DeepOmega

If nobody has the fountain claimed, I'll grab it after I finish the potted plant.

It's a nice idea, but unfortunately the dynamics are all in max only. Getting it to work in D3 would be a small slice of hell.

Pot = textured. Right now it's 512x512 but this looks like it's turning out way too big. WIll probably end up downscaling to 256x256.

Title says it all. Weighs in at 552 tris. No normal map planned (plants are smooth), so just a diffuse and maaaaybe a small specular, so the stalks are more highlighted then the dirt.

Yep - I was thinking that myself. Is there any real reason to not just use that shader? All it needs is an alpha map included in the diffuse - no problem whatsoever, and very easy to set up.

COLOR! (Also, SPECULARITY!) Edit: In case it's not clear, this is more of a mock-up - the final diffuse will have a lot more detail, I hope.

558 tris. I could probably add a tad more detail on the trigger, but since it's a pretty small model (in the game world that is), I think this is fine. The maps themselves could probably use some by-hand antialiasing, but this is always the case with normal maps.

Sounds good, then - in light of this, I think it makes sense for me to hand over the model into Oddity's hands. O, you're a better character modeler than I, and it does make sense to keep a consistent style. I've finished up all the changes I can make in a relatively short amount of time - added more wrinkly details, tweaked the face some more, etc. etc. He's attached in a few file formats, as I'm not sure what'll work best for you. For now, especially since my time is a bit more limited, and Oddity's the official character modeler, I think it makes more sense for me to work on objects more than anything. The file is on the FTP, under /TheDarkMod/models/ThiefCharacter.zip I'm gonna go back and finish off that flashbomb now.

With specular highlights, there are two variables. One is color/brightness - this is an RGB value, and is portrayed in the specular map. The other is glossiness, which controles how "tight" the specular looks. Compare the highlights on a glass cop to the highlights on a piece of plastic. The glass has very sharp, very small highlights - it is much, much glossier.

In my defense, I've been running into hardware issues throughout this time. (Also, you are a better modeler than I =P) I spent a while working over the face - lips, cheeks and jaw especially. For instance, he now, you know, actually has a jawline. Anatomy! Nostrils added, and I tweaked the folds around the arms. Tomorrow, I plan to crank up the sub-d and start adding in finer wrinkles, curves, and details. We'll see how that goes.

First and foremost, allow me to apologize for my haphazard appearance and disappearance. Over winter break, I managed to snag a job at a vide production company, doing graphics for them. The up side is that I have about 2 minutes of graphics that will be on TV (!!!), but the down side is that I have had far less free time than I'd like. However, now my job is wrapping up, and as a gift to you, I would like to roll out the thief model once more. Keep your eyes here over the weekend.

Well, one of the key ref pics is this: Hence, gigantic teeth. Yeah, we can alpha it if needed, but I feel like a non-alpha solution would actually be better - since the texture will be so tiny, it's worth a couple extra polygons so it doesn't look blurry-edged. I may change the teeth of the key to a flat, two-sided poly instead of a thick box, tho - shave a few off there. Really, most of the polys come from the hole at the end.

FTP, yes - I have yet to set up CVS. Will prolly do that later this week.

Yes, but there's no way in hell I'm buying and learning Lightwave.

Key models are begun. Keeping 'em rather low poly, but still giving shape. Two different types: long, fancy and/or secure keys, and shorter, safe-type keys. Why are there two of each, you ask? Because the texture map will have two different colors. The UV map basically maps two keys, one on top, on on the bottom, so I need two different UV unwrappings for it to work. Two UVs means two models.

Unfortunately, 3DS Max can't export to LWO - ASE is the only useful export format (by useful, I mean relevant to Doom 3). In another thread, I believe we decided to do ASE (for possible conversion at a later date).

It's on the server in ASE and tga formats. /models/props/misc/WaterPump I used my usual format - PumpNormal.tga is the normal map, PumpUV.tga is a UV unwrapping, useful as a base template for the diffuse texture. Enjoy, my texturing friends. I encourage you to tweak the normal map to match the texture - rust and such like would affect normals.

Uploaded to the server, under models/props/misc/Cutlery - note that the CutleryDiffuse.tga is used for all of the non-cleaver utensils. If anyone wants a texporter unwrapping, so they can see how they all fit on the texture sheet, let me know, but since it's a simple model with a simple texture and no tiling you should be able to just lay down some colors.

Not worth the performance decrease. The flickering light itself will look pretty damn good.

