Input for a total Beginner

Priabudiman

Greetings,

This will be my first post, and might as well Introduce myself. My name is Priabudiman, and Ive been working on 2D game arts for quite a while, and only that. Until i finally reopen this forum, and I finally able to make sure that my 2016 resolution is to upgrade myself by trying to learn and be good on creating 3D game art, especially for asset modeling. I really hope there will be a lot more for me to learn from all of you in here.

This is my very first terrible attempt from following many tutorials available.

I know its very simple, and very ugly looking. I really hope you guys can give me some inputs and suggestions on how should i improve the quality of it.

Softwares i use : 
Maya LT
Adobe Photoshop

My goal is to finish a couple set of fences, maybe some rocks and grass for basic scene.

I thank you so much for reading my post, i'm looking forward to hear your inputs,comments,and suggestions!

Have a Great day!

skyline5gtr

Concentrate on learning concepts and the tools first before worrying about how something looks. As far as this asset, can you show the unwrap and texture sheets ? There looks to be some stretching. Take a look at the wiki thread here or any number of tutorial sites for full projects

mrgesy

Search the web for 3D tutorials. They're countless and they will help you immensely to get better. Guidance is key at this point so learn from free tutorials and paid if you can afford them.

putka

You need to push the asset technically. First you have to decide between realistic and stylized. Since you used a photo for textures, I guess you want the former. So for current gen you'd have to look into something like Substance / Quixel Suite to create a realistic wood surface.

To just quickly push this particular asset a bit more, you could use this photo texture with something like nDo or Knald to generate a normal map and a cavity map to enhance the diffuse a bit. Doing that would sell the surface a lot more.

If you wanted to go a stylized route you should look into Zbrush (which is pretty much bread and butter for.. everything) and sculpt the wood grains by hand. Sculpts are a great way to get that initial base texture for your low poly so you only have to apply some color to it and bring out the edges a little.

Look for more recent tutorials on current-gen workflows.

Eric Chadwick

Please use JPG instead of PNG. Saving a JPG at level 8 converts a 8MB PNG down to a 128kb JPG, and looks virtually identical.
See the thread http://polycount.com/discussion/161965/why-is-everyone-using-massive-png-files-for-their-shots/p1 .

Priabudiman

Thank you so much for the input @putka . Indeed, choosing between realistic and stylized can be very difficult. For the realistic, i feel that i only have to struggle with getting the basic blocks right, and finding the correct texture. As for stylized, its much more than that. Ill keep practicing. and thank you for the software references, ill totally look in to it. Meanwhille, i've tried another approach, this time i try to texture a simple barrel using texture that i painted myself in photoshop.

   model

putka

That looks more appealing than the wood photo. Time to work on specularity - right now the wood is uniformly glossy like plastic.

Priabudiman

Another Attempts, im trying to adjust unnecessary gloss and avoid colored/texturing. I think its better if i understand the whole process and presentation in matte and learn about specularity bit by bit. Any thoughts?



model

Priabudiman

model

Joopson

The chair doesn't make too much sense, carpentry-wise. The seat would probably be through-tenoned into the back piece.
Meaning, a good portion of the seat would continue on through the back piece, as a way of holding the two together, and as a way to guarantee it can hold up to the weight and abuse a chair has to.
Here's what I mean:


If you plan on doing a lot of wood things in 3D, I'd recommend looking into wood joinery extensively. I've seen enough badly/impossibly made wooden chairs in games to last a lifetime. Videos of furniture dry assembly can also be really very helpful.

Priabudiman

Joopson said:

The chair doesn't make too much sense, carpentry-wise. The seat would probably be through-tenoned into the back piece.
Meaning, a good portion of the seat would continue on through the back piece, as a way of holding the two together, and as a way to guarantee it can hold up to the weight and abuse a chair has to.
Here's what I mean:


If you plan on doing a lot of wood things in 3D, I'd recommend looking into wood joinery extensively. I've seen enough badly/impossibly made wooden chairs in games to last a lifetime. Videos of furniture dry assembly can also be really very helpful.

 This is totally an amazing tips! thank you so much @Joopson , everything is just like you've said. Ill try to keep them all in mind next time I'm about to experiment on a wooden structures.

Lexinator117

So, I am pretty new to posting anything on the site and i am a student with still a lot left to learn, but i like to be contributing so i'll throw in my two cents.
Honesty, for just starting, what you have produced isn't half bad. You seem to be aiming at what you can reasonably pull off and i think its doing you good.

You have plenty of better people on here giving you specific advice so I'll say on something a grander note: There are innumerable tutorials out there, and awesome communal resources (like here) to take advantage of, but this is because there are just a ridiculous number of things to learn. I typed out a much longer explanation but it sounded way to preachy for a guy thats not even in really in the industry yet. In short, don't let the vast amounts of things to learn bog down your enthusiasm or your drive to keep moving forward. The medium is so much fun and there is always more to master and be proud of.  I work on things way beyond my capacity in hopes to learn it, some nail down one concept at a time, some do all the research and follow tutorials step by step. Eventually you will find your favored technique and you can progress from there. No matter how you choose to work, just keep your mojo flowing and everything else will follow suit.

Well, there you have it. What was hopefully a not-too-preachy two cents.

The Rizzler

Priabudiman said:

 This is totally an amazing tips! thank you so much @Joopson , everything is just like you've said. Ill try to keep them all in mind next time I'm about to experiment on a wooden structures.

Not just when you next experiment on wooden objects, but on everything. Every time you model an object, think about how it is manufactured/built, what material it is made from and how this affects construction, and ultimately what its story is. Obviously collect good reference as well to complement this observation. This is the ultimate skill as an environment artist and results in every prop becoming so much more interesting, because purely by providing context to the piece you make it inherently more detailed.

Priabudiman

@Lexinator117 that 2 cents feels more like 50 cents for me, thanks for the encouraging words, i realize i have to learn a lot more before i can achieve even my minimum goal, and ill try my best to not stop doing it.

@The Rizzler and theres that, i will totally keep that in mind! thank you so much!