Here's the completed render, resized.  The original is 1500px wide.

Here's my car so far.

Thanks, EricofSD.  The room turned out to be my largest "non-personal" project to date, and I'm happy with the result, considering the limitations I had to deal with; there was only one perspective in the original reference, and the image as fairly small resolution, so some of the details were hard to see, and it was very difficult to judge the dimensions of the room and decor objects.

Your car is looking excellent so far! Great curves, and I love how the hood looks from the top.

Stunning render Lux, whats the FOV on that? Your dreamcatcher is really good mate.

Quote - Stunning render Lux, whats the FOV on that? Your dreamcatcher is really good mate.

Thanks, Mark.  I really appreciate it.  I'm not sure offhand what the camera specs are for that shot (I'm away from my workstation right now), but I know it was a very wide, and perhaps somewhat unrealistic, focal length.  While Octane does employ physical lens specs on its camera parameters, you have the option to push them past standard ranges, if desired.  I tried to match the original perspective as best I could, but since my version wasn't done in the same units or measurements, it was impossible to get it exact.

Coming soon...

One heck of a detailed lamp post.  Been working on this one most of the evening, and the modeling is about 80% finished.  Tons of complex lathe and lofting work, and those "arms" were a bitch to get right (I used a really ornate lamp post from the downtown area as a study for this model), and as you can see that's where most of the mesh density is.  So far, it's at about 27,000 polygons (all quads), which I think is reasonable.  The only thing I have left now is to add a "flag" type thing hanging off that ladder rest. Then it's on to the unwrapping and texturing.

Looking forward to the render especially.

Hmm, the uv stamp arrangement seems a bit chaotic.  I realize it was a way to compact the mesh, but makes for a difficult work in something like Photoshop or PSP or Gimp.

Lets say I design a WW1 airplane and want the wing and the aileron located next to each other so that the emblem of the country overlaps correctly both mesh.  If the aileron is angled and tucked into another area, I have a LOT of work to do in my 2d app to split the 2d image, rotate, size, locate....

UV templates need as much attention as the detail of the original modeling mesh.

Just my humble opinion.

Eric

Quote - Hmm, the uv stamp arrangement seems a bit chaotic.  I realize it was a way to compact the mesh, but makes for a difficult work in something like Photoshop or PSP or Gimp.

Lets say I design a WW1 airplane and want the wing and the aileron located next to each other so that the emblem of the country overlaps correctly both mesh.  If the aileron is angled and tucked into another area, I have a LOT of work to do in my 2d app to split the 2d image, rotate, size, locate....

UV templates need as much attention as the detail of the original modeling mesh.

Just my humble opinion.

Eric

What is this in reference to?  If it's one of my models, then I can only say that in most cases, I'm not worried about someone re-texturing the object.   In cases where I concern myself with someone coming up with their own textures for the model, I provide the UV template, and arrange the tiles properly for Photoshop to work.  Otherwise, they could just texture it in something like Sculptris or 3D Coat, where they can paint directly on the model, and not worry about hte arrangement of UVs.  Or just use a tileable texture over my original.  Depends on the model.  However, my main concern is that the model's UV's are not overlapping, and are as free as possible from stetching.  So custom procedurals work very well in a pinch too.

Here's a screen cap of the lamp post.  I decided to go really worn and dirty with the textures; instead of clean and elegant, which was my first choice.  I did the unwrapping of the post, arms, and light shields as one object in 3d Coat, where I hand painted most of the details.  The glass, and the banner were unwrapped in 3dsmax by hand, and then I created those textures in Photoshop over the UV template.  So the main part of the object was auto-unwrapped, and then 3D painted, but the banner and glass were done old-school style.

I'm about to package it up as a freebie, but meanwhile, I'm contemplating adding something like an entire street corner "facade" to this, so it would be more like an actual stage/scene than a simple object.  Hmmmm.  Not sure yet.  Prob just gonna call it a finished project and move on.

Looks good Lux, I like the texturing. Am I right in thinking this a painted glass effect?

Quote - Looks good Lux, I like the texturing. Am I right in thinking this a painted glass effect?

Thanks, Mark!

Well, the screencap isn't showing the textures in detail obviously; it's only a low-res representation of them.  This is the map I'm offering with the model as an "option" to use in the diffuse/color channel of your glass material.  I'm intending it to represent old, lime-encrusted glass, but it can also be used to create certain frosted glass looks (the dirty parts at the bottom are NOT optional, however).  You'd have to replace the map with your own diffuse map if you wanted a different look, or just use a procedural glass material.  I am including the full, manually-packed UV template to the glass parts, which can be easily painted on in Photoshop.  

I will also provide high res, custom Diffuse, Bump, Specular/Reflection, AND Illumination maps for the glass parts, which should provide enough control for even for the most demanding realistic renders.  The banner element will also come with a custom UV template, so users could easily take it into Photoshop and create their own custom banners.

