Looking for a critique and in a hurry!

Jet_Pilot

Looking for C&C on anything and everything. Its a test where i had to make a New York style apartment building and i only had to make the front facade. I am looking for another set of eyes to look at it. Thanks to all in advanced!



wire


Diffuse

D4V1DC

Are the middle row of windows covered by wooden planks or bricks? If it's bricks I find it odd that there are even actual windows still there, they usually just block it off with cement bricks of another color, if it's wood it makes sense (in a rush not bothering type of feeling, but works).

Besides that dirty up that drum there it's supposed to be trash it looks sort of new, otherwise this looks nice maybe posting some texture flats will get you more critics.

I am not a pro or environment dude so this is what i'd do if I had to work on some areas take it with a grain of salt.

Wilex

Nice work it looks pretty solid. The only things that bother me are the window material and the power pole. The window material could use a little bit of glossiness to it and the power pole seems to be lacking some detail like cables going from the transformer to the lines and then maybe a cable going to your building giving it power.

Here's a nice photo of a power pole.
http://www.tlc-systems.com/d8801769lzn.jpg

Archanex

I think it looks pretty good dude. I'm not really sure about that flag going from the building to the telephone pole. I can't say I'm really bothered by it, but why is it there?
I agree that you could sweeten up the telephone pole just a bit, maybe add some flyers stapled to it or something. Also those trash bags don't look much like plastic (I assume that's what they're supposed to be) maybe a spec map on those would help. Overall I think it's lookin pretty sweet though. Good job

PS- For the record I'm not a pro environment guy either

scotths

Hey, great work! Here are a few things I notice as possible areas to polish -- keep in mind I am still working up to creating work that is as complete as this.

- The awning could be more weathered, especially since there is an air conditioner right above it. Those things always drip. The paint on the logo should probably be wearing off too -- it looks like you just typed it in.

- The tops of the garbage bags look to rigid. When you tie those things, they always flop over.

- I am not sure what the texture is on the third floor of windows.

- The lighting is coming from almost directly in front. You could be popping more of your details out with a less direct lighting scheme.

- How is the transformer on the utility pole attached? Also, the first two meters of the pole should probably be covered with staples and old bits of paper. There should be a wire running into the building from the pole also. The pole should have those L-shaped steps for workers to climb up them.

- The window sills have weathering, drips coming around and off the bottom -- why not the concrete blocks above the windows, too.

- Weeds in the sidewalk cracks.

Just some first impressions -- take them with a grain of salt. Good luck on the test.
Scott

Ironwolf

by the looks of it, its very detailed. Perhaps all I can suggest is some newspaper laying on the ground and some graffiti. but those are very minor things

Oh and umm. Maybe instead of one Block above the window, maybe add two more? Kinda even it off a bit. And perhaps a bit more on the cylinder it looks too plain

Em.

In the top right image, is that a broken window with bricks behind it? Might want to fake some mini blinds, or boards, or something in there. Whatever you have there now, it looks like they're bricked-up.

All the stuff Scott said too for polish. Other than that, lookin pretty nice, if you have time to push it a little more it'll be sweet. I'm pretty sure this is an art test, so good luck!

diZzyWalnut

looks nice - I really like it.
Can You show wireframes and texture sheet ?

Armanguy

i think it came out great awesome job my friend hopefully you get the job

Jet_Pilot

added the wire and diffuse

ScoobyDoofus

I think it looks pretty great. I'd actually like to see a higher resolution image though.
Also, I have to question why you've bothered to put the textures for the windows on a separate area from the bricks, since the bricks are 100% unique anyway. I would assume the texel density of the bricks is similar to the windows so why not put them on the same sheet? If what you've shown is the actual texture sheet, you could have gotten a lot more usage out of your texture area by combining these. The bricks and the windows would benefit potentially.

What were the restrictions of the test? It looks like diffuse only, 6000triangles, but were there others specs? Texture resolution/memory footprint? Alpha channel support?

c0ldhands

I dig it man, there is not much to complain about. I think it will do great in a game enviroment. Good Work dude!

Jet_Pilot

$!nz - the middle row of windows have sheets of ply wood covering them from the inside... but since a lot of people are thinking its brick i think i'm going to separate the boards a little so you can see a gap.

Scooby - Higher rez is no problem, do you think its too small. this was the size i was planing on turning in 1024x768.. so higher like 1280?? I'm sending the max file too.. But about the brick. the windows are resesed into the walls so it would of been really really hard to get the brick texture to match up properly if the inside of the window ledges were someplace else and not directly attached to the wall. so i opted to moved the windows so i didn't have to sacrifice the detail i wanted to add to the windows. Restrictions were 6000tris, but they said that i shouldn't feel obligated to use them all. oh well, and I have a diffuse, spec, and normal, just figured the diffuse what the main one that would matter for people to see since the other two can be straight tweaked with levels on each layer. There was no restriction on the texture rez just keep it reasonable so i made 3 2048x2048 texture sheets, minus the one for the pigeon in the upper left.

