35 replies to this topic

[Nazgûl]

Yazneg - the Captain of Azog's Warg Riders is being sculpted... This orc is fun to sculpt, as his face is pretty unsymmetrical, which makes him look more personal and interesting. One can really tell that Weta put more effort into this guy, as he initially was intended to portray Azog, instead of the all CGI version that PJ decided upon in the end.

I'm just not sure yet if I'm gonna go with the more agressive look with open mouth, or the slighly more subtle look with semi-closed mouth. Face is exactly the same, it's only the mouth and jaw that differs. I think I'm gonna go with the lower one...  What do you think, (besides from poly count issues)?

 

 

Edited by Nazgûl, 08 August 2014 - 06:31 PM.

[Kwen]

I would say the lower. I really like the look of the semi-closed mouth, I think it fits the Orc look well, kind of like a permanent scowl. The top open-mouth look is good for like an attacking or charging situation, but for consistent viewing it would just look odd.

[Nazgûl]

You are right, I agree 

[njm1983]

Looks good, damn he's ugly.

[Nazgûl]

Yeah, he is... Loads of battle damage and scars. But I like him. The weird fether style back piece was awkward to sculpt, but I think it turned out ok in the end. Painting should be fairly quick =) After this, I only have Bolg and the Goblin Town gobbos left to finish the new Hobbit movie assets for this faction:

Azog

Bolg

Yazneg

Fimbul

Hunter Orcs

Wargs

Moria Orcs

Great Goblin

Goblin Town goblins

and Stone Giants.

 

I think we covered it all by then?
Erebor faction will pose new asset shortages though, as Iron Hills dwarves, the rams, and whatnot.

 

(PS, do note that this is still raw high poly format, and not "low res" topologized for in game use)

 

Edited by Nazgûl, 18 August 2014 - 01:02 AM.

[MattTheLegoman]

Are you able to generate heightmaps for the details using the high poly version for the low poly version?

[Nazgûl]

I think so, but I don't like those as they are shiny =/

 

However, I always export the skin/texture from the high res version after UV mapping, and paste it onto the low res. I think the Great Goblin for example shows good result like that. From millions of polies to about 3k.

Painting done...

 

[MattTheLegoman]

I've figured out how to make normal maps not be shiny (you could actually give me a list of objects that are too shiny in game). =D

However, there should be a way to put the heightmap on the texture itself, no shiny parts just the shadow. So the fine details that get lost in polygon stripping go into the texture, so the texture isn't flat. =D

[Nazgûl]

Well that sounds splendid! Btw the Warg Pit has this problem. The large rock looks wet...

[Ealendril der Dunkle]

Looks really amazing, Naz! Keep it up.

[Nazgûl]

Thanks buddy, I'll do my best 

[Nazgûl]

Seriously.... this is the worst topology session ever. ZBrush is an awesome tool to work with - when sculpting. But for doing retopology, it SUCKS, due to some moron enabling transparency for the mesh, with no option to disable it! The see through makes it a living hell to distribute verticles manually   


Took me 4 hours to get by the worst part (most details)... about 1400 polies so far.



See the problem below? What at Pixelogic moron came up wtith this retarded idea? Why would I want to see the faces on the other side? Pixelidiot...   

[Nazgûl]

Yay! Topology done... 2700 polies. UV mapping next and then finally texture projection from hig poly to low poly mesh, before I send it to "my" rigger and trading partner Ealendril 

 

[njm1983]

Looking good. Getting voices from some of these heroes is gonna be tricky.

[Nazgûl]

Yeah... I thought of that too. Not many scenes where they speak. Especially not Fimbul...

[Nazgûl]

DAMN!....   Aparently, somewhere during the process, a bunch of polies were flipped, so now I can't UV map him properly and I have no idea how to fix this as there doesn't seem to be a "flip normals" option in Zb. I will not go back and redo the topology so if I can't fix this, I'll have to scrap this model unfortionately. This is another problem with ZBrush that someone made polygons double sided when modeling, instead of having that be a disabled option by default. That's why I never noticed it when spending 6-8 hours on topology... Crap!

 

What I would need is a "Unify Normals" function (like below in what I think is 3DSMax?)... but Zb doesn't seem to have that. If anyone could possibly help, please let me know...   

Edited by Nazgûl, 31 August 2014 - 01:37 AM.

[Nazgûl]

Never mind, problem solved (after X hours) 

Anyways, will fix the UV mapping tomorrow, sunday =) 

[njm1983]

Glad it's sorted.

[Nazgûl]

Yeah, this made me REALLY nervous, as I spend a lot of time on what I have to say was the worst topology session yet. His weird fether style back piece was a living hell to work with due to Zb's awkvard transparency =/ I was not about to do it all over from scratch, so I'm really happy I stumbled across that missplaced vertex joint. 

Edited by Nazgûl, 31 August 2014 - 01:41 AM.

[Ealendril der Dunkle]

Uhhh...anoying such problems. Really great that you could fix that. I think Yazneg is one of your best!