The Post Before Christmas

Haven't updated in a while and I thought it'd be best to get in one before christmas. The last couple of weeks I've been working on getting the texturing done. Admittedly I've not been exactly working at full steam after hand in so it's not all at where it could have been. 

It's looking more complete right now, but obviously not near completion. I've been using a technique that I came across that offers a quick and easy method for just getting a quick first layer of scratches on the assets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsQ9Y0Bc2cE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Obviously this is only for a quick first pass and wouldn't suffice to just leave it at that. So it'll require going over with more overlays with scratches and rust. I've also been adding in overlays over just the basic diffuse colours just to add slight variations in colour so that everything isn't just one big block colour as it doesn't look very realistic. This is only just the diffuses getting done as I've not been unto the specular maps yet and they are still just basic diffuses that would require a lot more work to get it to a complete standard.  

Overall I'm quite happy with the way that the project has been progressing and the feedback I got back. I know that I could get this project to a good quality with a bit more work into the textures and material definition as well as the other stuff that needs finishing like the vista and skydome. 

The above image is a space I don't like very much, it's probably the weakest part of the level. It's just a big empty space that I don't know what to fill it with. But I might end up just leaving it as is. 

There are many things that I really should do for this project, like using vertex painting on the floor and window tileables to break up the repetition. I should really improve the textuing a lot and focus especially on the material definition. As well as the above area should really be worked on to get the best possible result that I can. 

However I feel that my time over christmas would be better spent working on personal projects for my FX blog. I've had a real trouble this semester balancing my work. Every moment I work and uni projects a feel bad for not working on FX stuff to have a better chance to get a job after uni but every time I work on FX I feel guilty for not working on uni projects that go to my grade. This resulted in neither getting the focus or attention they deserved and both suffered. This added to more personal issues I feel like this semester has been a rather large failure. So I'm going to take this time over christmas to work on the things that I feel will be better for my future, so I'll get the uni projects finished, but not to a high grade standard but I'm okay with that if I can get a job out of the work that I do. So this blog might get a little quiet for a while but my others will pick up. 

Final Renders

So I'm finally done with this project... for now. But I realised I never put up my final renders. Needs a lot of work probably but I kinda lost focus with this project towards the end. Not really happy with how it came out mainly due to Xoliul, so I'll probably come back to this and import it all into UDK and get a better final render. But for now here's where it's at.

And now back onto rooftop to get everything textured. Does it ever end :/

Almost there, I hope

So I'm very almost there, well as much as I can take with this project. Everything's textured and baked out properly it's all a case of getting a good scene set up in max for the final render. Though I'm sure that'll take all the rest of the week with these horrible shaders. I've had to switch to XoliulShader 2.0 because 1.6 won't cast shadows or render alphas. Saying that 2.0 is still giving me trouble with the alphas.

Here's my current progress. It's alright, I'm currently working on the scene to just give it a slightly better render. Hopefully that'll be done tomorrow so that I can quickly take it into UDK to get a better beauty shot render but that shouldn't affect the work done in max. But I mostly just want it done now, these shaders are far too frustrating and unpredictable to work with much longer.

Updates? What Updates

I realise I've not updated my blog in a while, it's just been constant work to try and get this damned vehicle finished. Having not updated in almost two weeks there's been not all that much progress it would feel. 

It took me a few days to build the low poly as I found it a real challenge to get this under 10,000 tris whilst still holding the rough silhouette. I knew I should have just done something sci-fi with bold geometric shapes :/ Certainly not something with a lot of small details, but then what's life without a challenge? 

And then it took me another 3 days to get it unwrapped after that and another day for baking. I realise that the texel density is probably really awful for this unwrap but I'm just trying to get it done now.

That's the low poly ready for baking and my unwrap for you. 

And here's how it looks now in Max with the Xoliul Shader and a basic diffuse. So I guess it's coming along. It looks like I'll get it easily done for the hand in with the environment as well, though not sure how that will turn out. 

But in other news, I've just started on making this character, sorry can't remember who actually did this concept but I'm just making it for fun so it doesn't really matter I guess as long as people know it's not mine. But I just need a break and plus I've wanted to do something hand painted for a while but I think I'll take it into UDK and play around with getting a really nice shader on it once it's done.

Finally Got It Done

So I finally got my high poly finished today and started on my low poly. I've managed to get through about half of the low poly so far. 

This isn't quite the finished model as I forgot to screenshot it today and my computer at home isn't too great at handling the high poly scenes, but this is about 95-99% done version so it's not too bad. 

Now this weekend I've got to finish the low poly and start unwrapping so that I can get onto the baking quickly.

Progress Feels Slow

So I know what I want to be when I'm older.... anything but a vehicle artist. This project feels like one big ball of *kill me now*. But even so, some progress has to be made. My original plan of have the high and low polys finished and baked by the end of the week is starting to look like a fantasy. But I should be easily unto texturing start of next week and no matter what the vehicle will be finished by the time James comes back, I will not have nothing to show him again.

But enough of the ranting (it's never enough...) So I finally finished the chassis today. I never want to see tracks again. But it's come out a fair bit better than I had anticipated. So now that's finished I've got the chassis, main body (which requires some tweaking and refining) and about 70-80% of the arm done. 

Once I get this damned arm finished, which will probably be done tomorrow if I actually sit down and focus. After that is just tweaking the main body and then building the inside. Then I should be finished with the high poly. I wish it wouldn't have taken me so long but what can you do other than go back in time and tell past me never to do an excavator.

Vehicular Fun Times.....

So I realised I hadn't actually updated my blog since getting the vehicle project from codies. Basically for this project I am planning on doing a small excavator. If you really wanted to know the make and model, it's a Kubota KX161-3. But that's probably way too specific. So once I've got this modelled and textured I was thinking about putting it in a construction site type environment or turntable.

So this is as far as I've gotten with my highpoly since getting the project. It's taking me a smigden bit longer than I had anticipated but I'm still confident that I'll have the high and low poly done, unwrapped and baked by the end of next week so I'll still be on schedule. Oh and I'm aware of the flaws that need to be fixed later, but I'll get round to those.