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My guide good 3D artz and stuff

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  • brandoom
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    brandoom polycounter lvl 13
    not enough lens flare and your shadows aren't black enough.
  • snemmy
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    snemmy polycounter lvl 18
    Needs more brown and grey.
  • Jeremy-S
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    Jeremy-S polycounter lvl 11
    Don't forget, when showing ZB renders always, always always, use the red wax shader. Nothing beats it for clarity of detail, and model presentation
  • Firecracker197
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    Firecracker197 polycounter lvl 11
    if your textures are too plain just add scratches, oh and lots of RUST, everything in the real world is beat up and RUSTYYY!
  • Autocon
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    Autocon polycounter lvl 15
    ZacD wrote: »
    only noobs use normal 1024, 2048, etc etc sized maps, just make it whatever size you need it. Real people work with 1000 x 1000 or other 'normal' numbers.

    Actually this one is a REAL true thing. At work I am working with texture sizes that dont fit the 256, 515, 1024 structure at all. A few maps are not even a power of 2.

    There are varriying reasons for this, it really comes down to what its being used for and what is the best way to get the best preformance for less mem usage.

    Sure we do use a lot of 512's and what not but there are plently that dont fit that standared mold.
  • bounchfx
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    bounchfx mod
    Autocon wrote: »
    Actually this one is a REAL true thing. At work I am working with texture sizes that dont fit the 256, 515, 1024 structure at all. A few maps are not even a power of 2.

    by 'real true thing' I hope you mean.. 'real true thing'.. unless you guys have your engine programmed for some reason to use other sizes as efficiently... you just blew my mind!
  • Racer445
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    Racer445 polycounter lvl 12
    You need to model the low poly in all quads, but make sure you hand in everything triangulated, including the high poly. The high poly must be tessellated and sub-patched as well.:poly118::poly118:
  • Firecracker197
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    Firecracker197 polycounter lvl 11
    OH yeah and booleans are like the best way to model anything ever!
  • vcool
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    BTW, all this "poly modelling" bullshit is for n00bs who try to sound pro.

    Real pros use primitives like cubes and cylinders, and with enough of those you can get any shape you want. and if yo need a hole - BOOOOOOOLEEEEEEAAAAN!!!1
  • killingpeople
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    killingpeople polycounter lvl 18
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Does post count indicates sense of humor ?
    Hehe
    no offense :P
  • JohnnySix
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    JohnnySix polycounter lvl 16
    ralusek wrote: »
    if you have to use a triangle, make it as long as possible.

    ROFL - made me spit tea on my keyboard. :D


    +1 for Booleanss - of if you're a real pro, trace animal shapes in splines from photos of animal cookie-cutters, extrude and subtract to get Zooleans. :D
  • System
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    System admin
    Great tips guys, got something to add...
    If your modelling something organic and it doesn't look organic enough throw on a noise modifier and crank the xyz values up really high to make it look more uneven and way cooler.
    O and whatever you do, never, ever, increment on save, always save over the original file because you will need the extra hard drive space for more important things later.
  • Blaizer
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    Blaizer interpolator
    Poser is the best app for real artists
    Poser is for losers.

    I subdivided myself so many times, that now.. i can't barely see a quad, weird, isn't it?
  • Firecracker197
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    Firecracker197 polycounter lvl 11
    No matter what your modeling, you must take it into zbrush, and use some kind of alpha across every surface, that way people know your a master of zbrush.
  • okkun
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    okkun polycounter lvl 18
    Before getting into the industry as a environment artist, build a dumpster, shipping container and some ammo crates. Re-use these for all your projects and spend half your time at work surfing instead.
  • Calabi
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    Calabi polycounter lvl 12
    Dont use references, they will only slow you down and what is in your head is perfectly accurate already.
  • Racer445
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    Racer445 polycounter lvl 12
    vcool wrote: »
    BTW, all this "poly modelling" bullshit is for n00bs who try to sound pro.

