Deus Ex: Human Revoloution Med Lab Prop

JasonDC

Good day, people of Polycount!

I have been working on sharpening my 3D modelling skills, so an associate suggested that I try my hand at recreating a prop from a popular game by only using concept art and refernece images available online.

I decided to recreate a Medical Lab table from on of my favourite stealth-action games of 2011, Deus Ex: Human Revoloution.

Reference used:
-http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/9/2011/09/3_07.jpg
-http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/image...11/09/4_05.jpg

Here's what I have so far:







--








I would appreciate any feedback that you fine folks could offer.

Have a great day!

reverendK

not a whilel ot to crit just yet...missing a few part lines on the countertops...notches at the bottom of most of the shapes as well. The supports holding up the light aren't right - you've got blocks where the concept has cables going into an inset/under-the-cover hook. I think that the hose you've modeled is a wee bit too thin as well. Keep her goin - it's a start.

JasonDC

Thanks for taking a look at it, reverendK. I realize now that it's still in a pretty early stage of development to start asking for crits on it. I still appreciate the help though

Also, I just want to say that a fantastic 3D Artist and fellow PolyCounter A-Train who has been helping me sharpen my 3D skills. I just wanted to give him the proper recognition Also, check out his Reptile model progression thread, it's coming along nicely!

jordan.kocon

Hey man I work with A-Train and he showed me your site. Looking at this piece I think you need to step back a little. It looks like right now you have started adding support edges a little earlier. I am guessing you are making a high poly? First you should block out the whole thing. Get the basic shape and proportions nailed down. Dont worry about subdividing your mesh yet. Work on getting clean topology so you can add support edges easier. I highly recommend checking out http://www.3dmotive.com/training/3ds-max/high-poly-modeling-an-introduction/?follow=true . Im not sure what package you are modeling (Max/Maya/XSI), but it doesnt matter, its the method that does.

JasonDC

Hi Jordan,

Yes, I was going to try and create a high poly version of the Med Lab from the concept. I see what you mean about "taking a step back"; looking at the renders in comparison to the references, I did miss blocking out a few items. I'm going to take another look at my model and try to focus on nailing down the proportions and cleaning up the topology.

Thank you for that link as well! I'm going to download that video as soon as I can. It works out well too, because I'm building the Med Lab in 3DS Max.

Thank you for taking a look at my work and for the advice, Jordan

JasonDC

I took Jordan's advice and decided to step back in my model, and this time I focused on the model's proportions and the overall silhouette of the model. I also tried to add in more pieces found in the concept reference, like the hooks, the wires on the ground and the plate for the arm.

I haven't started to subdivide the mesh just yet; I wanted to share my progress so far.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.













Have a great day!

JasonDC

Here are some new progress shots of the Med Table:

I decided to start refining the shape and details of the large tables and the vertical tube section of the mesh.







Wire renders:







Here are a closer look at the details that I added to the table tops and the vertical tube:







Detail wires:







Once again, any feedback would be appreciated

Have a great day!

A-Train

Hey Jason,

You're missing a lot of paneling details (see image). You don't need to model all of the panels into the models geometry. You can model them as separate geo and place them on top of the large structure. You can even model extruded in details as separate floating models above a flat surface to add those details (as long as those floating details show up when you bake your normal map texture with the low poly + and the cage; it's all good). I'd also recommend to turbosmooth on a detail level of 2 (or in some cases 3 or more) to showcase the work. I'll be able to see more clearly what it looks like in comparison to the reference images. I'd also strongly recommend attaching both of your reference images into this thread rather than having an external link. Basically you always want to show your versions in comparison to the reference as you are trying to get your piece as close to the ref as possible. You should also exaggerate really small details, so that when you bake to a low poly they'll show up easier.



For the cylindrical dome detail. You want to model all of those rectangle pieces in, and they should be flush with the top of the dome, not extruded out the top of it; according to the reference. It's slowly coming along, keep at it and show the final turbo smoothed version once you're done.

After that you can then duplicate the high poly, and begin stripping out all of the unneeded edges to make yourself a low poly.

JasonDC

Once again, thank you for all the helpful advice A-Train.

Sorry for not updating sooner, but work and other responsibilities have kept me occupied. I went through and added in more detail to the mesh, mostly panelling work. I took your advice to model the panels separately. By detaching the panel from the geometry, and then afterwards placing it over top of the existing geometry, it gave me a lot more freedom in terms of modelling in those details. I think that it's coming together quite nicely





















I have also attached the concept art to this thread, for easy access.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Have a great day!

A-Train

You should apply a turbo smooth modifier to the mesh and put new screenshots of the mesh up (no wires). Also try using a shader that has a high specular level so you can see the modeling and details more easily. You can find that under your material properties in max under Specular highlights. Just crank the spec level up, and tighten the gloss in if you need. See the below example of what that would look like (Jays work).

Currently the images you're showing of the mesh, appear low poly and jagged although it's a high poly model (which defeats the purpose of course). Once you apply that turbosmooth modifier, I'll be able to see more clearly what your final HP model looks like

If you already have a turbosmooth modifier applied, add a boat load of chamfers to...well everything really! To make those corners of the mesh POP, and not appear low poly. Take a look at a lot of high poly models as reference from artists on polycount, you'll find a wide variety on the forums!

