Elephanilla
 

Im gonna start making this, while trying to come up with short story ideas

http://www.rareware.com/games/pinata...anilla-lar.jpg

Just one thing though, can you make this fun effect with maya fur?

That effect is texture based.

How? bump map? transparency map?

im thinking just a hell of a lot of single poly planes with transperancy maps

i think i have to disagree with you anasasis...
i think that would be a really expensive way of doing things in a game, although, i dont actually know the ability of the consoles these days....and what they can handle, so you could be right
maybe it was made from lots of little polys and then something like the transfer-maps or ultimapper (dunno the max equivalent is) was used to get the transparency maps.

i also think doing it that way is rather time consuming unless they had a script to do it for them

again i dont really know what constraints they were working in.

Looking in the viva pinata options it does look like its texture based, but how could you create that effect with textures? :confused:

in your paint program create a square gradient and copy and paste it everywhere?
it could work...

the main thing i have a trouble is seeing how you could get the edges of the model right, because the flakes lift off

I would attempt what you're going for using this idea http://www.paultosca.com/varga_hair.html
it's a hair tutorial but it seems to me like you might be able to get the effect you're looking for using this idea.

Hope it helps.

You could also use fur and just change the attributes so that each fur is square shaped the way you want it to.

make a patchy trans map, squars of white squares and black, put it on a layer node then ontop of it in the layer node attatch a ramp with, set the blending method to multiply on the layer node.

Make a sampler info node and attatch the facing ratio attribute to the v coord of the ramp. Edit the ramp so that it is transparent at the edges and solid in the centre. This should give the correct effect if im not mistaken, you want no interpolation between the gradient values.

Thanks everyone
I will try that LauriePriest (if i can follow it :p)

really sorry but..
with the transparency map what to i set the colour to? (i cant help but think im doing something wrong.....)
i know thats not really clear but i cant think of a better way to say i have no idea what im doing....(i really need that rendering book (only 3 days to go!))
sorry

i really feel i should know more when ive been at this for so long.......

started blocking out
i know ive got creases and things but what do you think of the general shape? (do you think the ear is too tall?)

Yeah, not bad and I do agree with you about the ear being too tall. In the top picture, the top edge of the ear and the bottom edge are not too far off from being parallel. Also, the body looks a little long compared to the reference image. Hard to tell though because of the angle of the reference image.

Looks like your project is going to turn out quite well.

yea, the body looks to be about twice the length of the refs body, the ear looks fine to me though, i kinda like it that wayy :p

I know what you mean about the body compared to the ref but in the game the elephanilla does seem to have a longer body (it would help if i had got that far in the game....)
thanks for the crits though
wether its accurate or not ill still make the body shorter, i think it will look better then

My guess is that you have something with elephants.....LOL

Keep in mind although you are modeling a cartoony character, where the muscle groups are.
And for the hair use a displacement/normal -map, if it needs to be lowpoly or gamelike, use ZBrush or Mudbox to paint the displacement/hairs and colors.

good luck
:beer:

(i dont think he has a sculpting tool)

hey elephantinc, are you trying to copy the elephanilla exactly or just the funky effect on it?

do what laurie said, it makes the most sense. I was going to suggest the sampler info approach but would have had to work out exactly how to do it with the layer node... I'm still learning. :)

Im trying to copy it mostly but it will be slightly different just so people can tell i havent stolen it
I will try Lauries approach but i dont know how, i now own a book on rendering though which might help

update: Id like to see what this looks like textured but I dont have a clue what im doing.....
Besides the obvious creasing any comments? Do you think ive made the body short enough? (i dont think i want an except replica, just the generally feel)

2nd pic

How do i put the transparency map onto a layer node? I cant even work out how to create a transparency map node

Just attach a file node to the transparancy slot in the material

Heres what ive ended up with:
I think its fair to say i have no idea what im doing, I cant even figure out how to change the layered shader blending.....

EDIT: Problem solved! You dont have to read this post now, unless you really want to.

Now i feel really stupid. that first paragraph was a lot easier to do than i made it, but how do i change the blending mode, i cant find anything for it? I checked the help files (no really, i did) and it says there should be a thing for it in the attribute editor but i cant find anything


UPDATE: ah! theres a difference between layered shader and layered texture node, sorry!)

UPDATE 2: :confused: when trying to connect the checker node to the layered texture theres no transparency in the inputs, what should i do?

Update 3: I think ive got it, instead of doing it in the hypershade i put the checker in the alpha box of the layered shader, is that right?

UPDATE 4: Im really sorry but I cant find the v cord thing on the ramp, when i go to the connections box thing (when ive middle mouse dragged the sampler info node onto the ramp node and selected other) on the sampler info node the facing ratio attribute is there but on the ramp side there is no v cord attribute (theres no uv cord attribute at all)

Update 5: I DID IT! I was using a ramp shader instead of a ramp <smack head>
sorry! (i think ive finally done it though, all my problems have been because i was using X shader nodes instead of just X nodes)

Im really sorry but this is what ive ended up with, and as you can tell it hasnt worked.
please can someone take a look at it? :beg:
It might be the transparency on the ramp (or lack of), im not sure what to do with the ramp

Here is a pic of the graph network.
does it look right?

hmm - sorry i cant help with this - i can't open your file. my wife is playing viva pinata 2 and i've been wondering how they create that effect. your base model looks cool though. :)

thanks :)
Ill have another bash at it today

I know it's been over a year since I last worked on this but I've finally textured him. It was just a quick job so I could use him to test my opengl .obj importer.

you might want to make a texture like that for color base

So your model would looks like this.

Would be best to do as follow, so you have the same shadowing square size in the base color map and the alpha version.

After make couple of duplicate scaled model on top of your original model.
Make a material that 1 is transparent with alpha, another is base color without transparence.
Apply the non transparent on base model, and transparent on the scaled overlayed models.

That would be my approach.
1 thing in maya that I hate is the viewport transparence render.
when many models overlay on top with transparence, the render sequence get weird, so might be difficult to tweak.

You can also do alot of things, like change just little bit the placement of UVs in layer model, so will give more non straight look, like "square" fur in all layer placed in the same place.
Unnatural, sometime became natural.

Or you can skin the layer mesh with different value as base mesh, so when moves to animate, the layer mesh with are the "fur" mesh will move bit different from base mesh, giving more impression that is something "attached" to base mesh, and not "as" base mesh.

Bit confuse, but hope this can help you to achieve or give you some different idea to get the look you want.

Good Luck.

Wow, thanks for all the help! :beer:
I'm definitely going to give this a shot.
Thanks for going to all that trouble ;)