Since I am no longer competing I am proceeding with Ghosthunter. Should be ready for beta in a couple of weeks. I'm almost done with the graphics set which I'll be posting after the beta. The background mountain screens are in place yet because I want to get the vantage points set but these pics should give an idea of where Ghosthunter is going.

Joe B

opening room

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Up the mountain....

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So many mountains... you should replace Jack with Lucas art's Indiana Jones! Just make sure you put alittle something for Lucas arts. (E.g. Chance title screen to say in the corner: Indiana Jones (c) Lucas arts,, ect...) my bro told me that its ok to use other characters from (c) things if you do something like that.

Not without asking first! TOTOMB was a tribute to Indiana.
Temple of Doom <<<<----->>>> Temple of Tombs

And actually GH takes place at one spot. Himilayish.....

Here's a background screen with out the background mountains and the high pass fog

Joe B

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Oh and that's the Ghost King's castle

joeb

Brycey... or is it that other ap. you use... what was it called?

Wingy

Here is the COMPLETE list of applications I use to create mansions

MAC
Bryce 6.1 - Photoshop CS2 - DAZ Studio - Hexagon 2 - Poser 7 - Carrara Pro - Toon Boom Studio - After Effects - Final Cut Express - Audacity - Soundtrack Pro - Garageband - iTunes - Soundflowerbed - Sound Hack -Resourcerer - Rezilla - Excel - Midnight Mansion 1.06 (YES 1.06)

PC
Genetica Pro - Texture Converter - Clothes Converter - Poser 7 - DAZ Studio - Morph Designer - Particles 2, 3 - Particle Illusion

Want to know what they do just look them up.

joeb

ps - Yes I do use Excel to do mansion layout. It's a much better grid tool because I paste Matts blueprints into the cells as pictures as well as finished rooms. Sometimes on big mansions it's easier to SEE the whole mansion than in the editor (NO COMPLAINT HERE VERN!!!!) because I don't have to scroll and I can follow the path through the mansion easier. In the case of SFJ it's essential as the map is roughly 60 rooms wide.

jb

Joe.... that looks amazing !!!

Your graphics are indeed splendid, Joe!

That's INSANE (that's a good thing in kid lingo)

Thank you all!!!!

Here's the view at the start of the game. Haven't finished the plants for the trellises yet but  this is the start of Ghosthunter.

Joe B

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Whoops. That was the source picture. Here is the actual room. I've modified the graphics to not look so "real". Just about everything in MM is of a cartoony nature so an image like the first one would stick out like a sore thumb.

Joe B

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Nice screen shot, Joe. This is some of your best work yet.

Hey,, I was just talking about how you made that 3D model! Wow, I'm down in the program, I only have Bryce 5 and just normal ol' SoundTrack!  :o  :'(

But I'm not speding 2000 bucks USD to make a good mansion. I'd just stick with free stuff or stuff my dad and brother bought! :P (My dad bought PhotoShop CS, and he's soon going to get CS3, and my brother got SoundTrack and Bryce 5)  8-)

And.... how do you even get up there to the castle? It's just a background! :P

I'm not going to use 3D tools. Never was that good at it. I'm sticking at comical stuff! :P

I have to say...that was exactly my problem...which put me off of DAZ-Studio and Bryce a bit... the stuff was simply looking too "real" (and has that typical "hyper-real" computer-generated style so favoured by film-makers and game-creators) ...and it doesn't go too good with MM's more "comic-strip - like" design...!!

Joe seems to be very good at post-processing that stuff though..... I'm losing patience too early and often run out of time while trying to achieve something similar !  8-) :-/

Quote:

But I'm not speding 2000 bucks USD to make a good mansion. I'd just stick with free stuff

As I mentioned being a former consultant I have access to a lot of stuff but with the exception of Photoshop I got most of the software on the list for 30 bucks or less. A good  way to get software cheap or FREE is to be a tester. Heck it's sort of what we do when we test mansions. Another thing to look for is release deals.

Bryce 6.1 - When the people at DAZ bought Bryce they offered it for $6. Jumped right on that.

