Abandoned desert compound [Environment]

Seaseme

Hey everyone,


This is my first post here and I thought I would share with you something I made at the very end of last year. I haven't quite finished the video editing and such yet, but I'd like to get your takes on it. The entire scene is 17k polys - A little high as it was my first attempt to make anything run in real time and I had a lot of learning to do.

Done in XSI 7.0, rendered with Mental Ray, but all of it is prepared to be put into game engine.

http://vimeo.com/2768332

Click the link to watch the video! Please give me some critiques!


Tanner

System

Nice scene but it's hard to give crits with the video supplied, most of us here want instant access so posting some closeup screenshots and renders along with flat texture maps and wireframes using the standard renderer would help immensely.

_Aurel_

Looks nice, but I wish the compound had a more interesting structure besides just being a rectangle with trimmings stuck on it. Consider modeling some wear and tear or add some variation to its base texture.

Seaseme

Thanks Aurel - I know. It's something I regret doing heavily. I was just in a rush trying to figure out some techniques for texturing. I'll post my flats and some closeups here in a few minutes.

rasmus

Looks nice, a little too mundane perhaps, and without texture flats and closeups the breakdown especially comes off as a bit lacking, not to mention hard to crit. Otherwise I'd put in a splash of red from a faded old sign or something just to break it up.

Minos

Unless you put this into a game engine you can´t really call yourself an environment game artist :P

These mental ray renders can even spoil some of your chances to get hired in my opinion. Employers want artists who know how to put their stuff ingame and know about technical constraints, that´s what a game artist basically does. 17k for this little scene is really over the top too... you should consider reducing the poly count drastically.

What I´m trying to say is... just because modern engines support huge res textures and high poly counts that´s not an excuse to waste resources. A game artist needs to be versatile and able to assess how much resources he can spend on each asset - so use only the necessary to convey your message and nothing more *just* because you can.

But good stuff you are doing your best to improve your skills and learn new stuff, your effort will pay off in the end Keep it up!

glib

It looks good, but as the others have said you'll get much better feedback if you post viewport screencaps, texture flats and wires.

Also, is this an art test? It looks somewhat familiar to me, but I'm not sure where I saw it.

Matroskin

looks definitely nice.

Doesn't that building look weird in the desert? Especially with those props around and graffiti on it?

Seaseme

Thanks for your replies.

I have some questions.. When is it OK to use unique UV'd textures on objects? I can work with tiles and decals, but I'm never sure when exactly I should use either method. Working on games is all I've ever wanted to do in my life and I am willing to do whatever it takes to get there. This was my first attempt at anything real time like I said, and I'm pretty proud of it. It was all unwrapped unique and painted in photoshop, but I know that's never how a game would go about something like this. I just want to know what I need to be teaching myself to be a relevant artist in the ever growing and ever accelerating world of game art. I read all of the guides here and follow along anxiously to learn techniques. I'm still stumped when it comes to putting stuff into a game engine.

I know you're right. My next stuff will all be in game engine, there's no point to fighting with a proper rendering engine if it is an irrelevant skill.

If there's one piece of advice you could give me for portfolio or demo reel pieces what would it be?

SHEPEIRO

Minotaur0- was right, its a good peice, but on its own wont do much to get you a job in the industry. if you could get it into an engine that would help alot. its a nice peice

edit-just saw your recent post- and something like rage may let you do this peice uniquely uv'd but id say rage is deffinatly not the norm in the industry where tiled blended and component based construction is king, even rage environments start as traditionally tiled etc, then the unique stuff is applied over that base, painting a 32km sq9or whatever) with every pixel unique is not really practical

Seaseme

I suppose my peers were just blowing hot smoke. I was feeling pretty proud of this. Keep going though. I don't know what I need to be doing. I get mixed messages from these forums and from the people I've chatted with in real life.

Minos

Get Unreal 3! It's quite easy to import meshes into the engine - take a look at this, might be inspirational:

http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsindex.htm

Seaseme

Thank you for the link. It is indeed inspirational.

alexk

and you can also load up the UT maps and see how their assets are constructed and copy it!

commander_keen

Its too dark, there is no white in the renders and it seems kinda flat. You should brighten up the final composition which will give it more contrast.

System

Seaseme wrote: »

I get mixed messages from these forums and from the people I've chatted with in real life.

Not really, opinion varies but most people don't deviate far from the truth. The major point really is that mental ray/vray and other photon lighting render systems will be involved in the production of textures and texture effects but the actual lighting in a game engine scene will not involve these. So if you want a job in the industry you have to proove that you can make this scene look good using a standard renderer and basic lighting.

osman

Good looking scene.
The power lines could use a bit more polygons in there.

Jeremy Lindstrom

Also, i see you used textures from the 3dtotal cd's, I didn't see any mention of those. And this isn't 'real time'.

Here's a link that will also help you get started, I collected tons of stuff while doing my climb up the ladder as well.

Environment Modeling FAQ & Resources MEGATHREAD
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=53002

Seaseme

Thank you all for your comments. I've removed the video for now.

einfopedia

its looking very awesome so that tell me that why its look very dark????