Monthly Community Noob Challenge September 2013 (11)
interpolator
Welcome to the Monthly Noob Challenge September 2013 (11)!
Join our Skype group too if you want! Add me on Skype and I will add you to the group.
Skype: alexmasterofcats
You don't have to join the skype if you don't want to though, you don't need to ask to participate or anything, just start doing it and post in this thread!
This month's concept.
Concept by Simon Kopp
While this is handpainted, feel free to approach this however you like, if you want to sculpt it, go for it. It's up to you, as long as you are learning then it doesn't matter right?
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, go for it! This way you can work on building up to a full scene.
RULES:
Please read all the rules.
When you are just starting out making a scene can seem complicated or imposing, so break it down.
Think about how you can re-use assets, re-use textures, break it down as simple as possible plan it out, a lot of people will break it down in their own way when they start out their challenge. Gather some refs 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.
All that matters is that you learn and give and get advice and are willing to be critiqued.
So here are the specific rules:
Feel free to join in our community run challenges!
Join our Skype group too if you want! Add me on Skype and I will add you to the group.
Skype: alexmasterofcats
You don't have to join the skype if you don't want to though, you don't need to ask to participate or anything, just start doing it and post in this thread!
This month's concept.
Concept by Simon Kopp
While this is handpainted, feel free to approach this however you like, if you want to sculpt it, go for it. It's up to you, as long as you are learning then it doesn't matter right?
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, go for it! This way you can work on building up to a full scene.
RULES:
Please read all the rules.
When you are just starting out making a scene can seem complicated or imposing, so break it down.
Think about how you can re-use assets, re-use textures, break it down as simple as possible plan it out, a lot of people will break it down in their own way when they start out their challenge. Gather some refs 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.
All that matters is that you learn and give and get advice and are willing to be critiqued.
So here are the specific rules:
Try to do one crit for every post you make, this will make for a better learning environment and help us grow as artists.
Must make your own textures, no stealing, we can't keep you from it, but the goal is to learn, even tileables, I mean you can take someone else's image and make it tileable, that's fine.
You must use a game engine OBVIOUSLY. UDK or Cryengine will probably be the most used, but feel free to use any.
You must try your best and finish as much as you can in this month.
Post what you are working on in this thread so that way it's a more centralized place for advice and critique and we don't have 1000 disjointed threads littering the forums.
Well that's about it, if you think the rules should be changed let us know.
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 Ddo, yeah, 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, please don't complain.
Must make your own textures, no stealing, we can't keep you from it, but the goal is to learn, even tileables, I mean you can take someone else's image and make it tileable, that's fine.
You must use a game engine OBVIOUSLY. UDK or Cryengine will probably be the most used, but feel free to use any.
You must try your best and finish as much as you can in this month.
Post what you are working on in this thread so that way it's a more centralized place for advice and critique and we don't have 1000 disjointed threads littering the forums.
Well that's about it, if you think the rules should be changed let us know.
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 Ddo, yeah, 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, please don't complain.
Feel free to join in our community run challenges!
Replies
I think Im going do to this one in reverse from what I did the last month.
Blockout - > udk -> finish lighting -> start making props - > textures -> shaders - > tweak light.
Depending on how I feel when I get to that part Im thinking of doing this one in a Id software - Rage artstyle / Borderlands 2. Depends on how much time I hope to get to spend on it.
Correction that it should be September 2013.
I will most likely try to model it first in Maya, and experiment with textures in Photoshop. Though as I said in the previous thread, I am still quite new to this, so it's quite the learning process.
Though, I am uncertain as to "how" to apply these in UDK or Cryengine SDK. Should be fun to learn.
I will most likely to start working on it 3 days from now (September 4, 2013. GMT +8 ) due to classes and exams (though I might find time to have fun doing this).
Some parts I've got to adjust, heading off to sort that mini door on the back
so far I've made a blockout and a breakdown:
I'm the first time here too.
I started with props like table, bottle, etc and I made a really basic blockout in udk.
This is my first hand painted textures so I'd be happy to get some advice (I have a Bamboo tablet):
I thought there would be more modular pieces, but looking at the concept it seems easier to make some things one model, like the walls and the bar, and most of the modular stuff will be with textures. Not sure what everyone is thinking about tackling the modular aspect though?
And for the textures...
It looks like a lot of wood! Apart from the floorboard type wood, I was going to make a tileable "soft wood" with less grain detail and see how that fits the objects. Then for the bar, table etc make unique wood textures for each, because they are pretty interesting models.