DAZ Studio - always free

Hexagon 2 - $1.60 recent DAZ Studio users favorite software promotion

Poser 7 - Renderosity web site had a deal on Poser 6 for FREE. Took a couple of weeks to get it downloaded but then did a $29.95 upgrade to 7

Carrara Pro - Got basics on a DAZ deal for $9.99. Got another upgrade deal for $20

Audacity, Rezilla, Soundflowerbed, SoundHack - FREE

I bought my MacBookPro on eBay. It included Final Cut Express, Soundtrack Pro and a bunch of other stuff. Yes I did pay close to 2K for the the Mac but rather than buy it from Apple I looked on ebay and found one that had a software package with it.


Quote:

Joe seems to be very good at post-processing that stuff though..... I'm losing patience too early and often run out of time while trying to achieve something similar !

Being a Mac network support technician at J. Walter Thompson (Advertising agency - Ford, General Mills, IBM, etc.),  in NY helped me pick up a lot of graphics tricks from "REAL" artists.

For cartoony stuff like the above graphic, castle was created from Shroom Castle, exported into a Bryce mountain scene. Using PS filters first make 2 copied layers, use the Accented Edges filter on the top level, use Dry Brush on the next level down, change the opacity on the top level until you get the effect you want. Do a Copy Merged, paste into a new document, save as your background jpeg. DAZ also has a renderer (software that does the actual drawing) for cartoon images. For content, a lot of it free, you can go to Content Paradise, Renderosity, 3dCommune or the DAZ forums (HUGE!!).
And of course as time permits forum members are more than welcome to ask for help. I do have a little experience in this.

:) :) ;) :) ;) :)

Off to work, later all,

Joe B

I agree that the post-processed version looks fantastic.

Man, I kinda miss Bryce. I still have version 3 on my computer, even though it doesn't really work in Classic (the wireframe drawing is way slow). It was a fun hobby throughout high school, but now that I'm (sorta) grow'd up, I don't have the time for it.

Also, I didn't know it was still around, since MetaCreations went belly-up and sold off all their products. I thought sure that Corel would have screwed it up just like they screw up everything else they do. How's version 6?

(Ahh...hobbies. Sometimes they pay the bills (web development for me), but usually, they create the bills. ;D)

Bryce 6 has a lot of new terrain creation options and the sky-lab has been reworked and is very cool but sometimes confusing with Sun/Moon placement. It also tends to blow up when importing big Lightwave objects with textures. They released 6.1 a couple of weeks ago and it was a major improvement on speed on Intel Macs. The base image above has roughly 5M polygons and took about 4 1/2 minutes to render on my MBP. When I got 6.1 the time dropped to about 80 seconds. Since DAZ bought Bryce they have added much tighter integration with DAZ Studio. Animations from DS are supposed to go right into Bryce. Haven't tried it yet so I'll see but overall I'm pretty pleased with software I got for $6.
FYI, same thing with Poser 7. 6 seemed to be pretty slow on my Mac but ran pretty well on the PC. Now 7 screams on the Mac at about the same speed as the PC. They've added a bunch of new figures mainly to support the new hi-res stuff that's coming out of DAZ and a lot of other places.

Well Ghosthunter is progressing rather nicely about 50% there. With the exception of the screens it'll run without a single custom graphic, but with the screens and graphics.......

Here are 2 panels from the editor. The top one is the entrance to Ghost Mountain from the train station (left).

The bottom one is the Ghost village on the back side of Ghost Mountain. I have yet to add money and critters but they'll all be the standards. After I release Ghosthunter I'll be posting the graphics set hopefully in time for the contest. The set will include:


Mud bricks
Moss covered bricks
Stone walls (3 kinds)
Granite, concrete and white marble bricks
Dirt walls
Wood floors
Concrete posts
Wooden steps (ladder)
New lava
Fire rock wall
Grass
Climbable Vines
Hanging vines
6 different type of flowers
3 kinds of bushes
2 dead trees
New cobwebs

and of course
Snow bricks and snow drifts
and when I get 1.08, falling snow

:o :o :o :o

8-)

Joe B

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That looks cool!  :D

*PUSH*

I mean, sure, having a better chance at winning something would be nice, but I'd rather see an M&J mansion in the expansion pack.  ;)

Don't listen to Wingy; the shots you've posted are astounding. Truly your best work yet.

Thanks ryos.