    Real pros use primitives like cubes and cylinders, and with enough of those you can get any shape you want. and if yo need a hole - BOOOOOOOLEEEEEEAAAAN!!!1

    Nah just make all your game art with NURBS.
  • Firecracker197
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    Firecracker197 polycounter lvl 11
    If you want an ambient occlusion map, you don't have to take all that time rendering one out, just desaturate your normal map, its the same thing!
  • AlanSMitchell
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    AlanSMitchell polycounter lvl 14
    Oooo I gotta get in on this
    For all of you character artists out there looking to break in.
    Never use symmetry pros never use that tool
    symmetry is for pussies real men model out both sides identical because they are that bad ass. also never render out small previews keep in on the highest quality always! don't render to screen sizes make that crap 70000*70000
    Thats how it's done!
  • arrangemonk
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    arrangemonk polycounter lvl 15
    if your testing a new modeling tool (of course just to see how superior poser is) make a cube and subdivide it until the tool crashes

    and for texturing always start with a 256² texture no matter what you're doing, 256² is the right startpoint

    aww, and its totally common to borrow art from others everyone is supercool with that , if you see a good made robotic arm you want to have yourself or whatever just cut it out and paste it into your concept art, and show off everywhere, and claim you did it all yourself

    also if you show off always add a cel shaded version with transparent background, and some blurres versions with photoshop filters to disort it until its not recognizable anymore,
    people will see that your using photoshop and appreciate your genious
  • Isaiah Sherman
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    Isaiah Sherman polycounter lvl 14
    okkun wrote: »
    Before getting into the industry as a environment artist, build a dumpster, shipping container and some ammo crates. Re-use these for all your projects and spend half your time at work surfing instead.

    Wow great advice. Is this from personal experience!?
  • arrangemonk
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    arrangemonk polycounter lvl 15
    aww and if your doing turnarounds make sure that the're rotating so fast that noone will recognice the details since details are unnececary anyways
    example:
    buddha.gif
    sorry that this model doesnt fit the rest of your suggestions, i had to present it infront of thousands of people and had todo quick

    + presenting your model in perspective is dumb also, better use isometric, simply looks better
    render2.png
  • killingpeople
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    killingpeople polycounter lvl 18
    aww and if your doing turnarounds make sure that the're rotating so fast that noone will recognice the details since details are unnececary anyways
    example:
    [img][/img]

    Some browsers and computers view animated gifs at different speeds. I noticed this while browsing forums at the computer labs when in college. The biggest difference was viewing the images between pc and macs. What you're talking about is still valid though ;)
  • danr
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    danr interpolator
    build all hands and heads from scratch, every time. If you re-use them from a previous model, it's cheating.

    Also, if you've never modelled anything before, install zbrush immediately. You need this to make your first models look good.
  • Snefer
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    Snefer polycounter lvl 16
    If you have a flat surface, you forgot to bevel it. Simply bevel a few squares in it, it will make you look like a better modeller. Then smooth the shit out of it. Planes need many polys, otherwise the normalmap will be wrong, and stuff.
  • pyromania
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    pyromania polycounter lvl 18
    Only use final gather for you finished renders. It has "final" in the name, what else do you think its for.

    No matter what you are modeling, render it so it looks like clay. That is why they call it modeling. You never read about anyone "milling" a table or "forging" a gun right.
  • leslievdb
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    leslievdb polycounter lvl 15
    don`t use your perspective view when modeling! only use front side and top that will give you enough feedback on how the model looks

    turn on GI for every render you do

    use 1024^2 textures to compensate small polygon counts
  • Asherr
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    Asherr polycounter lvl 18
    *always display your model on a 100% black background. it doesn't matter how dark your model's textures are the 100% black will make them pop.

    *never calibrate your monitor. the only setting you may change, and then only if absolutely needed, is the brightness which must be set to 100%.
  • Disco Stu
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    Always keep your animations as smooth as possible.
    Add as little keyframes as possible and keep the interpolations smooth.
    Linear movements always look like from a computer.
    Never use f kurves.
  • arshlevon
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    arshlevon polycounter lvl 18
    everything you need to know about 3d art can be found here, i regularly go here for reference.

    http://www.jackals-forge.com/abom.html
  • John Warner
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    John Warner polycounter lvl 18
    doooodss bump maps are the SHIT!! i downloaded this sweet (and very popular) mod for Oblivion to make it pretty.

