Scottie's Yuletide Objects of 2017!

Hello again folks!

Welcome back to my little 3DS Max Scene containing the various kinds of Gift Boxes and Yule Stockings I've worked on! Here, in the lower right corner, you can see the newest Yule-themed gift boxes for 2017!


Just for a fun comparison, I've set them beside the 2016 Yuletide gifts so you can see the changes I decided to make for this year. In addition to designing some new base papers, I've also added a few more decorative elements with which to festoon the tops of the festive wrappings. I'll add more such variety every time I'm tasked with these, just to throw in some differences here and there...



My general goal with these is to create an overall visual variety of colors, sizes, and heights. Eventually I may start playing with different shapes as well, though that will require a new texture-map template to account for new shape configurations and mapping. Once finished in Max, and mapped with the proper textures, I bring them into Unity and create new materials for them with all the good specular effects to help make them look more realistic! Here are several images showing the new gift boxes from different angles and in broad daylight, so you can enjoy the details.




Lastly, I test the finished items in a scene that properly lights them in an atmosphere representative of where players would most likely place them when decorating their homes! In this image, the details and rich materials of these new Yule gift boxes really shine! You can see the glinting of lights from the surrounding room on the surfaces of the decorative bells, the glimmer of the firelight on the wrapping paper and the bows, and even the sheen of the upturned holly leaves and rounded berries in some cases.


Next I'll begin working on the 2017 Yuletide Candelabra as well as some new Yule Stocking variations for 2017! Hopefully you've enjoyed my progress on these items so far!

Scottie ^_^

 

Amazing work as always! Looking forward to seeing the rest!

 

Scottie, fantastic work for two reasons:
1. These look very realistic and I love how the textures account for shimmers and reflections of light. Nice touch!

2. Really happy to see these being worked on well in advance. Hopefully they are made available before December so that we can get them before we might actually want to use them.

Great job and looking forward to seeing the wreaths, etc. that you work on next.

 

Amazing work Scottie! I love all the patterns!

 

Those look great! Hopefully we are also getting some Yule cards this year. The Valentine's ones need some competition.

 

Thanks for sharing everything looks lovely. Is there a way to change the stone on the fireplace rather than outline them, since they look like what we have already but just outlined? I have the large Fireplace, not sure if it is the Lords pledge fireplace or not. Perhaps it is a bit smaller since that hearth of Britannia is pretty large in size. Really I have no problem with them but just wondering about the outlining look. Pictures don't always do justice to things I'm sure.

 

Scott Rules.

 

For a second there I thought they were oracle eyes.

 

Thanks so much! Next up will be the 2017 version of the Menorah, after which I'll be leaping into the new stocking styles!

 

Absolutely! Starr was very much wanting to get all these items out as early as possible for EXACTLY that reason... And who knows,..it may be that I have time to add a new thing or two to the Yuletide list of items... There are folks among you that have been asking for pine-bough garlands to hang to go along with the wreaths! ^_^

 

Thanks! Coming up with and properly executing those patterns so that they tile seamlessly around the box is one of the primary challenges of the boxes... So glad you enjoy!

 

Ooooh! That's a fun idea! I'll throw that Starr's way, and see if it's something we have time to do this year! The tech is all in place, and with a little tweaking for a new shape (and new artwork of course) it could very well be a possibility! Thanks!

 

Hello there! Good to see your smiling face!

I beg your forgiveness, but I'm not sure I understand what you're asking about the fireplace that I used as a backdrop piece in the last image... You had mentioned possibly "changing" it instead of "outlining" it?

The fireplace you see in the last image of the post is the existing Ornate Large Stone and Wood Fireplace piece (its base hearth)... I just picked a little test house in which I have placed and tested all of the fireplace elements I made awhile back, and used it to set up a cheerful little "gifts by the fire" scene I could use to show off Yule stuff I'm making... Right now, the only new items you see are the 2017 Gift Boxes themselves... As I continue with my recent related tasks, I'll be adding all the new things to the scene for comparison! ^_^

I was actually confused by the word "outlined" in this case... Are you referring to the first image in this post instead? That image I took in the program I use to build all these items, called 3DSMax (or just "Max" for short, these days)... That little scene, with a bunch of different items along with the gift boxes, includes several different old chimneys and fireplaces as well, but those are in the file merely for the sake of size comparison as I build the new related items, and are just there for visual and placement reference... I'm not actually making any new fireplaces this year...

The "outlining" you may see there is merely dependent on whether I have the mesh-lines turned on or off as I work... Sometimes I enjoy taking screenshots with those outlines on just so that you fine folks can take a gander at the polygons used to build the meshes...

