Hey guys, so I finished my art test that I will submit in a day or two.
I was required to model 1 of 3 characters based on their concept art (which is requested not to be posted online).
And this is the final result =]
to avoid bombinb this topic with a allot of images (20+) ill just link to my portfolio (WIP).
I was asked to document my process of creating this asset so to anyone that is interest it can be seen on the following page.
http://www.bb0x.com/New/GL.html
Oh also you can check a realtime turnaround of the model using unity3d player.
And finally I would like some feedback on my portfolio that I am working on now.
Made a topic for that if anyone is kind enough to take some time and comment on it, that'd be great! =]
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1628106#post1628106
Thanks.
Replies
You did an incredible job for 5000 polys. And since it's for Gameloft, I'm assuming this is meant for an iPad/iPhone game, which is nuts because this looks way better than most of the high end graphics for mobile games.
it looks fine when looking at it from eye level.
Thanks for the feedback! =]
Yeah this is for mobile afaik, iOS, android and what not.
thanks! I tried making something decent :P I'm glad it shows.
Your tut at the bottom of the website for this character was very useful. Thank you!
But I roughly finished this in 2 weeks (not working full time on it).
I have a (fastfood -_-) job plus other hobby project I am working on so it needed to be done in whatever little time I had.
I think if I were to work on it full time it would have taken me.. 5-7 days.
Good stuff, which studio you going for?
Well... I tried to follow the concept as closely as I could.
Gameloft Barcelona is the studio I went for.
B
Also thanks for the break/images on your folio !
I planned to do it.. but it had taken me 2 weeks already. I did not want to give the impression that I need a huge amount of time to make something look decent.
But yeah I plan to do it after I have updated most of my portfolio. Posing this chick will be "the dot on the "i"".. for lack of better words.
Sorry for missing your question I didn't realize that your posts had been edited. =]
I am not sure.. But I think they simply use a generic art test for multiple studios.
These guys got like.. a studio in every country. -_-
=]
Nice job man.
Gameloft has a lot of studios around the world. Probably every one has their own art tests.
bb0x - i think you will get this job, but it depends also about your interview. Say hello to Montse from me :D
Bugo - Custom shader using Strumpy Shader Editor.
Basically gives you a UDK like Material system in Unity3d.
The shader is actually really basic. Just diffuse, specular(RGB)gloss(alpha), normal and a coloured fresnel of which I can control the thickness and sharpness.
If you check out the Gloss texture I made, you'll notice something slightly weird; I am not using solid colors per material, but there is some AO /cavity baked into the texture as well. That is because the Gloss map is doubling as a mask for the fresnel. (If I were to use a cubemap I would use it as a reflection mask as well.)
The rest is just lighting since I am using deferred instead of forward I basically have an unlimited amount of lights to put in the scene.
Hope that helps =]
Ofca - Thanks man, hope so too! =D Does he know you by "Ofca"?
Gotcha, I've used strumpy before, it's probably the lighting you've setup that made me like it even more. Nice job!
Di$array - Yeah I didnt like the forearms much myself.. but I blame it on the concept.. =P
Ofca - Oh I didn't know =]
I haven't heard back yet. And.. I dont actually live in Spain :S Sooo.. -If- I actually get there.. It would probably take some time still.
Looks like what i made doesnt completely match their expectations. And they are sorry to anounce my aplication was unsuccesful.
Oh well time to finish another art test i was working on. As soon as i get better that is.. Ugh.
The next thing to do is get back on your feet and go go go!
Nah I didn't hand over anything.
I think the main reason they aren't interested in me is that I don't live in Spain.. but that of course is just speculation.
From the comments I have gotten here I take it there isn't anything wrong with model I created either.
GL not hiring me was the best thing that could possibly happened. I got an other job at some other studio and got a whole lot more success than if i would have ended up working for them. This is sometime in itself a greater opportunity than you can possibly imagine.
Wash, rinse, repeat, wash, rinse, repeat.
keep us posted.
Heh :P
Yeah will do, I'll probably start a new thread in a few for the current art test I am doing.
Posing the character now for your portfolio would be a good idea, just for the future unless you land the job your currently working on the art-test for.
I noticed something in your renders that seem to be A.O. errors, they don't seem to difficult to fix but It looks like they show up in your final renders so I guess they saw that and that was the deciding factor?
I thought you did an amazing job so I agree It's probably because you didn't live at their location, thanks for sharing this with us.
For some reason enabling rimlights in the shader made the colors at edges all wonky. I thought it wasnt that big of a deal myself tbh.
You might be asking.. "wait what rimlight? I dont see any.."
I tried to be very subtle with them to have some form of fake reflection.
shame you didn't got the job. Here in montreal GL is taking some weird decision too from what i've heard and experienced. One of my friend of +8 years experience got refused after an art test that was actually pretty good. Me and my Bf did a test for them too last month. I got refused after the art test (few other guys from polycount did it too, there were way better then me so it was no surprise). But my Senior lead 3d artist boyfriend of 6+ year experience got refused too after art test, got us both surprised
Anyway I'm sure you'll find other opportunities and they will probably appreciate your talent this time
I highly doubt than any tiny AO "error" would be a deciding factor.
Having been part of the interview process it can be for reasons you would never have considered. But GL do seem a bit odd with their hiring process. Now get that character posed and onward and upward!
Yea I was going to add that's really a minor thing to judge the entry on because if this was a product in a team setting someone would have noticed and It would have been fixed immediately.
I agree when I did that tennis art test waaayyy back like everyone else and turned It in, It almost felt like they were just collecting lowpoly designs for free which would just suck. That test went on and on and on and I was like really for months they found nobody? Also I've seen some really awesome versions of that test that I was shocked to see that, that person didn't get hired. Indeed they are 'odd' to say the least I would go so far to say fishy even.
I have a friend that works at gameloft; Its more about making an optimized model while keeping the visual fidelity; Yours was fairly expensive. What they were looking for was probably a 1000 poly model (maximum) with a 1k map total(at most, though I would probably aim for half of that. You also should keep in mind that they dont use normals or spec and the diffuse map should have alot of that information baked in. If you were going to use those maps; hiding them in rgb channels would show you know how to keep the maps inexpensive. Remember alpha costs alot.
The model is great for current gen, but as far as mobile platforms go its way off.
I did everything according to the specifications that were given to me.
Check out any recent "AAA mobile" games they all use "current gen" techniques. Obviously not as powerfull as consoles.
2 games that come to mind is Shadowgun and Nova3(gameloft title btw)
I mean.. why would I deliberately fuck myself by making something "insane" for a specific target platform?
I dont know. Lack of research maybe?
Ok. So should I have ignored their specifications for the art test and just have created whatever I thought was correct?
Mobile devices these days are quite powerful. Maybe it isn't I that didn't do enough research.
Did you have an interview? maybe they didn't like your attitude
My attitude heavily depends on the person in front of me.
To me it sounds like your friend ignored instructions that were given to him. But apparently that worked and they were looking for people to ignore instructions.
Problem solving and doing things within a set limitation to me are 2 separate things.
Since I was given a set limitation to work with, I expect they have done their job in figuring out what their game should be able to run.
I don't understand why a studio would employ weird tricks like giving certain specs and expecting something different.
If the problem was that things are too expensive and they wanted to see what I would do about it, I assume they would have given me a model and let me optimize it.
Though that is true.. It wasn't in a particularly "professional" environment.
Do you think it would be better to change the "Indie projects" stuff to "Hobby" or "Mod" projects?
When sending my cover letter, though, I am making sure they get that I have worked mainly on hobby/mod projects.