Monthly Environment Art Challenge - Sept. & Oct. 2016 (44)

kadeschui

Hello everyone and welcome to the Monthly Environment & Prop Challenge for the month(s) of September & October !!!

Beginning this month, we'll be moving the challenges to a two-month time period to provide more room to work and help each other out.

Additionally, for each new Challenge we'll have two props to choose from. The hope is to provide several options we've voted upon while maintaining some cohesion within our group so we're working on similar scenes and better able to help one another work and grow together!

As always, please feel free to provide feedback / suggestions in this thread or by messaging me directly.

We had several votes on the following two suggestions. As such, for Sept. & Oct. we'll have the following options! ~





Artist: Nicolas Ferrand



artist: Kevin Merriman



artist: anastis ermolina



artist: oscar chichoni

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. 

Well that's about it. If you think that any rules should be changed, or there should be new additions to the rules, please let us know.

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!

Bunnirobotcat

  
curious if people choose to model the underwater part or have it as texture. i dig the isometric style

Nerdicon3000

For anyone doing the second concept, there is a awesome scene in the monthly recap you can get inspiration from. I know it's not the same style but I think the concepts are similar. Check out the link to see wireframes and realtime model. It's pretty amazing stuff.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A6oae

LunaZ

anyone can participate?

Nerdicon3000

Yes @LunaZ Anyone can have a go. I have just finshed a quick blockout. Much more to go though

Ratchlar

I'm new to modeling, and have never modeled a scene before. Any tips on how to start off on that futuristic scene?

JustinSlick

Ratchlar said:

I'm new to modeling, and have never modeled a scene before. Any tips on how to start off on that futuristic scene?

Try to break it down into discreet (modular) pieces that you can easily wrap your head around, and then block out the scene as simply as possible.  Focus especially on getting the major shapes and proportions correct.  After that, just take it one asset at a time, re-use assets where it makes sense to do so.

I'd say, don't focus too much on creating something perfectly optimized on your first go, because it's easy to start over-thinking stuff.  But Nerdicon's image above is a great example of how people usually start these scenes.

Also if you get to a particularly tough decision and aren't sure which direction to take it's sometimes a good idea to "Save As" and create a new iteration of your file, so you have backup copies at different stages in the project.

Datadieb

My first Blockout, some elements are still missing in this but i wanted to share my progress.

jamie.heron

Got my own blockout of the sci-fi scene...it seems it's a popular one!

tehrobster2

Hey guys, It has been a while since I have done a challenge, and this once looks fun. Here I have done a blockout and a color blockout as well. 

Toku

Hey all, This is my first challenge and I am excited to crack on with it. Here is the initial blockin, I used the reference and also a base mesh from the wiki at 193cm to scale the assets in the scene. I wanted to make something which didn't feel too claustrophobic but definitely was an airtight compartment. There are probably areas which are out a little, if you see any glaring issues let me know. Looking forward to seeing what we all come up with. 

Psams1

Hey everyone! I'm new to the site and this is my first challenge. Just figured I'd share my initial blockout. Looking forward to seeing everyone's progress!

Marverick

Hey guys! First time poster here. I want to try some hand-painted texturing so I choose the isometric island. Here's my first blockout. 

LunaZ

Marverick said:

Hey guys! First time poster here. I want to try some hand-painted texturing so I choose the isometric island. Here's my first blockout. 

Nice! I'm doing the same, I hope I can post my blockout soon. 

Shuaws

Heres my blockout so far.... im glad someone is going the island haha. GL and have fun everyone looking forward to everyones projects

Adel0n

Wow, great start everyone!
Just wanted to do something sci-fi, and you have chosen so nice concept for this months. So, I also take part and there is one more blockout.

Good luck, guys

P.S. Why is character challenge featured on the main page, and environment not?

Toku

Started a detail pass on the meshes and did a bit of research into the reference. Turns out it was painted for Star Citizen. It's a concept for Arc Corp interiors. So, Moving forward I gathered some more reference for the assets as the concept is just representative of the impression/feeling and general forms of the environment and some areas painted dont actually make geometrical sense. I took some screenshots in game and I am going to find some other RL ref for the Cameras. Recording my progress here, but seems like my first detail pass wasn't close to in-game looks. 