Thanks for all the complements!

Jet

Murdoc

The end result looks pretty good, but the way you textured it doesn't seem very savy.

Not sure how many places texture their environments with unique uvs/big textures for stuff like that, maybe there are more then I think.

kiril0t

looks nice, .... how come the windows on the second floor are boarded and broken, but it looks like people live bellow and above, if you wanted to have boarded and broken windows i think they would be on the first floor if at all, the only buildings that get boarded up and broken are crack houses, no? unless it was a recent accident....just sayin. I would punch the contrast of the wood up a bit however, i thought it was sheets/curtains as well and i think its a bit to close to the colors of the brick

Nice textures, very detailed

Jet_Pilot

Murdoc - Well I came to the conclusion that the purpose of the art test was to show my art skills and was NOT about preemptively know how each company's pipleline is set up and then adhering to that. If I can keep everything clean and organized on one sheet then there is a pretty good chance I would be able to split up the accessories from the main building for their own texture sheets sets, which is probably how it would be set up, but that wasn't the reason for the art test nor is this going to be used in a game where the assets would have to be managed. But thanks anyways.

Jet

Jesse Moody

Did they specifically say to put it all on one sheet? It isn't very efficient to do it that way and have never seen or heard of anyone doing it that way.

I think the bricks could have just been tileable, only had a few windows, and just used the uv space better.

Just my thoughts though.

Sage

Your texture layout seems odd, but if they are just looking for talent I think they found some. Nice work.

Alex

Daz

Jet_Pilot wrote: »

Murdoc - Well I came to the conclusion that the purpose of the art test was to show my art skills and was NOT about preemptively know how each company's pipleline is set up and then adhering to that. If I can keep everything clean and organized on one sheet then there is a pretty good chance I would be able to split up the accessories from the main building for their own texture sheets sets, which is probably how it would be set up, but that wasn't the reason for the art test nor is this going to be used in a game where the assets would have to be managed. But thanks anyways.

Jet

Personally, I think it's a bold assumption on your part to conclude that how you've UV'd it is irrelevant as part of the evaluation. Clever, resourceful and up to date knowledge on how to build, UV map and texture 3d models is at the very core of being a good video game artist. Submitting a test that blatantly ignores those things is pretty brazen.
It's a *really* nice looking result, but pretty much completely inapplicable in the context of making a building for a video game. Suggesting that the UV layout is irrelevant for the test seems highly presumptuous. A smart UV layout usually requires consideration during the construction phase.

If you built the asset 'properly', I think you'll stand a far better chance of looking like a much better applicant in the eyes of the people evaluating the test.

Ged

I think this looks really good, Daz Id like to know what would make the uvmapping more industry standard? should there be more tiling textures or shared texture spaces?

frubes

Daz is absoloutely spot on with what he has said. If my art lead saw that i think he would have a fit regardless of how well it is modelled or eventually looks you just wouldnt be allowed that kind of texture budget for a building, not even on a next gen boxed game. Imo "keeping it reasonable" would be more like 1 x 1024 for the whole building making far better use of texture space and possibly two or three far smaller sheets for accessories such as the pole, bins, air con etc. I think the scene could easily be broken down into 1 x 1024 and 1 x 1024 for all the accessories.

I think that the majority of space on your texture sheet is taken up by the brick texture. That could be tiled across the texture sheet so you can still make use of it throughout the whole building. Hundreds of links on here for that sort of thing. But really its just about reducing the amount of unique detail and cleverly using the accessories you have made to break up notable repetition.

Overall it looks great and its cleanly modelled, has nice character and is a well made piece but i think that the texture budget consideration reflects badly on it. Good luck with the art test anyway

Renaud Galand

First of all, at first glance, it's looking really cool. But you may loose a lot of "credit" when your future employer will take a look at your textures and the way you managed them.

I'm with Ged about the lacking of tiling/shared space in your texture sheet. I think it's definitely one of the key feature when you're doing env stuff and you're not using it at all (or almost?). Your main brick texture could be reduced by 8, at least. The same for the stairs, etc.

Murdoc

Jet_Pilot wrote: »

which is probably how it would be set up, but that wasn't the reason for the art test nor is this going to be used in a game where the assets would have to be managed.
Jet

Fair enough, but it is an art test for a video game company and I know everyone looks at it differently, but I'd be more concerned with someone getting quality out of a normal enviornment pipeline then getting quality out of methods that can't be used.

I'm not meaning any insults here as I'm talking on a broader scale for anyone doing an art test, it's a game company and what I'd be looking at is if you have the knowledge and skill to achieve maximum results with the constrained methods game environment artists have to use, it shows you're good and know what your doing.

If I didn't care the method of creation, then the art test is pretty pointless and might as well have been high res.

It looks good though, but if you wanted to go the extra mile, start breaking it up and conserve as much memory as possible.

Jet_Pilot

Thanks for all the suggestions guys and girls. I fix a lot of the issues you all were talking about and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Jet