Menotex's Showcase

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:28 am

Hiya, this is my works so far. I thought I'd might as well start on something TR related since I lake inspiration.
Thus maybe concept meshes of Inner city walls of Hammerfell.

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:36 am

The set is bowed and curved to add intrest. Maybe the walls should be flater? More smoothed. Cilindrical columns would serve as corners and dividers. They too would be warped.This way two and mor walls could intersect at any angle.

ENIGMA* · Post by ENIGMA* » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:57 am

wow! Your talents are well advanced. I am sure you will have no trouble being a Modder in no time as they need modelers the most...

or was it texturers...

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:31 am

Welcome back Menotek!

You do show talent, but I must question the practicality of your design. While very nice to look at, could it repel invasions?

ENIGMA* · Post by ENIGMA* » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:04 am

Ahh i see what you mean Nanu, The bigger hunk should be on the bottom as the wall would crumble like that if beaten with a large tree trunk...

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:14 am

*sighs*

What the hell is going to be carrying a large tree trunk? Think your posts through before you post them.

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:26 am

Good point. But what is art if it is not impractical and sometimes frivalous. I meant these walls to simply guard inner city manors and palaces from those much, less-powerful common folk. 8)

Honestly I agree and I can rework the walls to be more tapered at the top and sturdy at the bottom. Though I only made the walls to show my current progress.

The walls are easy to make really. I'll rework them.

I also have ideas of Skywalks btween the towers. I'll work on those as well as the towers them selves.

ENIGMA* · Post by ENIGMA* » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:37 am

Nanu Ra wrote:*sighs*

What the hell is going to be carrying a large tree trunk? Think your posts through before you post them.

well he/she really didn't make it clear that these were "inner walls"

I withdraw my earlier assumption....

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:55 am

[url]http://img334.imageshack.us/img334/3236/rihadwalls0gb.jpg[/url]

That's what out head of moddling is doing in terms of Hammerfell walls, Rihad. Draw your inspiration from there.

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:01 am

Here's is A reworked wall and Gate. I'll work on more tomorrow. The base is expanded to add stublity and I was able to make the gate more rounded/better shaped. I think the Base is too thick But I'll worry about it tomorrow.

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:04 am

Much better, you show promise. Unfortunately for you, I'm not very talented in this area.

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:08 pm

Here is Jug. Maybe it rest some outside a Redguards home collecting rainwater, I don't know. But it was fun to make. The inside is a little lopsided. I was a little ticked when I saw that in the Top Veiw.

Serric · Post by **Serric** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:09 pm

Can't you just drag the verts for the inside so that its more central? And can you do a render so that the detail can be seen better?
Got to say i'm impressed with what you've done, can you do any texturing as well as moddelling?

Also, can you please not upload your pictures straight to the site, but use a imagehost such as [url=http://imageshack.us/]ImageShack[/url] or [url=http://photobucket.com/]Photobucket[/url]...it would be appreciated.

*edit* forget about the renders, i just noticed your using GMax, don't think it can render scenes...instead, could you blow the perspective view up larger to see more detail?

Pug · Post by **Pug** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:59 pm

Looks great.

Whats the jugs poly count?

The inside should be easy enough to straighten out.

Massalinie · Post by **Massalinie** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:59 pm

I'd just like to point [url=http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16670]THIS[/url] out in case you missed it.

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:07 pm

Massey, I'm sure that this process would have taken longer then two days. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen a Showcase get passed in less than two days.

But thanks for pointing it out.

Massalinie · Post by **Massalinie** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:24 pm

I don't understand what you mean. The showcase is being discussed at the moment so there isn't a lot of pointin continuing to try and get promoted, since you won't be. That's my point. I'm not sure what you're talking about

Also, i've seen showcases promoted in less than 2 days.

Eyeball88 · Post by **Eyeball88** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:27 pm

5 minutes, baby. That's all it took for me to blow PoHa!'s socks off.

Okay, on to the meat of this reply.

The concepts and ideas of your walls are pretty neat, but are a little too alien in the shapes/curves (the Hammerfell that has been envisioned by Bethesda is one heavily inspired by Middle Eastern geometry, with lots of straight walls and big domes) and a little too simple in the geometry.

Texture work can only do so much to bring a mesh to life; the balance is to find how to keep a mesh low-poly so that the textures can accentuate and give the model more detail than it actually has, yet have enough modelled detail so that the mesh/texture work together, each hiding the "cut corners" of the other to make a realistic-looking object. A flat wall will look flat and lifeless, no matter what you do with normal maps.

I do like the jug, it has a very unique look to it that might fit well with the Hammerfell style. My only problem with it is the poly count. Something like a rain-jug, which would be a static found around towns, probably should be around 1,000-2,000 triangles.

