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afwfan-2 — Almost there - modelling by Cass
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Published: 2018-05-26 01:45:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 1849; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 31
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Description
This was stupidly harder than I expected it to, and I suspect if I actually had half a clue I'd either make it look a lot better (or maybe have never attempted).
Leveraging a truckload of tools I wasn't previously as familiar with, I've created a set of posed crowd figures, stripped down materials, textures, and resolutions (to make them fit). Looking at this I can already see a couple of things I can improve fairly quick and easy. I also need to separate and save component parts so that I only load them as I need them to make scene setup easier.
This said, once the scene is set - it renders in normal time!!!!
Several of you may not be that impressed. I understand. Anyone with decent expectations would expect better.
I'm still feeling a slight thrill of victory.
I have a 3d stadium with actual 3d figures in the stands - not just a flat wallpaper background.
The virtual version of the awesome helping me model same.
Some final bits of polish - then it's onto our matches!!! 
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Comments: 22
the long awaited return of cassidy to your ring is much appreciated and something to look forward to.
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Heh.. I did something similar a while back over here . It looks good but gee it's a lot of work!
I preferred the older Genesis figures for crowds, they're lower res to start with and the Texture atlas is an easier way of reducing the texture loads than stripping them manually.
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There’s any number of ways to go back and start over I reckon.
The DAZ3D store has a pose set in the platinum club for g3 crowd figures, hence that starting point. I used a g1 supersuit material Pre-set to “reset” all the surfaces and a scene optimisation script to 107% delete every surface, bump, opacity or shader texture. Then the DAZ decimator to lose excess polygons.
Even on sale there is a few quid worth of utilities purchased just for this project.
But I am pretty happy with the initial result.
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I hadn't heard of that script, I'll have to check that out.
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Sounds like I am an experimental experience. I like it and you! Hugs
No on to my next victim
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Genesis 3 figures. Used a crowd pose set from DAZ3D. Dressed and posed a set 3x8. Set all surfaces to most basic (zero maps or shaders incl subsurface). Primary colours on all figures and clothes.
Decimator (DAZ plugin) to reduce polygon counts 90%. Resized clothes and changed surface colours to patch all the poke thru. Saved as a .obj and lose all the joints and morphs - just mesh and surface colours only.
Final 3x8 crowd is about 130meg. Saved full crowd then portions (3x4s and 2x8s).
Clear the gen 3 figures, then re-import the different .objs to assemble a moderately random full crowd on the right side.
By this point am slightly exhausted and a little bit drunk, so save the full crowd, re-load and position on left. Set X axis scale to -100% to mirror. Have jumbled up since to avoid mirroring effect.
Parent the full crowd to the stadium, which can be rotated on the Y axis, so I can spin to always have in back of figure.
Use camera with depth of field active so primary figure (Cass here) in focus and crowd blurry in distance.
Stadium figure plus crowd saved as a separate scene so I set everything in ring and load/position/spin the crowd last thing. Save and render.
Phew
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Wow that's a big slog, hon! Well done! Great result it has way better atmosphere than a dark cavern and a few lights on silhouettes. Interesting that you posed in G3 then reduced the polygons afterwards ... that's really cool. Thanks for explaining the whole recipe and congrats for figuring it all out!
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Well, it looks good as far as I can see. And I think, once you're using it in scenes with more foreground action or just less of the crowd showing, the replication of elements might not be as obvious.
It's just that, at the moment, we're all looking at the audience so minor things like that are more apparent.
But excellent work in my opinion. I'm glad you are happy with it, that's the most important thing. And I look forward to seeing it in a match once you've ironed out the minor kinks.
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I totally agree. If this crowd becomes background in context the character repetition will matter much less. The overall effect that it is a 3d crowd is still good and as someone who has worked on some smaller crowd scenes with low res characters myself I can appreciate the effort that went into this one. It must be a lot of work to make a big crowd like this however the cloning is done.
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Sharp eyes sir! That mirroring is exactly the first thing that I groaned at.
Fixed it already.
More to come - patience pls.
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That crowd is amazing! I cant imagine the work involved. Great job
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Knowing now what I didn’t know when I started?
That said, I am actually kinda happy with the final result, and I also now know how to clean up the loose bits that still bug me... for another day; good enough for now.
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I know how hard it is to get this look so I am impressed. The effect of a lit stadium crowd is tricky to pull off this well. I look forward to seeing how you use it!
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Thank you. Was a lot of work, and there are some things I need to fix. Future work.
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Almost There? Looks to me that you have already arrived. Congrats. Drew.
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