Gnober's stuff

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 4:15 pm

Here is a little mesh i made and textured, inspired by the ash swamp concept art. It is the shriveled mushroom.
[img]http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/4656/mushroomdrawing.jpg[/img]
And here in context, not the ash swamps though, just bittercoast region. [img]http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/5299/guar.jpg[/img]

SamirA · Post by **SamirA** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 6:05 pm

I'm no expert on this but not bad. I'm glad you chose to model something we need. We could certainly use a modeler. Someone with model expertise will be along to review this shortly I am sure.

Welcome to the Forums.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:59 pm

These are really adequate.

That's really all there is to say on it, it's not a model that required anymore or less than what you've delivered there. The only critique I could think of is that a sharper res texture would make it look better but that's a non issue as then it wouldn't fit with the rest of Morrowind (which I'm guessing is why you used it in the first place).

Good stuffs though - I'd throw it in TRData.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:42 pm

I am glad that you find it useful... You are right about the texture... Morrowind doesn't use very high resolution textures on smaller items, only about 64x64/128x128... I have also begun working on modeling and texturing other needed statics for the ash swamp, since they seem fairly easy to do. I don't know whether to claim the objects or not...
So far I have retextured the bittercoast sludge (just greyscaled the old one, maybe more could be done?) and made some hanging fungus.[img]http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/3887/ashswamp.jpg[/img]
Maybe the mushrooms should be a bit less colorful? that is of course just a minor thing....

PoisonUnagi · Post by **PoisonUnagi** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:48 pm

Yeah, the mushrooms are a bit bright. I'd dull the texture a bit, that should fit in better with the theme.

SamirA · Post by **SamirA** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:56 am

You cant claim them as you are not a modder, but with Nalin's seal of approval I'm sure you can easily help out in that department.

Katze · Post by **Katze** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:35 am

Making stuff from our concept art is a perfectly acceptable showcase, and if he gets promoted, he can claim the Ash Swamp set and submit this model along with all the rest.

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:48 pm

That looks very nice. Can't wait to see more.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 5:51 pm

Thank you very much... I'm currently working on the tree stump and the puffball mushrooms. They should be finished quite soon

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 7:49 pm

Here is a little compilation of what i have made so far
[url=http://img251.imageshack.us/i/ashswamp.jpg/][img]http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/3887/ashswamp.jpg[/img][/url]
These are the objects:
Shriveled mushroom
Tree stump with fungus and puff mushrooms on
Two different kinds of puff mushrooms
Four different kinds of hanging fungus
Retextured a bittercoast swamp tree and added hanging fungus (the one to the left)
Remodeled and retuxtured a tree and added hanging fungus (the bend one to the right)
Retextured the bittercoast swamp sludge

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:22 pm

The 'shriveled mushrooms' are very nice. All they need now is a proper name and perhaps an ingredient if we want them to be containers.

I like the look of the hanging fungus too. All I miss on the trees is signs of the fungus on the textures (a net-like growth not so clearly visualized in my concepts). That could be disregarded if it can't be made to look nice but I'd like it if you gave it a shot.

Is there any chance you could post close ups of the stump? I'm not too sure of the textures on that.

The puffballs might be a little small. Though I'm not sure how much scaling you can do in the CS.

Overall, I think you're delivering some very decent work.

Thrignar Fraxix · Post by **Thrignar Fraxix** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:29 pm

decent enough for a promotion?

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:37 pm

I would say yes. Then again, I have no experience working with models so maybe someone who does should come in and see if Gnober's work is technically sound? I gave my review based on the screenshot.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:38 pm

I have tried adding some fungus on the texture, and I think that it has worked out all right... It shows very differently on the two trees. [url=http://img25.imageshack.us/i/ashtree.jpg/][img]http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/962/ashtree.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://img14.imageshack.us/i/ashtree2.jpg/][img]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6789/ashtree2.jpg[/img][/url]

The second tree should probably have a ground texture to go with

PoisonUnagi · Post by **PoisonUnagi** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 4:20 am

The second tree's web collides with the ground kinda suddenly, it doesn't look right. Make it ease onto the ground more, like fading the texture or something, I dunno. Also, the braches should be higer-poly, they only have 4 sides at the moment.

Thrignar Fraxix · Post by **Thrignar Fraxix** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 5:44 pm

The hanging fungus is like anything from the bitter coast, it can't NOT collide with the ground super suddenly and have any sort of placement versatility. (Because any effort to combat this would create a very specific angle which the ground would have to be at the point of the fungus in relation to the placement and angle of the tree.)

