[WIP]Prop - Steampunk Street Organ - Critique/Help

searlee

Hi guys, I've been working on this low poly steampunk street organ for university and I would like some critique, and if possible some help with how to make it better.

The main problem is the WIP3 picture and what to do with it. I had some idea's at the start which are on my concept work. I'll show you the pictures and explain afterwards.

Concept:

WIP1:

WIP2:

WIP3:

WIP4:

WIP5:

I have a couple of idea's:

• maybe I could turn it into some sort of morbid head organ that parades the heads/skulls of the cities criminals around to prove as a lesson to the rest of the towns folk.
• to act as an advertisment bill board
• to be a general street organ

I'd also like to change the shape of the bill board if none of the first 2 are possible to give it more character. I've done a lot of research on general street organs and very few have a side panel that is boring but thats where the first 2 would make it a very different idea straight away. Any help on any aspect of the street organ including the modelling would be much appreciated as I'm still new to detailed modelling.

also any tutorials that anyone knows of relating to how I should go about doing the rest of the model such as creating the high poly mesh and baking it onto the low poly with as few errors as possible would be much appreciated. (even if I have to pay for them)

Sorry if I'm asking a lot but thank you so much in advance for any help you give me.

P.S. This will be going into UDK eventually if that helps at all, It is currently at 4007 poly's and I would like to not go too much over 5k if possible.

Paul

Kupikimijumjum

I like it a lot so far. Great job on the concepts! So you are just trying to figure out what to do with the blank space there? What kind of environment is this going to be in? What kind of game?

Without any knowledge of the game world, I kind of picture it as something a street performer would use. So I'm inclined to say it could be more like an advertisement for the performer. Or even just using the decoration like in the concept work. What is the purpose of the hole that's cut into the back there?

As far as modeling the high-poly... have you checked out this thread?

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=56014

Steve Schulze

The street organs I've seen tend to have a huge amount of ornamentation on them. At the very least I think you'd want a bunch of relief details on your billboard, but I'd suggest going further and really giving the audience something to look at - that is the side they're going to see first. The travelling organ that occasionally appears in the towns around my house has all sorts of decorations and statues. It even has little simple animated parts driven by the mechanisms that drive the organ itself. The visuals attract peoples attention as much as the music.

What you've got so far is looking really nice, I think you need to go really overboard with the decoration

theDEAD

Searlee-

Good work on the concept, and low poly progress! The only thing i can think to consider would be:

1) The Center of the big wheel: It looks like its one whole object with the wheel. I would propose making that small center piece a floating object (to save some additional poly's - this might be knit picking, but depends on whether or not this is something you care about.)

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your progress! :thumbup:

Kupikimijumjum -

The hole that you may be refering to in the back may be some sort of ventilation chamber for the sound to reverberate. I'm no music professional, but from what I can guess, its there to echo, amplify and clarify the notes being played(?)

searlee

Kupikimijumjum The world is far different from our own world however explaining the whole world would take hours (as we had a whole project on it) so i'll keep it quick. The world is on another planet called "atmos" (overused? ) which is basically a swamp planet. The "steampunk" cities float above the swamps by using the obnoxious gases from the swamps as energy to stay up. The city has three levels and this will appear on level 2

level 1 = posh victorian styled people
level 2 = common (a bit less wealthy than the middle class of the victorian era)
level 3 = locked level, nobody is allowed in or out. the powerhouse of the city with all the criminals being sent down here along with the poor people.

I have no conceptual drawings of the style but imagine it to be a bit like steam boy but less... anime and more metallic since the city is pretty much all made from metal.

The purpose of the hole is as theDEAD says, I forgot to alpha them for the WIP's but there are 2 alpha planes in the hole that will have some pictures on them as that seems to be similar to how it is done in the real ones. and yes the sound is supposed to bounce around in that hole and out but its to help the people who are looking at the side of the decoration to hear the sound.

oh and thanks so much for the tutorial

Thanks jackablade that's really useful. now i've gotta do some concepts again to figure out what I actually want on it. I'll post them when they are done (they might just end up being paint overs)

@theDEAD I'll change the big wheel as soon as I get back from work because I never saw that (it was the first thing I did and I totally forgot about it thanks

Thanks again guys

Mark Dygert

I like it, a lot nice work.

I would suggest adding a vert in the center of the cap on the pipes and then slide that vert down inside the pipe. Its an insignificant bump to the tri count but a good move for detail, takes up the same UV space too. At least on the big pipes that are easy to see inside the smaller ones you can probably leave as caps.