[]Aratex[]

Hey, everyone... Been working for a couple days on a tribute to one of my favorite Disney movies ever: The Sword in the Stone. I'm now to the point, though, that I don't know what to do next. I know it needs something, but I'm not sure what... Take a look at the image so far and the pic I'm using for reference here. Please give me suggestions for what else to do... Also, please try not to flame me too bad.. This is now my 4th piece I've ever done in Max (and I've never done a tutorial, including those that came with it), so I'm still in the heavy learning phases...

Known issues:
The snow looks flat. - I know, I'll work on it a bit more.
Blue/purple dots over the sword. - I'm trying to capture a "fairy dust" type of effect as is in the reference pic. Isn't working well so far...

[Matt Elder]

It looks like it is coming along nicely. Few Things:

1) the fence 'stringers' (vertical section) need to be more vertical as at the moment they are falling over a little.

2) the roof needs a little more depth for the snow to sit on

3) Purple and blue 'dots' look funny. Try for the yellow and gold ones in the original image

4) The stone the sword is resting in is too perfect. It needs some dents and scratches. Go into photoShop, create a cloud layer. The go backinto the 3D program and apply the imagemap as a 'bump map' or diffuse map or something in combination with the texture you already have.

hope that was useful.

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See ya on da flip side
Matt
http://www.mattelder.com

[]Aratex[]

Actually, the stringers are perfectly vertical.. It's just that the fence is coming straight out from the stone wall so they appear to be a bit crooked because of the camera angle... It is right, though, if you look at the brick walls and think about the perspective, you can see it quite clearly...

Thanks for the comments, though... Gives me some work to do at least...

<Edit: I'm forgetful.>

What exactly did you mean when you said the roof needed more depth for the snow to sit on it?

[This message has been edited by ]Aratex[ (edited October 26, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by ]Aratex[ (edited October 26, 2000).]

[Lukias]

The stone wall at the back needs to be less defined, it just doesn't look distant enough, there's no real background/foregroung going on.

That snow looks like it could be quite the mission to pull off......but then again I know as much about 3D as I do about the female psyche....

.....veddy veddy little.

[Dizzogg]

Hey aratex,

I would stretch those maps out some to make it look more like real bricks instead of a squashed texture map....I would also use a different texture map on the stone the sword in stuck into....

It's a pretty good start...I would work on those maps some more though....Also try playing with some particles for the fairy dust that you are looking for....That would be pretty sweet actually...

The base of the anvil looks pretty thin. Beef that thing up a little and you'll be in business.

Look at that gate in the reference pic and then look at your gate....Yours looks very mechanical where as the ref gate looks kinda organic and ricketty....Try to simulate that..Move some vertexes, unless that is what you are after in the gate that you did....

The lighting isnt too bad....I would try to soften it just a little bit but that is being really freaking picky.....

Keep on going though....This could be a sweet piece for you....

J

[]Aratex[]

Hrmm... Good point on the rickety fence... I guess I just made it square and neat because it's a lot easier to do things that way, but I really should beat it up... Maybe break out and bend a few of the bars and give the thing a bit of a lean... You're right, the fence is too neat...

Makes me want to get back to work... Too bad I don't have a good enough computer that I can run 3DSMax and do other stuff at the same time..

[]Aratex[]

OK... New update.. I kicked the living snot out of that fence, made the "fairy dust" a bright yellow for the moment, adjusted some textures, turned down the main ambient light a tiny bit, and added a bit of a bluish tint to the snow which makes it look more real in the dimmer light (it was grayish once I turned down the light)....

Same link as before.... Here.

Still planning to redoing the texture on the stone and getting a visible bump map on the snow (there is one there, I just can't see it... my guess is that it's because almost all of my lighting at the moment is ambient)...

More crits please.

[]Aratex[]

Ugh... Sorry for the cheap tactic, but this board moves too fast and I need crits...

[StormVermin]

The walls need more texture to them - they look like flast walls with brick wallpaper on them. Try adding some shading to the building in the background - or have the light that is emitting to the sword shine on to the back walls as well.

Try and have it look a little mysterious...
have some foots prints in the snow or something...

fool around with different things.

This picture is good, but can be great with some of the ideas we have suggested applied.