Highlight of areas which don't really make sense to me. The camera rail blends seamlessly into the storage units(?) above. The arms on the door don't look functional. Cube of 3 cameras facing awkward angles? Rear pipe wont vent into power unit. I think the overall idea of this area is a security checkpoint between the shipyard and the civilian area. So the cameras are in place so the security officer behind the screen can scan the pilot to see if they are holding any weaponry/contraband, hence the camera rail behind the terminals.



Screenshot dump of Arc Corp - Area 18 Border control. 

http://i.imgur.com/NMUHffX.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mUq3XpZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mZI2c4M.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/90W4iXG.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zM2EjkI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Bg6qYhm.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0wlzt3Q.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/j06lDD1.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Gfmf2k0.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qTpUrTq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/B12L53C.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3D4o6UI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/aUF5YuC.jpg

https://youtu.be/hTrlx-7G5FU?t=4m4s

Shuaws

@Toku thanks for the video and images, that will help going forward!!

kadeschui

Wow you guys are moving fast this month! Excellent work all I'm hoping work settles down enough this weekend to join in the fun

Nerdicon3000

@Toku I think the things you are trying to make sense of in the concept are up for interpretation. As you can see not even star citizen stuck to the concept, probably because the things you said were not that functional. I'm just going to try fill in the gaps myself and try and match the feel of the concept.

Shuaws

@Nerdicon3000  yah i agree i just think it could give you some ideas that maybe you did think of, but im gonna try and stick to the concept myself. I need to practice that aspect of modelling, sometimes i have a hard time coming up with something on my own

Toku

@Nerdicon3000 Yes you're correct, the concept is there to give an overall impression of what needs to be made but isn't 100% accurate. I will do that same, the areas which dont look realistic I will adjust to fit into the scene. Notably the arms on the door and the biometric scanner.

jwills

Cool concepts this month, throwing myself into the sci-Fi hallway since I've never done an environment before so hopefully this wont turn out terribly. Like everyone else, im straying slightly away from the concept and trying to focus on modularity (dont know if thats a word). 

Got my block out in and reasonably happy with it.


And started working away at the highPoly modular pieces

Let me know what you all think! Everyones got some great work going so far!

supersnakelx

I want to give the shotgun a try but have no idea what the blue piece is as I do not know much about guns. A flashlight?

Stosh

@supersnakelx I was planning on starting this piece myself too. I was going with it being a flashlight, but it can be up to interpretation since we don't need to make it EXACTLY like it. I'm planning on doing a bit of research of older, smaller, and metal flashlights to match the "era" this gun seems to come from. 

Adel0n

@Toku Thanks a lot for nice references!

So, my progress so far, exported into UE4 and added a bit more details. I decided to try to make the most of assets using custom vertex normals.

Shuaws

So im curious how you guys will be building this scifi level, im thinking of the best way of doing the scene i know i can make a trim sheet and use it on most of the assets. I might just make custom textures for some of the assets and using tiling textures for the walls and floors. 

ThaRictator

Idk if I am breaking this down correctly. Let me know what I can do before I get into the modeling phase. Usually I just go right into modeling but I wanted to try this out and see if it helps with my workflow process. Any ideas?

Toku

@Shuaws I am curious how other users are going to built it too. considering CIG made this environment very poly heavy and used tileable textures that is probably how I am going to approach it. I noticed they do stuff like make individual panels for the wall sections which have chamfered edges on the LP I would typically just use a normal map, But I want to aim for production quality. I still need to plan my approach but I will probably use unique UVs and materials for the major assets, and tiling materials with normal decals for generic pieces (Walls/Floors/Doors). I think its possible to use 1 UV channel for Albedo/Rough/Metal inputs, a 2nd one for Normal and then you can use 3 tiling textures on multiple meshes and a unique normal map. probably overthinking it though. 

Found this thread which seems to have a lot of good information, Obscura made a nice video on how to use normal decals too:
http://polycount.com/discussion/155894/decal-technique-from-star-citizen/p5

supersnakelx

Alright, just finished the low poly in Maya. I made a few adjustments to reduce the clipping and make it a functional model.
Now on to unwrapping UVs then it's fun time with Zbrush. Or do I have the proper workflow wrong? Let me know and all other critics are welcome.

