First piece of enviroment art - Crate

Baj Singh

Ey up,

I decided to try and work on a prop instead of a character for once and hopefully get it into the Unreal 3 engine to see how well it works.

This is what I ended up with:



(Rendered in Marmoset)



It ended up at about 780 tri's with a 512*512 map, however my knowledge of poly limits for environmental assets isn't that polished so I was wondering if this may be a little too high?

P.S - Sorry, originally forgot to mention that its based on a Quake 4 concept.

DnS

Well, it depends on your game/engine or whatever. But a crate is clearly an object that is going to be repeated a lot, so you want to get it as low as you can. Just looking at the wires, I'm sure you could cut that poly count down by a couple hundred by reducing the curvature of the round pieces and by pulling out the split down the middle of the top that doesn't seem to be needed.

Two other crits:

I'd like to see more grime/overall color variation. You pretty much have the blue with varying levels of scratch on it.

There doesn't seem to be any logical way for this crate to open. One thing to think of when creating props, is that if its going to be repeated/instanced, there should be some variation, including possibly, some "open" version of the crate somewhere. That includes not only the texture for the interior if you so choose, but also important some thought put in to how exactly the crate is going to open.

Baj Singh

by pulling out the split down the middle of the top that doesn't seem to be needed.

The reason the split is there is because the geometry is symmetrical to get more on the texture map.

There doesn't seem to be any logical way for this crate to open. One thing to think of when creating props, is that if its going to be repeated/instanced, there should be some variation, including possibly, some "open" version of the crate somewhere. That includes not only the texture for the interior if you so choose, but also important some thought put in to how exactly the crate is going to open.

The top flaps on the crate open. Its not overly apparent on the images posted but there are small wheels on either side of this flap.

Thanks for the feedback DnS. I tried to subtly change the colour between grey and green for the side panel and top flaps but it doesnt show really well and could do with a bit more differentiation.

One more question, ive tried importing this into Unreal 3 however it always ends up quite dark compared to the rest of the scene. Is this something to do with my diffuse map or do I just need to add some lights around the object (or place the object in a relatively bright area).

mLichy

You could possibly reduce the polycount, but it really depends on what game this is made for, and in what context.

The grunge seems pretty decent to me, but the spec could be alot better. If this was going to be re-used alot, I would say don't make it super grunged, because it makes it even more obvious that it's reused. But it depends if the env. is very dirty or not.

mathes

I'll second that comment about not understanding how the crate works. My first impression is that this crate is for a very heavy item(small motor, etc), and the whole top piece is lifted off.

As for the polygon count, you can do a lot of reductions on the rounded areas, and rely more on the normal map.

Good start though, I like the surface diffuse.

Wilex

Your Tri count seems fine just make sure your using them to define your silhouette and your fine. There's a fire hydrant in UT3 with a 1175 tri count and I’m sure you're crate is bigger than a fire hydrant so don't worry there.

I'm going to say it’s your diffuse or spec map making it feel dark. Post your maps so we cans see what’s going on the one you posted is kind of blah the gradient you put over it or however your fading between them just isn't working.

The edges just aren’t popping enough there's not enough contrast going on it all kind of blends together. Show us an unreal screen shot and yeah drop some lights in there it shouldn’t have to be too bright just go simple 3 point light set up see if we can get that spec map to shine a bit.

dv8ix

I think it needs some more crate like features

Baj Singh

Here are the maps and an Unreal 3 render. You will have to forgive the primitiveness of the screenshot as ive had to spend the morning trying to figure out UDK's basic functionality.

Jonas Ronnegard

hm it kinda looks even more desaturated ingame, i would love to see some more contrast in color, would help the already good texture work alot i think.

Jon Rush

Hey man,

Much more than I was expecting when I saw 'crate' int he thread title :P

Looks cool! I dig the design...

I agree about the color seeming a bit desaturated... could benefit from pumping that up a tad. Poly reduction on the curved areas is a good idea as well, especially to areas where the silhouette isn't really affected all that much... like in the middle of the crate.

Punch up the glow a smidge! :P

Baj Singh

Last go I think. Want to go back and do some characters:

BTW, This UDK kit has some really nice looking maps. Especially the re-vamp of DM-Deck.

I've managed to cut the polycount down to 750 triangles and also decided to reduce the texture size to 256*256.

Increasing the brightness and changing the hue of the side panel/top to orange has worked wonders and i'm reasonably happy with the result.



I've managed to cut the polycount down to 750 triangles and also decided to reduce the texture size to 256*256.

Increasing the brightness and changing the hue of the side panel/top to orange has worked wonders and i'm reasonably happy with the result.

Talbot

Baj Singh wrote: »

Looks good. Something I would suggest is to take the black background on the normal map and turn it into the flat shade of purple. That way you won't be missing any of the normal data. You should also extend the diffuse and spec out a little bit for the same reason. Just something that everyone told me to do my first time.

Keep it up!

whats_true

Specular map could use a lot more contrast so that it could POP. Just throw in a level and bump it up more.

Pearson

I think it looks great! These last hue shifts really work for that level you've placed it in.

Autocon

Not very shinny for metal, need more contrast and to be a bit brighter to catch all those nice highlights.

Also for something this small with only that one tinny green part glowing on it is a huge waste of texture memory for an emissive like that. I know this is your "first shot" but just something to keep in mind since you dont want to do wasteful things.

Plus it dosnt even look like its glowing or has an emissive on the prop

BeserK

I reckon it looks great! Fits perfectly in that unreal map, good job!
Maybe you could wear away the texture a little under the handles,, show off some shiny metal or something?

Dippndots

looks nice man, I agree with Autocon, unless you put a whole warehouse of these crates in a dark level, the glowing part is overkill.

Racer445

You can sorta fake the emissive by just making that green dot super bright green on the specular. Kinda a shoddy imitation but will save ram.