Monthly Community Noob Challenge January 2014 (15)
interpolator
Welcome to the Monthly Noob Challenge January 2014 (15)!
Join our Skype group too if you want! Add me on Skype and I will add you to the group.
Skype: alexmasterofcats
You don't have to join the skype if you don't want to though, you don't need to ask to participate or anything, just start doing it and post in this thread!
This month's concept:
Routine the Game
Feel free to approach this however you like but I'd recommend making it as modular as possible to save time and keep things optimized:) It's up to you, as long as you are learning then it doesn't matter right?
Also if you want to change up the concept a bit as some people wanted feel free, interpret this concept how you want.
There are some things that I would like to point out to for newcomers,
if you only want to do a few props as best you can, go for it! This way you can work on building up to a full scene.
RULES:
Please read all the rules.
When you are just starting out making a scene can seem complicated or imposing, so break it down.
Think about how you can re-use assets, re-use textures, break it down as simple as possible plan it out, a lot of people will break it down in their own way when they start out their challenge. Gather some refs as well for different parts of the scene, maybe gather some refs and make it your own.
Take your time planning and blocking out, it will set you up for success later on.
All that matters is that you learn and give and get advice and are willing to be critiqued.
So here are the specific rules:
Join our Skype group too if you want! Add me on Skype and I will add you to the group.
Skype: alexmasterofcats
You don't have to join the skype if you don't want to though, you don't need to ask to participate or anything, just start doing it and post in this thread!
This month's concept:
Routine the Game
Feel free to approach this however you like but I'd recommend making it as modular as possible to save time and keep things optimized:) It's up to you, as long as you are learning then it doesn't matter right?
Also if you want to change up the concept a bit as some people wanted feel free, interpret this concept how you want.
There are some things that I would like to point out to for newcomers,
if you only want to do a few props as best you can, go for it! This way you can work on building up to a full scene.
RULES:
Please read all the rules.
When you are just starting out making a scene can seem complicated or imposing, so break it down.
Think about how you can re-use assets, re-use textures, break it down as simple as possible plan it out, a lot of people will break it down in their own way when they start out their challenge. Gather some refs as well for different parts of the scene, maybe gather some refs and make it your own.
Take your time planning and blocking out, it will set you up for success later on.
All that matters is that you learn and give and get advice and are willing to be critiqued.
So here are the specific rules:
Try to do one crit for every post you make, this will make for a better learning environment and help us grow as artists.
Must make your own textures, no stealing, we can't keep you from it, but the goal is to learn, even tileables, I mean you can take someone else's image and make it tileable, that's fine.
You must use a game engine OBVIOUSLY. UDK or Cryengine will probably be the most used, but feel free to use any.
You must try your best and finish as much as you can in this month.
Post what you are working on in this thread so that way it's a more centralized place for advice and critique and we don't have 1000 disjointed threads littering the forums.
Well that's about it, if you think the rules should be changed let us know.
I would strongly encourage you to go and look at other games and see how they make their assets as well as get concept art to give it your own feel, but it must stay very close to the concept, if not super close.
Please stay away from Ddo, yeah, it's great if you know what you're doing, and for a production pipeline supplement, but other than that, please don't use it. Ndo2 is allowed. This was talked about in the other thread, please don't complain.
Must make your own textures, no stealing, we can't keep you from it, but the goal is to learn, even tileables, I mean you can take someone else's image and make it tileable, that's fine.
You must use a game engine OBVIOUSLY. UDK or Cryengine will probably be the most used, but feel free to use any.
You must try your best and finish as much as you can in this month.
Post what you are working on in this thread so that way it's a more centralized place for advice and critique and we don't have 1000 disjointed threads littering the forums.
Well that's about it, if you think the rules should be changed let us know.
I would strongly encourage you to go and look at other games and see how they make their assets as well as get concept art to give it your own feel, but it must stay very close to the concept, if not super close.
Please stay away from Ddo, yeah, it's great if you know what you're doing, and for a production pipeline supplement, but other than that, please don't use it. Ndo2 is allowed. This was talked about in the other thread, please don't complain.
Replies
WOW!
Here's my blockout. Last month was hard to get anything done at all for me, as I work in a shop and was doing 6 days a week throughout December! Still I found the time to learn about UDK lighting and that should help with this month.
