Sketchbook: kaze369

kaze369

So I'm starting a sketchbook tread. I'm going to be putting all of the stuff I'm working on in here. All critiques are welcome on anything in here so have at it. By starting this tread I hope to improve my skills in 3D modeling and texturing.

kaze369

I'm making a portfolio piece and I decided to make a fountain using the techniques in the Eat 3D tutorial.



WIP 01

kaze369

Here is my WIP 02

Joshua Stubbles

Good base to start with. Looking forward to the details.

kaze369

WIP 03
I had some difficulty modeling in some of the detail.

kaze369

Gotta give out the apologizes for not making regular updates with this project. I'm running into some financial troubles and I'm trying to find a full-time job. I also had problems with Mudbox and that turned me away for a while. I can get up to about 3 or 4 subdivisions before my computer starts to slow down and not respond which sucks but that's all my computer can do. And I don't have the money to buy a new one. I've also started creating an iPhone game with some of my friends which takes some of my time as well.

Here is My lasted update. I'm finally done with the low res mesh and I baked the AO and the normal maps.
image1
image 2
image3

Next up textures.

Taylor Hood

Nice, keep going

kaze369

This is my first texture pass. it has a just a diffuse map and I'm trying to figure out what kind of detail I should put in. Any ideas?


image 1

image 2

kaze369

Hey Polycounters, I'm hoping to get a little more feedback on my first texture pass. My first texture pass is just a diffuse and AO. Do you like it? do you hate it? If your wondering about the pool area resolution, it's low because I plan on putting water over it in unreal 3.

Adam L. Gray

Well, first of all it feels a bit hard to read when there's no lighting in there. It all just blends together.

As for the texture however, the lowres floor does stand out as a bit of an eye-sore. I'm assuming the water won't be transparent then though? It might not show anyway I guess, so never mind that part then

The texture overall feels a bit noisy though, and it really shows when the texture resolution is a bit low. But it also feels like there's some differences in texel density. If we take those small 'pools' for example. The upper part feels sharp and grainy, the support for it feels alright, and the bottom part feels slightly more lowres than the others.

Then there's the material definition. Right now it feels like you mixed grey stone and concrete. Judging by your ref, it looks like the material should be a bit more sand-stone'ish, like in the following image: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st-plains/nature/images/Sandstone-slab2-Cooper-sm.jpg

There's also one small thing I'd like to point out, be careful of unique details when you're re-using a lot of texture-space. There's a few in there that makes it easy to spot that you're mirroring/re-using some parts.

Oh, and the smoothing-error in there isn't looking very pretty , might want to look into it. Sope this helps though, and sorry if I'm being unclear about anything, I'm a bit knackered here.

kaze369

Tiros wrote: »

Well, first of all it feels a bit hard to read when there's no lighting in there. It all just blends together.

As for the texture however, the lowres floor does stand out as a bit of an eye-sore. I'm assuming the water won't be transparent then though? It might not show anyway I guess, so never mind that part then

The texture overall feels a bit noisy though, and it really shows when the texture resolution is a bit low. But it also feels like there's some differences in texel density. If we take those small 'pools' for example. The upper part feels sharp and grainy, the support for it feels alright, and the bottom part feels slightly more lowres than the others.

Then there's the material definition. Right now it feels like you mixed grey stone and concrete. Judging by your ref, it looks like the material should be a bit more sand-stone'ish, like in the following image: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st-plains/nature/images/Sandstone-slab2-Cooper-sm.jpg

There's also one small thing I'd like to point out, be careful of unique details when you're re-using a lot of texture-space. There's a few in there that makes it easy to spot that you're mirroring/re-using some parts.

Oh, and the smoothing-error in there isn't looking very pretty , might want to look into it. Sope this helps though, and sorry if I'm being unclear about anything, I'm a bit knackered here.

Thanks Tiros,

I going to try and attempt to make the water similar to the reference image. the noisiness is probably from the AO which I'll fix that up. I'll will definitely start over and try a different approach to defining the material. I think I understand about the smoothing error, but just to make sure, your talking about the corners at the base and mid section right?

