3D Studio Max Thread (Attempts + Free BG's)

[mugenjohncel]

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[JQuartz]

there is this guy now in front of me that used to be my "apprentice" is now a high caliber graphic artist/interior designer that has surpassed my skill level by a hundred fold.

Well if he have a job that requires him to draw then it would only be natural that he improves many fold just like your knowledge of importing printers and bulk ink. I'm sure if you compare the amount of knowledge about importing printers and bulk ink now and back when you first started, you will see a large difference.

And about the images you made, I'm not a art critic so maybe I'm wrong but the final image seem too real to me. If you said the final image was a picture, I'll believe it. The image where Lucy(is it Lucy?) is present, the background just seems to be something you've taken using a camera. It evokes the same negative feeling(to me, at least) as if you used a photo for the background. Just my opinion (my opinion is worth nothing for art related matters).

[mugenjohncel]

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[monele]

Photoshop shading kinda kicks ass though

Mmm... you might want to looks at tutorials about 3 Point Lighting (I think that's what it's called) and Radiosity/Ambient Occlusion if you're looking for high realism of lighting (including soft shadows).

[Deji]

3D studio is love! <3 I was taught how to use it, but I'm not good enough (meaning I have no patience) working with it.
Your results are great, btw! And the Photoshopped images looks awesome!

Advantages of the 3D studios are definitively the camera angles! You can build a complete environment and then choose the best angle for your BG image and then use the same model for the backgrounds on image CGs. ou can also place bipeds to simulate the character positions and get all the proportions right :3

If you're aiming for an anime look, I'd suggest color sampling anime backgrounds and studying how the used the colors and light there.
If you're having problems with textures, coloring ans stuff coming from the rendering process,you could always just render your 3d-created environment with ink n' paint meterial, so it only shows the outlines, or render it with no textures and trace over it to make the lineart and then paint it normally in Photoshop :3

[IceD]

That's just awesome!

It's incredible, that you've almost mastered 3D Studio Max in such a short time, but the most important is the result! Although I'm not that much of a specialist, I'm was always kinda interested in 3D and all I can say this looks really good. To be honest, it was just like a deja vu, because Schoolmate has almost similiar type of graphics (small ammount of detail, meshes, shaders and stuff), and artists propably used a similiar way of working Just take a look:

http://www.drogadowiecznosci.yoyo.pl/bi ... te/001.jpg
http://www.drogadowiecznosci.yoyo.pl/bi ... te/002.jpg

Well, I can't say the backgrounds in Schoolmate are the best - they could be much better.

This one is simple, but still looks great, and your next work will propably be more and more better That means you're already better than them

Maybe 3D graphics don't have those things that traditional art has, but it's a fact its easier to grasp and more reliable in the production process. It gives more possibilities than traditional 2d, just as Deji said. If we'll look upon it from a perspective of a VN creator, it can prove to be really useful.

As for me, I'm going to learn a little bit about 3d max in this semester, and I'm looking forward to this. Your work inspired me to try harder I think I'll start by downloading the trial version

I wish you luck with next attempts!

[Rezznik]

Nice job for your first attempt in 3dSM. I personally work in Maya, but I'm impressed. It took me about one class to get where you currently are. So props! I'm not sure how it works in 3DS, but I recommend taking a course/buying an online tutorial on advanced lighting. Light linking helps a lot in Maya in addition to using a variety of shaders for different purposes as they influence highlights and stuff. Some shaders are great for plastic, some good for metal/matte, etc. Occlussion, HDRI lighting, etc. Those help. Remember to render in passes as it gives you the greatest control for your scene.

A lot of the time one light source will NOT work. You might be (or might not be) surprised to hear that in any given scene by Pixar or Dreamworks, you could easily have hundreds of lights in a scene. A lot of them are just for subtle changes like a reflection off of a stove. Three point-lighting is super important for 3d work and you'll often need a source of bounce light as well as fill; in addition to a possible rim light depending if you want to emphasize anything. One important thing to remember regarding 3d is that the render will only be as good as the artist him/herself. They need to posses a great deal in understanding how light works as programs will typically only listen to what you do directly to them.

It also seems like you were having trouble adjusting your UV texture maps. Try exporting the selected object as a .obj into a program like UV Roadkill (http://www.pullin-shapes.co.uk/) if 3dS' default uv mapping doesn't suit your needs. Other programs to pay attention to are things like CrazyBump (my favorite 'cheat' program' http://crazybump.com/) where you can essentially go and make bump maps within seconds instead of doing them painstakingly by hand.

If you take sometime to look through my portfolio you'll see that I consistently use a Maya plug-in called 'Toon-Shader' in order to achieve a 2d look. Not sure if there's something like that in 3dS.

Grab a book and good luck!

PS I use the same exact technique. I export my scene into PS and touch it up. Although it's mostly just to help blend it in with the rest of the backgrounds my team is using.

[DaFool]

50 million pesos is unreasonable to ask from a small business owner. Heck, I'm suing a head honcho business and only ask 1 million pesos for emotional damages. I say it's a nefarious plot to drive you to bankruptcy. I say go to court and pretend you've just lost your leg, get as much sympathy you can get. Heck, you can try to look emaciated like Steve Jobs is right now. Only the most callous hearts would continue. Then when they withdraw, counter-sue right away for emotional damages.

Nice background, by the way.

[JQuartz]

Heck, I'm suing a head honcho business and only ask 1 million pesos for emotional damages.

Maybe DaFool along with 49 other people are the ones suing mugenjohncel. (Just a joke. I never seem to be able to stop myself from posting lame jokes...). But you know, I had thought only America is famous for suing. Now I realize Philippines is also quite suing-active.

Only the most callous hearts would continue. Then when they withdraw, counter-sue right away for emotional damages.

Never underestimate the power of money. It makes people extremely cruel. And if they withdraw, I don't think it's such a good idea to counter-sue. People should only counter-sue if the sue-ers have lost their case. Just my opinion, by the way.

[Adorya]

Poser is of a smaller scale compared to 3DSM but is a bit cheaper (even if you go on addon shopping frenzy) and you can have some nice results too (except it's still sticky to realistic mode, though you have some comic/manga render filter).

[mugenjohncel]

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[mugenjohncel]

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[IceD]

Don't say they're crappy! It's almost proffesional work and their resemblance to those bg's made by other artists working on commercial titles is larger than you think. I played a lot of VN's and can safely say that. Just keep on going!

I really need to sit to PS, cause it looks like my graphic skills are slowly going downwards and I already forgot alot of stuff >.>

[sake-bento]

Wow, nice work. I haven't touched 3DSM in a long time, but I couldn't get something that nice out of it.

And if I could make BGs as nice as your old ones, I'd be such a happy bento.

[mugenjohncel]

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