The metal parts of the lamp, however, were auto-unwrapped, so the packing of tiles for that element isn't suited to manual map creation in Photoshop.   However, the UV's are flat, with very little distortion, so the object is still very easily suited to 3D painting in something like Sculptris, Zbrush, or 3D Coat.

I actually should have used a few tris in the topology for this one, as some of those points on the decorative arms would have been much easier to accomplish, and saved me a few polygons, but the stubborn modeler in me kept it all quads.  Around 30,000 total polygons in the end.

Renders of the street lamp I've been working on.  Available for free:

Turbosquid.com
ShareCG.com

Pending approval in Freestuff here on Renderosity as well.

Quote -

Renders of the street lamp I've been working on.  Available for free:

Turbosquid.com
ShareCG.com

Pending approval in Freestuff here on Renderosity as well.

the texture used in the glass twice takes away the illusion of realisim, you should consider making two different textures. Other than that this model is excellent.

Quote - the texture used in the glass twice takes away the illusion of realisim, you should consider making two different textures. Other than that this model is excellent.

You are 100% correct.  The texture was simply mirrored to the other glass piece.  I had intended to manually add some differences to them before release, but I completely forgot.  Unfortunately, this model has already been uploaded to many locations as a free download, and I can't change it.  However, if people wanted to make them asymmetrical, I do provide the texture maps and UV templates for the glass parts, which are easily adjusted in something like Photoshop.

Thanks!

Quote -

Renders of the street lamp I've been working on.  Available for free:

Turbosquid.com
ShareCG.com

Pending approval in Freestuff here on Renderosity as well.

Incredible model!  Very nice in the textures and the polygons.

Zandar, I really like that!

Quote - Still a ways to go.  Will likely do uv and texture next weekend.  This weekend I hope to finish the modeling.

 

Zandar, I really like that!

That's actually my model Zandar was showing there, Eric.  Thanks though. ;-)

This RC is looking really good.  I see what appear to be a couple minor smoothing artifacts, but overall it's awesome.  Especially those tires!

My latest model.  All the work was done entirely in 3dsmax 2012, with some of the UV unwrapping in 3D Coat.  17,915 polygons total, 99.6% quads (there's 64 triangles total, and all of them are on the eyes, where I used hemisphereical primitives).  This happens to be one of my first completed attempts at a truly organic modeling style, without any freeform sculpting (all old school subD techniques).

The model should be available for free download on Renderosity soon, but you can download the model, and see all the wireframes here:

Kitty Candle (Turbosquid)

Kitty Candle (ShareCG.com)

It was a fun project.  I wasn't sure where I was going to end up when I started it (originally it was going to be a simple Jack-O-Lantern, but I accidentally discovered how to model a cat's head while messing around, and decided on this instead).

Here's a couple wireframes:

great work, Lux. Loving the bump

Working on a new freebie; a "fresh" grave.  Here's a screenshot:

As you can see, it's up around 58,000 polys (all quads), but I've decided to model in most of the details for the dirt mound here.  Other models I've seen rely heavily on bump or displacement maps for things like this, which is perfectly fine, but I wanted to keep as much of the details in the model as I could for this one.  I think it will allow for a lot more of the small details I will eventually add into the textures to show through all the more in a final render.

Everything here was created directly in 3dsMax, including the dirt mound, which I modeled procedurally with various modifiers.  As you might guess, that is also where most of the polygon resolution resides.

I'm almost finished with the modeling phase, and about ready to do the unwrapping now.  I was thinking about adding some more details, like some loose stones, and perhaps a random skull as well, but I don't want the polycount to get out of control.  My goal for this model is/was to keep a polygon budget under 70k.  So I still have some room for further details, but I will have to choose them carefully.

Luxxeon, you modelled that purple grave object without any sculpting tools, just modifiers?  I'm surprised you were able to get that kind of mesh deformation with only 50,000+ polygons. But then again, there isn't that much fine detail there, mostly large surface changes.  I really like that wooden cross, even without textures, it's clear what its made from.  If you add some small rocks and stones around the grave, and maybe a few strands of grass, then you will have something really cool there.  If you do the textures right, it could be a premium model.

Here's the textured, final version of the dirt grave model I was working on.  I was able to keep it under 70k poly budget, and 100% quad topology.

The unwrapping of the dirt pile was probably the most laborious of any model I have worked on to date.  It was just a really difficult, high res model to texture without distortion; lots of nooks and crannies.  I'm pleased with the results though.  I think if I ever work on a model like this again, I'll know a lot about how to fix several annoying UV issues, just from having worked on this set.

Really good Lux, I see this also being very popular.

Quote - Really good Lux, I see this also being very popular.

