Home 3D Art Showcase & Critiques

Monthly Community Noob Challenge Ausgust 2015 (33)

1
polycounter lvl 7
Offline / Send Message
Wulf polycounter lvl 7
iEo666D.png

Notice: There will not be a Monthly Noob Challenge for the Month of September due to my busy schedule this month. I have school fast approaching and I need time to prepare for that as well as handle some other tasks. I will see you all in October for the continuation of the challenge. :]

Hello everyone and welcome to the Monthly Noob Challenge for the month of August.

Hello everyone. We're back for yet another month of awesome environment art. The same rules as last month will continue this month. There will not be a prop challenge to maintain focus on the main environment challenge.

Join our Skype group if you want! Add me on Skype and I will add you to the group.
Me: noble.wulf

You don't have to join the Skype if you don't want to, and you don't need to ask to participate in the challenge, just start working and post your progress in this thread!

KF4R9g8.png

1600x874_21035_Lakeside_Environment_Concept_for_GRFS_2d_landscape_forest_swamp_concept_art_house_picture_image_digital_art.jpg

Artist - Andrew Bosley
http://andrewbosley.blogspot.com/

5SGB61o.png

Feel free to approach either of the concepts however you like but I'd recommend making it as modular as possible to save time and keep things optimized. It's really up to you, and as long as you are learning, it doesn't matter right?

Also if you want to change up either concept a bit, as some people wanted, then feel free. Interpret these concepts to your liking.

There are some things that I would like to point out to for newcomers.
If you only want to do a few props as best you can, then feel free to go ahead and do it. This way you can gradually work on building up to a full scene before diving head-first into the whole ordeal.

B3Uy2w0.png

Please read all the rules before starting.

When you are just starting out making a scene, it can seem complicated or imposing, so take the time to break it down.

Think about how you can re-use assets, re-use textures, break it down as simple as possible and plan it out. A lot of people will break it down in their own way when they start out their challenge. Gather some reference images as well for different parts of the scene, maybe gather some refs and make it your own.

Take your time planning and blocking out, it will set you up for success later on.

Here are some specifics.
  • Try to post one critique for every post that you make. This will make for a better learning environment and help us all grow as artists.

  • You must make your own textures, no stealing. We can't keep you from doing it, but the goal is to learn. You can use other textures and images to create your final texture, but please, no blatant copying of another artist's work.

  • You must use a game engine to present your work. Unreal Engine and CryEngine are very common engines that can be used, but feel free to use any alternatives that you want.

  • You must try your best and finish as much as you can in the time frame provided.

  • Post what you are working on in this thread so that way it's a more centralized place for advice and critique. We don't need to have 1000 disjointed threads littering the forums.

  • I would strongly encourage you to go and look at other games and see how they make their assets as well as get concept art to give it your own feel, but it must stay very close to the concept, if not super close.

  • Please stay away from using Ddo. It's great if you know what you're doing, and for a production pipeline supplement, but other than that, please don't use it. Ndo2 is allowed. This was talked about in the other thread, so please don't complain.

  • Well that's about it. If you think that any rules should be changed, or there should be new additions to the rules, please let us know.
All that matters is that you learn, while being able to effectively critique others, as well as accept critiques on your own work. Remember to have fun. Cheers!

Replies

  • mrgesy
    Offline / Send Message
    mrgesy polycounter lvl 7
    Looking tough! Vegetation!
  • Auldbenkenobi
    Offline / Send Message
    Auldbenkenobi polycounter lvl 11
    Looks like a fun concept, good luck everyone!
  • cpullma1
    Offline / Send Message
    cpullma1 polycounter lvl 5
    I will be doing an outdoor scene for my game, which I haven't done before, so this is a great one for this month, thanks! I'll probably do it! :)
  • mabden
    Offline / Send Message
    mabden polycounter lvl 7
    Awesome. I'm in.:)
  • CreativeHD
    Offline / Send Message
    CreativeHD polycounter lvl 6
    Looks awesome!
  • Kibrika
    I want to participate, but it's really scary because I've just started learning 3d modelling on Blender from youtube tutorials.
  • Dvids
    Offline / Send Message
    Dvids polycounter lvl 4
    Kibrika wrote: »
    I want to participate, but it's really scary because I've just started learning 3d modelling on Blender from youtube tutorials.

