Home 3D Art Showcase & Critiques

Demo Reel IN PROGRESS

Hi, my is Tony and I am currently attending the Art Institute of Vancouver-Burnaby. I graduate in Sept 2008. as a environment artist.

Here is what I am currently working on...

Any comments on how I can improve or make better would be very helpful.

I going towards the hand painted art style in this scene. Here are some screen shots.

Caveface2.jpg

Caveface1.jpg

Caveface3.jpg

Caveface4.jpg

Caveface5.jpg

Caveface6.jpg

Replies

  • Archanex
    Offline / Send Message
    Archanex polycounter lvl 18
    to be honest, your lighting really sucks. I know you're focusing on modeling and texturing, but if I squint, I just see a big void of brown with a little white spot for that things face.

    also you've got some really bad stretching on.....whatever that thing is in the foreground of the third pic

    Do you have a concept you're working from?
  • Sage
    Offline / Send Message
    Sage polycounter lvl 19
    Oh I really like this, it's nice. Make more.
  • cholden
    Offline / Send Message
    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    Your textures are really muddy, flat colors would be more effective as this point. Also, as Archanex pointed out your lighting. Both of these are hurting this scene

    You need to take a step back, and just show us just the model with no textures. I have a feeling this will reveal more errors you need to address. Without a solid foundation, you'll be fighting yourself with the "polishing a turd" situation.
  • pliang
    Offline / Send Message
    pliang polycounter lvl 17
    I graduated from AI two years ago and since I left I have seen many more "hand painted" environments with much less distortion and muddy tones...

    First of all we need to see the models in wires/clay so that we can tell what this is for starters...

    And its better to start setting up your lights and optimizer it the best you can before texturing them..as I can't even see it.

    :: I see a head that's all there is...
  • ynotul
    Oh the problems with the lighting is because there are no lights yet.

    And YES! I am working off a concept.

    The concept art is by Joby Otero.

    http://jobyotero.com/GhostWorld.htm

    And get some renders of the model itself.
  • ynotul
    Here are the wireframes.

    cavefacewire.jpg

    cavefacewire2.jpg
  • NyneDown
    Offline / Send Message
    NyneDown polycounter lvl 11
    Looks like you've got a lot of wasted polys man. The concept looks interesting enough...so to do it justice requires a lot more work on your behalf. All those organic forms in the scene, give them the detail they're cryin out for. Go to town with it in mudbox/zbrush. What you have right now looks pretty bland. You have to be honest with yourself...with what you have right now, could you see this in a game? A GOOD game? Would you play a game that has this in it...and LIKE playing it?

    You should keep at it though man....this stuff takes time and patience. There's lots of environment art books out there based off popular games, compare your work to that and also the work you see floating around here at polycount and other cg boards. Keep it real man! :-)
  • ynotul
    Yeah man, you brought up some really good points.

    Though you ask me would I play a game with this in it. YES I would. Of course
    this needs alot of tweaks still, but the only reason I made it in the first place because it was very appealing to me. So I went with what I like.

    Can you sort of explain what you mean by bland? Do you mean it needs more props? or? ...

    Thanks for the feedback so far.
  • cholden
    Offline / Send Message
    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    http://jobyotero.com/games/Ghost/ConceptArt/Worlds/african/AfricanMission1_MountainInterior.jpg

    While the room itself has symmetrical features almost everything is unique. You've treated them more as props and pasted them around. For example, those small duck bills in the corner are actually a large hippo statue that fills the right side of the room. The mushroom top trees appear twice in concept but at least six in execution. They lose value, and don't get enough attention.

    The gorilla-man face is flat. Look at examples of good character models for tips on edge loops. Search for examples of similar things, such as this:

    http://bp1.blogger.com/_LbccUVbSRd8/R5o-fv4jMHI/AAAAAAAABkA/2P6BuWt6BI8/s1600-h/gorilla_knuttz.jpg


    The rings of your mushroom trunks are randomly scaled in or out. There needs to be a gradual progression of thickness.

    Unless using vertex lighting or texture blending, you probably don't need a lot of the edge loops in the ground. The scene isn't really using the triangles to validate the small roots on the side of the trail. These can be better translated to the texture. I'd use some of these extra triangles to better define your trail edge.

    Going for a hand painted style, keep things simple. Look at the texture flat for this tree:
    http://ryanhastings.com/treegate.html
    It's one base color and a few hue variations of a highlight and shadow color in big, single strokes. Every brush stroke is important and meaningful. When painting in similar styles, I'll often draw on stroke and undo it until it's close to perfect.

    This site has a lot more on painting
    http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
  • NyneDown
    Offline / Send Message
    NyneDown polycounter lvl 11
    ynotul wrote: »
    Yeah man, you brought up some really good points.

    Though you ask me would I play a game with this in it. YES I would. Of course
    this needs alot of tweaks still, but the only reason I made it in the first place because it was very appealing to me. So I went with what I like.

    Can you sort of explain what you mean by bland? Do you mean it needs more props? or? ...

    Thanks for the feedback so far.

    Yea man, and I hope I dont come across as too blunt with these crits and observations...I'm honestly just trying to help you see what we're seeing. I think you need to take a step back and look at what you have so far with a very....very critical eye.

