July Challenge: The four Haskwood Canifers

[Redrobes]

I finished it off. I found filling out the large rooms quite tricky but after asking about I got the suggestion that it should be one of those old time whore houses like you see in the cowboy movies. So put some baths and beds in there. Scavenged and stole various stuff from other maps and got something in there.

I put all the people in. I was drawing a barman but had one already. In fact all of these people come from my existing art. I think ill save the lizard man head for another day. I can see that being more useful in a lizard man camp or in more dangerous terrain than this inn.

These next maps are quite big at 3200px wide but should be high enough to print from if need be.

So I hope thats it for this month but C&C's welcome as always.

### Latest WIP ###

[ravells]

This is a really lovely entry, Redrobes! I just love the wealth of detail.

[SeerBlue]

Yes we definitely agree, and the ground texture is great.
But, AARGH, now they see things we never thought of, and the FHCO are like, "Fick, lets do that, we need one of those."
But as I am way behind where they are already, for ideas (WE DON'T HAVE ANY CUPS, you gotta make some cups.....ok), I don't think they will see those things until after the challenge.

Great work. SeerBlue

[Redrobes]

This is a really lovely entry, Redrobes! I just love the wealth of detail.

Cheers, its this last stage that I always find hard - that arty bit of actually getting the detail in there. I have spent quite a while on this map overall and it will be a relief to be complete with it. Despite all the detail I am not convinced that its more than Vry's and yet he posted his entry in just 11 and a half hours after the challenge description went up and thats assuming he was sat there waiting for RP's mail to come through and had a full 11 hours free time to devote to it right away. I dunno how he does it. Its unbelievable. Still, I wanted to have a go and the 3D part was really fun. Not sure I'd do it this way every month tho. It was slow going for much of it but I'm pleased with the result. It looks like its a very playable area. Now just gotta find a place in the cities to house such a fine and large building.

I think thats a general problem with 3D is that its a lot more work than 2D. It gives more for free but theres more hidden cost involved to get the free stuff so to speak. Being able to take other peoples 3D stuff is great but building your own custom stuff is hard work and thats why I think the WotC VTT is not going to work well or at least if it does then it cant be the same sort of D&D that I remember playing where the DM makes up nearly everything.

One advantage to using realistic stuff tho is that you can go a photograph something that exists. So Seer, find a nice pint jar and photo it, slap down some 2D circles where you want them and texture them. In my inn the mugs along with a lot of that detail just wouldn't be there. I went to a restaurant the other day which had candles on the tables. So I took them and used that for my tables. Trouble is that they are so small in this case that you cant make out the detail in them any more.

Are we doing a multiple vote this month ? I am hoping to at least pick up a few secondary votes and not get a zero again.

[ravells]

I'm not sure if we're doing a multiple vote, we haven't discussed it. I think that it's a real possibility though.

[Midgardsormr]

I think thats a general problem with 3D is that its a lot more work than 2D.

Yeah, that's why I thought you were a loon when you said you were going to make a 3d entry for that lighthouse challenge. I'm really quite amazed at the speed with which you produce 3d work.

Maybe if I were ever to get over my learning hump with the software I'd be able to mimic you.

[Redrobes]

Some things just are naturally easy in 3D and others are nightmarishly hard. Some things also look like they ought to be hard but are actually easy and also theres those that you think should be easy but aren't also. I have probably covered every situation there but seriously, I think the key is knowing what stuff falls into which of those four categories.

I think that the contour lines to height map looks harder than it actually is - and I do have so extra tools to deal with all that stuff which I know very well.

The basics of the inn was mostly in the 'not too hard in 3D' category but when it comes to the beds, baths, "couple of Wargs by the fire...." type stuff then its moving into the 'known to be hard in 3D' land.

A generalized rule can be thought of which is how many steps would it take to make it in real life.

For example, making the balustrade was comparatively easy as each post is cloned and a simple lathe job. Some quick curve for the posts, lathe and multiply and its done. Anything squarish that you can do with a few boolean ops like add a block, subtract a cylinder etc thats all easy too. Posts, rooms, doors etc pretty easy stuff. Doing the barman, people, anything organic in general is hard.

If you have any specifics I can tutorial them but I probably wouldn't say anything clever or special.

In this inn example there are two distinct sections. There is the modeling of the objects and then secondly there is scene layout :- placement, texturing, camera, lighting and stuff like that. Those are two entirely unrelated skill sets. I don't do (character / story) animation but I expect that it would be a whole new third set on top of that too.

You can tell where I switched because as Ravs so nicely pointed out, it looked like Boogie Nights was going to break out from the wild color. You start with getting the objects right first and then go on to texture and layout. Seeing the objects with distinct colors makes it easier to tell whether the objects and their surface types are right.

S'pose its like anything tho - just put some hours into using it and you'll get it.