The BRAWL² Tournament Challenge has been announced!
It starts May 12, and ends Oct 17. Let's see what you got!
https://polycount.com/discussion/237047/the-brawl²-tournament
It starts May 12, and ends Oct 17. Let's see what you got!
https://polycount.com/discussion/237047/the-brawl²-tournament
Best Of
Building a GPU powered painting program.
Hey all.
It's been a while!
I've been working on something cool. I always get frustrated with painting software, it's slow, most of them work in 8 bit, and work in srgb, and the workflows haven't improved really that much for decades.
So I'm working on my own painting program, from scratch, using odin. The only library I'm using is a super fast ui layout library called clay, but rolling everything else myself.
The big trick, is I'll be doing all image manipulation on the gpu in compute shaders. Basically not even holding the image buffers in ram. This of course will mean that this program isn't at all suitable for low end hardware, but I don't care, I have a need for SPEED.
I have a lot more crazy stuff planned that nobody has ever done before, but i'll keep that stuff hush, until i have the core program with basic functionality running.
For now, this is showing the program with a 4096x4096 canvas, and a 500px brush, painting at around 900 FPS on a rtx 4070 ti
(kinda funny trying to show performance in a low fps gif i know)
ow
It's been a while!
I've been working on something cool. I always get frustrated with painting software, it's slow, most of them work in 8 bit, and work in srgb, and the workflows haven't improved really that much for decades.
So I'm working on my own painting program, from scratch, using odin. The only library I'm using is a super fast ui layout library called clay, but rolling everything else myself.
The big trick, is I'll be doing all image manipulation on the gpu in compute shaders. Basically not even holding the image buffers in ram. This of course will mean that this program isn't at all suitable for low end hardware, but I don't care, I have a need for SPEED.
I have a lot more crazy stuff planned that nobody has ever done before, but i'll keep that stuff hush, until i have the core program with basic functionality running.
For now, this is showing the program with a 4096x4096 canvas, and a 500px brush, painting at around 900 FPS on a rtx 4070 ti
(kinda funny trying to show performance in a low fps gif i know)
ow
Muzzoid
11 ·
Re: The Bi-Monthly Environment Art Challenge | January - February (94)
@klamante: Looks schweet! Great work. I like how the hand painting blends the overlapping faces / separation of the focus gear mount to the body of the binoculars.
@Pep_mepla: Good start so far. I noticed a few missing parts, though you mentioned it's still in progress so anyways. Just a thing to keep in mind is things like the placement of the switch area, with way the switches are right above the handle mount, you might find the cables don't fit without clipping through. So, it might be worth moving the handle switches are little bit back.
@Fabi_G I enjoy being able to walk around the scene, but because of that I noticed that the scale of objects felt a bit off, I think this feeling was mostly because you were using the same rubble asset at different sizes, confusing my brain. Along with a small detail of the spawn pedestal floating slightly above the ground.
@loon27 Nice retopology work so far. I have a couple suggestions some of which are a bit nit-picky. Looking at the shine from the lighting in your model, your normal map has a light bit of banding in it. Could be worth exporting the normal map at 16bit. This will also make Substance Painter happy since substance prefers 16bit bake maps. That and if you're planning to texture it, do you have a specific reason for the logo to be a floating plane and not just baked into the geometry? One more thing would be that you might be able to get more texel density out of your UVs by using a non-square UV to allow the longer lengths to fit more comfortably.
@Houuuuurr Great progress so far! Only things I'd note is that; the supporting edge loops on the sides of the middle section seem to be pinching at the ends, and also if those supporting edge loops need to be there in the first place? The reference images have a smooth curve going around the sides, but this might just be a stylistic choice by you.
@Pep_mepla: Good start so far. I noticed a few missing parts, though you mentioned it's still in progress so anyways. Just a thing to keep in mind is things like the placement of the switch area, with way the switches are right above the handle mount, you might find the cables don't fit without clipping through. So, it might be worth moving the handle switches are little bit back.
@Fabi_G I enjoy being able to walk around the scene, but because of that I noticed that the scale of objects felt a bit off, I think this feeling was mostly because you were using the same rubble asset at different sizes, confusing my brain. Along with a small detail of the spawn pedestal floating slightly above the ground.
@loon27 Nice retopology work so far. I have a couple suggestions some of which are a bit nit-picky. Looking at the shine from the lighting in your model, your normal map has a light bit of banding in it. Could be worth exporting the normal map at 16bit. This will also make Substance Painter happy since substance prefers 16bit bake maps. That and if you're planning to texture it, do you have a specific reason for the logo to be a floating plane and not just baked into the geometry? One more thing would be that you might be able to get more texel density out of your UVs by using a non-square UV to allow the longer lengths to fit more comfortably.
@Houuuuurr Great progress so far! Only things I'd note is that; the supporting edge loops on the sides of the middle section seem to be pinching at the ends, and also if those supporting edge loops need to be there in the first place? The reference images have a smooth curve going around the sides, but this might just be a stylistic choice by you.