Thanks, Mark!  It took me days to get the texturing right for this, and still there's some issues with the UV's (hopefully not very noticeable) in certain areas, which I couldn't resolve.  Probably would have been a much easier model to do in a dedicated sculpting application like 3d Coat or Sculptris, but as a personal challenge to myself, I wanted to do it all with standard polygonal modeling techniques.  I think it paid off in the end, as I was able to keep a lot of the detail modeled in, rather than baked out to maps.  Not that there's anything wrong with that either.

That's very good work, Luxxeon.  My only crits are that the rocks look too clean, and I feel you could have added some blades of grass randomly in the dirt, and maybe on the outer rim of the object.  Even just some low poly strips or something to simulate grass. 

A little word of advice:  if you're going to keep offering this level of quality on Turbosquid, you better think about charging something for them.  Even if it's a dollar (American).  Otherwise, you might get booted from there.

Quote - Slow progress, I'm afraid.

I like what you're doing there, Mark.  There's a lot of detail in the lighthouse, and the texturing so far is looking good.  I think the weathering bit at the bottom might be a little high up the tower, and possibly a bit strong, but if you're working from a reference, you would know better than I if it's correct or not.  Maybe just blend the transition from dirty to clean a little more?

The environment is taking shape nicely as well.  What technique did you employ to create the terrain?  Did you use height maps, or are you just modeling it offhand?

Thanks Lux, just edge extrusion. While you're here, the rock and concrete ares are overlapping geometry atm. If I take the rock section over to sculptris, will it cope?. I don't need a complete mesh?

I'm going to go 10m below the current waterline, with the rock, to allow for transparency etc

This will be right up Terragen/Vue street I think.

Quote - Thanks Lux, just edge extrusion. While you're here, the rock and concrete ares are overlapping geometry atm. If I take the rock section over to sculptris, will it cope?. I don't need a complete mesh?

I'm going to go 10m below the current waterline, with the rock, to allow for transparency etc

This will be right up Terragen/Vue street I think.

I don't think it will load in Sculptris.  At least not in my experience with bringing over separate geo as one object, which you are describing.  It either crashed out upon loading, or gave me an error message and refused to load it.  It also won't load any geo that has more than 18 edges pointing to a single vert.  Normally, I'd never have a pole like that anyway, but there are few times, such as a cylinder with tris at the cap ends, where you might have such a situation, but Sculptris won't handle it.  That's kind of why I switched over to using 3dCoat instead.

PS:  I could be wrong about the separate geo, so best to just give it a shot.  However, I know from past history that it doesn't like to work with open, overlapping shapes.

Ooops.  After reading over your post again; if you bring over just the rock segment as independant geo from the rest of the terrain, it should handle it.  However, if you try to load both sections together as one object, with overlapping edges, it might fail.

Yes, just the rock. The concrete will do with bump and because I've modelled the stairs, the geomerty leaves a lot to be desired.

From this, I'll duplicate, and use some bending modifiers to make it appear more natural, and add it to the Xmas item I'm creating; which will be Christmas bells, such as those in ** this image**.

Here's my work on the bow, so far.  This is just the base geometry, and will be subdivided with more detail, of course.  Simple edge extrusion techniques here, about 10 min of work.

I was hoping to just add arbitrary UV's here, because the intention on these objects is mostly for whatever procedural maps you want to apply in your software of choice, but I did include a "Happy Holidays" displace or bump map for the bells, if you wish to use them.  You can see them in this wireframe screecap.  They're just black and white maps, which can be placed in the bump or displacement channel of most software.  There will be no color or specular maps included, because most materials are just your standard metal, and velvet (for the ribbon), and diffuse color channels.

I might have to rescale the bells and ribbon in proportion to the pine needles.  I modeled the needle branch "to scale".  It's roughly 5 inches long.  So each bell would be about 8 inches.  Probably too large.

Nice render.

Merry Xmas.

Attached Link: Holiday Bells (.max scene file)

It's in my StAsh file on DA.  Click the attached link to download.

Got the bulkheads built with cv curves and lofted polygons for the hull.  Its still a bit of a mess, but off to a roaring good start.

I'm doing this in XSI.  I think the lofting is better for this in Max. Max lofted cleaner and had some decent adjustments compared to XSI. (though lofting in nurbs and converting might be a better way to go, not sure yet)

But the rotoscope issues are not so good in Max.  Maya has the ability to set up image planes (like Max and XSI and just about any modeler) but Maya does not have distortions in the ortho views (unlike Max).  However, I am not familiar enough yet with Maya to do this so I went back to XSI. 

By the way, XSI can do image planes, but doesn't need them.  I'm finding it a real fast thing to set up the rotoscopes and make some attach to the camera and some remain fixed.  It really helps a lot, and being able to change the xyz size/location of the rotoscope for either camera or fixed projection is also very useful.

Maybe the next project will be in Maya.  For now, I hope to complete the ship and get it textured.  Lots of detail.  Won't be a low poly model.