Oh GOD yes. Yes yes yes. Good concept art makes a modeller's job 1000 times easier. I salute you.

Not sure how to do it in LW, but you want to smooth those faceted sides. In 3DS, you apply a smoothing group to them. Talk to someone who knows what they're doing in LW, tho. Also, you may want to add some distortion to both the normal map and the spec map to coincide with rust - will add a TON to the textures.

Well, Atti, there's a bit of contention on this topic. I've been using .ASE, since it's basically the most simple, clean export format that Doom3 accepts - but apparently, some others have had frob-related issues with it? There's not much else 3DStudio can export to that'll work. So, for testing purposes, try ASE, but we need to (as a team) pick the official format. Also, FTP anybody?

Made two changes - I took the rivets off of the spout, just to see how it looks, and I added rivets to the handle. Thoughts? Comments? The handle rivets look nice, I think, but I'm torn on the spout. Atti: UV mapping is right up there with character rigging as one of the most tedious parts of modelling. There's no "quick and easy" answer, and when you're doing game modelling, it gets even harder. Here are some tips: -Try to find "shapes" in your model - often, this will be a series of cylinders or boxes. Using the UVW Map modifier, apply an appropriate shape to it. The most common ones you'll use are planar, cylindrical, and box. -This will NEVER be enough - this is just a quick way to get it started. Apply an Unwrap UVW map, and click edit. Now take about a minute to cry. Done? Good. Now you get to move individual vertices and polygons. Play around with this tool, you will need to know it like the back of your hand. Learn, in particular, the Break, Weld, Target Weld, and Flatten tools. Figure out what they do, and how to use them.Remember, the bigger something appears within the texture space, the more detail you can put on it. Keep small pieces relatively small, and keep big ones relatively big. (Note, however, that curving or swirly shapes need more space, as well - on this water pump, the handle gets a pretty big swath of texture space since its normal map is rather detailed.) There's not much else to say, except practice, practice, practice. Once you have something unwrapped, apply a Checker map to its Diffuse slot - this will give you an idea of how badly textures are distorted on it. (Make sure you turn it on so it's visible in the viewport - this will help a LOT). Good luck!

Christian's Normal Mapping in 3D Studio Max 7 Tutorial : Step one: Make a low poly model. Step two: Make a high poly model that is just big enough that it covers the low poly - this doesn't need to be perfect, but it helps. Step three: Unwrap the low poly model, so that it is UV mapped. Step four: Select the low poly model, and press the 0 key on your keyboard to bring up the render to texture window. Step five: Under the Projection Mapping heading, check the box next to Enabled to enable projection mapping. Click the Pick... button, and select your high poly model. Uncheck sub-object levels. Step six: Scroll down to the Output heading. Click the Add... button, and choose Normals from the list. Make sure that the Target Map Slot dropdown menu has Bump selected. Pick a nice map size - I usually use 512 or 1024, since it's better to scale down than to scale up. Step seven: Click render. Wait. (note that the image that appears in the rendering window is NOT the normal map. This is the diffuse map, which won't be saved. Also note that, if you so desire, you can texture a high poly model, than burn its diffuse/specular/normal/height maps to textures. This is awesome.) Step eight: If you want to render in 3ds using the texture you just rendered, apply a new material to it. Expand the Maps subheading, then click the None button next to the Bump category. Select Normal Bump, then click the None button next to the Normal Bump heading. Select bitmap, and load up the bitmap that you just rendered. There are a few things to point out here. I choose to render one element at a time - that is, rather than burn the entire pump at once, I burned each separate piece. There were 11 pieces in all. This eliminates weird situations where you have projections encompassing totally different parts of the model. There are also more advanced methods for normal mapping - the most useful is the cage, which is that blue thing that appears around your low poly model after you apply the projection mapping to it. This cage defines how ray sampling is done - note that if your cage looks weird or ugly, it won't get good results. Think of it this way: The cage should TOTALLY encompass the high poly model, and it should look (in general shape) like your low poly model. If there is twisting or warping, you'll want to change it. TO do this, select the low poly model, go to the modifiers tab, click the + button next to Projection, select Cage, and you will now be able to move the vertices of the projection cage. Hell yes for total normal mapping control.

Consider the normal mapping done (aside from perhaps adding detail via flat texturing). I'm ready to upload, but once more - FTP does not work. This is a major problem. =P Edit: 1022 tris. A bit higher than I'd like, but it has a lot of nice detail around the top, and there shouldn't be more than one per map anyways. If desired, there's a few tris I should be able to shave off.