Vern knows full well that if he wants a mansion of mine in the expansion pack he can have it. I've got no problem with assigning the rights to Actionsoft. Remember, for me it's not the money it's the sheer JOY of putting stuff together and watching other people enjoy it. I think I put together quality mansions that can be played and enjoyed. I'm working on improving my technique and passing tips on to anyone who wants them. Heck I've even posted graphics that have taken me not a few hours to put together. I appreciate the thanks and compliments I get and think I take criticism well and use it to get better.
I'm posting shots of Ghosthunter to help stimulate others. aquaMat or samskelton said they were working on a jungle or Indiana Jones mansion. GH is LOADED with tiles that can be use in that scenario and sharing is not a problem with me. You want to use the graphics? Sure, then you can spend more time designing and building instead of doing custom graphics. But when I'm trying to help I don't need the silly annoying little disagreeing comments with just about every thing I post.

joeb

Well, if you don't want the $300, i'll take it!!! :P ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Sorry if I made Joe explode.
Don't worry, I think your mansion is great! ::)

joeb wrote on 09.04.2007 at 22:39:30:

...For the time being since you're the only one at the lofty orange level I'll just ignore orange posts.

Look, I know you're angry, but I didn't want this to happen! I deleted both those posts! Wow, Joe, I never meant it! You took it so seriously! I said I was sorry! :'( Don't do this to me, Joe! I want to be friends with the other people on the forums, not enemys or something along the lines of that!

Oh yeah, BTW: I watched my older brother program. He's doing big projects! (I watched for along time) :P

P.S. Can someone tell Joe that for me, please! (Like in a PM) :'(

Yeah, this whole thing has gotten a little out of hand. It's my fault, really. I never created any rules or guidelines for these forums, and we need them. I will soon be posting rules (keep an eye out for them in the admin section) and the administrators will be enforcing those rules to ensure that we don't have conflict on these boards again. I'm aware of more than one person who has been scared away from the boards due to unfriendly posts here, and that's really too bad, and it's high time I did something about it. Stay tuned.

Well one thing I'd like is the Ghosthunter thread to be Ghosthunter. Speaking of which I'm approaching beta and the testers are selected based on their excellent feedback on Dominator. Couple of more shots:

Gardens on Ghost mountain.

Joe B

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Ghost Mountain lava tunnels

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I would be more than happy to beta- test, The lava area is lookin' really good too!

I agree. That lava background is cool.

HO HO I am here too Joe!!! Want to Beta-test!!

did you change any of the sprites for ghosthunter? If so I don't see any yet :-?

sam skelton,

Nope. Wanted to wait until I see what's in the expansion pack. If I go into beta with GH before the expansion pack comes out I'll see if there are critters in the expansion pack I want to use then I may go back and change GH a little for them otherwise I'll just change them before I do the real release to the forum.
GH is such a radical change in the way I design I more concerned about the design than I am the graphics. I have a lot around to draw on (pun intended).

::) ::)

later dude,

Joe B

Couldn't resist. I REALLY like the way this came out. Hopefully it'll get you all thinking about the weather. I think this'll be the last GH screenshot until it actually gets posted.
Please if you'd like to ask how I did anything just ask.

Enjoy,


Joe B

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Joe, your graphics just keep getting more amazing. Wow.
:o [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

I really like the snow effect and the background bricks to the left. There are a few things I'm having trouble with, getting these little blue splotches out of my custom vine and brick. I may have to send them to you... But  [smiley=thumbup.gif] on the graphics

@sam skelton,

Sure sam, just send them over and I'll take a look.

@Semi-Native,

Thanks. This brick set will be up in a few weeks. Snow and all. A technique I'm working on is to create the bricks first and then use them in the background graphics (screens). Take a look at the lava screen. Same thing. I think it just makes everything work together to create an environment.

This is my opinion but I think that limiting Jack to just run around in a mansion or castle doesn't add the feel of adventure to the game that can exist. Not knowing what's around the corner (as long as it's not a cheap death) adds to the thrill of MM. We can go out and "paint" whole new worlds to explore, challenge and enjoy. Instead of just painting still lifes we can be surrealists, or impressionists, or pointillists (my apologies to the well schooled in art forum members out there if I got the names wrong). And as in art there will be those who really appreciate one particular form over another. The more mansions I build the more ideas I have for new mansions. What slows me down is having to create the graphics behind them.
And that is why I offer up so many screenshots. There is a very exciting contest coming up and if you have the tubes of paint (custom graphics/screens/new software to support them) you're only limited by your mind.
Hopefully these images stir up ideas in everyone. As an FYI Ghosthunter was inspired by an old war movie called Where Eagles Dare. Good inspiration is all around us!

