Thanks Zocky. Here's another update. Added some cables in the background, and added some books for detail. I'm going to wrap things up by the 22nd. I will probably do additional polishing after that for the portfolio, but I won't have a computer to work on for a little while.
Here's the high poly of my UNSC communication tower. I'm planning on adding the rest of the high poly details via nDo.
Still a lot of work to do.
JackM - Everything is looking great. I know you're not quite finished but I would experiment some with adding more white lighting to your scene like in the concept.
Do any of you guys have any idea how to add some anamorphic flares in Unreal Engine 4. Most of the documentation I've seen basically have stated it's not possible at the moment.
Made some more progress. Added some lamps, a pad thing, some post-it notes, the certificates on the wall, and a lens flare. The lens flare was just done with a mesh rather than the built in lens flare thing.
@Jack M. - The floor looks awesome. Some of the assets look a bit small though. @Port Seven - Thanks for the advice, I saved that guide for future reference. I tried to apply some of that knowledge, tell me what you think.
Only saw this thread today and have lots to do on other projects but figured I'd get in some ZB hard surface practise this afternoon and made a start on the UNSC Comms Tower.
An update on where I'm at with the scene, pretty much everything is placed now except the stuff outside the window. A lot of the materials need some tweaking though. The glass is murdering me.
I made some scale changes and such that I think have improved the look. If you guys have any more crits please give them. I will be afk through the rest of this month. Most likely I'll post a final polished version sometime towards the end of the first week of next month for any of those interested.
I made some scale changes and such that I think have improved the look. If you guys have any more crits please give them. I will be afk through the rest of this month. Most likely I'll post a final polished version sometime towards the end of the first week of next month for any of those interested.
-The yellow screen/hologram is too opaque and hard to see the content.
-The screen in the background needs to either show the future changing current life or some futuristic content,
- The background screen should have more visuals)
-The room overall needs more contrast, (really dark blacks with intense colors of lights and with soft reflections)
-The books are too similar, the colors are not varied enough [more variations adds more interest)
-The post-it notes should be scattered more,
-The desk is too clean for a used work area. (there isn't anything on the shelf in the desk, and furthest lamp on the desk is facing backwards)
-The two chairs in the background should have a small glass table in the center with stuff on it, or something else next to them.
-The room needs more clutter and the walls and ceiling are too plain. (add detail showing the material/ add different textures)
-There needs to be some sort of plant life in the scene, (whether it's futuristic, current, or overgrown if it was abandoned)
-add post-processed lighting
Basically really try to push the story of the scene, you can really tell us a lot (Show us what makes it Sarif Industries, and make it unique. Show us what happened in the scene)
Thanks for the solid crits man. I think all of your points are spot on. I'll have to add all of the stuff while I have no internet at the new place. Afterwards I think it'll look far and beyond it's current state.
@BradleyWascher: Pretty cool modeling, you made a lot of details on your High Poly ! want to see the next
@JamesArk: Amazing ! you almost nailed it ! Some reflection in the shading are missing, and i don't like your shadow, but your asset are pretty cool !
@Fidrik: Your scene look really bright, you need more contrast, but i think your white wall in the reflection give this feeling .
On your sofa, you made your texture grey but i think an all black texture with your current texture only on the specular (with some tweaking) will do the job
Here is a fast marmoset render of my props, this week i made a lot of test on XNormal (first try at it ) for the baking of the normal and occlusion map, i made all the tiny detail(screw and slot) with ndo.
Next step texturing !
Another update, changed the lighting a bit and added some post-processing to get the colours closer to the concept. Also added a bunch of other little missing things.
@Ravent3D, agreed on the chairs, I tried moving a light to get the shadows a bit closer to the bottom of it but it still looks rather floaty. Will try to tweak it some more since it's so close to the focal point.
@N4meless, Yeah I definitely need to tweak some material values and get more reflections, the desk in particular is much more matte than I'd like it do be. I'm 50/50 on the hard shadow but I'll definitely make it softer/more similar to the concept and see if that works better.
I finished my Communication Tower \o/
My goal was to learn how to bake normal from HP to LP and I am satisfied of the result.
I think I could optimize the triangle count, but i'm done with it, probably think of that for my next asset.
@JamesArk - Wow, nice job its looking amazing. @N4meless - Looks great, hard to find anything to crit on. Well presented too.
Here is an update on my scene, I had a week where I kinda lost my motivation, so I'm a bit behind.
I tried to add some contrast but I think it may be too dark now. I made my desk smaller too. Should be able to get it all done, not sure what to put outside the window though.
