Monthly Community Noob Challenge April 2014 (18)
interpolator
Welcome to the Monthly Noob Challenge April 2014 (17)!
I'm testing out a secondary prop challenge for the month!
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:
Wang Rui
This month I added a secondary prop challenge if you don't have the time or skill to take on a whole scene. This is something people had been requesting, I'll see how it does.
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:
Furthermore, I know this was not the most voted concept, but it is the concept, I put a disclaimer on the voting thread before posting this.
I'm testing out a secondary prop challenge for the month!
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:
Wang Rui
This month I added a secondary prop challenge if you don't have the time or skill to take on a whole scene. This is something people had been requesting, I'll see how it does.
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.
Furthermore, I know this was not the most voted concept, but it is the concept, I put a disclaimer on the voting thread before posting this.
Replies
Updated OP for more clarity.
This picture...
I'll try the props ^^ and another concept but i will follow the thread.
Good Luck all
I've started blocking out the scene, getting a feel for the geometry and figuring out the camera angle.
That said, N4meless, your environment looks great! I love the rainy look, and the animated water on the wood is beautiful. Im already getting ideas.
breakdown and blockout, still fiddling with proportions and ue4.
I've never really done an environment for a game engine before so this will be a learning experience for me!
Somehow not sure if i really got all the scale right....
--edited---
Also, here's how it looks in editor:
@Zockey - I'm really looking forward to your final result after the Buddhist temple you did. Very well done!
Here's my blockout and if anyone's interested I put up a quick tutorial on taking high res screenshots in UE4. I can only hope it's helpful to someone
Look at this pot. You should all probably just give up now. You'll never top me.
Jack, thanks for the Youtube UE4 tut. I had originally just taken a screenshot but I can imagine this trick will come in handy later on.
Now for my environment. I think, after working on this for a while today, I am finally getting the hang of the UE interface and controls. I ran into some scale issues early on which slowed me down, but this is what I have thus far!
My internal debate is whether to follow the concept to the t and have it match the perspective 100% or to have it just be a symmetrical environment. I feel like if you match exactly, when you navigate it as a 3d environment that everything will look awkward.
And for Jack and sil3ntknight the size looks perfect. Everything looks like the proper size and fits in nicely.
And here is my start so far.
Looking SWEET.
Will be my first attempt at using UDK and will start with UE4 to pickup a PBR workflow. May I ask what units others have done the stairs/steps? I did 8 but the Unreal guide suggests 16 units for a step... despite this concept having quite small steps...
Will post my blackout tonight
Cheers
Dave
Here is what I have so far. A basic blockout of the forms.
Still need to model the moss and then I'll probably work on adding personality to the well itself before making it all a watertight mesh. Will probably push to keep it around 1000 tris or so.
Well that's me done...
Anyone wanna buy a reasonably good PC?
I'm not sure understand what you mean exactly but the world isn't flat. The geometry is placed how I interpret the world to be layed out.
edit: I think I understand what you meant now. The world is indeed flat, it looks crooked because I changed the camera FOV to suit the concept's.
I use DDO a freaking lot, but, I would love to know what it feels like to do this stuff without cheating. So I'll look references on how stone looks like, and texture in Zbrush. I specially should look at specularity and glow maps. I would like to follow the style of the concept meets Darksiders with sharp specularity.
Will use Unity Engine with a custom skybox with Marmoset's SKYSHOP (will then need to look how to make a fresh HDR skybox)
Workflow will be> Zbrushing > Topogun > UVLayout > Xnormal > Handplane > Photoshop > Unity
Damnnnnn. Game over man.
Tried sorting my FOV in Max but I'm convinced there's some perspective warping in the concept. Or possibly some slight curvature to the building facade?..
Well, i've started some time ago and atm I'm at stage where marjority of scene is blocked out, now im preparing models that i will be able to export to zbrush and do some sculpting in order to bring out the details (especially on parts such as roof tiles... tree is going to be thing i deal with the last... a bit like cherry on top of the cake
http://m2.i.pbase.com/u34/pnd1/large/31309872.CeramicTilesTempleofHeavencopy.jpg
this is the reference that i'm using for tiles, the colour is going to be different but i really like the shape of dragon at the end of cylinder and overall shape as it's not cap going over which holds the tiles in plae but instead tiles and pals are sealed with concrete
In case of pillars/clumns im still looking as current ones look more aztec/mayan/american-indian than chinese ^^
Very nice... what engine do you plan on using and may I ask the dimensions of your steps? (height in units)
Anyways, this is literally the first scene I've ever attempted. I've dabbled in UDK, 3ds Max, and Photoshop for textures and normal maps. I see this "noob challange" and I see a goal. Something to actually work towards. I think I haven't created anything worth while because I don't have a solid goal in mind. So I may....MAYBE, might be able to make something here.
Anyways, this is my initial block in. Looking forward to making some models to start actually making my first environment.
And I love the work so far Yuze. I love the angle you have and the trees on top and the windows on the sides add a really nice touch. I'm tempted to steal that idea from you! haha
And heres my update so far. I might add some more stuff but I think I'm done with the modeling part for right now.
Trying out some bakes, always had problems with xNormal so I need to nail it down, using whatevers left on my Marmoset trial too.
Nice blockout Yuze. Adding figures to your scene is great way to play with proportions just like Yuze has.
It's looking good, but the proportions are off, it's too tall and not wide enough, also I would consider really breaking up some of them to add silhouette to it.