Antlion, high poly 3D model

[NSPIRE]

Hmm, lotsa' 3d Apps. You pay for them ALL?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by NSPIRE
Hmm, lotsa' 3d Apps. You pay for them ALL?

I'll assume you must be joking about that Of course their paid for. Except the ones I get given by companies/developers for endorsements/reviews/services etc. But those are perks of the job, Actors get free cars, I get free software (though if any developer is listening, I'd prefer the free sports cars instead please! ) Course its annoying when on occasion I'll be sent a non commercial version, which means it can't be used for actual work and usually ends up in the trash, cause almost always the freebies are NFR (not for resale) NFR doesn't bother me, I rarely need/want to sell the software. It's not being able to use it in a production environment that annoys me, I mean, whats the point sending it if I can't bleedin use it!? lol

That just seems to happen only with new devs on the block who don't know how to play the game, send free usable stuff to well respected artists/studios, they send you lots of customers in return, send them useless junk and get nothing in return. Its all about playing the game

When you do this for a living you can't use warez, far too easy to get caught out, all the client needs to do is check up on you (since they can be held accountable for your actions in many cases) and if your not on the companies registered database as a legit user your screwed, and i mean seriously cause you'd be breaking quite a few laws and I have known people end up in prison because of it. Same applies to me, I wont hire anyone who uses warez, and will check up on there claims, especially if their freelancers, cause if their using illegal software to make a profit via me or a company I own I can be fined thousands not to mention get a bad name in the business and lose important contacts, clients and the well paid jobs. It just isn't worth it to use stolen software,

There's one basic rule for software. "If you can't afford it, you don't need it" If someone claims to own a full legit version of Softimage XSI for example, yet they only do flying logo's or little jobs for friends and family now and again, then 9/10 its warez. Cause they just wouldn't need it or be able to afford it otherwise. and if they did pay for it somehow then they have a serious need to go on business courses and learn how to maximise profits by buying cheaper software that can do the jobs they do just fine without getting overpowered software thats far beyond the type of work they do

Sorry for drifting into a rant about piracy, thats what happens when I start writing it last night, fall asleep and finish it the next morning lol. I lost my first job (a total fluke walking straight into the games industry from leaving school) because the company was forced to fold due to piracy, which was a huge shame as I learnt a lot there, heck I was _forced_ to learn 3d studio within a week haha that was an intense five days, thrown in the deep end but damn it was great experience. So yeah, since then I've had a major issue with warez in general. There's just no need for it, cause if your good enough at what you do and know the game you can get get stuff for free and legally direct from the companies, they scratch your back you scratch theirs and everyone is happy

.. besides, I'm one of those who loves having big fancy expensive looking boxes, another bonus for keeping legit, and why I don't much care for electronic software, no fancy box, no brick like manual (I still chuckle at the Lightwave manual being the size of the entire box! lol) and the softimage packaging being almost the size of a PC haha crazy. But you sure feel like its money well spent when you see the delivery guy struggling to carry it down the steps

I don't like how some are beginning to go with those DVD cases now, small, thin and boring and with a pdf excuse for a manual, where's the big boxes I ask ya! When I pay for software I want to know its taken a forest to make the packaging damnit!

 

[NSPIRE]

Whew, long read. But yeah, I was kinda' half-joking. I get what you're sayin' though

Pretty neat that they send ya' all that stuff.

I'm not too big on environmental health... heh, maybe I should be, though.

 

[EVIL]

Fenric1138 man. I guess you are sitting on your lazy ass all day if you can find the time to type those bloody long reply's.

And yeah, I am a big fan of those fance boxes I almost punched my dad in the face when he trew them away. the jerk ahhwell.

where do you work?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by EVIL
Fenric1138 man. I guess you are sitting on your lazy ass all day if you can find the time to type those bloody long reply's.

hehe yeah yesteday and today's been pretty quiet, had people coming round and was waiting for some specs from a writer to arrive so decided to take things easy, do a bit of work on the mod and just arse about for a change heh. Supposed to be going into town shortly to pay some bills and finally buy Morrowind, but as that involves exerting myself further than the kitchen, i just don't see it happening

And yeah, I am a big fan of those fance boxes I almost punched my dad in the face when he trew them away. the jerk ahhwell.

