Sketchbook: Wobyen

wobyen

FINISHED PIECES









Skyrim Mod - http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsteamcommunity.com%2Fsharedfiles%2Ffiledetails%2F%3Fid%3D152425458&h=iAQE6ID4M


Current WIP




Hi guys!

I am a freelance graphic designer/video editor/vfx artist who has worked in the games industry (QA) with hopes of becoming a CG artist.

Long story short, I've derived a lot of inspiration from the Portfolio wiki of this website and have decided to upload artwork here every Friday (minimum) for all the criticism and advice you folks are willing to give.

Feel free to be as harsh and honest as you want. I need the extra eyes! I am hoping this sketchbook will put some pressure on me to meet weekly deadlines.

I am completely new to baking normal maps and creating game assets, and am aiming to create a props focused portfolio aimed at the games industry. So the goal of each piece will be to be portfolio worthy. And the goal of the thread is to create so many assets I can choose the best in a few months.

I have only been modeling for a year or two and can finally see that I will get nowhere staying in hiding. So as scary as it is...here's a some of my past modeling work that I'm proud of!

Baron Von Fancy Bot


Les Paul Guitar


Firefly Inspired Pistol (was going to normal map it but I'm saving it for later when I actually know wtf I'm doing)


Grim Fandango Office

wobyen

So, I took a lot of inspiration from the props wiki here as well, and decided to start with something rather simple for the first normal map/low poly piece I'm doing. The video tutorials in there were great and centered around knives, so I am doing something similar for my first serious shot at this.

I modeled the high poly this weekend and think it's looking pretty good. Might clean up a few spots here and there, and from now til Thursday will be working on low poly and map bakes.



I am not super concerned with texturing for this folio, so I am not sure if I will focus on that at all -- I really just want to showcase that I can model things, and make them game ready. But does anyone think having clay renders like this would hurt my chances?

Devart

I like the room

wobyen

Thanks Devart!

So I gave the normal map a shot today. The high poly was about 33000 verts, the low poly is down to 1485.

There are some artifacts on the blade guard and some odd seams on the side of the blade itself that I'm not too crazy about. But this is my first normal map ever.

Anyone have thoughts or input on what I'm doing right or wrong?

(Workflow is 3dsMax exploded RTT --> Export SMB's with cage and smoothed normals --> XNormal --> Marmoset).

Low Poly


With normal map applied


Normals

wobyen

Having more luck, or at least getting some where.

Redid the low poly and projection:



New Normal map (w/o padding)



Applied



Still more work to be done, but I feel like progress is being made! Woo!

I'm not having that much luck with smoothing groups and normals. I've been getting much better results setting the SMB export settings to "smooth normals" rather than with my manual settings.

wobyen

Okay, so it actually looks pretty darned perfect in nDo...huh.

Anyone reading have an opinion? I don't know what to trust!!!!

wobyen

Duh. I flipped Y and upped my resolution and this is the result in marmoset. Woo! Looks great to me!



But now that I've discovered the magic of nDo, I am not finished yet! :-D

wobyen

Progress! Slightly edited normal map, specular map, and a rough diffuse map in Marmoset. Starting to look pretty good, I think! Will be excited to move on soon, haha.

wobyen

Just posted this in pimping and previews, but it's finally done! Moving on to the next project...just have to decide what now!

High and Low modeled in 3dsMax.
Normal mapped in xNormal
Normal map extras using nDo2 (wood texture and text)
AO map from 3dsMax
Spec map in Photoshop
Displayed using Marmoset Toolbag
2600 tris.

wobyen

First ever sculpt in Mudbox. Amazing what you can learn in a day!

wobyen

WIP I started this weekend.

wobyen

Phew, missed a few days, but I've been busy working!!!

This is my second time going through the full game workflow, and this time I decided to try a MOD! Very intimidating.

I am super new at all this, so feedback is welcome. Guitar should probably be a little smaller and the normal map is being finicky. But I'm hoping this could help pad out the portfolio a bit, so have at it!

Here are the results!

http://youtu.be/kpeKnRn3u-Y

^^ Can't figure out how to embed but watch the video first!!! ^^

Textured Low Poly

[SKETCHFAB]9vHE35Zl1M2AuFI8y2nfhHjuloO[/SKETCHFAB]




In game


Maps

wobyen

Started a new piece...Boy was this a pain in the ass to model sub-d style.

wobyen