Roger

Thanks......I'll give that a go. Should work fine. Appreciate the help. Roger

During the creation of this beast, I did something that I do with other 3d programs.....I split the thing into separate projects, so each body part ( mostly) has a separate project file. Its just easier for me to work this way. However, I have come to the point where I want to start bringing these parts into the same project file, but I cannot seem to find a way to save the model out as a .mdl file from within the project----although there seems to be an option to import them from the File menu. So, if someone could give me the Saving and Importing .mdl files for Dummies version, I will post a picture of my dragon as he exists so far. I am sure its something obvious that I am missing, but I checked all the menu choices and I can't seem to find it. I don't think Consolidate Project is quite what I am looking for. Thanks Roger

Camera Mapping is where you create a rough geometry the position the camera, and apply a decal through it. But if you are looking for a more clay-mation look, this would probably not work for you. I usually try for realism rather than the style you are trying to create, so I am not a good judge. Good luck, David Well, as far as look, I am sort of going for a "shrek" look, at least as far as vegetation and environments go, and clay characters, and probably clay and cloth props, where appropriate. I want it to have sort of a hybrid look, where you have that sort of "thrown-together" found object look that you get with stop motion films ( since you are appropriating lots of different things to make props) When I am closer to having a scene done, I will put up a still so what I am trying to describe makes more sense. Roger

By camera mapping do you mean where you take a flat plane, and then map a bitmap to it? That might work in some cases, but I don't think it will look quite right here......these environments I am creating are sort of a cross between claymation and stopmotion look.......not CG photoreal, but there will be some things that are supposed to look that way. I was thinking of having clay characters and some props, but then having photoreal trees, grass, and cloth ( I really like the look of the trees generated by the treez plugin). However, I am concerned that things might not look very "unified" if I go mixing styles like that. What do you think?

I think I am going to add some crags and escarpments and stuff behind the cave, maybe a sheer cliff face or something... Also some trees. Thanks for everyone that has made comments, they helped a lot. Let me know if there is anything else that you think would "punch it up". Roger Hmmmm Maybe something like this: [attachmentid=18204] Anyway, that's sort of what I picture it looking like.....some grass on top of the cave, maybe hobbit-hole looking, but not *too* much grass.

Ok, the first cave was bollocks so I re-did it, it looks a lot better now ( I think) but I think I am going to have to do something about textures, other than these darktree shaders, because this one still took like 8 minutes to render. The clay shader seems to render fastest, but I really like the igneous rock shader. hmmm ok I rendered a low res picture ( what is that, 320x200?) and it only took a minute but I think I am probably going to want to render higher than that for the finished film, and this one texture takes a really long time to render, so I may have to do something else when it comes time to render the whole film. Ok....I added a 2nd view also..... Do you guys think it looks better? If you need me to post a bigger picture, let me know. [attachmentid=18201][attachmentid=18203]

*slaps forehead* got it..........I don't know why I couldn't picture it before. Heck, I'm not sure why I didn't do it that way in the first place......that is essentially what I wanted anyhow. Thanks for jiggling some synapses. I will post a corrected cave tomorrow. Roger

I'm not sure how you mean.......I kinda just "glommed" them together..........I extruded the entrance, then made a separate "domed" bit and then shoved the 2 together.......the internal tunnel I don't believe is part of the larger structure. I will try messing with it some more tonight, though.

Yes, that was my impression also. It looks razor sharp right now. I think I will also make the cave more gray than black. Thanks for the critique. Roger

ok...... Here is the same cave w/ some textures thrown on it. Be honest, if you think there is something that would make it better, please say so. Thanks [attachmentid=18150]

Nerrazi, That is a good idea, but since this is a cartoon cave for a cartoon dragon I thought the mouse-hole look would be more appropriate. I have to reboot now, I'll throw some textures on, let me know what you think when I post the new pic.

Thanks......I'll throw some textures on it, and put another image up.

I honestly don't have the time to learn the ins and outs of the Hash materials system, I'm sure it would take me at least a week to come up with a clay shader. I am kind of in a rush to finish this project, I have given myself til the end of August to see what I can get done, if at that point its done, great. If not, I have a good start. I do have an extra machine for rendering, but again, that is not quite the point. Anyway, the point is not the shaders, the point is does it look ok now, or should I scratch it and start over? would you model it differently? I started with the entrance and then just started extruding it back and pulling points. I used to copies of the entrance hole to do the extrusions so that I could extrude a partial interior.

sorry, I realized my mistake and had to edit the post.........didn't think anyone would get to it so quick LOL thanks

[attachmentid=18147]Hello, Here's a cave for a short film I'm working on. It doesn't look quite right to me for some reason. I had shaded it with the darktree shaders, but they take forever to render on my laptop, and I temporarily uninstalled them. What do you think? I seem to remember it looking better with the shaders ( I am using clay shaders, combined with some of the other materials). I wanted the main characters to have a "claymated" look, however, I am not sure that is appropriate for every prop / item in the film. Would you stick completely with the clay look, or have clay characters in a semi-photoreal environment? I ask because I have an underwater scene, and of course clay water would be opaque. I was thinking of just using a transparent material with some particles floating around to simulate water. Thoughts? Ideas? Criticism on how to make better? Thanks