Sketchbook: Luke003
polycounter lvl 8
Love polycount. Been mostly just lurking, trying to learn as much as I can. Now that I'm finally coming up on the end of my schooling I am trying to pop the clutch on my 3D. (and my 2D as well)
Please crit away. I need the feedback. I'm driven to improve.
First up is a baseline. My first legit model. More of a workflow study than anything. Female cable:
Once I get into a groove and start getting better at this I am going to come back to this and redo it so I can see my progress.
Next is this pet project I have been working on the last couple of weeks between working on my thesis. I am trying to model my car. Practicing hard-surface, texturing, baking, etc.. All I have done so far is the wheel/tire.
High-Poly:
Low-Poly:
Texture Sheet:
I appreciate any feedback. Thanks for viewing.
Please crit away. I need the feedback. I'm driven to improve.
First up is a baseline. My first legit model. More of a workflow study than anything. Female cable:
Once I get into a groove and start getting better at this I am going to come back to this and redo it so I can see my progress.
Next is this pet project I have been working on the last couple of weeks between working on my thesis. I am trying to model my car. Practicing hard-surface, texturing, baking, etc.. All I have done so far is the wheel/tire.
High-Poly:
Low-Poly:
Texture Sheet:
I appreciate any feedback. Thanks for viewing.
Replies
Slowly progressing through this "block-in" phase. Feels mostly like inspiration limbo though...
Slowly, but surely.
Must...focus...on...portfolio..........
@TaylorAnimated - Thanks, I'm going to pay special attention to the proportions of my next character. I realize that this one is an anatomical nightmare. I followed through with it regardless to give myself a small victory. I'm at the phase in my art career where I need to make things day in and day out to get better. I just needed to get over that hump of thinking that my first attempts at this weren't going to suck. Still slowly getting over that completely.
@ShootandRun - That is pretty clever. I think I'm going to go back and redo the low-poly on the wheel completely. I am definitely going to try that approach when I texture it.
In other news, I started one other small project and made some progress on a couple others. First off I am going toe attempt to model a current-gen spec version of my favorite ship from the original F-Zero. Pico's Wild Goose:
I wish I had the focus to stop coming up with these ideas and ACTUALLY finish something one day...:( Anyway, one problem I am having is the only reference images I have are skewed because they are the original sprites for the Mode-7 gameplay. I want this model to be a re-creation of the original concept, so I really should re-draw some blueprints so I have better references to go off of. What I did instead was loosely blocked it in, and checked it orthographically for proportions:
I'm starting to feel like this is obscenely half-assed though, so I am going to back burner this for a little bit and make some legit blueprints to go off of.
Projects I have in limbo are:
My Neon - midpoly (or whatever) car
Dash Rendar - character model
Jericho 941 - hero weapon
Molle-E - WoW fan art
Hap-Hazard - custom weapon (sawn-off)
but my NUMBER 1 PRIORITY is (and should be) FINISHING my Neon car model. :poly127:
I finished blocking the general shape in. Now I am going into each piece and adding detail. This is slightly difficult because the blueprints I am using are for the SRT-4 version of the Neon, but I am creating the SXT version that I actually drive. I do have plenty of picture reference for the parts that are different though, i.e. the front bumper:
-SRT-4 blueprint-
-Side-
-Picture of the SXT Bumper-
I am going to wait and see how this comes together a little bit before I make a final decision on how I am going to texture it. I need to do some experiments because:
I would also like to try and have a "dirty" version, and I'm not sure how to go about this exactly.
I am going to be inserting this into a Unity environment for a short tech demo of a racing game idea I have.
Aaaannnnd I want to try and insert it into Cryengine and play around a bit. (I think I am going to use the blockin geometry to construct some simple LOD levels.)
Not to mention some Marmoset portfolio shots etc..
Much to do, so I'm going to stop typing and get back to it.
and some ref:
Going to really follow through and make it look as good as I can without stagnating my progress on the car as a whole.
This ridge is getting under my skin. I'm not sure the best way to go about keeping the corner smooth while holding its sharpness and still maintaining a decent poly-flow. But the back of my head is telling me that its a very small detail and I can tweak it later, so move on.
Strangely, even though I wasn't really going for a low-poly model, it came in at just under 1000 tris.
I might make a P&P thread for this since it's my one of my first legit models and I really need some feedback on it. I might also make 2 more quick models this week before continuing my Neon.
Shipping Crate (View in 3D)
Here are the final images for it:
Pressing on: I am going to try and make a rail-gun or rocket launcher this week, as well as another static prop (maybe an ATM or something).
In other news: I am reworking my portfolio and I think it's coming along well. There is a job I am gunning for and I really hope I can score an art test or a response. I am very reluctant to apply or send them anything until my portfolio makes me more comfortable than I am with it currently. Hopefully it doesn't get snatched up in the meantime.
The artist is Adam Baines and his site is here.
Going to block it out today, and hopefully start grinding out some hi-poly tomorrow.
Onto the SMG. Progress:
My main concern right now is that these edges might be too tight for my normal maps. I guess I'll find out soon enough though.
The other thing on my mind is displacement/tesselation mapping. I have been reading about them, but my primary machine (Asus G50VT laptop) does not have a Dx11 capable card. :poly127: I can't put off my pc build much longer it seems.
I'm not entirely pleased with my progress. The rest of the week looks clear though. Everyone is clearing out for spring break next week, so I the lab I work at should be fairly quiet for a while. This is what I've managed to get done on it today:
My work flow is choppy, and I'm jumping from element to element. Not good, I know, but I am slowly progressing. There are some areas of the concept that I am having problems getting proportional. Also, I am getting really concerned about the tightness of my edges. I haven't done enough normal baking to have a sense for it. Other than that though, this is turning out to be a good exercise for me.
