I knew, after I deviated from the "popular" green Dumpster to the less popular (but still used for garbage) blue dumpster, that I did not what to make a -blue- Mailbox.
So, I had some fun surmising, what if the USPS was still a mechanized, modern version, of the Pony Express. It's kinda Fringe-ish. Mailboxes from an alternate reality.
Any-who, Marmoset is till a bitch, and I am resolved not to use it. I get more use from a Direct X shader and 3 point lighting model. More control too. Without further ado here it is:
Based on my previous list and my paint-over, here are some of the props I have to complete. 2 Soda Machines, Street Light and Street Lamp, Texture the Parking Meter, Electric Lockers and Power Meters. Vertical Vents. Roof Hatch, Roof Table, and Roof Chair, Roof Vent, Skylight, Ally Blocky-Thingy Poles, and Party Scaffolding.
All in all is 13 more items. I also have to make some new textures for the buildings, and plan how I want to execute the railing and Fire Escapes.
It will be a couple more weeks I am sure. Tomorrow I will begin shaping the buildings to better suit the scene.
I really like how this turned out. I wasn't going to add any -real- normals details to it but I am learning in all cases not to go the half-assed route.
512 Normal, Spec, and Diffuse. Might be a bit large, but I bet it would hold up well if you shrunk them down. Again, I am loving the Direct X Shader, and 3 point lighting system, and am not even wasting my time playing with Marmoset anymore.
From piece to piece there's a lack in material unification. Here are two steps to correcting the process.
Your texturing all lacks a dirt layer pass. Everything is beat up, weathered, yet still too clean and high saturation. There's a great tutorial about this, but I can't find it. May have a copy on my home machine.
The blue newspaper box has the best level of sun bleaching, and should be considered in your other materials.
You've got a ways to go to nailing a consistent composition. Find it and you'll be on your way to the next level of texturing skills.
Don't get me wrong, I am not here to argue. If a Vet like yourself says so it must have some merit.
I have been looking at alot of references. I found that the News Boxes were painted cheaply, whereas the parking meters held up much better, and the mailboxes were government property so they constantly were looked after. So in that I am not sure I want consistency. If every "prop" in the city were forged by the same person, using the same thin metal and the same cheap paint then It might all look worn and bleached similarly; when I look at photos of things I see old and new together.
I am not so sure what you mean about a Dirt Layer. I have been dirtying up things for some time now.
But again, I look at your work an am floored; I am not trying to be uppity, and in fact would have liked guidance prior to coming this far if there was going to be issues.
I thank you for taking the time to comment, and am greatly looking forward to that tutorial if you can find it.
Here it is, my city trash can. I have been stuck on this for some time, the Normal map + Alpha was -really- giving me some problems. That is all fixed now. Without further ado....:
Here are some of the things I have left to make:
2 Soda Machines, Street Light and Street Lamp, Electric Lockers and Power Meters. Vertical Vents. Roof Hatch, Roof Table, and Roof Chair, Roof Vent, Skylight, Ally Blocky-Thingy Poles, and Party Scaffolding, and Fire Hyrdant.
Next time I get some time with Max, I will be turning my attention to reshaping the face of the 1st building (hotel) to look more like the animated paint-over Vig provided me.
Today has been about blocking out and working on the Buildings; making them as close to the paint-over as possible.
In addition to all that, though I don’t have any pictures of the new buildings I want to show up just yet, I have made many changes to the 1st, main, building. I have been working to bring it more in line with as close as I like to with Vig’s animated paint-over. While I won’t be making all those changes, I will be adding the awnings. Inspired, you can see them in -my- paint-over.
Today's progress is an odd one. I was flying through the scene looking at how it was all shaping up and something felt off. The "parking lot" (see paint over) was really small and impractical. It could only safely park 4 cars. So I -was- going to do a paint-over, but the decided to just get in there and block things out. An hour or so later I had the materials the way I wanted them and the little corporate business park was born.
I was really inspired by that one world (my favorite though I don't remember the name) in Mass Effect 1, with the walls of water flowing down them, the concrete everywhere, and the cool glass. I want to live there.
I will put in a couple trees, and some benches. Maybe a wall separating the park from the alley space.
In time I want to animate this for when I do my fly through. showing the water rushing down the pillars. I guess the best way to do this is to animate the Gizmo on the UVW Map modifier that give the water it's texture (essentially just pulling it downward over time).
The vertical water was easy to do. As I thought about it, I made a quick noise map in Photoshop; from there I applied a motion blur to it, and made it tile able, and then fed it into Crazy Bump. Here it is before going into Crazy Bump.
Now the one thing I need to play with is how to go about applying graffiti. I applied the Mural before, and it ended up being a huge pain in the butt. I had to apply a UWV Modifier to the mural -and- the building at the same time; from there I had to put the same bump from the building in Channel 1, and the Diffuse and Opacity in Channel 2. This is because when I do graffiti and Murals I want them to inherit the bump below them.
I might try another way. I saw some graffiti in the game Prototype. It was floating about 5 feet from the wall it was supposed to be on, and was real bright. I think it was in "Additive Mode". So I might try that and see if an Additive texture will apply better and give the "illusion" of inheriting the bump of what is beneath it.
Can I import most of this into UE3 as is? Will UE3 allow me to apply Mutli-Sub Textures? Is there a good Exporter for UE3 for Max, or is it just as simple as using the OBJ Exporter? These are things I am pondering. That and additive graffiti.
Sure would be nice to have another pair of eyes in here now and then.
I'm working on a building right now and for once I am going to spread out and do multiple windows on one texture sheet though they are all initially instanced geometry. Very Inspired by EricV's Mod Facade entry (though I am not restricting myself like the challenge did).
I get most of my conventions from Source. I model to scale in inches. I have 36x36x72 orange (Gordon) boxes around the scene to show me scale now and then, and most of my tiling maps are 512x512 in a 128x128inch space.
I'll post some progress later tonight/tomorrow morning.
It's cool, I'm having few views on my work as well. It's summer and we're in here working on portfolio stuff. Dern lol.
As for UDK, You can import it as is...but...don't know if I would. I usually import per object and build the scene in UDK. Also, you'll have to remember that each object needs a lightmap and if you import the entire scene, unless you use a dynamic light and it looks good you'll have to take that entire scene and turn it into a single lightmap (and build it out probably at a 2048 size could kill lightmass build time).
From a crit level, definitely break up those tiling textures with either objects or something (vertex painting!) Whatever those metallic looking things are (first picture on your mega post) seem too reflective. I read up the post again and even for water I thought it was super shiny metal/mirrors at first so think of ways to show that it is indeed water.
