I would love to do a jungle scene but since the only programs I have are Maya Complete, Gimp, and Combustion I'll do something that doesn't have alot of greenery. I'm going to try and create a lava environment like the scene in Shrek 1 where the dragon lives. No trees and no grass . I'm going to put aside all my other projects (mostly) and focus only on this. So hopefully I'll have a final entry this time haha.

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

Working on the volcano shape and the lava shader.

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

Ooo, 3D texture, don't think i've seen anyone use that before.
how'd you make the volcano shape?

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

you could have used pfx for your jungle - never mind this looks good

@Chirone I created the volcano by creating a plane and applying a 3d texture displacement. Then, using the scale and lattice tools, I adjusted it to look like my screenshot. It was crashing my computer constantly so I didn't think it would work but luckily I reduced the polycount enough so that currently it's not giving me any issues. It's got about 11k polys.

@ Jay, At first I did consider pfx but I don't know how to use them well enough to get any kind of decent result I think. I'm glad you think this looks like a good start though. I've never tried to do a lava environment before so it might not look so good in the end haha.

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

okay mate no probs. Add some black to the lava where its cooling off, more crusty looking so to speak

cheers
Jay

Something more like this Jay?

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

ahh good mate thats real good, have a look for lava reference too on Google

cooooolllll Perfecto....lava...this will be good man!

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bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

Thanks bullet and I hope so. When I was trying to do a lava shader, I did alot of google searching for references but they are all different. I then looked at lava on different movies like Sharkboy and Lavagirl, The Incredibles, Shrek, Spy Kids 3D, Surfs Up, Star Wars Episode 3, etc, but they are all different too. Some are red, some pink, some yellow, some orange. Some had the black crusted areas, some didn't. I wasn't expecting such a wide range of different lava looks.

Yesterday, my church asked me to do an animation. I should be done in a few days and then I'll get started back on this project.

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

Now that I understand the challenge more, is it okay if I change my concept?

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

Up to you mate, time is ticking....

Jay

Thanks Jay. Yeah, I need to get it high gear. I'm just having so much fun with playing around with soft bodies. Didn't know anything about them but they are really cool and useful.

Anyway, I've been doing some searching for inspiration and found a couple of images I really like. I'm leaning toward a mushroom city, just looks really nice to me. Here's the links to the two images I found.

https://art.alphacoders.com/author/unverified/85

https://anez-erynlis.deviantart.com/a...city-113657592

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

Ok, I havn't really found anything else that grabs my attention. I'm going to go for a mushroom city. Much easier than doing trees and grass and I think it would be much more interesting than a lava scene. I'll start modeling tomorrow when I'm more awake.

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

nice bit of reference for you.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12662036