Everyones blockouts are looking good, I'm going to start mine tonight. Maybe.
So far I find the blockouts are both interesting, as they are motivating.
First attempt at blocking for this blocking bit. Although, what would normally be the "next thing" to do? (since in my head, I think of adding more detail and adjusting certain parts to fit properly, since I can be quite obsessive compulsive about the smallest details, sometimes).
The floor is supposedly divided into a number of squares for each tile (2x2 squares = 1 tile, refer to provided concept art photo), and is usually the basis of my measurement (though I got lost in some parts, hence some probably misshaped parts).
And I forgot the pipes.
Though my apologies if I do not criticize certain parts yet as it might be too soon for any (but if ever I have to...)
@Endzeit - It might be a little wide. But aside from that, it's good so far.
I think I'll be different and spend this week planning. In the last challenge, the things that I had the most problems with/consumed the most time were elements I didn't account for initially. Here's hoping for a better turnaround!
Looking good so far people, I'm impressed at how fast you all work
Unfortunately I couldn't sit down and get started till later in the day due to ordered to do the garden followed by a visit by the old lady but here we go.
About half way done on the block out, with some minor details just to make sure the scaling is good.
The characters are 175cm tall, I based my initial scaling on the tiling on the floor and the chair things. Some bit def need tweaking but overall happy so far.
Critiques more than welcome, would love some feedback on stuff I may of missed or done totally wrong so far.
Cheers
I've just finished my floortiles texture.
For it being your first time hand painting you did a good job. The bottle is too low poly because it's a cylindrical shape and it will start to facet with insufficient polys to give it enough of a round curve. I would suggest modeling a high poly bottle which you create normal maps to give the effect of more detail. As for the actual painting it can use more of a dirty feel to the bottle and label especially, given that it is handled by hands and will collect dust and such. Really great start so far
Starting my blockout on this lovely sunday night, i´ve never done this before so, wish me luck.
Really digging your floor texture Mr.Petersen
A question has popped in my head while doing the blockout : is it better to use some BSP in UDK to create the floor and walls, or since it is only for visual it doesn't really matter ?
half blocked out, I'm doing some textures as I go along.
@Dawars - I think you'd benefit from using a softer brush on your glass and trying to paint smoother gradients. The neck could probably be a lot shorter and I'd like to see a darker brown for the cork, though that might just be me.
The normals and tectures are placeholders for now, to give a better idea of the fina scene. Still trying to work out the best way to go about laying out the textures
And here's my photoshop breakdown, highlighting modular geometry and noting down the unique items (quite a few!).
Just wondering, how are you all handling the tiles? I was thinking one piece of geometry since there's a few really unique pieces.
Critique: Endzeit, I think your floor plan might be a little too wide, but it's looking great! It might be worth it to try measuring the scene by the tiles, everything seems to line up pretty well.
And Wade WT,I can already tell you're going to have an awesome hand-painted scene (if that's what you're going for), can't wait to see more!
This is quite cool and I feel honored that you picked my concept for this. I really like supporting beginners and even if its just giving out a concept of mine for training its a good thing. I really look forward to how all of you guys read my concept and turn it into 3d.
But please add my name as artist for this piece and ask for permission to use it beforehand! Its a no go to post someone elses work without any word about who created it. If you can't find it, don't use it!
I have sent you a PM to this, so don't be bothered guys, I just wanted to get that out to you!
I'll make darn sure everyone who sees my final scene knows of the amazing artists behind it.
Thanks for letting us use your concept after the fact, and I hope as a community of artists we can endeavor to be a little more responsible with our choices.
Not cool.
Awesome concept. Nice Block-out's.
However the way the MNC is setup there isn't really any time between when voting for a piece ends, and when the thread is started. I think at the very least credit for a concept, along with any accompanying links should be put at the beginning of the thread.
I'm pretty sure that the opening intro has just been copied and pasted from the last month's thread as it states the current thread as August's (10)...
But your completely correct. Stating it within the intro is kind of standard practice. Then everyone can list it alongside their work's titles..
It really is an amazing concept, and I can't wait to see what transpires from it.
I'm really glad one of the concept owners finally spoke up about this.... I've seen people bring it up a bunch of times in the concept threads, but now that one of the artists chimed in, hopefully every image will be credited from now on. Thanks Airborn, for letting us do this, because it's a really great image!
