Job!

Haven't updated this in a while as I've got a job! I'm working for a media company called The Moment making images (mainly 3D renders) for e-learning packages.

I won't be posting as much because of this, maaaaybe I'll be able to post some of the renders of the models I've done and I'll still be working on the Warlock town mod progress will just be a lot slower than before

Quick Sculpt Archibald Ironfist

Following my blogs current Heroes of Might and Magic II theme, I did a quick sculpt of Archibald for the Daily SpitSculpt groups theme 'Ironfist'

I might continue this as I'd quite like to get him fully textured and add the jackets details in.

References:

With the Warlock Town I'm trying to give the base a more natural look as at the moment its overly rounded.

WT: Forts??

Just been watching the Twitch stream for H7's modding tools and noticed forts will be included. This means I'll also need to include a fort

Slightly blurry screenshot I quickly grabbed from the stream for reference.

I'll most likely just use pieces from the finished warlock town to put the fort together

 This will most likely be the final layout for the town though parts of the castle may be moved about still. Need to get the first and second stages next

WTS: Mini Update

I've adjusted the wall size and added the start of a slope, moved the small building/tower to outside the walls, added a new flat topped spire and a bridge (not too visible in this screenshot sorry!)

At the moment I'm mostly trying to get all the components for a full sized town which I can then scale down using the same pieces

WT: Update

Done some more to the warlock town, added the small tower/building within the castle walls, remade the towers as my previous ones had a really strange poly which couldn't be bevelled or deleted and it was easier to just make a new tower (Maya 2016 bug I guess??). Fixed some issues with the walls and created an archway. Might make them thicker to seem more robust. Also made a base, though it looks more cliff like here I'm thinking of going for a hill to set it more apart from the existing Haven town.

Some buildings might not be a part of the final model, I'd like to keep the dragon tower and mage guild as I think both incorporate well. I think there needs to be less space behind the wall so the castle should take up more room and have more components

 For the painted townscreen I'm thinking I will leave that till latter as it isn't overly necessary as I could always use Heroes II's Warlock screen as a placeholder if needed while I work on my own one. Also it requires finishing the castle model and making a few extras to render and paint over. Once I've got the castle completed the rest should come together quicker.

WT: Research

The Heroes 7 beta has started so I've done some research on the town buildings. Seems that there are three versions of each town. I've got some screenshots of the Haven and Academy towns as I think these are the closest in look/theme to my town though I might also take some screenshots of the Dungeon town.

Academy: 1

 2

 

3

Haven: 1.

 2.

3.

I now know I need to model a base for the town to sit on, this will likely be some kind of hill/mound. I have a better idea now of what I need to make and the kind of style it should be in.

I also need to think about the town screen. I've realised that this will probably require more work than I originally anticipated it would.

Town tree for Academy:

I'm going to need to work out which buildings I can only get one or the other of.

Scramasax Render

Thought I'd finish this model off while I wait for the beta. Bevelled some of the edges of the blade so they weren't as blocky and added a specular map then rendered in keyshot.

Normal and Specular maps:

Planning to put this into Skyrim at some point so there may be another update on this.

Nautilus Sculpt

Quickish sculpt I did today (around 2hrs) in Mudbox for the Daily SpitSculpt challenge group on Facebook.

I'm still working on the Warlock Town, currently putting together a painting with layers to serve as the townscreen. Going to make and render a few basic models to paint over to make sure scale and perspective is all okay. So far I've already modelled most buildings so the outstanding ones to produce are a crypt, portal, town hall/capitol.
Buildings that might/might not need modelling are tavern/hall of heroes, blacksmith, thieves guild and a maze. I also need to work out some extra buildings for warfare units, daily resources and grail structure etc.

I'm unsure of what sizes and scale to make the town at the moment as I want to make sure it fits in nicely with the rest of games town models, the open beta will be out toward the end of the week so I can check the games existing models then. Things should move along a lot quicker after that date.

Back to the Warlock town

Getting back into making the warlock town. I could still make this an explorable environment though having read up on the modding tools in Heroes of Might and Magic 7 which will be released soon I thought it would make more sense to use it to create a modded faction for the game.

 

This is what I've got so far some models need rescaling, the centre tower will be a castle the tower for now is just a placeholder, going to add some trees and texture it all once I've got the greybox sorted

Re-rendered Dinobird

Re-rendered the dinobird using Keyshot as the MentalRay renders on my portfolio were extremely washed out. Been thinking I should really give it a better name. Maskodactyl maybe?

Wanted to do the same with the camel but I'm missing the file with the UVs unwrapped so will need to do that beforehand.

Portfolio update, box update

Updated my portfolio today tried to tie it in more with my CV so there's a uniform look and replaced the text links to image links. Links to my CV and blog are now at the top of the page which makes more sense. Updated and returned the 'about' section, added a contact form as well as a freelancer.com button. Now I need to get some new cool 3D stuff done to add to the portfolio.

The host of the box contest updated their information with an image of the actual box and feedback so I've updated my entry to look more like it. Seem to be one of the first to update so I might have a better chance now.

Lots of Boxes

Been trying to get into freelancing recently. Made an account on freelancer.com a while ago and have been bidding on projects there. No success so far but hopefully I'll win a bid soon.

Today a bid required an example of a 3D products packaging to have a chance at winning the bid so I made a quick example.

I found this old Kellogs cereal box online and used that for my UV's and texturing

Later I found a contest making packaging for an product and rendering it so I also entered that.

 This was the provided image, I made two versions one with the bar code on the bottom of the box and another with it on the front.

Antler Scramasax

Managed to do a bit of modelling today, wanted to keep it simple so decided to model a weapon of some kind. Did a bit of research and gathered references.

This is it so far, the handle is pretty much completed just having some difficulty getting the textures to show up on the blade. EDIT: Fixed the issue, just need to texture it

If/when I complete this depends entirely on how well I am. If I get some more days of feeling better I'll have this done sooner :)

Started the chapel model

The mock ups I made didn't really give me much of a clear direction as I've been struggling to work out a way of having a functional roof over one room but more worn ruins elsewhere. The image in my previous post is actually ideal in terms of layout so I've started working on the model for the chapel.

I've had a pretty good day today so far, I've been able to hold my concentration much better without making too many mistakes and I'm not as tired as usual. I just need to make sure I pace myself and don't do too much to push myself over the edge.

 Main building. I'm going to remove the roof supports and instead have them attached to the roof as this makes more sense, also they seem much too big

Since taking this screenshot of the roof I've resized the larger supports to give them more weight. I will probably use booleans to make the roof look weathered and ruined. The room at the back will keep most of its roof while the front will lose around half. I'm currently wondering whether to use planes on the roof to give a layered tile effect or to just bump map it, its unlikely to be looked at in any close detail so it may be best to bump map it.

Update

Scaling down the Warlock town project into a eerie chapel ruins and crypt in a wood. I had an energy crash yesterday so only managed to get together a mood board for the chapel.

Currently trying to work out how this could work as with most ruins the first thing to go is the roof yet part of the ruins is going to need at least somewhat of a roof as there needs to be somewhere for the players character to sleep.

Something like this could work where parts of the roof have fallen in as it would still provide shelter while being a ruin. I still don't have a clear idea of how exactly the chapel will look so will make some basic mockups in Maya.