Destroyed Highway.

Andrew Mackie

WOW!
So it has been a very very very long time since I have been on these forums.
I have been working on my portfolio/reel/work in general. Here is some of my newest work and I will be working on fine tuning and getting this piece into a more finished state as the weeks go by for my final graduating quarter.
And now for the pictures!

Reference shots:

Andrew Mackie

So here are some of the shots that I have been working with.
I have the idea of creating the first reference shot (pictured in the post above) exactly as it is. The picture is in black and white for I have to modify it color/texture wise, but as for the layout of it I will be attempting to emulate it exactly.
The shots I have now are NOT working off of the picture (I have not rendered those out yet), but instead these shots are just the WIP I have so far. I have placed some of the buildings into UDK and I have just playing around with the textures and seeing what I have to work on.
Enjoy.

ErichWK

Theres something very peculiar about that black stone house, something about doesn't really feel right. Also the tiling on the other buildings are very noticeable, same with the blown out wall.

[N]

As ErichWK said there's a problem with the black house. I can clearly see some stretched UV. The tiling on the whole scene is really too much noticeable. Try to make some wall or anything else to break the tiling impression.

You should also before the texturing part, try to block the whole scene.

iuli4n

and dont forget the ruble. and some sky for better orientation.

Andrew Mackie

Hey guys!
ErichWK - I know what you mean on the house, I am still testing the objects within UDK and I have to work with the texture itself on the building. Hopefully I can start painting my own textures sooner than later because they always take longer than I expect.
[N] - The stretched UVs have been fixed since last night . The tiling is a bit much isn't it? I'll work on cluttering up the scene a bit more to add a better composition to it all. I had an earlier post where I mentioned that I have a better scene where I modeled completely off of one of the references, I just need to uplaod those renders.
iuli4n - I did forget the skydome . Fixed it!

Andrew Mackie

So this is the most recent block out with stand-in textures. It is a Maya screen grab so don't be too critical of the lighting and everything else .
There is still much work to be done and then I will start uploading everything into UDK for the final touches, but as for right now this is what I have.


Here is the Reference shot again.

[N]

Yep, It is. You should also try to get a better structure in the house texture. I mean doing some bigger stone for the corner for example. I think the color is a little bit weird too you should try to get a lighter stone color.

Keep updates coming !

Edit : The blocking part is far much better. Still a problem with the texture of the house. Looks like you've just put a stone texture randomly on the wall.

Edit2 : No problem! Let's go

Andrew Mackie

[N] - Thanks for the larger stone idea for the corners! I'll work on doing that right now.

Andrew Mackie

Also skydome and some lighting tweaks for the UDK TEST scene.
I didn't import the new house into UDK yet, so that is why the UVs on the house are all funky still.

Andrew Mackie

Small update with what [N] suggested.

Andrew Mackie

Some new screengrabs. Placing objects and figuring out the composition more. Also, new texture on the house (still needs work though).
Let me know what you think!

BlvdNights

I really hate that skybox....everyone uses it.

I think a lot of your stuff is too low poly and you're not really utilizing modular pieces nor lerping for breaking up tiles. Your tileable textures need work too, you can see where it obviously tiles. That's no bueno.

Andrew Mackie

Hey BlvdNights - I'll work on up-ing the poly count on some things. Did you have any specific things that looked too low poly, or could use the up-ing in poly count? As for the tilable textures...I know I need work on them . But I will be talking to my teacher this next week and seeing how he does his and then trying to get them in better shape! Thanks for the feedback!

[N]

For your wood planks on the last screenshot, you shouldn't use a texture with a particular thing on it ( Here it's a long dark line). Try to work each asset one by one and then put them in UDK.
By posting only one asset with his wire for example, we could help you better. Don't try to do everything together.

DOG-GY

A few things I've noticed. Above they've already brought up some things so I won't touch on them. What I've seen so far is that your UVs on the house don't seem normalized. Unless my eyes are fooling me, the house has rocks that vary in size dramatically from wall to wall.

Your houses are also way too simple. Get some modular pieces that you can build with. There's tons of good tutorials on how to do so. I've also seen that perfectly slanted roofs wind up being really bad. Break them up with some detail.

Finally, get some big variation in the height of the ground. It feels like it's an endless plane. If it goes uphill, it implies that there's more to see. We fill in the details and assume there's homes and buildings behind that hill. Right now you'd have to fill the land with a bunch of crap to feel real and it would be an ungoldy amount of work (as well as still looking weird because land is never very flat). It seems to go slightly uphill in the photo, but I'd overdo it a bit.