I'm going to be fairly busy with work for a while, but if you have any specific questions about modelling, feel free to ask and I'll jump to answering them as quickly as I can

Morgoth · Post by **Morgoth** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:19 pm

Five minutes? You're kidding, right? I never even had a showcase thread, I was a modder the moment the status was created. I'd expected better of you, Eyeball.

Anyway, Menotex it seems that, though they are nice, the walls are far to simple in design. If you have the Oblivion CS, take a look at some of their stuff in wireframe mode. It's very high-poly stuff, full of little intricacies. You need to consider adding more detail to your work. But, you are working well with the tools you have, and that jug seems pretty nicely done. Keep going with modelling and you'll turn out great, I'm sure.

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:29 pm

Alright, except in a few rare cases and in the timespan of Feb 15 2006 to now, I have seen nobody accepted in less than 2 days.

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:57 pm

Annnd... Here is the last junk I've made. The tower is old. But the dome is brand spanken new. I had to wipe my drive, so all of my old meshes are gone. But I managed to upload everything to Photobucket. (Yeah... 8) )

So now I have Blender. It's cool. And totally confusing. But I'm working through the "Beginner to Pro" tutorial on Wiki.

)

The tower was really high in poly count before I figured out most of me faces were doubled back inside the mesh. I spent a whole afternoon deleting every face inside the tower... And then Dad wiped the drive while I was at work.
Here is the tower. I hope to remake it in blender soon.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/HFTower01.jpg[/img]

This is a Dome. I promise. It is exactly 90 degrees of a dome anyway.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/4thOfDome.jpg[/img]

It could be used between two buildings like this.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/Domesample.jpg[/img]

If I was to continue. I would make a complete set, including a Half Dome, Inverse Corner, And strait extension face.
The shape of the dome is from my own concept. I would post that. But I don't have a scanner here at home. How do I find Poly count in Blender?

The_Warder · Post by **The_Warder** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:11 pm

well I am not sure but I think it depends on if we are going by triangle faces or quads. I would go by quads myself because they are easier to work with. if you go by quads just look at the number of faces in edit mode. you should see the numbers in the top-right corner.
nice models!

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:25 pm

I was watching a documentory on Meerkats. So thus here is one. I modeled half hen cloned. I left the clone seperat so I could work on the model further. This meant making the tail was just too time consuming. But he will get tail after the halves are merged. This is my progress so far.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/MeerkatHead01.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/Meerkat01.jpg[/img]

Poly count is 848. that doesn't seem right. I'd say the tail would be another 20 faces or so. And thanks Warder for the help.

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:08 am

I finished the Meerkat, Rendered, Closed Blender and realised I never saved. Here is the render. Tomorrow I'll rework the mesh. And save.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/Meerkat002.jpg[/img]

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:45 pm

I rebuilt the Meerkat and started work on the Armature. But I'm having trouble finding "pose mode". Anyone know wher it is?

Here are the updates on the critter.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/Meerkat03.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/Armature01.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/Armature02.jpg[/img]

---------Edit--------

Honestly, I'm tired of being ignored. Could someone "Please" Reveiw my showcase or tell me to bug off.
If I'm not doing something, some one tell me please. I can understand people being busy and the Admin on vacation.
But this is crazy.

Here is some basic wall I spat out on blender this morning. These are based off a concept somewhere by someone. I think they are a bit plain, but I'm lost on how to make them more detailed. Maybe the base materiel was decided...
Are these mud brick building? Wood with plaster? Stone even.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/WallCorner01.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/WallCorner02.jpg[/img]

El Scumbago · Post by **El Scumbago** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:23 am

Ha ha, by all means don't bug off Meno.

Your work is showing real skill and experience, organisation of thoughts and generally everything you'd need to get promoted as a modeller. My personal favorite is the tower, which would be a good piece to replace Oblivion's forts in Hammerfell.

There have been some problems with the Showcase forum lately, so evaluation was put aside for a while, but now things should begin rolling again.

Harke the Apostle · Post by **Harke the Apostle** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:51 am

Yes, don't be put off! We desperately need more modellers like you to model our concepts. Just hang in there.

Noirgrim · Post by **Noirgrim** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 4:33 pm

I would PM Eyeball88 [head of OoT -Objects of Tamriel] and chat with him. Talk about your meshes, how you can improve, what sort of meshes TR is looking for, etc...

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 5:47 pm

Thanks guys. I lost the tower. But I'm working on learning Blender. Anyone know how to go into Pose Mode? I was wanting to start animating the Meerkat model.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 2:27 pm

Hi Monotex.

I'm always glad to see somebody eager to learn modelling.

One bit of advice I have, is that you should keep in mind Poly Symmetry. Try to keep your polygons roughly the same size through out your model. Looking at the head and at the body you can see how they are vastly different in their distribution. However, when you're modeling something that's going to me animated, you can increase the polys in the areas that move.. ie: the joints. Its important that all the polys sort of flow with the shape of your model. If they don't... when it comes time to animate, its not going to work properly. The 'skin' and weightmaps will bend the joints in all the wrong places.

