My First Modular Building

timwiese

I got the idea to make one of these after looking at some of the entries into the contests and challenges section.

This is my first try at making something modular like this, and the texture is still very WIP. I have a high poly made of this as well, so far i have only used it for baking AO, but I will be getting the normals from it as well.

My goal for this building is to have it look relatively new and not in a bad neighborhood. so there wont be excess amounts of grime and graffiti.





Any comments and critiques are welcome.

Tumerboy

looks like a good start on modeling. I question your Unwrap. While the model chunks should be modular, and tiling is important, I think you should break some things (windows/frames/etc.) out, and give them proper UV space so that you don't get crazy stretching (specifically around the doorway)

renderhjs

you forgot the watermark in the 3d screenshot :P
nice model, the texture still has some little space: maybe some xtra house lights or other smaler stuff?

timwiese

Update*



I am thinking about what to do with all the dark windows.
Those are going to be windows with no shades in them so they look strange because you can't actually see anything behind them.
I am thinking about giving them a slight transparency and just throwing some random props I have made behind them to sort of fake an interior.

Still need to work on a specular map as well.

and some areas that have slight texture stretching i need to fix.

I am also starting to think this could benefit from a bit more grime in the edges and corners, some areas are just too clean.

you forgot the watermark in the 3d screenshot :P

Hmm maybe I should just apply the texture to the model with the watermark in it. can never be too safe. lol

timwiese

*Update again



Still some parts that I need to fix but I am close to calling this building done.
I will give a nice sidewalk to sit on though before I finish this piece.

EggE

i like how its looking so far, i especially like how slapped on a different texture on two of the windows to break it up a bit. the thing that doesn't look right to me is the lower left side of the image, ground floor...that has to be the thinest brick layer ever, i think replacing that with the windows is an improvement because most office buildings on the ground floor are pretty much glass.

timwiese

I changed the brick to a window, it does look much better now I think.

timwiese

I have been done with this for a while now just thought id update and post the final.

Ged

nice work, my only crit is that it lacks colour, almost looks like an AO only render. I mean even gray bricks arent really gray in real life, they have discolourations(very subtle but it could make a good difference)

carlo_c

I agree with Ged about the colour issue, maybe some reflections off the windows could bring colour into the building if you didn't want to give the bricks anything.

Or a lower sun would cast the building in a nice orange glow

kary

It does look nice, and the colour crits would be a main concern for me too. In the brick pattern a pair of things stuck out to me. The one edge in the middle grabs the eye, and shows off the repeat in each story. The lower one looks a little odd to have a brick pattern there, would expect something decorative or a keystone type look.

timwiese

Changed up the mentioned areas. The updated texture itself has more color variation added to it then this render shows, I will try playing around with different sun settings to see what kind of colors I can bring out as well.

Wells

flip the UVs on some of the brick walls between windows on the skinnier side. right now it's way too obviously duped

looking good, though!

SHEPEIRO

nice, spend some time on that pavement though, bit "doughy", also add a ref map to the windows if you can.

one little crit, is that alot of your poly detail you have could be better served by normal maps, this would help with image quality when rendered without high quality AA. particularly in you rtrims, esp the trim at the top.
if you use normal maps baked from high poly in these areas, the sharpe edges will mip-map out at distance giving you a much less fizzy images, very good when you have alot of parallel hard-edged lines like in your trims.
again not really an art crit but if you were to get it in-game would improve the way it rendered no-end.

imb3nt

looks really good.
well done. :thumbup:

Minos

Looks really good. Would you mind posting an screenshot with all the different modular pieces?

timwiese

Here is a screenshot of the parts of the modular building.

bluekangaroo

looks pretty good. I would say you could get away with a few less sides on that corner piece

Talbot

Nice job! I love the light of the later WIPs