Skip to main content

Render Tests

An
important element in the conceptual stage is to not look at a problem from one perspective. It's always best to get multiple views to achieve a greater outcome. To reach an end goal is one thing. The journey to that end goal is something else entirely.

One of my favourite quotes by Carl Friedrich Gauss states "It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment". I totally agree with this and it applies to game development. Creating something big or small brings its challenges and the act to reach the finish line is where the magic happens. I hope to experiment in several styles, as would any other artist working early on in game development; focusing on diversity and demonstrating imagination.
Jason Bartlett ©

I created the above image, of a bow mast, using the toon shader in the render settings of Arnold for Maya. I really enjoyed creating the style, was simple to set up, and was fun to experiment with in Arnold 5.

Frustratingly, I found this toon shader the same time I was slowly working on manually painting the lines for my orthographic designs in Photoshop. However, I now know how to use both methods to present models in this style which will be to my advantage in speeding up the process. 
Jason Bartlett ©

 Above is a screenshot of the textured model within the viewport of Maya. The background sky dome mesh and red area lights are for perspective purposes here, but are also from my first foggy render (see here)!

The shader feature affects the base objects material and highlights the edges with a contour filter; making for great line art edging. You can also edit the parameters to add thicker lines or control the line distance to the camera's field of view. What's more, you can play with specular and tone colour mapping to differentiate parts which I may try in future.


Thanks for reading :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Double-barreled Kriegsmarine Signalling Pistol Renders

H ello! After being away from blogging for almost an entire year (big life changes) I am finally back! Posts might not be regular every month from now on, but  D_ROGUE is still very much alive. Things are just moving a little slower, as well as a bit sideways...like a crab. As the title for this post states, I have created a model of a  double-barreled Kriegsmarine signalling pistol for the game! A couple of years ago, I visited The Royal Navy Submarine Museum. Amongst the fascinating history and artifacts on display, I saw what looked like a firearm. Upon reading the information plaque, it turned out to be a unique and very rare double-barreled flare gun from a  German  submarine.  These big-bad-beefed-up flare guns were used on U-Boats in the Second World War not only for signalling and when in distress, but also for lighting purposes. My interest peaked,  I took  several photos for reference thinking it would be a fun hard-surface model to recreate....
Post a Comment
Read more

New Project

Hello! Sometime while at University, studying Computer Games Arts, I had a vision for a video game. This idea, from 2015, would turn out to become a passion project where I mused, jotted and doodled on the sidelines of studying.  It wasn't for a further three years until I decided to actually put pen to paper (or pen to tablet in my case) and bring my idea to life.  As the quote goes, "A dream is just a dream until you decide to make it real" or "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them". So in Autumn 2018, I did just that. Pursued my dreams. Now I wouldn't attempt to make a whole game all by myself. That would be silly and take literally years!  I lulled over the notion of asking fellow  graduates and  freelance artists  to aid in bringing my vision to life. This would be great but several factors including money and time played on my mind...alot. Then a marvell...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hydraulic Crane Renders

I t has been over eight hundred and thirty five days since I began modelling the hydraulic crane (amongst many other things in my spare time) and I can finally say I have completed texturing it! This was without a doubt one of the hardest pieces of machinery to construct so far for D_ROGUE. Not only due to the number of parts involved (over one hundred individual pieces) but also the lack of any decent close-up reference. Almost every photo taken of a hydraulic crane, on board the boats seen in the TV show Deadliest Catch and elsewhere online, are either too far away or out of focus. I chose the F/V Saga crane as this was the most 'well-documented'. Eventually, it came down to just hours of staring at blurry images, learning all the major components, as well as a bit of creative licence! Here we have the final renders of the model below. I quite enjoyed weathering parts such as the hatch and lifting hook; adding a story with all the scratches, dinks and rust. I was careful not...
Post a Comment
Read more