Sorry for any confusion... Did this explain what you were seeing?

Scottie ^_^

 

haha oops Sorry Scottie. Yes you did. It is my bad anyway and a duh moment. Everything is lovely as always Scottie.

 

Oh good! I was worried I was messing up somehow... Worry not Majoria,...I have those moments all the time! Heh! ^_^

 

OK! Today was the day for the creation of the 2017 Holiday Candelabra!

Starting off in Max as always, I wanted to create a design that was significantly different from the other three we've already made, while still retaining the basic elements that Starr requires from it. This time I also wanted to combine silver and gold into the design for some rich variety, and have candles that were a bit more orange than the typical tallow yellow that one of the earlier ones used. Below you can see this year's candelabra compared to the 2016 version you see peeking out on the left (in Max it's still using the older yellow color for the candles)...


Of course (as always), in Max's building windows there's a limit to how nice the textures look (they're often flat and drab when seen there), so it becomes necessary to bring the item into Unity to take full advantage of the materials and metallic shininess. The next few images shows them in the editor in broad daylight, where you can begin to see the lovely glints of the silver and gold portions. The first image is the new candelabra by itself, while the second shows it with its candles lit while comparing it to the nicely-rendered 2016 version I created.



And, as usual, I always like to place it in the little scene with all the correct lighting cues and surrounding objects. Here you get a good idea of what this piece will usually look like when illuminating your home during the Yuletide season!


Next, I'll begin working on the new Yule Stockings variations!

Enjoy!

Scottie ^_^

 

Oh! I almost forgot to showcase another item I created, which isn't a part of the items to be sold in the store, but is instead another craftable item for you all to enjoy!

Do you recall the more "generic" gift boxes that had themes such as Chaos, Spirituality, and Virtue (Ethos)? Among them was the 2016 Craftable Gift Box, which you can see below, along with the one I created for this year on the bottom right of the first image! In the second image you can see it up-close as compared to last year's version! To make it a bit more special I added one of the same hand-crafted decorations that I designed for the other gifts...



And, of course, I would be remiss if I did not show it displayed in that same cozy Yuletide scene by the roaring fire. It's always good to check it in Unity to make sure my materials are functioning properly...


Hopefully you fine folks will like having a new gift box style to craft yourselves!

Enjoy!

Scottie ^_^

 

Will it be possible to have an option on gift boxes and stockings to change them over to "non_container" use. Because lots are limited in the amount of containers, we ran into issues the last couple of years with this in decorating large lots.

 

That's an excellent question! Let me ask....
.............
...OK! So based on my talk with the two programmers that have been involved in this issue, this particular problem is actually currently under discussion, has an actual JIRA written up for it (which has, unfortunately, been kicked like a can down the road in favor of solving more pressing issues), and already has several possible solutions being considered...

Primarily, the issue has to do with how the Item Archetype ("Bag" in this case) is assigned to the Prefab, and what it would take to dynamically change that Archetype "in-game"...:
* The "messiest" way to deal with this would be to literally create separate "non-container" versions of all these types of items as their own deco items.... This solution would be messy because it would account for an entirely separate set of things to buy, own, and manage in one's inventory which would look exactly like the existing items when seen in the world... And since these items get hand-labeled by one of our designers upon creation as a Prefab, they would be added to our database as separate items as well, and would need to be labeled and managed properly to avoid confusion and mishandling... This would require an amount of Designer time to properly implement.
* Another way to handle it would require some added player interface solution allowing the existing container assets to be player-labeled as "container" or "non-container", which would require some additional code-work to set it up and add either an extra check-box to the inventory lists, or some special pop-up dialogue box that can be invoked with a right-click which will allow the player to set that option for that object...
* A last option would be to make the code in-game "unset" the Item Archetype already set for all such items, and only "re-set" the "Bag" Archetype IF the item is attempted to be opened in the game... In this case, if the Container Limit has already been reached, the "opening event" would not be permitted, and a pop-up menu would appear explaining that the item cannot be opened due to the Container Limit, and that an existing container needs to be picked up or emptied of all contents for it to no longer count against the Container Limit. This, too, would require a degree of code-work and Programmer time to properly implement...

This issue, and which (if any) of these solutions to implement, is still under discussion,...and the determination of when, and who's time we can afford to spend on it, is still being made...

Hopefully we can get traction on this before this year's holiday season is over!

Scottie ^_^

 

<----- For me the issue is that bags can't go in bags so all of these interesting little containers and deco (dressers, nightstands, presents, cabinets, etc.) have to go to the bank and occupy the top of my bank - and I can't stick them all someplace on a lot.