Keep plugging away. It's looking pretty good just keep adding details as you go and you'll have a sweet city block in no time.
Also, you'll have to remember that each object needs a lightmap
I suppose I need to know more about all that, as I am not sure how to -do- a lightmap. For objects.
Also lots of my buildings have a UWV Mod:Box on them, set to 128^3, to get them to tile well and fast. How is this going to turn out in UE3? Mucked up?
From a crit level, definitely break up those tiling textures with either objects or something (vertex painting!)
Vertex Painting?
Also, yes, I plan to break up those large surfaces with props. Also, do you know (I'd rather not waste time experiementing) if my Additive texture method (mentioned above) will give the illusion of inheriting the bump of the normal below it? Or -do- I need to use to channels like have have?
This was a fun, educational exercise. Make 1 floater object, allocate space on the texture map, and then after making an array of many of them, move the window in UV space to create 'variation'.
The outcome is this:
The (Diffuse) Texture Sheet:
So I have three different windows. By leaving them un-welded, and un attached, I could drag out clones and then use the align tool, and then delete the old one. Thus creating a unique array of windows on each face of the building. Additionally, by adding personal AC Units to individual windows it creates even more variation. We'll see how that works out.
As you may notice, 2 1/2 windows are covered by what will be my Laundry/Sushi-Bar. I bet those tenants get a huge discount. Also they are hosed (or rather not hosed ^_^) if there is a fire.
Do buildings with AC units hanging out the windows still sometimes have large AC units on top? Is it ever -more- cost effective to use your own unit than the one your landlord provides?
This building needs more love, this was just a progress report. Where would we be without CGTextures.
Here is the result of my Additive Graffiti Experiment.
It's not bad, but far from perfect. The blacks wash out (dissapears), it looks good in shadows, but also in direct light the additive nature forces it to be nearly Self Illuminated. But it -does- give the illusion of inheriting the bump below it.
Playing with the settings got me only this far. I copied the Diffuse into the Alpha (not Instances) and used it's alpha (but not the Image intensity. It seems like Additive is akin to a Screen Layer mode in Photoshop.
All this to avoid having to put the graffiti in Channel 2, and trying to obtain the mapping from the under-object and put it's bump in Channel 1.
I'm going to go back into Prototype and see if there is any Black in any of their Graffiti. Seeing the Graffiti hovering the other night (about 5 feet from the all it was supposed to be on) gave me this idea.
To answer your questions the best I can:
-Light Maps are stored in a second UV channel in objects. So for example you export your model to Unreal. You would make a second UV channel with properly laid out UV's. You could auto unwrap or even let Unreal auto unwrap a simple object, but your best option is to do it by hand. Light maps should still follow the same rules as a normal texture map.
-That modifier is like alien to me. I don't speak Max yet. Typically a Maya user. It seems like it's how you unwrapped your UV's and it should be fine if you export each object at a time. It'll really depend.
-Vertex painting in UDK is run through a shader. Simple explanation, you use an expression and paint the vertices on the models between 0 and 100% of a color. Then a texture is revealed. There are plenty of tutorials to explain better. Problem is you do need some decent levels of sub divisions for best results because it's vertex dependent.
-Still fuzzy on what additive textures are sorry
-And finally yea, I think a building w/ window units could totally have huge AC units on top of it. Why not right? I've seen it.
Since you want to use UDK, check out both the UDK master thread in tech talk and the Unreal Developer Network/UDN. They have extensive documentation on UDK and it's a real life saver.
Yes you can! If your original unwraps have absolutely 0 overlapping you can use it in UDK (just set the UV channel in UDK to 0). Another easy way (what I tend to do ) is copy my UV's over to a separate UV channel and modify them for lightmap use (eg. sew certain edges and not have any mirroring/overlapping).
It's no big deal, just run a quick flatten map to the lighting channel. I do this for rapid prototyping dozens of static meshes before assembling a scene. I go back later to improve these UVs manually for the final version of the asset.
I spent the beginning of the day screwing around with Mental Ray and various lighting methods. Then I made a couple new textures and... my brain dropped out the back of my head. I didn't know -what- to do. I knew there was plenty to be done but what should I have tackled next?
Somewhere in all that I realized I had made an assumption all these years that was wrong. I have been modeling in inches; I got this convention from making props for Hammer. Props in Hammer -are- in inches, but architecture snaps to their own 32 unit grid. I always assumed this meant 32 points in Source was 32inches.
Nope! 3/4 of an inch is 1 Hammer. So My floors are about 10.5 feet tall rather than 8 feet, as I am used to setting each floor being 128 units. I can -almost- justify this, if buildings have 2 foot thick floors. Also the scale of my dummy object (I call it Gordon) was off, so the scale of my Dumpster, Trashcan, Mailbox ect... was a little screwy. All in all most props needed to be scaled down by 20%.
Once all THIS was done, then what to do? Well, I decided I wanted a full picture of how much I have left. So I began making scale proxies for everything else I intend to model and texture. I don't know what I would do if I weren't using Layers in Max, as this is the first project I have decided to do so on.
The list has 34 objects. It is also missing proxies for the three different awnings I intend to do. So that's technically 37 total. Some of these things are small and simple -and- don't require a large texture footprint. Worst case I move at the same speed it takes me to do the larger assets, and I get only 1 done a day. 37 more days, maybe. Lets hope not. I may also add a Stop-Sign and Stop-Light-Pole to the assets (39). At the end. I may go back and redo the windows on the Building with the Turret (Hotel).
The gutters are going to pose a problem. I don't want them to be too amazing, and I am wondering how to get a small repeating texture to wrap to them well without having to unwrap them. They were Renderable Splines, so I could draw and control where I want them to go.
Also, by the end of this I know I am going to have to learn to do some foliage. I want to do a tree. I think that will be the icing on the cake showing I can do all manner of objects. Anyone know any good tree tutorials? I can "assume" but don't want to take something for granted.
Lastly, I am not sure how I am going present this scene when I am done. There are so many nice angles and vignettes. I might just do a slow moving sideshow set to some music showing off some choice angles. Or should it just be huge dump of stills?
Without further ado here is today's image:
Blue assets are ones that are not done.
The little building on the end is going to be, "Uncle Chow's Coin Operated Laundry and Sushi Bar!".
Today's progress has been slow going. I learned the "Truss" over the cafe is called Pergola (moms are so wise), and I did a texture that acts as some trim for the Office building. As well as finished the block out for the Billboard, Pergola and Awnings.
