My elephant model

# 1 16-11-2014 , 09:06 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2012

Posts: 293

So i recently finished my elephant model, i took some time today to clear up the very last details of this, and i started messing around with the lights, i know i had some problems because the shadow didnt show up as much as i wanted it to, because i was using aiSky and aiSkyDomeLight the light from my sun (pointlight with shadows and a tiny bit yellow intensity), anyways i ended up making a few renders (one with only my sunlight as a light in the scene, to get the shadows, one render with all the lights on, an AO render and a mask render to get rid of the background, also a wireframe render).

the reason why im writing this is because im an amateur with lighting, and if you see an easier way to get the result i got, i'd love to hear about it. I'd rather have my shadows coming from the HDRI image, but i won't get any noticeable shadows or any sharp shadows, which i need to make it look realistic.

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20 year old guy from Sweden

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Maya, Mudbox and Photoshop user

Full name: Marcus Ralman

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# 2 16-11-2014 , 09:52 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Hey skalman, looks great! I can't crit the lighting too much. If it looks good, you've done it the right way user added image

. The thing that is jumping out at me unfortunately is the elephant trunk. Elephants have two adjacent nostrils like us. Also I would make the "finger" on the end of the trunk more pronounced, since they can actually pick up objects delicately with the end of their trunk (the morphology here depends on whether it is african or asian).

-stwert

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# 3 16-11-2014 , 10:10 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2012

Posts: 293

Thanks for the observation, stwert! it has two nostrils, allthough it may not be seen on the image, but I definetly get your point here, was watching through a few images and i clearly see wrong shapes in my trunk

user added image

thanks for noticing this man, i appreciate this user added image

20 year old guy from Sweden

Big Bob Marley fan
Love skateboarding
Maya, Mudbox and Photoshop user

Full name: Marcus Ralman

https://www.facebook.com/MarcusRalman3D

^ My facebook page ^

Last edited by Skalman; 16-11-2014 at 10:14 PM.

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# 4 16-11-2014 , 11:53 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

If this is your first elephant very good, if I had to be picky I would say the same as Stwert and possibly add some more mesh detail to the trunk ridges and feet (in some thing like zbrush or mudbox).............dave

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# 5 17-11-2014 , 10:35 AM

The Nurb Herd
Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: London

Posts: 2,381

hey what you want to try and do is not have any of the creases or lighting baked into the texture. You have a detailed texture on a simple mesh here. I would work on
-some displacement maps (sculpt detail in zbrush)
-paint a purely diffuse texture for the colour.
-you will need a map for the glossiness
-paint a spec map.
-To see the shader better its a good idea to render with no colour map. This way you can judge the sss and spec easier. so give this a go.
-for more details I would add a fur groom.

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