    Right now, there is no mood. It has no effect on me what so ever. It doesnt look scary, intriguing...it honestly doesnt have any appeal man. I know you probably worked your balls off on this thing, but keep working on it. Remember that after the Art Institute, there is a industry out there that is waiting for you...but you gotta be able to impress the best. Show them something you can honestly be proud of, not something you made just to get out of school or something you can print out for your mom to hang up on her fridge. Make it jaw dropping, breath taking, punch you in the f'in face amazing. I'm not an environment artist by any means, so I wish I could give you more technical advice. Cholden and others have already given ya some good insight and tips man. Just keep polishing that foundation to better yourself and the sooner you can be honest with yourself, the sooner you'll be able to see some improvements. Good luck! :-)
  • GOBEE
    Offline / Send Message
    GOBEE polycounter lvl 10
    Lighting like everyone else said but before you finalize your lighting, what stood out to me was the spec. Do you have any spec maps on these? It looks like you just put a blinn on everything but didn't really adjust the settings on the spec and diffuse.

    At your school, do you have access to ZBrush or MudBox? You might want to take it in there a bit too if you can. Create some better normal maps as much of it is looking flat. Keep it up, I like where you're going with this, just needs a lot more love. Good call for posting on this forum.. people and their crits in here WILL help you. Just don't take anything personal. We're all here to help.
  • ynotul
    yeah I am glad I posted on these forums.

    Alot of good info from each and everyone of you.

    Your right I still dont feel any mood. Sadly I am horrible at lighting and still working on that part. I still am sort of not sure what type of mood I want yet. I will have to decide real soon though.

    Yes i do have access to Z-brush. I was thinking since its handpainted I might not need as many normal maps.

    Your absolutely correct about the spec maps and diffuse. I got to add those.

    Again thanks for the tips.
  • ynotul
    Hey guys/gals.

    I just wanted to update what I got so far.

    Again I have added in the lights and changed the textures into more cartoony stylish textures.

    I am trying to go for a more Crash Bandicoot Game art style.

    CaveFaceUpdate2.jpg

    CaveFaceUpdate.jpg

    Again comments are always welcome.
  • Archanex
    Offline / Send Message
    Archanex polycounter lvl 18
    I think this is looking a lot better, personally I think I would smoosh the composition in more. Like make it tall and skinny, and fill the space with the stuff you've got, and then do some cool volume lighting
  • ynotul
    What do you mean by volume lighting?

    Care to explain on that concept?

    I would like to understand that a bit better.
  • Jeremy Lindstrom
    Offline / Send Message
    Jeremy Lindstrom polycounter lvl 18
    Looks like you have some light volume lighting already just need to punch it up a bit.

    http://images.google.com/images?q=volume%20lighting
  • ynotul
    The Most recent Up to Date!

    Cavefaceupdate1.jpg

    Cavefaceupdate2-1.jpg

    Cavefaceupdate3.jpg

    Cavefaceupdate4.jpg

    Cavefaceupdate6.jpg

    Cavefaceupdate5.jpg

    Cavefaceupdate7.jpg
  • Pope Adam
    Offline / Send Message
    Pope Adam polycounter lvl 11
    Lighting looks ten times better from where you started, I think, however, that your ground texture looks a bit too soft. You've painted highlights in to it but I think it needs to gradient a bit less. I think also that it would break up the pattern a bit if you went ahead and painted some grunge into the floor, cartoony or otherwise.

    keep it up

    cheers!
  • ynotul
    Most recent up to date...

    UPDATEDCAVEFACE.jpg
  • onionhead_o
    Offline / Send Message
    onionhead_o polycounter lvl 16
    i think if u add more plants to contrast the brown in the scene. if u can put some normal map in there.
  • ynotul
    Thx for the tips!

    Currently Im working on my other scene... which is a skull platform.

    So havent touched this too much.
  • maingon
    wow, you really have improved your scene from your first post.
  • ynotul
  • Oneil
    it's starting to look cool , the one thing that it's bugging me it's the face doesn't seen to fit the over all style of the level. i would suggest making it more cartoony , right now it looks kinda reall or try taking the texture color off the eyes try leaving it Just dark, it might help out make it more dramatic,
    consider making the wall textures darker around the bottom where walls meet the ground, ,. good work .
  • Kawe
    Offline / Send Message
    Kawe polycounter lvl 8
    It looks a lot better now :)
  • ynotul
    Yeah..my teacher pointed out the same thing about the real the face looks compared to the other stuff..I recently fixed that.

    Comment on this plz.

    EXAMPLE18.jpg
  • tremulant
    Offline / Send Message
    tremulant polycounter lvl 17
    Taller-SKINNIER!!! Give the shot better perspective, and also add something to the forground and middle ground to lead your eye around the shot.

    But mostly just make it TALLERand Skinnier!
  • cholden
    Offline / Send Message
    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    You haven't listened to feedback. The feedback you recieve, if any, is only going to get worse as people catch on to this.

    Your models are all still the same, you've adjusted the lighting and added a ton of clutter to the scene. So the composition is a noisey, jumbled mess with a face in the middle. It looks like you have some redeemable props, but then vomited them into a scene with no thought or composition.
  • ynotul
    tremulant wrote: »
    Taller-SKINNIER!!! Give the shot better perspective, and also add something to the forground and middle ground to lead your eye around the shot.

    But mostly just make it TALLERand Skinnier!

    Do you mean by stretching out the whole piece? and then pushing it in sideways?
  • Highelf
    Offline / Send Message
    Highelf polycounter lvl 11
    Looking really a lot better than with what you started with!

    I agree you should put something on the foreground to get a more depthy feel -- I suggest a mushroom (that's alot closer than the others) in the lower right corner.

    Cheers & keep it up.
Sign In or Register to comment.