Pose WIPs and Tips Thread V1 - Garry's Mod

just a high-FOV lamp with a placeholder skybox effect and some fog to set the mood I've been keeping an eye out for this WIP of yours for a while, it already looks super interesting

So, I'm pretty new at this (very new) and I'm not sure if I'm even posting in the right place, but I have some questions. I'm trying to loosely represent a scene from one of the Halo novels through SFM. It's set in a desert on the planet Carrow. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/tKAxmE3.jpg[/IMG] What can I do to improve the city skyline, like adding some atmospheric perspective to the buildings + ship and some columns of smoke. The "blowing sand" graphic I used on the midground is only as tall as those Spartans, not nearly enough to cover the buildings. Is that something I have to do in post? How about placement of the buildings and the cruiser themselves? It doesn't quite feel right to me. (I also can't add any buildings behind what's shown because they'll be out of the map and disappear). I also don't know if it's appropriate for them to be in silhouette or if I should add a fill. The sun is behind the front Spartan's (screen) left hip. Edit: Ideally the city would be even further off in the distance, but that's as far back as the map goes. So, poses. Haven't started that yet. I'd like for the center Spartan to be carrying a near-fatally wounded woman in his arms, but I can't for the life of me figure out what model I can use to represent her. She's supposed to be an African (from New Mombasa) in a plain-ish diplomatic uniform. The other two are just trudging through the sand. Also, I need to change the source/direction of light on the back Spartan, but that's also the light for the midground and back left dunes. It feels kind of empty, how should I kind of flesh out the scene? Shrubs and rocks? There are some seams visible on the sand dunes, too. Might be a bit flat and boring or something in terms of composition, too. (Side note: Lighting in that program is... strange. It hasn't really been an issue before because, until now, I've only ever lit one character at a time and then used something like After Effects to composite them together. This is a large scene, though, and SFM lights only cover a small, round area from relatively close to the subject. I followed a youtube tutorial to create a "sun," but it mostly explained the how, not the why. I ended up having to do the opposite of what it said at one point (turn horizontal and verticalFOV to max instead of min like it said) to get it to work... somewhat. Sometimes creating a new light completely removes the skybox, too.)

[QUOTE=ChromagicAbr;52794504]What can I do to improve the city skyline, like adding some atmospheric perspective to the buildings + ship and some columns of smoke. The "blowing sand" graphic I used on the midground is only as tall as those Spartans, not nearly enough to cover the buildings. Is that something I have to do in post? How about placement of the buildings and the cruiser themselves? It doesn't quite feel right to me. (I also can't add any buildings behind what's shown because they'll be out of the map and disappear). I also don't know if it's appropriate for them to be in silhouette or if I should add a fill. The sun is behind the front Spartan's (screen) left hip. Edit: Ideally the city would be even further off in the distance, but that's as far back as the map goes. [/QUOTE]as far as i know there is some way to use fog in SFM to improve the skyline itself and give the impression that there is an actual city somewhere behind the dunes and not just a few skyscrapers standing in the desert, you should add something to represent smaller buildings around them to give the whole thing a bit of depth. doesn't have to be anything too detailed if it's going to be obscured by depth of field and atmospheric haze anyway: [t]http://wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/c0742d09b23b.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=Joazzz;52794812]as far as i know there is some way to use fog in SFM to improve the skyline itself and give the impression that there is an actual city somewhere behind the dunes and not just a few skyscrapers standing in the desert, you should add something to represent smaller buildings around them to give the whole thing a bit of depth. doesn't have to be anything too detailed if it's going to be obscured by depth of field and atmospheric haze anyway: [/QUOTE] Oh yea, that's already a lot better and way closer to what I had in mind. Thanks! Edit: Alright, started doing just that. More, less, smaller? A: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/wZX8BMO.jpg[/IMG] B: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/REFy7qa.jpg[/IMG] C: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/qUiutd2.jpg[/IMG] Didn't mean to post that many wips, but I'm indecisive... Leaning towards C. Think I found an OK-ish model for the Envoy, I'll probably shrink her down in size considering those are Spartan IIs (who are about a head taller than your average human). Still need to do posing, of course. Unfortunately I'm not the best at that hah. Is it just me, or does the depth of field blur seem really... jagged?