Here is an example of what I mean.
[url=http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mansb9.jpg][img]http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/2766/mansb9.th.jpg[/img][/url]

I modelled this guy, and thought it was going pretty good... but look at the elbows and shoulders. They're pretty messed up. Part of that is my weightmapping and part of it is because my polys were bad in those areas.

Here is a tutorial good tutorial no matter what program you're using. It has lots of good advice.

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/benmathis/benmathis_1.asp

Eyeball88 · Post by **Eyeball88** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 4:26 pm

Hey Menotex! Sorry I've been so absent lately, had a busy start to the summer. You may need to give me a nudge through PMs every once in a while, until things calm down over here and I can go back to my previous 24/7 TR programming.

The architecture, specifically the dome/tower, look good, and the poly counts seem to be within the regular amount. If you are interested in architecture, I can send you a few pieces of concept art to go off of, so you can get a feel of working directly off of a piece of art.

As for the Meerkat, I think it shows promise but right now it's a little off the mark, in terms of how organic modelled anatomy normally looks. The head specifically looks off; I know from experience that the head is usually the hardest thing to model, so I'll try to offer the best advice that I can.

When modelling an animal, I try to find a front/side/top picture of that animal, so I can see its head and body from three different angles. Then, with a picture in each viewport, I start modelling directly from those pictures, making sure every once in a while that they all line up. If you look at it from the side and give it the basic outline of a Meerkat's head, then from the top to do the same, and then the front, you'll end up with a much more natural looking head, and it is also easier to keep your poly counts down.

I did this for a school project, with mice and a turtle. Often the hardest part is finding the matching images.

Also, you'll find that when you're giving bones to a mesh, it is easier to build them in a "spread eagle" position, so that the skin can be assigned and stretched more easily. Having to fit the skin envelopes/rigs to a pre-determined pose can be difficult.

Feel free to PM me at any time, by the way

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:19 pm

Thanks guys. I apologize for my impatience.
Thanks for the reveiws, I'll work through the tuttorial right away.

I'm interested in all moddeling until I find what I'm good at and can do well.

Again. Thanks.

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 1:47 am

The dust settles as the lone Wolf-man himself returns. bearing the most simple and uninteresting render of all time.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/BasicJar.jpg[/img]

Menotex sighs as he takes his latest acomplishment to the board of progress. "I figured out some stuff and learned abit, grew a bit. (turned 18 Oct 24.)Got a job, cursing my way through highschool and scaring the other drivers on the road." He sighs and scatches his head, His expresion is bland and stressed. "I'm trying to get into this now that I have time again. Blender is both a dream and nightmare." Menotex slaps a paw against his leg and flops down into his favorite easy chair.

This showcase may be stuffy and covered with an inch of dust. But it's owner is searching for the mop.

Nanu · Post by **Nanu** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:13 am

You should try writing something.

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:42 am

"I have a piece Of fiction I could post in a day or so." Menotex suggests, his paw moving though the air to emphasize his speach. "I have it saved on the server at school. Also It needs a thouogh clean up and revisal before I let the public see it." A smile forms on his muzzle as moves about in his chair uneasaly. If it wern't for the fact he as covered in fur, one might believe Menotex was blushing.
"As for this sudden interest in turning my showcase into a bloddy Roleplay, well.." he scratches his nose with a long nail and looks away, pretending to study the older renders taped to the showcase walls.

PoHa! · Post by **PoHa!** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:44 am

Nanu Ra wrote:You should try writing something.

No Nanu! No! He's mine! ALL MINE! MWAHAHAHA!

Menotex, you're a modeller at heart, you don't want to write some stuffy old stories, do you? Nah, of course not! You want to make models! Yea, models are cool. They want you to make them. You want to make models. Models are cool. Watch the spinning head. You are getting sleepy... very sleepy...

I think your models are very nice, in fact, I'd very much like to see some more (oh, and texturing is nice and a very good thing too, if you can get that going). I find your interest in what some modellers would call more "mundane" objects to be very intriguing (you know, most like to model swords and armor and creatures) I'd just like to see that after all this time, the dust hasn't collected too much in your fur, so to speak.

matts05 · Post by **matts05** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:03 am

I would like to see you finish modelling that meerkat you started a while ago. I think meerkats are the most awesome animals in the desert. They da bomb.

angelus6 · Post by **angelus6** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:42 am

yup, it was showing real promise. and how far did you get on those interior walls?

Menotex · Post by **Menotex** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 7:16 pm

I've got a problem.

Thse faces arn't shading right. I figures thatthe faces are inverted. If so, how do I "reverse" them.

[img]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Rush3266/ShadingPoblem.jpg[/img]

As you can see my light source is shining on tis side the some faces are still in shadow...

Post by **Haplo** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:37 am

Awesome job on the models, Menotex, you'll be promoted in no time if you keep it up