Final version, a lot of people told me about the triangle count so i optimize my modeling, i double the amount of side on the base, and optimize a lot the rotor, I went from 10084 to 7298 triangle without too much quality decrease.
It's good to be blocky when you block it out. I didn't do that and my shapes are a bit off proportion. But when you start modeling the shapes in detail I learned from Bradley that you should use the seams in the shell in the concept to let your loops run into so that you don't have to connect them all back up, which is really important when you're modeling with cylinders, because every extra loop can throw off how even the smoothing is, as it creates the even smoothing by averaging all the edges that make up the cylinder, and if they aren't evenly spaced it'll pinch an edge on the surface of the cylinder.
You might already know that though, just throwing it out there in case.
Hey Bychop, it's looking good. One thing I might do is get the rotation on the ears right however. As it's a big part of the design in the concept looking balanced. Yours are pretty straight up and down.
Hey Bychop, it's looking good. One thing I might do is get the rotation on the ears right however. As it's a big part of the design in the concept looking balanced. Yours are pretty straight up and down.
You are right. I totally forgot I intended to rotate them at the end of modeling phase! Well, it's an easy fix, thank you
Dam I just barley saw this to, Been focusing on the new job at High Moon studios and been wanting to do a challenge. Think I will be doing this but it will be way late. Will be posting up WIP on a separate thread and all that
Wow, so many com towers. This thread is well communicated (ba dum tsssh).
@program21 - I think It'll be better if you post your wip in this thread. @Bychop - You may wanna check the upper "ring", the one holding the antenna. It looks kind of faceted. Nice color selection. @KMNettelbladt - Looks like a good start. However the camera angle and FOV need adjustments. @Zinco - I don't know what to say. The way you interpreted the details is... interesting. @Andrew F Productions - Check your proportions. The "Pole" looks short. @JamesArk - Impressive. The chair behind the desk looks really good and almost all the details are present. The light around the ceiling is missing and in general the place looks too dark, like if it's already late and nobody is working there. Basically there's more light coming from outside that from inside the room. About the shadows try checking the bias.
Final version of my scene, at least for the foreseeable future.
@Aren, Very good point about the lighting, it definitely seems darker than the concept, and darker than I intended now that I look at it. Unreal Engine lighting is kicking my ass in general lol
@Aren The errors look like intersecting geometry with your cage. The waviness in the back can be fixed with a tighter fitting cage. If you're low poly geometry is much more faceted and different than your high poly you're probably going to get the waviness anyway. So another way to minimize the effect is to simple add more geometry making it closer to the high poly.
You are using a cage to bake correct?
As far as my progress goes, I plan on posting an update tomorrow afternoon with the finished normal map (Ndo2 details added) applied to the low poly. Part of the reason it has taken so long for an update is I'm trying to use this opportunity to explore more software as I go along (UV Layout, Ndo2, Substance Designer/Painter).
Here is my final scene, there's a few props missing, and I didn't do any background, but I feel as though I have learned enough from this already. It could do with a lot of work to make things look better, but I want to move on to other projects.
Also, how do you post pictures at there original resolution?
Ok, I'm calling it done. I've learned a lot of things with this "little" project, including how to use xNormal, not to be lazy and create a cage for baking (thanks @Tobbo)
There are some issues still, mainly product of a bit lack of planning in the UV unwrap process.
I'm happy with it though, in the end is the learning process what matters and I can say: Lesson learned.
Replies
Still a lot of work to do.
JackM - Everything is looking great. I know you're not quite finished but I would experiment some with adding more white lighting to your scene like in the concept.
Keep up the awesome work everyone!
@Port Seven - Thanks for the advice, I saved that guide for future reference. I tried to apply some of that knowledge, tell me what you think.
Almost there.
-The yellow screen/hologram is too opaque and hard to see the content.
-The screen in the background needs to either show the future changing current life or some futuristic content,
- The background screen should have more visuals)
-The room overall needs more contrast, (really dark blacks with intense colors of lights and with soft reflections)
-The books are too similar, the colors are not varied enough [more variations adds more interest)
-The post-it notes should be scattered more,
-The desk is too clean for a used work area. (there isn't anything on the shelf in the desk, and furthest lamp on the desk is facing backwards)
-The two chairs in the background should have a small glass table in the center with stuff on it, or something else next to them.
