United3dArtists Archive

Higher resolution(up to 2500x1668pixel) can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larsmagnusson/3835446631/

Creature created in ZBrush3.1 (using SSS. Textures not finished)
Buildings made in trueSpace7.6 (except the one far away which is still just Maxwell primitives)
Maxwell Render 1.7.1 x64 for rendering.

The creature in the image is 200'000 polygons with a displacement map to give it the same detail as the 14.5 million polygon model in ZBrush.
Texture and 16bit Displacement map is 8000x8000.
I've been lazy so the UV mapping is ZBrush adaptiveUVmap (each polygon in the lowest subdivlevel becomes a square part of the total texturemap.)
When more of the buildings are finished I will start sculpting/texturing them in ZBrush.

Note: This time I actually started with making up a name for the creature, then creating it

Thanks! This time I'm determined to actually finish!
Parallell posting in this and Maxwell forum should do the trick...maybe even the ZBrush forum, although that must be the most intimidating forum in the world? Wish they could spilt it into two sections, normal skilled users and ILM-employees

When I read your first post in the turtle thread:
" cant believe that it's been over a year and a half......"
I started to wonder how long I've been out of the loop...my last post in my old website was 19August2007 with the insectoids done in ts7.51.
Aah, that's two years!
No wonder I had to relearn trueSpace...again

Hope you'll have time to get back to the turtle soon!

Woohoo! Go shike go! en fantastisk bild!

weevil wrote:Woohoo! Go shike go! en fantastisk bild!

Another Swede? Tackar så mycket!

i think I must do some recon work to get a realistic stone structure on floor and walls.
I tested some floor sculpting last evening but I soon realized that "to sell it as reality" I need something extra.
There is an old fortress about 20minutes from where I live.... I think a visit with the camera is in order. But they close at 19:00 not sure I'll make it during a workday.

Inte alla som talar svenska är svenska, faktiskt -men nästan !
Även att deras svenksa är jätte döligt.. Jätte kul att se du här igen Shike och med en härlig bild )

(Not all who speak Swedish are Swedish, in fact -but almost!
Even if their Swedish is really bad...Really cool to see you hear again Shike and with a great picture )

Very nicely done I really like the modeling on the creature.

one Quick comment though. The creature doesn't fit the scene. Let me explain.
If this creature existed, and this was an image of it's homeworld, the doors would not be like ours as with those arms he would have to walk through every door sideways. Also with the floor, Those toenails he is walking on would slip way to much on a hard smooth surface.
If this is not his homeworld, I would expect more in the image to show, more grimacing stance, burning buildings. etc. just my opinion.


Great work though and good luck.

Does "Shatzia Ni Challum" mean something? In what language? What does it mean in English?

@CdeB:
Thanks, good to be back, and yeah, I kind of forgot our scandinavian neighbours..ops.

@Karthogen:
Well spotted, you're quite right, she doesn't belong in the castle.
And the title I used in another forum was perhaps better: "Shatzia Ni Challum, four armed creature attacks".

My idea is that it's a fantasy-creature, in a world similar to "Lord of the Rings" were there are humans and strange creatures on the same world.
She has either either "succeeded in penetrating the defence of the humans" or "succeeded in escaping from her prison" and is now battling her way in/out.

I plan to make visual cues to this. Possibly scratches one the walls/pillars since she had to claw her way through the cramped spiral stairway, and some human soldiers, one top right above the stairs on the platform(possibly an archer), and possibly a visible hand with sword just out of picture to the right. A panic stricken defender. (reason for her raised hand) Maybe someone dead in the stairs...we'll see.

@Finis:
Well, I hope it doesn't mean anything offensive or stupid in any language (like Shike, that I thought was a cool callsign until someone from Japan said it was the opposite of cool... don't remember exactly what and I'm too old to get a new alias anyway )
Shatzia Ni Challum was just something I came up with after awhile. It sounded "Fantasy".
And since my earlier work showed an amazing lack of name-imagination (Metal-Entity, Tick-Like-Thingy,TriBeast and it's Rider), I decided I couldn't just call her something like "Crab-Armed Girl"

Since I have to wait until this weekend (depending on weather) until I can get to the fortress to take ref photos I started tweaking the texture. More detailing and Grime still needed.
Below is a ZBrush front/rear render.