    1170363661fullresux6.jpg

    they turned up the bump on everything and now it looks totally sweet!
  • Firecracker197
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    Firecracker197 polycounter lvl 11
    When you make your website to show off your work, you have to use the default brushes and patterns that come with Photoshop in your design, its not like they have been over used or anything. Also no one in the game industry cares about resumes so just spit it all out in a word document and don't worry about spelling errors or grammar, hell don't even worry about formatting it. Also, make sure that your demo reel plays screamer music at 100% volume right when someone loads up your page, it gives them a nice pleasant surprise.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    doooodss bump maps are the SHIT!! i downloaded this sweet (and very popular) mod for Oblivion to make it pretty.

    1170363661fullresux6.jpg

    they turned up the bump on everything and now it looks totally sweet!



    Please tell me that's not real...
  • John Warner
  • Firecracker197
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    Firecracker197 polycounter lvl 11
    However, due to the increased resolution, machines with lower-end graphics cards may see severe slow-down with this mod.
    Most textures are 4 times the size of the originals. Some, even more. This makes things seem much clearer and sharper in-game.
    Advanced normal map techniques used to make landscape textures seem very 3D

    so much gold
  • Zack Fowler
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    Zack Fowler polycounter lvl 11
    When texturing, remember this sage advice: metal means scratches. Everywhere! Consistency across all edges is important. If you have an edge that is worn to a different degree from the other edges it will just look weird! The ideal effect is to make it look like someone carefully took a fine-grained sheet of sandpaper to the asset, that's the hottest style right now.
  • Xoliul
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    Xoliul polycounter lvl 14
    so much gold

    Haha wow agreed! He sure knows how to make everything look very awesomely 3D!
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    I should get oblivion, I haven't played it/modded it yet.
  • Japhir
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    Japhir polycounter lvl 16
    Oh and you should add watermarks to all your WIP images so that nobody will steal your awesome stuff. Never show a picture of the wireframes, because people might steal your geometry. Actually you shouldn't be making WIP images anyway, because posting on sites like polycount is a total waste of time.
  • Eric Chadwick
  • Zack Fowler
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    Zack Fowler polycounter lvl 11
    Eric, that stuff is goddamn terrifying.
  • MattQ86
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    MattQ86 polycounter lvl 15
    arshlevon wrote: »
    everything you need to know about 3d art can be found here, i regularly go here for reference.

    http://www.jackals-forge.com/abom.html
    learn from the masters

    Always double post links, if anybody tells you that the same site is referenced further up the same page of a thread tell them to shove it up their ring piece.
  • JasonLavoie
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    JasonLavoie polycounter lvl 18
    Learning... so... FACKIN... MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Master_v12
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    You all are lame... I learned all of these awesome techniques in art skool

    We all know the more you pay for school the better artist you will become... duh!
  • CounterSeal
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    CounterSeal polycounter lvl 10
    This thread is very dangerous, as it is likely to confuse/mislead at least one newbie out there, lmao...
  • Hitez
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    -make sure that every human has the exact same perfect proportions. because thats what art it is. and if you see someone make an imaginary fantasy monster make sure you let him know that those proportions are also all wrong.

    -its probably best to give him a "quick" paintover of what you like. feel free to spend a good hour or two on the quick paintover though and tell us you did it in 5 minutes... ...I KNOW THATS WHAT YOU DO! :shifty:
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    eh you should really know the basic proportions of real people and animals before you run around "inventing" stuff. Of course people have shorter/longer legs/torsos/arms, but generally most people fall in a very limited range.

    Gotta learn the rules before you break them.
  • bbob
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    If you want an ambient occlusion map, you don't have to take all that time rendering one out, just desaturate your normal map, its the same thing!


    I think my soul just died


    Also, @hitez: if that is supposed to be sarcasm on the first point, you should read up on your anatomy..
  • arrangemonk
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    arrangemonk polycounter lvl 15
    Hitez wrote: »
    -make sure that every human has the exact same perfect proportions. because thats what art it is. and if you see someone make an imaginary fantasy monster make sure you let him know that those proportions are also all wrong.

    -its probably best to give him a "quick" paintover of what you like. feel free to spend a good hour or two on the quick paintover though and tell us you did it in 5 minutes... ...I KNOW THATS WHAT YOU DO! :shifty:

    nomatter what creature you do and how weird it looks claim everytime that it is intended this way
    nad refer to freedom of speech in terms of art

    and never listen to people claiming to want to help you, dhey dont they just want to piss you off
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