[Frost]

Lower your camera so that the horizontal view plane (vertical center) is flat parralel to the top surface as the anvil as in teh Disney pic. You might need to scale everything up verticall from what I can see, and perhaps get a bigger FOV happening...

[plant42]

Add motion blur to the snow. It works wonders. (In Max, just right click the particle spray, go to properties, click on image motion blur, hike it up to about 1.5- 2.0)

plant 42

[Liquid!]

Frost is right, lower your camera pov. The ground should be much more "bumpy". If you notice in the ref pic, the sword and stone is in a quasy indentation in the ground. Draw your own brick texture keeping in mind that the bricks need to be much bigger than what you are using, and that you should make them more "Bluish grey", rather than "brown".
I think you "kicked" too much out of the fence. The reference pic has vertical lines that aren't perfectly straight, but they are fairly parallel to each other. If you leave it the way you have it now you're removing an important perspective hint for the "eye". Also notice that the vertical "edge" line of the building right next to the fence is slightly skewed and not perfectly at a 90degree angle. Also you should make sure that the different fence posts are in different heights of snow, and match the architecture of the building behind the fence, and the trim on the roof should match the reference too. I would also custom draw the texture for the stone, and make its shape less square. Lastly, put some snow on the stone and the anvil.

Phew. Hope that helps.

-c

[]Aratex[]

Ugh.... Now I remember why I decided to do 3D.... It's because I suck at 2D... Could one of you perhaps be kind enough to try to throw together a large brick texture like Liquid described for me? I just spent over an hour trying with totally no success and now I need to go break something.. I'd really appreciate it....

A lot of the other stuff is in progress now, too... It's coming along... I'd like to thank all you guys for your suggestions, I had really hit a dry spot because I knew it didn't look right, I just didn't realize what was wrong... So, thanks.

[Tittle]

Wow cool idea for a max scene wish I would have thought of it first. I recently finished reading a book which I highly recomend for the max user called 3D Studio Max 3.0 Workshop. It takes you through the entire process of creating an entire project. Anyway my recomendations are to follow what everyone else had said so farand a few more things.

1. Change the snow render type to six point and add the blur effect that Plant42 talked about.You could also try the same effect on the "fairy dust" so that the particles don't look so square.
2.try going to 3dcafe.com or some similair place and download a different Stone texture for the walls and a different one for the stone the anvil is sitting on.
3. Also in the material editor for that stone wall texture drag an instance copy of that map to the bump map slot and try messing around with bump map settings. This should give the walls more texture and not look so flat.
4. For the snow on the ground try using a noise for the bump map type and if its not showing up just raise the amount on the slider next to the map slot.
5. Get rid of all that ambient light. One of the best ways to light a scene like this is start of pitch black and add and adjust omni lights all around the scene to achieve the lighting effects you are looking for. Hopefully by fixing the lighting the building will reced further into the back ground where it belongs.
Hope all that helps

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Kent Tittle

[]Aratex[]

Tittle, thanks for the suggestions.... Strangely enough, you almost exactly listed the steps I went through in tweaking the image this afternoon... Although, I haven't yet changed the particle type (I like "facing" because then they always show, other types rotate and are often difficult to see)... I did however look at 3dcafe.com for a good stone wall texture, but didn't find one I liked.. The two bump mapping things I did already.. Actually, the snow had a bump map, but it wasn't showing up with only ambient light in the picture.. but I changed the lighting scheme around, got some pretty shadows, made a different "floor", and now I'm working on making footprints in the snow heading up to the "alter"... Anyway, thanks a lot for the suggestions... Should be a majorly updated pic sometime tonight..

[]Aratex[]

Yet another case of having my brain fried by too many hours in Max today.. but I think you'll see some improvement this time... Unless you're blind. Anyway, let me know what you think and what needs done.. BTW, there are footsteps through the snow on the way, I'm just having technical difficulties with them.. Enough babble...

Check it out!

[wigin]

coool pic... hmmm theres one thing i dont get... i am NO expert at shading but the light source is on top and the shade of the stone is going on the right??? is it suppose to do that.. just kinda looks weird and not natural to me ...

[]Aratex[]

Look at the whole pic... There's a light source off to the left... That's why there is a shadow from the building and from the fence.... The top light source is just for effect... More of a glow than a real light...