Best Of

Generic Sci-Fi Tiling textures

I don't know much about trim sheet theory, so if I'm doing something glaringly wrong, or if anyone has some good trim sheet theory/courses, let me know.

These are presented in substance designer 5. The emissive map intensity for half of these renders is really over the top and gaudy, just how I like them.

The idea was to ultimately create an unreal tournament map/arena using just these textures, but I never found the time to do so. Hopefully in the future.

CognizanCe

2 ·

Re: Sketchbook: Frank Polygon

Subdivision modeling: block outs and incremental progression.

Drawing is a creative process that most people encounter quite early on so it's often appealing to try and draw parallels between the initial rough sketch used to develop a finished drawing and the block out mesh used to develop a finished model.

Taking this simple analogy at face value tends to overlook how sketches can be more than just a framework that guides the creation of the finished drawing. Sketching is also something that tends to happen throughout the entire drawing process. Sometimes it happens above the paper and sometimes it happens on the paper. This is repeated throughout the drawing process until more and more of the initial sketch is lost to incremental progression. The transitory nature of sketching, along with the rough sketches (test samples) actively discarded along the way, tends to suggest that block outs can also be treated as purely disposable elements.

The idea that the block out is only used to establish proportions then is thrown away is problematic because: at best it undersells the importance of a process that helps solve shape and topology issues before they become major problems and at worse it reinforces the idea that the process is some kind of redundant work that only needs to be done to tick another box. This overly simplified view of things can make it tempting to skip over the block out process to save time.

While block outs can be used like rough sketches, to establish forms, check proportions and test out different ideas, they can also have a more direct role in defining the quality of the finished product. Skipping over the block out or only using it during the very beginning of the modeling process often leads to situations where unnecessary complexity ends up causing problems that burn up more time than was initially saved.

Blocking out the base [cage] mesh is important because it's a lot easier to get the shapes and basic topology flow right without all of the support loops and excess geometry in the way. Support loops and topology layouts are important but they won't really matter if the underlying shapes are so inaccurate that the final mesh doesn't look anything like the concepts or references.

Creating a block out may not be the most exciting thing in the world but jumping into a model without having a clear idea of what the shapes are and how the topology will flow often results in creating an unnecessarily complex mesh. All of this added mesh complexity often makes it difficult to join shapes, route topology and (most importantly) make changes to the model.

Here's an example of a typical modeling workflow where the block out process stops after the basic outline of the shape is created. Support loops are added right away and the rest of the model is created with a subdivision modifier active. A lot of time and effort goes into manually placing and straightening support loops to provide space for additional surface details. All of the details are added with basic modeling operations that preserve the underlying quad topology.

The result is an all quad mesh that doesn't require any major cleanup but this approach also tends to generate a dense topology that locks in the shapes and makes the mesh difficult to edit. Shortening the block out process did save some time but it also means that if any major smoothing issues appear or if any major change requests are made then it's very likely the entire model will have to be reworked.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/re/ea2as02s1sbi.jpg

Here's an example of a modeling workflow where the block out process extends well into the addition of minor secondary surface features. Editable modifiers make changing most of these surface details a non-issue but even if this wasn't the case the incremental progression of the block out makes it easy to roll back to a previous iteration and make changes without having to redo a lot of existing work. Most of the time and effort in this example is focused on the creation of accurate shape details to match the references. Only once the shapes are correct is any time spent managing support loops.

That's not to say that support loop topology isn't important. It is. Instead the idea is that the underlying shapes will determine what the support loop topology needs to look like so it's more effective to manage the basic shapes first then the support loop topology second.

Keeping the mesh relatively simple and progressively adding details before adding support loops (generated by modifiers and a couple of inset operations) means that any change requests can be handled before a significant level of mesh complexity makes changing the shapes a lot of extra work. Waiting to add additional support loops until after the block out model is approved reduces the risk of having to rework a significant portion of the model to accommodate even relatively minor changes.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/wt/e5th5o2c37fy.jpg

Both modeling process produce usable results but there are subtle differences in overall surface quality. The model created with a limited block out phase suffers in a couple of places where the underlying topology had to be deformed to accommodate the serrations while also maintaining quad geometry. However this minor quality difference shouldn't be the primary focus. The major difference here is the amount of additional time and potential risk for rework that can accrue when skipping over or shortening time spent on the block out.

