Monthly Community Noob Challenge June 2015 (31)
polycounter lvl 7
Hello everyone and welcome to the Monthly Noob Challenge for the month of June.
Hello everyone, sorry for my absence last month but thank you Poinball for kindly filling in. Well since it's the start of a new Summer, I think it's also time to do some more environment art.
Join our Skype group if you want! Add me on Skype and I will add you to the group.
Me: 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 and post your progress in this thread!
Artist - Waqas Mallick
http://vfxartportal.com/waqasmallick/images
Artist - Matthew Harris
http://conceptibot.deviantart.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, 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 time frame 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
I'll try to participate this time.
There seems to be a mismatch with the artists. The sci-fi guns concepts apparently are from Conceptibot (Matthew Harris), and the interior concept is from Waqas Mallick.
(just in case :poly121:)
Thanks a lot for your help. I wasn't sure on the artist for either since the links where I found them were pretty vague.
Already did a quick start
With Sub Surf.
I will come back with a HighPoly version.
Good luck to everyone else, and I wish you good learning.
Cheers!
Good luck everyone!
After this I'm gonna go and dismantle the concept in detail and plan out further blockout passes and future assets for production.
Cheers!
Yes, use it as a reference point . So will everyone else and you can compare and see different techniques used
I'm trying the environment! But it needs nature so i'll probably be adding moss or those vines that grow along walls.
Hoorayyyyy
THERE GUYS
Here's the second blockout pass of the environment and the last update today, I swear :P
I changed the overall environemnt color and added more pseudo-object.
More will be done tommorrow!
Cheers!
@EpicBeardMan
Keep it up!
Keep it going, man!
Cheers!
Going for the Sci-fi gun.
Transitioning this week into maya so all the modeling will be done there.
Hi poly rendered in keyshot.
Here's mine, the base high poly is practically done but I'm struggling with the canisters. Anyone have any tips?
Btw your model is looking solid!
I did a whole bunch of "modular" parts, mainly for the ceiling part of the scene (pipes, vets, etc.). Still the blockout phase though, and it's going to be like that for some time. Kinda hesitating to go making materials since I have a really slow machine and Substance Designer crashes and freezes very often. Gotta endure though.
Here's the screenshot:
@kadart3d Good star, I gotta say. Keep it going. Wish you best of luck.
Cheers everyone!
(Only a quick render)
Cheers!
I think the "thread rules" air quote says please stay away from using things like dDo and so on and then it refers to another forum post but honestly I don't see why you couldn't. I feel that as long as you are learning and becoming a better artist, no one should make a big deal out of it.
Cheers!
When in doubt; use more gun.
Although, the low poly for this might be a little more difficult with all these recesses. XD
@EpicBeardMan: Looking awesome so far! That floor is fantastic.
@Jarran: Now that is a gun. No advice for the cannistars, unfortunately, but keep going. You'll crack it in the end.
The problem with Ddo is that there is a tendency for new artists to hit the generate texture button and allow Ddo to do all of the work. The new artist doesn't really learn or grasp anything by doing that. This is meant to be a learning/improving experience. I know this isn't the case for everyone that uses Ddo and artists that know what they are doing can use it to automate tasks that they would have had to do manually, which is great.
But because of this, it's just easier to encourage participants to avoid using Ddo for their texture work.
Substance Designer is another beast entirely. There isn't really a one click generate texture button. You have to build up your materials with nodes much like you would do with layers in Photoshop. You still have to know what you are doing and understand what makes up a material to get good results. Being node based, allows the workflow to be entirely non-destructive and better organized/readable as well.
So I think Substance Designer is perfectly acceptable to use for these challenges.
It might be cool to include pics of your graphs, so others can try and follow along and see what might be going on under the hood to create those textures.
I'm not quite sure how to do the cutouts in the main round section where the pipes enter, does anyone have any tips?
Markovnikov, what are you using to model?
Awesome work everyone!
@Jarran If you are talking about the pattern the canisters have, you could make them inside the material (in Sub Designer or dDo) as a normal map detail. I hope this gives you some ideas.
Cheers all!
Certainly seems like gun number six was the most popular. XD
I set it up in Maya, by setting up some planes for the floors and walls. Then I make a new camera and put an image plane on it. position the camera so the grid lines up with the floors.
Then I find it pretty easy to adjust everything and place new things where needed.
This image is kinda hard to line up, some of the perspective is off a bit.
I haven't made much progress today, as I was procrastinating a bit. Anyhow, I've managed to make some barrels, drawers and a kickass chair.
As a side-experiment, I have made a night version of the level just to see how it would look like. To me it looks promising. I might dabble in that when I finish the main version of the project.
Here's the screenshot of the current state:
That's all for today. I expect to have more done tommorrow.
Cheers!
Any ideas about how can i improve the texture or maybe the model ?
@kadart3d: good start, but maybe you could play with the perspective abit more, unless you have different intentions?
@ssjtroll: good start! not much to say. The ceiling could use some more love!
@epicbeardman: The ceiling got soo much better, awesome! But it feels like the ceiling is too low now with the airfans attached to it.
@ultralord: keep it up
@_Sorin_: you finished this asset pretty quick, well done. personally i dont like the colors at all. the gun (personally) should give a "sci fi" look and feel, and right now its just metal with a brownish color. Define the materials better, give it more color variation. I'd start with a simply sideview screenshot and start painting flat colors on it and try different things out.
keep posting!