Mar'09-BlackDeath & scrytex's Medevil Chess

[BlackDeath]

Well I've been messing around with my scene & came up with this.:yes Not many things to see. check it out... I applied a mia_material to the king to see some difference..:eyeRoll

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv289/blackd51th/chess.jpg

[DjVoyager]

Looks really good! A chess-match in the castle's court yard :)

Do you have high-res textures for the castle walls? They'll make a huge impact on the render if applied properly.

Go to Training browser (http://www.digitaltutors.com/store/browser.php#history=3) and in the search field type "bump". Check out the tutorials on ASHLI bump mapping and Ramp Tricks: Coloring Bump for Maya.

[BlackDeath]

Thanx very very much DJ for the info. I was planning on texturing the walls with type of an old moss covered texture but I was backing up a bit cause of the lack of knowledge about texturing. Thanx again...

[DjVoyager]

You're most welcome. Yeah, play with the materials and textures, particularly Layered Texture to see what you get. You've got your models already made so now it's time to move on :)

[Dean]

looking good, i really like it so far, cant wait to see it textured

[shamoii]

I like. A good texture job will make this look sweet.

[BlackDeath]

I like. A good texture job will make this look sweet.

Well I'm working on it. I got some UV layouts setup for the pieces. This'll take a bit more time since this is one of the areas in Maya that I'm not very familiar with...:D

I'll get it done..

[shamoii]

If I were you, I would leave the UVs for the pieces till last & concentrate on applying actual file textures for the board & castle. That way if you run out of time you can put a procedural shader on the players & not have to worry about laying out 6+ UV sets.

[BlackDeath]

Well I'm almost finished creating the UV layouts. (Bishop is the one left) Today I'm starting the texturing job. I'm using some simple designs to color the pieces so it won't take much time.

Thanx for the advice:) I'm still not familiar with a standard workflow.:eyeRoll

Here is the knight's UV layouts.

[BlackDeath]

Well I'm sorry for not been able to post any progress for the past few weeks cause there weren't any progress to post!!!:eek: I didn't had much time to work on this but I did manage to come this far.. So here it is..

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv289/blackd51th/chess-1.jpg

I'm still working on the materials for the pieces & the ground. (Don't expect anything fancy, They'll just be procedural mats...) :dance

Don't worry about the pieces been too small. I'm zooming in....:eek::eek:

[shamoii]

I like the texture work & the flag is a nice touch too.
BTW. Your chess set is as chromatically challenged as mine. 30 whites & only 2 blacks. Tee hee.

[BlackDeath]

Well soon it'll be 16 on 16 brawl....

[BlackDeath]

Well here is some more progress. I started materializing the pieces. Changed the color scheme a bit. Please do comment on it. I'm still on the edge about the color scheme...:dance

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv289/blackd51th/chess_tex.jpg

I'm thinking of using brown detail on gold base for the other side....:eyeRoll

[-sideshowbob-]

colors are always tricky for me because iam colorblind ;D not sure if i see ur colors correctly but i would go a bit more golden taint with the yellow and go a bit more brown / terracotta with the dark chessboard tiles you can end up with a nice color palette , to help myself reading colors correctly i often google for images that use a similar color palette i wanna go for and analyze their values , use colorpicker to get the color fill my models and see how they go together

here are some examples
for the brown terracotta ->
http://deco-stone.com/english/wp-content/gallery/castle-stone/castle-look-cobblefield-ds60-2066-desert-blend.jpg
http://www.loder.at/Impressionen-Dateien/050_Terracotta_Busotti.JPG

http://www.desertcastle.com/images/picsinorder/housefront/indexpic.gif

for the golden taint ->
https://hotels.lonelyplanet.com/LPImages/Region/2436_Jaisalmer_BN5715_77.jpg
http://image48.webshots.com/49/2/83/14/2464283140000103370jDfdlX_fs.jpg

hope this helps :)

[BlackDeath]

Thanx bob that helped alot...

[shamoii]

I like the gold touch. Possibly the brown is a tad too reflective.
Say,,, is scrytex still working with you? I don't see any of his/her updates?

[BlackDeath]

Well he doesn't have a net connection of his own so we both get together & divide our work he does his part & I take it with me home & upload his & my work using my account. I'm like public relations manager for our team... He is very eager to be a part of this site....

[BlackDeath]

Ok shamoii & sideshowbob, I took both of your advice & changed my color scheme bit more. Check this one out..

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv289/blackd51th/chess_tex-1.jpg

Some of the pieces still needs a material..:)

[BlackDeath]

Well I'm almost @ the finish of my work. All the texturing has been done. I haven't decided on doing a animation. So here it is. I'm still open for suggestions on the color scheme....

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv289/blackd51th/chess_tex-2.jpg

[shamoii]

Nice. its good to see the rest of the courtyard filled in like this.

[BlackDeath]

Thank you very much.

[BlackDeath]

Ok guys I'm almost @ the finish. Expect my final result in few days time...

[DjVoyager]

Ok guys I'm almost @ the finish. Expect my final result in few days time...

Expecting :D

Side note: Very nice setup.

[bianconero90]

Nice work BlackDeath!

Only the reflectivity on the floor is a little bit to much.

For the grass I would add fur if you have the unlimited version of maya.

[BlackDeath]

@ Dj Thanx for the comment.

@bianconero90
Thanx for the advice man. Too bad cause I'm @ the end of my batch rendering. I purposely left the floor bit too much reflective cause I want to make you guys feel like this is the kings favorite place in the palace & he want it to look more like his crown. Shiny!!! But if you can tell me someway in photoshop to decrease the reflectivity I might be able to do it.

As for the grass two things:- 1. I do have the unlimited version & I totally forgot about it.
2. Won't that increase the render time??

