First Scifi Hallway

ZeroStrike

Hello Polycount,

This is my first thread here, but I have been working on this project for a while and I would like some crit on it. I have been learning alot about modular design, environments, and some more advanced texturing techniques. I am creating this hallway in maya, zbrush 4, xnormal, and photoshop. One of my first real environments and any kind of crit would be great.

Thank you












I really need to do some more texturing, lighting, and add some specular maps. I don't really like the standard phong's I have on them. I still have alot of work to do on this project. Environments just take alot of time to create it seems.




Here is a link to where I post my work.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ZeroStrike88?feature=mhee#p/u

http://zerostrike.deviantart.com/

Razgriz

Your texturing is chaotic, you've got to tone it down. On the most recent images the metal reads like granite, and in the first, it reads like an acid trip. I would strongly suggest watching Racer445's tutorial on metal texturing, which I believe you can find at cg.tutsplus.com. Tone down the diffuse, and bring out the color very subtly in the specular.

biofrost

Same as Razgriz say's, that first one has too much detail that could be put into the spec and with the last image it looks too dirty on the diffuse to reflect that much of the environment.

ZeroStrike

The first piece was done in a different texturing method and the most current was done with Racer445 tutorial. I think that I have to nail the base texture first of the kind of metal I want. I concur that the first one is far too grungy. I'll redo the texture. With the specular map, you would add subtle blues to get a pure white? Racer445 tutorial sword tutorial is pretty nice for specular, I'll look into that more.

Thank you Razgriz

ZeroStrike

Would having a tone down specular map be better for the reflections on the most current assets or would turn down the power of the specular be best?

I am guessing having a bit of both.

Thank you biofrost

Razorb

I think you should ignore specular and normal maps and concentrate on making a diffuse texture that you can actually understand, right now nothing makes sense, there is no reason to your chaos.

Take a look at some of Philip's textures and tutorials:


http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/materials/metalmatte/metalmatte.html

What is this environment? what is its purpose? who would be there? these sort of questions help fill you fill in the details such as the damage and weathering to the surfaces, also possible human interfaces, grills on the floor or safety harnesess etc etc.

DO SOME CONCEPTS! even if they are really basic.. Like these for example:


But ya thats my 2 cents, concentrate more on the design of your textures/environments, create something more relatable and beleivable then start leveling up your diffuse textures before you move onto all those spec/normal map stuff

ZeroStrike

Thank you Razorb. That was helpful. I have done a sketch. I took some photos of some of my own metal textures, tiled them, and apply them. I think this helped. Probably could still use some tweaking.












Better?

ZeroStrike

Alberto Rdrgz

still crazy to read.... altho a lot better. Tone it down man, plus you can see your strokes on the texture! don't worry about your logo (don't even know why it's there?) worry about selling what ever material your going for. right now, i get nothing it's unreadable. It also is apparent you're not paying attention to your texturing. For example, your material is SUPER scratchy and yet, the "dock yard" logo is crisp and new!??

G3L

hey man it's getting better but like alberto said, textures still need to get toned down and need a bit more lovin'.

one thing i would definitely say is try to manipulate your photos more in your textures. i can easily tell that you used cgtexture photos for your texture. try masking out some areas or using the blend if function in photoshop.

just double click on your layer, go to layer styles and in menu that pops up there are "blend if" options at the bottom. hold alt+left click drag to drag out a slider and sometimes it can give you a neat effect if you have a scratchy metal layer selected and then it will try to blend with another layer that's below it, say a regular metal one. that's just something you can do to give you some random effects here and there.

for the most part though you will have to do some editing on your layers and not just erasing/clone stamping and overlaying stuff.

definitely study phillip k's stuff...keep it up though! you can only go up from here

ZeroStrike

I've been redefining my textures a bit more. I also did some floating geometry on my normal map which is new to me. I think I got it.









I think that I kind of like the pattern going from the metal to orange paint and back to metal again makes it a bit more interesting. I like this texture better though. I learning how to use the normal map to get a quick selection for easy and perfect paint layer for me to scratch up which helps alot.

what's next?

waldo

The metal doesn't look right. Try to keep the randomness down, also the diffues is probably to bright for the metal.

Take a look at this tutorial, really good for understanding how to emulate metal as a material.

http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photoshop/how-to-hand-paint-convincing-metal-textures/

ZeroStrike

More redefining of this texture.

ZeroStrike

The diffuse for the texture.

