Author Topic: Midgar Revival  (Read 37899 times)

Sapphire

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Midgar Revival
« on: 2014-07-25 04:59:54 »
So.... I accidently deleted my old model but I believe it was for the best. I've learnt a lot since I first started that and it needed to be redone anyway. Spoox randomly appeared on Skype the other day, I admired the work he posted on here and decided to once again remake it again. If I can get walkmeshes I will certainly work on some backgrounds.



Note to Moderators:
Please delete my old Midgar Remake thread.

Mayo Master

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #1 on: 2014-07-25 14:43:59 »
Good to see you again, Sapphire! I'll be looking forward to seeing more of your work. As for getting the walkmesh, I suggest you ask SpooX about getting Shinratool (if you have PSX discs). If you don't have the PSX discs, we can always send you the 3ds scripts to generate them and then email them to you. Just let us know!

Sapphire

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #2 on: 2014-07-26 11:56:43 »
If I could get an email thrown my way that would be highly appreciated, I was a naughty boy when I was little so I was never allowed to buy video games, unfortunately the only copy of Final Fantasy 7 I have is a rented and burnt copy for the PSX, though to make up for it I did accidently purchase 2 copies of the re-released version on Steam :P.

Mayo Master

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #3 on: 2014-07-26 17:52:04 »
Sure, I can get the maxscript of whatever scene you'd like to work on. I would suggest you start with a scene from a certain geographical area that nobody else is dealing with at the moment. Which environments are you interested in? This page can allow you to see them all easily.

Sapphire

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #4 on: 2014-07-27 08:39:44 »
Sorry, I had to format my computer again :P. Luckily I backed everything up though!

I agree I was thinking of doing Kalm.. If none of those are taken yet ofcourse.

Added the lights on the plates


Old to New




Started to work on the Headquaters....


I wasn't happy with the blockiness of my previous models so i'm using them as references, just a lot more detailed.
« Last Edit: 2014-07-27 12:25:51 by Sapphire »

SpooX

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #5 on: 2014-07-27 18:05:41 »
Note to Moderators:
Please delete my old Midgar Remake thread.

That's not going to happen, we love history :P

Hiya Saphire, indeed long time no see, and random appearences...well that seems to be part of me ;)
Oh and for the walkmeshes, I'm working on some improvements of the tool, I need to read out some lgp files and got that covered now.
So it should not be limited to the psx version anymore.
And something else I'm not going to tell about yet, but only available for max-users...

 8-)


Mayo Master

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #6 on: 2014-07-27 18:53:12 »
@SpooX: Shall I let you send Kalm's walkmeshes to Sapphire, or would you have me email him the maxscripts instead?
@Sapphire: Thanks for the updates on your progress, it's very promising
@Both: Have you considered merging your works for the intro FMV?
« Last Edit: 2014-07-27 18:55:20 by Mayo Master »

Sapphire

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #7 on: 2014-07-28 12:59:31 »
A PC-Version will be awesome, I own the Steam and Squaresoft Version so... Yeah :P.
Oh come on you, you gotta tell me!!

@Mayo Master, We did merge my old Midgar model with his but it didn't work out but I'm confident with my new version those problems should cease to exist now, I need to wait until spoox and I are on Skype at the same time to go into detail about it with him... He's rather stealthy.





If anyone is interested in my modeling process.... I've made a little video for YouTube, shows a little of the model in real time too I guess. I'm very sick at the moment though so it's not great and I sound equally terrible sorry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj5S9im6Ba0
« Last Edit: 2014-07-28 13:17:13 by Sapphire »

LeonhartGR

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #8 on: 2014-07-28 13:05:08 »
Concrete to the max!!!  :mrgreen:

Sapphire

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #9 on: 2014-07-28 13:18:26 »
Concrete to the max!!!  :mrgreen:

It doesn't look as bad in a render as it does in the viewport.... :P I can throw up a render if you want  8-)

LeonhartGR

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #10 on: 2014-07-28 13:54:56 »
That was a compliment... ;) Nuke me with more radiation by those reactors!!!  :evil:
« Last Edit: 2014-07-28 13:56:37 by LeonhartGR »

Kaldarasha

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #11 on: 2014-07-28 14:16:45 »
That was a compliment... ;) Nuke me with more radiation by those reactors!!!  :evil:

Does Mako produce radiation? :-o

LeonhartGR

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #12 on: 2014-07-28 14:19:20 »
I think all reactors do. Concrete produces radiation as well. But that was also a joke... duh! :?

Kaldarasha

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #13 on: 2014-07-28 14:52:51 »
@Sapphire
Could you make the handrail a bit smaller so it has just about the same dimension as they have in the battle scene? We could make the models for the field scene smaller too so everything will fit again.

Mayo Master

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #14 on: 2014-07-28 15:17:24 »
@Mayo Master, We did merge my old Midgar model with his but it didn't work out but I'm confident with my new version those problems should cease to exist now, I need to wait until spoox and I are on Skype at the same time to go into detail about it with him... He's rather stealthy.
I'll be looking forward to it  :)
Regarding you modelling: as far as the meshes are concerned, it's spot on. There can be some improvement regarding the texturing, although I do not feel like it is you main focus right now. Mostly: when everything is viewed at such a scale, concrete does look slick (the imperfections are so small that they're hardly visible), so I think it's best to tone down your bumpmapping. Take the stack of a nuclear power plant, as a reference. the texuring patterns is essentially the "seams" between concrete slabs. The other problem is that the tiling of your texture image does not match the way concrete slabs would have to be tiled to make the construction. Lastly, I believe you'll need to make considerable use of procedurals for texturing Midgar, since it's so huge (and procedurals have that distinct advantage of suiting any scale).

