Thanks Peter, this extension is great news. 

It will help me out immensely, as due to various circumstances (such as a part-time day job, serious allergy attacks because above-normal pollen levels, and other misery), I have a late start...

Anyway, for those interested, I've started a thread on the Polycount forum, here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=153180.

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Hi Everyone:

I've been working on possible contest entries over at the Polycount forum- a couple of characters
The Balrog
Gandalf

I also wrote an article for Computer Graphics World (!) about the contest:
How to Animate without Modelling

Haha, that's a funny typo, announcing the winners 10 days before the competition closes. 

Seriously though, I don't envy the judges... it's like putting Spielberg, Tarrantino, Jackson, Bay and Pixar in the same room, and being asked to choose the best - an impossible task, since they all use the same tools with outstanding brilliance, but for completely different audiences, so they each stand atop their own peak in the mountain ranges of entertainment. And not one of them shall ever be any lesser if one accumulates more awards than any other.



 


Anita, aka "Bleetz" the Toon Wrangler @ Tarampa Studios
SYS: Win 8.1,  64-bit, i7-4770 CPU @3.4GHz,  
32GB RAM, Intel(R)Graphics 4600 & nVIDIA GTX1060 TI 

Here is my entry to the contest ...



Have fun ...

Direx

I enjoyed your video. Well done. Good luck in the contest.

.... and back at the opposite end of the spectrum from everybody else, I'm still polishing up my sets. 

Here's some pics from the latest planet; arriving in her little "moon ship", with health & ozone levels running low. She's down to a mere bubble: 



And in good old fashioned game style, she's made a trade for an upgrade. So here's 3 of the locals taking the new "moon ship" mods out for a test sail: 
This took me a whole day and a half to get the flap in the sail cloth just right. At first it was determined to flap like silk - which took only a few minutes to set up, and I could have left it like that and I dare say nobody would notice or even care. But the whole purpose of my projects like this is to learn something new, so I just kept tweakin, and tweakin until I turned silk into canvas... 



And now I'm a little stuck on the the next tricky bit - at least for me. Because the natives live in tree-top tee-pees:
(haha, try saying *that* 10 times fast after an hour at a party)... 


And although they look okay at a distance, the texture maps for leaves and trees are giving me grief on close-up, regardless of whether I use png, 
or use a jpg with an opacity map built from scratch - which is what I'm doing with my chin today... giving it a good hard scratch to see if I can solve it another way. 







Anita, aka "Bleetz" the Toon Wrangler @ Tarampa Studios
SYS: Win 8.1,  64-bit, i7-4770 CPU @3.4GHz,  
32GB RAM, Intel(R)Graphics 4600 & nVIDIA GTX1060 TI 

@Wungun,

Thanks for sharing.  A bit heavy on the "flare" for my taste (it obscures some of your hard work), but that's just a matter of personal style.


@Bleetz,

You are correct about your work being on the opposite end of the spectrum; quite a different universe from Wungun's. 

It sure is a sugar-filled environment, but it looks like a fun place.  I especially enjoyed the whimsical windmill arms.  I hope you're able to improve the textures to your satisfaction.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

@Bleetz - A higher resolution texture, perhaps for the Close Ups? Perhaps also consider a less bright environment to allow for shadow and shade to take the curse of the low-rez textures? LOVE the windmill arms. It's very whimsical and looks great.

@Wungun - Must agree with Justaviking - Perhaps too much flare? I'm all for lensflare - but it seems a little extreme.

Congratulations everyone on your work so far on the Game Animation submissions.  Some incredible work being done by all.

Bingo!.. We must have been on the same wavelength. I tried it last night (my time in eastern oz) and went to bed a very happy camper! 

Up again at 3am though, as usual. Having way too much fun with this to sleep  




Anita, aka "Bleetz" the Toon Wrangler @ Tarampa Studios
SYS: Win 8.1,  64-bit, i7-4770 CPU @3.4GHz,  
32GB RAM, Intel(R)Graphics 4600 & nVIDIA GTX1060 TI 

Bleetz: 

Sometimes you can add a little depth by constructing a type of 'bump' map. This will give some depth, tho not much. Load the diffuse channel into your paint program and change it to black and white. Then play with the brightness and contrast until you get a blend that is a bit brighter and with higher contrast. (I can't say what will exactly work because each diffuse is different. You'll have to play with it.) Then 'select all' and copy. Now pick a bump map, any Iclone bump map will do. After choosing one load it into your paint program. Paste the B&W version of your diffuse over it. (Be sure to select 'expand canvas' if you are prompted to do so.) Save and then check it out. 

No promises but, hopefully, this approach will give you a bit more definition.

pete



http://www.youtube.com/user/peterblood50?feature=mhee