China Town

Cody

Hey guys, been working on this for awhile, and I think it's time for a Polycount Polish. Honest constructive criticism is highly encouraged, harsh if need be. I want to make this amazing, so lay on the knowledge, brothers. I have things I want to do still, but would like some fresh eyes on it.

Total Tris - 4,520
Corner Building - 2,436
Other Building - 1,133
Barrier - 180 each
Lamp Post - 125
Sidewalk & Street - 72






More Views - http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ct19.jpg
http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ct22.jpg
http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ct23.jpg

Wire Shot - http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ctwire1.jpg







All the other Textures
Corner Building - http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ctt-cBuild.jpg
Fire Escape and Awning - http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ctt-fire.jpg
Other Building - http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ctt-restBuild.jpg
Barrier - http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ctt-barrier.jpg
Street & Sidewalk - http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ctt-street.jpg

Ozymandias

Cody, this is looking really good. My only crits at the moment are that the textures look too uniform, you're heading in the right direction with the graphitti you have going on the smaller building, just need to keep pushing it that way. The model is well built, and I think you've nailed all the important architectural features of the building. One last thing though, is this supposed to be a building in Chinatown? Because thats not the Chinese language on the overhang, its Hangul, the Korean written language.

Cody

Oh, nice catch. Gotta find some Chinese fonts.

Tumerboy

Good start Cody

Couple of things I noticed.

There appears to be no way to get into the corner building. . . no standard door. It looks like you're building modularly, so I'd just yank one of the roll up doors and replace it with an entry.

The textures are very uniform, as Ozy mentioned. They're very flat textures, with little contrast with in them, I think you could improve these a bit.

You need something to break up the bottom edge of the buildings. Specifically the brick. I'd make a decal with alpha, that has a bunch of dirt and grime, that wraps around the bottom edge of the building.

The textures are very uniform, but so is the geometry, which is why it stands out as tiling so much right now. Every window in the corner building, has the exact same piece of plywood, cut out specifically for that opening, which feels wierd. You need more variation within that plywood, and more variation of exactly which part of each window is actually covered:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiana/234743605/sizes/o/


Don't be afraid to add a little more color to one or both buildings. Try painting the corner building a medium blue, and then peeling that paint off, fading it from the sun, and generally destressing that paint, it could add some visual interest to the building structure itself.

You could do a similar thing to break up the sidewalk a bit (dunno your backstory, but it could be an old sidewalk that's never been replaced, just patched up a lot)

Also, if it's chinatown, I tend to think of LOTS of signs and such:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maurymccown/2507622487/sizes/l/

Very good start, keep it up.

bluekangaroo

I think it looks good so far...tri count looks very reasonable. The textures could use a lil work tho....try breaking up some of the repetition with some decal layers, or dirt/grime meshes with some opacity to add some aged-ness to the building. Or you could do that right on the textures if you wish. The normal also looks very faint, try bumping it up a little bit. Good luck with it!

pliang

Textures as said could use some work and breakup.... right now some parts like walls seems varied in age/wornout...

The graffiti's location doesn't seem to be making sense....usually you'd prolly find that on the first floor/washed out as well/..

Also the fences near the side of the curb looks a bit like a bike rack...if you set up a few constructions frames that'd be neat...

And yeah, look up more references on flickr....usually you'd find a few more commercial buildings and alleys as well.

::Next person to get Hangul and Hanja mixed together is gonna get slapped in the face...

pliang

http://www.goodbrush.com/

Craig Mullins did a painting depicting a China Town like environment on his site too....

Kawe

There seems to be an unused area in the textures. you could throw in a wood texture and put in a few wooden planks to break up the uniform look.

oobersli

so do you have any ref you're building this from?

Cody

Okay, put more variation, crumbling and dirt in the texture, Pump up the normals, and different wood planks in the windows. Thanks for the pointer's guys.

@pliang - The first link below is my reference for those barriers; could change them, though.
@Tumerboy - Good call, more signs and billboards on the way.
@oobersli - Below are some of my ref's. More link's below.



pliang look here -> http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ref1.jpg
more ref- http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ref2.jpg
http://www.codywright.com/images/ct/ref4.jpg

StrangeFate

I can tell that you look at more interesting sources and then simplify it in your models.
While this is often good and necessary when it comes to details, I wouldn't be saving and simplifying the overall shape of a Building unless it's for clear performance reasons.

The part in red bricks is probably the clearest example. The source has a set of vertical and horizonal bevels that while still very simple and boring, at least add some depth and shadows.
You just made a flat wall and beveled in 2 boxes. If this was for work and you were given the source as a concept, you would have failed in it's simple execution. If changes are made to a concept it should be only to make things look better, or to make something technically impossible or time intensive, actually doable.
I can imagine you went the same about the rest of the architecture as it looks like something you may see during the rough blocking out phase, but would be lacking as a final piece.

