Monthly Environment Art Challenge August 2016 (43)
greentooth
Hello everyone and welcome to the Monthly Environment & Prop Challenge for the month of August !!!
First off, thank you all for your patience during this transition period!
Since we're off to a bit of a late start this month, we've decided to do props only. Next month we will kick off a new Challenge rotation of 1 prop concept per month, with each environment concept having a two-month duration. This will allow everyone more time to complete their environments, while preventing people from having to wait the full two months to join in on the fun!
As there was a tie in this month's vote, I present to you the concepts for August~
Artist: Talros
Artist: Julian Holm
First off, thank you all for your patience during this transition period!
Since we're off to a bit of a late start this month, we've decided to do props only. Next month we will kick off a new Challenge rotation of 1 prop concept per month, with each environment concept having a two-month duration. This will allow everyone more time to complete their environments, while preventing people from having to wait the full two months to join in on the fun!
As there was a tie in this month's vote, I present to you the concepts for August~
Artist: Talros
Artist: Julian Holm
If you want to change up either concept a bit, as some people wanted, then feel free. Interpret these concepts to your liking.
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 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. (Marmoset Toolbag is allowed as well)
- 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.
All that matters is that you learn, while being able to effectively critique others, as well as accept critiques on your own work. Remember to have fun. Cheers!
Replies
Please feel free to pm me or leave any comments & suggestions here; I'll be updating the thread with refinements in the next few days but wanted to go ahead with the post as we're already a week into August and I know we're all eager to start!
Kadeschui
@Bunnirobotcat Nice start! About back of a car- I'll rather keep it quite simple but still good looking.
Here's a pic. The impossible shape is in red. Basically, the cargo is flush with the bed at the rear but not at the front.
EDIT: It's also impossible to fit canisters that chunky in 2 rows of 3 in a truck that is this narrow...
here's my blockout of proportions, how's this look to you guys?
@Bunnirobotcat excellent start - I'm planning to mirror the front on the back
@Go2frag great idea with the floaters, I may try some myself as I've never used that technique before...
Looking great all keep up the good work!
Thought I would jump on this challenge too in my spare time, here is what i have so far.
kadeschui Thank you very much for taking over!
eXecutex thank you very much for handling the last Challenges!
Unfortunatly I am still a Greenhorn in all things 3D, so I am afraid that I am not realy able to give any useful suggestions, but I will try to give some feedback ;D.
Bunnirobotcat:
Nice shapes, very close to the concept. I would think that there is some sort of Door at the back, since there are no visible hinges on the side that we are seing in the concept, and somehow the wares have to go into the container (maybe something like an rolling gate?).
Go2frag:
Good start, I like the deeper air vents that you did better than the original ones in the concept, yours look like they serve a function while the original looked not deep enough.
kadeschui:
The proportions look right for me, but I think the rear wheel is a bit too close to the end of the truck, but I might be wrong.
Meyitzo:
Wow, you are fast - I realy like where your truck is going, you´ve captured the concept very well - looks very good!
A word of warning before I post my attempts - I am not a real artist, I am just a Programmer who likes to do some 3D stuff as a hobby. I know the basics of 3D´s Max, and some of the Basics in ZBrush and Substance Painter. I am planning to use the opportunity of this Challenge to develop and practise a Workflow to use the three of them together.
The Masks seemed like the way to go, many different but similar Models to practise and refine the workflow. But enough words, I will post my first mask and the steps that I´ve taken to produce it.
1) At first I made the base model in Max, nothing special there. I also forced myself to make the UV-Map (and made some mistakes along the way, but more of that later).
2) In ZBrush I subdivided the Mesh a few times, split it in Polygroups
3) And brought in some Details (the Straps and Screws and a Biohazzard Symbol) with the help of some Alpha Files I´ve bought at Gumroad.
4) Finaly I baked the Maps from the High Poly to the Low Poly in Substance Painter and added some colour to the Mask.
5) With the Cowl or however you might call it I followed nearly the same process.
6) And that´s how it looks in Unity, I played around a bit with the lights, that´s where the green highlights are coming from.
It´s my intention to build at least some of the other masks too to gain some experience and practise and I hope that you might help me by pointing out what I´ve done wrong and what I have to change to produce better Results.
There are still many flaws but all things considered I am satisfied with the result, it turned out more or less like I aimed for, the Details and the colours and Materials are where they should be on the Low Poly Model and I think there is room for improvement.
Mistakes that I´ve noticed myself:
- The seams are at the wrong places In the UV-Maps of the cowl (Picture 5) - it just looks wrong, I have to find a better place for the cuts in the next maps.