I still am not satisfied with the "park" but this might turn around once I get the trees and benches done. I also am going to do a wall of some kind blocking the park from the alley visually. I thought of, close to the end, making it a memorial to Polycount and putting people's names carved into it.
Then again, this thread hasn't been getting much love
This is coming along very nicely, I like it! As for the park, maybe add some unique props? I notice that all (or at least most) of the props in the park have been used more than once. Perhaps add a couple of trash cans and have one overflowing with crap, or a newspaper hanging off the edge of a bench?
Also, the fire escape goes down to the lower roof but it's pretty useless as there is no way of getting down off the second rooftop, perhaps add a second fire escape leading down from that rooftop?
I now have 2 main layers. One of things that need to be modeled, another with things that need to be unwrapped and textured.
I am slowly crossing things off the lists. But I am not sure what it is.
It may be constant, grinding, neck pain from my car wreck, or that I am hungry; over all I am feeling burnt out, and I can't let myself get that way. My future, and future employment, depend on this project.
I also just read that in UE3 if you have a mutli-sub-texture on a model, EACH new texture is like importing a whole new version of that model into memory. That seems VERY inefficient.
Donno about that last part but I'll take your word for it.
Your planning is looking good, quick simple models of what you have left to do. If you feel burnt out and that you can't do anything right take a day and don't even think about the project. I've had to do that for this latest one of mine and it did indeed help! Now I'm back in full swing (though today was kinda slow: not much sleep )
Multiple Materials You can apply multiple materials to your mesh, but try to keep the number as low as possible. From a performance standpoint, every new material you add effectively counts as an extra mesh. For a one-off special object, its not a big deal, but be careful with meshes that will be repeated many times around the scene. (In Maya, just apply materials to the meshs faces as you would normally. In Max, create a multi-sub material, and set the number of sub-materials as low as possible.)
And, you know what; I have been "balls-to-the-wall" on this. I have been working on it every waking moment for 2-3 weeks now (I don't remember); it might be nice to have a "weekend". I'm gonna chill, watch some True Blood and then finish this up building by building come tomorrow.
Here is the latest model and texture to come out of this project. This AC Unit is larger than the last, about four times larger (wish I had a character to help you see it in context).
In my references the one thing I have seen a ton of are various sized AC units. When I am done, I will have produced 2 more; a larger Vertical one, and a small window sized unit.
Also spent some time last night reorganizing all my materials. Like my file structure, I now have just 2 main materials. Environment and Props. Might do an extra for Decals later. These are Multi-Sub Materials.
So, should the spec on that galvanized metal be softer? Even if light is shining right on it? Also, and I am not attacking you, but do you feel you would have drawn the same conclusion if you hadn't see then sepc sheet?
Thank you for commenting though, it's refreshing to have another pair of eyes on this.
He's right, that spec is too noisey, also the round fan on the top you can see the low poly segements. While the model is low, the texture should represent it as round. There's really no excuse for that besude laziness.
But, you are the biggest thing holding you back. You've had pages of great feedback that you immediately disrespect and patronize. Old polycount would have chewed your ass up for this, but unfortunately it's grown so large people just give up on goofballs now. Need proof? Look at the first two pages how respected posted like Vig and Justin gave you great feedback. After crapped all over them, by the third page you were begging for feedback because people are done with you. Until you'll open your mind and stop patronizing everybody, you're improvement is going to continue to be painfully slow.
Anyway, it's been said. Good luck with future threads.
WOW Cholden, I am not sure what crawled in your cheerios and died.
Did you read the part where I said to Pliang "I am not attacking you"? I asked Pliang, essentially, if he felt he would have come to the same conclusion by looking at the models, and not the spec. The noisy parts of the spec happen to be galvanized metal, I then went to ask him his opinion of how a spec -should- be on such a material.
I feel that often people focus on the texture sheet and not the outcome. I feel the one thing that should be criticized about the texture sheets is if the artist has used the UV space to their full advantage while respecting textile density.
I have -not- been ignoring what others are saying. Especially Vig and Adam. You might notice, that nearly 2 years ago (yes this thread is very old), Vig did a paint-over of my building, and I did what I felt I wanted to bring it close to his suggestions. I have not been disrespectful or patronizing. I know I am walking among legends here, I did not know that meant you were going to be a douche (See? That might be considered "disrespect").
I am here to learn, get better, and get a job.
The Fan? Yeah. I gave it too few segments. I give most low-poly cylindrical things about 12. You are right, and I will be fixing that; I am constantly wondering where the line is, how low is too low, and how high (while claiming to be low) is just sloppy?. Coming out swinging, assuming I am not going to listen to you is rather low. Sheesh. Go back to bed.
Quote me, where I "crapped on Vig". I dare you. Also, I am not sure you know what patronizing means. Please, in the future, try to remain level headed and professional. I am not about to get into a flame war with you.
I don't have anything to add but this: you've got a little over 3 months before the 3 year anniversary of this project, best get cracking and finish son!
HA! I sure am. I am spending literally, every waking moment on this, sometimes I even eat. Originally it wasn't going to -be- a project, but I felt the, one, building alone wasn't very ambitious. I am trying to push myself farther than I have before, and actually learn things.
I'm getting little pink pixels throughout my normal map. I could buff them all out, but it is pretty annoying. I am looking around now to see what is causing it as I have never had this problem; to the GOOGLE-nets!
Since the rest of the Normal Texture looked good, I just ran it again and this time turned off "Ray Miss Check" it came out great. Odd that tiny little pixels were missing though, normally it is whole, inverted chunks. Ah well.
I love True Blood, the show, and so I though, for one of my vending machine, I would do one that vends Tru Blood (the Drink).
I will be doing another variation of this, with a more "traditional" drink type, but still fictional.
In the meantime, enjoy!
Admittedly I don't have a problem with my spec as much as I do getting Gloss settings correct. I feel, after several adjustments I got is as close as I can to the way I want it.
Hey, I'm no pro or anything, but I think you might have misunderstood with regards to the galvanized metal. What they were saying is that the spec was too noisy - not that it was too reflective, What you've done to it now is make it look like street pavement.
I agree. Hence why I was asking, and -not- trying to be disrespectful; is there anything wrong with how noisy it is when (and I belive I have seen galvanized metal) it is very un-uniformly specular.
Additionally, I then wondered if people were just looking at the texture and saying, "Wow, that's noisey" with out considering sure it has some noise, but it -would-; wouldn't it?
My point is the disconnect between how the texture looks, and how the texture makes the model look.
