[Prop] RC Toy Car

alex_kim

Modeling: Maya 2015
Texturing: Photoshop CS 6
Maps: Color Map, Bump Map, Spectacular map
Rendering: Unreal Engine 4 
Number of Polygons : 60,000 ~ 64,000

All right... Since I had received many helpful and kindness opinions, I decided to build something simpler and smaller with better quality.

As I always hope... it is fine to criticize my work. Please tell me the truth. :-)

Do you think this is good enough for junior job portfolio? (I would like work in the Game Industry.. but my top priority is getting a job)


PS-

For the mobile game(or low-poly).. is it better to bevel the edges in the Maya ? or, is it better to draw it using Photoshop ?

Many Thanks :-)

Brian "Panda" Choi

No.  Render it better.

3 Point lighting, use it.

Are you using Physically Based Rendering?

What's a Spectacular map?  Do you mean Specular?

Where's the normal map?

What's your high poly look like?

alex_kim

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

No.  Render it better.

3 Point lighting, use it.

Are you using Physically Based Rendering?

What's a Spectacular map?  Do you mean Specular?

Where's the normal map?

What's your high poly look like?

I used Unreal Engine 4.

Actually, today is my first day to use it... 

Brian "Panda" Choi

If you want an example of the quality of a junior artist's portfolio, check out Kelly Johnson's:
https://www.artstation.com/artist/kellyjohnson3dart 

As a Treyarch Animation engineer has told me, those are the people you're competing against.

I hope you're seeing how flat the rendering looks, right?  Like I get that it's mostly plastic, but there's still so much opportunity to make this pop and look cool and stage it dramatically that you haven't taken advantage of.  This is not enough, this is bare minimum.  But even as a gamer, you don't find yourself paying for bare minimum work right?

alex_kim

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

If you want an example of the quality of a junior artist's portfolio, check out Kelly Johnson's:
https://www.artstation.com/artist/kellyjohnson3dart 

As a Treyarch Animation engineer has told me, those are the people you're competing against.

I hope you're seeing how flat the rendering looks, right?  Like I get that it's mostly plastic, but there's still so much opportunity to make this pop and look cool and stage it dramatically that you haven't taken advantage of.  This is not enough, this is bare minimum.  But even as a gamer, you don't find yourself paying for bare minimum work right?

Hmm... I do not want to be negative but...

Tell you the truth, I am not sure I can build such Dragon or mecha-tiger within a year.
And, I desperately want to get a job in year 2018...

However, If I level up, and I can build real-life cars and guns with her level (quality), do I have a chance ?

Thanks.

ps- I want to be environment artist...

JordanN

I often see the RC Toy show up a lot in beginners work. There's suppose to be a popular tutorial out there based on the same thing, so that might explain its high frequency.

Just my personal view, but if employers are in the know or could easily google that RC Toy tutorial, I would be careful using it as a portfolio piece unless you do something to differentiate it. 

alex_kim said:

Hmm... I do not want to be negative but...

Tell you the truth, I am not sure I can build such Dragon or mecha-tiger within a year.
And, I desperately want to get a job in year 2018...

However, If I level up, and I can build real-life cars and guns with her level (quality), do I have a chance ?

Thanks.

ps- I want to be environment artist...

Don't concentrate on the year. It will only distract you from making art. 

Just keep posting more art with new knowledge you have learned from critiques. Industry jobs will always be around so don't make it a big focus.

Brian "Panda" Choi

You'd have a stronger chance, yes.

alex_kim

JordanN said:

I often see the RC Toy show up a lot in beginners work. There's suppose to be a popular tutorial out there based on the same thing, so that might explain its high frequency.

Just my personal view, but if employers are in the know or could easily google that RC Toy tutorial, I would be careful using it as a portfolio piece unless you do something to differentiate it. 

alex_kim said:

Hmm... I do not want to be negative but...

Tell you the truth, I am not sure I can build such Dragon or mecha-tiger within a year.
And, I desperately want to get a job in year 2018...

However, If I level up, and I can build real-life cars and guns with her level (quality), do I have a chance ?

Thanks.

ps- I want to be environment artist...

Don't concentrate on the year. It will only distract you from making art. 

Just keep posting more art with new knowledge you have learned from critiques. Industry jobs will always be around so don't make it a big focus.

Actually, you are right... there IS a tutorial...

However, I did not simply copy and paste the steps. I fully understood what is going on there, and completed without cheating.

could this be still... issue when I apply ?

alex_kim

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

You'd have a stronger chance, yes.

Hmm..

Ok, so far I understand,

I have to improve rendering skill and try to build something more complicated one.

However, if I challenge complicated one now, I am sure I will fail...
Let me boom up my skill days by days. One day, I will create mech-tiger or nine-head-dragons or such things; but, now is not a good time.

Yet, I guess I have to spend more time with the Unreal Engine 4. This is very powerful. It could save a lot of time, and effort.