- Again the UV-Maps, this time the Mask - I´ve only did one side of the UV´s, that worked better (Picture 4) but all the small details (Rust, Dirt, Scratches) that I´ve added are symetrical, it looks artificial, so I that wasn´t such a great Idea as I initially thought
- The Alpha Details in ZBrush aren´t as sharp as I would like them to be - I was at the highest Subdivision when I added them, is there a setting that I have to activate, or a special brush that I should have used?
- Everything looks very glossy in Unity, I changed the Color Space to Linear, I´ve put all the maps in the right slots but still it looks not as nice as it did in Substance Painter. I followed the Instructions of Allegorithmic but I am sure that I´ve missed something, does anybody have an Idea what that might be?
Sorry for all that noobish questions but as a Programmer the Art is usually just handed to me, so I don´t know excactly how I should approach such an Asset. There are so many Tutorials and different Workflows, so many Tools and Plugins that it is hard to see which way I should go.
I would be grateful for any suggestions, useful Tutorials, Links or hints that you could share with me.
Have a nice weekend and have fun with your assets!
Great progress at the moment guys, i like the helmet Count_Crushmore
This is my first time trying to model something on my own wich is a bigger project.
So anny suggestions and help are highly aprieciated.
So I hade a lot of trouble with the two squares on the corners so I deleted them and tought I will try them later.
Here ist my attempt at the container after blocking out the hole thing.
Here are the Wireframes. I have a lot of trouble with troubleshooting (No pun intended) triangles so any suggestions are welcome and pls help me on my probaly bad topology after the booleans.
@IgorSilva Could you maybe post a Wireframe of that
Great progress at the moment guys, i like the helmet Count_Crushmore
Great progress at the moment guys, i like the helmet Count_Crushmore
Here the wire, i'm using this to study modeling with pro-boolean. And make with some turbosmooth modeling to
And for Lowpoly, tris are more than ok, because in game engine they'll be triangulated automatically!
Here the normal map, and if had any suggestion for the uv i will apreciate
Thanks man, now is working :awesome:
still a normal model, no bake yet
@Brandon_L your windows are looking a bit out of proportion but the paneling is coming along
I like your container, it looks very good, the bake turned out great - one thing that I´ve noticed: maybe the edges are a little bit too sharp, they seem to be a bit smoother in the concept.
@fuzesmarcell
A good start, I like the way you are going with the container.
@Brandon_L
Great looking Truck! You´ve realy captured the bulky and cartonny look of the concept, very nice!
@Mossbros
Incredible work, the Truck looks great and I like your colourchoice. Will you go with those colors when you texture the Truck or will you use the colors of the concept Art if you find the time to do it? I hope that you find the Time, I would love to see that Truck finished.
@AllenRoss
Good Start, I think you are right to change the shape slightly. Realy nice model.
So I tried the next Mask (as I stated earlier I will try to do as many of those as possible, and I will try to use what I´ve learned before to make each better than the one before instead of trying to redo or perfect those that I´ve already did).
I´ve chosen the fifth mask - a little bit more complex than the fourth but not as detailed as the others.
This time I was able to get sharper results out of my Alphas in ZBrush and I worked out the bigger shapes in the lower Levels. But unfortunatly I shaped a bit too much, so I wasn´t able to use the Low Poly that I´ve made in Max and I was forced to use the Level 1 Subdivision, next Time I will pay closer Attention to make the base shape close to the desired end result so that way I will have a lower Polycount once I go into Unity.
So here´s the Mask in ZBrush, maybe it´s noticable - I´ve smoothed the upper row of wholes in the mouthpiece, they looked wrong in ZBrush after the baking, so I decided to remove them.
Here is the Mask in Substance Painter, some of the Details (the screws above the Mouthpiece for example) got lost, but all in all everything is where it should be. This time I didn´t mirror the UV´s for the halves, so I was able to break up the symmetry a little bit by adding some scratches above the right eye and the biohazzard sign isn´t centered this time.
I messed up the Mapping for the Cowl again, the seams are everywhere they shouldn´t be - I will have to improve that for the next piece.
I´ve tried to take out the glossyness in Unity, I added a Skybox with a Substance Painter Setting converted to a cubemap in the lighting tab, I reduced the Reflection Intensity and it showed some results but still it doesn´t look like it did in Substance Painter.
Does anybody know a step by step Tutorial to set everything up right in Unity? What I´ve seen so far is more or less "Add the different Maps to the right slots of the Standard Material, set the Color Space to Linear and be happy", thats what I´ve done, but for me it doesn´t seem to work.
I am sure I am missing something realy obvious, but what could that be?
I will probably keep it the concept colours and make it more of a stylised look rather than realism due to the crazy proportions. Kind of looks more like a micro machine than a actual truck.