So, if it shouldn't be noisy, then what? And please realize I am not being contrary or "patronizing"; just trying to have a discussion.
Do you have any suggestions how I should handle the struggle between spec and gloss.
Well, I did some quick research with Google images. I searched for galvanized metal, but what I wanted was the look of the metal in reality (not just the texture), so I searched for air conditioning ducts.
But what you want specifically is galvanized metal ducts, and there are a few examples online. When you see this, and this, things should make more sense.
Basically, galvanized ducts are noisy - but they tend to also have a level of polish. The specular is not exclusive to the noise. Since it is metal, and smoothly cut into sheets by a manufacturing process (in other words: since it is not rock), it will have a level of sheen on it's entire surface except in areas covered by dirt.
update:
I took the images you provided and edited part of your specular map to show you what I mean. All you had to do was lower the contrast in the galvanized metal parts. Optionally, you could have adjusted it to be darker or brighter.
Also, like I said before, I'm no pro... I don't know if it matters, but I tend to desaturate my spec maps. It is easier to imagine where and how map has it's effect when it's grey-scale.
Often I apply a LEVELS above the whole stack of layers when messing inside my spec map. What I should have done was mask out the Duct and give it it's own LEVELS. I am doing so now. And I thank you for putting so much work into looking for that. I now have a better understanding, it is -still- "noisy" but not so high contrast.
Sometimes, these things just need another pair of eyes.
I don't want anyone not coming around because they feel they are being ignored. Some ideas are not taken into account because then this thing would not be mine, but everyone else's. But these technical things, that are 'wrong' need to be learned and thus are fixed.
I disagree. It would still be yours. People make their suggestions and say you choose to take them up on adding this here or that there. You still did all the work and the outcome is still yours, you just got a suggestion that x object or whatnot would make your scene better. That's how I look at it anyway.
I have a concern on your piece. Now, I can't say this for sure, but my feeling is that the True Blood soda machine, your advertisements, etc...they all look good by themselves but do they make sense with the piece? Does it jive well with the block environment you have? I understand GTA and such have said interesting and different Cola Machines or signs but they always tend to work with and compliment the environments. I can't say for sure that is what's going on here because I don't have a more recent scene render with all your assets to look at.
A few points, take em or leave em it doesn't matter to me.
Pers vs Ortho
The lack of perspective in the still shots is oddly unsettling. Pimping things at an angle in ortho mode is going to make even the best pieces look odd. It robs your view of depth and... well perspective.
Notice how in the ortho view the grid squares/diamonds are the same size at the top of the screen as they are on the bottom. In perspective they get smaller.
Notice the top of the big brown box is oddly contorted in ortho view but fine in pers. However the Ortho view is just one small piece that makes them look off.
Lighting in the diffuse maps
There seems to be a lot of lighting info in your textures. I see shadows and highlights in the diffuse maps, that if they don't match the scene lighting exactly they will fight with it, as the bricks seem to be doing in the vending machine shot.
The night scene is really dark, it needs some ambient/fill lighting. In a city there is a ton of light pollution.
Texture usage
The texture sheet for the dingy hotel has enough room for some window variations, which will help with the three identical windows in the front. It also has enough room for trim. I'll get to that in a min.
Neon
The neon sign doesn't actually glow, it has a point light hovering right next to it, it also looks to be beveled and embossed, which gives it a stamped look rather than a curvy tube look. Also Neon is one long tube bent and twisted. So parts where your tube joins it would actually to over or under.
It's actually really easy to make neon out of splines. You can then bake it or make it low poly enough it can be used as a prop. Source allows for textures to emit light, its easier to get neon to glow if its a prop with a simple small glowing material applied. either way, flat texture or static prop it needs to be lite correctly and not with a single point light.
But vig its easier to just draw it! Get a spline painter script, Neil Blevins has a great one, Graphite modeling tools has a decent one, I've heard some poor suckers still use the Advanced Painter script, I'm sure Maya has ways of doing the same stuff. It's lazy and sloppy and not up to industry standard to do the neon the way you did it. You might be happy with it, but it won't fly with many Art Directors.
Unify the colors
You have brown, yellow, green and purple they all seem to clash.
Purple is a vibrant color that sends the wrong message. It also fades easily especially on drapes get a lot of sun. You can work those fades into your drapes to convey age. Parts that are folded and don't get much sun will be more vibrant than others. This doesn't mean tint them darker, but play with their saturation.
The green roof cone looks like a Christmas tree, I'm sure this has come up a few times already if not... what the hell polycount its a freakin tree. I have no idea what the thing on the top is meant to be.
Trim
Brick windows almost always have some kind of trim. It's the easiest way to add detail and depth the surface of a building. Trim... everything, when you think you can't put trim on anything else, put trim on your trim. You have room on the texture sheet it should be done. It's sloppy modeling not to add it. For every building that you can dig up that is without trim I can dig up 10 that look better with trim.
I forget what app your using but in max trim is super easy to make. If you select the boarding edges of your window and click create shape, it gives you a spline. You can covert that spline to a simple box, or use the sweep modifier to push a more complex shape with a little more detail. The UV's it gives you are nearly perfect and its so easy to do...
I really want to thank you for taking the time to comment on my work. I have some counterpoints that are -not- meant to be an attack, merely as a means of further inquisition.
Pers vs Ortho:
I can see why this is disorienting on the large scale; should I also avoid using the Ortho view in pics that show off the individual props; since it is -less- disorienting on an individual basis?
Texture usage
Yes, and I agree. Since learning how to do the variation for the "Projects" (apartment) building, I have resolved myself to go back and redo the whole sheet for the Hotel giving it some variation. And thank you.
Neon
Neon out of splines. I half considered it, but was worried about creating a prop with a HUGE amount of Tris. I suppose I could delete the back faces that are up against the board it is mounted on. Though, since adding the spire, I have done away with that sign all-together.
On this topic, how much is too much? How many tries should I be shooting for in a prop? Some things have come out too low because I have been too conservative.
Unify the Colors
Purple is a vibrant color that sends the wrong message.
What sort of message do you mean?
Here is where there may be some disconnect that I need to overcome. In unifying the colors, as was suggested before. I can go into a city and see all manner of colors, as well as some things that have various levels of wear on them. I suppose the dichotomy is between a unified "artistic" look, and what -might- happen in a city environment. My hesitation to follow this example is it makes it look very drab and "gears of war". Again, just an observation, I am being obstinate, and would like to converse about it.
