Prop-a-Day

tanka

Working on a portfolio is tough, I'm always motivated to model but I never know what it is I want to model! I decided that I'm going to bite the bullet, and model some props.. One prop every day (or close to it, I do have a life :P) for the next few weeks. I figure that I can post my day's events here, so everyone can watch my progress. Hopefully by the end of it I'll have a few good props, that I can put together in a scene for my portfolio.

So I'm kicking off today with a dumpster. I think the edges are a bit sharp in places, especially on the high poly, but I think I'm fairly happy with it.

High Poly


Low Poly

JO420

Hey a good start but a few crits.

- Alot of your overlays for grit and dirt on the texture go acrros whole unconnected parts on the structure which makes it look like an obvious overlay. Like the white spot on the lid and the rust on the indentions on the body,although it can be justified for the rust since rust drips. Make a few different overlays of grit and add masks to all of them in photoshop and make selections of different part of the dumpster and fill them in so the detail from one overlay does not run across all parts of a model whixh kills the realisim.

- Secondly edge higlights and scratchs on the corners and edges,if its a painted trash dumpster it will have its bumps and bruises which will expose the metal under the paint. Do it very subtlely so it does not seem painted on and helps crispen up the details like so.



See how the red paint has come off the sides of the box where it would be bumped and dropped? Like that on your dumpster. Highlights could even be rust. Edge highlights on lid too.


- some drippage overlays from certain areas would give it a nice rained on many times look,maybe under that metal ridge below the lid.

- As for your straight edges,well a little trick that works for me is in photoshop its a filter called liquify. It lets you move the details and slightly or even majorly distort them without blurring the details out,usually after make an object tha has too straight edges i do that. After you do the liquify i press and option called "save mesh" which saves all of the liquify details you have made and apply them to your details on your normal and spec so it all matches.



Good start so far,keep at it.

fearian

Thats a nice idea! I failed at prop-a-week so good luck! :P

Also, if you keep modellnig props to a theme, your going to have a nice cohesive set of props that will wool even better on your portfolio!

tanka

I know what you mean about the overlays, on tommorow's model I will try and avoid that. I also know what you're talking about the edges, there really isn't much in the way of highlights, and they would make the top of the bin pop so much more. I need to play around with paint scratches alot more. Texturing is definitely my weakness, and by doing these quick models I'm hoping to improve alot.

Tommorow's model is going to be really simple because I won't have much time due to work. If I have time left I will fix up the dumpster's texture a little bit to make it pop a bit more.

Oh, and while I'm posting.. If anybody has any cool suggestions for props, tell me. If I like them, or they'll be good practice, I'll do it!

/edit @Fearian I'm going for a bit of an urban theme atm, so hopefully at the end it will all come together.

Art-Machine

I approve of this endeavor. I found in the last months that setting up this kind of 'project' for yourself is a great way to propel productivity.

Good luck.

butt_sahib

I might not approve of the idea. Modeling,unwraping,texturing AND polishing a single model each day is not only over-ambitious but leads me to believe that the output will be arounf 50-60% of what you could actually be capable of doing but wont be able to under this time constraint.
Depends on the prop though, simple props do take like 3-4 hours. Which is why i suggest that you dont bind yourself TOO much to "one model a day" limitation. Maybe you could do one in 2 days.or heck, maybe even 3. It also depends on how many hours does your "day" have though lol
Ive always had more ofun making environments rather than props for them first

Good luck though, the dumpster looks pretty dandy put it in marmoset or unreal

Ben Apuna

Here's a prop idea: tossed out beat up furniture, the kind of stuff you see left on the sidewalk for bulk trash collection.

Orgoth02

Remember its not about quantity its about quality

s0id3

dumpster needs more character to it man. Also it is missing the wheels.

Bronco

yeah I agree with the last four posts here.

If you must time constrain yourself that much id at least give 2 days even for simple props...therefore you can finish it,post it up,sleep (while the polycount vultures tear it apart ) and then wake up and work on the crits comments.

However yeah I don't agree with doing a prop a day routine unless its old school work (diffuse only painted stuff) and not next gen since the time constraint is just to much to make anything decent.

Good luck anyway!.

john

tanka

Thanks for the comments guys. In case I wasn't clear in my first post, I am doing this task for a few reasons. Most importantly is that I want to improve myself, specifically in the areas of hard surface modelling, sculpting, and texturing; aswell as working on my speed and discipline. I feel that modelling several different small projects, and following the crits you guys give me is the best way to do this.

Also, I'm not limiting myself to one day, I think Prop-a-Day just sounds cool, and is a good safe limit. If I have something that requires more time than that, or I have a day which I cannot work on (most weekends for eample) I won't be stressing to complete things. It's all just a guide for fast, simple objects to improve my art. It isn't all going into my folio.