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:15 pm

The hanging fungus is like anything from the bitter coast, it can't NOT collide with the ground super suddenly and have any sort of placement versatility

If that fungus was made to get pregressively transparent as it got closer to the ground then it might help "ease" clashing of it with the ground - and help to avoid us focusing on the straight line cut through the ground. Simple alpha map stuffs.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 10:20 pm

[img]http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/6390/swamp.jpg[/img]
I have made the ends of the hanging fungus more transparent, and it seems to help making the collision less visible, especially with the matching ground textures (which should probalby be worked on).
The tree stump is just a re-model of a morrowind tree, with a bit if puff mushrooms on it.
[img]http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8324/swamp2.jpg[/img]
This log is made from scratch, and is here seen accompanied by two puff mushrooms.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:51 pm

Good work here Gnober,

It's great that you're eager to get going on modeling stuff and this thread is becoming a nice comprehensive modeling showcase, which is not something we see much of around here so you're sure to get plenty of attention. Lucky you

It makes a big difference with the added ground texture and alpha transparency on the floor touching fungus strings and it looks alot better already.

I'd recommend you remap the UV coordinates on the stump as they get pretty drastically stretched there (Although that is Bethsoft's doing) with the added fungus. Sharper textures on the white bits over the tree would be good too.

I'd also smooth the puffballs more, hitting W, Alt 1 a couple of times will help a fair bit.

Keep up the good work and you'll be promoted soon enough.

Oh, welcome to the forums btw

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 6:10 pm

Thank you, I appreciate your input... I'll work on the things you have suggested

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 5:32 pm

Alright... I have spend some time and made this fine mushroom
[img]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1826/finemushroom.jpg[/img]
But I'm having a weird problem here... I load up the .nif file in nifscope and it looks fine with texture and all, but when I import it into TES construction set or in Morrowind, no textures are shown, it's just shows the vertex painting... All the other files exported with Blender and edited with nifscope has worked fine, but suddenly this problem shows up... I can still export the old files working. I have also tried modeling and new and even tried changing the textures without luck... If any of the modelers have any idea what the problem is, please help...

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 5:42 am

I'll take a look at this for you.

Adanorcil · Post by **Adanorcil** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:49 am

I reckon your textures aren't working because the paths are set wrong. One still points to your documents. Also, the two textures are named almost identically instead of 01 and 02.

As to the quality of the model: it has definitely improved. You did a good job on the shading too. Regardlessly, I think it could use a little more detail still. You've only used 416 triangles so far, which is more than acceptable. The stems, for example, can certainly use more than three sides. Granted, the texture camouflages that fact rather well, but it becomes rather obvious up close.

The hood on the other hand has enough detail, but you hardly use it for anything. It is still a very smooth shape, which is virtually identical on either side of the x-axis. Perhaps make it a little more irregular. Also, make the texture a little more varied.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:36 pm

What Adanorcil said, though I'd add that although you are within your quota for tri's the hood as it is now has too many needless tri's and you could get practically the same effect with half the amount - so if you aren't planning on reshaping it then you should loose some of them.

You could do with re-mapping the UV's to help with the texture on the hood, as it's set up now the texture is very small and repeating which, although great for cutting down on the image file size, will be very noticable in-game.

Adanorcil · Post by **Adanorcil** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:57 pm

What Adanorcil said, though I'd add that although you are within your quota for tri's the hood as it is now has too many needless tri's and you could get practically the same effect with half the amount - so if you aren't planning on reshaping it then you should loose some of them

.
What he said. You might also want to invest in a slightly (not much) more detailed collision model.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Thu Aug 05, 2010 1:00 pm

Here are all the objects I have made so far... I have tried to change what you have adviced me to change...
Some pictures to give an impression of the objects in context:

[img]http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2264/ashswmp.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/5218/ashswmp2.jpg[/img]
This mushroom tree is made from scratch, the one in the background is just a re-texture...

The textures for the big white mushroom still doesn't work for me though, and I'm sure the paths are right, because TES-constructionset gives an error if they are not... But if the textures work on other computers, I guess it doesn't matter. I have re-modeled it from the advice I have been given by Nalin and Adanorcil... Maybe the hood is a bit too low poly now, I don't know...

PoisonUnagi · Post by **PoisonUnagi** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 5:18 am

It's not really a problem, but I think that the puffshrooms are a bit too bright. Other than that, excellent work, keep it up

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 9:36 am

The scratch built shroom needs some more vertices and smoothing out on the cap from the looks of things (judging purely from the screenshot). I'll download this stuff after work and have a look.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:09 pm

Here is a re-upload of my things, with a few changes... I have given the mushroom hood a bit more vertices, smoothed it and I made the puff mushroom textures a bit dimmer. I hope that someone can find the time too look it through, so I will know what to change...