As far as the green "tree"; I had it green so that it -would- be in contrast with the purple; however... based on your own advice you gave me some years ago, had you seen how I updated that, once crappy, building? It now has a spire, and looks less like a tree just sitting up there. I suppose the green shingles really don't do it a favor.
If not green, and not purple, then what do you suggest?
I had sort of based the spire on this building:
Trim:
I will have to read that many more times and practice it some to understand what you are getting at. I don't doubt you, I just need to -get- it better.
Aside from taking some of the shadows out of my brick texture, and unifying the colors on my Hotel building, the things you suggests are not all that hard for me to do going forward. And thus, I will not be displaying my large shots in a SimCity, Orthographic/Isometric means any longer.
Do you have any suggestions on how to actually show off the whole piece once it is done?
Lastly, if anything here has been perceived as confrontational, contrary, or snarky, please do not take it that way. I know tone-of-voice is not conveyed well in WebSpeak (I am doing my best to not come off as such, due to recent events).
Here is an update I intended to post -before- replying to Vig:
This model texture took me longer than the last, but that is because I was having fun in Illustrator coming up with logos for the different flavors of Xtreme Sodas.
Here is this other vending machine:
A closer look at the logos:
And a side by side look of both machine where they will rest in the scene.
In a sort of compartmented way, I am going to be finishing the windows and doors on Uncle Chow's; that way, aside for adding some decals to dirty the place up a bit, I will be done with that building and it's immediate props.
Those vending machines look great, I can tell you had alot of fun with them!
As to the corner christmas tree building - Go into the texture and start adding adjustment layers to get the colours to flow better. Purple looks like some gotham pimp themed crack den. Go for a more realistic color for the curtains, and if you want to bring out some vibrancy do it in the brick. USE ADJUSTMENT LAYERS TO MAKE THINGS LOOK SWEET! go in and mess around, try a bunch of different colours, and use layer masks to change the colours on just the curtains. Change the lighting in udk to
compliment the building better. Also is this going to be a day shot or night shot?
Replies
So, I had some fun surmising, what if the USPS was still a mechanized, modern version, of the Pony Express. It's kinda Fringe-ish. Mailboxes from an alternate reality.
Any-who, Marmoset is till a bitch, and I am resolved not to use it. I get more use from a Direct X shader and 3 point lighting model. More control too. Without further ado here it is:
Based on my previous list and my paint-over, here are some of the props I have to complete. 2 Soda Machines, Street Light and Street Lamp, Texture the Parking Meter, Electric Lockers and Power Meters. Vertical Vents. Roof Hatch, Roof Table, and Roof Chair, Roof Vent, Skylight, Ally Blocky-Thingy Poles, and Party Scaffolding.
All in all is 13 more items. I also have to make some new textures for the buildings, and plan how I want to execute the railing and Fire Escapes.
It will be a couple more weeks I am sure.
512 Normal, Spec, and Diffuse. Might be a bit large, but I bet it would hold up well if you shrunk them down. Again, I am loving the Direct X Shader, and 3 point lighting system, and am not even wasting my time playing with Marmoset anymore.
Next. City Trash can.
Your texturing all lacks a dirt layer pass. Everything is beat up, weathered, yet still too clean and high saturation. There's a great tutorial about this, but I can't find it. May have a copy on my home machine.
The blue newspaper box has the best level of sun bleaching, and should be considered in your other materials.
You've got a ways to go to nailing a consistent composition. Find it and you'll be on your way to the next level of texturing skills.
Don't get me wrong, I am not here to argue. If a Vet like yourself says so it must have some merit.
I have been looking at alot of references. I found that the News Boxes were painted cheaply, whereas the parking meters held up much better, and the mailboxes were government property so they constantly were looked after. So in that I am not sure I want consistency. If every "prop" in the city were forged by the same person, using the same thin metal and the same cheap paint then It might all look worn and bleached similarly; when I look at photos of things I see old and new together.
I am not so sure what you mean about a Dirt Layer. I have been dirtying up things for some time now.
But again, I look at your work an am floored; I am not trying to be uppity, and in fact would have liked guidance prior to coming this far if there was going to be issues.
I thank you for taking the time to comment, and am greatly looking forward to that tutorial if you can find it.
But this is really cool. I never thought of doing it in that old school sim perspective. Hope you follow through and make it epic!
Here are some of the things I have left to make:
2 Soda Machines, Street Light and Street Lamp, Electric Lockers and Power Meters. Vertical Vents. Roof Hatch, Roof Table, and Roof Chair, Roof Vent, Skylight, Ally Blocky-Thingy Poles, and Party Scaffolding, and Fire Hyrdant.
Next time I get some time with Max, I will be turning my attention to reshaping the face of the 1st building (hotel) to look more like the animated paint-over Vig provided me.
In addition to all that, though I don’t have any pictures of the new buildings I want to show up just yet, I have made many changes to the 1st, main, building. I have been working to bring it more in line with as close as I like to with Vig’s animated paint-over. While I won’t be making all those changes, I will be adding the awnings. Inspired, you can see them in -my- paint-over.
Without further ado; here is today’s progress:
Here is how it looked at one time:
I was really inspired by that one world (my favorite though I don't remember the name) in Mass Effect 1, with the walls of water flowing down them, the concrete everywhere, and the cool glass. I want to live there.
I will put in a couple trees, and some benches. Maybe a wall separating the park from the alley space.
In time I want to animate this for when I do my fly through. showing the water rushing down the pillars. I guess the best way to do this is to animate the Gizmo on the UVW Map modifier that give the water it's texture (essentially just pulling it downward over time).
The vertical water was easy to do. As I thought about it, I made a quick noise map in Photoshop; from there I applied a motion blur to it, and made it tile able, and then fed it into Crazy Bump. Here it is before going into Crazy Bump.
Now the one thing I need to play with is how to go about applying graffiti. I applied the Mural before, and it ended up being a huge pain in the butt. I had to apply a UWV Modifier to the mural -and- the building at the same time; from there I had to put the same bump from the building in Channel 1, and the Diffuse and Opacity in Channel 2. This is because when I do graffiti and Murals I want them to inherit the bump below them.
I might try another way. I saw some graffiti in the game Prototype. It was floating about 5 feet from the wall it was supposed to be on, and was real bright. I think it was in "Additive Mode". So I might try that and see if an Additive texture will apply better and give the "illusion" of inheriting the bump of what is beneath it.
Can I import most of this into UE3 as is? Will UE3 allow me to apply Mutli-Sub Textures? Is there a good Exporter for UE3 for Max, or is it just as simple as using the OBJ Exporter? These are things I am pondering. That and additive graffiti.