Yeah I hate throwing them away. Had to with the older stuff though, all the Amiga stuff went a few years ago shame too cause some of those, even the games, the boxes were works of art.. well featured works of art by Roger Dean mostly heh, if I'd had the room I would have kept them but at the time I was about to leave the apartment and move to the US for a spell and my parents didn't want them in their place.. damn them Got my own back though, came back to the UK and moved in with them (always milk in the fridge and cheaper accomodation ), now slowly building up the box mountain again *evil grin*

where do you work?

well among other jobs. Right now I'm working for Blake's 7 Productions on the new series. I dunno if many will remember that show, about 25 years old, the FX and clothes show their age now, but some of the stories were really well made, and its long overdue for a new series

It's currently famous for the delayed DVD's.. If people think HL2 being delayed a few months is bad, spare a thought for the poor B7 fans who've been waiting years for them (i blame the BBC but shhh don't tell )

There's Vincent who did the new logo, which got a bad rap at first, but personally I think its a brilliant design. And another concept artist working on the overall look of the show while I'm working on the "star" of it, the new ship, which is a good idea really as our styles are very different so that reflects in the designs and none human stuff wont turn out looking like human style. I'm trying to avoid seeing that guys work though as I don't want to be accidently influenced by any of it at this stage.

Already done a bunch of preliminary concepts to get a feel of things, testing the water so to speak, those likely wont be used which I expected at such an early stage, (but they'd make great models oneday if I feel like it heh ) then been waiting for the writer (Dominic DeVine, great guy, very very talented) to get in touch directly so I can work closely with him, that way we should get just the right design B7P are looking for, well thats the plan anyway but you know what they say about the best laid plans



Edit: my arse has gone dead, I gotta go walk around outside for a bit

 

[Dedalus]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
well among other jobs. Right now I'm working for Blake's 7 Productions on the new series. I dunno if many will remember that show, about 25 years old, the FX and clothes show their age now, but some of the stories were really well made, and its long overdue for a new series

OH MY GOD

that program was great. i've watched countless episodes on UK Gold recently, and Blake's 7 is unintentionally hilarious. i dunno, it reminds me of a comedy set and the actors are trying so desperately to take everything seriously, you just can't help cracking up. i agree the writing was above average, i hope the updated effects and acting can do the series justice. i've heard of Dominic DeVine, he's a pretty decent bloke, gave my step-sister her first job making coffee

but yeah, have any idea where the story is gonna pick up from?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Dedalus
OH MY GOD

that program was great. i've watched countless episodes on UK Gold recently, and Blake's 7 is unintentionally hilarious. i dunno, it reminds me of a comedy set and the actors are trying so desperately to take everything seriously, you just can't help cracking up. i agree the writing was above average, i hope the updated effects and acting can do the series justice. i've heard of Dominic DeVine, he's a pretty decent bloke, gave my step-sister her first job making coffee

hehe yeah some of the episodes would raise a few unintentional chuckles I'm sure the new show is going to be far better.. kinda like comparing HalfLife 2 to Pac Man I guess.

It's the first time I've worked with him, but he seems really cool, really professional and seems to know how to get idea's across that an artist can understand, which makes our jobs a whole lot easier

but yeah, have any idea where the story is gonna pick up from?

yep but I am bound and gagged for giving any kind of details out that aren't already public knowledge, I'd be off the project in a second if I let anything slip that the public wasn't supposed to know

But its going to be very high quality and I'm really looking forward to seeing it completed. The Producer Andrew Sewell has been criticised in the past by people (who've never worked with or met him might I add, but frankly if anyone is going to pull it off he will, has plenty of marketing experience and knows just the right people to hire and just how to get it out there and give it its best chance of success, he's also turning out to be one of the nicest producers I've met, and thats saying something, I normally hate producers more than I hate agents

There's a good interview with Andrew here http://www.blakes-7.co.uk/b7e/b7eint.shtml which goes into a few details about the new show.




apologies to the original poster for this thread hijack, sorry mate

 

[clarky003]

clarky and Fenric, what modeling programs do you use? I prefer Lightwave personally, but was wondering what you guys used.

I use 3D studio, if you want to get into rendering its the best , its the most popular for starters, and slightly more complex than other 3D CAD packages. But it produces the best results

 

[clarky003]

apologies to the original poster for this thread hijack, sorry mate

its ok, its all kewl stuff. there should be a thread for people who enjoy 3D modelling,, i was just hoping that all the talkin could be more HL2 related, thats why i posted my Antlion,, , we are on halflife2.net ..... right? :dozey: lol

 

[nw909]

Hey clarky, are you any good at human character modelling?

a combine soldier would be sweet

 

[clarky003]

ill add that to the, list,, how about the one with the trench coat,,

 

[nw909]

hussaywhaaat?

trenchcoat?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by nw909
hussaywhaaat?

trenchcoat?

one of them is wearing a trenchcoat in a piece of concept artwork, looks pretty good, but reminds me a lot of the snowtroopers from empire strikes back

 

[ray_MAN]

The antlions remind me a lot about the bugs in Starship Troopers but that doesn't bother me. Good work clarky!