I have also spent some time modeling and animating a little creature which could fit into the environment (called Fungus Slug)... It's not ment to be part of the game, as it is an ugly little bastard and not based on any of the concept art from here, it is merely part of practice, but if an animator would look at it and give some critique it would be wonderful... As it is now it works in-game, but for some reason the animation stutters a bit in morrowind... Both blender and nifscope plays the animations quite smooth... I guess the animations contain something which is somehow not compatible with morrowind...

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 2:00 pm

bumped.

Could a modeler again take a look at this?

I'm sorry your showcase is getting so little attention. It just goes to show how dire our need for active modelers is.

Thrignar Fraxix · Post by **Thrignar Fraxix** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 2:38 pm

indeed, rest assured that your lack of review isn't a sign of displeasure or malice, but of just how needed your talents are.

(that said we have to have SOMEONE who can review this... Haplo perhaps?)

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 3:32 pm

I thought that was the case, it's a busy place... It would be lovely to have something to do, though, so if there are any ideas for some models I could work on, it would be wonderful... Of course more withering mushroom trees and other swamp things are needed, but I figure it would be best to wait until those already made, have been reviewed, so I won't continue making the same mistakes....

Adanorcil · Post by **Adanorcil** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 5:18 pm

I'll try and give this a look later today.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 7:27 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CwXcP09I48

Nifskope review, I haven't tried any of this stuff in game.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:24 pm

Thank you for the review... I have just got a few questions/remarks...

- The white mushroom: I couldn't really figure out how to make a proper texture for the hood, since it is just white, so any ideas for that would be welcome. (The puff mushrooms too). I don't know about the stalks. Maybe I should rather model their shape?

- The shriveling mushroom: Since the mushroom isn't supposed to be more than maybe a foot high, isn't it a bit to much to give the texture extra detail when it is such a small object?

I will work on what you remarked and reupload soon.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:31 pm

Consider the Luminous Russula, how they shine with pretty little textures

Recommending for promotion btw.

Adanorcil · Post by **Adanorcil** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:49 am

Gnober, my comments are basically the same as Nalin's. Use a lot more detail on the strands on the mushroom hood as they are clearly pixellated right now.

On the white puff-mushroom my advice would be to start all over. Often this will work considerably better than trying to fix up a model you don't like anyway. I would definitely make a couple of distinct stems and model the hood with more detail. Use a lot of shading on the textures to add depth and shadows. Add lots of minor imperfections such as scratches and bruises.

Just a practical note on the fungal strand 'faces' you have put on various items: I would not include these in the final model, for a very pragmatic reason. Such things severely limit the way in which the objects can be used in the Construction Set. If you make them separate objects, exterior makers can attach them to objects however they see fit. In addition, it will also prevent the issue where trees always have the same three or so arrangements of fungus.

Now, your skill is definitely increasing, so I think you ought to show it off a bit. There's some decent models in the file you uploaded, but a significant percentage of them are still vanilla retextures with a few faces removed or added. The only models you have provided 'from scratch' so far are the puffballs (which are extremely basic in shape) and the white mushroom (which we all agree could use more work). The difference between the two is still rather noticeable.

So I think this would be the best way to go for you: make one more model that shows a moderately complex shape. If you can pull that off, I think no one will have any doubts about promoting you. The white mushroom is one possibility, but do whatever you feel like, of course.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:25 pm

Thank you for the review, I am working on the models and textures at the moment.

The only models you have provided 'from scratch' so far are the puffballs [...] and the white mushroom

Just a little note. The ashswp_emppara02 and ashswp_log02 are also made from scratch and the ashswp_tree02 and ashswp_treestump are remodeled so much, that they are practically new models.

So far I have retextured the hood of the emperor parasols and I'm working on the shriveling mushroom textures.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:37 pm

I'm looking forward to seeing how much better the parasols look with a better res texture. I'll work on a texture for you to try out with the puffballs if you're stuck with them.

Gnober · Post by **Gnober** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:33 pm

That would be good, I haven't got any ideas for a good texture...
This is the emperor's parasol mushroom with a new texture:
[url]http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9488/empar.jpg[/url]
And the shriveled mushroom:
[url]http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/3081/shrmush.jpg[/url]

Tamriel Rebuilt

Gnober's stuff

Gnober's stuff

Weird stuff