Just kicked off a render last night - here’s the frames:
Render Test 01
You can just right-click save as…
(Sorry about the wmv format - it’s just the most efficient to me right now…)
It’s just the same maps from before (colour)… no spec, etc…
Getting some flickering - i think it’s from the FG. What do you think? Any ideas on how to fix? I’ll be putting another render on tonite to see what fixes it…
Anyways - Lookin forward to more feedback!
Bless.
-T
Your Old Elf gives me chills.
Very strong energy flowing through that work.
Very powerful.
Rodin - Thanks man! I’m glad you’re liking it so far… Checked out ur site - I love your sculptures… you got some mad skills!
Got the majority of the texturing on the face done today… Finished painting all the colour maps - Back, Mid, Front SSS, Diffuse, Overall, Spec and SSS control maps… Also tweaked the skin shader a bit more…
Here’s what I got so far… Still have to finalize it and fix some seams… but I’m pretty happy with it so far… Took pretty long hand painting everything!
[attach=107935]old_elf_15.jpg[/attach]
And a close up:
[attach=107936]old_elf_16.jpg[/attach]
Well - hope you like…
As usual - I look forward to your crits and comments!
Bless,
_T
Ok - so here’s the render I kicked off last night of the elf - with higher FG accuracy and lower Contrast Threshold… It took care of some of the flicker… but I think that the majority of the flicker is coming from the shadows from the huge area light i have… since most of the flicker is happening in the shadow areas… Probably not enough samples or rays or something… I’ll have to fool around with it.
Open to any suggestions!
Bless.
_T
So here’s a little update on the lighting and textures…
[attach=107937]old_elf_17.jpg[/attach]
Lookin forward to your comments!
-T
wow stunning character, so clean! the skin has too much magenta for my taste i think a more blueish touch would underline the crepiness of that character but what do i know 
nice render man
he’s coming along really nicely! I’d have to agree about the skin being a bit too much on the magenta side…
chindian, it looks very cool.great work!
when you start sculpting something new?
moreHuhn - Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll take it into consideration and maybe try a render with it… But the original idea was for a purple elf… haha… I was thinkin either night/dark elf… so maybe I could bring down the saturation or something… I’ll play with it this week once I’m done the rest of the textures.
barbarossaX - thanks. 
Intervain - Thank you! Means alot coming from a talented cg artist like yourself! I’ll do some revisions to the skin and see if people like it better… but I think I want to stay as close to what I had in mind initially…
rodion vlasov - Hey - thanks… I’m not starting anything new until I can get these half done models all the way done! haha… I have too many incomplete ones… So I’ll be working on finishing them off one by one for now. Sorry… hehe. But hopefully I can start something new soon… I’m pretty sure I’ll start itching to sculpt something new again soon… hehe:D
Did another render test - this time without the FG and faking the bounce lighting… FG was just too much render time for my one compy and not worth the wait… This result is ok - but I think I might give GI a shot tonight and see what I can get with that…
Finishing up the texturing on everything else at the moment - I got the arrows, quiver, leaf armour, and shirt done - just need to dirty them up now… I’ll post some pics of them tomorrow.
Thanks for all the feedback - and I look forward to hearing more!!!
Bless.
_T
your old elf is very very nice , i like it so much , buddy:D , i’m waiting for your finial one , if your texture and background all finish, it’s greater. i open my eyes, waiting:rolleyes: 
very nice stuff!
wasen’t it you who also did a superman model recently? -just wanted to say, i think you’d grown alot since that:D
this is really nice and clean work.
-r
Well - here’s the render from last night… 2 lights with GI and a photon bouncing sphere geo around the scene… Not too bad for a simple setup - and the render times are alot better than with FG… I think i can tweak this to what I need… Still need to up the GI quality - i’m getting some flicker with it… but should be ok once I do that… I’ll put another render tonight again and try it out…
[attach=107938]old_elf_18.jpg[/attach]
(Yea - I know it’s a bit dark…) Also need to dirty up some of the textures… and stilll have to texture the straps…
Anyways - here’s the render:
Lookin forward to your comments and crits…
Outstanding work Chindian !
the skin is a little too redish for my taste.
L
Lucky_1 - thanks! The skin colour is a matter of taste I think… I’ve been getting mixed reviews about it… it seems either you love it or hate it… haha. But it’s what I had in mind initially… we’ll see though - maybe I’ll tweak it a bit more and see what happens… thanks for the feedback!
Ok - so the flicker joys continue… I rendered this test sequence today - but still have flicker in the GI - at least I think it’s the GI… There seems to be some popping in the shadows… Not sure what it’s from. I was hoping maybe someone on here could help me.
I listed the render settings I was using on the video… I’m thinking maybe it could be that i need to up the GI accuracy? (It was set to 230) Or maybe the photon count? or radius? I don’t know… I’ll try out upping the accuracy tonight… But any help would be much appreciated.
Render Test 06 - GI Higher settings
Anyways - I’m done with the majority of the textures now - I just have to make a dirt pass and dirty everything up a bit…
Once that’s done - i’ll start building the rig and blendshapes and get started on the camera & character animation… Also need to work out the background…
Thanks for all the help and encouragement thus far! Looking forward to more feedback…
Bless.
_T
So - finishing up the textures and dirtying things up… Should be done by tomorrow… Then it’s on to rigging and animation and hair! WOOT!
[attach=107939]old_elf_19.jpg[/attach]
Well - hope u like.
Lookin forward to your feedback…
Well - here’s the render from last night… testing out the textures. I think they could still use some work… maybe some more dirtying up in specific areas. I upped the GI accuracy to 300 - still have a little flicker - but once the video’s compressed it doesn’t show much. I think i might need to up the photon count to totally eradicate it… but pretty happy with the lighting results so far.
Render Test 07
Should be done the texturing today - then it’s onto rigging and faceshapes… really excited to see him start moving.
Well - lookin forward to your feedback!
Bless.
_T
Man that skin and face is 10/10. Superb realism. If you could go into some detail about your render and shader settings it would be a huge help! it’s one area I really want to learn more about, and you seem to have got it spot on
Dryn - More details on what specifically? The skin shading?
it is so great work buddy.