Also, I'm not exactly sure what kind of polycount to shoot for. This isn't for a specific project, just a portfolio piece. Well, I better get cracking on the lowpoly.
So I have had a hard time with a few things. I keep making the work harder for myself by forgetting something or simple ignorance. But this is a learning process, so as long as I push forward I should be getting better at this. I can already tell I have improved significantly from where a was a few years ago. Here are the things that skipped my mind this go around that created headaches for me.
2 Colossal Screw-Ups
- I neglected to save a version of the simplified (blocked-in) geometry before I went all out with my control edges and the turbosmooth modifier... So essentially I was forced to retopo by meticulously deleting control edges and unnecessary vertices. Hours...
- I thought I was being smart when I created an exploded version of the mesh using the timeline before I created my UV maps. This became a problem because when I attached the pieces together, the keyframes were lost and the pieces were not in their original positions. I fixed it by going back and creating two separate files; one for exploded and one for the un-exploded version. About half an hour of wasted time and I'm not 100% sure the pieces are in the exact position they were originally.
On a side tangent/note/rant, I love this website. Nothing has inspired me more over the last few years to really strive to become a better artist. One thing that I am struggling to get over is how easy and quick some artists make things look. Not too many people post how long something takes, but I always imagine people cranking out a crazy texture map in like a matter of minutes. Then I sit down, and do it the way I think it's supposed to be done, and it takes me hours and hours. And that's just the UV layout. I know getting better at this is all about improving the workflow and improving the quality, but damn... I can't imagine what this would be like is I was faint of heart and lacked fervor for this.Anywho, here is the low-poly finished. Ignore the scaling on the test grid texture as the UV map for the main body of the gone is not done yet.
UV's for the accessories:
Mainly because this is my first gun model, I'm not sure how to do this exactly. But, what I have done is I've separated the silencer, holo-sight, fore-grip, laser, and magazine onto their own texture sheet. It will probably be 2k. Then I plan to put the rest on a sheet, maybe 4k.
I think I made some mistakes, but I see how to avoid them next time. I also realized that I created a problem with the main circle on the back with my explosion. Took a few minutes to fix. I not going to use nDo or dDo while texturing this. I think it's important that I learn and understand the principles of this process before I continue using tools like them.
Here's to finishing this before the weekend! Wish me luck.
Also, playing around with this really clarified some of the feedback I received on my textures for the shipping container. So, after this I am going to go back and make the spec/gloss map better.
Thanks for the feedback! I've added some minor dirt and scratches to the body, but it's hard to see on such a small picture. I'm at the point where I'm adding detail like that to the textures, because I think the base colors read well. Honestly though, I can't decide if it should look pristine or heavily used. The concept image looks like it could be either.
Have you seen the TKT knife tutorial up on polycount's main page? I didn't realize that it made sense to start hi-poly for a weapon and then work down. Is that what you did, or did you do the low-poly first?
The textures are still very much w.i.p. at this point. Better material definition is what I'm hoping to accomplish with a more refined spec/gloss map. Right now though, I'm redoing the hi-poly to get some looser edges.
I've seen the thread for the knife tut, just haven't had time to sit down and watch them all. But basically my process for this was:
- Block out the major shapes. Making sure the overall shape and volume of everything looked good in 3D.
- Take those shapes and begin hi-poly geo. (Right here I screwed up a bit. I should have saved an extra copy of the blocked out geo, as a starting point for my low-poly.)
- Re-topo and generate low-poly stuff.
- Bake and texture stuff.
From what I've seen and read, it's pretty much the normal thing to build the hi-poly before the low. That's not to say you can't use elements from your block-in or basemesh on your low-poly though. But I think the point of the low-poly is to match the high's silhouette as close as possible within the poly budget. Also, I'm no expert on this, so take all that with a huge grain of salt.As far as smoothing groups go, I used this script to separate the mesh into smoothing groups based on the UV islands. It's proven really helpful.
To get all mooded up last night, I rendered this shot of the SMG hi-poly. Been a long time since I actually rendered something, but this was just for fun. I see most guns on here presented this way, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
Still working on a refined high-poly model, with better edges and adjusted silhouette etc.. Hoping to have it done or at least significant progress made by this weekend.
I finally got xNormal working, but I need to tweak my cages significantly because my bakes are looking horrible. Here's to staying focused, I can see the final corner and the finish line.
Miserable bakes:
Are you going to finish the car? Or start on something new?
Hey, thanks. After this SMG is done, I plan on finishing up the car. Then I am probably going to spend a significant amount of time sharpening my 2D and anatomy skills.
The credit for the original goes to this guy, and it came accompanied with the following message:
"As an artist, you are influenced by things. The reason why you do what you do is the combined application of all the things that influence you. If you run into a major block and cannot create new work, chances are you are forgetting what inspires you and need a refresher. Fill in these squares with everything that influences and inspires you to fuel the art you love to create. Refer to it as a kind of "map" in the future in case you get lost."
I'm trying to change. Better myself etc. Right now that involves waking up on time. Kicking my complacent habits at work. Saving more money. Focusing on my Loomis studying. Shutting up and making some art.
I think it's time to perform a finisher on the SMG project.
Sneak peak!
I love the realism you are adding with metalic shading.
How do you do it?
It's actually just the w.i.p. high-poly model with some basic pbr values plugged into Toolbag2. I was testing to see if some parts were smooth enough and if the highlights would hold up well. Seems like it, so I just need to finish a couple pieces then re-topo and texture it.
I did a test bake on one of the pieces already and it turned out well, so I am excited to see it evolve from here. Back to work, back to work...