Nicorepe

Hi guys!, saw the thread and couldn't resist to join!.
Starting painting what I considered the major areas and then I moved to making the very first blockout and take it to the engine.

There are no lights setup or anything is very raw.




I still need to tweek the proportions and such so, gonna do that and test some basic lighting before moving to full production of the scene.

Brandon_L

@Nicorepe Idk how you did the flooring but it looks great!

Datadieb

My progress so far, there are still some things missing

Adel0n

@Datadieb Nice start! Really like it.

There is my progress. Made it more modular.

ThaRictator

This is what I have manage to make in the spare time that I have. Learning Modo as well so I am way slower than usual. Good project to learn this program. 

Shuaws

Heres an update made some of the highpoly assets, @datadieb what with all those green line things on your images is it something to do with normals?

Shuaws

Datadieb

Shuaws said:

Heres an update made some of the highpoly assets, @datadieb what with all those green line things on your images is it something to do with normals?

@Shuaws you aren't refering to my post you are refering on AdelOn's post xD, and yes those lines look like normals to me but vor the verts and not the faces

Shuaws

@Datadieb
OOps whats what happens when you post late at night

golani79

Hey there
I haven´t really made anything game related yet so I thought this challenge might be a good oportunity to learn something new.
I´m a bit late to the party but I hope to finish it in time - here´s a blockout.



Not entirely sure though about the proportions - might be that I have to tweak them a bit in the process.

alex1111

Had to rush to take this quick screenshot before work, but I'll be doing the stylized environment! Still just 50% of a blockout. Will probably do some quick sculpt and put most of the same materials on the same texture sheet. Thinking of using UE4. Hoping I have some free time tonight to keep at it!

Awesome work so far, everyone!

ThaRictator

Slowly but surely

ThaRictator

Here is a render.

rallison08

Still not sure if I'll do an environment but I figured i'd at least work on one of the props. Got the pistol broken up so i'm still building up the individual pieces. 

jwills

hey guys, everyone's stuff is looking awesome.

Adding a few progress photos of my hallway, modular highPoly and LowPoly pieces are done now. 


I know they're in some odd positions, randomly placed out, but I'll fix that and their pivot point before exporting to UE4 after the texturing is done.

Off to painter

supersnakelx

I took a break but this project turned out to be just what I needed. I used it to learn Zbrush and Topogun and intend to keep going. The texture was done quickly in Zbrush but I thought of taking it to substance painter and play around with that.





Now I do have a little problem with my normal map. Some pieces came out perfect but others, like the barrel, pick up some artifacts from the low poly for some reason. The maps were baked in Topogun; any advice to help me figure out the problem is appreciated.

Nicorepe

I think, for what it looks like with the gradiants, that must be smoothing groups. I would check that out and the uvs splitting. another thing is that I would recomend not to rotate that much the uvs as it creates antialiasing problems. I would try to have it as straight as posible to avoid any issues in the future. Hope it helps.

Buch

Hi everyone, I've got a first "finished" version here. I've had some problems recreating the light of the ref scene, but I finally managed to get something quite similar. Also, comments & critics are welcome. I take everything you have to say

rallison08

More blocking out the pieces and its finally starting to take shape. Slow and steady

Shuaws

@Buch looking nice did you bake from highpoly meshes, or did you use trim sheets for everything? Just curious how you built everything

alex1111

Buch said:

Hi everyone, I've got a first "finished" version here. I've had some problems recreating the light of the ref scene, but I finally managed to get something quite similar. Also, comments & critics are welcome. I take everything you have to say

Dude, awesome work! My feedback so far would be that you have some random scratches and dings on those red trims, but not so much edge wear where it would naturally wear down over use and age. Those scratches that you have added make it seem like one-time damaging scratches on the paint but it would be difficulty to reach those places. Hope this makes sense.

Also maybe some of your black stripes on the door are darker than the ones in the concept, besides that, I think nailing that blue hue and lighting will really sell it. Great work!