Looking at your sculpt and a lot of the ones tackling the mask project, I'm seeing that most if not all are really inflating the mask a bit too much. Try and make it more like a thin piece of steel that's been hammered into that shape rather than a thick block of it that's been casted.
There's many a ways to get the shape right prior to sculpting, my method would be some nice sub-d then add dents and imperfections later rather than relying on zbrush for the hard surface, due to my bad hard surface skills in that app lol. It can be done there, but its much harder imo until you start just booleaning crap.
Some really nice stuff you guys are doing so far, keep it up!
Here is just an early wip of the container prop. I'm trying to switch from Maya to Modo (so yes, this is made in Modo) and I want to use this prop challenge to get used to Modo. So my wip is a relatively quick model that I just did some rough texturing on it in Substance Painter to get something out. Will spend tomorrow making a high poly mesh and to get some nice textures.
(Images are screenshots from Substance Painter)
Thanks,
Alexander
My current progress, will start with the container and driver cabin later this week
I spent some time today working a bit on the textures and refining the model slightly.
At the moment I'm primarily working on the normal details- the two big rectangular-ish shapes in the green area needs more work.
Here is my current progress- render from Iray in Substance Painter.
Thanks,
Alexander
@AlexanderConcept The textures are looking good so far and the model is very clean. I don't know if it was something that happened during the render but the top part of the back face of the container seems to be a little too dark and makes the beam look less thick than it is.
I meant to post this over the weekend but learned the hard way that I should just backup everything to be safe. It has its first pass of material textures on it and i'm debating on if I should add some wear and damage onto it or keep it looking new.
Thank you Allen, I appreciate it a lot! I know exactly what you mean- I have tried solving it but I can't get rid of it. I believe it's in the actual model but to my eyes there is nothing wrong with it (and it's not a baking problem, no bake yet). I tried hardening those faces but nope, nothing. I'm still trying to fix this.
@AllenRoss I really like that you made the raw metal darker than what it is I the concept- creates a very nice contrast and makes it pop a bit more.
The amount of damage/wear and tear you have going is nice but maybe break it up a bit on the edges in general? I think that would make it, in terms of damage, feel less uniform. Would also maybe be nice to have some subtle damage/wear in the middle area on the painted side? I'm thinking once the containers get unloaded from the truck they maybe will bump into one another/something- unless you decide to go for a more new look.
This will present problems in engine when you start LODing, if you have to optimise it or if you want to reuse some textures on other assets because the normals have compensation that only works for the specific normals and triangulation of the original soft edged version of the geometry.
The solution is pretty simple:
Make your lowpoly model hard edged around large flat surfaces.
Those edges which are hard must be cut and seperated by a few pixels on the UV map.
When baking use a cage.
You must seperate the uvs because otherwise there is no space for the drastic change in normal information to pad out. It's trying to describe an infinitely thin detail with the clumsy unit of the pixel.
As a result of this you will get a much cleaner looking bake - no huge normal gradients
Check out these two threads to make your life easier:
http://polycount.com/discussion/107196/youre-making-me-hard-making-sense-of-hard-edges-uvs-normal-maps-and-vertex-counts
http://polycount.com/discussion/81154/understanding-averaged-normals-and-ray-projection-who-put-waviness-in-my-normal-map
The better a handle you get on what goes on under the hood, the better equipped you are to make better assets faster.
More views in my artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/bmg1a
Here is my current progress. Not a huge difference since the last post, just some general changes to the texture. It needs more work but for this challenge I'm going to call it done- reason is, I just moved to Canda from UK, so I will be busy for the remainder of this challenge. My main goal with this challenge has been completed and that was to learn and get (relatively) comfortable with Modo.
Any comments/critique always appreciated.
Many thanks,
Alexander
You can see more shots of it plus the 3D Marmoset Viewer file on my artstation page. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/G2byz
Keep pushing hard this week, we've still several days left in the August Challenge.
I've begun the concept post for our Sept. & Oct. Challenge here. As you find time this week, please feel free to drop by and vote, or submit your own concepts.
This was a great effort for August, despite getting started a little late - I can't wait to see the art produced with our new 2-month time frame.
Cheers ~
Kadeschui
I'm close to finishing the August Challenge, but I don't think I will be finishing on time. I would like to add a great deal more polish to my texture maps and try it out in Substance Painter. Here's what I have done below before I forget to submit
Decided to work on the container prop. Below i have pasted an image.
I am posting what i have done so far, still yet to do texturing. plan to do the texturing in substance painter. Rendered inside marmoset toolbag with Normal Map , Ambient Occulsion Map, basic Albedo Map. Any comments and critiques are welcome.
Nice work everybody, Posting the finished container piece, i know its a bit late. But really wanted to finish the august challenge before i start September challenge. Any comments and critiques are welcome.