 

[nw909]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
one of them is wearing a trenchcoat in a piece of concept artwork, looks pretty good, but reminds me a lot of the snowtroopers from empire strikes back

Do you have the pic?

I don't think i've seen it

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by nw909
Do you have the pic?

I don't think i've seen it

its on the first page i think, erll a link is, one comparing the two versioms, do a search gor wmp skin to find it otherwise

 

[Brian Damage]

Blakes 7... my dad got a copy of that out for me from the local kiosk, but I didn't enjoy it much. Well, I was six at the time.

I reckon I'd like it now.

To Fenric: Things are beginning to make sense...

To clarky003: D'you reckon you could do a model of Gordon?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Brian Damage
To Fenric: Things are beginning to make sense...

ooh what is?



lmao i just saw my post above yours, dear god my spelling lol, i had pretty much just woken up when i wrote that, and it shows

 

[Brian Damage]

Yeah, the spelling... that happens to me when I'm real tired. Last time it happened I saved a game of JKII as "Yustgottithrbase", or something like that. Didn't even remember saving it the next day.

And I mean it's beginning to make sense about... that stuff you PMed me... y'know...

<Wink wink. Nudge nudge>

PS: What time is it where you are... it's 1:00 AM where I am.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Brian Damage
Yeah, the spelling... that happens to me when I'm real tired. Last time it happened I saved a game of JKII as "Yustgottithrbase", or something like that. Didn't even remember saving it the next day.

And I mean it's beginning to make sense about... that stuff you PMed me... y'know...

<Wink wink. Nudge nudge>

PS: What time is it where you are... it's 1:00 AM where I am.

lol oh gawd don't expect me to remember what I PM'd. I can't even remember what I ate yesterday lol, I only remember the store alarm going off as I tried to leave, oh man that was embarrasing, apparantly it was down to the girl on the counter being on her first day and not knowing how to turn the alarm things off for purchases correctly, seems I hadn't been the first its happened to while she was there, poor thing, went red almost as much as I did

oh and its 2:32pm here

 

[Brian Damage]

Awwww geeeez... most of the interesting people seem to come on the forums just before I should be going to bed.

Oh, well...

EDIT: Yeah, those shop assistants... one o' them keeps misplacing my StH comic at the local grocery store.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Brian Damage
Awwww geeeez... most of the interesting people seem to come on the forums just before I should be going to bed.

Oh, well...

EDIT: Yeah, those shop assistants... one o' them keeps misplacing my StH comic at the local grocery store.

heh my cable usually begins to go wonky about now, so by the time I get back on properly without it forever cutting out I've missed the bulk of the new posts, annoying as hell, but so long as it continues to come back on its better than nothing atall right

 

[Brian Damage]

Yup. In the same way that hardtack is better than nothing at all :E.

Do you have any connection tuning software on your PC?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Brian Damage
Yup. In the same way that hardtack is better than nothing at all :E.

Do you have any connection tuning software on your PC?

nope, its nothing PC related, its their end, some issue with their system, can't handle the load from the new users signing up every day. But NTL being NTL, its best to avoid calling them out, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and its not the STB thats broke, infact it works better than the one I had originally (which did finally die), so I don't want to end up having one replaced thats buggered to hell and back.. Besides the few hours off the net is kinda positive, means I have to buckle down and play morrowind.. err i mean work, work, yeah thats it, work.. yup.. right after this game of morrowind.. dum-de-dum

 

[Brian Damage]

Yeeeesssss... and I hope you take pride in Morrowind... err, I mean your work .

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Brian Damage
Yeeeesssss... and I hope you take pride in Morrowind... err, I mean your work .

hehe im tweakin right now. Morrowind runs pretty well now, well apart from the menu system which is as unresponsive as a slug through custard. Have yet to actually play the game properly though, Set my character up as a theif and b*ggered off up to the island at the top. The snowstorms are great fun, can't see sh*t haha. Nobody up there likes me though and I went and killed someone who's apparantly important to the main quest, oopsy. Right now im lost anyway, slaughtered the boring people in Skaal cause they wouldn't talk to me or help me since I got infected by a plague bear, trying to find Castle Karstaag but yeah, that snowstorm isn't actually helping

Atleast I can be sure nothing in my mod copies morrowind now, certain characters n such. That was the main reason for buying it, research.. don'tcha just love this kind of research

 

[Brian Damage]

That's what I tell my parents. I even read it in a games design book. To be a good games designer you have to play a lot of your favourite kinds of games.



