In the Night They Came, a Horde of Monsters Far From Grace - Garry's Mod

[quote=Anonymous Imperial Army Trooper][I]The skies of the Throneworld were ablaze. Debris fell as meteors high from orbit, fragments of slain spacecraft burning up and trailing long streaks of flame as they entered the atmosphere. We could see them from the Palace walls, bright streaks of finality plummeting down over the horizon. Some of it was sure to be turncoat wreckage, but the sheer number of these funeral pyres in the sky left no doubt of the reality: The Warmaster had come - his fleet had made it past the guns of Luna, and now the defender flotilla was lost. Nothing stood between the armies of Horus and the soil of Terra itself. Vast landers descended through the heavens, their void shields and magnetic fields working in tandem with the orbital bombardment to wreak havoc on the weather. Storms of lightning broke out of the darkened clouds and rain, cold and bitter as if in recognition of the events to take place, came to fall. Stormbirds, Thunderhawks and smaller gunships raced down like raptors in for the kill. The landing lights of the invading craft turned the night into day. Anti-aircraft fire swatted many from the skies, yet many more made it through the hellstorm of flak and missiles, coming to land a relatively safe distance away from the Eternity Wall. In the dark we could make out only glimpses of the ships' heraldry, though we all should've known who would be the first ones into the fray. Rushing out of their transports came the XII Legion, the traitors of the "World Eaters". Many of them were as we had been told, charging forward like rabid dogs in warpaint of indigo and snow, yet it was clear that what little nobility had once remained in their savage hearts had been swept away by something darker. Spikes adorned their armor and vehicles, trophy racks impaling the skulls of slain foes. Red was the rising dominant color in their heraldry, a great many of them having decorated their battle-plate entirely with crimson and brass, and many more having replaced the blue of their armor with the color of spilled blood. Their helms were horned with crude metallic pinions and the seemingly natural horns of some terrible beasts. In the night they came, a horde of monsters fallen far from their grace. One could not find a single shred of pretense of organisation in their assault - they charged as a pack across the muddy plain, each maddened Astartes scrambling over his comrades in a contest to get the first, second and third kill. Though I am in some ways grateful for having survived the apocalyptic war that followed, the images of this night are forever imprinted into the mists of my mind, and the dreams of my later days are haunted by the never-ending chanting born of the blood lust that finally took the World Eaters Legion beyond the edge of redemption: [B]BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE![/B][/I][/quote] [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekCmZDO4d8o[/media] [img]http://files.1337upload.net/WEPromoshot_atmohaze_rain_Explosions_3_bgdetail_Sharp2-cf4242.jpg[/img] had some fun with rain again bonus: [t]http://files.1337upload.net/stormbirds_editing_wet_merged_finishing-47e997.jpg[/t]

Fuckin A+, man.

they should have sent a poet

I love it, especially how it drags my eyes to the center with that one soldier. But for the purple lightning, seems low res to me to be honest, I'm pretty sure I would change it, maybe make the lightning thinner and more detailed, kind of like : [url]http://www.photographymad.com/files/images/lightning-sydney.jpg[/url]

[QUOTE=Crazy Knife;52560236]But for the purple lightning, seems low res to me to be honest[/QUOTE]the point of it, actually. originally i had a more detailed sky going on, but that stole focus from the main scene and so i dumbed it down.

I think I know what the problem is. The black cloud that's at the top center is way too detailed (like a high res brush) which makes the lightning appear pasted on, which at least makes it look weird for my eyes. I mean I would personally cut out like 10-15 % from the top, picture still looks good in my opinion even with that part absent. It further centers it on the red marine in the middle.

the shot was originally framed so that the right side aircraft was basically skimming the upper edge, but it felt really cramped, so i added more space to the top because i felt it'd look better if the pic was equally divided between the army and the sky, with their meeting point forming a straight line almost precisely in the middle

Holy shit

I have to ask - what texture work did you do on the models? The way the (reflective?) water joins in with the grungy blood stained, painted metal is great

[QUOTE=VIoxtar;52571356]I have to ask - what texture work did you do on the models? The way the (reflective?) water joins in with the grungy blood stained, painted metal is great[/QUOTE]thanks, didn't do anything other than draw the water effects in post, all the blood stuff is painted onto the model textures themselves and accessed through skingroups

what up joazzz your shit is even better than i remember whoa

i learned from the best

This is great! How did you do the water on the armor?

[QUOTE=TheFrostBible;52615431]This is great! How did you do the water on the armor?[/QUOTE]painted it, picked pure white for the color and Overlay for the blending. streaks with a basic low opacity brush, and the "droplet" effect with what GIMP calls "Jittering".

Do you use any in game effects, or are they all painted in like the rain?

all effects were photoshopped, in game effects are shit and not worth using.

[QUOTE=Joazzz;52625055]all effects were photoshopped, in game effects are shit and not worth using.[/QUOTE] Sweet! That's gonna make a huge difference in my own work. I assume this means you light the areas the where effects are going to be, or is that done in Photoshop as well?

it's a bit complicated to explain, but lighting was entirely in-game (technically, anyway) while all the explosions, fire, rain, smoke and that stuff was not none of the scenes that i do are simply screenshots, they're more like collages assembled from many different pictures, with each shot having one light on. one shot for atmospheric lights, one shot for the sun or whatever, one shot for each explosion and so on this explains the process in full detail: [url]https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1518642[/url]

[QUOTE=Joazzz;52625970]it's a bit complicated to explain, but lighting was entirely in-game (technically, anyway) while all the explosions, fire, rain, smoke and that stuff was not none of the scenes that i do are simply screenshots, they're more like collages assembled from many different pictures, with each shot having one light on. one shot for atmospheric lights, one shot for the sun or whatever, one shot for each explosion and so on this explains the process in full detail: [url]https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1518642[/url][/QUOTE] I had a feeling the effect lighting was done the same way as the rest of the scene. Light stacking is a powerful method! The one thing that was never clear to me about it was what format was used to take the individual screenshots, cause it never made sense to me to use Poster for each shot or Jpegs since their compressed. It was kind of a duh moment for me when I realized it was dev_shot (screenshot as it's called now apparently).

poster works best, i usually delete most of the space-hoarding PNGs when i'm finished with editing