I'm new around here but I'd love to get some feedback on my work.

jimirock13579

Hello All,

I am new here at polycount. I'm finishing up my degree in Game Art, and I wanted to share some of what I've done with everyone to get some feedback and improve the quality of my work. I'd love any advice or critiques on anything I have posted. Everything I have posted I've done myself. I follow a typical game pipeline: High poly mesh, game res mesh, UV, bake, texture and then present. I do my modeling and UV's in Maya, texture work is done with Substance Painter/Designer, I do a real time render displayed in Sketchfab usually. And then final look in Photoshop. My most recent asset I've finished was a modified pistol. I combined it with a rifle grenade I finished previously and added a mini scene aesthetic to it. I'm primarily a hard surface modeler but I also enjoy doing character work, modeling is modeling after all. 

Here is a link to my artstation: http://jimistone.artstation.com/

Thanks in advance!

artofmars

Your hard surface stuff seems good, I would definitely make more of it. I'd also try to make more environments as well that way you have a nice mix of prop and environment. 
Keep it up!

jimirock13579

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing about needing more environments so I'll be putting that on the docket for sure. I appreciate the comment.

Macebo

Hey, Jimi! Welcome. Ok, couple of things that i can say you can improve:

You can significantly optimize your low poly models. Some things, like the bullets: you can eliminate some loops at the round part of them, while still mantaining a good silhouette. They are small, and you can get away with less "roundness". You can save like what, 50, 60 triangles per bullet? Looks little number; but imagine in a game environment where hundreds, if not thousands of those are present?  You have to be mindful, though, at all times: if i eliminate this loop, does it impact negatively on the silhouette of my model? If not, eliminate them.  

On the same subject, the grenade has room for great improvement in terms of topology. This area, for instance, you could make those details entirely on the normal map:

The vertical loops surrounding the circular shape could be reduced as well, while still mantaining a strong silhouette, reminding us that this is a cylinder. Be carefull to not remove too much, though, or there will be some distortions, or "waviness". If you want, take a look a this amazing thread, it has very usefull information on this subject: http://polycount.com/discussion/81154/understanding-averaged-normals-and-ray-projection-who-put-waviness-in-my-normal-map/p1

The gun, same problem: the edges of the model are all chamfered, which increases the polycount significantly. That is not desirable in production situations. Try to reduce them and softening those edges with a normal map. This thread is essential: http://polycount.com/discussion/107196/youre-making-me-hard-making-sense-of-hard-edges-uvs-normal-maps-and-vertex-counts/p1

The barrel: i like the texture, and the topology is much more optimized (compare it with the cylinder of the grenade!). But there is room for improvements as well: 

The character has too much geometry as well. You can get away with more geometry on the face, since this is a important aspect and we usually focus on it. But the clothes can be drastically reduced in terms of density. 

The environment: The screenshots are too small. Try to display them separately. If you show them in a such small size all the details you worked so hard go to waste! There is no problem to show multiple screenshots, in a way that we even have to scroll down. In fact, that is even encouraged! 

That is my humble opinion and contribution. I think you are on the right track.

Cheers!

jimirock13579

Wow awesome, thanks for taking the time to go through everything and come back with notes for me. I really appreciate that. I get the overall impression that you noticed my game res meshes are too dense. I might should have prefaced or included that these assets are all portfolio pieces I made in school. The instructors value making a shape work and avoiding faceting when viewed from all angles. I agree that normal maps help out a ton, but they often critiqued that my lower poly stuff should be more dense to avoid seeing those edges as harshly. We've had to build tons of game quality pieces but when it comes to portfolio they wanted higher quality "hero" pieces. So I did have to work in a way that was a hybrid between what I was being graded against and the industry standard. But I like your point and I'll try and be more mindful of optimizing the meshes better on the next pass.

I've been taught to always model or chamfer an edge on the game mesh because the normal maps needs to have the geometry there to accurately draw the rounded shape from the high res on there. If it isn't there it can cause some black areas where the information can't be shown correctly. I've always done this as a precaution, do you know the validity of this or a more concrete way of knowing when to do that and when not to?

I also appreciate the links you've shared, I'll be taking a look at those as I'm working on my next project. You've been super helpful and I'll be using what I can from your advice on my future work.

Thank you again!

Macebo

Glad i could help, Jimi. :awesome:

About the chamfered edges, they are one way of smothing edges, but a very ineficient one. You can achieve the same results with lesser geometry, while avoiding those "black areas" you mentioned. There is a whole method for achieving this. The first link i posted is fundamental for elucidating this; i encourage you to carefully read it. Also, Handplane Youtube channel teached me a lot about normal maps and shading: https://www.youtube.com/user/handplane3d/
If you need any additional help, make sure to let me know. 

Good luck!