Glad this was chosen, think I'm gonna try it!
- Making custom textures (namely for the floor tiles, walls, pipes and such)
- Transition from Maya (and other software) into UDK or CryEngine SDK
- Anything that might help with regards to this monthly noob challenge
Though I will go through the internet for the tutorials, I would appreciate it if ever some of you would share their findings. And I will do so as well, as this is after all a learning experience, so I would think.
I am grateful for any help given, and I will return what I find.
Though do warn me if ever this isn't allowed.
Hopefully ill have time to do this challenge, need to try environment art at some point...
Anyway the pipeline to UDK is relatively simple and theres a lot of tutorials that cover it, without searching i know eat3d have some awesome tutorials for UDK, one of the better ones has stuff about particles lighting materials etc. great for starting, also this http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/WebHome.html . Theres also loads of tutorials on places like digital tutors and even youtube of people making tileables, i would do a quick youtube search for some. Since this is gonna mostly be a hand painting environment i would look up the 3d motive tutorial on hand painting, i think its a weapon but it teaches you how to paint lighting and stuff into your texture, which may or may not be useful. im unsure about cryengine as i haven't used it but i would check their documentation, youtube and places like eat3d, 3d motive etc for some tutorials.
I have altered the main layout slightly, and added a sort of back room/kitchen, where I think that window next to the bar may go to. I figure with making a bunch of cool tileables, that I might as well design it in such a way that I can throw a roof on it, and down the line be able to create a bunch of other buildings to make up a larger environment.
While I may have gotten ahead of myself, I'll keep it so that I can present the concept area only if need be.
@silver spade: I learnt UDK a couple months ago with the 3D buzz tutorials on the UDN website. They are really easy to follow, and the UDN wiki that jfeez mentioned is awesome, it has everything on it.
@acapulco & Neox: Thanks for the use of the awesome concept guys, I agree you should have been asked before! But I will def credit you
How did you make the textures on the floor in vieport 2.0? Was it a bump map?
Using Max '14 for the modeling, will end up plopping it into Unity3D for the final (assuming we get there).
The blockout so far:
Cheers.
I baked out a normal map and AO map from a quick sculpt in Zbrush, used the AO map as a texture.
I tend to start working in B&W since my colour perceptions are way off, and some quick AO bakes help me a lot.
Here's my block out.
Love the work coming out so far keep up the good work everyone!
Going to work on this when I can in between some school projects, but if you got any crits let me know
Great to see all the awesome work already
@monkeymintaka
Thank you for the tips and advise for any possible tutorials.
Though at the moment, I'm looking for tutorials with regards to making the floor textures (though I also learned some textures could be made in ZBrush, which I am yet to acquire and install, for the learning process).
Though to be nice, I am supposed to criticize on other people's works, though my apologies if my crits aren't soo good.
@BasicallyNormal - How were you able to make the textures on the floor and the barrels? (I'm still relatively noob-ish, so some details would be nice, if that's alright with you)
@m4dcow - nice detail, nice looking house, making it feel complete. xD Though it looks rather wide (I think, though, I could be wrong).
@monkeymintaka (again) - that's a nice looking setup, I'm liking the detail on the pipes and the "fence-like" thing near the stairs, and the stairs as well.
@Endzeit - The stairs seem unbalanced, still blocky, though aside from that looking good.
@Dark Acre Jack - Nice details (I'm not sure if it's textures exactly, though it's nice). Liking how you are able to count and measure the scene with the tiles on the floor (so I would think), and it's nice.
@BasicallyNormal (again) - Nice details, very fine. As I said earlier, I wonder how you made the textures in detail, if you wish to share it, that is (though I could imagine high poly -> "bake"/bump mapping was it? -> apply texture to low poly?
@modebloggen - Angle's a bit off, but aside from that, everything appears to be there (model wise, except for the wine on the shelves, though I'm uncertain as to whether the creation of wine bottles is required, or just creating an illusion of sorts).
So far I am inspired by the works of others, and I just came from fixing the scaling of my current project in Maya. A bit smaller, though seems to be more accurate. (Note to self: post picture update if possible).
~I am thinking metal, but could also be painted wood :P
I'm also thinking it's metal, at least the band above the window. I guess it could be either, but I'm going for metal. I think it'll make for a more interesting scene if that whole couch-area isnt all wood.
yeah, I was a little thrown by it thanks, and yes would be nice to break that area up a bit
when it's turbosmoothed it's look better