By the way, thanks for your opinion. :-)

Brian "Panda" Choi

It's not necessarily about it being more complicated. It just needs to be well designed.

You really need to separate those two concepts;  complicated and well-designed.

Gigantic is a simple art direction, but it's well designed.

Titanfall 2 has complicated mech art, but it is still well designed.

This guy thought complicated meant "looks good."  It doesn't necessarily.
https://www.artstation.com/contests/beyond-human/challenges/24/submissions/21294?sorting=latest



You can do a complicated thing if you break it down into smaller chunks.  Focus on the legs in one sprint.  Focus on the hands in another, etc.

Larry

I had the same mindset as the OP, i was watching all these good models and i thought at first that i need to start modeling better, more complex things etc. Materials can on one hand make a very simple object look extremely good. I believe if he learns about materials, they cover all the aspects he needs to know about maps etc. All of them will be usefull if/when he starts sculpting, and they will not intimidate him

Thanez

Hi Alex!
This is a big improvement over your previous models. Good job!
If I were you, I wouldn't put too much thought into getting a job in the industry just yet. Focus on making more models, developing your art style and getting better.

As for this piece, there's a couple of things to point out.
I wouldn't present my models in engine unless they were screenshots in a final game, in action in their natural environment. Even then, the main presentation should be beauty shots made in a proper rendering application. This can be done in Maya, so I would rather present from there. There are also third-party rendering applications like Toolbag to consider.

The model looks OK for a cartoony kids- or mobile game, but the polycount is not OK for this visual quality. I can't see where all those 60k polygons went except for the 4000 spent on tire threads. For an ingame model of this style and the level of detail I can see I would expect the entire model to be 8-10k. Can you show a wireshot of your model? I'd like to give you some optimization tips, but can't see anything in those images.

I wouldn't model in the tire threads like that, as those can be handled by a baked normal map quite easily, and will possibly look better in game. If you wanted the silhouette to look spiky, you could achieve that the same way they did the moss effects in Ryse, but for a fraction of the rendering cost: http://docs.cryengine.com/display/SDKDOC2/How+to+Create+Layered+Moss
Your textures are still very simple and flat. I can't see any reflections or resemblance of materials except for the tires, and even they look like flat color values. I suggest you go back on the textures and make fully fleshed out materials, and present this as an asset worthy of it's polycount.
When you say bump map, do you mean normal map? I've never heard of a game engine using a bump map.

If you want as good crits as possible, be sure to post wire shots of your model, and texture flats so we can give you pointers and tips. 

alex_kim

Thanez said:

Hi Alex!
This is a big improvement over your previous models. Good job!
If I were you, I wouldn't put too much thought into getting a job in the industry just yet. Focus on making more models, developing your art style and getting better.

As for this piece, there's a couple of things to point out.
I wouldn't present my models in engine unless they were screenshots in a final game, in action in their natural environment. Even then, the main presentation should be beauty shots made in a proper rendering application. This can be done in Maya, so I would rather present from there. There are also third-party rendering applications like Toolbag to consider.

The model looks OK for a cartoony kids- or mobile game, but the polycount is not OK for this visual quality. I can't see where all those 60k polygons went except for the 4000 spent on tire threads. For an ingame model of this style and the level of detail I can see I would expect the entire model to be 8-10k. Can you show a wireshot of your model? I'd like to give you some optimization tips, but can't see anything in those images.

I wouldn't model in the tire threads like that, as those can be handled by a baked normal map quite easily, and will possibly look better in game. If you wanted the silhouette to look spiky, you could achieve that the same way they did the moss effects in Ryse, but for a fraction of the rendering cost: http://docs.cryengine.com/display/SDKDOC2/How+to+Create+Layered+Moss
Your textures are still very simple and flat. I can't see any reflections or resemblance of materials except for the tires, and even they look like flat color values. I suggest you go back on the textures and make fully fleshed out materials, and present this as an asset worthy of it's polycount.
When you say bump map, do you mean normal map? I've never heard of a game engine using a bump map.

If you want as good crits as possible, be sure to post wire shots of your model, and texture flats so we can give you pointers and tips. 

Thanks for your attention.

So, I need to do:

1. Do not use Unreal Engine for now. Use Maya default rendering or Toolbag
2. Study material to improve the quality
3. Reduce the number of polygons a.k.a use normal map
4. upload both wireframe and texture file too

Ok, let me focus 1, 2 and 4 for now.. I am trying normal map now on my assault rifle modeling; however, it looks like melted chocolate or something.. I guess I have to study more.

P.S- Normal map is very crucial skill to get a job, especially in the game industry. am I right? I wish I wanna skip this part ;_- 

Brian "Panda" Choi

Normal maps are crucial in the same way 'making sure you punctuate your sentences' is a requirement of being a writer.  This is admittedly something that you should know how to do habitually already for game art.