Andrew Mackie

Sorry for the lag in updates there. Been working .
[N] & DOG-GY - Thanks for the C&C! I have been trying to touch up what you guys have been talking about. I am slowly populating the scene with more of the assets that I have been creating. Let me know what you think thus far.( and also if I didn't listen to you guys and you still see something wrong that you already pointed out then YELL AT ME! I want to get better and I demand that you all help me ).

Andrew Mackie

Newest screen grabs from UDK:
First two are a smaller alleyway that open up into the main "Trainyard" and a reversal shot of one.
Third is a really dark ( sorry ) shot of the new water tower that I placed into the scene. The texture on it is still low and I am going to re-work the metal material on it to give it a more interesting contrast of wood to metal.
Fourth is just a neat shot that I saw when I was fooling around with the fog ( I know everyone hates that sky, so I replaced it. )

raul

well, this looks like a cool little project. one thing ive noticed is that youve got some cool ref. However, you are not exactly following them too close. I see a lot of little things missing. That makes the place of the reference very unique.

You also may want to find some reference with color. Close to the objects on your scene to go by. So that your textures are not so clean and generic.

Andrew Mackie

raul - Hey man! Thanks for the advice. The only ref I could find of this building was black and white ( or greyish brown ) sadly. I agree that my textures need a lot of work. I'm working in Maya now to start and build assets and vary up the models I have now to make them more interesting. I will have to ask my teacher on Monday to help me build more interesting textures. Unless someone on here could link me to something and help me out .

Andrew Mackie

New asset that is going into the town under the train bridge.
Still WIP but I wanted to upload it to get some feedback from you guys.
The ref is below.
CHECK IT OUT!

Andrew Mackie

The tires need SOOO much work.
If anyone has any good tutorials on how to make tires (like the ones above, or any ones). I'm looking for how to make the high res and low res.

raul

i did a mini tutorial once. you should get the point. Mainly what you need to do is create patterns and make sure they tile once you start duplicating and rotating. takes some time to get it right but once you get the idea it becomes easier.

Andrew Mackie

Thanks Raul. I'll work on doing it how you did tonight .
Do you have a tutorial on how to do the actual tire material (I think the word I'm looking for it 'tread') itself?

raul

not exactly, but is the same idea. make a pattern, then rotate. The trick is to be super anal and precise. The moment you stop paying attention your whole pattern will fail. I think i saw a few modeling tire thread tutorials in google. Look them up!

3DVlad

Andrew Mackie wrote: »

The tires need SOOO much work.
If anyone has any good tutorials on how to make tires (like the ones above, or any ones). I'm looking for how to make the high res and low res.

Check out SMcars.net, go to the tutorial section and search for tire tread, has a few decent tutorials there...

Andrew Mackie

Thanks 3DVlad and Mike5424! I'll look at those sites/tutorials tonight.
As for now though, I do have a small update with ROUGH textures and new treads (high poly).

Andrew Mackie

Images as promised. Still going to work on the tire treads/tires in general. Anything else that needs work that you guys can see?
Do those tires even fit that type of truck? Probably not...

Andrew Mackie

Very small update. I just liked the way this is turning out so I'm posting a better lit screen grab.

Pedro Amorim

that tire pattern looks too modern to be in that old vehicle.

Andrew Mackie

Pedro Amorim - Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I mainly just did it to see if I could easily make a tire tread. Not I'm going back and making more realistic looking treads for this model.

Andrew Mackie

Small Lumberyard house. Still working on texture but the geo is all there.



Ref:

Andrew Mackie

*EDIT*
Please ignore the sky seam, I'm fixing that. And to explain the ref slightly, I modeled the top ref and then added another story so I could put the staircase onto the side of the building. You may also recognize the water tower

Andrew Mackie

Render that came out of Mental Ray in Maya. Working on a full rendered camera pan across the scene, but as for now here is just a taste

miamigator09

My biggest problem with your scene is the contrast of hyperrealistic texture on overly geometric/ flat models. While the diffuse textures are very nicely uv'd, the lack of subtle shape or even apparent normal mapping creates an obvious uncanny valley.

Another thing to fix on your truck is the different pixel densities of the hood vs the foot ledge. The textures are, again, coming along nicely, but you are running into the problem of spending too much time on color detail when you should work more on the form/silhouette of the model first.

