrapping.
But once its unwrapped im going to work on it in ZBrush and add detail.

[paulius-st]

nice. i like the idea and the concept . model looks good so far exept palms. they look like mini wings. but that all i cant find to crit :) . a little sugestion - nex time try to post a wires of low res model :) .
though nice progres. good luck . cheers :)

[Krallis]

:P I know the hand are terminally awkward , it shall be fixed in Zbrush.

[AndreasOlsen]

Nice character you got there, can`t wait to see some texture on that one.

Looking good, keep it up!

[Krallis]

Heres the statue before being taken into ZBrush.
A shaded version.
Two checkered versions.

All unwrapped and ive tested normal maps in ZBrush and the UV maps are working great.

I shall be sculpting the mesh tomorrow and setting up materials in Unreal 3.

NOTE: I dont know how much work ill get done tomorrow because tuesday is generally busy for me anyway but tomorrow im going to se Dara O Briain live so i will try and get at least one piece of armour sculpted.

[Krallis]

I regret to say i didnt get anything doen last night fo rreasons previously stated.
But i will be working pretty much flat out on it tonight and hopefully get the mask and breastplate AT LEAST sculpted and mapped (textured if im lucky)

[andrewhall1234]

The UV layout looks pretty good now. I'll look forward to seeing how the extra sculpting adds to this model

[Krallis]

Heres a picture of my normal map on the mesh.
Im adjusting the mesh now to make it fit the normal map better
(particularly the oblique ridges)

Im trying to keep the armour reasonably simple and smooth.

[Tarik2d]

Is this guy going to go in a scene or something?

[Krallis]

Hopefully.
But we shall see because ive never really done any of this UV/normal mapping before. So its a learning experience for me.

Although I think im going to restyle the breastplate and make a new normal map.

[Tarik2d]

Arh ok, well say if you need help with anything. The unwrap seems neat :)

[Krallis]

Thank you :D

Im currently trying to design a simple but effective armour that will actually work as a normal map for the mesh I have.

The oblique ridges on the other one failed badly when brought into UE3

[Cordero]

Hey!
The uvw looks decent, but i think you might want to think about where you want the details. Because the bigger the squares one the model, the less detail you will have. Mostly i lay my uvws out evenly sized, or i decide where i want more detail, and i just simply scale that region up on the uvw map, so more squares will appear, and i can give it more detail. You may also want to fix the deformations on the neck area. That will give you some headache later on.
I also think, that you could have made this mesh with half amount of tris you have now. That gives you more flexibility, and you want that, if this is a base mesh for sculpting.

Good luck with the final image.

[Krallis]

Im terribly sorry for my slow progress at the moment. My aim is to finish the breastplate by tomorrow. Then i will sort out the uv scaling issues.

[Krallis]

This may take longer than I thought.
No matter what I do i cannot get the shape I want in ZBrush.
Ill keep trying but if this takes a ridiculous amount of time ill do something else.

[Tarik2d]

U got any pictures of ur zbrush work?

[Krallis]

Well, Im working on a better design now than my last one.
More what I had in mind for it anyway.
Im still working on it and Ill get some pictures up when i get further along with it.

[Tarik2d]

ok cool, good luck with it

[wargrafix]

nice armor concept.
________
RHODE ISLAND MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES (http://rhodeisland.dispensaries.org/)

[Krallis]

Thanks. Ill get renders up tomorrow of the new design, im wanting to keep the armour relatively simple to fit in with the design i have planned.
So atm its a muscled breastplate and is only about 34k polygons. but i shall get pics up tomorrow.

[JAPO]

Hello :)
I just wanted to ask... why offer Horus canopy jar? And why this particular jar? I dont get the story.

And here is an observation:
A hole in chest of Horus? Wow you would be glad if you got away with simple beheading for even thinking that. Egypteans believed that statues and pictures represented real life so there could be no disfigurement, even for sake of perspective. Making statue of Horus with a hole in his chest would mean disfiguring the God himself. If I did your picture with one leg shorter, you would be wearing that shorter leg in afterlife. That was the logic of the time.

