The Shack...

seandxyz

Spent around 6 hours on this start to finish, trying to speed up my work while creating optimized game assets... feedback appreciated.
pics down sized...

EpicBeardMan

Good job in the modeling and texturing side. One thing you shoudl really work on is the presentation itself. Your lighting isn't so good. You should play and experiment with better lighting options and GI (Global Illumination) respectively.
A question: What render is this?

Cheers!

jeremiah_bigley

Hey cool I hope to see a lot more of these then. I personally think it could use some uniqueness in the texture whether that is a better tileable, procedurals, hand painting.

And I would get it in a realtime engine, because if I am not mistaken you are rendering out of your native 3d package?

Keep it rolling!

seandxyz

Yes these are renders from 3D max with a basic daylight setup, I'll get a render in a game engine asap.

seandxyz

This is it in the Unity5 engine, i do agree textures look a bit bare, but a lot of these are overlaying, i did notice unity supports a secondary detail map channel? should i bake a light map on to this or? ideas?

Em.

Are there normals on this? The first thing that stuck out to me(in addition to the lighting being washed out and lacking contrast, which could be what is doing it) is that the roof looks like it's lacking normal detail, has lighting information in the diff/albedo, and/or is lacking spec/metalic information. The supports are also looking to thin to support even a shabby structure, they're a bit fatter in your ref material. I can also see the tiling on your walls, which you could try breaking up with thirding, more texture variants or decals. You got the basic idea of the thing, now it's time to give it some character and make it shine. Keep at it!

EpicBeardMan

@Em. is right. Make it more interesting. You're on the right path. Keep up the good work.

Cheers!

seandxyz

Ok, thanks again for the feed back, i will try to work on the maps later today to give it more definition as you say, i do get slightly confused sometimes as how to actually lay maps out, such as wall by wall, or plank by plank, plank by plank has better detail overall for texture space, but becomes hard to actually make them unique and look un-tiled, but yes i agree, i guess this is the challenge... I'll look into unity's secondary detail maps to see what i can come up with also...

seandxyz

Worked on it a bit, here's newest version in unity5...

EpicBeardMan

Nice lighting you've got there.
And, about the planks, you could make 3 variants of planks and with them you would have a lot of variation in combining them. I assume it wouldn't be hard to make 3 material variations (especialy if you work in Substance).

Cheers!

seandxyz

if you got half decent internet... here ~200MB

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yp1lg6l2fv0ilbs/AACXbYcebeNlQ8qkHhEznfgxa?dl=0

run the Shack_Viewer.exe

Good enough portfolio piece? should i move on to next piece or?

seandxyz

[sketchfab]04ccb2969e1f4459836c24cab98d83f3[/sketchfab]
Shack by seandxyz on Sketchfab

Matt_Billeci

This is nice start, but as it stands, its just an empty shack with no story or setting to it whatsoever. If you want to take this step further, add some story elements and history to it. Where is this shack located in the world? Is it in a desolate area where this person lives by himself? Does he live with other shackers? is he near a larger city and just chooses to live in the shack? what time period does it set in? what type of person is the man or woman who lives in this shack? These are all questions that you should ask yourself and try to explain through the environment. The richer the detail and story told within the scene and props, the more your scene will stand out.

seandxyz

Yes totally agree, but was going for one piece at a time, might as well progress and take it further though, I'll go for a apoco look i guess, sitting on a swamp with a swamp boat.. some guy uses it as a hub/hideaway from the world, so I'll fill it with bare living essentials and try make it look a bit more "used" as you say.... will continue to post progress here, and feedback is always appreciated, thanks

Em.

Some things I notice right away:
-All of your boards are very straight across, there should be some that are askew, have gaps, etc.
-You could really use some unique decals to break up the tiling. Did you model each board individually? If you did make a few different board variants to use across the whole building.
-The same thing goes for the supports up front, they need more love in the wear and tear department.
Go back and look at your reference with a very critical eye(and other similar structures and aged materials) and then look at your piece. As it stands right now it's not anything to write home about. It's a good start, but it's not quite there. I also agree with Matt, if you're looking for this to be a portfolio piece, build a chunk of land for it to sit on and put some props on there. You could add a rocking chair, some signage, a rain catcher barrel, a shovel, a chicken coop out back, etc or whatever else you can imagine. It's your story. Finishing is often the hardest part, just have to push through it.

Matt_Billeci

Sounds great! push it as far as you can, dude!

seandxyz

*Update worked on adding a little more definition on the shack, mainly making wooden planks more defined and a less tiled look, hope its better... moving on to creating some assets to fill the thing, and then I'll look into a little terrain patch for it to fit into

seandxyz

Small update... managed to get a bit of terrain going(used stuff from unity Assets), also +1 asset the deck chair... working on it... ideas/feedback welcome

Matt_Billeci

Cool. I'd add some foliage underneath and around the perimeter of the shack like in your reference.

Justhen

Maybe a broken stair case up onto the porch. It just seems a little high for like just a step up, i know its not in the reference but hey it something to enhance it.

seandxyz

Yeah thanks, think I'll cut the ground space down to a little patch underneath the shack, and work on that in a little more detail, and get a little practice in creating foliage for myself, perhaps a darkened scene with a generator outside and a spot light or two, think it will bring it to life if i can figure lighting out properly in the unity engine, thanks for feedback though, will continue to post when i have something new think I'll go make few assets generator/shelves fridge/bed for inside and then work on foliage, would be so much more simpler to do all this in max with mental ray but as im aiming for game scenes figured it's only best i show them there

seandxyz

**



Think I'm done with this now, might come back to it when I learn more about engine lighting >.>

Sebvhe

You should definitely push this piece forward. You already have a good start, now you're at the point where you can go away from the concept and add whatever you want to fill the piece and gave it more authenticity. Personally it is by far what I like the most.

On a side note it seems that the metal sheets have some kind of occlusion on the albedo, you should avoid that if you are working in PBR.

MattyWS

That generator has some issues with normals in the first image (can't tell in the second if you've fixed it or not).

It's a bit of a bare scene so I wouldn't call it done done (not portfolio worthy yet). If you're trying to make a whole scene your environment is lacking a lot and the terrain looks like a blobby heightmap.

seandxyz

Is there a way to import a custom mesh for terrain? also how to interior lighting for unity... and night scenes, think I'll put the scene on hold for a bit anyhow, i do agree lighting and terrain... need to improve those skills.... if i was to do this in max mental ray i wouldn't be having these kinda issues ;( but yeah feedback advice appreciated... p.s. yes normals and smoothing groups are fine now

CarlCraft

I like your piece so here are my two cents:


Sorry it's kinda messy but hopefully you get my points A lot of small things and "easy fixes" which might help your piece a lot

Matt_Billeci

really digging the changes youve made. I really dig the step and the porch because its got a stylized silhouette to them, however when you look at the rest of the shack, it really feels out of place compared to the realistic proportions of the rest of the building. I'd either push the rest of the shack with that cool style or maintain a more "realistic" shack.

Also, the generator is a nice touch. Adding some porch decorations will really give the viewer a sense of who the owner really is. Maybe some pots and pans as wind chimes or scrap metal turned into sculptures. Just have fun with it!

seandxyz

Oh thanks guys