1024x1024 image can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larsmagnusson/3841174252/

Minor update, havn't had much time after work but at least I've redesigned the wall and doorway and started detail sculpting.



Larger image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/larsmagnusson/3861417176/

Had about 500 photos to go through after my visit to the fortress, and should have enough texture material now

I think I need to get into zbrush.
Great stuff!

Thanks guys!

@MadMouse:
It's both. I export the lowest subdiv of the wall from ZBrush into maxwell and then add the displacement map. Same method as creature.
Don't remember the poly level on the low poly wall...maybe 50'000 polys? (Edit: 68'000, and the highest subdiv is 4.4million)
Having too little polygons in the lowpoly model causes problem, since I would need a very high "virtual subdivision" setting for the displacement, and that would be very slow. Also, since displacement goes in the normal direction of the surface, a too low poly model can lead to strange displacement results.

Larger render:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larsmagnusson/3870698317/

Done with sculpting and texturing of the wall. Still some minor things that annoy me, but I think I'll fix that in photoshop for the final render.

Don't know the history of the fortress I visited to get my reference photos, but I find it quite strange just how many differently colored types of rock there was in the walls. Makes me wonder where they got the material.

Beautiful scene! Strange that colors of the fort I'd like to know what is made red and gray I have an idea but blue?

@leonregis:
Thanks! He,he, must admit that your comment about blue made me wonder if I'd done something wrong and I compared rgb values in the render and photos...and yep, it's bluish rock...isn't that some sort of granite...or is that the pink ones?

I uploaded one of the photos I took of the fortress walls, it might be easier to do mineral identification from that?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larsmagnusson/3871778722/

I tried to take all the texture-photos either in the shadow or when the clouds blocked the sun.
You can also see that I diverted from reality when I sculpted my wall. The real fortress had really flat cut rocks and the cement/concrete-stuff between the rocks where in line with the rocks....but I wanted more shape

Looks better your version (more organic shapes), but that cracks are texture right, is difficult do that without texture...
Maybe the blue are made from a substance called sodalita (I found in a fast search in google) if you want or are crazy can search more and unravel this mystery.

Keep posting Cya

@leonregis: Correct, the thin cracks are in the texture, which is also used as bumpmap.

Long time since last update but I've been working out of town and didn't have access to my render/sculpting software
Only had time to sculpt/texture floor (not sure I like how deep the gaps between the rocks became...) and started sculpting the right stairs.
Also wasted a lot of time this weekend with things that turned up bad:
Tried to reposition creature into a more "running batttle pose"...only to discover that it looked completely ridicolous! This creature can only move rather slowly by using the claw-arms as additional legs....as I've mentioned before: a complete dead-end evolution-wise

Also had to alter the ground and wall texure. Wasn't visible on the wall but the floor became too reflective (looked wet or metallic).
Now using an inverted greyscale version of the textures that have been level adjusted to give between 60-99% roughness.



3000x2002 image can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/larsmagnusson/3903236258/

Comig along nicely.

I said before that I like the building. It is a good design that could work with a variety of themes. Seeing it before the rock texture was applied I imagined it with stucco walls and terracotta floor and roof tiles. Spanish, Southwestern or Italian look. More modern materials or even primitive like log columns and thatch or palm leaf roofs would work too.

The creature could probably move quickly but the things I imagine would make it look strange in the picture.

If it was real I'd bet it could balance on its foot claws. All those arms would help like the pole a high wire walker uses. Not much less believable than us standing on two feet.

It has six limbs like an insect. It could walk with all six on the ground by moving them like an insect.

Hold two up and horse or dog like movements could work.

A movement like someone using crutches maybe?

It would use different movements of course depending on what it was doing.

@Karthogen: Thanks!

@Finis: Hey, I was originally thinking in a similar way about the walls, the mediterranian style is really nice
Deciding to use these protruding rocks where mostly to try out displacement as much as possible...even if it takes longer to create/texture and render
And you're idea about crutchwalking sounds like what I'm imagining, in a fight it would be steady as a 4-legged creature, and by balancing with one of the claws it should be able to use the other aggressively.

Also: I've already for the 3000x2000 render seen that the Maxwell Render process is slightly above 2Gb, nice to finally have true 64bit support.
I might even get more memory for my computer, 4Gb suddenly feels like too little