I think all reactors do. Concrete produces radiation as well. But that was also a joke... duh! :?
 
Let's be scientific for a minute (because that's my job). It all depends on what kind of radiation you're talking about, after all visible light is radiation. However, if you imply the type of radiations such as the one produced by nuclear fission (ie, gamma rays), then no. You won't have gamma rays except from nuclear fission.
As for mako energy, it shouldn't. Trying to applying scientific concepts to a fantasy world (and honestly, Hojo behaves like a psychotic chef, very unlike an actual scientist), and trying to get puzzle pieces from bits of conversation within the game, my assumption is that mako energy is completely clean (it does seem to produce radiations in the form of visible light, though). However it drains energy out of the environment, causing everything to decay, wither and die.

Sapphire

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #15 on: 2014-07-28 16:32:04 »
I could make the handrails smaller..... But that generates more work for me, I am particularly lazy  8-).


I slapped a random google texture on, white diffuse maps just didn't cut it in the renders, I'm not very good at texturing so don't expect to much from me  :evil:. As for the tiling that's why I've gone into so much detail with indenting etc especially around the reactor base&top and the Reactor entrance bridge dividers, someone is always welcome to have a crack at texturing the beast though  :mrgreen:

I blurred it to hide a little imperfection I know everyone would complain about :P

Mayo Master

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #16 on: 2014-07-28 17:22:18 »
Regarding texturing: I'm afraid I don't know much about how it's done using 3ds, since I'm only familiar with Blender. However, I can give you the general idea of how I would do it, hoping it can provide some guideline:
1- Have lots of "fun" with UV unwrapping
2- Find a nice tileable texture of concrete (such as those from http://cgtextures.com/). I recommend a texture which, during the "tiled preview", can feel as seamless as possible between tiles. Use that in the diffuse shader.
3- Get the concrete texture through a brightness enhancement node and use that as an input for the glossy.
4- Use the concrete texture as a base for a diffuse/glossy map (lighter: more glossy, darker: more diffuse). You'll probably have to manipulate the concrete texture a bit to get the right amounts of diffuse/glossy (in Blender I would use a color ramp node in order to cap min an max of the glossy/diffuse ratio).
5- In mapping the texture to your objects, scale it down considerably, so that the "tiled" look of the texture almost disappears
6- Export your UV of your object as an image (the image I'd expect is a white image with black lines corresponding to the edges of your mesh). Use that image as a bumpmap (you'll get the idea of many concrete slabs adjusted together).
7- Use many large scale procedurals (3ds must have these, right?) to create large scale non-uniformity in your textures. In Blender, I would multiply the texture image by a procedural before plugging it to the diffuse shader, and multiply my diffuse/glossy map by the same procedural before connecting it to the "Fac" input of the Mix shader (i.e. the input which controls how diffuse/glossy shaders are combined).
I hope that helps. Take it like a cooking recipe, you can always add your own spices to adjust it to your taste.

One last comment though: I think it is very important you get that texture right. I believe it's worth spending a lot of time experimenting, since in the end almost your whole scene will be using one texture (or one texture and derivatives). Unless you intend to hand the texturing job to SpooX  :evil:
« Last Edit: 2014-07-28 17:26:54 by Mayo Master »

Sapphire

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #17 on: 2014-07-28 17:37:20 »
In 3ds max all nodes are connected to a single material editor slot.. Nice and easy 8), most values can be adjusted automatically from bitmaps or manually using scales from 0 to 1. I use VRay and there are specific rules for most VRay Materials..

It's 3:35 AM at the moment though and I stopped working on it some hours ago, time to sleep.. I hear my bed whispering my name :P.

I will have a browse through cgtextures when I wake up, maybe i'll have something for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks for the advice though, I'm always happy to par additional work off to Spoox... :evil:
« Last Edit: 2014-07-28 17:41:43 by Sapphire »

LeonhartGR

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #18 on: 2014-07-29 01:25:05 »
Ok guys you can now officially forward this thread to MatPat... it would make a nice Game Theory episode... :D

Sapphire

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #19 on: 2014-08-06 13:49:12 »
Sorry guys, I have fallen ill again, I will not be updating this thread  anytime  soon.

Hellbringer616

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #20 on: 2014-08-06 14:24:40 »
I hope you get better man, Take some vitamin C and Zinc so you can boost that immune system! haha, joke aside i hope you recover soon.

LeonhartGR

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #21 on: 2014-08-06 14:35:50 »
Echinacea helps as well!!! :P


paul

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #22 on: 2014-08-07 17:49:46 »
Is this the one that will be used for the intro movie? Has anyone thought about rendering out new FMV's just in blocked in "lego" mode?

Kaldarasha

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #23 on: 2014-08-07 18:04:42 »
Like this?

KnifeTheSky77

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Re: Midgar Revival
« Reply #24 on: 2014-08-07 20:04:45 »
Like this?

That is some serious dedication, impressive