Hello!
Im yet another 3d artist guy trying to get a job in the wonderful games industry.
Im therefore always looking to improve my skills and got word of this great site to learn new tricks and to showcase my stuff for c&c, so yeah, thats what Im doing.
This is a supposed to be a sort of worn down Californian style service station/workshop. specular and normal maps have not yet been started, but I would like some pointers about the current design and stuff.
textures:
building:
512x2048
objects:
1024x1024
roof:
256x256
security camera, ground & brick wall:
not started
scene turned 180:
and a quick concept:
Thanks in advance guys and gals
Replies
Shouldn't the cameras be pointed to the doors?
Lights look a tad too big.
AC looks a tad too small.
The block at the back should be slanted or have some steps.
Feels somewhat weird that the doors and electrical box are covered in graffiti, while the walls are clean.
I think you're in line for a dirt pass or two and the base of the building needs some dirt mounds and grass planes to help it blend in. It might be worth while to add a few loops to the building and deform it so the lines are quite so straight.
The reason why there's no grafitti on the walls is that the walls are tileble 512x1024, so Im putting grafitti on there later as decals.
Awesome pointers, thanks a lot, keep it coming!
- Think about how the place was actually built. I love that you put the rain spouts sticking out where you did. All the flat style rooftops around here have that. The lip should be shorter, though, half a meter at the most.
-Ask yourself, how are the lights and camera powered? This building would most likely be cinder block construction layed over with stucco, which means that no wiring could run through the walls. So, all wiring should be external or run through conduits straight to the main fusebox. This applies to AC unit on the outside too -- it should be on the roof. Actually, there probably is no AC in an auto shop, just venting fans.
- When you do the eternal cement, make lots of cracks and weeds
- Nice work on the stucco. Keep in mind, though, as you finish up your textures that stucco that has been painted over (which is most likely here, probably a few times) has a very different specular quality than unpainted stucco.
- I would consider fading the wall colors even more -- the sun can be brutal over the years in most of california. Blue fades the fastest -- many multi-colored items (like posters) tend to get more and more pink as the blue fades out.
- As you are adding a dirt pass, think about where water runs down the sides of the walls.
- Are you going to show the roof. If so, you need a lot more stuff on top -- ventilation especially in this type of workspace.
- The building should have a cement foundation and should not be painted. It should have some exposed rebar, too.
More later.
Scott
The edges of the walls could use a dirt trim...same with the graffiti (like using a separate geo if you can)
Adding on to what has been said...might wanna study how the building wears out over the years and then texture it to that state...so far it looks rather new.
I havent started on wall cracks yet, but thats up for tomorrow.
One problem I have is, the dirt at the bottom of the house doesnt match the asphalt even though I have darkened the asphalt much more darker than it should be.. what to do.. the asphalt is 1024x1024 tileble.
I def have to rethink the lightning as well. but thats for later.
Some things actually look better in the viewport then when rendering, thats prolly due to my lack of rendering skills though, anyways, c&c is much appreciated!
here's a quick update, been trying to get into CryEngine2 and finally Ive made some progress with that. Also been trying to get the decal part, and thats done so next up is creating cracks and dirt stain decals and applying them with the graffiti.
Its hella fun exporting from maya, importing it all in max trying to work there (I hardly know max at all) then exporting from there and importing to CryEngine2 encountering a lot of fun exiting problems along the way! :P
Anyway here's a screenie from within CryEngine2 with bad lightning. The crack decal is of course a placeholder from experimenting.
hit me with any c&c ya got!
I still need every c&c I can get though so if u got something, shoot!
Later!
Crits:
- The level of dirt at the bottom of the white area, is about right for the level of dirt next to the ground. The bottom piece needs that treatment also, and maybe a bit more.
- It looks like you dropped in onto a grass plane. Blending props into the environment is also something to consider. possibly add a slight dirt ramp around the base of the building, kind of setting the whole thing on a micro hill. It will also help even out any ill regularities in the terrain and keep them from eating into your building and effecting your lowest level of dirt around the base.
- Dead plant/grass planes can help things blend into the environment. As well as old auto parts, mufflers, fenders, transitions bla bla bla.
- The slab loading dock is kind of weird, I really don't understand why the door is so high in the building. If its so trucks can unload, normally those types of truck wells are dug into the ground. Or the truck backs right up to the door and there is a bumper made of chopped rubber. Its just kind of weird seeing a door up so high when the front doors indicate the floor is at ground level.
- The grudge is coming along nicely, but you should pay special attention to the wires, and things mounted on the building. These will collect water dirt and debris and leave streaks and rust marks.
- Also make sure that if you have a dirt ring around the building, that props around that dirt ring are also showing the same type of dirt. Dirt and rain aren't picky about what they hit and stick to. Yes some materials will repeal them better then others but they always leave traces behind and change the material in some way. Weathering needs to be consistent not only on the texture flat you're working on (piece to piece) but from prop to prop and environment to environment.
- The tags are a nice touch, but since this building has been around a while, why not paint over some of it with a lighter color of paint. A few layers of tags could be a nice touch. It might be neat to paint an old logo of a former owner on the front of the garage door then cover it up with tags. To indicate the place has changed hands a few times.
- The sign still looks pretty thick. It has the thickness of a sign with lights inside but the texture looks like a flat billboard. If it lights up, thats kind of new and expensive for a dumpy auto repair shop, but at some point someone did buy a huge wrench so...
If its meant to light up, check out ref of light up signs, especially the metal boarder that runs around them, the translucency of the plastic and any damage, aging or fading that might be common. You don't need to have the light on, but the sign would look different with the light off.
- If its a billboard, it needs to be thinner
Btw thanks a lot vic for those pointers, great stuff. About the environment thing, I never intended to keep the grass thing, that image was just to show it ingame. Im not even sure if I will have any environment at all in the finished image, might just show the building with like a greyish BG or something. We'll see.
I also had in mind to create some paint overs, and a few are in this update yaay
And I gave the sign a rework, its supposed to be a lightup sign, hopefully that shows a little better in this latest one!
Im still need some c&c cause Im not sure what else to do with this.
Thanks
Big pic:
http://www.pee-baa.com/other/forums/servicestation_ingame03.png
should work now hopefully
Anyway, here's the final, with wireframe!
My biggest gripe was there is nothing on the roof...but it looks ok to me in the final version!
Maybe some concrete bollards at the sides of the front roll-up door, too: http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us%3AIE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GFRC&q=+bollards
Maybe a handrail at the front door? Just some ideas that wouldn't be hard to do. As it is, it looks really good. Kudos!
Quokimbo: If you take a closer look at the wireframe I actually added a twin vent thing on the roof, however in a fps it's hardly ever going to be visible, but at the same time I felt a larger thing would be too much for a small building like this.
8FtSpider: Yeah thanks, that's awesome stuff! Ill def keep that in mind if I get back to this once Im done with the new project.
whats_true: The walls, main sign, doors and some other stuff are all in a 512x2048 texture where the walls themselves have a tileble space of 512x1024. I def learned that next time Ill think twice about different materials when arranging the uv's due to the dif material shaders inside the Sandbox2 editor. All the graffiti, paintovers, cracks and some dirt is made with decals inside the editor.