..and it's the truth!

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Brian Damage
That's what I tell my parents. I even read it in a games design book. To be a good games designer you have to play a lot of your favourite kinds of games.



..and it's the truth!

Yep, not to mention it helps I was/is still sorta a huge Daggerfall fan


Oh I did find that castle just after posting that reply above. Seems I was right on top of it and just couldn't see it from the storm, rested and it was there.. looks like something out of Krull.. funny how one of the places in the game is called Khull too

anyhoo, gone off topic yet again so I'll stop it now.. though it is HL2 related, as my mod is for HL2 so err yeah not as far OT as B7 was

 

[Brian Damage]

Yeah. If we keep on like this clarky003 will kill us.

 

[clarky003]

HL2 barrels

im not in the habbit of killing people over the net,, lol

who ever asked for the HL2 barrels, i found time and made the model, the maps wont take 10 minutes to add,

 

[The Dark Elf]

Re: HL2 barrels

Originally posted by clarky003
im not in the habbit of killing people over the net,, lol

who ever asked for the HL2 barrels, i found time and made the model, the maps wont take 10 minutes to add,

nice!

 

[clarky003]

thanks ,, im gatherin reference material, for the other models,, Antlion guard, etc

also put the maps on the barrels

 

[The Dark Elf]

well i think they look good.. the edges though could do with being rounded and the metal more worn on those rounded corners, maybe some specular reflection and some noticable bumpiness

might aswell post a wireframe cause ya just knooooow someone is gonna ask for one eventually lol

 

[EVIL]

Myeah. you might create a texture yourself instead of using one of the 3dmax standard textures. but the modeling is good

 

[clarky003]

i'll do that ,.. i just slapped them on,, the model and the rest only took me 45 minutes . the standard textures are just to give you a feel,

lol, plus one or 2 lessons ive learnt if your looking for realistic looking stuff, is dont bump the map too much, or it just doesnt look real.:dozey:

but ill bump it a bit more anyway :cheese:

 

[EVIL]

yeah I notised that myself. just use a high reso bumpmap and have it bump with a setting of 10/20 gived the most realistic results

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by clarky003
lol, plus one or 2 lessons ive learnt if your looking for realistic looking stuff, is dont bump the map too much, or it just doesnt look real.:dozey:

well duh. But doing it too little is just as bad as too much, re-read what I said, I said _noticable_ not over done

 

[clarky003]

whoa whoa,, this model was done cause somone else asked for it, no need to go all , 'do this do that' on me (its my model),, ill do it in my own time , but thanks for the advice anway

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by clarky003
whoa whoa,, this model was done cause somone else asked for it, no need to go all , 'do this do that' on me (its my model),, ill do it in my own time , but thanks for the advice anway

read my reply
"well i think they look good.. the edges though could do with being rounded and the metal more worn on those rounded corners, maybe some specular reflection and some noticable bumpiness"

thne look at your reply
"lol, plus one or 2 lessons ive learnt if your looking for realistic looking stuff, is dont bump the map too much, or it just doesnt look real :dozey:"

your clearly didn't read my post properly where i was offering constructive suggestions on how to improve on it.

I said to have more noticable bump mapping, nothing about over doing it, yet you turn that around into bumping too much, insinuate that im dozey and laugh in my face. So yeah excuse me for being a little pissed at that attitude you've suddenly developed.

You've been doing this all of five minutes, a few people, including myself give positive comments and some handy advice on a couple of images you did and suddenly your an authority? Don't think so mate. What did you want me to do, sit quietly and let you make mistakes then laugh at you when you fail, or offer help and advice that can help you?

I mean, that is why your posting these images right? to learn and get useful comments? Or do you just want people to give your ego a good stroking, tell you your work is great, super smashing wonderful while you ridicule anything you don't like the sound of, if its the latter then good luck but you'll not learn anything surrounded by yes men only telling you what you want to hear.

 

[Sparta]

I'm just curious, how long have you two, Clarky and Fenric, been doing modelling? I'm sure you've probably mentioned it in one of the previous pages but after awhile i just got fed up with reading it all and decided to skip ahead to post this question

I've been doing modelling for.....about 1 year and 9 months (on again /off again) and im mostly self-taught, i use Lightwave 7.5. Having a lot of fun with that program, i find it alot easier to model then....say.... well....i've never tried any other program so i can't really say . Anyway do you guys know any good tutorial sites? for either rendering or modelling? or free texture sites, they're always useful.