Ensure that some edges of your high poly model have a smoother/rounder appearance (not hard edged) to add variation to your model. When you bake out the high poly details they'll carry through to your low poly. If you decide that an edge will be harder, still chamfer it but add more holding support edge loops to tighten the chamfer up so it doesn't appear soft. Try and avoid 90' angles that don't have chamfers, just chamfer everything as much as you can.

Here's a high poly piece of work Jason Lavoie did as an example. Although it's organic hard surface, hopefully you get the idea. http://jasonlavoie.net/image/minion_hp.jpg
You can see with the turbosmooth modifier applied where the modeling details are going (where the smooth surfaces are, and where the hard ones are). You want to model out work that has variation.

Currently your paneling and all of that juicy detail stuff gets lost, as it all appears flat. You want to ensure that all of your paneling details have nice fat chamfers on the outside and make sure they pop out/in a bit (exaggeration is key, after all you're baking this info so that it shows up well in the low poly).

Also as I mentioned in my last post, avoid details that are too small as they won't bake out and amount to much in the texture. Exaggerate those smaller details by scaling them up in size! So that they'll bake out, and appear in your low poly. The other reason for this is that they'll gain size in your texture as well, and therefore resolution! When you go about the texture process the details won't get lost.

peanut™

I see this coming along nicely, i would give it some texturing by now

JasonDC

Hello all!

I have some new screens of my Medical Lab prop that I would love to get some feedback on.

I took A-Train's advice and went through the whole model again, re-chamfering hard edges and exaggerating other details. I also tried to refine the geometry a bit more and add in some new detail that previously wasn't there (e.g. the rails and hooks on the hanging light, the hose ends for the large tube piece)

Let me know what you think.













Have a great day everyone!

AlexCatMasterSupreme

You have good modeling skills, but I would work on your presentation. It doesn't take too long to set up a quick render. Keep it up.

A-Train

Hey JasonDC,



All that being said, you've come along way man!


Are you moving on to a new piece or are you going to bake out to a low poly w/ texture ? I'd definitely beef/chunk up those 90' degree sharp edges if you plan to bake it.

Don't be afraid to look at the model from a bit farther away in your viewport to spot the areas that could be exaggerated. If they don't read well enough from far away, maybe increase their size/depth.

JasonDC

Thank you all for the feedback, and for the encouragement as well

@ A-Train I was hoping to try and bake out this model to a low poly and then add the texture. My only concern is that this current model has a lot of floating geometry in many areas, and I wasn't sure if that was going to cause me grief if I try to bake it.

I would still like to try though, as I haven't done texture baking for a long time and could use the practice. Are there be any online tutorials that you could recommend to help me get started?

In the meantime, I'm going to beef up those edges. Thank you again for all of your help!

JasonDC

I worked on beefing up those 90 degree edges and some of the other spots that needed refining. I think that the details really pop out a lot better now!

As always, any feedback would be appreciated:









Have a great day!

A-Train

Looks like it's coming along man. I think you can finally call the high poly done for now. You'll see where any problem areas are once you bake it. I'm sure you'll get a clean bake, but if you don't you'll have to go back and adjust the high poly/low poly and rebake.

My only suggestion if they don't cover it in the tutorials (sorry I don't have time to watch them, but I scrubbed them quickly and they seem decent enough to understand): bake out a 512x512 at the beginning to see if the bake went well. The last thing you want to do is bake out a 2048x2048 and sit around waiting for the bake to be finished just to find out that it baked out all black, or had red errors pop up everwhere. Bake out a small map (it'll be way quicker) and also don't set any crazy high quality settings at the start. Consider that your test bake, test it out on your model using 3Point shader lite - just click agree and download at the bottom of this page and install it http://www.3pointstudios.com/3pointshader_lite.shtml (the plugin for 3ds Max) to see your normal map, diffuse maps in the viewport on your low poly model. You can quickly test out how the bake went by dropping a simple omni light in the scene and drag it around your model to see how well the normal map looks. If areas look weird just go back and fix them - then rebake. Once you're happy, then bake out your desired high quality and high resolution maps.

A note on your low poly model, just basically make sure you mimic the silhouette and volume of your high poly as best as you can. Wherever you have fat chamfers, ensure your low poly has a single fat chamfer to mimic that volume. You essentially want to have the shape exactly the same, and the better job of it you do; the less baking problems you'll encounter. You can make a layer in max and shove your high poly parts in it, and make a new layer where you can put all of your low poly parts. That way you can easily hide visibility of either layer if you need to focus on a specific area of modeling. I'd recommend just duplicating off your high poly and just begin the process of shaving away all of the unneeded edge loops to get your low poly. It's a quick way to go about it.

As for your question on RTT (render to texture) baking, I just did a quick youtube search myself. Try this one [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frPuPNA0daY"]Baking normals, AO and more in 3ds Max (render to texture) - YouTube[/ame]

google or youtube search 'render to texture' or 'baking normals' and i'm sure you'll come up with some decent videos that should explain the process.

This one explains AO baking
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYBBt1utWb0"]Rendering Ambient Occlusion with Mental Ray in 3ds Max - 3dmotive - YouTube[/ame]

A-Train

JasonDC

Awesome! Thank you for the help, A-Train!