-The room needs more clutter and the walls and ceiling are too plain. (add detail showing the material/ add different textures)
-There needs to be some sort of plant life in the scene, (whether it's futuristic, current, or overgrown if it was abandoned)
-add post-processed lighting
Basically really try to push the story of the scene, you can really tell us a lot (Show us what makes it Sarif Industries, and make it unique. Show us what happened in the scene)
Yet to do the final 5%, the lowpoly, unwraps, bakes, textures, all in 8 days...damn :poly122:.
Here is my update:
@JamesArk: Amazing ! you almost nailed it ! Some reflection in the shading are missing, and i don't like your shadow, but your asset are pretty cool !
@Fidrik: Your scene look really bright, you need more contrast, but i think your white wall in the reflection give this feeling .
On your sofa, you made your texture grey but i think an all black texture with your current texture only on the specular (with some tweaking) will do the job
Here is a fast marmoset render of my props, this week i made a lot of test on XNormal (first try at it ) for the baking of the normal and occlusion map, i made all the tiny detail(screw and slot) with ndo.
Next step texturing !
@Ravent3D, agreed on the chairs, I tried moving a light to get the shadows a bit closer to the bottom of it but it still looks rather floaty. Will try to tweak it some more since it's so close to the focal point.
@N4meless, Yeah I definitely need to tweak some material values and get more reflections, the desk in particular is much more matte than I'd like it do be. I'm 50/50 on the hard shadow but I'll definitely make it softer/more similar to the concept and see if that works better.
Thanks for the C&C y'all
Also, go vote for next month's concept because that thread isn't getting any love: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135045
I render it in 3ds max right now. It'll be in UE4 at the end.
My goal was to learn how to bake normal from HP to LP and I am satisfied of the result.
I think I could optimize the triangle count, but i'm done with it, probably think of that for my next asset.
C&C are welcome.
@N4meless - Looks great, hard to find anything to crit on. Well presented too.
Here is an update on my scene, I had a week where I kinda lost my motivation, so I'm a bit behind.
I tried to add some contrast but I think it may be too dark now. I made my desk smaller too. Should be able to get it all done, not sure what to put outside the window though.
Final version, a lot of people told me about the triangle count so i optimize my modeling, i double the amount of side on the base, and optimize a lot the rotor, I went from 10084 to 7298 triangle without too much quality decrease.
Hey guys!
This is how my communication tower is going so far...still need to finish the highpoly
You might already know that though, just throwing it out there in case.
Update:
Nice. You figure out right how the two small pipes are in the concept.
Here is my update in UE4
You are right. I totally forgot I intended to rotate them at the end of modeling phase! Well, it's an easy fix, thank you
Sugus and Zinco, just make sure to have enough horizontal loops on the panels for when you curve them.
Time to do the low and bake!
@program21 - I think It'll be better if you post your wip in this thread.
@Bychop - You may wanna check the upper "ring", the one holding the antenna. It looks kind of faceted. Nice color selection.
@KMNettelbladt - Looks like a good start. However the camera angle and FOV need adjustments.
@Zinco - I don't know what to say. The way you interpreted the details is... interesting.
@Andrew F Productions - Check your proportions. The "Pole" looks short.
@JamesArk - Impressive. The chair behind the desk looks really good and almost all the details are present. The light around the ceiling is missing and in general the place looks too dark, like if it's already late and nobody is working there. Basically there's more light coming from outside that from inside the room. About the shadows try checking the bias.
Ok time to show some progress:
High poly done
Low poly done with normals test
Any advice?
And some closeup
@Aren, Very good point about the lighting, it definitely seems darker than the concept, and darker than I intended now that I look at it. Unreal Engine lighting is kicking my ass in general lol
@Aren The errors look like intersecting geometry with your cage. The waviness in the back can be fixed with a tighter fitting cage. If you're low poly geometry is much more faceted and different than your high poly you're probably going to get the waviness anyway. So another way to minimize the effect is to simple add more geometry making it closer to the high poly.
You are using a cage to bake correct?
As far as my progress goes, I plan on posting an update tomorrow afternoon with the finished normal map (Ndo2 details added) applied to the low poly. Part of the reason it has taken so long for an update is I'm trying to use this opportunity to explore more software as I go along (UV Layout, Ndo2, Substance Designer/Painter).
11,450 triangles
Also, how do you post pictures at there original resolution?
There are some issues still, mainly product of a bit lack of planning in the UV unwrap process.
I'm happy with it though, in the end is the learning process what matters and I can say: Lesson learned.
I still need to work in my texturing process.
5654 Triangles
Textures of 1024
Comments are apreciated.