[FINISHED] My personal project: Little Betty

ArantzazuM

Hi everyone! This is the very first post ever on polycount, I finally got the courage to put my work on here and open myself to get some critiques. I'm a very recently graduated art student who realized her portfolio is definitely not enough for industry standards, and is now trying to make it so. My field of specialization is definitely environment art, which I love so so much. I have started working on some personal projects to fill my portfolio and really want to take them to the best quality they can be. For now I have decided to tackle a project that is not too big and daunting, which is a vehicle since I think it's an asset that even as an environment artist will be nice to have in my portfolio. I want to show my modelling and texturing skills mostly. I decided to take this concept by Ian McQue 
and make it in 3d. Even if the concept is quite stylized, I want to make realistic textures while keeping the shapes he designed. I have been modelling and UV unwrapping for a couple of days and I think I can say I'm done with that part. So here is my model

I modelled it in 3dsmax. It has around 600k polygons with subdivisions, around 400k without subdivision in some pieces which don't need it that much. 
I have just today started texturing, in Substance Painter.
This is just the first pass of the wood of the boat, but well, if you can give me any critique I very much appreciate it. I really want to make it look realistic, but I always struggle the most with wood in that sense. 
Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to give me some feedback now or in the future when I post more process pictures. 
Arantzazu

MarcoAntonio

Hello @ArantzazuM and welcome!!!! Don´t worry about the critics and feedback. As a good references would be, this are your best friends. You have to (at least) listen to them, especially if they come from people more experienced than you.

Now, I think your wireframe is a good start.I am not sure if you want this to be a game asset.I this is true, you definitely need to optimize it. Even if you use a trim sheet this has way too many polygons.

The textures are also a good start. There are, however, some things you could improve, which I mark in the following picture (besides some roughness improvements):

ArantzazuM

Hi @MarcoAntonio ! Thank you so much for taking the time to give me some feedback, I'm definitely taking into account. In terms of polycount, I hadn't really considered making it into a game asset (it definitely has waaaaay too many polygons), but do you think I should optimize it so it is? In terms of scale it would be a pretty big vehicle I think, so I would assume it should have aroung 20k polygons in order to be a reasonable game asset. Am I right? Would it be better for my portfolio if it is or does it not matter that muuch?

ArantzazuM

On another note, I have kept working on the textures of the boat part, here is a quick screenshot from substance painter, it has a lot of noise I know. I will try to make some time to get a proper render sometime this week so I can get some better feedback on the textures hopefully but I did want to update the thread.


Here is a close up of that damn hole, I hope the structure makes some more sense now. I'm not 100% happy with it, but it will not be that visible anyways so I'm not that worried for now. Any feedback is appreciated.

ArantzazuM

Again, to anyone that takes the time to give me feedback, thank you in advance so so much!

PeterK

That wood texturing is so nice, I love the depth in there, and the richness in the color.

Olingova

Yup the hole part is definitely good looking now! Going out nicely so far

MarcoAntonio

OMG!!!! NICE work!!!! Now I want to know how you got that effect!!! XD

And about the poly count, it really depends on what you are aiming for. If you want it just for rendering then it doesn´t matter but if you are interested in the gameIndustry you need to show your optimization skills as well.

ArantzazuM

@PeterK @Olingova @MarcoAntonio Thank you for your kind words, I'm so happy that wood is working because it's definitely been a struggle and I'm still thinking it can be improved a lot. I will think about optimizing the model definitely, I think it will be better.
So I have kept working on the textures, here are some more progress pictures, this time rendered in Marmoset.

ArantzazuM

Quick update of some textures for the props on the deck of the boat

zaha

Hi!

This is my second ever post on polycount and I registered here for the same reason as you, although I'm just a hobbyist

Not sure if it's just me, but the red paint on the cabin first made me think of blood splatters

Apart from that I think it looks pretty good already. Would only wish the light on the renders was a bit more neutral. IMHO the spotlight glass stands out too much. The color is pretty intense and it's rather clean in comparison to the rest.

Regarding the props, I found the wooden and cardboard boxes to look a bit bland. Maybe add some prints on them? The other ones look really good.

ArantzazuM

@zaha Thank you for the feedback, you are definitely right on the red, it wasn't that red in the concept either so I will tone it down. The lighting is totally provisional so it will change a lot also, I just threw in a couple of lights to render it. And yep that spotlight is too bright, I will probably take the emissive off since I don't think it really makes sense. I will check those props you mentioned also. Thank you again!

ArantzazuM

So I'm back with more updates, hopefully one of the last that I will do. I have finished texturing all the objects and have been working on lighting and fixing things here and there that didn't convice me. Here are some renders of the inside of the cabin
I have doubts about the glass, I was thinking of adding some more dirt or remains of water leaks but I don't wan't to overdo it. And here are some renders of the whole boat.




So yeah, I am still definitely touching up some final textures, and also working on optimizing the geometry in some parts but I'm hoping to wrap this up in the next week or so. So any feedback is very welcome!

ArantzazuM

So, back for a final update. I hope I will get some feedback this time, especially on the lighting of the scene which is what I'm most unsure about.

ArantzazuM

Here's the Artstation project https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6anJq5