So, no one banded my account while I was gone. Goody.
Here’s my latest project. There are lot of problems with this, and a few place holder aspects, but mainly because I’m not finished. What I plan to work on:
Place lamps strategically to deal with the overly intense darkness on the controller front and at the meeting with the console.
Background and game textures are merely place holders (and yes, I know, one of the games is off the ground. Not important just yet.)
Create a better reflection for the console disk drive and hard drive.
Create the UV’s for the console.
And possibly redesign the mesh for the console front panel. There are suddle issues with shading and look due to poor design.
Any other suggestions, before I get to work? I was particularly wondering if anyone had a better idea for the layout of the console, controller, and games.
One more thing. I haven’t bothered to make sure the console, contoller, and games are in appropriate relative proportion yet. Keep that in mind.
Seems too ah… “tweaked” to me. I haven’t seen the 360 too much, but I think you should consider reducing the amount the system curves inwards, or smooth out the corners/ends of the system. Also, the disk tray is too refletive… I think.
And you shouldn’t have two of the same game. Through Gears of War in there.
Edit: Silly me, not reading the post at all. You’ve already mentioned two of my three suggestions. Ignore them.
Update.
First off, a small question. I took the UV’s for Chromehounds off of Amazon, but I need UV’s for the side cover, as you can see. My scanner’s broken, so I can’t get them myself. Does anyone know where I could get the side textures for Chromehounds and Gears of War? Heck, if you could make them and send a link, that’d be great. Just wondering.
I switched to the toon spec shader for the disk drive - good way to get that nice shiny look. And no need for raymirror!! Yay.
Still have a few things to work out for the Console UV’s, but I DID fix the front panel modeling. No more stress marks.
Yes I know, it’s 2007.
EDIT: yeah, Outlaw, I forgot to mention the UV’s on the side are backwards. I’ll fix it eventually. For the moment… I’ll just act cheap. SECOND EDIT: I just noticed that annoying white splotch on the reflection of the console. It was caused by spec on the ground. I got rid of that. You’ll see it gone in the next update. Also I added back too much spec on the controller by accident. I’ll fix that too.
Update. But first off the toon spec:
The color is set to black.
Normally what you’d do is set a few lamps with no diffuse at the right places to create the white streaks on the metal where you want them. You can use negative lights also to dim the bright spec areas. That’s how I produced the grey on the disk drive here. I used the same trick in my last work:
On the slick black surface surrounding the display.
I googled, but couldn’t find a side cover for the games. So I’m stuck at this point. If ANYONE could get me some good textures, I’d really appreciate it.
Here’s the update:
Something went wrong with hard drive label while I was trying to change the eject button a bit. Another thing I have to fix.
I never could figure out a way to set up lights to make the controller less dark. Maybe it’s ok the way it is though. I’m thinking I could add something on the left side of the image - maybe another controller, or a headset. Any votes?
Update:
First off, I’d like to say WILL SOMEONE PLEEHEHEASE SEND ME GAME TEXTURES. I WILL GIVE YOU MONEY. Well, no, I won’t. But I will always consider you as a good candidate for receiver of said money, although said money will never actually be received by you. My point is, your contribution will be greatly appreciated. All will love you. Crowds of young maidens will throw flowers at your feet as you are issued forth in long processions attesting to your heroic deed.
So I tried the headset-over-the-console idea:
Great! Now the console looks like a talking head from the Super Ball! Just as nature made it to be. Yeah, so that didn’t quite work. You’ll notice a couple of white marks at the top and bottom of the console. That was apparently caused by a problem with the UV’s. Because it wouldn’t be a normal update without another problem with the UV’s. Anywho, it apparently happened when I added another loop to the console model. Something went crazy with the UV’s in that area:
I zoomed out, and this is what I got:
And it just keeps on going.
There’s another strange Blender phenomena I’ll never figure out. But back to the project. I thought about putting the headset on the left, but Shamem was probably right. That might throw off the balance of the image. I considered putting it on the right, but thought that would make it cluttered. But I went ahead and tried it:
and I think it worked out. Now all I have to do is add a wire connecting the headset to the controller (you may notice the connector on the controller already) or to a secondary controller. Or just not connect it to anything. I’ll leave that part for the next update.
ONE POINT OF IMPORTANCE ABOUT THE LIGHTING, I have the AO set to both, so it’s producing darkness. That seemed to work out better than add, but it’s producing too much darkness. I could reduce the effect of the AO and rely more on lights, but if I do that, I’ll have to add rayshadows to the lights to make the image not appear too non-raytraced. However, you can imagine what problems would occur if the console cast strong shadows. I’d rather not screw up the image like that. Any suggestions?
Ok, not quite what i was meaning with the headset, but having it on the right does look quite good, so i will leave it alone. Not sure what you mean with the stuff about lighting. What are you using for rendering btw? i’m never sure anymore. there are so many that people use now.
You ever get to that point where you’ve fine-tuned a work so much, you’re sick of it and just wish the project was over already? I got a small flash of that recently.
I rendered the image at a larger size and then downsized it to reduce noise. Here’s the original resolution:
I made some adjustments to the dark grey materials, gave them a slight blue tint. I think I went too far. I’ll have to dial it back a bit. Somehow, the headset connector on the controller remains impervious to AO noise (sort of), which creates an awkward look in the connector’s vicinity. I can probably fix the problem by creating UV’s for the connector’s labeling. I increased the AO just slightly, but I don’t think I should increase it that much. The light mainly comes from the left of the console, as you can see from the shading. That puts the controller and headset in the console’s shadow. I like the console’s shading, so I’m reluctant to up the lighting on the other objects. Question of aesthetics: Do you think it might look good if the wire was hanging over the corner of Chromehounds?
Still need those game textures. Oh well.
Get that all the time, though its usualy more when the project is only about a quarter done :).
I don’t have any xbox 360 games(or a console for that matter) so i can’t help with the textures sorry.
If your still having problems with the lighting, have a go with yafray. you will have to adjust your lighting setup and your materials, but its global illumination is much better than blender internals.
Finaly, i think i would leave the wire off the game, and in the background, but without seeing a test its hard to be sure.
But how can I rest until the masterpiece is complete?!
The problem with switching to Yafray is that some of the features in Blender don’t work in Yafray. I have a few lights producing the spec on the disk drive. They’re set to no-diffuse so that they don’t effect the lighting. But if I switch to yafray no-diffuse no longer works. The lights produce strong effects in the foreground. Then I have to find a different means to create the hard drive reflection. And who knows what else might go missing besides the no-diffuse. The toon-spec shader might not work either. Then I’d have to switch to HDR backgrounds for reflections, which would inevitably effect the Global Illumination, despite the fact that I’m going for more uniform lighting. Unless I can find a black and white HDR background, I don’t see this working out well. This is why I always have a problem with switching to Yafray on a project tuned for Blender internal.