I like the look of this scene, as I've never attempted sci-fi before. I'm guessing some of the Philip K tutorials will help for this:
http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/modular_sets/modular_sets.html
Here is my paint over for the planned modular parts
Tomorrow I'm going to go ahead and start working on some of the HP models I guess.
edit - Forgot to change one of the lights to yellow, looks a bit off, lol
Initial blockout in UDK done. I'm just trying to get a feel for the space of the room and where everything fits at this point. I found that a few of the modular pieces needed adjusting after it was assembled, so that the scale made sense and fit more with the concept. On the whole I'm happy with the scale and the modular pieces themselves and now I can get straight on to some high poly modelling/texturing.
@tonyd927 There's a lot of decent modular info here on Polycount:
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironmentModularity
@deforges Are those hand painted textures? They look lovely.
Yea I didn't even notice this when doing the paintover, the concept is so muddy in that area. I guess that gives us more control over the specific details though.
I knew something was confusing my eye as I kept thinking that back area was much larger but overlooked it because of the blue outlined area. Good pick-up
I think I'm gonna get in on this months challenege. Haven't done a Noob challenge since 4 (which is on my folio) and I really dig this concept. Might add a little twist to it as well to make it my own.
M8 I wish I knew but hey it gives us more to think about.
I have the floor in 2 segments, the bare steel floor and the painted floor. When I put this together in UDK, do I want to make the floor out of those static meshes or would I use a brush...?
Just trying to wrap my head around the basics...first time really doing an environment using all of my own assets.
Not sure if your asking about using a bsp brush to make the floor, but if you are, that wouldn't be ideal in this situation because of the curve it has in it. You'll want to create your own custom static meshes for it.
You can always block out with bsp though
Here's our first bit of a block out, still working on the 3d version.
And I did a test asset through the day, seeing how I could get the material to work
This most likely wont end up in the final version due to it being made before the block out, but I just wanted to see how I could get that material to work!
nope : )
came home from work and cranked out the top panel
Isn't alot of concept art like that?
Small update, been working on high poly versions on and off all day:
Did a lot of the major parts so far, such as the door, beams, back wall/bay area, and windows. I made a couple little terminal parts too. This is all highpoly so far (except the lights and one of the beams that's up against the wall) so I'll have to work on baking it all down soon. I took a few liberties with the door and some other stuff, but yeah... I guess I'll need to do something with that side wall where the door is too.
@Fitsy
Your proportions look a little wacky in there, like its too tall or something... I think the light boxes are too small as well, and your back wall also dosen't have the nice curve as in the concept. I'd go back and fix those things and you'll have a great base to start working from
@Surfur
Thats a cool concept of the back wall with the decal on it. I couldn't tell personally if that texture-y feel was just how the concept art was painted or how it was actually supposed to look. Interesting.
@DarthBartus
Looking good so far man so far man. Those terminal bays in the back, are you making them go far back in? I couldn't tell from the concept (its kind of one of those blurry parts of it...) it looks like they are only indented a bit with some computers in them and a file cabinet or two. I guess that's one of the details that's open to interpretation.
Fixed some things :P still working out some shapes for the modular pieces :O
this is my blockout
[IMG][/img]
here is my blockout
[IMG][/img]
As for the Maintenance bay thing, to me it looks like a recieving bay for crates of some kind.
Speaking of mine, here's my progress. Pretty basic blockout; I'm glad I spent some extra time getting the proportions down. I still need to add some pieces like the terminal-looking objects mounted to the left wall and the second set of rail-mounted light fixtures. I also need to optimize a bit.
Here's how I made my ramps. This produced much better and more easily modifiable results compared to using Bridge with the Smooth + Curve option. For those using Max, you should still be able to get the same results with your tools. (Lattice in Maya is equivalent to FFD in Max).
So this is my breakdown. I Noticed that there are most probably only 4 bays in this area and that they are quite strangely numbered. I would have expected them to be 1 till 8 from left to right or at least in order. However, this seems impossible now.
I also researched the origin of the concept art and I must say I very much like the visuals of the game. So I think I will be continuing along that path.
And last but not least, for my fellow noobs I found this in my bookmarks. It may be helpful for setting up the grid in Maya.
http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autodesk-maya/maya-to-udk-importing-static-meshes-using-actorx-fbx/
Cheers!
ML
Here is my block out so far.
Will fix later tonight - Thanks for the breakdown
If I got the chance to practice texturing for physically based lighting I wouldn't mind joining in.