    Don't be scared, just don't put yourself under too much pressure. If you just started out, nobody expects you to deliver triple A quality or to finish with everything in the concept in time. Just start by doing a blockout, as good and detailed as you can, and post it. I'm sure people will be happy to help you out with critique and tips. You'll learn a ton in the process, too.


    Gonna be my first participation as well. Never did a Triple A Environment in U4 before, so this is gonna be a lot of firsts for me, too. Wish me luck :)
  • Gaiascope
    Offline / Send Message
    Gaiascope polycounter lvl 4
    Ah geez, this looks really cool! I hope to find the time to work on this, got a busy august ahead of me.

    Good luck to all who will participate, I hope to see some cool works in this thread :D
  • ross185
    Offline / Send Message
    ross185 polycounter lvl 6
    That's a tough challenge to get done in month, but will be interesting to see where people get to! I would probably struggle on getting the water to look good with the weeds and other water plants. Unfortunately won't get time to fit this one into my schedule but for the rest, good Luck guys :)
  • Auldbenkenobi
    Offline / Send Message
    Auldbenkenobi polycounter lvl 11
    Dvids wrote: »
    Don't be scared, just don't put yourself under too much pressure. If you just started out, nobody expects you to deliver triple A quality or to finish with everything in the concept in time. Just start by doing a blockout, as good and detailed as you can, and post it. I'm sure people will be happy to help you out with critique and tips. You'll learn a ton in the process, too.


    Gonna be my first participation as well. Never did a Triple A Environment in U4 before, so this is gonna be a lot of firsts for me, too. Wish me luck :)

    This.

    My very first environment, looking back, I was really proud of it, but now, comparing it to where I am now, the difference is night and day :D

    My first Environment, for reference -

    resample(lanczos).jpeg
  • Dvids
    Offline / Send Message
    Dvids polycounter lvl 4
    That's really solid for a first environment, in my opinion, but yeah, it also looks a little bit like a game made 8 years ago or so :D

    The issue I noticed right away are the repetitive details in the ground and ceiling texture, but hey, you said it yourself, looking back at it, you notice all those mistakes in an instant and therefore probably won't make them again.
  • Huw_Dawson
    Yeah, sure, why not. :)

    I've got a lot to do today, but here's the start of the blockout.

    tu2QQNw.png

    mJmKo8g.png

    Nowhere near done with the block-out. Still need to fix up locations and geography. Once I'm done with that I'll probably start on the terrain.

    I think for the trees it will be best to only do two of the coniferous and one of the non-coniferous ones. You can probably get away with one chair and table model, and one retextured oil drum to populate the scene with... hmm.
  • Kibrika
    Dvids, Auldbenkenobi thank you for the encouragement.

    ross185 I agree, the water with the weeds is pretty much the most intimidating thing.

    Huw_Dawson, cool that you started already! What's the thing in front of the first shed?
  • Huw_Dawson
    Kibrika wrote: »
    Huw_Dawson, cool that you started already! What's the thing in front of the first shed?

    Cylinders to represent the foreground tree stumps. :)
  • sdmitchell
    Offline / Send Message
    sdmitchell polycounter lvl 6
    Kibrika wrote: »
    Huw_Dawson, cool that you started already! What's the thing in front of the first shed?

    I think it's a representative height of a 'person' in UDK scaling. I do the same. ^^
  • Huw_Dawson
    sdmitchell wrote: »
    I think it's a representative height of a 'person' in UDK scaling. I do the same. ^^

    Oh yeah! Of course, the blue box.

    It's a 0.5mx0.5mx2m cubouid, which as is said above is used as a scale reference.

    ---

    Had some trouble getting the terrain set up. I tried a couple of techniques, but eventually I settled on making a high-poly plane, using soft select to raise and lower bits then using the Graphite tools to make a less dense version.

