Right, getting myself grounded here! I have an idea of a flamboyant, jewel encrusted sword being wedged into a rock akin to Excalibur, lets see how it goes!
@theluthier Thank you very much for the feedback! I'll be sure to do better next time.
Also for the record that whilst the non-blade has damage I defo agree it needs more work. Here's another angle on it.
silentheart00 It's a bit hit and miss for me, but hopefully I can improve it in the coming days.
thecabbagedetective Woah, yes it does have damage. *Broken* pieces in fact. I couldn't see that from the prior angle I guess.. carry on 👌
Just wanna say thanks for your support.!It seems like it's just a combination of stress, allergies and asthma that's been inflamed by said allergies.
thecabbagedetective plus eventually adding a slight craziness to those combinations :D
Of course just saying this with love and with the admiration how extremely hard worker you are. In long term wishing the balance between the ambitions and caring about your organizm.
I think if your health will allow this project will turn out as an absolutely brilliant one, as the concept is so great and you always have good taste for luxury kind of visualizations.
csehz I'm certainly feeling a lot better physically, so now I just got to cross my fingers that life doesn't get in the way and I can finish this to the best of my abilities. I'll certainly try my hardest not to disappoint, and I thank you very much. Good luck with your project as well!
Day 1 Done!
Yeah you know how I said I hope life doesn't get in the way? Welp, that happened. Nothing bad mind you, just some voluntary stuff and a friend's birthday (who I believe really didn't like the gifts I got them, so now I feel bad) but that seems to be it now, and fortunately this week's work doesn't seem as intense as last week.
Now I will admit two things. One, I am absolutely awful at UV unwrapping, and Two, I've never really done hand painted textures to any real degree, so this is mostly either poorly or completely uncharted territory for me. I'm kind of cheating in a way because I've given each piece of the sword a separate texture map (or maps in good time) but I figured I could get more bang for my buck in the detail department. I've also be tweaking the model a bit, adding some more dents and dings. So far got a fairly basic texture on the blade and cross-guard, and am going to be detailing it more. When I wake up. And catch up with more homework threads. There's just so many of you.
Which when you compare it to the old one:
It has much more life already!
I actually wanted to ask @theluthier if we're allowed to use procedural textures alongside vertex painting as well? Just for those added details. Maybe I'm praying he'll say yes because it's where my strengths lie more or because I just wanna be weird (and totally not because I haven't already used vertex painting and not trying to retroactively ask if it's okay). Welp, I need to sleep now so I wish you all the best and happy Blending!
(Also, if vertex painting is okay, using that to get a lot of dirt in the crevices of your sword is a great idea, you should keep it in mind. Just saying)
Just popping in here in saying that I'll be uploading my render in the morning due to render times and I'll be checking all of your threads again as well, good luck everyone!
Homework Week 2 Submission
Ugh, the world is conspiring against me, methinks. Didn't get some things done such as the floor as well as there being some things that I'd like to add later on, but being my first attempt at texture painting I wasn't expecting it to be great. Guess I just gotta gear up for next week and hope I can knock it out of the park.
I did use some textures for some background/minor things, such as the wall and the hands, but I can always redo these if that is unacceptable. Otherwise it was just texture painting and some vertex painting for some grime. Also I think adding emission to the gems was a great choice, maybe I should have gone even further? Thanks for looking and Happy Blending.
thecabbagedetective You made some awesome progress Aaron, with some shading and lighting magic this will look awesome!
thecabbagedetective Aaron dude..the texture TOTALLY SELLS your model. Considering my feedback from week 1, I felt like there was inconsistent damage and detail. But now that I see everything textured with lovely details and consistency, it all works super well together! Really awesome work, my man. A+ from me 👏
I'm excited to see what happens with this week's shading and lighting. I want to see this in the best possible light 🤩
I actually wanted to ask theluthier if we're allowed to use procedural textures alongside vertex painting as well?
Yes you can definitely use procedural textures to accent the final surface quality. I'll be demonstrating that in the stream tomorrow.
thecabbagedetective congrats on winning the vehicle challenge mate! Well earned 😊👏🏻
thecabbagedetective hey Aaron, noticed you didn’t submit week 3.. hope you are well mate?
Week 3 Submission
"One thing the history books won't tell you is the tale of a man only known as Anastagio, who haunted the people of 16th century Italy. Whilst much of his life is unknown, it was said that he was once a mild-mannered, almost feeble boy, until one day he stumbled upon something unimaginably dark. You see, Anastagio was a social outcast of sorts, he never quite got along with anyone - not even his own parents - and that feeling was reciprocated wholeheartedly. He would often retreat to the nearby woods for solitude, but never quite so far that he would get lost. This changed one day, because - for unknown reasons - he stormed through that place like a threatened Doe. Maybe someone pushed him over the edge? It's hard to say, but from what scraps of his journal indicate, he hid in a small cave in hopes that no one would ever find him. It was in this unsettling place that he began to hear "the most unnatural calling he ever heard, a mixture between the cooing of a tempting maiden and the disturbing gurgles of Hell itself", but against his better judgement he followed it. He swore it was coming from under the earth, so he dug with rocks, sticks, and even his bare hands until they were bloodied with desensitized determination, until he found it.