Hymil
6 ·
Re: Struggling with Head Anatomy – Need Feedback to Break the Cycle
Yeah, i think it's important to remember that the end goal is to make art. It's awesome to do a lot of isolated technical studies, but if we never finish any of it, we miss the important context of how our studies lead to the art that we want to make.
Muzzoid
3 ·
Re: WIP Rat King (Looking for feedback and advice)
Just wanted to mention since nothing was really said about it from op but: clicking link.
rat king concept search (it was a test in google search to see if they implemented it into search engines.)
I'd recommend doing a lot of reviewing for concepts to get an idea what has already been "fleshed" out first than trying to "out due", or mold into your vision of what is already there, of what you envision.
Some pretty gnarly things came up, kind of inspiring for other things, (for me anyway). keep on, keeping on.
Dmorgan: I am wanting to become a 3D artist for game development, I am thinking I
might try at prop or environment artist so will put character/creature
creations to the side for now before I learn more and take up those
Yup, probably best, do characters on like, on & off days "sat"/"sun". Was to late to respond with my .02's perhaps it will help some other out there. But yeah you can work on the idea with the link for a while comfortably on the side before getting into the 3d if you ever want to return to it. No need to respond to my post.
iam717
1 ·
Re: WIP Rat King (Looking for feedback and advice)
With "regular", I meant the overall simple shapes of the limbs as well as the homogenous size, distribution and orientation of the rats. For a more realistic character, you could add a lot of visual interest by changing things up, but like said, for a pretty cartoony one, that's not necessarily the case.
With more "standard" stylized models I meant that while your model is stylized, I don't expect a lot of demand for this specific style. Perhaps take a look at other portfolios and find a style that you like (and that you see used in games) and try to emulate that.
With more "standard" stylized models I meant that while your model is stylized, I don't expect a lot of demand for this specific style. Perhaps take a look at other portfolios and find a style that you like (and that you see used in games) and try to emulate that.
Noren
1 ·
Re: WIP Rat King (Looking for feedback and advice)
Hi. I am always pushing Daz3D because I love the possibility to rotate a figure around while I use it as reference. It's a free to use program so don't be tricked into paying for it on a bad link. You can also remove the textures so you get a better idea of form. Also best to have it on a separate screen while you work.
kanga
1 ·
Re: WIP Rat King (Looking for feedback and advice)
Fabi_G 1. When you say the "overall creature shape is a bit too artificial" do you mean in how it is posed or do you mean the literal shape like as Kanga said it looks more like a bean bag man rather than a body?
Hi! By "overall creature shape is a bit too artificial", I meant the rats placement look like a pattern. Combined with the deliberate placement of the other elements, it looks less like an organically grown creature to me. I mean this could be an intentional choice, like the rats just being a very disciplined bunch 
Cool that you started an environment. Perhaps it would help to look for an art style to follow. Then you could break out props into their own small projects, collecting reference material for each one to get the details right. Since you're interested in game art, I'd create the final environment in a game engine (Unreal, Unity, Godot, ...?). To keep scope small at first, could do just a table diorama with map, knife, navigation tool, mug?, all lit by a candle or lantern? When all this is completed nicely, could expand the environment further, adding more of the room.
On what you got so far, I'd note this: Looks like there are some strong mesh shading gradients (table legs), which could be resolved either by using hard edges or more geometry. Size and proportions of individual elements could be balanced so they match better (navigation tool looks tiny in comparison), details can be extracted from reference images. Long straight edges, especially when going for a stylized look (map, table), could be broken up some, damages added.
Keep it up!
Fabi_G
1 ·
Re: Can I do 16 bit UVs in Maya?
I found a workaround.
If I select all the UVs I want to snap to pixels, then select Lattice tool, enable pixel snapping, set falloff to 0, and then just move the center circle in the lattice, all the UVs will snap to pixels on the texture:
This should stop any issues with converting 32 bit UVs into 16 bit UVs in the game engine.
If I select all the UVs I want to snap to pixels, then select Lattice tool, enable pixel snapping, set falloff to 0, and then just move the center circle in the lattice, all the UVs will snap to pixels on the texture:
This should stop any issues with converting 32 bit UVs into 16 bit UVs in the game engine.
Kligan
1 ·
Re: The Bi-Monthly Environment Art Challenge | January - February (94)
@Fabi_G: Excellent work and exemplary workflow! It's clear you are giving this your own spin and want enough space for walking around/explorig, but it does feel a tad bit empty compared to the reference. One aspect may be that the difference between the blended-in ground foliage and the bigger plants is too big so the latter stick out more and seem somewhat isolated.
@klamante: Looking good! I'd probably let the straps for the covers go into the covers so they don't have to double up when closed, but I'll admit I have a hard time imagining this at the moment.
@klamante: Looking good! I'd probably let the straps for the covers go into the covers so they don't have to double up when closed, but I'll admit I have a hard time imagining this at the moment.
Noren
4 ·
Re: Struggling with Head Anatomy – Need Feedback to Break the Cycle
Take your time to heal up. It's not like there's a schedule you have to stick to at all cost.
Probably a bit exaggerated, but perhaps this helps. Pretty nitpicky anyway.
.
Probably a bit exaggerated, but perhaps this helps. Pretty nitpicky anyway.
.
Noren
1 ·