UDK Environment: Hidden Nature

odd_enough

Well here goes. I have been holding off on posting any of my projects on polycount due, quite frankly, to intimidation. Even though I always welcome feedback, I still fear of getting the shit kicked out of me so to speak. But ultimately I am here to learn and I need to get over this self-enforced trepidation.

This project is meant to jumpstart my sparse portfolio, to show off my current abilities, and to learn to new techniques in the process. Deciding on concept was not a "Hey this one looks cool, I think I'll make that one!".. well, not ONLY that. I spent a few days pouring over concepts to find a nice mix of hard surface (which I am proficient at), organics (which I'm not so good at), small scope, decisive lighting, and material definition. I received input from friends, and ultimately landed on the concept below by Goro Fujita:



I have a few goals for this specific project: Learn hand painted texturing (have been photosourcing this whole time), improve abilities in ZBrush, texture optimization (3-5 1K's for the environment, 1K for the character), and clarity of material definition.

Having started projects similarly in the past, getting really charged up about it initially, and have it fall away, I have kept my excitement in check and am attempting to go about this methodically. Pick my battles and start small in an attempt to stave off feeling overwhelmed. Right now, I am attacking the shelving unit.

So to start things off, I have made my first hand painted asset (had never done this before):



Any thoughts/critiques before I continue?

mospheric

Cool concept! Can't wait to see what you do with it

My only critique is on the UV layout of that box. I feel it can be optimized to something like this:


I would just stack the two sides together since they are similar and make better use of the space.

I also like the texture. It feels playful to me which matches the concept. At the same time, feel free to experiment with more obvious brushstrokes,color variety, etc. Maybe collect some references of hand painted art and post a style you are trying to stay consistent to?

odd_enough

Doh. That's actually an incredibly good point. Would save on texture res considerably. Thanks for pointing that out! I guess I spent too much time on making sure it looked unique the full way around, I completely glossed over the optimization bit. Will attempt to keep this more towards the front of my process.

lotet

That concept is gorgeous, good luck with it, what engine are you planning on using?

Digital Cantina

Great concept choice! Ill wait till theres more posted but I cant wait to see more

daivdm

Cool art work concept. Like everyone mentioned ...Can't wait to see how it turns out. Keep stead fast.

http://davidmanners.carbonmade.com/

odd_enough

@lotet: Thanks, and UDK as I already have considerable experience with it

WDewel

This could turn out pretty cool. Subscribed

odd_enough

As per mospheric's advice, I repositioned the UV's to save on texture space. Also decided to stack the front/back of the box as the back end will never be viewable. This rearrangement allowed for room at the bottom of the sheet for another asset ('m thinking the ceramic pots at least). This lowered display res somewhat, but not noticeable for the distance it is meant to be viewed. I also repainted some of it for practice:



Also made the figurine on the top of the shelves:



Getting there! Slowly

DWalker

The neck of the watering can seems far too sharp; they typically seem to have around a 45-degree bend, sometimes going as high as 60, but yours bends immediately to 90.
Something like this, properly aged, might work better:


Also, the water should be in distinct streams - yours appears to be individual drops.

minorthreat

I really like the two things you've posted so far, looks like you're heading in the right direction! Can't wait to see more!

BenHenry

Good job man.
I suggest you make the bigger objects in the scene first, especially the subjects.

silkroadgame

Cool skills in hand painting! This work's really attracting,waiting for it's finished...

odd_enough

Thanks for the comments guys

@DWalker: The concept is not my creation. I believe the watering can is just stylized to the piece.

@BenHenry: I did do blockouts to get overall scale, if that's what you mean. I attempted to work on the bigger assets when I first started, but wasn't making any progress with them. The project started to lose steam. Instead of abandoning it, decided to attack it from a different angle. But I do have the high priority assets blocked out in the space:



The character is in its own scene, I just referenced it into the environment scene.

odd_enough

Working on the bottles at the moment. Still stuck on getting the surface shading to look the way I want it. It's far too flat right now. But I at least have the bottle shader set up to handle variations.

The maths:


The bottles:


The labels are just something I stole from google until I put something original there. Each bottle is 104 tris. Thinking of using extra texture space for book spine labels.

odd_enough

Small update: Still working on it, but I've had to put it on hold for the most part. Freelance work (read: money) has taken priority for now. But I do intend to finish this.

odd_enough

It's been awhile since I have had time to get back to this. I took a break for a couple reasons. I had actual paid freelance work coming in, and I wanted to learn how to use ZBrush instead of just fumble my way through it. ZBrush is now my go-to program for mesh creation and have gotten some great results out of it.

My progress on the robot character is almost entirely ZBrushed:



Blockout:




I did deviate from the concept a bit and added wires connecting his neck to the bottom of his "skull". I'm torn on keeping that though. Trying to finish this guy by the end of the week.