A Schiovona, as perfect as the day it was crafted. Not a scratch on the curved blade, not a dent on the dazzling golden knuckle guard and mysterious red jewels that were as mesmerizing as they were beautiful. It is not know what transpired specifically beyond this point, as his journal turned into an incoherent, rambling mess that some historians to this day are convinced wasn't even a genuine language. It may be best this way, as the results are horrific enough. The village in which contained all he knew of the world, where he grew up, and where he would inevitably die, was gone. The bodies of this massacre were mysteriously never found, with the exception of one. Anastagio. When the authorities finally arrived they found him hunched over the glorious blade, no sign that life had ever entered his eyes.
Whilst a fairly unknown story, this sword has seen its fair share of owners. Most didn't even known of the terrible past it had, but they all had one thing in common. Each owner described having unsettling visions in their sleep, and whilst most of these were chalked up to paranoid nightmares some of them became a frightening reality. It passed through the hands of many until it eventually found its way into a local Italian museum, with hopes of preserving its history. The sword had seen a lot of damage by now, but one thing that has baffled practically everyone is how the blood of Anastagio still looks, feels and even smells as fresh as the day it was drawn..."
Well that was a darker one, but hey, nice change of pace!
So I won't lie, there was definitely a lot more that I had planed for this, such as a more detailed background and floor, better fog (even though I think the one I have here is pretty cool, you can see a tutorial to get yourselves started here) and a few other things, but a big lesson you need to learn in art is to use the time you have most effectively and a lot of those things would've taken me too long.
Now I'm no stranger to my absence here, and if I'm honest, I'm just absolutely tired of making these story based 3D scenes with a lot going on. I've been doing 3DCG for well over a year and a half now and if you go look at my gallery it's practically all I've done up until this point. This is admittedly a much smaller one, but I've just come fresh off the heels of my Taxi Driver scene, and to jump in from one scene to another can be a bit exhausting. On top of this I'm working on a game (well, technically two) so I've had my hands full with those as well and sometimes it just gets too much. I think for a while I need to step back, relax and work on smaller, isolated projects for a while. I still love the premise of these story based scenes and definitely plan to do more (the amount of ideas I have rolling around is daunting if I'm honest) but I just need to work on something digestible for now.
I've always had this mindset that I must be the absolute best at everything and that if I'm not even shooting for #1 I'm wasting my time. I'm not particularly sure why I think like this, but it's something that's been with me practically forever. It's a double edged sword as well, as not doing as well as I think I can is rather stressful, but at the same time putting 110% effort in all the time is just as stressful. It's getting to the point where it's been affecting my health - both physical and mental - for the past couple months so if that's not an indicator to cool down I don't know what is. Seeing as the more experienced members of the class are expected to use said experience to help their less experienced fellow students here's my advice to you: be careful with how much you practice. Yes, you can be lazy and not do enough (which is sometimes what I fear I do as well) but the opposite is true, and arguably just as dangerous. But then again I have a habit of giving out sound advice but then never utilizing it myself so hopefully that changes. I guess I just have dreams and because I'm not Mega Ultra Supreme Emperor of the Universe yet I get impatient. Major character flaw, that.
Sorry for this being a bit late as this thing took 8 bloody hours to render. I have no idea why, I know volumetrics in general slow stuff down but 2,8 in general has been really slow for me. Maybe it's time to use Eevee...? Stress stuff aside it's always a blast working alongside you guys and see how you're progressing as well. I may not have commented on every page but let it be known I've been reading all of your submissions and I love how far so many of you are coming. I'm looking forward to seeing you all in the wrap up stream and I hope you all have a pleasant day, Happy Blending!
@theluthier Hope this wasn't too late for a grade, deadlines and all that, but thank you if so!
ssmurfmier1985 Yeah I'm fine, mostly anyways haha. I appreciate you checking up on me. I know I can be very slow to respond to messages and I do apologise for that. Thank you very much for the congratulations, I really should have thanked you at the time but by that point I had so many notifications it kind of got buried. Just returned to my thread and noticed you guys, so sorry again. Hope you're doing well and thanks again for checking in!
Also this is what the scene looks like without an compositing, showing what a difference you can make.
Now that I look at it some more some of the bump maps on the sword look a little funky due to doing some experimental things in bad lighting, but I can always change that before "release" if I'd like.
thecabbagedetective hey Aaron, don’t worry about not answering fast I know you a bit by now I don’t mind, I’m just happy you’re okay! (sorta)
You got a pretty cool sword scene going on there! Yeah sure you could have wanted more out of it but you did the best in the time allotted, and it still look awesome 😎
Pretty weird cycles is slow for you in 2.8 as it has been improved much and tests I’ve seen around twitter show much higher speed.. dunno why it would be the other way around for you 🙁
I’m no stranger at wanting to be the best and wanting to do it all 110% and then being stressed out and having health issues because of it... it’s a dangerous path indeed. I’m glad you recognize it and have decided to slow down a bit since I like having you around here! 😊
Doing a little bit of work every day for years has usually better results than going super hard for a while and then doing nothing for an even longer while. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
You’ll get there mate, I believe in you. Take care! 🤘🏻