It's often helpful to think of the block out as more of an extended process of establishing the shapes that make up the major forms while also developing the underlying geometry. Time spent resolving shape and topology issues early on in the modeling process is often paid back later when the mesh complexity starts to increase. Making major changes to a simple but accurate base mesh is much easier than trying to re-route a bunch of extraneous edge loops around additional shape intersections or surface details. This is why it's important to work through the block out phase and really nail down the major shapes before adding all of the support loops.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/pp/f9vqmeypxrbp.jpg

For those interested in some additional reading on the topic: shape analysis is another important part of the block out process that's covered in this write up: https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2745166/#Comment_2745166

Recap:

Avoid jumping into a subdivision model without doing some level of planning. Block outs can be used to experiment with different forms and topology layouts but they're also an important part of the modeling process. Often the final quality of the subdivided mesh is directly influenced by the quality of the shapes that were created while blocking out the base mesh. Incremental progression also helps reduce risk by creating regular opportunities to evaluate and change the model while also generating iterative states to fall back on if major changes are required.

FrankPolygon

5 ·

Re: The Bi-Monthly Environment Art Challenge | January - February (82)

This is my first post here so hooray!

I want to fill up my portfolio in the hopes of landing a job as a generalist or prop - environment artist for games for small to medium indie studios.

The stylized prop seemed like a good choice for me since I am still adjusting to blender and I need to work on my hand painted texture skills.

For the moment all I got is a rough block-out down and would like some feedback at this stage on my proportions / accuracy to the reference image. The other props form the scene will also be added later.

Something that I am also considering is, doing a sculpt pass after refining the base shapes a little more to add chips and other little pieces of organic wear to the model before moving on to the textures.

Here is to hoping to become an active part of this community and get employed doing what I love.

Thanks for reading

( I will edit this post when I have new things to show to avoid spam, unless that is not how you are supposed to do it here? )

Fronk3D

7 ·

Re: AI Art, Good or Bad? A (hopefully) nuanced take on the subject.

"What you basically would do is to blind the AI by taking away the training data"

I think that is one of the key issues artists want a remedy for. They're basically saying "hey, I didn't post my portfolio online to have it be used by this software unbeknownst to me, that anyone can use for commercial purposes...please remove it."

It's a sensible request. And trivial to do for the software...for the hypothetical blind child in our example: not so much.

It's the wild, wild west for sure. A new frontier. People will want to explore, mistakes will be made, lessons hopefully learned. It's pretty cool to have discourse about here, because it is us, our industry, our peers, our colleagues and friends that can shape and change it.

pxgeek

4 ·

Re: AI Art, Good or Bad? A (hopefully) nuanced take on the subject.

"It's completely normal for people to want their piece of mind back.

Next false claim. You cannot want back what you never lost."

- - - - -

Being a contrarian/taking the position of the devil's advocate/being in disagreement is one thing ; showing a pure lack of empathy is another altogether.

pior

4 ·

Re: AI Art, Good or Bad? A (hopefully) nuanced take on the subject.

I still can not understand the reason why somebody would call it AI "art" in the first place other than for cynical manipulation of social narratives.

For sociopaths everything can be a "tool", even another person. No wonder they are so loud right now in defending AI with rather very weak arguments, e.g. that it is fun for THEM, the reward is so FAST, oh, it's such a cool toy etc.

Ethics is something beyond their understanding.

They simply can not grasp, that many CG artists aren't against AI in general, but against being treated unfair.

Phiona

4 ·

Re: Is there a protest going on right now at Artstation?

Well first of all it is absolutely possible to design AI-driven tools that have been trained ethically. That's what the team behind Cascadeur did, sourcing their own animation work into a tool that helps ... animators.

But that doesn't mean that an AI-assisted tool, even ethically trained, is necessarily desirable. For instance the 2d side of me would (perhaps) not want some magical AI-driven line smoothing tool even if ethically trained, because it would still feel like leeching on the effort of others. Whereas I don't see that much of a problem with algorithmic line processing (as done by LazyNezumi) because it is 100% coming from ingenuity and clever software design, overcoming the limitations of poorly performing or limited hardware and software.

I also don't know what to think of the inevitable "2D to 3D" AI tools. Sure, they'll be fascinating to watch evolve, and sure enough many designers will love the idea of being able to turn their sketches into 3D renders, skipping manual modeling/sculpting/VR Sketching. But is it really that desirable in the long run ?

Also, I tend to think that a place for artists that doesn't allow any AI-generated imagery (even if ethically trained) would overall feel more welcoming and less toxic. I guess we'll see how all this turns out in practice within a few months to a year.

At the end of the day perhaps it comes down to making the conscious choice of not necessarily being at the forefront of technical progress, for the sake of preserving "slow art". Whether such slow art is commercially viable is a big question, but I honestly don't think that the most successful products are necessarily the ones with the most intricately detailed visuals. See pixel art, Minecraft, and so on.

pior

3 ·