Auldbenkenobi

That robot head is looking great, looking forward to seeing how this turns out

odd_enough

I decided to leave the wires out. Would make the mesh too heavy and it just looks too busy back there. More progress, though. That arm took forever.

TK3D

I really like the character so far. I've seen this concept a few times before and always thought it would be a great 3D scene to make. Nice to see that someone is motivated enough to give it a try
Would you mind explaining what your approach to making the different parts of the character was? Did you create primitives in zbrush or did you use shadowbox etc.? Stuff like that would be very nice to know.

mospheric

Making really nice progress on it! Even though you are making the character with great technical skill, don't forget adding character to the character... har. For example adding a curve to the head, or angling the jaw inward at the bottom. Since he is a robot, it's easy fall into the mode of making everything 90 degree angles. I'm just suggesting breaking it up a bit to give it life

I know it's a still in a WIP stage though. Can't wait to see more

odd_enough

@TK3D - Thanks Trying my best to finish it, that's for sure. As for my ZB processes, I haven't used shadowbox for this project yet. Most of my base mesh creation procedures have utilized a mix of clip/trim brushes, masking, transpose tool, and dynamesh boolean ops. I actually made most of the arm in Max yesterday simply because it was faster. I imagine the more I get used to ZBrush, those instances of using Max will start to dwindle.

@mospheric - Thanks for the feedback, Josh! Yeah I was going to rig/pose him up when I got to the low poly stage. As for the head curve, someone else suggested that as well. I was trying to stick to the concept as much as possible, so I'm wondering if doing something like that would be too far of a deviation?

odd_enough

Progress!

A-N-P

I like this. I'm glad you're back on it. The robot is coming along nicely.

Also, I'd like to see your workflow for your hard surface creation in zbrush like you promised on twitter :P

odd_enough

Thanks, Andy

And yes, I did promise that, didn't I? I'll try to get to that either tomorrow night or Sunday. Might even try to do a video demonstration :P

odd_enough

For anyone besides Andy who may be interested in my ZBrush hard surface workflow, you can view it here. It's nothing complex or new, but it works for me. I guess that's all that matters.

burgone

Like the work and is it easy to get the grips of UDK because i have to use it for 2nd year of games design.

odd_enough

Took forever, but I finally got the normal bakes done. Had some problems with Max screwing up my bakes in some areas, so took it into xNormal instead. All in all, it came out nicely:

A-N-P

That is a super nice bake you have there, sir.

You planning on sculpting some folds etc into the hanging cloth covering his NUTZ! (LAWL! guys? no? OK ).

Also, what res is that texture at right now? Looks super clean and crisp.

odd_enough

Thanks!

Sculpting cloth scares me. Actually sculpting organics in general scares the shit out of me. I always manage to make it look like a giant turd.

And yeah that was using the bake res (2K) normal map. Still looks fine at 512 though (I honestly can't tell much of a difference at that distance):



Here is the normal map. The blank area in the bottom right is reserved for the dress.



The LP is currently sitting at 15,782 tris. I also decided to go back to the HP and sculpt in more surface damage/dents/etc.

odd_enough

I have the base colors on him now. Though I was advised to first put him in a lit blockout before painting in the textures (going for the hand painted look via the concept), so I might be texturing him after I get him posed with the egg.

thatanimator

liking the hard surfaces of the robot together with the cloth! nice idea get some smooth motions in there and not just robotic ones.. cool!

Kaine123

The robot is going to need a lot of wear.

odd_enough

@Kaine123: I got some similar feedback earlier today as well. Going back to the high poly and sculpting in some edge wear and dents now.

Shanthosa

I am a sucker for all of Goro Fujita's work. I love this. Lighting, as you pointed out, will really sell it.

FireTruck

Goro Fujita work is awesome :P

odd_enough

I'm also in love with Goro Fujita's work. It was rather difficult to choose the piece I wanted to work on. This one seemed the most ideal in terms of material definition and composition, and so I could practice my organic modeling and hand painted texturing.

I took a break from the bot to work on the centerpiece, the egg+tree. Organic modeling is absolutely my weakest area, so this has been very difficult for me. After many redos, I came up with something that I was even remotely comfortable with.



The branches took me forever. I initially tried to use a single Zsphere chain for each branch, but that ended up looking horrible to me. I ultimately went with making individual branch offshoots, packing them into an IMM brush, and basically kitbashing each branch together.

Any crits? I'd really love to know how to make this look better.

odd_enough

Well I got this far with the stump before realizing the proportions were off. The egg needs to be much bigger than it is, so I'll be doing some remodeling to the branches.

givemeajob

Looks fantastic everything you've made so far is spot on to the concept. Keep up the great work I cant wait to see more.

TK3D

Nice progress, keep going!

odd_enough

Thanks, guys

More progress. Testing out a pose for the bot.