Ice Elemental

[Philours]

Hi There !
First post here :)
Here is my current WIP, it intends to be an Ice Elemental but as i am wrestling with the shader it might end as a Balrog or something cool like that... :p
Anyway, here is the current state of the "beast".
Comment are welcome as i wonder what i can do of it (i tried to build a white nerves network inside of him but it dosen't look good). I need some ideas and inspiration now... :)
Please, tell me what you think :
http://www.philours.com/wip/wip17.jpg http://www.philours.com/wip/wip18.jpg

[pixelranger]

Great Ice shader. I especially like the "nerves" or the shards or shattered look of it. How did you do it? Boolean?

[sparky]

very cool. looks quite dangerous. I'd like to see it in action.

sorry, no suggestions.

[Philours]

Originally posted by pixelranger
Great Ice shader. I especially like the "nerves" or the shards or shattered look of it. How did you do it? Boolean?
Thanks. :)
You must be speaking of the inner "sections".
I wanted it to look "solid" and not glass-looking, so i created slices that are mapped with a slight variation of the ice external shader (more bump).
They basically look like that :

[sammael]

Very nice...

You could add a bit of steam mabe? some glow to the eyes.

Thats about all I could suggest, looks amazing as is.

[starbase1]

Very original, very different, very good! Cool in every sense!

How does he look in a setting? I'd guess it's very different when he is surrounded by things to reflect and refract,,,

Nick

[riki]

Reminds me of something from 'Princess Mononoke'. The head gets a little bit lost in the detail but otherwise looks good.

[Philours]

I like Myiazaki, i assume this must be a compliment. ;)

Concerning the setting, i haven't tried anything yet but i think he would need some tweaking as is transparent, but i have to try before saying anything... :) I am a bit busy on the bones setup at this time, i think a pose would change a lot (cause i am a little bored of him as a statue...)

[riki]

haha yeah I meant it as a compliment. That's the problem with forums, you miss the tone of what people are saying. Maybe the glowing eyes idea could work.

[Philours]

Okay, so here is a "glowing eyes" test.
I think this is not yet the right effect.
Any ideas ?
If someone has good links about surfacing tutorials (in particular about opacity and multiple procedural layers overlapping), please feel free to post them here, might be great help for me !
In the meantime, i've tweaked a bit the ice shader to add some scratches for him to have a rougher look, less slick than before.
I am on my way for the "steam" but i want to finish the bones setup before. :)
http://www.philours.com/wip/wip20.jpg

[mfegley]

CRIMINEY! That looks great! Excellent way to solve for the "un-glass" look! Did that take awhile to render...? Very nice. Can I borrow him for my gin and tonic? i'm a bit thirsty and need a few ice chunks...

very nice

[Philours]

Hey... thx. :)
The whole thing took about 15 minutes to render, as everything is procedural there is no huge texture map to load which, i presume, shorten the rendering time.

[starbase1]

If you can make images looking that good with a 15 minute render time, you should be writing tutorials, not reading them!

:D

[Philours]

aw thanks a lot :o but you see, i HATE waiting for hours to see the result, this is because i am too lazy for it... :) The only tutorial i could write would be about Computer Aided Lazyness ;), that's the reason why i'm working on a pretty fast computer (Bi-Athlon 1.8@2.1 Ghz and 1 meg Ram), so only my computer desserves the compliment... :)
So, i am still looking for good surfacing tutorials to optimize even more the speed process... ;)

[marvin]

Philours,

Here is a site that talks about texturing. I believe it's mainly about layering procedurals.

http://www.3dluvr.com/davewilson/makingof/arach/MakingOfArach.htm#texturing

This is another that talks about texturing the earth. I diagrams maps with other procedural layers, but I figure it still may be helpful. It taught me a lot.

By the way, That image looks really cool. I love the idea (wish I would've thought of it). The glowing eyes don't work for me. Maybe if they were a different color, but as is, they are too hard to notice, blend with the character too much, and don't add character to your ice creature. I know they were just a beginning and I can't wait to see more updates.

marvin

[marvin]

Woops. Here is the earth tutorial:

http://personal.southern.edu/~dascott/tutorial01/nasa-earth.htm

marvin

[Philours]

Thanks a lot Marvin for the tutorials, i will take a close look at them !
I agree with you about the eyes and i'll try with different colors, i am just shy about mixing colors cause it often looks ugly, have to try harder. :)

[Jokerd007]

Originally posted by Philours
(Bi-Athlon 1.8@2.1 Ghz and 1 meg Ram)

that must be pretty slow.

running with only 1 meg of ram.

just kidding, it looks awesome

[Philours]

Oups... sorry, would have said 1 terra... ;)

[Jokerd007]

Originally posted by Philours
Oups... sorry, would have said 1 terra... ;)

holy crap, is that even possible! do you mean gig?

[Philours]

Ahah... yes, of course (i wish i'd have 1 terra... ;) ).

[sammael]

Looking good Philours

RE: the glow, i agree that it doesnt look right yet, i would mabe try a darker shade of purple or blue with only a subtle amount of glow...

Cant wait to see him in action!