Digital 3D Art v9 - General

i have no idea if it is metal or not i just figured but bring your materials out through the texturing moreso than the edge sharpness. it's like a fine tune versus a coarse tune, at least that's how i think of it. tighter edges are easier to pull off as any material imo.

Just playing with Trapcode Particular. [video=youtube;eEJDblgU3IM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEJDblgU3IM&list=UU_7X6KbJayshecr660qZ_BQ&index=1&feature=plcp[/video] About 300,000 particles there.

Can someone help me out? In blender if I try to use GPU Compute for cycles it gets to Path Tracing Sample 1/whatever and freezes blender completely, the render is black and I have to use Task Manager to close blender. I am tired of fucking LONG render times in cpu. Card: ATI 5770 Using OpenCL 1.1 to try and render.

Guys I need some help, I can't for the life of me get any sort of vray water material to work. They look like garbage all of the time. Does anyone have any tutorials on basic vray water? I can't find anything that works with the searching I have done. I don't know why I am having issues with this, it's such a simple thing.

First attempt at something realistic, used a tutorial to help with some stuff but now I have a general idea on some rendering set ups :) [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/gaYw0.png[/IMG] [editline]13th May 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Fausty;35943550]Can someone help me out? In blender if I try to use GPU Compute for cycles it gets to Path Tracing Sample 1/whatever and freezes blender completely, the render is black and I have to use Task Manager to close blender. I am tired of fucking LONG render times in cpu. Card: ATI 5770 Using OpenCL 1.1 to try and render.[/QUOTE] After turning on no caustics, it renders but everything is pink, I can see basic outlines but that's it, the rest is pink.

This summer i plan on getting involved in this type of "art" and modelling. What program would you guys suggest for building realistic scenes, or plane models? Im gonna use this thread for inspiration.

[QUOTE=The Rifleman;35946719]This summer i plan on getting involved in this type of "art" and modelling. What program would you guys suggest for building realistic scenes, or plane models? Im gonna use this thread for inspiration.[/QUOTE] Well try out blender, it's free so you have nothing to lose, it's what I used for the above image.

[QUOTE=Fausty;35946855]Well try out blender, it's free so you have nothing to lose, it's what I used for the above image.[/QUOTE] Thank you sir i will give it a try. I assume they have tutorials and stuff to help get you started on the website, but are there any tips, or little hints you guys might have?

[QUOTE=The Rifleman;35947076]Thank you sir i will give it a try. I assume they have tutorials and stuff to help get you started on the website, but are there any tips, or little hints you guys might have?[/QUOTE] To get started with Blender: [url]http://cgcookie.com/blender/get-started-with-blender/[/url] More quality tutorials: [url]http://cgcookie.com/blender/[/url] [url]http://www.blenderguru.com/[/url]

[QUOTE=Mitsuma;35947213]To get started with Blender: [url]http://cgcookie.com/blender/get-started-with-blender/[/url] More quality tutorials: [url]http://cgcookie.com/blender/[/url] [url]http://www.blenderguru.com/[/url][/QUOTE] Bookmarked, thank you very much!

Time to make 30 minutes Approx. Render Time 31 minutes. Fuck CPU rendering. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ltwVe.png[/IMG]

Found the problem, now I just gotta re-do the Weightmap. I could still improve the mesh quite a lot from how Valve had it (those squirrly looking lines on the texture are a result of it), but eh. [t]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22565769/render4.png[/t]

[QUOTE=Ajacks;35944864]Guys I need some help, I can't for the life of me get any sort of vray water material to work. They look like garbage all of the time. Does anyone have any tutorials on basic vray water? I can't find anything that works with the searching I have done. I don't know why I am having issues with this, it's such a simple thing.[/QUOTE] Are you trying it with a refractive VraySSS(2) material? Because getting anything to look right using that is incredibly fiddly. I suggest scouting vray-materials.de and getting a murky or clear water material to examine.

[QUOTE=ChestyMcGee;35915989][t]http://filesmelt.com/dl/madeitabitmorevisible.jpg[/t] [editline]11th May 2012[/editline] nice little scene btw. has a lovely old-timey aesthetic[/QUOTE] I think the dynamic look of the buildings and props. But it's a bit square, you could try to break it up a bit.

[QUOTE=PLing;35949492]I think the dynamic look of the buildings and props. But it's a bit square, you could try to break it up a bit.[/QUOTE] Well you have to imagine it being a platformer like Trine, because that's where this is for a platform game. Anyway this is just a mood image to show the teachers what kind of game I'm imagining.

I know its hottly debated but I have been wondering for a while what you guys think is the best modelling program overall (simplicity/modelling/sculpting/UVs/rendering). I see a lot of people using Blender with great results but I wonder if Blender is only used because Autodesk products are not available to them? I have 3ds Max student but for someone starting out its pretty complicated. Also I have been wondering whether I should bother with Blender or download Maya?

