93 replies to this topic

[Nazgûl]

Just wanted to let you know what I am working on now... and once again remind you why coding progress is slow  The new Hobbit movies really stirred things around for both of the factions meant for the first release of SEE-dc. Erebor & Moria. Moria, has expanded into Misty Mountains, since this faction now contains units not only from Moria, but also from both Great Goblin's Goblin Town as well as Azog's Gundabad and all the hunter orcs that comes with him. To take a little break from orc modeling I decided to upgrade the EA giants into Weta's Stone Giants. I'll post screens of my model soon...

 

Edited by Nazgûl, 25 June 2014 - 03:38 PM.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

You should buy the book, it's beautiful.

[Nazgûl]

Yes, I will... 

[Nazgûl]

Question... should I add the trees and bushes to the "body", or is that going over the top? 

[MattTheLegoman]

Just remember that you want to optimise it later. =p

 

And trees in BfME have a certain style. Main trunk and large branches are a 3d model. But leaves and smaller branches are on a 3d plane, their texture is an alpha.

Edited by MattTheLegoman, 22 June 2014 - 03:03 AM.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

You'll definitely want to add the standard BFME trees in Max rather than directly to a zBrush model. Simply because zBrush will scrap the UVs and automatically retopologize the trees and mess them up.

[Nazgûl]

Progress on the basic sculpt... This is a remodeled EA giant, so that the SKL will fit perfectly. That's why the proportions is still slightly more buff and short than I would prefer. But it's good enough, to resemble the Weta design, I think. This is possibly the most fun model to sculpt yet as it gives enormous artistic freedom. Painting this in different shades of gray, and some touches of green here and there will be a pure joy

 

In game, these guys will be extremely slow and thus not very effective against units, unless the enemy units are flocking in vast numbers right before them. But vs structures, they will be very powerful and useful. Coding wise I will keep the current DC setup as a Spell Book summon only (and fortress expansions).

 

Edited by Nazgûl, 23 June 2014 - 12:43 AM.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

You're gonna need a lot of alpha sculpting there, but it looks good so far!

[Nazgûl]

Yeah, to make this high res version look good, yes. However, for the low res version, it will be pointless.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

Oh, yeah, but for texturing. 

[Nazgûl]

Model sculpted and painted... Will start topology tomorrow.

 

I really agree with Gary Hunt, the Weta Sculptor that imagine Stone Giants to be an "entish" life form, lying dormant for ages, imbedded into the rocks, breaking free when needed and hurling large rocks at their enemies (whoever those are). For this game, they will replace the dreadful EA giant completely, be about twice the size (about the same hight as a mûmak or so) and only summoned via the Spell Book, one at a time. I will try to use the same style of summon as the Ent summon, so the Giant slowly rises out of the ground, complete with massive dust FX and sprinkling rocks.

For the fortress expansion, I'm gonna try to replace them into regular Cave Trolls, which would be much more fitting, assuming I find someone that can rig the troll to that SKL ;p

 

 

 

 

These feet will make some serious damage when stomping 

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

It's very nice indeed, but admittedly I preferred the rather more jagged look from AUJ.

[MattTheLegoman]

Yeah. =D

Can you overlay a jagged rock texture on it?

[Nazgûl]

No, the texture is carfully painted by hand    This model is not really meant to resemble the movie version, but rather the one in the Weta book that is more humanoid (to match the vanilla giant SKL). I imagine that the shape and contours of a Stone Giant could be basically any form as welll, depending on what type of rock it springs from etc. Also, hard surfaces is MUCH more difficult and extremely more time consuming in ZBrush that opnly have round brushes for some reason... However, when I topologize the model, some areas will be more flat.

However it turns out, I think this is at least a step forwards from the troll-ish EA giant.

Edited by Nazgûl, 25 June 2014 - 10:46 AM.

[Lauri]

Hmm... Did you ever consider using the ent animations then? I didn't think about it until now, but it could potensially fit more with the "slow-motion" way they move?

[Nazgûl]

Hmmm that is not a bad idea at all... Might require a second model though. If so, I'll make it more jagged and squareish (using boxes probably) 

Edited by Nazgûl, 25 June 2014 - 03:40 PM.

[Kwen]

I will say, I think this is probably your weakest model to date. The concept is great and I'm sure it will look absolutely wonderful once you have done the topology to "BFMEize" it, but as it stands in its true form, I don't like how bulgy and round everything is. For something made of stone, it doesn't actually look like stone. It really should be much more rough. The only time stones are rounded is when they have been exposed to severe weathering for centuries. I don't think a creature like this would have so many clearly rounded stones in such a pattern. It just does not look natural one bit.

 

That being said, I revert back to my statement that once you finish the topology I think it will look wonderful, because with the low poly state it will appear much less round, which in this case is a good thing.

[Nazgûl]

Ok, I hear you... We'll see how the low poly version will turn out. Worst case scenario, I'll redo a model, using the Ent as a base instead.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

You know what I was saying about alpha sculpting? You might wanna try it, cause this is what I meant. 

[Nazgûl]

I think you have to elaborate what you mean...