How to fail an art test, by EricV
polycounter lvl 13
So I just did a lil test for Digital Extremes and yeahhh Im not too sure but I think I may have bombed it.
they gave me a little fire hydrant to make, 500-600 polys in 4 hrs
with a 256x256 diffuse, normal, spec
and a 32x256 diffuse, normal, spec, opacity
the hydrant had a couple little chains so i assumed thats what the opacity and 32x256 set was for. But yay! Ive never created rectangular textures before....so I frantically searched for anything on the subject and came across a script by 'Chuggnut' which would allow for this...Fast forward maybe 10 minutes and Im installing the script and reading a little tutorial on JesseMoody's page on how to do it...
So anyways, I end up finishing the hydrant, with ASSSSS textures. Like dirty shit ASS textures. Now Im usually a calm, and composed guy but this had me pretty stressed.
So will finishing this thing even get me brownie points, or do they realisically expect you to make a real good prop within a 4 hr window?
I know I could have done a better job on the textures with a few more hours.....but fuck, this was hard for me.
they gave me a little fire hydrant to make, 500-600 polys in 4 hrs
with a 256x256 diffuse, normal, spec
and a 32x256 diffuse, normal, spec, opacity
the hydrant had a couple little chains so i assumed thats what the opacity and 32x256 set was for. But yay! Ive never created rectangular textures before....so I frantically searched for anything on the subject and came across a script by 'Chuggnut' which would allow for this...Fast forward maybe 10 minutes and Im installing the script and reading a little tutorial on JesseMoody's page on how to do it...
So anyways, I end up finishing the hydrant, with ASSSSS textures. Like dirty shit ASS textures. Now Im usually a calm, and composed guy but this had me pretty stressed.
So will finishing this thing even get me brownie points, or do they realisically expect you to make a real good prop within a 4 hr window?
I know I could have done a better job on the textures with a few more hours.....but fuck, this was hard for me.
Replies
keep us updated :P
A good prop can be made in 4 hours but I think you are worrying a little too much on the time limit. Make the best damn fire hydrant you can make and keep track of the time. Better to do great and come in late than to half ass it and be on time. Now this isn't always true for production but you are trying to show them your talent.
Good Luck
- BoBo
they were in my head
Did you have to actually submit it at the 4 hour mark? Or is it like, "You have 4 hours when you get the time, work on it, and submit it when you're done."
If it were the latter, I probably would have done the best I could in 4 hours, saved that off, then kept working on it until I was happy, and mark the time on that.
Then submit both as, "Here's what I did in 4 hours, but here's what I COULD do in 6 hours."
Either way, you're talented enough that I'm sure you did fine.
the prop itself shouldn't be the problem, but rendering, presenting the result takes some additional time.
sent back to the firey pits of mordor from whence she came!!!!!
burn!!!!!
well the email said that the job required speed so I interpreted it that 4 hrs meant only 4 hrs...oh well if this doesnt work out Im sure something else will.
What kills me is that you only had 15 minutes to texture this. Either you're a slow modeler who doesn't use any scripts or hotkeys, or you just collapsed under the 'pressure'.
What kind of reference were you given? In line w/ what Bobo had to say, a lot of times in a production environment you won't have a day, or two to this kind of stuff. You'll have to knock it out in a few hours and usually can do so once you've nailed down a solid work flow. You're portfolio looks good thus far, just pick up the pace.
Good luck man!
yeah Im disappointed as well. the way I had this budgeted in my head was to leave me a good hour to texture at least...I figured hey, a lil dinky 256 is no sweat
what threw me off I think was figuring out how to do this rectangular uv busieness and then after i installed chuggs script it either removed a couple buttons I was used to like select element. Which I use ALOT. So it may have moved it around somewhere, or hid it but i was not able to find it o instead I went around painstakingly having to select faces while Uving, which I am normally pretty fast at...ughhh
I think Im going to have to reinstall max now
I'm pretty sure they were expecting a full highpoly thing with a ton of details, etc, in that regard, for that kind of asset and if you're prepared, this is doable in 4 hours, but not with the quality they are looking for - or aiming at in their final product...
Boy o Boy....I was considering a Hipoly but when I saw 4 hrs, I said no way. If thats how fast I gotta be then damn.
but then again even with a hi poly what 256 is going to hold enough normal information to make that thing look good? Maybe if you're looking at it in RTS view and the thing is like a couple freakin pixels wide...and even then whats the point of a hi poly for normal map!? Dont make any sense to me....Now if it was 1024, then we're talking. What do they expect me to do with a 256?!
I shouldnt sweat it man
things happen, just turn out one thats good like its been suggested. I reckon as long as its within a reasonable time frame - lets not think days here - it should be alright. They might still be strict about that 4 hours yeah, but if you can show em what 6 hours could do you, thatd work in your favour. The real problems would begin if you were spending like 2 days on a prop like this.
We're using 256x256 for a wall texture that is nearly double the height of our character on a ps3 game.... yeah I don't expect my employers stance on that to hold for shipping either.... hehehe.
@ EricV: sorry to hear, I hope your next art test fairs better, I'm sure it will!
@ stimpack: I was wondering, what did the employer think of your submission? It looks pretty nice
a photo of some metal isn't going to work just because it's metal. a surface looks the way it does for a reason. you can use photos in your process, but you'll never be able to use them properly unless you understand what you're making.
try using a flat color or simple texture as a base, some shading gradients, some grunge (overlays if you want), a few dents, scrapes, what ever (you can use overlays here too)
.....pretty much you can use fucking photos everywhere if you want.
i've made some objects that turned out great and i basically used a sort of photo-painting technique.. layering bits and pieces from photographs together. you can use photos for textures, but you've still got to think about them in terms of being a painter-- stuff has to be specifically placed and make sense..
thought that was appropriate.
You can't compare a work environment with how you run things at home. At work you continuosly cranck out stuff for the whole day and are basically on a roll sorrounded by people that follow the same pipeline and share workflows.
Art tests (or the email coming with them) will normally mention that they're aware you have a life, work to do and other things to care about and will give you a decent amount of time.
When that's not the case, it's up to you to do the math.
If I did a 4 hour art test i wouldn't have a problem spending 6 hours on it if I think that would balance out the handycap i have when working from home, where things are not as automated and smoothly setup as at work, as long as i'm sure i could produce similar results in 4 hours under good working conditions.
hope they like this one better
This is quite a bit better man, delete the post with that old model and never speak of it again. IMO it seems a little overlay heavy and noisey. In my experience metal can really work well if you have some simple materials, basic colors in spec with a tiny bit of detail, and some nice scratches and stuff in the specular.
n00b mistake.....
One I wont make again
LOL great work man, glad to see you were able to redo it, and improve so drastically.
Good luck!
Much better results already, though!
You might also consider tweaking the colours and contrast in your specular, really get some specular highlights going on the metal, but keep them a bit duller (lacking a seperate map for specular size, just darken the red bits...), and on edges, use a thin brush to lay down a white line with some bits erased to emphasise the edge's highlights. Seeing as how it's a fire hydrant, some dirty drips would be nice as well. As if, over the years, some dirt piled up in the moist tracks of drips.
(I'd like to try this on for size, just for giggles)