I would pay more attention to the sources and try to better replicate what you see. Always ask yourself how much of the detail and architectural love that you see in the photo you can bring into the game, or how much you can add yourself to a maybe boring source to make it still interesting.
Never start by doing the minimum required to 'have it work' or get by... aim always to make something that's at least as good as the source and compromise only where needed.
Your skill level (and by your's I mean anyone's) will always do enough for the crappification of your work, no need to add to it willingtly.


The textures are way to noisy and do a poor job at representing whatever materials they're supposed to be, and make the geometry harder to read than it should, specially since it's all made of very simple shapes.
The red bricks are the only texture that looks like something. The wood texture is fine, but too new and clean for being in a place like that, doesn't fit in right now.
The stone textures are just a pee yellowish mess with little dark dots.

The yellow thingy with the asian font looks too painted while the other textures are striving to look realistic. This makes the overall look lack consistency.

While i'm not fond of the whitish plaster texture with the orange rust overlay running down it and can think of much more interesting ways to give the base proper weatheration, at least it has some large detail. The stone textures are just plain uninteresting

Cody

Okay. A little update here. Made a new awning, and added some plaster falling away with bricks underneath. c&c?

Cody

More Updates. Messed with the awning, and re-textured the second building. Also added a door on the corner build. Still have to deal with the windows, and make the lower part of the fire escape and it's supports. The normals are a bit weird on that design on the top of the building, have to fix that.

Sage

I think this looks nice, but there are a few things that don't make sense. there is a large green graffiti on a board high off the ground. It's cool , but how did it get there? Also the metal gates a clean no graffiti on them. They are not beat up either. If someone is soo badass to put graffiti on the boards high above the ground, I would expect his wannabe badass boys to try and show how cool they are too, except they would do it on an area that is easy to reach. I think the wood boards look too similar, it make the tiling jump out too much. At least from zoomed out anyway.

Alex

Cody

Thanks for the words. Ya, the one on the second floor would be quite hard to get to, but I took it out and it looked so plain. My idea is that he stood on the green roof thing to do it. Would it make it better if there was a latter there? And ya, I'm gonna throw in some different wood boards, just haven't gotten there yet. And good call on the metal doors, that does make sense, I'll go grunge it up.

Sage

I think you could vary the wood boards by making some with holes, maybe people live there and keep a watch out, and if that's the case maybe you can show that one of the metal doors has been broken into. Just look at the reference that Tumerboy gave you see what works for you. It's looking nice.

cholden

"I want to make this amazing"

This scene uses normal maps, but low detail modeling. You started to model detail around the windows of the big building, but stopped there. There should be a LOT more detail at ground level.

The materials here are tiling textures laid out on bigger texture sheets. You should be using tiling textures. The way you did your normal maps add nothing to the scene. Mainly speaking of your brick and building material. These shapes need a lot more depth.

I don't agree with angling the side street up hill. While it's in some of the ref, without a larger overall scene as a reference point, it just looks like a weird perspective, moreover that something is wrong with your model. You would be better off flatting this to be parallel with the front street.

Greatly exaggerate the shapes and details of the green roof on the brick entryway. In the ref, every shape is big and clear, but in the model it looks like half a box. I'd also stretch the entryway all the way across that building face, and get rid of the untextured door. The bricks on this entryway feel too tall.

The striped awning's sag is very synthetic. The dent in the reference is subtle and small detail. Either go that direction, or greatly exaggerate this bend by having it completely torn out and shredded like something heavy fell through it. The material isn't very well defined where it's metal, cloth or painted cement.

Start presenting various lighting scene. I like to add 3-4 lights quickly to see
how night or day would look. I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it, but it allows everyone to get a better idea of how your materials are working to see it in more of a dynamic manner.

When in doubt, follow the leader:
http://stefan-morrell.cgsociety.org/gallery/399743/

Cody

Good GOD! Stefan Morrell IS my reference folder now. THANK YOU.

Good crits, Cholden. Thanks, man. I'll keep working.

Cody

I know I am pretty far from this being finished, but I wanted to put in Unreal just for funzies, and to keep me interested in it. Also, cholden and a few of others said I should try out some lighting. This isn't the best set-up I could do, and there are definitely some serious errors that need attention...but thought I'd share anyway.

jogshy

Did you use alpha-test for the fences? If you could enable MSAA/alpha-to-coverage on UE3 will look better(i'm not sure if ya can).

konstruct

I dig that orange awning a lot. adds character.

Saidin311

Everything looks better in UE3 doesn't it? I like the backside of the building actually. Are those brick spots just decals?

I'm not really qualified to make any suggestions, but one thing I'd suggest is giving yourself a few more polys to work with. For example that barrier fence is an asset that the player can walk right up to and probably needs more detail than the windows on the third level of your building. So I'd model out the bars on that one. Maybe even make one thats a little bent or worn.

You could also really go to town on that awning. The way it is right now as cholden said its really obviously deformed. Even if you didn't want to go for a high poly bake you could add a few polys into it to push the shapes more for a realistic sag.