Snight

Where are the wheels?

Razorb

yea keep it up dude i did something similar to this when i first started modeling... and honestly it really helped me... but yea just make sure u apply what people have said in here to ur next prop

Flewda

Off to a good start man. I agree with a lot of the comments above, especially with the ambition of trying to tackle one prop a day. Perhaps in the beginning doing some more simplistic props at first, but it is about the quality of the piece, and not how many you have (you're only as strong as your weakest piece). So as you get more comfortable with pieces you've been doing, start doing some more complex and detailed pieces. It'll definitely be rewarding, and be more likely to interest potential employers.

That said, it's really cool to see you taking on something like this. Best of luck!

JO420

Well while i agree quality is important,if getting a job is his goal speed is also important. Tanka your approach is good and its a good way to look at in terms of improvement. I agree with previous comments as well that you shouldnt restrict yourself to one model,make more if possible.

tanka

Day 2: Block of Concrete

I don't like it at all, but I figured I'd post it anyway.

As I said yesterday, I didn't have as much time today so I wanted to keep it simplish, you can't get much simpler than a sculpted cube. The main reason why I did this though, is because I'm quite new to sculpting, doing a wrecked concrete cube thing is good practice for sculpting and texturing.

High Res:



Low Res + Texture:



I don't mind the High Poly too much, it's much better than anything else like this that I've sculpted in Mudbox, anything solid I sculpt comes out looking like melting butter. Practice makes perfect anyways, hence why I'm doing what I'm doing.

The Low poly annoys me greatly, I can't seem to shake the seams. The craters look like a moon rock or something. I don't like it, But I thought I'd post my progress anyway.

In reply to all your comments, I totally forgot the wheels on the dumpster! I would have put them in if I'd thought of it, I don't think it's the end of the world though, as I've seen dumpsters without wheels before. I should also mention again that the day a model thing is not set in concrete, If I need more time I will allow for it. If I'm doing something a bit more complex, I will allow for the extra day or so to do it. I'm trying to keep the props simple though, even simpler on days I don't have much time. I am doing this mostly for practice.

Anyway, hopefully tommorow is a bit better for me.

Steve Schulze

This does sound like a good idea. I might have to bite your style and give it a go myself.

Art-Machine

Ok the post after my last one is right, one per day may be a bit rushed. I would give 2 days each minimum. My weapons thread for example, most of those were 2 day jobs. Similarly at work, when i did weapons and simple props, 2 days was also my average (unless i got endless tweak requests). Of course more complicated things run longer.

But i approve of the setting of a clear time-budget and theme for filling a portfolio decently fast without getting lazy.

tanka

It's cool, I have a feeling tommorow's might be a two parter, so to speak. :P

I'm keen to start though!

tanka

Day 3:

As I said yesterday, Today is a two parter.. I actually think I'll take everybody's advice and do 1 prop every 2 days; one day for the high poly, and day two for texturing, with the lowpoly and UV mapping somewhere inbetween.

Anyway, today I have a Butterfly Knife to show off. It's nothing too ornate, I just wanted to practice some more complicated hard surfaces, such as the blade. I've had alot of fun doing this, I did alot of research on how these things work so this could be animated if I wanted. I'm quite happy with it.

JO420

looks cool,cant wait to see low poly work.

Rens

looking at the two textured models above, i would suggest spending a bit more time on those and push it to get the most out of it. textures are just as important as any other thing

also, its important to think about how you build up the texture
where is dirt going to stick, where will these scratches occure, or rust,
is an object going to rust in the midle of a flat surface, or more around edges, or how does it look close to the ground compared to other spots..

study those, so you do not have a random texture, but something that makes sense

good luck man,

tanka

Day 4:

I'm taking the advice of alot of you guys and putting a bit more effort into the texture on this one, so It's taking a bit longer. I've never tried to texture stainless steel before and it's proving a bit of a challenge. I still need to work on the handle, but because I'm about to go to sleep, I thought I'd post my progress on the blade and have you guys pick it apart.

Quick Render..



Thoughts?

rjhalvorson

I think it's somewhat between two worlds. Most knives that just come out of a box, are flawless, and have little or no subsurface scratches. Especially of that kind.


But if you wanted the knife to look like it has been used somewhat, usually knives show that they've been scratched, but also resharpened and the area near the blade worn more.

tanka

Yeah I know, I've been looking around alot and came to a similar conclusion. I've been trying to get this right for ages, but can't really strike the balance between new knife and totally haggard medieval sword. What I just showed was what I came up with, and it's good to have you say that because it means there's still work to be done.

I think I should be doing a texture a day, instead of bothering to model.. My texturing skills are woeful.

Jet_Pilot

scale on the plastic top parts of the dumpster is off, and it needs wheels