Field Scene Screens (non bombing mission) Gallery

[anaho]

Oh and by the way: I generally abuse the project from view unwrapping. It is a bad habit but since these renders will only be viewed from one angle the speedup you get from doing that is quite dramatic...

[Mayo Master]

Well, rendering in another engine was not in my plans... I am actually unaware of the benefits of another rendering engine (especially if it can't be compatible with Blender's features) - even though it seems to be in what is suggested in the "Midgar remake" thread.
Concerning this particular field screen, I think I got the alignment spot on, after my latest revisions. However, the procedure you suggest was definitely what I was thinking about for further field scenes to model, and it has been pretty much in line with the support provided by SpooX (though I didn't figure about using scripts and that kind of things). I actually wonder if this preliminary work on camera view shouldn't be made systematically (though it's a lot of simple boring work), with saving .3ds files in the repository.

[anaho]

I think the only person that can extract the camera data directly from game to 3DSMAX is (still) Spoox.
And personally I also think that the internal renderer of Blender is fine for the style of Final Fantasy VII.

[Mayo Master]

Update on my field scene screen...
Since last time:
- I revised the viewing angle - or to be more precise, the distance and focal length. As a result, I had to modify the diameter of the pipe... which resulted in also revising all the items of the scene 
- The revisions of the objects include position, texturing, and in some case, meshing (for instance I remade the leftmost trophy). Concerning texturing: the metallic parts have layers and layers of textures, and in my opinion, I feel like adding more layers to my textures would add nothing.
- I resimulated the clothes (it was vastly demanded apparently) and got a frame where they look a bit more "wavy".
- I revised lighting. I added some small lights around the TV, change the colour of the TV light (blueish), and change the colour of the ceiling light (yellowish).
I must admit: now I feel like I'm turning in circles between lighting tuning and smoke effects. Here are some possibilities:

1- Render without halo nor smoke
2- Render with smoke
3- Render with halo
4- Render with both halo and smoke
Of course, both the intensity of the halo and the smoke are tunable.

Again, here's the original for reference...


Another option, which I have just been suggested, would be to make the smoke with blender, but make the halo by post-processing (Paintshop). I liked the low-res I made, so I decided to go full scale (click for high-res).



Let me know what you guys think.

[Covarr]

- I resimulated the clothes (it was vastly demanded apparently) and got a frame where they look a bit more "wavy".

I think the issue with your original simulation is that it was too straight. If clothes is filthy enough (which it probably is, in the slums), it'll keep way more shape than if it's clean. Sometimes, the stiffness can be stronger than gravity, and so manual tweaking might give that effect better than a realistic cloth simulation.

Also, I like option four, but you might wanna try and make the TV's light fade out more gradually; it seems just a bit too sharp, not soft enough.

[Mayo Master]

I don't think the matter of the clothes has something to do with realism. I think it is more a matter of our mind associating cloth with the idea of a supple, smooth material, and the "wavy clothes" convey more this idea than "still hanging cloth". Anyway, I preferred to let the physics wave the clothes than do it manually - I'm personally always getting better results that way - maybe because I have more the mind of an engineer than that of an artist 
Concerning the TV light, I could try that. However, I did spend time calibrating the fading off of this light. You see, one of the subtlety (at least for me) in the original picture is that the metal reflects blue near the TV, and yellow near the end of the pipe. So I had to adjust the fade-off of the blue TV light with that of a yellowish light bulb on the ceiling. I fear increasing the distance of the blue light may not be consistent with the somewhat yellowish reflections of the original.

[Timu Sumisu]

The lighting in the '5th' or last one you posted is best. I'd make the blanket dirtier sa per the original. Post progress on that, and once thats cleared, this scene will be considered done and approved.

Best to move on to other work than to fiddle with this forever. Good work.

[Mayo Master]

Dirtying the blanket by increments...
The first one is my original version, the fourth one was dumped in ashes.



Which one do you like?
It is also possible for me to get "intermediate" dirt levels. Between each steps shown above, an extra layer of dirt was added to the UV map texture, and I can vary the intensity of each. Just let me know. My personal preference: go from picture 2, add a very subtle amount of dirt from 3, and get a very slight overall dirt of 4.

