Best Of
Re: Substance painter: Correct way to increase normal map intensity
Add another layer and adjust opacity - painter will take care of the maths
Messing with levels/contrast etc can and will cause wanky artefacts
Messing with levels/contrast etc can and will cause wanky artefacts
poopipe
1 ·
Re: POV: You need to create a big environment, where do you start?
It is similar to scultping or painting. First get in the biggest shapes. Focus on the composition. And, if it were a game, the gameplay.
Then you can refine that a bit by replacing the chunky block out models with higher resolution ones. But maybe not the final high detail models yet.
Then you can do a similar thing for your colors and lighting. Just block it in roughly.
Now you'll have a rough draft of your entire scene. Each element of it - the models, the textures, the lighting - is somewhere between 50%-70% finished. At this stage you can still make any big changes before putting in the long hours to finalize everything. Because the models and materials are simplified, it won't be too difficult to make big changes. This is the funnest part that is all creativity and pretty much don't have to think about anything technical, so dive in and have fun.
Once you are okay with the big things, then you can go through piece by piece and detail. You can do that in whatever order you like. Bounce around, or one thing at a time. Doesn't really matter.
Thiago Klafke (maybe I mispelled, just going on memory) has a good tutorial for this whole process. I am sure you can probably find some tutorials for free as well. And if you search through other environment artist threads here you will see some variation of this process. Some people might change up the steps slightly but for the most part I think you'll see that people do a rough block in both for shapes, colors, and lighting before they move into detailed modeling and texturing, and then finalize the lighting and post process.
The big principle to keep in mind is that you try to answer the most important parts about the artwork in a way that allows you maximum flexibility to make changes, and only once you are satisfied do you go into the time-consuming detailing.
It may help to get your favorite spreadsheet app out too and breakdown the entire project into task. You might list every model needed, every texture, and estimate time needed for things like lighting and figuring out shaders or trim sheets or whatever. Then you can organize all those task into the big phases.
- Blockout Shapes Rough
- Blockout Colors Rough
- Blockout Lighting Rough
- Blockout Shapes Refine
- Blockout Colors Refine
- Blockout Lighting Refine
and so on.
Having the checklist means that you don't have to try and load so much shit into your brain. You take care of that once, write it down, and then when it is time to work you can just focus on the task at hand with confidence. Ship is already on course, now you just have to do the work.
You can also log your time working and add that to the spreadsheet, and then after the project is done you can review it. Maybe you see that you spent like 50% more time in one task than another, but the effect of that task wasn't very important, and so for the next project you'll have a better idea how to prioritize things.
Alex_J
3 ·
Re: Alan Wake 2 - Lighting
Any particular difficulties lighting for a game like this that looks consistently good with raytracing and without?
MrHobo
1 ·
Re: The Bi-Monthly Environment Art Challenge | January - February (88)
I'm going to give the hard surface environment a shot. I'll be deviating from the concept a bit, but I'll keep the general feel. Once I get further along, I'll probably change the textures on these assets to be less NYC specific, but these were the easiest to find good reference for. I plan on creating a full interior in UE5. I'm most nervous about getting the blockout proportions correct so I've been putting that off. 
somePizzaBoy
5 ·
Re: Anatomy Character Fat Male Render Arnold
Anatomy looks pretty good for the most part. The character is not a fat man. He is a stylized body builder with short legs and a distended abdominal region. Shorts never perch halfway up a slope and that looks a bit weird (like they are cut off at the top in an unnatural straight line). Looks like the arm muscles need some love in the side view as the anatomy and cut lines need work. A program like Daz4D might help alot. Stylized characters are not that easy. Keep em coming!
kanga
1 ·
Re: Critique: 3D Prop Demo Reel
Looks like my wife was correct about the turntable speed haha! I can slow them down for sure. That is a great point about light interaction and adding a clickable link. I followed you back on Artstation. Thanks again for your help. I've been working alone, so it's great having an outside opinion! Have a great day!
Jenn3D
1 ·
Re: Seeking feedback for my WIP stylized UE5 environment.
Took a little break from this project to participate in the global game jam. Here is the newest render with the previously mentioned changes and implementations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abl_nQ7hRd0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abl_nQ7hRd0
HalfAsleepArtist
1 ·
Re: FJTools - ZBrush plugin
I just released the version 1.5.7!
- Patched the plugin to be compatible with ZBrush 2024.0.1
- Fixed an issues that caused errors on IOS
- Fixed Hide All/Show All/ Invert Visibility in the Quick Menu
floon
2 ·
Re: My portfolio is weak, send help please
I second this, that orc ass needs saving otherwise nobody will hire you.pixelpatron said:Red Orc: ass not very appealing
Seriously though, you're not off to a bad start but these aren't portfolio level works as much as they are studies.