    As I'll be doing modular work (e.g. making modular rocks to line the lakeside with) the terrain itself doesn't need to be terrible detailed.

    ---

    Used Bitmap2Material to make two basic ground textures. I was planning to use Unity 5 for this, but after examining Unity 5... you can't use PBR textures and blend between textures at the moment without an external paid-for plugin. UE4 it is!
  • Dvids
    Offline / Send Message
    Dvids polycounter lvl 4
    Why don't you just simply create the terrain in the engine?
  • Kibrika
    Huw_Dawson wrote: »
    Oh yeah! Of course, the blue box.

    It's a 0.5mx0.5mx2m cubouid, which as is said above is used as a scale reference.

    Oh, thanx!
  • Kibrika
    My todays work... Found myself enjoying shoving objects x way and y way and checking against top view and against camera. Also, thinking about how big things should be.

    Though just now looked again at Huw_Dawson's work and I'll be thinking about lower and higher ground harder tomorrow.

    gGryL8g.png?1


    Dvids, is creating terrain in engine (Unity?) any different / easyer than in Blender?
  • Huw_Dawson
    Dvids wrote: »
    Why don't you just simply create the terrain in the engine?

    This occured to me about an hour after I went to bed last night. I took a look at Unity's terrain gen tools and they look solid enough. My one concern is going to be getting a decent path. I might have to cheat a bit.

    I am going to crack on with asset creation tonight. A question on challenge etiquette: I am going to be using Bitmap2Material and some source photos from some royalty-free websites for quick'n'easy ground textures. It really doesn't feel like much work though and it feels a bit like cheating! Should I do ground texture work more in Photoshop? Maybe that might give better results, too?
  • Auldbenkenobi
    Offline / Send Message
    Auldbenkenobi polycounter lvl 11
    Huw_Dawson wrote: »
    This occured to me about an hour after I went to bed last night. I took a look at Unity's terrain gen tools and they look solid enough. My one concern is going to be getting a decent path. I might have to cheat a bit.

    I am going to crack on with asset creation tonight. A question on challenge etiquette: I am going to be using Bitmap2Material and some source photos from some royalty-free websites for quick'n'easy ground textures. It really doesn't feel like much work though and it feels a bit like cheating! Should I do ground texture work more in Photoshop? Maybe that might give better results, too?

    Honestly, whatever you find easiest, and works well for you is how you should go about it. Forcing yourself to work a pipeline you're not familiar with can get really frustrating and ultimately, will often produce results you're not happy with.

    That being said, doesn't hurt to learn new software. Just remember it's not cheating. Everyone learns at different paces.

    (Plus, I think you'd only be cheating if you were pulling models off Turbosquid or something)
  • mabden
    Offline / Send Message
    mabden polycounter lvl 7
    Start from simple blockout
    UvMKnVj.jpg
  • Cloudydays
    Offline / Send Message
    Cloudydays polycounter lvl 6
    I've never participated in MCN before but I've watched it happening (always too busy with school work). Unfortunately, it looks like the computer I'm working on now needs to have some bits RMA'd so I won't be able to work on this for the whole month. But for now:

    Here's my blockout so far in Maya. Lots of things just thrown in there. I'll probably start working first on the open building structure closest to the camera.

    9NtsW99.png
  • Huw_Dawson
    Blockin' out, doo doo doo

    Vfmf2YL.png

    (Grass material is I-will-burn-the-hard-drive-it-rests-in levels of placeholder)

    I'm liking all these blockouts!

    Anyone got a suggestion for how to stop my Unity materials' normal maps from blowing my materials out at extreme angles? I'm getting loads of white replacing colour when viewed from a distance. :(
  • Ben_C
    Looking forward to joining my first Polycount Challenge! I've roughed in a proxy blockout in maya and stuck it in Unity just to figure out scale and composition for now. Going to probably start creating the trees next.

    dxegw1.jpg
  • Stranger
    Offline / Send Message
    Stranger polycounter lvl 5
    Getting the easy/lp props done.

    h2oxGWj.png
  • mettigel
    Offline / Send Message
    mettigel polycounter lvl 6
    Made some Blockout.
    DFS73hN.png
    2YwmbU3.png
    ybSmAaf.png
  • Satotiga
    Offline / Send Message
    Satotiga polycounter lvl 11
    How have I only just discovered this thread? Fantastic idea.