[LeonhartGR]

No 4 but why don't you brighten the colors a bit...

[Timu Sumisu]

I'd use 4, and pop out the patches a bit from the blanket, just extrude that area to get a little extra relief.

[Mayo Master]

I see you guys like #4, but personally I think that's going to create 2 little problems:
1- If I make the blanket that filthy, I will have to increase considerably the level of dirt and filth on all the other objects of the scene to make something self-consistent. Which would mean... revising all the textures all over again 
2- If I do the aforementioned step, I doubt the amount of dirt and filth would correspond to the original picture.

Here is what it's like at 20% of the size (with only the blanket being filthy) - I don't know if you get my point.


So that's just my word of caution, if you do want me to proceed, I'll go ahead. Though at this rate I'll keep retexturing this scene for the rest of my life 

[Timu Sumisu]

Then don't make it litterally dirt. Stains, spills, rips will do the job.

[Tempus]

One thing that I keep noticing is that the blanket looks as though it's slightly folded over itself on the end near the TV, whereas in the original it's more smooth. That, to me, is more noticeable than the dirtiness (or lack thereof) of the blanket. But since no one else mentioned it, perhaps I'm in the minority

[Nightmarish]

Other than that i think this scene is perfect.
Don't find it much of a issue tho (the fold).

[Mayo Master]

Then don't make it litterally dirt. Stains, spills, rips will do the job.

I'll give another round at texturing. I was also suggested to make a big stain that would be mostly covered by the patches, creating a bigger contrast between the patch and its immediate surrounding. By the way, the patches are not mesh, but part of the UV maps (color and bumpmap).

One thing that I keep noticing is that the blanket looks as though it's slightly folded over itself on the end near the TV, whereas in the original it's more smooth. That, to me, is more noticeable than the dirtiness (or lack thereof) of the blanket. But since no one else mentioned it, perhaps I'm in the minority

In fact, I used Blender's physics engine to make a cloth simulation, where the blanket falls on a bolster lying underneath (as well as the mattress). Because this "hidden bolster" has a similar shape to that of the visible bolster, the blanket folds that way. I could remake the cloth simulation using another collision shape instead of that bolster (like a very large, somewhat flat pillow) to get closer to the blanket folds of the original.

Other than that i think this scene is perfect.
Don't find it much of a issue tho (the fold).

Thanks!

[Mayo Master]

Update on my field scene screen... namely: redoing the cloth simulation for the blanket to have folds closer to the original, revising the blanket texture, revising the shelf texture and colors, minor light tuning, a tiny bit of Paintshop post-processing. (Again click for full high-res)



Here's a side-by-side comparison, at original resolution.



Let me know how that's for you - though personally I'm growing a bit tired of this one.

[KnifeTheSky77]

Your field background is full of win and looks awesome. I don't think splitting hairs on the super fine details
are really necessary at this point, it certainly looks completed to me I kinda would like to see what
it looks like in-game against the colors of the field models. If I had to mention anything id say the tv screen looks a lot brighter in the
original and so does the color of the rope that the clothes are hanging on.

[alloy]

Yeah this is pretty much done to me. Nothing i can see here that stands out as wrong. Like i said before to me the big parts are well done, shading is good. From here on you could just endlessly tweak it to be "perfect" adding small little details to make it your own.

Make it dirtier add more grit uh more small details i say. Look up Rage the game for inspiration as to what i mean by adding small detail that enforce the feeling of a cyberpunk wasteland. Which ff7 and midgar is all representing. Like i said in my other post. Cyberpunk anime, games and movies.. like blade runner im sure served as inspiration for midgars art style. You should look into those for inspiration for how to expand on the original scenes and make them better.

I say you've done a great job already move on to the next one. Come back to it later when you feel you can improve it.

You guys can also take your scenes to the bigger cg art forums Like Cgtalk if you're looking for more indepth critique  lots of professionals there always giving out awesome advice.

[LeonhartGR]

Congratulations for your awesome work but I still prefer how the original is made. The stains, patches and colors on the blanket tube dirt and smoke, towels. Trophies color. The only thing that's wrong is the low resolution image... I admire any effort but it's physically impossible to please everyone's taste. Of course this doesn't mean it's poor of taste. Thank you for the time you spent anyway Keep up with other scenes!

