Revamp

So I forgot about the fact I still had shadows on when I took the screenshot and uploaded it, so I went back to work on the shadow and lighting aaaaaaand...

Reboot

Ok, so it's been a while since I've updated my blog, mainly because I had nothing to show off for my level I designed =/
But i've gotten into this character design and am really looking forward to it.
The concepts don't look like much but.. here's how she looks so far.

The Time Is Nigh!

So it's hand-in day today and the renders are taking ages to do. I do, however, have renders of the finished product which do not have the lights in, unlike the new ones.
I must admit that I wasn't fully confident in my house as it was coming along and being honest i'm still not too sure about it now but I feel it has a few good qualities to it. It may not have the look of anything special but I have learned some new skills and have had a good time trying out all these new things.
I did intend on giving my house a rundown feel to aid in the storytelling but when I thought about it everyone would be doing the rundown look, so I pretty much don't have a story to tell through my visuals, it's basically just a one room house. It does, however, have the qualities it should have, if a little bit more.

So this is the inside of the house which I worked on last. I was pretty pleased with the way the desk turned out, it has a nice finish to it if I say so myself. Due to the problems I'm having with compatability Photoshop CS5 doesn't allow the use of Nvidia Tools so I had to substitute for Xnormal, which does the same thing pretty much. However looking at the handles on my drawers either it doesn't work aswell as it could or I have messed up in making it suitable.

In this you can also see the cork notice board, which i'm highly pleased with and also a mirror I thought I'd throw it. I am also pleased with that as not only is it my first attempt at it, it is also successful, as you can see. I consider this a nice shot but time is yet to tell.

This is another shot of the photo above, the only difference being that the lights are back in, as you can tell by the shadow by the table and the top of the fire place. I was quite pleased when I saw the effect it brought.

This is more so towards the fireplace, in which I'm not fairly confident with but am happy with to a certain extent.This also shows off more of the mirror I threw in myself. I love the detail of the bricks in this shot and also love the marble texture in the open fireplace. My window isn't shown off much in this shot however.

This is the overall front view of my house. It doesn't look like much but I am actually fairly pleased with the way it has turned out and the way it actually does look like a normal house. As you can see you don't get the feel that anything has happened here, showing that I chose to remove the story telling aspect. This was due to the fact everyone would have gone for the run down look and it was too late to change to anything else really.

This the the side reverse view of the house showing off the chimney and window. I am pleased with the way it turned out. The difference in colour for bricks wasn't originally planned but then threw in the idea of a renovation project, the chimney being the new part to the house, after I saw how well they worked together.

I figured I needed a better shot of the window to show that it worked, as you can see by the faintly showing desk. I also thought it would be nice to get the bricks in the shot also. I've fallen in love with the use of Normal Maps as they obviously bring a whole new feel to the texture and makes it look more life like. It is an amazing feature in which I am thankful for now knowing.



Where You Least Expect It

It's been a while since I posted but I felt this deserved something.
I finally got back in the flow of things and decided I'd make the mound into a mud pile and so I went into Photoshop, spent a while trying to get the right mud colour (damned colour blindness) and used a brush in order to make the first mud effect.
After doing so I felt the one on its own wasn't enough so I applied a different brush on a new layer and played about with the Fill so that it looked better, but once I did that I noticed something strange.

Yep, there's a face in the mud. How freaky is that?

And just to show how this came to be:

Never Again!

Wallpaper is THE biggest pain I've come across so far. It was so majorly annoying to line up, and I still probably don't have it correct. I do know however that I will NOT be messing with it any time soon.

A Roof Over Our Heads

So I got round to working more on the model and this time went for inside of the house and also the roof. I deemed it difficult to obtain a slate roof without climbing up a ladder or tree in order to get the photo, so I settled for a <> texture.
It is actually a picture of tarmac in which I've made a little darker but I figured it looked similar to the same style of roofing I had chosen. I think it does go well with the house, however, and I feel that my model is coming on rather well. I still have a few more maps to impliment into the house but I'm giving away no secrets. I am looking forward to working on them though.

And They're Off!!

So year two of our course has started and we're straight in there with the texturing.
Straight away we were given a house, with garden, to texture using our own textures, meaning that we had to go round taking our own pictures with our cameras.
Having received the assignment brief we have discovered that there are certain objects/textures that need to be included in our work, such as grates, plaster, dirt etc.
Sounds like quite the interesting module and to be honest, it is!
Having only had four lessons I've actually learned quite a bit and it's actually pretty amazing. Having seen the abilities of Alpha and Normal Maps etc. it will be an interesting year for results from all the class, and hopefully myself.
So, having taken my photos I started off with the outer wall. I don't think it is perfectly aligned, it somehow shifted after I did align it, but that can be easily sorted. I also had a go at putting in a chain link fence, which I must admit I had a tiny bit of a problem with, but it seems to be coming along slowly but surely.