Adam L. Gray

I were refering to the circled area here. Due to the harsh edge of the shadow I assumed it'd be a smoothing-error. If that's also in the AO, then you might just want to smooth that part out a bit.



Cheers

kaze369

OK, so I decided to redo my textures so that they look more like the reference image. I created a base and used a little bit of photo textures. Hopefully this is a lot better then my previous one which was 2 photo textures blended together.

AlanSMitchell

ZOMG
is that you Derek!

AlanSMitchell

if so HOLY BALLS!!!

kaze369

no sorry

AlanSMitchell

ahh sad day
anyways nice work you should slap some bitchen particle effects in unreal
and maybe give the very bottom more UV space....or cover it up with water because the pixel density is thrown off

kaze369

Does anyone know how to get the real-time shader to have shadows?


bigger image

AlanSMitchell

....I can do it in unreal. but what I think you want is a translucence mask applied to your material which you are panning...or doing the effect to.

kaze369

dudealan2001 wrote: »

....I can do it in unreal. but what I think you want is a translucence mask applied to your material which you are panning...or doing the effect to.

I'm beginning to think I should just put this in UT3 and forget the real-time shader.

kaze369

I want to eventually add water effects to the fountain.

Xoliul

kaze369 wrote: »

Does anyone know how to get the real-time shader to have shadows?

http://www.laurenscorijn.com/viewportshaderfaq

kaze369

Xoliul wrote: »

http://www.laurenscorijn.com/viewportshaderfaq

I figured out that I have 2 problems, 1) I'm using 3Ds Max 9 and 2) I'm using a ATI Mobility Radeon X1400.

just starting up unreal is a hassle.

kaze369

I added a water material to make it look a bit fancy. But the opacity for the middle texture seems to not be showing up.

kaze369

just updated my portfolio site with the new piece.

kaze369

Here is the final version of my fountain. this is also updated on my site as well.
It's time to move on.

mdale13

nice modeling, but that water is out of control. it looks like the whole thing is flooding, and its really taking away from the nice modeling you have done. i would highly suggest altering the water flow.

kaze369

OK guys time for a new project.
For the up coming release of Mass Effect 2. I'm going to make a Normandy style spaceship.
Name: SSV PRINCETON SR-3
Description:
During the construction of the SSV NORMANDY, plan were already underway on the construction of the SSV PRINCETON. The Alliance Navy wanted a attack cruiser using the same technology as the NORMANDY. Using the engine and stealth technologies of the NORMANDY, the PRINCETON constructed during the middle of the Mass Effect 1 events and was completed after the events of Mass Effect 2. the long construction period was due to the fact that ship yard facilities were being attacked by mysterious alien species known as the collectors. The PRINCETON finally completed before the events of Mass Effect 3 and entered into full service in the Alliance Navy. Although there is no permanent commander of the PRINCETON, many high officials in the navy have recommended Commander Shepard.

kaze369

Here is my first concept for the ssv princeton. the body of the ship will mostly be one object and I put the cannons in front of the wings.

kaze369

Here is a more refined look for my ship. I'm trying to stay as accurate as possible to the Mass Effect look.

FlyByKnight

I'm liking the look of your refined concept image. Looking forward to seeing your development of the project.

kaze369

Here is a 3D representation of my concept to better understand where I'm going with this.
This is not the actual mesh I'm going to model with.
Do you like what you see?

kaze369

Here is a more detailed version I made today. Next, I'll come up with a color concept.

kaze369

Unleashed

blue but you dont necessarily have to go with such pure colours, try adding in some variations and mixes of colours in there. it does look alot like the sister ship to the normandy, but Id advise adding your own twist to it, maybe make it infected with geth wiring, battle damage or really exaggerate say the engines/guns/com antennae or something. just my opinion(i wasnt really impressed with the design of the normandy to begin with)

kaze369

Trying a red/yellow theme and I extended the wing thrusters.
Not sure if I like it.