[sl1982]

Release quality. Time to put your talents to other uses

[Mayo Master]

Your field background is full of win and looks awesome. I don't think splitting hairs on the super fine details
are really necessary at this point, it certainly looks completed to me I kinda would like to see what
it looks like in-game against the colors of the field models. If I had to mention anything id say the tv screen looks a lot brighter in the
original and so does the color of the rope that the clothes are hanging on.

The TV screen is so bright in the original that you cannot even see what's on TV. It was more a personal decision to make it visible. There's still the idea somewhere (not immediate project) of animating what's on the TV screen (with extra layers, like for door animation), besides. In which case it's better if we can see what's on the screen.
As for the rope and cloth, maybe I'd have needed to add a small light in there, but then I might have had to recalibrate all the other lights around.

Yeah this is pretty much done to me. Nothing i can see here that stands out as wrong. Like i said before to me the big parts are well done, shading is good. From here on you could just endlessly tweak it to be "perfect" adding small little details to make it your own.
Make it dirtier add more grit uh more small details i say. Look up Rage the game for inspiration as to what i mean by adding small detail that enforce the feeling of a cyberpunk wasteland. Which ff7 and midgar is all representing. Like i said in my other post. Cyberpunk anime, games and movies.. like blade runner im sure served as inspiration for midgars art style. You should look into those for inspiration for how to expand on the original scenes and make them better.
I say you've done a great job already move on to the next one. Come back to it later when you feel you can improve it.
You guys can also take your scenes to the bigger cg art forums Like Cgtalk if you're looking for more indepth critique  lots of professionals there always giving out awesome advice.

I tried to add dirt and grit, but trying to be subtle and moderate. As I said before, the main difficulty for me is to make the scene look dirty, but at the same time it is very colourful, and those two aspects are somewhat contradictory. To be honest, I don't think I'm at the level of "adapting to a style", I'm rather at the level of "ok let's try to make something look reasonably decent". Many artistic tricks don't come to me as intuitive. Maybe I can find good advice in CGtalk indeed.

Congratulations for your awesome work but I still prefer how the original is made. The stains, patches and colors on the blanket tube dirt and smoke, towels. Trophies color. The only thing that's wrong is the low resolution image... I admire any effort but it's physically impossible to please everyone's taste. Of course this doesn't mean it's poor of taste. Thank you for the time you spent anyway Keep up with other scenes!

Given the very low resolution of the original scene, the amount of dirt and stains is actually open to interpretation, which is why everyone may have a different perception of how the scene should look like at full resolution. That, and also I don't have the skills to make a replica of the original, even if that's what I wanted 

Release quality. Time to put your talents to other uses

Woooohoooo! That made my day, thanks. I will put the file in the repo shortly. I will enjoy working on something else, this one was starting to become a chore.

By the way, what is the actual file name of this field scene (I can't get a way to access this information)? Just so I name it as such for adding it in the repo.

[sithlord48]

You should Check in the File Reconstruction Sheet In the LGP Files Section look for Field.lgp for your data name. it would be quicker to use Makou Reactor to find the file name since it only list field and in order.

the name for this is location is :mds5_dk

[Mayo Master]

You should Check in the File Reconstruction Sheet In the LGP Files Section look for Field.lgp for your data name. it would be quicker to use Makou Reactor to find the file name since it only list field and in order.
the name for this is location is :mds5_dk

Thanks for the link! I didn't know all that information was already compiled somewhere, that's most useful. It might have come in handy when I wanted to make the Tasklist (probably I'll modify that one accordingly).

[sl1982]

May I make a suggestion? Try to do all your scenes in one geographic location. It will be easier on the eyes with all the different art styles.

[Mayo Master]

May I make a suggestion? Try to do all your scenes in one geographic location. It will be easier on the eyes with all the different art styles.

Good point - that would mean I stick to the slums of Sector 5 for now. I know anaho made another scene in there, but since we both use Blender, I'm hoping it won't be a clash of styles.
By the way, I just added my file to repo, alongside ulpian's latest work. Speaking of which, I didn't find anaho's completed scenes in there, it may be good to update the repo on that.