[bianconero90]

If you do tweaks in photoshop I think it will loose the textures.

I would add a bum map to the floor and reduce the reflectivity so that the scene looks better.

How long was the render time?

Yes, fur increase the render time.

BTW: You have still time to adjust it

[BlackDeath]

Well I'm doing 220 frames in .jpg format, 25 frames at a time in mental ray, takes about 30 mins for 25 frames. Now I'm rendering my 216th frame. How can adjust it now? Won't that make me render the whole thing again?

[bianconero90]

Are you doing an animation?

[shamoii]

I don't know a whole lot about passes & the like. But IF you wanted to dull the reflection down a bit, you can re render the scene with changed reflection values on the floor. Take off the primary visibility for all the other objects. This should drastically reduce your render times if you want to re-render. You will need to composit though.
Grass can be done with paintFX too. Don't know if that's in standard maya or unlimited.
Happy rendering. 216/220, getting close!

[BlackDeath]

Well yes I am. I was looking for the .avi format in the render settings & it was not available. Even the multi frame option is grayed out. So had no choice but to use a single frame & .jpg format. I'll convert them in Premiere to .avi or something like that...

This is the first time I'm using a camera & doing a render like this in Maya so I'm not much familiar with these options...

[shamoii]

Nope, that wont work. But you can do it. I cant check @ the moment cause my maya machine is thinking.

[shamoii]

I think maya pretty much only puts out in single image sequence formats. make sure you have Frame/Animation ext changed to something other than single frame. Then you'll need premiere or similar. I think quicktime pro can do that too.

[BlackDeath]

I don't know a whole lot about passes & the like. But IF you wanted to dull the reflection down a bit, you can re render the scene with changed reflection values on the floor. Take off the primary visibility for all the other objects. This should drastically reduce your render times if you want to re-render. You will need to composit though.

Happy rendering. 216/220, getting close!

Will I be needing a alpha channel or something for compositing??

[bianconero90]

No you don't need an alpha channel.

shamoii is right. You can do a render layer only for the reflectivity.

[BlackDeath]

I think maya pretty much only puts out in single image sequence formats. make sure you have Frame/Animation ext changed to something other than single frame. Then you'll need premiere or similar. I think quicktime pro can do that too.

Well now I'm using name.#.ext as the Frame/Animation ext. It spits out single frames. All the Multi Frame options are grayed out...

[shamoii]

LOL. I think I'm getting confused. Unless you have your passes seperated out already, you will need an alpha.
When you render out a reflection pass it would be typically black with the reflection showing up as lighter colours. If you then added this to your existing pictures they would only get more reflective. What you'd need to do is replace the parts of the existing pictures. This means an alpha channel.

[bianconero90]

Are you re-rendering the animation? Or why you change the output image?

[BlackDeath]

No you don't need an alpha channel.

shamoii is right. You can do a render layer only for the reflectivity.

How guys?? My render layer & composition knowledge is near 00:eek:

[bianconero90]

hmmm... An alpha is needed for the reflection pass but not for the whole scene

[shamoii]

Since you only have 4 frames to go, just stick with the single render idea. i cant make mine grey out no matter what other buttons I push. as long as it shows name.#.ext I get options :(

[shamoii]

You can make an alpha by applying white & black surface shaders to the parts that will be masked out. But as i said, i don't really know a lot about this stuff"?

[BlackDeath]

All right people I think all of us are in a confusion right now:confused:. Let's just call this off. I'm a bit tight in time, I only have tonight to finish this off so re-rendering is out of the question. Let's just assume the king of the castle has ordered some extra polishers for the floor.:laugh

A heart full thanx to both of you for the support & for the time....:jump:bang:yes:beer

[shamoii]

Good idea. look forward to seeing the result:)

[BlackDeath]

But as i said, i don't really know a lot about this stuff"?

Welcome to club shamoii:eyeRoll

[BlackDeath]

"Through The Eyes of the Enemy"

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv289/blackd51th/chess_render109.jpg

This is 109th frame of my animation... Enjoy..

[shamoii]

"club shamoii". I like the sound of that.
I really like the new angle BTW. It makes everything seem so much more dramatic. Nice job!
Currently... enjoying:)

[BlackDeath]

I hope the enjoyment last long. BTW when are we going to see your 'Robot chess of Doom'??

[shamoii]

I might whack up an "rcod" update before bed. Nothing much new at the moment:)

[BlackDeath]

Well you only have a couple of days. Hoping to see it before that time. Are you doing a animation??

[shamoii]

I have a full weekend in front of me :) I have a birthday to attend, though apart from that it's rcod all the way!!!!!
Yes doing animation -with the zapping & the wacking. woot!
P.s. updated my stuffs.

[BlackDeath]

Then it's game on.

[shamoii]

Then it's game on.
WOOT!:tongue:

[BlackDeath]

So finally here it is people.:yes Our Medevil Chess courtyard. The usual rules of chess is applied in here. Hope you enjoy this.

As for scrytex & myself we both are Maya beginning users.

The scene is partly modeled in Maya 5.0 & mostly in Maya 8.5. Texturing, lighting, animating & rendering done in Maya 8.5. Rendered in Mental ray within Maya using Final Gather & Raytrace as secondary effects.

Hats off & a heartful thanx to all who helped & commented on this & looking forward for more them....:bow This was a very fun learning experience.

So here's the link & the poster Dj asked for..

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv289/blackd51th/chess_final.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjTQOftNR50 I recommend to watch it in HQ.

[shamoii]

Nice video. I like the inclusion of the archway too. Good luck with the competition & may the best game win:)

[BlackDeath]

Thanx & like you said 'May the Best Game Win'....