Just my two cents

Andrew Mackie

Hey miamagator09, thank you for the feedback . I agree that my models need to be more interesting both in silhouette and function. As for the modeling side of it all I think that is something that I will just have to learn over time, but I will attempt to change the forms of some of the models to give the scene a better feel to it. Thanks for pointing out the pixel density issue with the truck! I will fix that right away.

raul

honestly, besides the previous feedback. Is that your are doing too much too fast. Try to do one thing at a time and use what you learned to do the next one. You are pretty good at handleling the feedback. So points for you!

Andrew Mackie

Hey Raul, sorry I wasn't more quick with the response. I've been working I took your advice and I've been working on a boxcar for the scene (and to just get better in general). Here are some WIP shots of it so far. I still need to optimize the geo on the wheels/gears, get some more reference textures, model the bumper that goes in-between the two cars and anything else you guys want me to do!


p.s. I love getting feedback! You guys know more than me and I need to get better in order to get a job and do what I love for a living. So thank you all for commenting and critiquing!

Andrew Mackie

*still flushing out the silhouette on the wheels and gears*

silver_shadow

in the last image under the bridge shot. If you work a bit more on the ground of the model it will make a worlds drifference. A lot of modellers complain about the looks of their model and never feel they get to the realism part, always something is missing. If you spend a lot of time just on the foundation of your model, the base or site or how this the building meets the floor, but mainly the base layer, youll get a lot of satisfaction out of the model and it will definitely compliment your model a lot. For instance, use a bump on the cobbles, maybe model a section of that with lose and missing cobbles, damaged curb, stuff like cans etc lying around, dirt at the base of buildings, een damage, damage to the concrete footings, the site on the right, wich is soil, some dry grass or anything that gives it a little bit more meaning to be there. you can even have some old conduits running below the bridge, maybe cables, telephone poles, wires, and more stuff going on in the foreground, not having a 100% flat road, maybe bumps in it, kind of endless possibilities. But my main idea is...have a great site, lots of stuff going on ...and the stuff you put on that then, like structures and buildings...just blend in instead of having the building to make up for the site.

Andrew Mackie

Thanks silver_shadow! That is on (of many) problems I have. I can never seem to have my scene look like everything is supposed to be there and work together. I will try to work with the ground in Unreal (I think there is a pretty good terrain editor in there) and start putting more interesting props into the scene.

Andrew Mackie

This is my idea for the ground [ thanks silver_shadow! ] that I want to do for my scene. Now that I have most of my scene blocked out and modeled, I want to go back and add some foliage and a more earthy feel to the scene. I feel like this will also help break up the ground and some of the more boring areas in my scene.
Quick "paint" over of the bridge. Then a rough stage of it implemented in Maya.
Let me know what you guys think about it!

silver_shadow

keep it up , want to see where it goes

Kitteh

Andrew Mackie wrote: »

Very small update. I just liked the way this is turning out so I'm posting a better lit screen grab.

Your car honestly looks nothing like your ref or any car from that time period. You need to pay much closer attention to your references.

SHEPEIRO

woooa tooo much... take a smalll area and make it good stop spreading your self thin

Andrew Mackie

Kitteh - I agree with the truck. I have modified it since then, but I have not gotten around to uploading it I will be doing lot more work on it soon though (I PROMISE!) and I will look at the reference more closely

Hey SHEPEIRO - Those are very good words of wisdom and I thank you for them! But sadly I am attempting to graduate from college this December and I need to just do a lot of work! I understand quality is better than quantity and I want to get better and better but, for right now, I just need to pump out as much as I possibly can. Then I can go back and tweak my models, textures, lighting and everything else.

Thank you both for your comments! Now it's back to work for me!
P.S. - Update coming!

Andrew Mackie

New screen grabs from UDK.
Still working on lighting and getting some foliage into the scene.
Thank you everyone for helping me out with this project!

LMP

Not sure you want to hear this but your lumber yard house, is a false front parapet wall, that hides a true gabled roof.





False fronts where all the rage in the mid-1800s

Andrew Mackie

Hey LMP - Haha I don't mind hearing that at all. Here is the reference I modeled it from:


Any ideas on how to make it look better?

Andrew Mackie

OH NO!
AN UPDATE!

Andrew Mackie

*EDIT*
Yes, I did rebuild my lighting right after I saw that it was in my screen grab