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[DressedForSucess]

to get the sky i simply used a background. However, i have used a different technique before ... Make a sphere, cut it in half and map the cloud texture on to it. If camera is facing towards the x axis (sides) then map it so the texture is mapped to the x axis, and so on. though backgrounds work bewtter and are much easier.

windows ... get a good texture, set it to a high specular and make it around ... 0.5. if its 0.2 and you have a wall behind it, it wont look to good. increase ambience as well.

in the bridge city, im also adding a light ray technique to each window on the tower when it gets misty ...

and yeah, dont worry about it. two people's enough

[DressedForSucess]

Just thought id post a couple of images of the models in progress

what do you think? of couyrse, not everythings finished yet

hows Avenic going??

Aaron

[hihosilver]

That looks like a very nice start.  You have some strong texturing abilities.  I like the way there are deficiencies in your textures that make them look dirty and non-repetitive.  A lot of the models still look very low poly, such as the sphere in the second image.  You can easily see the different faces, and it would be nice if you made it smoother.  Great start so far.

[DressedForSucess]

Thanks for the advice. What i hope to do later is add seaweed effects - using the transparency/ambience texture cheat ... The same method is used to create leaves ...

Ill have to remind myself how to do it, of course, but it isnt too hard. Only problem is when the leaves or seaweed cast shadows, they cast shadows of the original model. Say i added a texture to a rectangle, a flat rectangle. In the render, all that would be visible would be the seaweed, but the shadow would be a rectangle meaning it wouldnt look very realistic.

I might have a solution to this ... Model indivisual leaves and place them in the transparency/ambient spheres (that create the leaves) then set these indivisual leaf models to 0.0 transparency (completely invisible) then when i render, it should show the shadows of the modelled leaves - the trans/ambienct spheres may have to be modelled seperately and set to only recieve shadows, not cast. This MIGHT work ...

Is there any other advice/comments you can give for these images>?

[DressedForSucess]

btw, here are some more tester images ...

works in progress

i have still yet to create the sea, etc ...

I was thinking of having video transitions between each position - though i hvae to consider the size of the game, etc. Everything needs to be compressed ... Does anyone know of any good video compressing software? I have virtual dub ... Im looking for more free stuff to be honest.

[Dosser]

I'm not familiar with the game (or the games you said it was similar to), but is it like the old adventure games? The ones where you are shown a still image of a room, and you can 'interact' by clicking on it, or walk through it, or turn around etc.

If so, I don't think you need animations between areas. It will be a lot more effort than it's worth, and as you say, will greatly increase the file size. I also get frustrated in some games by long periods of non-interactivity (eg, videos of myself walking). I'd be particularly annoyed if they happened between every scene. Perhaps pick a few, ones that you are especially proud of and look really really good and do an introduction movie (a fly-through of the terrain), but more than that is unnecessary.

But great work so far. As others said, your texture work is particularly good, is there any 'secret' to it? Could you do a tutorial or something on how you make a texture? Your scene composition is great too, all those stills you've shown just look so exciting.

[DressedForSucess]

Yeah. The game is going to be a first person point and click non-linear game, constructed using Adventure Maker (the only programming needed with such sufficient softyware is the use of variables - giving values to certian images, sounds, vids, etc, so that puzzles work). Still, it will take a long time coding a whole game ...

I think i can manage , as long as i stay enthusiastic about it all Im composing some music as well for the game, so there are areas, other than designing the graphics (which i know raent as good as Riven, due to the software im using) that will be fun to endevour in. If i was using Bryce or 3D Studio max, then the renderer might result in even beter realims, but im more familiar with anim8or atm.

Yeah. Too manby cut scenes would get annoying ... I remember in Dragon Lore II, the cut scenes were painfully and damn right annoyingly slow. In Reh, hoiwever, they were much faster. If the transition is fast, it might not be so annoying ... Though still, theres the issue about file size ... REAH and DRAGON LORE 2 came on 5 CDs!

Textures come down to experiementation most of the time. As this scene is set at daylight, then i have added higha mbience and high diffuse to a lot of the textures ... Though after everythings modelled, i will go through every model and alter the textures (down to the brilliance, etc) just to be satisfied and get the most out of my models. Realism is the key. High polygon images, however, rendered at 4.000 soft shadow RayTrace take forever to render! Far too long! Once It took me a day and a night to render a really detailed high polygon/subdivided model! Wish the renderer would pick up speed now and again

Thanks for the comments I cant weait to add the sea ... In Adventure Maker, theres an effect you can add which makes water ripple (you can set the size of the waves, the speed, etc) Will be quite exciting Im currently taking position shots and using the free version of ADventure Maker to test game the screens, etc. I think i will have to compress the images, of course. File size isd always a priority ... Does anyone know of any good compressors??

[DressedForSucess]

Here are some images i worked on today ... (the huge distance one looks better when at 100% quality jpg).

The rocket im making is turning out to be really annoying. Im not too sure what texture will suit it best ...

[spicy]

Those renders are really good! Another question, how do you make the textures wrap around your object, so they don't look streched (If you know what i mean). Avenic is progressing, still with no textures, but some objects look good (With the extures they will look better!). Here is my lamp:

[Dosser]

spicy: you'd need an external program, such as UVMapper Classic (there's a link on the 'resources' page of anim8or.com), and use a cylindrical map on the y-axis.

[spicy]

Right then! A whole day work to do! I am going to create land using terranim8or add texture, ruffle it out a bit, add the city and some objects. Search till I die to get some good futuristic textures and hopefully show you some REAL images rather than the bad copy of the lamp! Still thinking of some design ideas for the buildings. Where do you get your textures from? Anyway, i shall show you my REAL work later this week (Cross my fingers! If I do it in time!). Though I don't understand how you texture with UV Mapping Classic, help please? Thanks

[DressedForSucess]

That UVMapper sounds awesome. Ill look it up. I need a sea texture that needs to be absolutely huge or incrediably detailed ...

What ive used to make my textures look unstretched is simply (on version 5) select the model, go to Settings>Component>TextureUV ... There you can experiement. Or simply click on the UV button on the main interface tools ...

I will check out UVMAPPER as well

Lamp looks good. Cant wait to see some textures ... and Avenic completed in general

Im still modelling Bridge Island at the moment. Im nearly there.

I did some experimenting today ... I made some leaves
and added the rocket towers and the lever mechanism pods for the railcart rail and walkway lower-and-lift mechanism ... (complicated, part of a puzzle ...)

[thecolclough]

dressedforsuccess, those renders you keep posting are brilliant!  i'm not sure that the plant thing really fits in with the industrial theme you seem to have going in the other pics, but it's a nice plant anyways

- colclough

[hihosilver]

You're doing a great job on this progress!
Another UV mapping program I'd suggest is Lithunwrap.  It's free as well, but the upside to it is that you can actually view the model in realtime as you unwrap it, unlike in UV mapper classic (you can do this in the pro version, but that costs money.)  So I'd check it out, you can find it here!

[DressedForSucess]

Thanks for your comments. The tree is going to used on a cliff side that will be positioned underneath the main tower ... There will also be distant mountaisn, etc, with tropical jungle-like trees in the background

Thanks for the Lithunwrap link ill use it ...

Thanks again