Portfolio work should be comparable to the companies you aspire to work for. Avoid anything called "WIP" in your portfolio section. This should be reserved for something that an art director would sign off on.
I'll forego repeating the Anatomy study feedback and instead say you need to work on your presentation. High poly, low poly, UVs, lighting that compliments the character and their personality. A studio will want to see your assets broken down, not just beauty shots. The thumbnail of the valkyrie is a good example of what not to do. You're putting an emphasis on an area of a model that's not the strongest part of the piece as a whole.
The sculpts in general feel muddy/unclear. This is because you're sculpting a lot of medium/large details on one subtool and they lose their separation. the feathers and chainmail of the mask are examples of this. The clothes/armor look like they were extracted and then sculpted on, which is fine - but that's not quite the full process. You can extract clothes and then sketch designs to figure stuff out for surface details but at some point you need to retopologize those extractions, otherwise you end up with wobbly sculpts. It's possible to polish them sometimes but you'll get a better result 100% of the time if you do a retopo pass.
Best of luck and keep us updated!
Gannon
2 ·
Re: My portfolio is weak, send help please
Hello Sandjar,
Some decent progress, I think you've got the basics but you've got quite a journey ahead. Here we go.
Thumbnails on artstation, need to be feature your models better. Overall you should work towards getting a 3 point light setting scene setup in Unity/Unreal. Or you could if you're only doing characters look at the presets in sketchfab. I use a tweaked default 3 point lighting setup and it works great! Experiment with the different HDR skies.
Models themselves. Anatomy needs more work:
Valkyrie: ass not very appealing, looks like you cheated and didn't want to model the face/eyes...this might be due to the concept, although if you're trying to impress a studio they'll want to know you can model a face/female. Looks like you rushed the crotch and didn't look at anatomy for the legs/arms. I'd suggest working on a bunch of female sculpts to get more familiar with the anatomy.
Red Orc: ass not very appealing, doesn't show understanding of it's forms. Hands look blobby disproportioned to model/anatomy (tiny fingers). Materials for wood/metal/skin/cloth could be more convincing. Boots/pants/sash/belt all blend into mush, I'd look at contrast and value changes between the skin and these other elements to give the audience some visual separation. Torso anatomy looks underdeveloped or unfinished and also like it's melting. Back, and hunched neck do not look convincing or modified from believable anatomy as a foundation. Subsurface scattering? Could fake it with coloring.
Orc and Elf: too early to be included as part of portfolio as they feel very wip and unfinished. Remember your portfolio is only as strong as your weakest piece. Less is more and if you have something that looks lower quality, unfinished, and possibly lowers the overall quality of the portfolio, it's best to cut it.
Good luck.
I'd suggest you focus on doing exercises before tackling more full characters. Do 50 heads male/female, 50 torsos male/female, 50 legs/feet, 50 hands.
Some decent progress, I think you've got the basics but you've got quite a journey ahead. Here we go.
Thumbnails on artstation, need to be feature your models better. Overall you should work towards getting a 3 point light setting scene setup in Unity/Unreal. Or you could if you're only doing characters look at the presets in sketchfab. I use a tweaked default 3 point lighting setup and it works great! Experiment with the different HDR skies.
Models themselves. Anatomy needs more work:
Valkyrie: ass not very appealing, looks like you cheated and didn't want to model the face/eyes...this might be due to the concept, although if you're trying to impress a studio they'll want to know you can model a face/female. Looks like you rushed the crotch and didn't look at anatomy for the legs/arms. I'd suggest working on a bunch of female sculpts to get more familiar with the anatomy.
Red Orc: ass not very appealing, doesn't show understanding of it's forms. Hands look blobby disproportioned to model/anatomy (tiny fingers). Materials for wood/metal/skin/cloth could be more convincing. Boots/pants/sash/belt all blend into mush, I'd look at contrast and value changes between the skin and these other elements to give the audience some visual separation. Torso anatomy looks underdeveloped or unfinished and also like it's melting. Back, and hunched neck do not look convincing or modified from believable anatomy as a foundation. Subsurface scattering? Could fake it with coloring.
Orc and Elf: too early to be included as part of portfolio as they feel very wip and unfinished. Remember your portfolio is only as strong as your weakest piece. Less is more and if you have something that looks lower quality, unfinished, and possibly lowers the overall quality of the portfolio, it's best to cut it.
Good luck.
I'd suggest you focus on doing exercises before tackling more full characters. Do 50 heads male/female, 50 torsos male/female, 50 legs/feet, 50 hands.
pixelpatron
2 ·