Sketchbook: Stephanie Nieves
polycounter lvl 6
Hello everyone, I am a prop and environment artist wanting to improve my skills. Critiques are encouraged!
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Edit: I merged the original first post into the one below and will be using this space for some quick navigation between projects.
Current Project: Duncan's Room [retro futurism inspired concept]
Biomodem - Handpainted Prop
[Start Here] [Final Post] [ArtStation]
Noir Apartment (Household Props Challenge) - UE4 Environment
[Start Here] [Final Post] [ArtStation]
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Edit: I merged the original first post into the one below and will be using this space for some quick navigation between projects.
Current Project: Duncan's Room [retro futurism inspired concept]
[Jump to latest post]
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Biomodem - Handpainted Prop
[Start Here] [Final Post] [ArtStation]
Noir Apartment (Household Props Challenge) - UE4 Environment
[Start Here] [Final Post] [ArtStation]
Replies
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Tweaked the high res a bit more. Here are some fancier beauty shots of it.
[Edit: I've rendered out better quality screenshots of the game mesh and fixed a few minor things that were bugging me in the initial bake]
Below are a few snapshots of my diffuse in progress:
I still have a ways to go--mainly getting those highlights in place to sell the different materials, and really solidifying where my light source is coming from. I wanted to first tackle getting the base colors laid out and defining most of my shapes.
Also cleaned up some areas on the modem that got muddied while painting in Blender.
Here's the latest texture update from today:
As suggested, I've added yellow and blue tones and I'm liking how the varying colors look on the model. Gives it more life, in my eyes.
And I've continued to work on further pushing that glossy look throughout the organic bits. I've been neglecting that tail-end bit on the back, so I'm gonna go and revisit that area tomorrow before I get too ahead of myself.
I'd go even further with the values to create some more contrast, as you are already doing from that back render from the edges, silhouette, gradient (bottom-top) and ambient occlusion.
Paintover
Keep us posted
I would only watch the values on the small buttons as they are pretty close to the base object, adding a highlight along the edges would help there, but this is just me being extremely picky
Excellent work, can't wait to see more!
Slightly higher quality here:
https://gyazo.com/74c98d1079116f1028166cddb3618a3a
Slightly higher quality:
https://gyazo.com/1155de8d44cc775844f5beb5ae8fd299
HQ: https://gyazo.com/fcdae0c4a746424d19e0397a54569e78
HQ: https://gyazo.com/6a037e1d67d6a48587205550c552b0de
(Edit: Looking at these snapshots again is making me think that I've overanimated and as a result may be too distracting and taking away from the rest of the work. I've lowered the intensity by a lot and I actually like the more subtle look more. I've probably been staring at this for too long!)
HQ: https://gyazo.com/2ee5924ed033ab333095e02351a30b4e
HQ: https://gyazo.com/d3bcdb832c3814ba650c19cb66a3b34b
Thanks everyone for your feedback and help, this was a fun project to do!
And on to the next challenge!
The full list can be found on this page: https://blog.sketchfab.com/improve-your-low-poly-modeling-skills-with-the-30-day-household-props-challenge/
And here's my first day's prop!
(edit: whoops, I had accidentally uploaded a version of my breakdown that had an out of date model! I've now replaced it with the correct one)
I'm actually holding off before I upload these to Sketchfab, as I want to incorporate everything created this month into a small scene. I'm considering going for a noir-type theme, hence why everything is grayscale. I also want this doubled as a way to learn how to improve my skills with values and contrast. And throughout the month, if time allows, I'll revisit some assets if they need any adjustments. For example, I'd like to create a proper texture for the fish and bubbles, but unfortunately I ran out of time for today. But that's alright, I'm hoping with this I can become more efficient in creating small assets like these!
Only had enough time to quickly blockout my texture; most of my time was spent trying to push as much silhouette as I could within the tri limit. A bit tricky for something that's a little curvy!
Here are the assets from Days 3 - 5:
(the computer parts are based off of the original IBM PC; I like the shapes of older tech :P )
Today's update: assets for Days 6-8. The more that I work with vertex colors, the more I realize that they're giving me better overall results than the 256 texture maps. I'm thinking of utilizing texture maps only for additional detail that would otherwise drastically increase my polycount if vertex colors were used.
Today's update is the asset for Day 10, an alarm clock:
It's interesting to see that the longer that I've been working on this project, the more efficient my workflow seems to be. Not only am I able to complete these assets faster (roughly between 2 - 3 hours), but I also think they're looking a bit better. Which is neat! And my love for vertex coloring grows, haha. I like how this one came out!
Day 11 was actually for books, but I thought floppy disks would be fun to do instead.
Made extra props like these boxes that hold all the program floppies.
Ended up making some books anyways as it wouldn't make much sense to have a bookshelf without any books!
Also took a moment to throw a few of these assets into one scene to see how they are looking together:
The desk fan seems like it's blending into the dresser, so I'll have to adjust the values on the fan to help separate it.
Day 20 was for any kind of exercise equipment, and a stationary bike seemed to be a fun idea to do. As it turns out, this asset ended up taking longer than expected, as most of my time was spent just trying to bring my model to be under 300 tris. It hurt a little every time I had to delete an edgeloop, haha.
Swapped out Day 21's grill for a dishwasher since the next few props are kitchen themed.
Finally made it through the asset list! I've got a few pieces to revisit for minor tweaks, but for the most part, I'm done.
Not as fancy as the first desk attempt, but it matches the look of the rest of the furniture pieces.
I've also dumped everything into Unreal, and it's kinda neat to see everything in one scene!!
Right now it's just of a bunch of assets sitting next to each other, but I'll be making some structural pieces to create some rooms, and will play with the lighting to see if I can get that noir look.
I've made several small tweaks and fixes to most of the assets while messing around with Unreal to see how I would create that noir look. Did some searching for lighting reference and made a small ref sheet:
I haven't really touched lighting yet as the rooms haven't been created (also just noticed I'm missing a roof, whoops), which is something I'll be tackling tomorrow. So I just have a few random point lights as placeholders for now.
Some closeups of the interior:
It's pretty cool that this stuff is running in real time. Saves me from waiting for lighting bakes. P:
Some unlit snapshots:
Oh! And almost forgot to mention that I finally managed to add a single 256 texture to my scene, haha. It's for the IBM monitor which you can kinda see in the screenshot below.
This was a very fun challenge to tackle, and I learned a few more tricks along the way! I learned a bit more about dynamic lighting, as well as using vertex coloring to my advantage to make up for lack of texture maps. Kudos to @hanoldaa for creating this challenge which ended up as the foundation that inspired me to create a complete scene!
Screenshots are from UE4:
I've also uploaded it to Sketchfab if you wanted to tumble it around
model
I'll also be posting some progression on my Submission Page.
I will be creating an environment using one of Fin Downes' concepts as reference: https://www.artstation.com/contests/wild-west/challenges/44/submissions/26582
Today I've created the blockout for the wagon and some of its accessories. I looked at some other wagons to help understand how this type of vehicle is generally constructed. I've got a folder with a bunch more pictures, but this is pretty much what I've been staring at for the most part.
Next up will be placing this in Unreal to see how well the scale feels in-engine. I've been using the average dimensions of a delivery wagon to help with proportions, so hopefully it should turn out alright in-engine. I'll be blocking out the large building in the level as well. I want to get both of these inorganic blockouts done as early as possible as I have a feeling making that tree might turn into a project into itself, haha.