Step 1: The Art
Most of the models in this project will begin with a 2d drawing, whether that is a quick sketch or an incredibly detailed one. Since my area of expertise is in Modelling, and drawing is a foreign concept to me, I'll try to sum up the process to the best of my knowledge.
An artist, like Lutemoth or Pound, takes out a piece of paper and their trusty pencil. They formulate an idea of what they want to draw and put the pencil to the paper, and then, through an advanced process similar to osmosis, a picture appears in front of them. They are then universally worshipped.
Step 2: The Mesh
Once the drawing is complete, a modeller can start to work from it. The time required to build an actual mesh depends on the complexity of the piece as well as the experience of the modeller. Most weapons, statics, clutter, etc, can be modelled fairly quickly. An hour or two for most decent weapons. A fork or a plate can be done in minutes. As we get more complex, a large, detailed building, or pieces of armor, can take an entire day to model. Creatures can take days to get right.
There are a few easy ways to make the entire process faster for our modellers, which makes it easier for us to get meshes in to the game. And one of the most important ways to do this is to draw the concept art in the way that lets a modeller work directly off of the drawing to get his model in game.
Here are three examples, courtesy of Morden:
[url=http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/concept2model4.jpg][img]http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/th_concept2model4.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/concept2model3.jpg][img]http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/th_concept2model3.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/concept2model5.jpg][img]http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/th_concept2model5.jpg[/img][/url]
As you can see, the modeller can put the image in his viewscreen and instantly work off of it, getting the angles and detail work done correctly.
[url=http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/2491/necromancer6ab.jpg][img]http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/2491/necromancer6ab.th.jpg[/img][/url]
While being visually stunning, and one of my favourite pieces of concept art, this drawing would be difficult to model from, because the modeller only has the 3/4 view to work from, and 90% of modelling is done in front/side/top views. So the modeller has to do a lot of guess-work, and can't use the piece as a direct reference.
Another incredible example of what would really help us, courtesy of both Majra and Morden, can be found [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16149]here[/url]. This shows off the absolute best technique for architecture, which is going to be one of our largest hurdles: it also covers both the mesh and the texture.
Step 3: TexturesMorden wrote:[url=http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=conceptlayout5ui.jpg][img]http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/4344/conceptlayout5ui.th.jpg[/img][/url]
After the artist has provided an accurate rendering of the model's scale, some texture information, it can move onto the texturer. I took the concept and made up a draft of the texture using flat coloring. Once again I used a grid to maintain proportion, and to make sure it could tile horizontally. The texture can repeat itself perfectly when placed side to side.
[url=http://img64.imageshack.us/my.php?image=texturedraft9lp.jpg][img]http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/8664/texturedraft9lp.th.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://img458.imageshack.us/my.php?image=texturegrid6km.jpg][img]http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/8449/texturegrid6km.th.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://img56.imageshack.us/my.php?image=texturetiled3ck.jpg][img]http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/176/texturetiled3ck.th.jpg[/img][/url]
Once the draft was complete. I took clips from photographs and began fleshing out the texure with realistic images. I just wanted to get the idea across, so I haven't put much effort into this one, but you can see what i'm doing well enough. The end product would be perfectly blended and matching, making for a photorealistic wall texture.
[url=http://img226.imageshack.us/my.php?image=texturephoto1he.jpg][img]http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/2593/texturephoto1he.th.jpg[/img][/url]
Then its off to the modeller.
This is an area that I would like to get our artists more involved in, because a large number of them have extensive Photoshop (or similar graphic program) knowledge. When a mesh is fully built, it can then be "unwrapped" so that a texture may be "painted" on top of it. Here is an example of how we do our textures: Yokuda Shield
This is the "unwrapped" base texture, and how it looks displayed on the mesh.
[img]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/yokudshield.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/yokshield.jpg[/img]
Now, in Photoshop, I will quickly throw a texture together:
[img]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/yokudshieldex.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/eyeball88/yokshieldex.jpg[/img]
Most texture work involves taking real photo source images and butchering them to fit the unwrapped mesh. It doesn't take any 3d program knowledge, and someone with artistic talents will find it easier to draw decals or additional details right on to the textures. Most modellers don't have a lot of Photoshop or Texture experience (For example, I taught myself to use Photoshop but I am still very much a novice at it.)
Another way to make things more streamlined would be to give examples of materials in your drawing. Jot down little notes like "shoulder armor is made out of bronze chain links" "this creature has scales similar to a komodo dragon" etc. Guess work adds an excessive amount of time to some projects, so any of it that we can cut out will greatly advance our project.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope it helps, and if you have any questions, please feel free to post them here!
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