I'm working on a building right now and for once I am going to spread out and do multiple windows on one texture sheet though they are all initially instanced geometry. Very Inspired by EricV's Mod Facade entry (though I am not restricting myself like the challenge did).
I get most of my conventions from Source. I model to scale in inches. I have 36x36x72 orange (Gordon) boxes around the scene to show me scale now and then, and most of my tiling maps are 512x512 in a 128x128inch space.
I'll post some progress later tonight/tomorrow morning.
Still have yet to do that Additive Graffiti test.
As for UDK, You can import it as is...but...don't know if I would. I usually import per object and build the scene in UDK. Also, you'll have to remember that each object needs a lightmap and if you import the entire scene, unless you use a dynamic light and it looks good you'll have to take that entire scene and turn it into a single lightmap (and build it out probably at a 2048 size could kill lightmass build time).
From a crit level, definitely break up those tiling textures with either objects or something (vertex painting!) Whatever those metallic looking things are (first picture on your mega post) seem too reflective. I read up the post again and even for water I thought it was super shiny metal/mirrors at first so think of ways to show that it is indeed water.
Keep plugging away. It's looking pretty good just keep adding details as you go and you'll have a sweet city block in no time.
I suppose I need to know more about all that, as I am not sure how to -do- a lightmap. For objects.
Also lots of my buildings have a UWV Mod:Box on them, set to 128^3, to get them to tile well and fast. How is this going to turn out in UE3? Mucked up?
Vertex Painting?
Also, yes, I plan to break up those large surfaces with props. Also, do you know (I'd rather not waste time experiementing) if my Additive texture method (mentioned above) will give the illusion of inheriting the bump of the normal below it? Or -do- I need to use to channels like have have?
The outcome is this:
The (Diffuse) Texture Sheet:
So I have three different windows. By leaving them un-welded, and un attached, I could drag out clones and then use the align tool, and then delete the old one. Thus creating a unique array of windows on each face of the building. Additionally, by adding personal AC Units to individual windows it creates even more variation. We'll see how that works out.
As you may notice, 2 1/2 windows are covered by what will be my Laundry/Sushi-Bar. I bet those tenants get a huge discount. Also they are hosed (or rather not hosed ^_^) if there is a fire.
Do buildings with AC units hanging out the windows still sometimes have large AC units on top? Is it ever -more- cost effective to use your own unit than the one your landlord provides?
This building needs more love, this was just a progress report. Where would we be without CGTextures.
It's not bad, but far from perfect. The blacks wash out (dissapears), it looks good in shadows, but also in direct light the additive nature forces it to be nearly Self Illuminated. But it -does- give the illusion of inheriting the bump below it.
Playing with the settings got me only this far. I copied the Diffuse into the Alpha (not Instances) and used it's alpha (but not the Image intensity. It seems like Additive is akin to a Screen Layer mode in Photoshop.
All this to avoid having to put the graffiti in Channel 2, and trying to obtain the mapping from the under-object and put it's bump in Channel 1.
I'm going to go back into Prototype and see if there is any Black in any of their Graffiti. Seeing the Graffiti hovering the other night (about 5 feet from the all it was supposed to be on) gave me this idea.
If you have any ideas gimme a holler.
To answer your questions the best I can:
-Light Maps are stored in a second UV channel in objects. So for example you export your model to Unreal. You would make a second UV channel with properly laid out UV's. You could auto unwrap or even let Unreal auto unwrap a simple object, but your best option is to do it by hand. Light maps should still follow the same rules as a normal texture map.
-That modifier is like alien to me. I don't speak Max yet. Typically a Maya user. It seems like it's how you unwrapped your UV's and it should be fine if you export each object at a time. It'll really depend.
-Vertex painting in UDK is run through a shader. Simple explanation, you use an expression and paint the vertices on the models between 0 and 100% of a color. Then a texture is revealed. There are plenty of tutorials to explain better. Problem is you do need some decent levels of sub divisions for best results because it's vertex dependent.
-Still fuzzy on what additive textures are sorry
-And finally yea, I think a building w/ window units could totally have huge AC units on top of it. Why not right? I've seen it.
Since you want to use UDK, check out both the UDK master thread in tech talk and the Unreal Developer Network/UDN. They have extensive documentation on UDK and it's a real life saver.
Thanks for getting back to me, nice to have some discussion in here.
So, If I have already unwrapped an object, can I then use those UV's a second time for the Light-map?
With the ACs, I am glad you have seen it like that. I was wondering if anyone had.
Somewhere in all that I realized I had made an assumption all these years that was wrong. I have been modeling in inches; I got this convention from making props for Hammer. Props in Hammer -are- in inches, but architecture snaps to their own 32 unit grid. I always assumed this meant 32 points in Source was 32inches.
Nope! 3/4 of an inch is 1 Hammer. So My floors are about 10.5 feet tall rather than 8 feet, as I am used to setting each floor being 128 units. I can -almost- justify this, if buildings have 2 foot thick floors. Also the scale of my dummy object (I call it Gordon) was off, so the scale of my Dumpster, Trashcan, Mailbox ect... was a little screwy. All in all most props needed to be scaled down by 20%.
Once all THIS was done, then what to do? Well, I decided I wanted a full picture of how much I have left. So I began making scale proxies for everything else I intend to model and texture. I don't know what I would do if I weren't using Layers in Max, as this is the first project I have decided to do so on.
The list has 34 objects. It is also missing proxies for the three different awnings I intend to do. So that's technically 37 total. Some of these things are small and simple -and- don't require a large texture footprint. Worst case I move at the same speed it takes me to do the larger assets, and I get only 1 done a day. 37 more days, maybe. Lets hope not. I may also add a Stop-Sign and Stop-Light-Pole to the assets (39). At the end. I may go back and redo the windows on the Building with the Turret (Hotel).
The gutters are going to pose a problem. I don't want them to be too amazing, and I am wondering how to get a small repeating texture to wrap to them well without having to unwrap them. They were Renderable Splines, so I could draw and control where I want them to go.
Also, by the end of this I know I am going to have to learn to do some foliage. I want to do a tree. I think that will be the icing on the cake showing I can do all manner of objects. Anyone know any good tree tutorials? I can "assume" but don't want to take something for granted.
Lastly, I am not sure how I am going present this scene when I am done. There are so many nice angles and vignettes. I might just do a slow moving sideshow set to some music showing off some choice angles. Or should it just be huge dump of stills?
Without further ado here is today's image:
Blue assets are ones that are not done.
