Enriq766 - I’m probably going to un-symetrical the tentacles a bit, but things like that I know exactly what I’m going to do, so I intend to do it last once I’ve finished with any experimental/playing stuff.
Mathias - I agree, I’ve attached one of my reference pictures of him in full sunlight. However, I am probably going to have the final render with a fairly dark background instead of the bright sunny deck of the ship. I’ll most likely re-render the video (with the link on the end of this post) with a more ‘fleshy’ jones and see how he looks.
FramedWorld - the node setup is what I’m fiddling with now between each render, much experimentation… I will post it when finished, probably as part of an overview docco sort of thing. It’s mainly mixing a lambert and a toon shader using the shadow mapping technique. Link is in the first post of this thread.
And now to the following link which I am very excited to show. Having realised that the side view renders were looking cooler than the front ones because of the lighting, I rendered a 200 frame vid (apologies to whoever bothered to download the last whimpy little one) where the lighting takes a 360 turn instead of the model. This shows off the potential for the SSS settings in animation, and whilst I dont plan to animate this particular character, I’m sure I’ll do something similar on a character of my own at a later date. Its .mpg and 2mb. I’m aware not everyone has good broadband. Enjoy!
Just a quick note about the last vid, http://www.filefactory.com/file/ffc0f6/
The shadows on the tentacles are really random, but seeing as there are 40 of them with 3 fairly fast moving lights casting shadows, I’d say its reasonably accurate yet distracting rather than a rendering error of sorts. Try and focus on his head to get the main effect.
The moving lights (jittery tentacle shadows aside) actually bring the character to life a lot more. It really improves the effect, being able to see the specularity and bumps shifting and the lighting changing on his skin.
Just noticed something… The siphon thingy on his face in the movie is only on the left side. The right side just has a small tentacle. Check out the reference image you posted on page 1 to see what I mean.
RingsJunkie - yeah, I know. Its minor stuff like that as to why I’m calling him a tribute rather than a replica. I’d have to go back and do some re-modelling and mapping to be rid of it, effort which I’d rather put into a second character of my own imagination. There is also a few more of his inner ring of tentacles in the film that semi join and other details like that which I’ve looked at but not been to fussed about including.
If you can get that face to have some better subsurface scattering…
Thats what will make this model great! I think it will add that realism you are looking for.
Thanks for the hint Enriq. I’m currently using the mix node to mix a toon/shadow mapped textture (providing the SSS) with another texture. Does anyone know if I can mix the two through a black and white (or even coloured for some trippy effect) texture map, basically to allow better control over where I want heaps of light passing through (lips, tentacle ends, etc) ands where not to?
I only found out about the blender uploader yesterday and I will definately be using it. Massive kudos to the person who had the idea and went through with it free of charge to the community!!
Wow! This is beautiful work, Ben. I was wondering if you’re familiar with a magazine called Cinefex? It’s devoted to the special effects industry. Davey Jones is on the cover of the current issue. The article discusses how they made the model.
I don’t know if you have Borders Books or Barnes & Noble in Australia, but they usually carry it in the magazine racks.
Steve - Thanks for the heads up, I’m pretty sure we have both stores here, I’ll keep an eye out for it.
I’m going away for a couple of weeks, so this thread will be dead for a while, but I’m still really keen to push this character to see what Blender can do.
The colours are still wrong/not matching, comments I’m after on this ‘test’ are on the SSS on the face - need more of it/ should light collect in certain areas more than others/ etc. I would try another rendered clip with a single spotlight, but I’ve run out of time… for now. (The quality is a bit average, I turned the shadow map samples down to render the test a bit faster.)
On a bit of a sidetrack, someone asked me about my avatar, it is General Grevious. I haven’t made him a thread yet because he’s on hold for a while, but he’s fully rigged (rig is a bit buggy though) and nearly all components modelled. (just some neck tubes and other bits to go.) For a 2mb turnaround (yafray GI, from memory) download:
yeah, saw that too, maybe BenDansie should PM the lead artist for Pirates, I mean he is on CGtalk, and would probably be really impressed with this thread, I know I am!
I’ve been away from a computer for a bit over 2 weeks, so it’s a small update. However, I’m really happy with the look of him now, so once i fix the last texture seams, I’ll tweak the hat (coloured barnacles and a bit of slime if I can be bothered having a crack) and then render out the final high res turnarounds. I’ve decided I want to post the final blend file when it’s done, but there will be a bit of cutback.
The hat is just modelling in sharp construct and a simple lambert material, so thats an odd half a million polys or so that arent needed. Not sure how I’ll deal with the rest of the head model, might have to just release the ‘head before sharp construct’ model, which has the same uv’s and all. Problem is the file is currently 92.5mb and a few million poly, so it will take ages to download and most people wont be able to load it anyway. (I had to buy a gig and a half of ram and install linux to keep working on it, but I was planning to do both things eventually anyway…) Once people have had a look, I might not need to put a ‘how to’ thing together, but if I get enough requests I wouldnt mind doing it later.
Thanks for the lings to the cg talk stuff, good read! Unfortunately the Cinefex magazine was sold out here already, dont know if I can be bothered ordering a back issue. I might post a copy/link to my final rendered turnaround on cgtalk, see how it goes.
Mathias, I looked at the last render I did after a long break and on a different monitor. Definately too green. The current ‘look’ is still more greeny than pinky, but the colour is more uniform and less ‘random’. I think it’s better, but still up for opinions from all.
Rendering a high res test turnaround, which is where these three shots are from Online tomorrow maybe…
I haven’t reviewed the whole thread, but have you UV mapped the bump/displacement to the mesh, or is this just imported from SC as mesh detail? If it is UV’ed, then you need to add a colour map with a lot more skin tone variation to get rid of the “green” look that you have.
The base mesh and the SSS effect is almost there though. Very convincing. The eyes are perfect. Best thing about this model, by far. Really good eyes always sell the model and you have accomplished that for sure here.
I looked at the eyes real quick and compared them to a picture of davy jones- these eyes are too friendly. Davy Jones (along with any other humanoid) has red veins along the whites of his eyes- these are very important in making him look more evil.
Enjoy!
There is also a few more of his inner ring of tentacles in the film that semi join and other details like that which I’ve looked at but not been to fussed about including.
I think Ben nailed the look right on that last picture he did. Looks great there.