Minos

That texture looks really over the top. The scratches look intentional and unnecessary, the chipped off edges are pure white (this creates a lot of noise), the tiling is bad and the excessive sharpen filter makes everything look worse. It's a huge step back from your previous effort imo.

Subtleness is key to good texturing!

snake85027

its getting there, the texture is having more of a purpose than what you had before. dont give up.

ZeroStrike

Thank you. Everyone for being passionate and helping me. I've come up with another attempt. I have tried to be as minimal as I can. Also, I think that part of my problem was that I was having too much scratches and the like in my diffuse when it should have been in my spec. (which I have done in this version) I have also put the sketch in UDK.








I'm not sure if I should keep doing these sketches to try to help understand and practice my texturing skills or continue with the new knowledge I have into my interior. I know that I'll be changing alot when I start working on my interior again. Alot of inspirational stuff like the work of Gears of War 3 and many other great artist here on polycount.

Thank you Minotaur0 and snake85027.

Tell me what you think and what I should work on. If its better or worse then before and I'll try my best to work on those things. Always trying to learn more.

Thank you Polycount

Minos

That looks much better. It's much easier to read and the shapes make a bit more sense than the last attempt.

You could try painting some subtle localized dirt where the plates meet if you have a pen tablet.

Keep it up!

snow

you have definitely improved, it's good to see you're keeping at it.

you don't seem to be using reference material. what is that material in the middle supposed to be - some sort of concrete? your cables also look like long strings of jerky.

start off with flat colours, if you've baked an AO, overlay that. then work some minor scratches in the corners and edges (subtley, and don't be too systematic with these), use a small brush as you seem to be pretty heavy handed.

as others have said, less is more, you keep diving in and putting random detail everywhere. I'd also lose the big scratches metal texture you seem to be using, try just some rendered clouds in photoshop on a very low opacity (5-10%). you would be suprised how much more convincing it will look.

OR as waldo mentioned, just watch this and follow it to a T: http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photoshop/how-to-hand-paint-convincing-metal-textures/

good luck!

ZeroStrike

Minotaur0 thank you. It means alot coming from you and the great work you have done with your tutorial. The dirt is in there, just very minor. I'll bump that up a bit. Yes I have a tablet.

snow thanks. That center material does look too much like concrete, (not what I wanted), I guess I should do alittle more referencing and research on the different kinds of metals. I keep mixing them in my base metal textures. In Zbrush, I guess, I should use the clay brushes on the edges to help with the scrapes instead of using stamps.

MMMM Jerky. Yea, I'm adding in some cord wraps to my model, help sell them as wires.

I'll try that photoshop cloud technique. But I should only really do that on the spec? If its too much in the diffuse it will look like stone right?

I'm kind of wondering what I am missing with Racers tutorial? Is there something which I am not getting as an overall concept with his tutorial? Can you specifically point something which I am not doing correctly?

Thanks.

passerby

try out this tut, http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/materials/metalmatte/metalmatte.html

also pull hte scratches out of your normals, and make them more faint in your diffuse, and push them in the specular, and also add some more variations and scratches and stuff to the specular so the specular has some of it's own details, that can olny be seen from certain angles when viewing the material, this helps add a lot more interest to the material.

since your still trying to get the metal look down, just dont even bother with normal details for now and just focus on diffse, spec and gloss.

ZeroStrike

Made some changes. I can probably work on more. But here is the update.

ZeroStrike

Hello Again,

I have been doing a good bit of updating. Still need some work with the textures I think. This is rendered in Maya. I need to transfer/learn more about UDK to make it realtime. I also need to make spec maps for all my assets. I also want to add a few more things in the interior and maybe a ceiling, would be nice. I just want do see what people think about the work I have done so far.

http://zerostrike.deviantart.com/art/interior-test-8-269605817

Took about 4 hours to render.

So tell me what you think.

Thank you.

ZeroStrike

ZeroStrike

Been working everything. Still needs some work. I think the orange is alittle bright. I also am having some problems with the alpha on the floor there. You should be able to see the part underneath through the grate. Also found out that I needed to plus my specular map into most of the nodes on a blinn in my. It makes a big difference.

Tell me work you think?

Thank you.

ZeroStrike

Tobbo

I think you're trying too hard. You want the damage and scratches on the textures to be subtle. I would make it more clean. The first render looks promising and has potential.

Then we get to the last two... What happened man? The textures look like they are overdone. I would make better use of empty space. Just because there is empty space doesn't mean you have to add something to fill that space up.

The same could be said about the structures. Too much is crammed into the walls, etc.

Remember, LESS is more.