Monthly Environment Art Challenge - May & June 2019 (60)

kadeschui

Welcome, all! Time to kick off the next Monthly Environment & Prop Challenge for 2019!

Thanks to all those who voted for this Challenge - it's always more fun when the community chimes in!

Remember if you don't finish in the time allotted, just keep plugging away and post when your work is finished. There's always some good progress that falls off the radar - we want to see your work! So keep going and finish those pieces!

Without further ado, here are our options for Challenge 60:

- ENVIRONMENTS -

HARD SURFACE CATEGORY:

artist: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/k4ZRrx

HAND PAINTED CATEGORY:

artist: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Dx2r2O

- PROPS -

HAND PAINTED CATEGORY:

artist:https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mqEk3d

HARD SURFACE CATEGORY:

artist: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nXW6O



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

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!

ToadKnight

Here is my first pass at my low poly for the hand painter hammer!

kadeschui

@ToadKnight moving fast! Great block out so far looking forward to following your progress! 

Roumonk

I'll try this one!!

ps. What should I do with details on the concept, if I'm not sure what it is supposed to be at all?

Mason_Colderson

Been a while since I did these, here's my take on the beer mallet:

ToadKnight

This is just a quick first draft I have a few questions i am not in the industry yet (hopefully soon tho) but because i dont have a lot of exp i dont know how many polys to use, I do not like the wood i have on it right now i think my Zbrush work is pretty poor and its showing in my normals but i was wondering if i should use actual geometry and model out the wood on the barrel. My current poly count is Faces: 4976 and Tris:9678. Any other suggestions are welcome! :]

Zyhael

awesome! just learned that it started a couple of hours ago, here's my progress; hoping I can work on all of these for practice

Gordan323

Hello! This is my first challenge. It's always hard to me to stick to one project, so this is really will be challenge for me to finish it.
And I really love environment art, so I choose a first concept.
I think it's quite interesting story.  Maybe he is hermit, and love nature and all that stuff? Or he just work on that radio tower?
So I think there is some interesting ideas which we can play with.
And here is my blockout.
Good luck everyone!
P.S. I'm not English native speaker, so sorry for my english if there are any troubles.

wirrexx

Roumonk said:

I'll try this one!!

ps. What should I do with details on the concept, if I'm not sure what it is supposed to be at all?

Clothes, cables, Generator, radio satellite, mop, monitors, i mean to be honest, just fill it with things you would think you would need if you lived there. Cans of food, a shotgun for protection.. Some magazines. his smoking right? So cigarettes and packages. Binoculars. Imagination!

Roumonk

@wirrexx thanks. Yeah. Probably there is the stuff usually used by firewatch guys and some additional equipment as he seems to be kind of a radio geek

Zyhael

update

Roumonk

blockout is almost done

icegodofhungary

I think I might give this a go. I tried to make it modular and I'm about 85% sure I can use a trim sheet for all texture work minus the props.

ToadKnight said:

This is just a quick first draft I have a few questions i am not in the industry yet (hopefully soon tho) but because i dont have a lot of exp i dont know how many polys to use, I do not like the wood i have on it right now i think my Zbrush work is pretty poor and its showing in my normals but i was wondering if i should use actual geometry and model out the wood on the barrel. My current poly count is Faces: 4976 and Tris:9678. Any other suggestions are welcome! :]

I'm not in the industry either but I think 5,000 tris is a realistic limit for a stylized MMO weapon. I could be totally wrong about that though. In FPS some weapons can be almost 10k tris if I'm not mistaken.

The_Maw

Started my blockout of the tower, had a bit of a struggle trying to match the perspective as its not perfect in the concept and I haven't had to do it in a while. So I ended up taking some artistic freedom to make it work more realistically so I could look at it from all angles. It ended up with it leaning slightly but I think I'm beginning to like that a bit, made it feel more rickety.

Ashervisalis

Damn guys, wish I could join you in this challenge. Looks like some great concept art! Good luck.

lykos91

Hey everyone! I started the blockout of the watchtower and id like to show you where i am currently. Just a small detail, but I haven't done an environment piece in a very long time, so every piece of comment and advice will be greatly appreciated! Good Luck everyone!

PS. I imported the tower in UE4 just to check the proportions and size as well.

Slayer89

Quick, rough blockout before moving to highpoly.

icegodofhungary

I got a rough trim sheet up. I tried using it but I need to add some stuff to it and change somethings before I move further. I might need to split the wood and metal into two sheets. That way I can include multiple colors instead of parameterize it in a substance like I was going to.

Sense42

I'll join in too. I will make the Hammer. I blocked it in Zbrush. There are still some proportions off though. I am also a Blender user, so I will use the hammer to start using Maya. The rope will stay as placeholder and I'll make it with curves later.

fanaya2001

This was fun. All Done in 3DS because I have no experience in Zbrush   . I gotta try right?

lykos91

fanaya2001 said:

This was fun. All Done in 3DS because I have no experience in Zbrush   . I gotta try right?

Its very nice! You could however get it some nice highpoly detail on zbrush with pretty easy techniques! If you want, I could recommend one or two youtube channels with good tutorials. Keep at it!

Zott

I've decided I'd like to give this a go as well I chose the tower as it's very different from anything else I've done. I wanted to try breaking it into modular parts so I've more or less done so while working on my blockout:
Here is how I've planned the repeated parts:

There are a lot of props so I'm hoping I'll be able to get to those soon. I'll probably also want to make a tree to repeat and some nature-y props as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of everyone's work

fanaya2001

lykos91 said:

fanaya2001 said:

This was fun. All Done in 3DS because I have no experience in Zbrush   . I gotta try right?

