First Creation

I followed the tutorial that OtZman linked to in the last thread, and I
just thought I'd show off the awesomeness of it. I just felt like
following the crowd, and posting what I've made.

I couldn't get the lighting right, and the eggs look...odd. But it's good nonetheless :smile:

Nice. :smile:

Rendering using mental ray really makes the picture look a lot more realistic.

While you're at it you could take a look at these video tutorials:
http://halflife2.filefront.com/files/Half-Life_2/Tutorials_and_Guides/VTMs;4385

HL2ModCentral Beretta 9000 VTM part 1-9, very good tutorial.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Awesome. The next thing I want to make, is without a
tutorial. I wanna make a cool looking spaceship, but I just don't
know everything I need to.

Thanks :smile:

make that table for hl2 and make it breakable.

now

How would I got about doing that...

Because I do want to make the table for HL2, but I'm not sure how...

If you're using area lights you need to increase the number of samples. If you're using GI you need to increase the number of photons, you're getting some shadow blotches.

and your eggs look like stones, so I'd call it 'table with a bowl of stones' or make the stones look like eggs.

Yeah, the textures didn't come out right :sad:

I found a tutorial that tells how to make it a model in HL2, so I'll
get to work on that, but I'll have to make textures I think and not use
the materials from 3ds.

I also want to figure out the lighting. I followed the tutorial
exactly, and he says only to use one light, but it doesn't work for me,
so I'm going to check that out.

I'll change the material on the eggs and try to get it to look better,
or have the bowl empty. I also want to put a glass or two on the
table just for the heck of it :smile: I won't have much time in the
next day or two as the moving day approaches for me, but fear not, it
shall be made for HL2 :smile:

One thing I was wondering though, if I make it breakable, then I have to model gibs for it as well right?

those are really good. i would never be able to do something like that - im useless at computer art. its only pencil and paper for me

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Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

The tutorial that I got it from was quite good. It was the first
thing that I had done in the program, and it walked me through quite
well. I attempted the spaceship and it really didn't turn out
that great :smile:

I'm going to work on the lighting and change the eggs to somethin
different. After all, who puts eggs on their coffee table?

So I spent the last half hour modeling with the intention of adding
something new. I ended up adding the glasses, which I think turned out
quite nice :smile: I also changed the eggs to oranges, which add some
colour, but look a bit wierd.

Number 1:



That's a nice closeup showcasing the glasses. They took about 4
tries and most of the time I spent, but I'm really proud of it.

Number 2:



This one just shows the whoe scene. The oranges look a little
wierd, almost as if they're painted. Anyways, I'm proud of it :smile:

EDIT: Light! Although now it's maybe too bright.



The oranges don't look right now though:(

/me steals you as a modeller pimp...

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

Yeah; That's really good. Just tell them they ment to be oranges and erv'rything will be just fine.
I totally admire your skills.

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Never try to be perfect - just try it and make the best out of it

I've had the program for a day :smile: Thanks for the kind words.

What I'd like to learn is some plain ol' vertex manipulation techniques
so that I can make stuff that's more complicated like guns, or a car,
etc.

You mean nurbs modeling? (Which I'd suggest, since it can be transfered to poly-based and exported for games)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah, I used that for making the glasses. I mean how to make
stuff for the sides of cars, you need vertex manipulation to do it, I
don't see how else...

the oranges would look more realistic with some bump mapping. you should really try it out then the oranges would look great!

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Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Crono</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>You mean nurbs modeling? (Which I'd suggest, since it can be transfered to poly-based and exported for games)</DIV></DIV>

NO!

nononononononnonononoNnO!NO!NONON!!NONONONO!!NON!ON!!!NO!NO!NNONO!

...dammnit I'm being negative again, I just can't help it.

Box modeling is the defacto process, you won't be able to control your polygon counts very well with nurbs, you won't be learning the industry standard for creating content of just about all varieties and you'll be learning an outdated and abandoned system. It's simply too difficult to do adaptive refinement using NURBs.

Subdivision modeling or box modeling are the words you want to keep in mind, especially when creating game content. Just forget you ever heard the words nurbs unless you are creating high poly organic man made objects. That's pretty much all it's used for now.

Also the reason your oranges look funny is because you need a displacement and or bump map to make them significantly less even, and you need a specular highlight, oranges are quite reflective little buggers, and right now you have them shaded somewhere around peach fuzz. Also a Skin SSS shader would do wonders on them once you feel up to the task.

Finally if you really want to bring the whole scene alive, bevel every sharp edge, nothing in the real world is razor sharp, if you don't bevel every corner you lose all of the specular highlights along sharp edges. You'll be amazed at how much your scene will improve just by beveling. And keep at it, you're on the right track.

Edit: It looks like you have some shadow glitches around a couple of the legs (there are light patches around where the table meets the floor), I believe that is caused because you have your shadow bias set too high.

Thanks for all that feedback im.thatoneguy. First, I'm going to
figure out half of what you're saying, then set out to do it. I
know how to bevel, so I'll get to work on those edges, and see what
happens. I don't really know much about lighting, I still have to
learn that. Then I'd like to figure out about this bump mapping
thing and get my oranges right.

What I'd really like to do is make something of my own while I learn
all this, instead of mostly making it off a tutorial. It's
really early where I am (2:45 AM) and I'm falling asleep.
But tomorrow (well, today really) I'm going to start on something else
and then get it to look right.

Thanks for all the suggestions im.thatoneguy. (and Rival, I won't forget oyu :smile: )

Well, I didn't get much free time today, I've been packing up s**t a
lot. During my breaks, I modeled this little ditty. The
legs were a real bitch to do, but they look nice :smile:

The table that my laptop was on while I modeled ;



Custom wood texture by yours truly :smile:

And the underside;

Try to render it using mental ray (as in the table tutorial).

The model itself looks good.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Just forget you ever heard the words nurbs unless you are creating high poly organic man made objects.

Agreed 100%. For real organic objects like a character model NURBS sucks. You basically have to have every detail planned out before you start or you will spend 3/4 your time worrying about knitting your surfaces. For inorganic objects there's really no point in using NURBS anyways.

The only thing that leaves NURBS to be good at is smoothly curving manufactured objects like cars or other industrial design objects. And TBH thats probably because the CAD people who designed the cars/etc used NURBS to create them in the first place.

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http://maze5.net

Try to render it using mental ray (as in the table tutorial).

I am... as far as I know.

Try to render it using mental ray (as in the table tutorial).

I am... as far as I know.

Hit F10 and go to the bottom and expand "Assign Renderer" and see what the Production renderer is.

To me it looks as if there's no indirect illumination in your scene.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I don't have any lights in my scene, because I don't quite know how to
get htem to work. I tried them before and it didn'twork
right. But yes, I am using Mental Ray.

Use another skylight like the other tutorial did. You will probably get
the same effect. I have also modeled this tutorial. But my first
renders didn't turn out as dark as your first. But nice models so far!
Keep up the good work.

Note however: Skylights are incompatible with Mental Ray. However you don't really need mental ray for an image such as this, you only have the one object which is perfect for a skylight + keylight scene.

At this point, try not to get bogged down with Area lights, Skylights rendering and mental ray, it'll take away valuable time from developing modeling.