02-07-2007, 06:38 AM
I can't really claim that that artwork was mine only. Just about everything in MR and TOTOMBS was modified artwork from the web. When I came up with the ideas for those 2 mansions I went out on the internet and looked up Egypt, South American jungles, plants,etc. and used Photoshop to do post work to craft the graphics to fit my needs. Basically the same thing you talk about doing. And Matt and I started exactly the same way. Tweak the graphics that came with MM until you get a good feel for how you need to make things work and build on that. I still haven't found my tutorial on custom graphics but would ask that anyone who happened to pick it up repost it here on the forums. I spent a lot of time on the geometries and I know they'd give you a higher comfort level.
It's become a lot easier to get exactly what I want now with DS (Daz Studio). I go to one of the companion sites, Renderosity or Content Paradise as a starting place. There are links that go from those sites to find just about anything you'd want. If you invest some time and effort in learning DS it's a great tool for getting the core graphics. I found a terrific site with all kinds of Star Wars objects, all free. I would have used some of them but didn't want to run into any copyright issues with Lucas Arts. I've got just about every ship including the superstar destroyer (EP5) and the Death Star. Lightsabres from every character and a complete Darth Vader suit that fits perfectly on one of the free DAZ models.
Since I've been so into it I've compiled ten's of thousands of objects so let me know if you're looking for anything in particular and I'll see if I have a model of it. Right now I'm playing around with a plug-in called Particles which I'm going to use to re-do the lava and acid animations. Someone (brell, Wingy) made an accurate observation about the color of the acid in MR being confused with water so I'll probably do a neon pink or purple new version of it. I've also used it to generate smoke and broken parts flying off JAC when he dies. There are also some cool dying graphics on the probe droids which look like the Dark Side of The Force electricity that the emperor shots out of his hands.
Wow, I CAN get long winded. But feel free to drop me a line about any graphics you might be thinking of and I'll see if I can get you (or anyone else for that matter) pointed in the right direction.
Later,
Joe B
It's become a lot easier to get exactly what I want now with DS (Daz Studio). I go to one of the companion sites, Renderosity or Content Paradise as a starting place. There are links that go from those sites to find just about anything you'd want. If you invest some time and effort in learning DS it's a great tool for getting the core graphics. I found a terrific site with all kinds of Star Wars objects, all free. I would have used some of them but didn't want to run into any copyright issues with Lucas Arts. I've got just about every ship including the superstar destroyer (EP5) and the Death Star. Lightsabres from every character and a complete Darth Vader suit that fits perfectly on one of the free DAZ models.
Since I've been so into it I've compiled ten's of thousands of objects so let me know if you're looking for anything in particular and I'll see if I have a model of it. Right now I'm playing around with a plug-in called Particles which I'm going to use to re-do the lava and acid animations. Someone (brell, Wingy) made an accurate observation about the color of the acid in MR being confused with water so I'll probably do a neon pink or purple new version of it. I've also used it to generate smoke and broken parts flying off JAC when he dies. There are also some cool dying graphics on the probe droids which look like the Dark Side of The Force electricity that the emperor shots out of his hands.
Wow, I CAN get long winded. But feel free to drop me a line about any graphics you might be thinking of and I'll see if I can get you (or anyone else for that matter) pointed in the right direction.
Later,
Joe B