Another observation:
The beak seems too long to me...

Here is something to help you on your quest for the Falcon God. I did this for speed challenge long time ago :)

[Krallis]

Not a hole in his chest.
Its hard to explain. But basically its like a crystal of some sorts slightly recessed into the surface and its this that is producing the light and carrying it down into the temple.
This statue was not built by the civilisation, it was left behind by the gods themselves.

Ill fix the beak today .

[Krallis]

This is what I have of the updated mask so far.
I preferred the old one.

[Tarik2d]

whats ur fireframe like, it seems to have hard edges

[Krallis]

Heres a wireframe.

[wargrafix]

Will this piece have the additional accessories like the speed challenge piece?
________
BLOWJOB GAY (http://www.****tube.com/categories/346/gay/videos/1)

[Krallis]

...do you mean the Sekhemti crown.
If I have time I may add it yes.
But I want to get the core character done first.

[wargrafix]

You must! In that piece they looked SHWEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You really do have a talent for picking the right materials for your pieces.
________
AIRSOFT GUNS (http://airsoft-shop.info/)

[Krallis]

"You really do have a talent for picking the right materials for your pieces"

I dont understand what you mean...

[wargrafix]

Like the gold textures. It completely works for the pieces.
________
KAWASAKI GPZ900R (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Kawasaki_GPZ900R)

[Krallis]

I like the gold. Theyre JAPO's pieces though. Forgive me if im mistaken in thinking those comments were directed at me, if they werent then fair enough (i'll look like a fool). But yes, the speed model pieces arent mine they're are JAPO's.

[wargrafix]

fair enough. Its completely my mistake though. Still, from what I have seen so far, this piece will rock.
________
BMW 335 (1939 - 1941) HISTORY (http://www.bmw-tech.org/wiki/BMW_335_(1939_-_1941))

[JAPO]

Hello
Sorry, I did not mean to create confusion. That picture is mine, I posted it not for the final image with gold but rather for the wireframe, that I thought could come in handy.

[Krallis]

No problem JAPO. What do you think of the helmet so far by the way?

[Krallis]

Still, from what I have seen so far, this piece will rock.


XD
Dont hold your breath.

At this rate ill be lucky if i can get the breastplate sculpted without looking like total **** in unreal 3.

And even then i cant paint to save my life.


Let me exlain in greater detail.

I havent got a clue what level of detail a normal map will show, as in what size of features can I use it to show.
Every normal map ive tested with my mesh so far in ut3 looks weak and terrible and its hard to tell theres a map on it at all.
I cant paint.
And I cant get clean lines.

[paulius-st]

hmmm. interesting. why are you using unreal3 engine for a cg still image? and why are you making so much tests? my suggestion would be to work more on the model and sculpt and in the end try your normal, displacement, bump, maps. these maps are something that will not run away in the proces and must be made when modeling and sculpting is done. and instead of ureal3 try mental ray or vray, or other more sufisticated render engin that your 3d app supports. even zbrush renders can get realy good look if you use good matcaps and compose them in photoshop.
good luck. :) cheers. waiting for updates

[Krallis]

all i have to render then is zbrush

I used UE3 because i wanted to practice making lowpoly models.

My xsi will not render past 512 x 512 as im using mod tool.

[paulius-st]

then make a low poly model :) . and make the same model but hipoly. then make normal , bump and displacement maps. then they will work perfect depending on count. it doesnt requre any tests. and if something is wrong then your render setings are wrong. 512X512 . thats realy low rez. that "mod tool"what ever it is just sucks.

[MrFunk]

hey krallis...you could use this tool to test your lowpolys
LINK (http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=61346)
it's easy to use and faster than importing your meshes into the unreal engine.

