Monthly Community Noob Challenge September 2014 (23)
polycounter lvl 7
Hello everyone and welcome to the Monthly Noob Challenge for the month of September.
This is now my second time hosting this challenge for you guys. We had tons of participation last month, and I am excited to see what we can do this time around. Have fun everyone. Cheers!
Join our Skype group if you want! Add me on Skype and I will add you to the group.
Contact: noble.wulf
You don't have to join the Skype if you don't want to though, and you don't need to ask to participate in the challenge, just start working on it and post your progress in this thread!
Artist - Gray Shuko
http://gray-shuko.net/
Artist - Max Davenport
http://maxdavenport.wordpress.com/
Feel free to approach either of the concepts however you like but I'd recommend making it as modular as possible to save time and keep things optimized. It's really up to you, and as long as you are learning then it doesn't matter right?
Also if you want to change up either concept a bit, as some people wanted, then feel free. Interpret these concepts to your liking.
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, then feel free to go ahead and do it. This way you can gradually work on building up to a full scene before diving head-first into the whole ordeal.
Please read all the rules before starting.
When you are just starting out making a scene, it can seem complicated or imposing, so take the time to break it down.
Think about how you can re-use assets, re-use textures, break it down as simple as possible and plan it out. A lot of people will break it down in their own way when they start out their challenge. Gather some reference images 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.
Here are some specifics.
- Try to post one critique for every post that you make. This will make for a better learning environment and help us all grow as artists.
- You must make your own textures, no stealing. We can't keep you from doing it, but the goal is to learn. You can use other textures and images to create your final texture, but please, no blatant copying of another artist's work.
- You must use a game engine to present your work. Unreal Engine and CryEngine are very common engines that can be used, but feel free to use any alternatives that you want.
- You must try your best and finish as much as you can in the timeframe provided.
- Post what you are working on in this thread so that way it's a more centralized place for advice and critique. We don't need to have 1000 disjointed threads littering the forums.
- 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 using Ddo. 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, so please don't complain.
- Well that's about it. If you think that any rules should be changed, or there should be new additions to the rules, please let us know.
Replies
It's a while ago since my last weapon.
I decided not to go strict for one version of the axe but to merge few details from axye 1,2 and 3 into one weapon.
So far I did the modelling and started with the textures:
2048x2048 Diffuse only
920 Verts
Which tricount should i consider for the middle axe, any suggestions?
Thats my progress so far. Any tipps for the ribbon around the handle
As for tri counts, I bet you could do that axe in anywhere from 250 to 1200 triangles, especially if you left out a few minor details. What's really important is that you have enough geometry to nail the silhouette, especially if you're going to paint it diffuse-only.
ChickenSoup: Do it! This month's environment concept is really fun and vibrant.
This month i'm doing the Environment again this month. This is the first building at the front so far.
Dabbled with Modo, Zbrush and UE4 before, but judging by what I have been seeing I am far behind on anything you guys are pushing out. I still need to get my head around the workflow for texturing, let alone rendering an entire environment.
As much as I would love to join in, I think I'll proceed to stalk for a bit longer before mustering the courage to join in.
Only day 2 and already seeing some good stuff, props to you guys!
Might as well post my first axe, it just needs the little ribbon knot and it should be done.
564 tris, 512x512 diffuse texture
Okay, so these are my lo-poly models for the axes. My goal this month is two fold. I want to be able to work to minimize the poly count (seewhatididthere?) on the low poly models as much as possible. On the other end I want to be able to push them into zBrush and work/learn how to get the finer details just right.
I want to try my hand at the environment as well. I see the axes as being the fine details of ZBrush work and baking, and the the scene will be rough molding and decimating the poly amount.
I'll probably need to revisit the textures or simplify the lighting at some point... it just doesn't look as obsidiany as I'd like it to. I'll probably work on some particles in the break between classes tomorrow. Maybe that will help things out too.
I think everyone's environments will look a lot better once the textures start coming in. I'm really looking forward to it.
@ Terebellum - Great start to the environment, I had issues finding a starting point, getting lost in the detail (something I am already not very good at) so decided on the blockout approach and defining detail.
@ Ross185 - Looking good, I'll be curious to see if you are going for a clinical clean approach or the wonky cartoony effect, really curious to see where people will take this concept.
@ JedTheKrampus - Looks pretty sweet man, very glossy at the moment though, will you be going for this look or something more organic?
And for myself, although daunting and nowhere near the same level as most here, below you can see me starting to block out. I am finding it really difficult to establish dimensions, so was forced to block everything out, give some shape and move things around, stretch and add detail.
Let me know your thoughts! I need to learn!!!