[img]https://i.imgur.com/CApplhG.jpg[/img] so erm RIP chat thread

How are the Spartans looking? Wasn't really sure what to do with the Spartan on the (screen) right. Tried a "lookout" pose, but right now it seems more like a facepalm and "shielding eyes from sun with hand" doesn't exactly make sense when the helmet visors polarize automatically. Any other pose suggestions? [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/TkKTet4.jpg[/IMG] Alternate position: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/a2KpGKx.jpg[/IMG] Edit: For context: Carrow is a post-war joint occupation zone with an alien city and a human city. A Sangheili (elite) civil war is raging in orbit and this team of Spartans crash landed in the desert with a UNSC diplomat that was embedded on one of the Sangheili ships before fighting broke out. The Arbiter (and joint human/Sangheili occupation) aligned shipmaster she was working with then returned to the surface specifically to hunt down and kill these Spartans. Meanwhile, the shipmaster's rival is chasing [I]him[/I] down so that he can win the civil war for his side and claim Carrow for the Sangheili. While all this is going on, a Brute ship broke off with its own agenda and started razing the human city. Things have gone to all kinds of hell, so nobody's in a good mood...

i think the second positioning works better in the sense that it makes easier to tell all three main characters apart at a glance - in the first version the combined silhouette of the foreground characters blends a bit with that of the right side Spartan.

Thanks so, so much for the help. Seriously. One more, this time with the cruiser. For future reference, I may or may not crop the final image to be 2.40:1, depending. Probably just above the point of the tallest building, more or less. A: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/s9MoEEP.jpg[/IMG] B: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/fVyhvSs.jpg[/IMG] C: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/JitxmDH.jpg[/IMG]

I suppose it depends on what feeling you want the cruiser to evoke. If you're aiming for it to be a big foreboding force then the first or third one is best. I personally like the third one more, because it fills in space in the middle while keeping the overall composition balanced.

Try to look like SFM in gmod. does volumetric light looks good? i'm working edit now [t]http://www.wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/b5aca3c753b1.jpg[/t]

I was listening to some slow jazz and made this film noir inspired pose. I’m not sure where to go with this now. I like two different angles I did and I want to add stylized cigarette smoke but I don’t know how to do that in photoshop without making a mess. I like the mutual distrust in their eyes in this shot. [t]https://www.dropbox.com/s/kfpbxc0yft3iryo/rp_evocity2_v5p0024.jpg?dl=1[/t] I like how much more of the scene I can see in this one. [t]https://www.dropbox.com/s/466sncncrw0pqcd/rp_evocity2_v5p0002.jpg?dl=1[/t] I forgot to add copious amounts of alcohol in the others so I added that in this shot. [t]https://www.dropbox.com/s/mxrydadei4zih5n/rp_evocity2_v5p0015.jpg?dl=1[/t] Anyone want to take a crack at this?

Fullbright of something I'm working on at the moment. [T]http://www.wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/436159a8fbb9.jpg[/T] Based on this Halo Reach concept art: [T]http://conceptartworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/halo_reach_06b.jpg[/T]

He got them from here : [url]https://vk.com/comradivan[/url]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/Pl0JFxC.jpg[/img] Not sure how to handle the lighting in this scene, doesn't feel right.