[Krallis]

Mod tool is pretty much the full xsi but its the free version.
The 512 x 512 render limit is one of the limits of the free version.

Ive never applied normal maps to ZBrush models before.
What do you mean, "depending on count." ?

[paulius-st]

then consider donwloading blender or modo. i dont know witch one is free. then you could render in higher resolutions. i ment to make normal maps in zbrush and aply them in other app's. ofcourse fliped vrticaly. the more detailed standart mesh the better normal maps look. i use normal maps just to boost my detail level a little bit, and for more serious deformations i use displacement maps. ofcoure if you have powerfull enough pc than you can jus use decimated meshes. they allready have all normal, bump, disp. maps aplyed.

[Krallis]

Update on chest sculpt.

Thoughts on it please.

[paulius-st]

looks pretty good. i would like to see it with the rest of the body .

[Krallis]

Body isnt sculpted and ive just redesigned the chets piece so it looks a lot better now, i think it does at least. Ill get apic up once ive done more.

[Krallis]

Redesign of chest.
Again, let me know what you think.

[Krallis]

Heres an update.
The chestplate and spaulders are pretty much done.
I still need to work on the stone base and the mask.

[Tarik2d]

I'm liking those shoulder pads

[Krallis]

They actually were done quite quickly compared to the chest.
And im super pleased at the design, its simple but fairly awesome i think.

[Krallis]

Update on materials.
Just a rough paint over.

[paulius-st]

armor looks good. nice work.
as for stone base - use a stone alpha with brush streanth 10-15. you can download lots of alphas from pixologic.com .

[Krallis]

I shall check that out then.
At the moment im just using various levels of noise.

Im not great at painting though so if theres any good tutorials you could point me towards id be eternally grateful.

[paulius-st]

select any brush that can deform the mesh . i use standart brush. then select drag rectangle brush mode mode. select the alpha that you want to use, or import it from any folder in your pc . and now its left just to drag the alpha on your model. and it has nothing to do with drawing skils. :) good luck.
and i thought you colud use this e-book for lots of tutorials. it has everything you need to work with zbrush. and the best part is that its free :) .
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25907185/ZBrush-Character-Creation---Advanced-Digital-Sculpting
good luck and have fun :)
cheers

[Krallis]

Thank you very much.
When you speak about using the alphas do you mean painting with colour/materials
or sculpting.


Oh and internet explorer is refusing to download the e-book.

[paulius-st]

i meen sculpting. tha same can be used to paint.
than try firefox or opera. i had no problems opening this book. to download you must register there first.

[Krallis]

I registered.
Ill download it later on my archos.
It uses opera.

[Tarik2d]

The gold is looking good, the face is sort of lost

[Krallis]

God bless pixologics matcap library :P

But yes I know what you mean especially at this angle and the way its been coloured.
I will try to do the colour to enhance the face.

[andrewhall1234]

What are you going to do about the hands? The face kind of reminds me of the mask that Jill wears in Resi 5.

Nice work btw

[andrewhall1234]

What are you going to do about the hands? The face kind of reminds me of the mask that Jill wears in Resi 5.

Nice work btw

[Krallis]

Im going to have one of the hands as if its been broken off or worn down.

As for the other one I shall sculpt it in.

[Krallis]

Update on the painting.
I like the pauldrons, the head needs a lot of work and the breastplate needs some too.


It is a bit dark I know.

[chunkymunky]

It is very dark at the moment but your aware of that. I think the shader you've used so far looks a little too greeny rather than gold but it's not too bad, with better lighting it will be better i'm sure, are you planning on roughing up the texture/material at all maybe ageing it or something like that. Other than that it's coming along a treat.

[Krallis]

Yeah I noticed that.
I might make it look aged but I wont corrode it as gold is damn near impossible to corrode.

But yeah. Im doing some practice polypainting painting before I attempt it again.

[Tarik2d]

the face colour is looking much better

[Krallis]

Ive changed the colouring again.