    I would definitely take part, but I'm already invested in an environment of my own at the moment. I will keep tabs on it though and try and glean some knowledge from you all.

    Best of luck to everyone; hopefully I can take part next month.
  • Huw_Dawson
    Had a crack at the Unity terrain tool. If I could find a way of making the terrain mesh myself and then painting on it like Unity Terrain allows, I'd be golden. I don't like the lack of finesse in the terrain itself but I need that texture painting ability to get the ground looking right. :\

    Anyway, spent the rest of this evening having a crack at Mudbox and turning a cuboid into a big ol' block of wood. I then constructed the frame of one of the buildings out of clones of said block, which seems very modular. :-)

    Mostly just experimenting with workflow, basically. Tomorrow I'll work on the two or so meshes/textures I need for the roof.

    Tonight's progress:

    cHkNzY1.jpg
  • radioactivebritt
    Offline / Send Message
    radioactivebritt polycounter lvl 2
    Did a basic blockout just to get an understanding of the space. We'll see how far i get this month, but I need a new creative project and i could really use practice with organic things, so here we go!

    CQIRVTt.png?1

    top down:

    8kOgHBI.png?1

    i'm also getting faster at blocking things out wheee
  • Calluhain
    Here's my blockout so far, a little late to the party but I'm eager to learn more on how to do organics.



    HighresScreenshot00003_zpsrq2nxnov.png
  • mettigel
    Offline / Send Message
    mettigel polycounter lvl 6
    First Grass incoming :D

    4g666vV.jpg
  • Kibrika
    radioactivebritt, from the concept pic the shacks look right next to each other, though I like your interpretation too, lets the further house be a bit bigger. Also, there's a path between the stumps and the houses leading to the lake.

    Mettigel, wow, you put each board up separately? I'd have thought that's more or less a texture with maybe some details modeled in.
  • mettigel
    Offline / Send Message
    mettigel polycounter lvl 6
    No no, in the end this will be a Texture :).
  • radioactivebritt
    Offline / Send Message
    radioactivebritt polycounter lvl 2
    @kibrika

    wow, ::hits forhead:: thank you! hahah

    I guess i looked too much at the xray version of the concept and i missed that!
  • Cloudydays
    Offline / Send Message
    Cloudydays polycounter lvl 6
    Kibrika wrote: »
    radioactivebritt, from the concept pic the shacks look right next to each other, though I like your interpretation too, lets the further house be a bit bigger. Also, there's a path between the stumps and the houses leading to the lake.

    Mettigel, wow, you put each board up separately? I'd have thought that's more or less a texture with maybe some details modeled in.


    Yeah I'm not sure on the putting up the boards separately (I know Mettigel, you said it'd be a texture later on). I do like the effect you get from having gaps and spaces in between the boards but that seems like it would be tedious to pull off. I'm not sure yet whether I'll make the board a texture or make at least some of it separate boards to just throw in - because at least that's pretty modular.
  • Tobbo
    Offline / Send Message
    Tobbo polycounter lvl 11
    You can do a lot to break up the silhouette with some of the boards actually being geometry instead of just a texture. Some boards could stick out more than others. That sure looks better and more interesting than just having a texture slapped on a flat straight surface.
  • Devon M
    Offline / Send Message
    Devon M polycounter lvl 4
    I think it'd be better to use separate planks to make the walls, however, you can always create a prefab wall of planks to use later to save on memory/performance, right? Or does it use the same?
  • Cloudydays
    Offline / Send Message
    Cloudydays polycounter lvl 6
    Devon M wrote: »
    I think it'd be better to use separate planks to make the walls, however, you can always create a prefab wall of planks to use later to save on memory/performance, right? Or does it use the same?
    Tobbo wrote: »
    You can do a lot to break up the silhouette with some of the boards actually being geometry instead of just a texture. Some boards could stick out more than others. That sure looks better and more interesting than just having a texture slapped on a flat straight surface.


