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2005 Spring ->3D Computer Modeling ->Galleries ->Todd Brown
| | | Todd Brown | | Final Scene | | | Sharmila | |
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| | Inspiration
For this project I wanted to create something a bit brighter and more colorful than the scenes I have made in the past. This scene has a very warm and vibrant feel to it, whereas my previous scenes have gone for a colder feel. It was made clear in the peer evaluations that color usage and lighting are paramount to a scene others will like, so I decided to do a bright scene with a heavy use of color even before considering the actual content of the scene.
The idea for the scene as it appears is based loosely off of a game concept a friend and I are working on and hoping to implement in an existing game engine as a mod this summer. The location pictured here is based on the main character’s home town of Sharmila, a name meaning protection, comfort, joy, so it needs to have a very warm feel to it. It is the location where many of the major characters are met and the player is introduced to the world and should it should be a location that the player feels attached to.
The leaves falling from the tree as well as the intense lighting strive to bring the feeling of warmth to the location. The character serves as a focal point but is not an overpowering presence in the image as the location is supposed to be of primary interest.
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| | | Objects | Character | Todd Brown | | | Armor | Todd Brown | | | Cloak and Hood | Todd Brown | | | Building | Todd Brown | | Wall | Todd Brown | | | Road | Todd Brown | | Leaves | Todd Brown | | | | | | Textures | UV Map on Face | Todd Brown | | | Procedural Skin | Lightwave Preset | | | Leather on Armor | Lightwave Preset + image map from nVidias Dusk Tech Demo | | | Cloth on Cloak | Lightwave Preset altered by Todd Brown | | | Procedural Wood | Todd Brown - From a tutorial (see references) | | | Leaves | Todd Brown - Based on images from the web (see references) | | | Sky Map | Total Textures | | | Tree Shadow Map | Total Textures - Altered to fit scene | | | Other Image Maps | Total Textures - Many with alterations |
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| | Time Frame
Rendering: 30 Minutes
Modeling:
Character: 30 Hours
Clothing: 20 Hours
Building: 10 Hours
Wall 30 Minutes
Street 30 Minutes
Leaves 15 Minutes
Texturing:
Character: 4 Hours
Clothing: 2 Hours
Building: 10 Hours (due to problems with morphs)
Wall: 15 Minutes
Street: 15 Minutes
Leaves: 15 Minutes
Lighting: 4 Hours
Photoshop Bloom: 5 Minutes
SasLite Grass: 10 Minutes
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| | Problems and Solutions
The Bloom Effect
I knew early on I wanted a very bright scene, but I was unable to figure out how to best go about doing that without washing out the colors. During the course of this project the game Guild Wars was released. The game features an effect know as ‘bloom’ which causes bright areas to bleed over and thereby create a very warm effect. It is not necessarily realistic, but it is good for scenes that are going for a more fantastical feel.
I played around with glow and volumetrics in Lightwave to recreate this effect with no success. While looking for tutorials on the internet I stumbled upon one for how to create the bloom effect in Photoshop (see references). I quickly tried it out and found it to give the exact feel I was going for. In order to use bloom effectively the scene must be very bright in the initial render, so I was able to use a high intensity spot light combined with an area light to get the brightness needed.
Modeling a Human
Creating the human in the scene took quite a bit of time, but it was much more interesting than creating the building. I already knew of a great tutorial on how to build a human in 3D studio (see references). Although most of the techniques for creating a human in Lightwave are different, the tutorial provided a great source for viewing how polygons should be paid out to create the desired look.
My initial vision for the scene called for the character’s hands to be visible. This was just not possible due to time constrains. Creating a good hand would be a project in itself; one I may try to tackle this summer.
Textures without Repetition
Even the best image maps tend to look very poor when repeated over a large area. My original version of the main building in the scene made heavy use of image maps and no procedurals. The final look of the earlier model was a bit more realistic than the textures I went with, but it was out of place.
The wood texture I finally settled on is entirely procedural and is based on a tutorial I found online (see references). It tries to simulate a tree, so applying it to all the wood in the scene unchanged would result in patterns recurring between different pieces.
In order to get the textures to display correct one must line up all the wood objects along the y axis and apply morphs to put them back where they belong while keeping the proper texture orientation. I encountered a bug at one point preventing me from applying any more morphs, which is why the textures on the window sill are not all facing the proper directions.
For the other image map based textures I chose textures with very low detail, in order to prevent recurring patterns or, in the case of the cobblestone street, I combined multiple texture layers with alpha maps to prevent a uniform look.
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