Assets III: Organics

Organic shapes have never been something of a strong suit for me so today I decided to step out of my comfort and model some tentacles, after all who can have anything based on the Cthulhu mythos and not include some form of slimy creepy tentacles? While I'm not at all impressed with the texture I did or the model as a whole, the concept and the idea are taking shape and I've learned a bit more in 3DS Max doing it so I'm sure this is something that is going to be revisited again and dome more and more, but for now here are some shots of the tentacle and trap door I did this morning.

Assets, Mk II.

I've spent the week working on some more assets for Miskatonic and am getting more and more the hang of 3DS Max. Still not doing anything overly complicated with it and still aren't completely happy with everything that I'm producing but it is starting to get there and I am becoming a bit more comfortable with it and with how to texture the models after putting them into UDK. I've been using a program/plugin for Photoshop called xNormal which so far has done amazing work with every texture I've thrown at it to create a normal map for. Some of the following shots I'm really happy with, the books and the Lament Configuration, others not so much, the trophy and lockers for example. I believe they will be getting revisited later on.

Assets

I'm going to preface this post with A 3D modeler I am not, there not that that is out of the way, I've been working on some assets for Miskatonic University because open empty halls and rooms are well, boring. I've starting to grasp 3D Studio Max a bit more confidently than I had in the past but I'm still working with very basic primitive shapes and minor modifications to them. Textures in 3DSM are starting to come along but I still run into issues with UDK not wanting to import them correctly, I think I've finally figured a way around it which has worked once, I've had other methods work once for me and never again in the past however so it still remains to be seen how well this method holds up. Below are some of the few things that I've modeled so far.

A nice dark imposing desk

Curious about what's behind the door?

Trying to keep a 1920s feel to all of the assets, found a few locker types this one seemed the most flexible.

Miskatonic University Update 2

So it has been a little over two weeks since my last update, got to start keeping this thing updated a bit more, which may have become a bit easier now. On the one side of things loosing a job is never easy on anyone, but it gives me time to work on my portfolio and money isn't terrible at the moment. So I've been busy working on Miskatonic and running around some other back burner ideas in my head. I think I've finally gotten the normal map issue with the textures sorted out. I started using a program called Normalx (Thanks for pointing me in this direction Jeremiah) and it seems not only to do a much better job than the nvidia plugin I was using but it is a lot more straight forward as well.

So without further ado some updated Miskatonic University shots.

Front entrance, not completely happy with that concrete texture.
I think I need something lighter here

Looking in the front door.

A look down the first floor corridor.

Second floor, just some work lights in place.

A look down into the library from the third floor balcony.

Over view shot. Still missing some floors and the clocktower.

Miskatonic University Update 1

I've done a bit of work on Miskatonic University recently and figured I was far enough along to show a few in progress images. It isn't anything major yet but the first floor is laid out and I've begun experimenting with some over all textures, I'm happy with the floor texture the red brick texture needs some work, the normal mapping is giving me some strange black outlines. Anyhow on to the images!

Shot from inside looking down the main hall.

Shot from outside looking up the front steps

Overall aerial shot

First floor layout

Extreme Environments

Last week a challenge came up over at /r/WorldBuilding which was to create a story of a world or culture that exists in more extreme environments. I felt like it would be a good time to stretch some creative muscles and see what I could come up with. So below you'll find my answer for the Extreme Environment challenge.

---

The teeth of the venomous steel jaws of the cave surrounding the dwelling are always one of the trickiest parts of checking in on the people of Old Los Angeles. The people who choose to still dwell here generations after the planet was evacuated and the sun burst spewing the planet with radiation somehow continue to thrive. The Dead Angels are a people of short tempers and almost shorter life spans. If their rebreaters aren't attached directly after birth a lung full of the radioactive dust in the air would make their lungs burn and their skin melt. There are those here and there that had their rebreather attached a little too slow, the effects are like seeing a still flag made of skin attached to a skeleton, their features sag and wave with each step they take.

The Dead Angels have found a language of their own through grunts and hisses that are audible through the rebreather they have developed their communication. Even the puffs of exhaust from the rebreathers are used to convey the message. It seems to be some combination of ancient communication methods of smoke signals and even more primitive grunts and guttural noises. However just because they are unable to communicate with the higher crust members of society, that now live off planet, it doesn't mean that the Dead Angels are primitive at all. There are volumes of information scratched into old shards of broken glass and written on steel with old oil. The ingenuity of these people to make what was left behind work for them and serve their purposes is a testament to their determination to survive in these less than inviting remains of what was left behind to burn.

Every night as the acid rain storms against the rotting remaining structures of Old Los Angeles the Dead Angels drag closed the mouth of their cave and flip the switch on the generator they have salvaged and pieced back together, powering the discarded screens that line the floor of their cave creating a shimmering and shining landscape buried here below the remains of the city. The light plays off of the corners and edges of the steel. Each night as the younger Dead Angels settle in for bed the parents take turns twisting and moving scrap metal, casting shadows on the ceilings and grunting, telling stories to their children as they slip off to sleep to the sounds of the toxic weather outside.

The shadow plays may be the closest the children ever get to a normal existence. Each day for them is spent crawling through holes and dragging back salvage that the rest of the residents of Old Los Angeles have grown too large to retrieve. This salvage retrieval isn’t without its own dangers, loss of digits and limbs are normal, burns and acid damage scar each of the Dead Angels, crude prosthetics are created for those that have lost a limb, and maybe it is because of the harsh existence and the frequent amputation of limbs that the Dead Angels have been able to recreate such functional replacements even from the scraps of a past civilization.