FINALLY completed my first project and..
polycounter lvl 2
It looks kind of bad. Very bad actually haha. I'll upload the final result when I am not at work. I first modeled my crate in Max and try uv unwrapping for the third time in my life and it was still pretty difficult. After unwrapping I took it into xnormal and had a very VERY faint normal map. Which I found very weird but just went along with that. I then moved everything into Substance Designer and bitmap2material where I made the maps for my bitmap. This was my first time even using substance and I really wasn't able to find any tutorial to help me along so I just kind of peiced things together for the most part until I had a texture on my box. I'm in the process of exporting into UE4 but I had to leave so I'll set that up and render it to see how that turns out! 
I'm trying to work on just about every aspect of environment art so where would be the easiest place to start among things like foliage/trees, modeling, texturing, or what else? I'm trying to do things in the easiest possible order for someone trying to basically self teach them self.
I'm trying to work on just about every aspect of environment art so where would be the easiest place to start among things like foliage/trees, modeling, texturing, or what else? I'm trying to do things in the easiest possible order for someone trying to basically self teach them self.
Replies
I wouldn't start with a tree, i am 100% sure it will look bad because all first trees look bad, and it's pretty discouraging. Also unwrapping trees is a pain in the ass. Make more creates or something. Or a rock to practicing sculpting.
That's just me though
If you feel comfortable please post your progress so we can help you by giving critique and advice.
1) sorry if I'm blunt but you're right, that stinks. Thankfully you realize that and you're reaching out for help. That takes courage and a mind that is open to critique. Believe it or not, those are incredibly important skills and those that lack them are often hobbled in their growth, so you have that going for you!
2) It looks like a tree because each of the separate pieces are mapped the same. The boards around the outside would have the wood grain running down their length and not all the same way.
So you need to detach those faces in the UV editor and flip them so the grain runs the right way.
3) That is a rotten, worm infested wood texture that is extremely rough. I personally would go with something that is much smoother and looks like it was recently built. Most crates don't last that long any many are single use.
4) It helps to think about how the actual object is put together. In this case I would actually do a high poly model of each board and then bake that down to a simplified cube. A high poly model with a proper tiling wood material will get you VERY far down the road on a kick ass low poly model with a great start on the textures.