[QUOTE=Agameofscones;52814869] Not sure how to handle the lighting in this scene, doesn't feel right.[/QUOTE] The strong rim lighting on the right of the sitting character's face and back of the head of the standing has no source, that's probably contributing to what feels off about it. Dim it down (at least half as much as the left and possibly tint it slightly blue) to act as bounce from the wall, perhaps. Edit: And unless my brain is messing with me this late at night, the slat light and shadow on the left side of the desk (with the vertical bar running down) shouldn't be visible, but blocked completely by the stacked boxes. The light source for the blinds seems to be screen left. Those three bars of light on the rug might not line up with its "source," either.

making a new scene with a partially recycled old set. i had the general idea of the pose in mind (a raid on an abandoned mech/titan/robot factory), but i'm unsure what to use in terms of actors i was dying to use a few arcing laser effects as well, but i'm at a loss when it comes to actors does anyone have any ideas or tips? [IMG]http://puu.sh/y5WO2/6ba139318d.jpg[/IMG] didn't get around to lighting yet mainly because it's harder to keep actors and shadows in mind when there aren't any characters in the scene already

some other recent stuff i feel ashamed of [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/eySbI8Z.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/FHR3RfO.jpg[/IMG] You know, after years of creating gmod stuff and later painting and then more than a year of doing literally nothing art wise due to various reasons i just feel like i can't do shit. I'm not even sure why I play gmod again, probably it's still easier than painting stuff from scratch, and music is just not enough to express myself in one way or another. Some people are really good here though. It's kinda nice to know that only the best have survived the desolation this subsection has been being subjected to lately.

Holy shit that second one is gorgeous. Pre-made map or not that angle is spectacular and the train thing happening there is intriguing and interesting

What the shit, thats amazing, what are you talking about being ashamed of this? The second one is a carpet bomb blowing my mind continuously, I can't stop staring at it who are you

So I'm taking a little break from my current big thing to refresh my mind somewhat, and moving on to a little excersise build based on a 20-minute doodle I did in class [T]https://i.imgur.com/VLvlSHK.jpg[/T] [T]https://i.imgur.com/CeTWed0.jpg[/T]

[QUOTE=antianan;52821161][IMG_thumb]https://i.imgur.com/FHR3RfO.jpg[/IMG_thumb][/QUOTE] You made a Dear Esther map look greater than what it is.

[QUOTE=Docta Ubafest;52821476]So I'm taking a little break from my current big thing to refresh my mind somewhat, and moving on to a little excersise build based on a 20-minute doodle I did in class [T]https://i.imgur.com/VLvlSHK.jpg[/T] [T]https://i.imgur.com/CeTWed0.jpg[/T][/QUOTE] I love how you drew the ground, bushes and trees, in the pose the ground has the same level of foliage 'density' but the bushes and trees less so, problem is I don't know if there are many denser models for those [editline]26th October 2017[/editline] just caught the flower popping out of the cannon, awesome detail

was working on poses but they both broke so im just posting the two last wips of each [t]https://i.gyazo.com/f1b8a9781497e33400e77caaf5760d58.jpg[/t] [t]https://i.gyazo.com/f7f814608f873e0cc57733a56e5a0bb6.jpg[/t]

I thought I would share a WIP of my scenebuild of Monte Grappa, a map from Battlefield 1. It is possible thanks to Hauptmann's BF1 prop pack. [t]http://www.wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/5a7c0ff32.jpg[/t] [t]http://www.wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/73e4b4.jpg[/t] I am also planning to make the Zeppelin burning as it falls down. I am taking this as a challenge.

Favorite map in bf1 right there, looks awesome so far wip [t]https://i.gyazo.com/f6cd5db016238beb01715c5930263aaf.jpg[/t]

are these sandbags fortifications from BF2 ? They seem familiar.

yep they are

Playing around with adding details like grass to the mossy rocks, flowers and such. [t]http://www.wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/73e4b4.jpg[/t] [t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/851604638000590108/F6AEAD0260FB1F1A73ACDC5A7FCD3D848D72FA22/[/t] [sp]I dont have BF1 since I have too low specs for it. Shame. It looks so fun to play.[/sp]

Your scenebuild is coming along nicely. I can't wait to see it finish. [B][I]Edit:[/I][/B] Some WIP from my end: [T]http://www.wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/a8c48b1cd9ba.jpg[/T]

Gorgeous WIP