I have just started a new project that I may be entering into the BlenderGuru Ancient Civilizations competition. I am trying to create a scene with many different historical warriors (ex. samurai, knight, Spartan, etc.). But instead of having a serious image, I’m taking a more lighthearted approach to the theme by depicting the characters in a tug of war.
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Here are three of the characters so far. I plan to add details like facial features and expressions later, but my main concerns are with texturing the characters. I have already marked the body mesh with seams, but I’m very inexperienced with texture painting, and I’m not really sure of any other methods to effectively texture the characters except procedural texturing.
I would like to create more than three characters, but I’m not sure if it is too ambitious to try to do this while also working to finish the rest of the scene. I want to be able to finish this project in time, but I still want to have a good final result.
I would really appreciate any critiques or tips for this project.
I have a question, is it easier to rig/pose the characters first and texture afterwards, or is it better to have them textured before posing them? I plan to use the same duplicated body mesh for each character, but with different textures.
You can texture before or after rigging, but sometimes the rigging allows you to pose them in such a way as to texture them more easily.
Check out xrg’s video in this post for ideas on texturing, and don’t forget to go look at cg cookie’s videos on texture painting and using the texture paint layer addon and glsl for interaction. Looks like a fun project!
Interesting, your graphics style is certainly unique, I am personally going for either an anime style render or a more photo realistic style (haven’t quite decided this yet, still working on the composition of the image)
Craig Jones: Thanks for the advice! I’ll check out xrg’s video when I get the chance.
CubeGod: Thanks! I’ll be looking forward to seeing your render!
GustavN: Glad you like the style! I like toony renders because they always seem to add some fun to the scene!
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I decided to render the scene in Cycles instead of Blender Internal because I’m more comfortable with the shader nodes. I’ve spent a little time working on the background. It’s a rough concept so far, but I plan on adding a lot more to the scene. Right now, I think my placement of the rope makes it look a little bit like it’s the horizon line. I’ll fix that soon depending on how I re-position the camera. Later, I’ll try to create silhouettes of different historical buildings (castle, coliseum, pyramid, etc…) to add to the background. I want them to appear to be far in the distance, but still be recognizable so that all of the civilizations in the final render can mesh well together.
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I also created a simple rig for the characters, but I’m having some issues. The rig works very well when parented to only the body mesh, but when I join the armor with the body, some of the pieces don’t move properly. Is there an easy way to fix this without weight painting? I’ve experimented with weight painting a few times before, and it was difficult to control the armatures. Could another problem be that I have the armor as a separate object from the body mesh?
Here is a picture of one of the buildings I want to place in the background. It’s a simple tower.
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Will it be more effective to use a 3D model or a plane in the shape of a castle? I’m using the model to get the silhouette of the building in the render. I also plan to add a window to whichever tower I use.
I feel like the way the buildings are modeled in the background is going to affect the scene’s sense of depth.
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Does anyone know of a way that I can make the buildings appear to be very far away, but still be recognizable?
Yes, I was considering using DOF. I’m kind of learning as I progress, so I’ll look for a tutorial when I get the chance. Thanks for the advice MonkMonk!
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I’ve made a lot of changes to the grass and sky. I’m having a little bit of trouble setting up the sky texture shader. Is there a way to make the sky more blue with it?
The buildings in the background are supposed to be silhouettes of ancient structures (which will be slightly blurred with a depth of field later). I will add different building types and reposition them later.
I’m thinking of either making the buildings look like plain cutouts, or I might distort them to make the art style look more toony.
I’m still having trouble getting the characters’ armor to work with the armatures. Will parenting the armor pieces to the bones work, or is there an easier way?
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I started posing some of the characters in the environment. They’re not textured yet, but I’ll do that after I’ve posed all of them.
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Here are three of the other characters that I haven’t posed yet: Arabian Knight, Knight, Viking. I will be adding eyes to the Arabian Knight soon, and giving each of these characters a new facial expression as well.
I’m planning to have at least three characters on each side of the rope.
How I can give the scene even more of a sense of depth?
Is there anything else I can improve on before I continue?
(haven’t quite decided this yet, still working on the composition of the image)
Reminds me of Little Big Planet!