Sketchbook: scotths

scotths

Thanks to everyone who took the time to check out my introductory thread. I've spent the time since then trying to wrap my head around how to do normal mapping, so I have nothing new that is far enough along to warrant posting in P&P yet. But, I did not want to stay away too long without showing work that I have started on and I thought this would be the best place to go. C & C is very welcome -- have at it. Some of the work I am trying is very new to me and I gladly accept any help and direction.

Here is one piece of a new scene I am working on. I am shooting for end of August to have a complete environment done -- the ultimate goal will be to get a single nicely composed render. I am still working on the composition, but I know that this element will be front and center and I was anxious to get started. The more I read about and experiment with normal mapping, the less confident I am that I am approaching this in the right way though

Ghost Town, source material taken from a link provided on these here wonderful boards.
Goals:
1. Create a fully composed scene (a step up from the individual props I have done before)
2. Start learning next-gen techniques
3. Understand how long it takes to take my work to the next level.

Quick render of the church:





A wire:




I'll have something else up soon, too. Again C&C gladly accepted.

Thanks,
Scott

scotths

Here is another item started for this scene. I actually started this one first, but have been wrestling with it off and on for a week. It is a rusted out shell of a car.

reference



Still a ways to go on this before I really go hi-res on it.

illybang

hey, that building looks solid! can't wait to see some more progress on your environment. looks top notch so far.

scotths

Thanks for the encouraging comment. I've still got a ways to go, but I am making sure to work every day.

pangarang

These say what I can't up into words, lol.





The car shape is pretty good but you have far more polys than you need for a simple shape like that. It looks like you smoothed it ... did you?

scotths

@pangarang Thanks for the detailed response -- visual aids are awesome. It's amazing the things you don't see when you are too close to something. I will include that change as I move forward on improving the church.

As for the car, it actually brings up my main point of confusion as I am learning next-gen skills. I feel myself caught in a weird valley, not knowing how dense to make meshes now. By the techniques I have been using the last few years making lowpoly props, I would have gone for far fewer (maybe by a fifth or so) polys by habit, but now that I am planning on taking this up to a res that I can make an appropriate normal map, I am finding myself less sure of what to do.

I will keep reading -- anyone know of a great tutorial for someone completely new to normal mapping? Most of what I find is talking to people with a few years of real-world production experience on last gen techniques who are trying to learn something new.

And, yes, the car is done in Blender and the object is set to smooth. I will take some new screenshots later without the smoothing and I will also have some of my own visual aids on a specific question that relates to my trying to understand building models for normal mapping.

Thanks again for stopping by and commenting. I will strive to get awarded more happy faces.

scotths

Last night I started on some of the less major props for the ghost town scene. One of these I will probably use as the first piece to learn normal mapping and save the church and car for when I have some experience.

Ironwolf

I never seen a church with one of those sheds in the front of the building.. never. I usually see them on the sides or behind, mostly behind.

pangarang wrote: »

These say what I can't up into words, lol.





The car shape is pretty good but you have far more polys than you need for a simple shape like that. It looks like you smoothed it ... did you?

scotths

Thanks for stopping by Ironwolf and thanks for the feedback. I am going straight up off of source material for this -- it is a Methodist Church in Bodie, California, ghost town supreme:

this is the most detailed image of many

Of course, now that I am linking to such a hi-res image you all will notice how many details I am missing.

Ironwolf

You can always texture the details. "Ha!" Strange.. I just pulled one of my eyelashes out, thats a first.

Anyway "This is super Badass"

scotths

I was out of town for a little bit and have had a little time to continue work on this since I have been back. Still a long ways to go.

I started to work on some trim and detail for the church as well as giving the silhouette some character so it does not look like as much of a box. I also went through and applied Ironwolf's topology tip where it made sense.




Also, here is a wire fence that has partially fallen -- I haven't decided yet if it should be barbed wire or not.




More to come as I progress.

Ironwolf

do you also model the land as well? I figure I just model the whole battle arena instead of seperatly adding parts.

scotths

I've been in extended crunch mode at work since mid-July and have not had much time to work on these big projects I had planned. Now, with layoffs at work leaving us with 5 people to do the work of 7, I am forced to admit to myself that I will need to concentrate on something smaller. Having been away from this ghost-town scene for a while, I have also been realizing that I may be going about the normal mapping process kind of backwords. So, I'm taking a step back, and starting on just one aspect of my development and trying to get the concept of next-gen techniques down before moving back into making bigger scenes in the Spring.

Here is my first attempt. I am not 100% sure I am approaching the right way, but here is a hi-poly work in progress. I'll keep chipping away at this.



Scott

scotths

Long time, no update. Art creation hit the skids last fall with the sudden advent of a huge increase in my daily workload when half our team at my day job was layed off. When I did get back into doing some more art on my own time, I ended taking a hard left turn when I was offered the opportunity contract work on two different social/virtual world projects (not sure what to call them -- kind of somewhere in between facebook, second life and habbo hotel). It was a big shift in my workstlye after spending most of the last year trying to learn skills appropriate for working on big 3D games. So, here I am, creating isometric art. I'm back on a Mac, back to using Blender, getting paid a little bit to make art... and loving it.

I find myself working in a different way than I had been learning over the last year. I work in-between lowpoly and hipoly, a lot less neat than I would for a lowpoly model, but due the the final size being so small, there really is no need for all the detail that a normal map from a hipoly or a rendered hipoly would create. I also find myself using solid colors and procedurals over texture maps, preferring to model in a little extra detail and split the model into solid colored bits instead of going through the whole process of unwrapping and texturing. This works great with the style that the clients prefer -- clean, cartoony, and able to use in a wide variety of environments.

The biggest challenge has been in creating assets that are non-specific in nature. The final product for each of these is a set of separate items that users can piece together in innumerable ways. When they end up using them in ways I did not expect, the results can be less than ideal, with pieces not lining up or shadows facing in wrong directions. You can see this especially in the Japanese house pieces below. So, I have learned (and am still learning) to work more modularly and light everything a lot more evenly.

Here is some recent work.

I did the building elements on this one -- the tree too.




The valentine-themed objects here




All the roller coaster pieces -- the coaster works, too




These two are starter rooms for myminilife, purposely left somewhat empty so that users can customize.








I don't know if I'm necessarily looking for C&C on these -- just trying to get back in the loop here. Aw, what the heck, no point posting work here if I'm not up to getting feedback -- comment at will.

Thanks,
Scott