standing rock...

[ratracer]

well, I guess a decent rock is now in place - although I'll have too make it a little less phallic! - and the surronding landscape is better.
Now, some criticism, please, before I pat myself too much on the back...
I must say I'm quite pleased with it, so I need people pointing all its flaws, to get me down to earth.
For one, I think the perspective is almost useless for a 3rd person perspective game.




PS RickJ, can this do for Pedra da Gavea?

[Privateer Puddin']

it looks like a giant ... johnson!  sorry :p

[Synthetique]

good lighting, nice textures.. BUT you could do that sky different..
it looks so flat and goes white in the horizon. and it looks like it drops a shadow on the horizon...
i say, render it again without the sky to a .tif and do it in photoshop or paint shop pro with a little help from the alpha channel.

[n3tgraph]

stop it right there

You make me feel like my hands are hammers

Great work man

[Neole]

Awesome! Are you on the Syberia 2 team?

The red bits on the sky stick out, and the empty white would look so beautiful if it were the sea.

[LGM]

Stop right there!!

What did you use and how can I obtain it!?!?

*DROOL!*

[ratracer]

thanks, all - well, I used perhaps too may Max plugins for this: Vulcania, Grass-o-Matic and Mountain, which aren't tweaked enough, I suppose, and still give an artificial look...

I'm happy though that I finally made a rock with an ok - I think - texture...

and... yes... I don't know how to do skies in Max (I think it's strange Max doesn't do skies itself - there are several "lesser" 3d tools that do beautiful and truly accpetable skies automatically) and I still feel a bit strange putting a photograph of the sky as background

[Igor]

What an improvement! Bravo!
Agree about sky though. I think something a bit more grey would work great here (blue just feels out of the place on this picture to me).
Anyway, superb!

[danny*]

i agree with Igor.
...i have to say..... :o :o :o

[ratracer]

thanks, all you guys...
thanks doubly to Danny since you have been kind of my mentor...
Neole, Syberia2's team - yeah right! If I was - wishful thinking! - in Syberia2's that would mean the game would only come out in 2010 - I'm so slow!

BTW, I'm enjoying Max now, even if I still don't have clear ideas on how to do what I want (still have to do a lot of experimenting) but I think I can use it to make a gloomy, sad, perhaps depressing game - ergo greyer skies will be the answer in most cases ...

Once again, thanks ...

PS I hope you,  Danny and Igor (well, everyone really, but specially you two), follow Neole's example and post your pictures here to marvel us...

[LGM]

Hey, Danny and Ratracer.. You guys wanna mentor me? I'm trying to learn Max too!

Great Stuff!

[SLaMgRInDeR]

unspeacably great... but... great!!!
(   (   ( <( -_-)> )   )   )

[Stickieee]

It looks really cool, but demands quite a lot from the sprites, too. It's pretty hard for me to imagine a good-looking character animation behind that grass, etc.

However, if you manage to do that, this will be the best-looking adventure I've ever seen.

[Las Naranjas]

I wouldn't worry about it looking too phallic. For the most part if they're no representative of a phallus they're representative of female genetalia.

[ratracer]

Las Naranjas, alright! then I'll keep the rock AND the bushes...

stickiee, yeah, the perspective would be ok in a Myst-like game, but it will need work for a 3rd person game. Hopefully, a little tilt in the camera may do the trick...

LGM, I still don't know what I do in Max half of the time - but I can try, feel free to IM me... in any case I can always redirect you to the tutorials that I find best...

[danny*]

LGM:IM any question you might have and i"ll be happy to help if i can!
(even if i pretty busy for some time now!!!!)

...ohh,..and Ratracer:let the people know that i did almost nothing to deserve a "mentor" title!!!
You did what you did completely alone after working hard and puting your talent(wich you obviously have) down!!!!
All i did was some theory!!
(thank you though!)

[Michael Zhu]

Ratracer, what program did you use to make this masterpiece of a background? How'd you get it to look so realistic? You see, I'm one of those MSpaint cavemen so I don't know much about current technology. Great pic anyway!

[ratracer]

Danny, don't be shy, now - you've been great help, helping me with any doubts I had... I feel more confident now with Max, so my IMs will be less frequent...

Michael, thanks...I used 3ds Max and with the aid of some freeware plugins like Grass-o-Matic (for the "grass") or Vulcania (for the sky), mentorship by Danny, and overall help from some internet-available tutorials (mainly the "This Old House" tutorial for 3ds Max, which made me start to grasp what you can do with the materials of Max)...

[Ginny]

:o :o :o
That's awesome!
A few little things though: The orange bit in top left corner area doesn't really fit, and I dunno how it would look but perhaps it would look nice to have a slightly darker or maybe redder sky, for more contrast. The rock and the path all look fantastic, and like Neole said, a sea where the empty sky area is would look beatiful.
One more thing- Since the center of attention should be the rock (I read your other thread), I presume there will be some interaction with it (is this for a game?), or that it has some important role. If not ignore this, but if so I think the rock should be a little bigger, or the view should be a little closer, or, if it's possible, to tilt the view upwards* just a bit. That would also make it fit better as a 3rd person screen, though it works just fine in that aspect now.

edit: * I  meant downwards of course, though titliting upwards would give it quite and atmospheric look lol. It's just fine for 3d person the way it is now actually.

Final words: *droooool*  :o  :o  :o

[Bob The Hun]

Oooooh! Spiffy nice!
I'm gonna have to get me one of them 3ds max machines!