Enjoy,

Joe B

Joe,
I'm mightily impressed:  how did you make that fog happenin' ??!!   Or is it part of the background picture ??

(On this screenshot it gives the impression as if Jack could actually walk THRU the fog !!!)

Very good..... !!

The fog is in the image. Because the snow is white (almost: 254,254,254) it fools the eye into thinking the fog is an extension of it. I used 3 Alien Skin Nature filters. Smoke, Snow and Clouds. The background image is one of the earlier mountain screens flipped. Then I used the PS clone tool to duplicate the highest peak at a lower level. I then did some touch up with gaussian blur to blend the cloned area. Then I sharpened the edges a little for the Snow filter. Applied the snow filter and had it create the snow in a layer above. I hid the snow layer and used the magnetic polygon selection tool to select sky area above the mountain tops. I used the clouds filter to create another layer with just clouds. Hid that layer. Inverted the select to select the mountains. Used the smoke filter to create the fog. Then I removed parts of the filter layers and played with their opacity and positioning to get the blend to look right. When I liked the way it looked I did a select  all and copy merged. I pasted that into a new PS document and saved it as background15.jpg.

Simple!

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

What's cool is that EVERY background for GH was created from the same Bryce document that has the shroom castle (Ghost King's castle) on one side. By moving the camera around the mountain I get absolutely accurate lighting and consistent views. Then I post process in PS to get the effects like the snow and the lava. Here is the snow scene.

Joe B

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If Jack is walking in the snow he need warmer  clothes!!!

Yeah, rose.... as I'm working on a snowy part in TMF 2 at the moment myself (with Joe's help), I have come across that issue too: while buiding, everytime I saw Jack walk thru the snowy landscapes with his usual outfit I was thinking "Wait a minute....this isn't appropriate...that guy will get himself a cold!!".... so I thought aboiut designing him an Alaska-type outfit (maybe Psychotronic would be the perfect contact for that  :D), but as TheMansionFamily 1 was WITHOUT custom sprites, I tend to think it'd be better to make TMF-2 custom-sprites-free as well (to save people the file-switching hassle).

But maybe Joe has something prepared for his snow landscapes.... they are far more alpine than mine anyway !!
And you asked him anyway...   :D ;D ;)

(It's the Ghosthunter thread after all..... sorry for getting slightly off-topic for a second  ;) )

so.... where are the ghosts?

@aquaMat,
Not off topic. We're talking snow here and since AFAIK you and I are the only ones doing snow (hopefully that will change) it right ON topic.


@Rose,

I have corduroys and a plaid shirt with a ski cap that I'm finishing up!!!!


@sam skelton,
Haven't gotten to the GK castle yet and believe me, there'll be PLENTY up there. Plus I'm waiting for the expansion  pack because I believe it has a troll, a ghost and a couple of other things.


Enjoy all and just remember, help is just a "Hey Joe" away!!!!

8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

Joe B

snow may be a good Idea for one of my later custom graphics mansions... But snow in the summer!... IN UTAH!!! ;D ;D :D :D ;)

Wow, love that lava flow! But I like the garden better. Keep it up, and make it come out soon! :P

BTW: Did you unblock me yet? It's been awhile.  :-/

@wingy,
Just follow the rules and we'll be OK.
I used the lava bricks to create the lava background so they look really good together.
Same with the snow. Some of the garden stuff came from TOTOMB but I modified it a lot.


@sam skelton,
Hey I live in Arizona. In the same day I can be in 75 degree weather here where I live and drive an hour to 2 feet of natural snow. You want to talk snow in summer there's always Psychotronic.

Later dudes,

Joe B

Actually, our summers here are quite nice. Well, it's kind of slushy and muddy right now. But it'll be nice in a few weeks.

I still think the Ghosthunter snow is a little on the lumpy side, but there's no doubt the screen shots are looking very nice overall.