[QUOTE=Triarii;35951105]I know its hottly debated but I have been wondering for a while what you guys think is the best modelling program overall (simplicity/modelling/sculpting/UVs/rendering). I see a lot of people using Blender with great results but I wonder if Blender is only used because Autodesk products are not available to them? I have 3ds Max student but for someone starting out its pretty complicated. Also I have been wondering whether I should bother with Blender or download Maya?[/QUOTE] Generally people say 3DsMax is the best, but it really depends on what you're using it for and how skilled you are. You can achieve the same things in Max that you can in Milkshake if you're competent enough.

I have access to Max and Maya but I don't find all the menuscrolling in Max particularly handy and I haven't actually bothered with Maya yet even though I probably should. I like the fact that almost everything in blender is behind a shortcut. Some people hate it on the other hand. Some people use Maya for everything while others use it only for animating etc. From what I've heard more and more studios and people are moving away from Max because there are other more attractive alternatives eg. Modo or XSI. There's really no right answer though just a lot of different opinions. You just have to figure out what works best for you. Edit: @Fausty: Cycles doesn't support OpenCL other than for clay renders really so your alternatives are waiting, changing gpu to nvidia or using cpu.

Maya is more of an all-rounder. A lot of VFX houses and games companies etc. use maya for all their modelling, texturing, rigging and animation.

[QUOTE=Scotchair;35951961]Maya is more of an all-rounder. A lot of VFX houses and games companies etc. use maya for all their modelling, texturing, rigging and animation.[/QUOTE] Max is an all rounder too but rigging is horrible in it and animating is slow as well imo. Actually as far as I remember most bigger 3d software can do all of the things you mentioned some are just not as intuitive as others. Even though I find blender pretty strong overall it has a lot of weaknesses as well. The only reason both Max and Maya exist is so that Autodesk can get more money. With some effort they could integrate the strong sides of both into one package but they won't.

How do you render normal maps correctly in 3dsmax/vray? I tried sticking the normal map in the bump slot alone, then I tried sticking it in a normalmap map, then in a vraynormalmap map. It all looks terrible. [editline]14th May 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Juniez;35940410]It's going to be on a 256 sheet[/QUOTE] Why

[QUOTE=Scotchair;35951961]Maya is more of an all-rounder. A lot of VFX houses and games companies etc. use maya for all their modelling, texturing, rigging and animation.[/QUOTE] I've seen Maya popping up more but I'm certain Max is still the Game industry favourite, I bought a 3D art book and the guy on that made a new on recently on Maya saying he's switched to that now.

[QUOTE=TonyP;35953238]How do you render normal maps correctly in 3dsmax/vray? I tried sticking the normal map in the bump slot alone, then I tried sticking it in a normalmap map, then in a vraynormalmap map. It all looks terrible. [editline]14th May 2012[/editline] Why[/QUOTE] Post the normal map. Maybe there's something wrong with it, rather than your settings/choice of material.

Here ya go [img]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6422/vehnornormstack.jpg[/img]

Looks like it's overlapping terribly.

Let's go swimming. [img_thumb]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a345/ajackss/jp.png?t=1337016965[/img_thumb] Still a work in progress but for such a little amount of time this is going to add a lot of variation to the city. I still need to work on the textures, some good bridges across, ladders going up, debris in the canal itself and other stuff like that.

[QUOTE=Ajacks;35954240]Let's go swimming. [img_thumb]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a345/ajackss/jp.jpg?t=1337015290[/img_thumb] Still a work in progress but for such a little amount of time this is going to add a lot of variation to the city. I still need to work on the textures, some good bridges across, ladders going up, debris in the canal itself and other stuff like that.[/QUOTE] The transition between the wall and ground is very abrupt and ugly.

[QUOTE=~ZOMG;35954275]The transition between the wall and ground is very abrupt and ugly.[/QUOTE] I'm just going to scale up the radius of the transfer a bit and throw a blend texture onto the wall to smooth it out a bit. It is still going to be a change as it is going from mud/garbage to a wall. Just fixed a bit of the seaming issues, beyond that though I am happy with it since it's just a minor part of a big product.

After seeing what everyone else have made, it makes me the worst 3D artist of all time... [IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/9vf3pc.png[/IMG]

[QUOTE=ben_lind;35952154]The only reason both Max and Maya exist is so that Autodesk can get more money. With some effort they could integrate the strong sides of both into one package but they won't.[/QUOTE] I disagree. You can't really integrate them into each other, you'd either have to integrate Max into Maya or Maya into Max, either way, one side will suffer immensely. You could I suppose integrate the two without one taking favour, but in this case both sides will suffer equally. Many people are familiar and prefer the interfaces of one or the other, having a single product that [i]can do both[/i] would be hugely bloated and bulky, and definitely mismanaged, so you'd have to integrate the features of Max into the Maya interface or vice versa. Either way, a group of people will be daunted. So yea, this new product called Maxa would inevitably be a bad idea, and not just for Autodesk, but for Artist's too.