Diner (Feedback and Critques Please)

chilemang

This is my walk in diner any feedback is much appreciated, im working on the lighting in maya mental ray, and working on some more grunge, thanks for your time guys!

JTerry

I think that you need to work on capturing material properties better. Everything feels like it's made out of paper (no specular play at all). The visual quality that makes environments like this so unique is material contrast; having chrome and shiny linoleum alongside leather and matte wallpaper. I wouldn't waste much time on grunge, you still have a long way to go on the major materials.

The walls feel unnecessarily dirty

The lighting is definitely conveying the mood of the piece well. Maybe consider shifting the light so that is spills across the counter and lands on the wall with the booths? You'll get more contrast and it will draw attention to several interesting parts of the environment.

Scifix

I agree with JTerry. Think of the story of what happened in the environment. Did the people leave in a rush? How much time has passed? Doesn't seem to have been looted. The walls are too dirty compared to the floor etc. His suggestions for material changes are great. Do everything clean then once the contrast is set up create different types of wears and tears. Good Luck!

DWalker

The front door really feels off - primarily its placement but also the size and shape. It appears as though it was shoved into the corner as an afterthought; move it out a bit, make it larger, and look at replacing it with a more appropriate material - preferably a glass design.

The stools should be at the main counter; place a few booths against the window to replace the secondary counter.

The cash register is missing any of the keys or finer details - for a low-poly scene you can just use a texture map & normal map. This complaint is true of many of the props in the scene.

In a diner from this era, the soda fountain would be behind the counter; the days of self-serve drinks would be at least 3 decades in the future. You're also mixing pieces from several decades, from the early '50s layout to the video game from the mid-70s.

chilemang

hey j terry soo all of my assets actually have spec maps on them, but i agree on the material editing, i am going to watch some material tuts and do another pass, do you think that it may be my lighting that is effecting the specular play

JTerry

I don't have much first hand experience with pre-rendered work, but I've heard that rendering in Maya can be a nightmare compared to max.

The key is that as 3D artists we must build our assets to the specifications of the tech that is using them. Although your assets may have spec maps, that doesn't mean that they're optimized for the shaders using them. You may want to take a look at alternative shaders and rendering methods to the ones that you're using now, since I'm not convinced that there is any specular response on your materials. The types of lights you are using may also be the problem.

A huge advantage to pre-rendered is the accuracy with which you can render materials with reflective qualities. Looking at material tutorials is definitely a good move.

Another angle on this project is that the expectations are going to be higher for pre-rendered work since the method affords you much more flexibility.

chilemang

hey guys i just wanted to show what the final state of the diner looks like, its a bit old but took alot of work