The little building on the end is going to be, "Uncle Chow's Coin Operated Laundry and Sushi Bar!".
I still am not satisfied with the "park" but this might turn around once I get the trees and benches done. I also am going to do a wall of some kind blocking the park from the alley visually. I thought of, close to the end, making it a memorial to Polycount and putting people's names carved into it.
Then again, this thread hasn't been getting much love
Back to the Saltmines.
Also, the fire escape goes down to the lower roof but it's pretty useless as there is no way of getting down off the second rooftop, perhaps add a second fire escape leading down from that rooftop?
Keep up the good work!
Newspaper Hanging off the bench: Great, subtle idea.
As for the fire escape the two candy cane looking things are either side of a ladder. Coming down off of Chow's roof.
---
In general, by playing some GTA4 I have noticed that my Alleys and Sidewalk need to be nearly twice, if not 1/3 more, as wide as they are now.
I now have a folder of inspiration from the web as well as some screen-shots from buildings and alleys in Prototype and GTA4. I am pumped.
Just ingested some high-caffeine coffee, time to rock!
I am slowly crossing things off the lists. But I am not sure what it is.
It may be constant, grinding, neck pain from my car wreck, or that I am hungry; over all I am feeling burnt out, and I can't let myself get that way. My future, and future employment, depend on this project.
Your planning is looking good, quick simple models of what you have left to do. If you feel burnt out and that you can't do anything right take a day and don't even think about the project. I've had to do that for this latest one of mine and it did indeed help! Now I'm back in full swing (though today was kinda slow: not much sleep
And, you know what; I have been "balls-to-the-wall" on this. I have been working on it every waking moment for 2-3 weeks now (I don't remember); it might be nice to have a "weekend". I'm gonna chill, watch some True Blood and then finish this up building by building come tomorrow.
In my references the one thing I have seen a ton of are various sized AC units. When I am done, I will have produced 2 more; a larger Vertical one, and a small window sized unit.
Also spent some time last night reorganizing all my materials. Like my file structure, I now have just 2 main materials. Environment and Props. Might do an extra for Decals later. These are Multi-Sub Materials.
More to come...
Thank you for commenting though, it's refreshing to have another pair of eyes on this.
But, you are the biggest thing holding you back. You've had pages of great feedback that you immediately disrespect and patronize. Old polycount would have chewed your ass up for this, but unfortunately it's grown so large people just give up on goofballs now. Need proof? Look at the first two pages how respected posted like Vig and Justin gave you great feedback. After crapped all over them, by the third page you were begging for feedback because people are done with you. Until you'll open your mind and stop patronizing everybody, you're improvement is going to continue to be painfully slow.
Anyway, it's been said. Good luck with future threads.
Did you read the part where I said to Pliang "I am not attacking you"? I asked Pliang, essentially, if he felt he would have come to the same conclusion by looking at the models, and not the spec. The noisy parts of the spec happen to be galvanized metal, I then went to ask him his opinion of how a spec -should- be on such a material.
I feel that often people focus on the texture sheet and not the outcome. I feel the one thing that should be criticized about the texture sheets is if the artist has used the UV space to their full advantage while respecting textile density.
I have -not- been ignoring what others are saying. Especially Vig and Adam. You might notice, that nearly 2 years ago (yes this thread is very old), Vig did a paint-over of my building, and I did what I felt I wanted to bring it close to his suggestions. I have not been disrespectful or patronizing. I know I am walking among legends here, I did not know that meant you were going to be a douche (See? That might be considered "disrespect").
I am here to learn, get better, and get a job.
The Fan? Yeah. I gave it too few segments. I give most low-poly cylindrical things about 12. You are right, and I will be fixing that; I am constantly wondering where the line is, how low is too low, and how high (while claiming to be low) is just sloppy?. Coming out swinging, assuming I am not going to listen to you is rather low. Sheesh. Go back to bed.
Quote me, where I "crapped on Vig". I dare you. Also, I am not sure you know what patronizing means. Please, in the future, try to remain level headed and professional. I am not about to get into a flame war with you.
I don't have anything to add but this: you've got a little over 3 months before the 3 year anniversary of this project, best get cracking and finish son!
HA! I sure am. I am spending literally, every waking moment on this, sometimes I even eat. Originally it wasn't going to -be- a project, but I felt the, one, building alone wasn't very ambitious. I am trying to push myself farther than I have before, and actually learn things.
Thank you for taking notice and rooting me on.
I have also lowered the contrast on the Spec Map.
I intend to do 2 texture variations of this.
I will be doing another variation of this, with a more "traditional" drink type, but still fictional.
In the meantime, enjoy!
Admittedly I don't have a problem with my spec as much as I do getting Gloss settings correct. I feel, after several adjustments I got is as close as I can to the way I want it.
I agree. Hence why I was asking, and -not- trying to be disrespectful; is there anything wrong with how noisy it is when (and I belive I have seen galvanized metal) it is very un-uniformly specular.
Additionally, I then wondered if people were just looking at the texture and saying, "Wow, that's noisey" with out considering sure it has some noise, but it -would-; wouldn't it?
My point is the disconnect between how the texture looks, and how the texture makes the model look.
So, if it shouldn't be noisy, then what? And please realize I am not being contrary or "patronizing"; just trying to have a discussion.
Do you have any suggestions how I should handle the struggle between spec and gloss.
Turns out, a lot of air ducts look like this, or this.
But what you want specifically is galvanized metal ducts, and there are a few examples online. When you see this, and this, things should make more sense.
Basically, galvanized ducts are noisy - but they tend to also have a level of polish. The specular is not exclusive to the noise. Since it is metal, and smoothly cut into sheets by a manufacturing process (in other words: since it is not rock), it will have a level of sheen on it's entire surface except in areas covered by dirt.
update:
I took the images you provided and edited part of your specular map to show you what I mean. All you had to do was lower the contrast in the galvanized metal parts. Optionally, you could have adjusted it to be darker or brighter.
Also, like I said before, I'm no pro... I don't know if it matters, but I tend to desaturate my spec maps. It is easier to imagine where and how map has it's effect when it's grey-scale.
Sometimes, these things just need another pair of eyes.
I don't want anyone not coming around because they feel they are being ignored. Some ideas are not taken into account because then this thing would not be mine, but everyone else's. But these technical things, that are 'wrong' need to be learned and thus are fixed.
I have a concern on your piece. Now, I can't say this for sure, but my feeling is that the True Blood soda machine, your advertisements, etc...they all look good by themselves but do they make sense with the piece? Does it jive well with the block environment you have? I understand GTA and such have said interesting and different Cola Machines or signs but they always tend to work with and compliment the environments. I can't say for sure that is what's going on here because I don't have a more recent scene render with all your assets to look at.