The enviorment concept is nice, clean and simple I like it a lot.
I'll do it if my free time allows for it.
@TrebleMebbel I like what you have so far I think the basic blocking is looking good. You are going to have to plug the holes in your buildings though. If you leave them empty with no geometry you will just see a black box when you render. Later on down the line you will need to texture window space to make them look like glass.
@JedTheKrampus I don't even know how to do really anything you are doing but it looks cool and I think you have chosen the hardest of all the weapons to model. It does look a little jaggedy in places but I assume it is a low res game asset so not sure if you can get around that.
@KustomZero Looking good. You have the shape looking bang on. You can't have a massive polygon with 20+ edges so you will have to find a way to make the flat face on the blade into quads.
Erm there my two pence. It is all looking really good I can't wait to get more done and see how this progresses! Keep it up guys!
I'm also joining the fun.
here i used photoshop's vanishing point effect to get better idea of the proportions.
here's my progress so far.
This might sound silly, but after using that did you bring it out with Photoshop's 3d abilities or just use it to assist you in creating it? This looks really useful!
@Ryandec: Its looking really good. Id lower the polygons on the spiky back part of the axe though. I was actually wondering the same thing. xD
For example, the roof grid has 8x13 squares, i rounded it to 8x12 for convenience and made my roof 8 by 12 meters.
this way i can cut it in modular pieces of 4x4 meters.
don't know if i explained myself, but hope it helps someone.
It is probably just because of the angle of the camera and cartoon style but I find myself having to change sizes of everything quite regularly
Anyway this is where I am upto, I'll try and do some tomorrow before I go on holiday
Nope, you explained it pretty well, thanks!
I worked a little bit on the texture of mine:
Next step is the handle (will try to use the one from axe No2^^)
P.S.: please ignore the artifacts on the rings, it seems ddo (i use it for the render shots only) thought that this were some special material...
EDIT:
I know it is a little fat, I'm unsure on the thickness to go for. Here is the front view in maya.
must see if i can squeeze it in
doomprodigy, nice sculpt, but at this angle it looks a bit "fat", would be nice to see it from the front view
update on my blockout scene
http://gfycat.com/DeliciousScalyArabianwildcat
I also revised the textures a little bit.
Doom: That thickness doesn't look too bad to me. You might want to change the shape some so that it's closer to being a hatchet in the broad part of the blade.
If you look at the blade from the top, it would probably look like the first image (what I've drawn is greatly simplified of course.) It might make it more believable if it looked like the second image instead.
@GxD11: I am really liking how clean your geometry is. Very nice work so far!
@CatalystFire: You are rocking it up! I'm excited to see it all textured.
Here's mine so far
I also used Epic Games tool Carapace to quickly get in perspective lines helping me line up the camera in maya. Here's a quick paintover over my ref to help anyone with matching perspective.
It's not 100% accurate but it works, I found that the concept itself has skewed perspective which is most often the case with concept art.
So I kinda finished my axe now, there are some areas that could be improved upon but I think it turned out ok since this isn't my preferred area to work in
512x512 texture
1154 tris
Yes I just basically tried to mirror the images and you can see the basic pieces of the texture popping up (should be the pale blue). This is a test to just create a small poly project. Now that this is done I'll push my polycount even higher to get a better layout before sending it to zBrush.
That is if I don't get lost in Destiny.
@Rawbert Your environment is coming along great. love the water tanks on the buildings.
Everyone is doing great work can't wait to see more.
Well here is my progress so far. The angle is pretty tricky to get right, but it is from a concept picture so that is to be expected I guess.
All of the buildings are modeled, got some touch ups to do still then i'll start modeling the smaller things like the water tanks, ladder and palm tree.
Ps. Its terrible lighting I know im not bothering with it yet
particularly the renderings, i LOVE that soft white high quality look! im trying to learn how to do that in maya right now. but here is my progress;
little late to the game, but better late than never right?
only one photo for now, but im working on a wireframe render and obviously the rest of the scene.
Concept is just on a plane in the background for reference and 'skybox'
I tried to match up to the perspective in the concept art in Maya then i just brought it all here. Needs a bit more adjustments. :P
@Zerogun Wow. That already looks nice pre-Zbrush.
@Ryandec The texturing almost matches up to the concept. The handle is a little thin compared to the concept.
Also, these axes are looking pretty good so far.
I would participate in this month's challenge but I have other projects I am working on.
Need a little more tweak here and there. Then I can go on next phase.
here is an update on the environment concept stuff I joined in on after finishing the weapon.
the camera angle and proportions are quite tricky on this!
@bomber nice work on the axe, looking good. Could maybe add some scratches and stuff to make it a bit worn, but I dunno