(3D) Grangalan

[Shadowfalcon]

Hi everyone, here is my attempt at a Grangalan, based on the_duke\'s sketch
(sketch)
http://img40.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img40&image=grangalan.jpg
(test render)
http://www.firetemple.homestead.com/files/grangalan_lowpoly.jpg

Feel free to comment and give sugestions. I will draw up some textures tomorow and post a new render.

[Adeli]

How many tri is it?
Most modellers give the number of verts/faces...

It looks pretty good, also post your links in [ url] [/ url] tags (without the spaces)

[ArcaneFalcon]

It has ~550 tris.  However, on the tail are 9 valley sections, with 2-4sided polys for each section.  Each 4 sided poly is 2 triangle polys.  Then there are 6 sides to the tail.  This means the number of polys you could save by doing the tail smooth is 9*4*6=216 minus the 12 for the 6-4 sided polys you will be keeping=204 tris saved.  I don\'t think 204 triangles are worth something you could easily do with a texture.  But hey, it\'s your model, and it still looks good

[dannythompson]

ooh that looks awesome. add some bones and some animations like moving legs and wings. that would be cool.

[Tapo]

ooh, that looks hot. give it some mad color and a bloodthirsty expression. =)

[Shadowfalcon]

thats true Arcane, but to keep the same general shape, i can only cut it down by around 100. otherwise, the entire rear of it would just be a tapered box, and that doesnt look right, i tried that first. also, its around 450 polygons now. im not sure if thats tris or quads Im using max 5, do you know a way to tell, or tell me how to convert to triads. i know there is a way, but ive never used it.

[ArcaneFalcon]

I don\'t know how to change it or tell, mine were always just automatically set on tris.  Also, if you are going to add the extra detail in the tail like that, then you should smooth out the body.  Personally, I wouldn\'t expect that to be much bigger than a chicken or small dog in game, so I think a boxy tail with a good texture is fine.  If, however, you are aiming for something larger, then you will need to add the same amount of detail into the body so it doesn\'t look extra blocky and inconsistent when blown up (ie large, not blown up with explosives...).  This is a great mesh, don\'t get me wrong, just some room for improvement imho.

:emerald:

Edit: When I say to smooth out the body, I mean use the bevel tool and get rid of some of the jagged edges.  This should smooth it pretty good without making the poly count skyrocket.  I would look to spend maybe 30-50 tries smoothing the body/adding detail.

:emerald:

[Adeli]

AS far as I know MAX uses tris not quads, i read that somewhere recently.
-tries to imagine a \'grangalan\' with a bloodthirsty expression-
-gives up laughing-
Man, it\'s a dragonfly...

[Kuiper7986]

cool I didn\'t know someone took my idea and made it as a sketch. Anyways, yeah that\'s pretty much the way I imagined it. It still looks good to me

[Wedge]

The tail area could be made into a box or cylinder if you were to do the bevels as a texture... but anyways, MAX counts polys arbitrarily as an editable polygon object, but an editable mesh is always counted as triangles.

[Cherppow]

Greets,

the model (and sketch too) looks very good! You certainly handle the modeling. If you want to reduce poly count:

- flatten the wings. You can use 1 rectangle plane for each 2-wing-sets, with texture alpha transparency. (maybe make them semi-transparent too?)

- reduce detail in legs. It seems to me that you have little toes there. I\'d say do it with plane and alpha transparency again. (maybe the whole legs?) Or drop the toes completely.

- reduce polys on the tail and do it in the texture instead. (like mentioned by ArcaneFalcon and Wedge)

Adjust the detail considering the size of this creature. I\'d say that with current level of detail, this individual could be something between 2-6 meters in size. Just my opinion, though.

Keep up the good work, this being is certainly something i\'d like to see humming around a moist swampy environment in PS.

[Shadowfalcon]

Thanks Cherppow!

I took your advice before you gave it. (I took yours too Arcane )
I think Ive finished the model, and ive figured out how to texture it. (I love texporter!)
It has 297 verts, and 576 polys (triangle)
Ive turned the wings into rectangles, and i have created a nice texture for them with an alpha map. it looks good. I will finish making a texture some time next week, after i get some of my homework done.
heres a pic.

If anybody still thiks they see room for improvement, feel free to tell me. also, if anybody wants to rig and export to cal3d, tell me. Ive only rigged a simple biped one time, and im not too sure of my animating skills right now.

[ArcaneFalcon]

Great work!  The only place I see room for improvement is the legs.  The flaps under the body look a little odd, but other than that it looks much better.  I\'m glad you finally got that poly count down  

:emerald:

[Shadowfalcon]

those arent flaps, those are the upper parts of the legs. i think they look wierd without textures and lighting. and yeah the poly count is a lot better. the first model had over 1500 triads.

[Enter_the_Xero]

Add another pair of wings... twice smaller then the first one... it would look and feel better.