Its very nice! You could however get it some nice highpoly detail on zbrush with pretty easy techniques! If you want, I could recommend one or two youtube channels with good tutorials. Keep at it!

That would be awesome help. I honestly dont know where to start.

Sense42

I would say that the blockout is done. Time for sculpting.

icegodofhungary

I just discovered The Ultimate Trim technique while studying on how to do my trim sheets. It took a few hours of fiddling with it but I got it implemented successfully.

Unreal:

Maya:

Normal, Color, Roughness. I have to fix the color because it creates seams at my edge and breaks the faux bevel in unreal.

jeffry

i have almost missed this new amazing challenge, here is what i have picked this time since not a lot of people choose it.

icegodofhungary

Looks good so far @jeffry . Proportions are spot on.

jeffry

thanks, i am trying to be accurate this time, proportion is the thing that always gets me

Linkiel

I didn't expect to participate this time, but really fell in love with the handpainted one!
So here's my blockout!
3D was made with Maya, and the render with Marmoset:

jeffry

i will start painting soon. any critique is welcomed/

Sense42

I worked on the wood. Next the metal, the handle and lastly I'll do the rope.

jeffry

complete, is it allowed to use Photoshop to edit the final render? because i did 

icegodofhungary

Quick progress update. Spent a lot of time re-doing textures. Gotta start speeding up if I want to get to props by June. My barrel looks like a watermelon so I need to fade the paint a bit more.

icegodofhungary

jeffry said:

complete, is it allowed to use Photoshop to edit the final render? because i did 

Everything looks good but I think the light from the desk lamp could be brighter. The image is kind of dim right now.

jeffry

i see, ye it could be brighter, that's why i've also made a morning version XD 

MrBFox

Think I want go give the room a go, made a quick ref board. though till be more useful when approaching textures, was thinking of doing stylized PBR.

MrBFox

First blockout pass, taken into UE4 for some quick lighting tests.

Alahyla

Hi everyone is my first time participating in the challenge i hope you all like the progress, feedback are always welcome,thank you 

PastyPict

I joined the previous environment art challenge, but life got in the way and missed out on a the last month. So since I'm starting this one late, I'm going for an option I think I am more likely to complete on time.

I did a quick render of my first pass on the layout. I want to do some sculpting on some of the assets, So I am saving rotating things like the telescope for after, as well as duplicating the legs of the tripod. There was a render bug with the posters, so I will have to sort that out next chance I get to jump in.

jeffry

makes me smile see so many 3D interpretation of the same 2D piece

MrBFox

working on the walls, while the texturing was mostly a test for using trim textures. looking at the result in engine has me wondering if I should pull back on the grunge in the materials roughness/normal to keep it closer the concepts texture style or keep it for a more realistic take on it. Thoughts?

jeffry

if you are going to have the model realistic as well it might work if you are still going to model them in a stylised look it might look weird but maybe is worth trying 

PastyPict

MrBFox said:

working on the walls, while the texturing was mostly a test for using trim textures. looking at the result in engine has me wondering if I should pull back on the grunge in the materials roughness/normal to keep it closer the concepts texture style or keep it for a more realistic take on it. Thoughts?

Trim textures are a great technique, just recently learned about them.

Considering the scope of the scene, and what's going to be presented, it wouldn't hurt to add some more edge loops on the curved part of the arch, and maybe one more level for circular window frame too in the context of this challenge.

In regards to the grunge. It depends, I don't know how much you want to stray away from the concept, but to me the concept image is calm, peaceful, and somewhat whimsical. Your texturing and lighting to me makes it feel cold, unhappy and old. Unless that's what you want, in which case, great. However, that could also change once you fill it with assets. Hard to say when it's still empty.

MrBFox

thanks for the feedback guys, made a few tweaks to the trim and geometry of the walls. I want the piece to still have the whimsical feel of the concept.

paragus

There is my try in blender 

hasgan

so here's my take on the blade runner- memory orb from mike hill
just finished the blockout and turbosmooth everything

---

@icegodofhungary wow! thank you for the link, didn't know you can use  trimsheet like that. I bet it will looking better if there are visible scratches. gonna use it in my next environment project

paragus

i dont know why i cannot "preview" it here but here is the link ***** FIXED

model

Linkiel

@Alahyla aw I like the way you modelised
@MrBFox I'm curious to see what you'll do in the end. Watch out for your textures, we can see artifacts and deformations, on the windows especially.

I keep working on my scene, here is an update:
ZBrush and texturing part (began with the telescope and the carpet). I've modified a few lights/ materials too

Sense42

I worked a bit more on the hammer. I am still not happy with the straps on the handle.

Alahyla

@Linkiel Thank you! I really like the way you are painting the scene. I love how you painted the carpet.  
Here is my progress of the scene any feedback is welcome thank you !

icegodofhungary

hasgan said:

 I bet it will looking better if there are visible scratches. gonna use it in my next environment project

It does! I noticed that it was looking too uniform/unweathered so I went back and manually added edge detail to the normal. I created a "base" normal map by hand for wood and metal, then added smaller surface details using substance. I imported my hand-made normals into substance and used normal blending nodes for the procedural detail.

One thing I noticed that I didn't catch onto before I started was that the Ultimate technique uses triplanar mapping for roughness. If you just use a roughness map, it creates a seam on your corners since the bevels have different roughness values that don't tile. I don't think it's something I'll go back and fix for this project because you only notice it at unlikely viewing angles. But this technique is definitely coming out ahead for me over the Star Citizen decal thing.