Just something to think on.
Pers vs Ortho
The lack of perspective in the still shots is oddly unsettling. Pimping things at an angle in ortho mode is going to make even the best pieces look odd. It robs your view of depth and... well perspective.
Notice how in the ortho view the grid squares/diamonds are the same size at the top of the screen as they are on the bottom. In perspective they get smaller.
Notice the top of the big brown box is oddly contorted in ortho view but fine in pers. However the Ortho view is just one small piece that makes them look off.
Lighting in the diffuse maps
There seems to be a lot of lighting info in your textures. I see shadows and highlights in the diffuse maps, that if they don't match the scene lighting exactly they will fight with it, as the bricks seem to be doing in the vending machine shot.
The night scene is really dark, it needs some ambient/fill lighting. In a city there is a ton of light pollution.
Texture usage
The texture sheet for the dingy hotel has enough room for some window variations, which will help with the three identical windows in the front. It also has enough room for trim. I'll get to that in a min.
Neon
The neon sign doesn't actually glow, it has a point light hovering right next to it, it also looks to be beveled and embossed, which gives it a stamped look rather than a curvy tube look. Also Neon is one long tube bent and twisted. So parts where your tube joins it would actually to over or under.
It's actually really easy to make neon out of splines. You can then bake it or make it low poly enough it can be used as a prop. Source allows for textures to emit light, its easier to get neon to glow if its a prop with a simple small glowing material applied. either way, flat texture or static prop it needs to be lite correctly and not with a single point light.
But vig its easier to just draw it! Get a spline painter script, Neil Blevins has a great one, Graphite modeling tools has a decent one, I've heard some poor suckers still use the Advanced Painter script, I'm sure Maya has ways of doing the same stuff. It's lazy and sloppy and not up to industry standard to do the neon the way you did it. You might be happy with it, but it won't fly with many Art Directors.
Unify the colors
You have brown, yellow, green and purple they all seem to clash.
Purple is a vibrant color that sends the wrong message. It also fades easily especially on drapes get a lot of sun. You can work those fades into your drapes to convey age. Parts that are folded and don't get much sun will be more vibrant than others. This doesn't mean tint them darker, but play with their saturation.
The green roof cone looks like a Christmas tree, I'm sure this has come up a few times already if not... what the hell polycount its a freakin tree. I have no idea what the thing on the top is meant to be.
Trim
Brick windows almost always have some kind of trim. It's the easiest way to add detail and depth the surface of a building. Trim... everything, when you think you can't put trim on anything else, put trim on your trim. You have room on the texture sheet it should be done. It's sloppy modeling not to add it. For every building that you can dig up that is without trim I can dig up 10 that look better with trim.
I forget what app your using but in max trim is super easy to make. If you select the boarding edges of your window and click create shape, it gives you a spline. You can covert that spline to a simple box, or use the sweep modifier to push a more complex shape with a little more detail. The UV's it gives you are nearly perfect and its so easy to do...
I really want to thank you for taking the time to comment on my work. I have some counterpoints that are -not- meant to be an attack, merely as a means of further inquisition.
Pers vs Ortho:
I can see why this is disorienting on the large scale; should I also avoid using the Ortho view in pics that show off the individual props; since it is -less- disorienting on an individual basis?
Texture usage
Yes, and I agree. Since learning how to do the variation for the "Projects" (apartment) building, I have resolved myself to go back and redo the whole sheet for the Hotel giving it some variation. And thank you.
Neon
Neon out of splines. I half considered it, but was worried about creating a prop with a HUGE amount of Tris. I suppose I could delete the back faces that are up against the board it is mounted on. Though, since adding the spire, I have done away with that sign all-together.
On this topic, how much is too much? How many tries should I be shooting for in a prop? Some things have come out too low because I have been too conservative.
Unify the Colors
What sort of message do you mean?
Here is where there may be some disconnect that I need to overcome. In unifying the colors, as was suggested before. I can go into a city and see all manner of colors, as well as some things that have various levels of wear on them. I suppose the dichotomy is between a unified "artistic" look, and what -might- happen in a city environment. My hesitation to follow this example is it makes it look very drab and "gears of war". Again, just an observation, I am being obstinate, and would like to converse about it.
As far as the green "tree"; I had it green so that it -would- be in contrast with the purple; however... based on your own advice you gave me some years ago, had you seen how I updated that, once crappy, building? It now has a spire, and looks less like a tree just sitting up there. I suppose the green shingles really don't do it a favor.
If not green, and not purple, then what do you suggest?
I had sort of based the spire on this building:
Trim:
I will have to read that many more times and practice it some to understand what you are getting at. I don't doubt you, I just need to -get- it better.
Aside from taking some of the shadows out of my brick texture, and unifying the colors on my Hotel building, the things you suggests are not all that hard for me to do going forward. And thus, I will not be displaying my large shots in a SimCity, Orthographic/Isometric means any longer.
Do you have any suggestions on how to actually show off the whole piece once it is done?
Lastly, if anything here has been perceived as confrontational, contrary, or snarky, please do not take it that way. I know tone-of-voice is not conveyed well in WebSpeak (I am doing my best to not come off as such, due to recent events).
Oh, and yes, I am using Max (2010).
This model texture took me longer than the last, but that is because I was having fun in Illustrator coming up with logos for the different flavors of Xtreme Sodas.
Here is this other vending machine:
A closer look at the logos:
And a side by side look of both machine where they will rest in the scene.
In a sort of compartmented way, I am going to be finishing the windows and doors on Uncle Chow's; that way, aside for adding some decals to dirty the place up a bit, I will be done with that building and it's immediate props.
As to the corner christmas tree building - Go into the texture and start adding adjustment layers to get the colours to flow better. Purple looks like some gotham pimp themed crack den. Go for a more realistic color for the curtains, and if you want to bring out some vibrancy do it in the brick. USE ADJUSTMENT LAYERS TO MAKE THINGS LOOK SWEET! go in and mess around, try a bunch of different colours, and use layer masks to change the colours on just the curtains. Change the lighting in udk to
compliment the building better. Also is this going to be a day shot or night shot?
g/l!
Thank you, and I really did.
As far as adjustment layers. Are you speaking of something that is in UE3/UDK? I don't have my assets in there yet. I have been lamenting that.
Can I just select all my objects, move their origins to 0,0,0 and then export them at once so they end up the same in UE3 as they are in Max?