    I think I'll probably make prefab walls of planks and keep them modular - seems like the best way to do it while keeping the interesting textures/shapes of the wall. I probably wouldn't individually put in each plank in the engine but make groups of them beforehand and throw them around.
  • mettigel
    Offline / Send Message
    mettigel polycounter lvl 6
    Made some Water and DFAO today.

    k5lVywY.jpg
  • Devon M
    Offline / Send Message
    Devon M polycounter lvl 4
    In the reference image, is that a large, squareish object in the background (behind the trees), or am I crazy? O.o
  • Cloudydays
    Offline / Send Message
    Cloudydays polycounter lvl 6
    Devon M wrote: »
    In the reference image, is that a large, squareish object in the background (behind the trees), or am I crazy? O.o

    On the left, behind the trees? Yeah I noticed that as well but am choosing to ignore it for now as I'm not sure what it could be or what to make of it for now.

    Mettigel: That grass is turning out to look really nice. I've never been able to do foliage very well at all. It looks like you're just using plane cards with a few strands on each plane alpha'd in. How are you getting all of the planes to bunch up so well? Whenever I've tried, I've been left with the each plane being far from the other so it's hard to fill space for me.
  • mettigel
    Offline / Send Message
    mettigel polycounter lvl 6
  • Calluhain
    @Mettigel: awesome Tutorial, definitely going to grab it :)

    Thanks.

    C
  • Huw_Dawson
    I don't have any grass yet. :( I'm done with blocking out important assets, I think:

    b2wANdA.png

    nNgNJNC.png

    EDIT:

    A shot as it is in Unity:

    TRkpgPo.jpg
  • Devon M
    Offline / Send Message
    Devon M polycounter lvl 4
    Simple block in. Just trying to get the proportions and spacing right. Still messing around with that ^^ before I move forward. :)
  • Calluhain
    Here's more of my blockout done today.

    HighresScreenshot00004_zpsb0m35wvp.png

    HighresScreenshot00005_zpsyeqmkz76.png

    HighresScreenshot00006_zpsgd6bpds5.png
  • Kibrika
    Top down and wireframe:
    YopBnyM.png?1
    Solid view from camera:
    MZ4Wbb3.jpg?1

    I stole the idea of the further pier being with a platform from Huw_Dawson.
    Devon M wrote: »
    In the reference image, is that a large, squareish object in the background (behind the trees), or am I crazy? O.o
    I think it's an old bunker or some such, though the railing on top... Anyway, it doesn't seem central to the concept, so gets left to "when polishing up".
  • Huw_Dawson
    I dunno, I feel a bit noobish.

    There's a few useful videos on this Youtube channel. It's largely a Max/CryEngine workflow that's shown off: https://www.youtube.com/user/Futurepoly

    For the time being I'm going to focus on getting the three buildings and the jetty complete. They're going to be built modularly, like how I constructed some placeholder stuff of the open-walled building and the jettys.

    I think the idea is that, as an environment artist, if a level designer can't use your assets for anything else once you're done, it kind of limits how useful your work is?
  • JedTheKrampus
    Offline / Send Message
    JedTheKrampus polycounter lvl 8
    MirtaFelix wrote: »
    Hi everyone I have a question about terrains in UE4. How do you make them looking sharp? I was very happy with a sculpt that I did in a terrain and then it suddenly all smoothed out and it has been going on with all of my terrains that I created in Unreal. Do you think it might have been a resloution problem? I am trying to find a solution online and I don't know if it is normal or not or how to fix it, or should I just leave it, do modelling in some other program and then import the model?

    It is strange because when I sculpt it looks like this and then it smoothes it again. Is this normal?

    I'd just use static meshes if the terrain tool isn't doing the job.
1
Sign In or Register to comment.