408 replies to this topic

[Yarrum]

That looks amazing. Just curious, have you considered contacting the Third Age Total War team? They've got a Minas Tirith map under construction and your buildings would probably be insanely helpful.

[Nertea]

If ANYONE knows a good library of grass/stone/rock textures, please let me know. I don't want to have to draw this grass/stone by hand, it would take forever.

mayang.com

Also, if anyone knows a way to do arch cutouts without using the boolean tool...please let me know! (For the sake of my geometry and poly flow).

Cutting and chamfering/subdivding are the best way in max. Alternately boolean, remove all the edges in the poly, then use cut to put edges in the 'right' places. I have also heard that the PowerBoolean tool is great if you have $400 lying around to burn.

[Prince of the Dark Forest]

This project looks incredible. I can't believe I've missed this thread!

Is there any news on the availability of the old Legolas, Boromir, Aragorn and Gandalf skins?

[Lauri]

Looks decent

For a jedi

[NewErr]

I say your insane.

Looks totally awesome .

[Master Windu]

Anyone happen to know Mental Ray enough to know why my textures are blurry? It doesn't happen with the Scanline renderer.

[Master Windu]

Figured it out...been causing me months of trouble. Just needed to enable Gamma 2.2...fixes the washed-out textures. Now the scene is slightly too dark, though.



Grass is temporary; I don't like it.

[NewErr]

Splendid , I just love the detail on the Main Hall . Also is the tower finished? In it's normal size?

[Master Windu]

Splendid , I just love the detail on the Main Hall . Also is the tower finished? In it's normal size?

Oh, nothing's finished (or even close to). The front of the Main Hall is the only building that has a finished model...I'm still debating on whether or not to actually model the stone blocks and the roof tiles.

[Lauri]

I say no. Focus on the good stuff

[NewErr]

Ah , my bad, didn't really meant "finished" , more how does the shape look like , because I believe it's Huge .

Ahem, modeling the stone blocks and roof ? How insane can you get ? I believe that's a shitload of work , it will look very sweet , I'm not that sure it's worth it , you can always use normal maps , but if your up for a challenge and have the time for that don't let me stop you .As I see you want to play with the environment , not to actually use it in-game .

Good luck and hope you'll post some awesome screens soon .

[Master Windu]

Ah , my bad, didn't really meant "finished" , more how does the shape look like , because I believe it's Huge .

Ahem, modeling the stone blocks and roof ? How insane can you get ? I believe that's a shitload of work , it will look very sweet , I'm not that sure it's worth it , you can always use normal maps , but if your up for a challenge and have the time for that don't let me stop you .As I see you want to play with the environment , not to actually use it in-game .

Good luck and hope you'll post some awesome screens soon .

Now that you point it out, I do think the tower is a bit too large. It's been really difficult getting all the proportions done correctly, as different refs/screenshots contradict others, and there's no official floorplan from a birds eye view.

Anyway, the reason I considered modeling the stone/roof tiles is that with Mental Ray, I can't seem to get specular/normal maps to work (I don't think they're supposed to). Displacement and bump maps work (IIRC) but they look different than they do with the scanline renderer.

[Master Windu]

Got sick of just looking at the top level with nothing else. Went ahead and made the basic shape of the entirety of Minas Tirith.

BTW: If you're a big fan of the movies and know everything there is to know about Minas Tirith, you can help me by pointing out areas that don't look right, things that need correcting, etc. Feel free!

[Nertea]

It's pretty, and a massive project, really. If I were you I'd just focus on the top level!

[NewErr]

It's pretty, and a massive project, really. If I were you I'd just focus on the top level!

I agree , When you have finished the top level you can continue if you want to , but I agree also on your idea of having a bigger vision on the model .

[Master Windu]

I'll probably end up doing that, for a few reasons...

Mainly because the rock cliff protrusion thingy looks EXCELLENT, but is so many polies that Max crashes when I try to render it. And I thought the mountain was bad...

[Master Windu]

So, following the advice of many, I've decided to get the top few levels polished off first. Some progress:



Oh, and I still hate the grass. And the stone. The textures need work. I may end up just taking screenshots from the movie of up-close frames of Minas Tirith stonework and use those.

[Hostile]

I firmly believe that if you don't get paid, one day, very large amounts of money and be given all the tools you need to create, than that's an epic FAIL. You are one hell of a 3d modeler...

[Yarrum]

Fact.

[NewErr]

Yeah you know people get payed for things like you do ?