Update:

After about 30 minutes of not looking at it, I realize now that I hate it. I'll have to figure out something else.

roosterMAP

nice ship!

kaze369

Sorry guys for not having an update lately, I'm working on an iPhone game with my friends using Unity 3D engine.

kaze369

Here is a new project I'm starting that I'm calling the Underground Ruins. My goal is to complete a 3d scene in 15 days(starting now). I want to use as many modular pieces as possible and have a next-gen feel. I also want to learn how to manage my time better and create bigger and better projects for the future.
Here is my first concept I did in Photoshop. I haven't really figured out the lighting in my scene but I think I want a main light source from the top and some torches on the side. I'm no concept artist but if there's anything else I should add please let me know.


my concept:


my reference:


My Plan:
- Work 2-4 Hours a day
Day 1: ideas, research, planning, concept
Day 2: modeling & blocking/ white box
Day 3: modeling & blocking/white box & refining
Day 4: high-poly modeling & sculpting
Day 5: high-poly modeling & sculpting
Day 6: high-poly modeling & start low poly
Day 7: low-poly modeling
Day 8: low-poly modeling
Day 9: UV layout
Day 10: texturing
Day 11: texturing
Day 12: texturing
Day 13: lighting
Day 14: lighting
Day 15: Presentation

Grok5620

Kaze- I like what you've shown so far, as far as your concept I think that in order to capture some more of the reference you should add some of the organic elements. If this temple/ruins where in the jungle there would be all sorts of neat opportunities to throw in strange vegetation and "rubble-ized" pieces filling the floor space.

Thats my two cents, looking forward to some updates.
Cheers

kaze369

Final concept for day 1.

I'm 30 mins from my concept deadline, just made it!

kaze369

Day 2: White Box

I've begun blocking out my scene and trying to get a sense of scale.

I haven't added the tree yet, but I'm going to take a small break so I'll put it in a little later.

kaze369

So, I was about 30 mins. late for my deadline, but only because I was trying to figure out how make my scene with more modular pieces and I wanted to fill my scene with some rubble piles so that it doesn't look so empty.

Grok5620

Neat, I know this is just your rough but I would consider lessening the number of tiles and placing them more erratically.

Cheers

kaze369

Grok5620 wrote: »

Neat, I know this is just your rough but I would consider lessening the number of tiles and placing them more erratically.

Cheers

I'm going to try and make 3 modular rubble piles each with the same meshes and see if that will fill up my scene.

kaze369

OK, so I had a ton of problems these last couple of days. Zbrush kept crashing on me and when I finally got a good mesh to export, the decimation plugin kept crashing too. I also decided to make a texture in zbrush for the upper part of the wall so I wouldn't have to model it. moving object in zbrush is really weird and once you move an object and copy it, you can't pick the other object again. I may need another day to finish all of my high-poly meshes.

kaze369

Here are some more pictures of my high-poly models. I'm a little off schedule so they may not be as detail like they should be. I'm not that good at sculpting but I think I did OK for all my pieces. Now I need to start making low-poly versions and add some UVs to them.

kaze369

I'm still on day 8, so I'm taking a small break and all I need to do now is bake out my textures.

kaze369

This is just a small update, sorry no pictures. Making UVs for my models were pretty straight forward. After that I started baking my textures with Xnormal. I accidentally fell asleep during the process so it took longer then expected.

kaze369

I have my scene all set up in UDK and I'm in the process of making textures. At first, I wanted to have a next-gen look with just hand painted textures, kinda like Uncharted. But I'm finding that I just don't have the artistic talent. So, I'm just going to use a base texture and overlay some photo detail and of course use those layer properties.

kaze369

So, I'm almost done with completely texturing my level, I just need 3 more textures and that's it. I've also started on my lighting. I'm not really good at lighting so I'm going to need some major feedback. I don't know if I'll add post processing effects, but I'll think more about that when I'm near the end.

2nd Texture Pass:

1st Lighting Pass: