Roadblock prop

mike670

Hello there!

So I made this prop for fun/practice and I would love some feedback on it. It is weighing in at 958 polys and the usual diffuse, spec, and normal. I'm also trying to speed up my work speed, so is two days(in free time) a normal amount of time to spend on it?

Pics!



Wire!



Thanks for looking!

It's a simple prop, but very well executed I feel. So well done. I'd imagine such a thing in a studio would likely have a turn around of one day, if working the 9-5 that is.

Something doesn't sit right with me with regards to the warning beams going from left to right and the normal that sits on them. The top one's normal looks like it's likely a grooved hard plastic (which I'd imagine it would be made out of), while the middle one gives me the impression of a wood grain. Again, this is I'm guessing the normal map, but I can't make my mind up what material is is (although obviously painted over).

Any chance seeing the texture sheet and what you did with it there?

SpooneyLuv1

Very nice overall! I like the level of grime that is on this prop. Yeah, 1 day for this would be plenty. I do feel that the blocks look too thin. Bulk them up some and they will appear heaver. I also agree with Ozil about the normal map. I like the feel of the top one the best.
Keep at it Mike!

Sean VanGorder

Looks good so far, but I agree that the warning beams seem a bit off. Regardless of the material, the paint would most likely be scratched off in some areas, and the saturation of the color would vary a bit more.

If it's supposed to be wood, you may try to go for something more like this.
http://cgtextures.com/thumbnails/textures/wood/Planks/Painted/WoodPlanksPainted0153_1_thumbhuge.jpg

http://cgtextures.com/thumbnails/textures/wood/Planks/Painted/WoodPlanksPainted0007_thumbhuge.jpg

http://cgtextures.com/thumbnails/textures/wood/Planks/Painted/WoodPlanksPainted0029_1_thumbhuge.jpg

Keep it up man :thumbup:

Edit: It's not really a huge deal, but you could also save some tris by optimizing the cinder blocks a bit more.

Thegodzero

that's some badly unoptimized geo you got there for the cinder blocks...

PixelMasher

those blocks dont need any bevels. and could be very simple geo. this kind of prop doesnt really warrant a highpoly, so spending time on it would be a waste of time, plus using some small tiling strips for the metal would save texture space rather than a unique unwrap. I dont know if you did that but its an idea.

I had to make one of these at work once, it took me a couple hours, like 20 mins to model and the rest was spent on texture work. something this simple should be pretty quick, you said in your spare time so I cant really judge how many hours it was but by using tiling metal textures with some edge highlights painted in you could uv and texture this really quick. thats how I would do it in a production environment anyways.

in terms of texture, those bricks could use some edge treatment in the texture,some subtle highlighting to help show the form better could make it pop a bit more.

mike670

Thanks for all of the great comments guys!

yea I meant to use the top one but I must have forgot somehow.
I prob spent way to much time on this, because I did make a highpoly PixelMasher, but I see now how I could have done it with out it and will carry this on to other projects.

So yea those bricks, I always forget to optimize their better now though.

second round go!



Wire!



sheetz!

n88tr

the "wood" looks like sheet metal with 30 coats of paint

SHEPEIRO

extremely wastefull texture

make one metal rod, one plank with two sides, one brick and one sign.... then duplicate within the mesh

Cap Hotkill

I think its looking worse and worse, the first one was ok, texture wise except from the bricks that looked like Hammered Metal. fix your uvs, and fix the brick exture, thats all.

teaandcigarettes

I'm with Cap Hotkill, your first attempt was WAY better.

If you have a backup of the previous version I would revert to it and fix the UV's as Shepeiro suggested.

Using an alpha for the sign is actually more expensive than adding a few polys here and there. Likewise, while I agree with PixelMasher that those bricks had way too many polys, I feel that you went too far and lost that nice silhouette you had before. I would remove the bevels inside the bricks (they're hardly visible anyway) but leave the ones outside. Also, you've got uneven texel density on them; it makes them look bigger than they actually are.

mike670

Thanks for all the help!

here is what I got:

mike670

bump
I would very much like to know if it is correct now
thanks

SpooneyLuv1

To me, this is looking a lot better. The stone looks much better, much thicker....and the sign looks good as well. Nice job overall! Now just keep at it, and you will get faster with each one!

Contrails

Move around the UVs a bit on the cinder blocks so it's not so obvious they all use the same texture.

You've got some weird geo on the sign... probably doesn't matter but looks messy to me. Take a rectangular plane and extrude out the sides, then scale them to make the bevel.

The metal bit holding the planks together looks a bit weird to me - in real life, the holes are used to hold in bolts such as the ones you have on the planks so they should line up and be large enough to fit those bolts.

Also your specular could use some love - put some of the grime on it from the sign, the different color paints should probably be different specular levels.

All in all though it's improving

d1ver

Here are my 5 cents:

Judging by the amount of scrathes your bricks have, they are too old to be so clean. The insides should have dust and dirt accumulating inside of them and the parts that actually touch the ground would also be dirtier. That would also help you set you prop into the environment more.
And about the scratches. They are usually more intense on the corners since they get kicks from the both sides and not so intense in the cneter.)

The sign seems a bit off on the UVs. Take a closer look. And as a little nitpick, how does it hold there? I'd make some kind of a bolt on it.

The metal stuff looks completely untextured. It should have brighter worn off edges. And you also happen to have 2 holes on the sides while your planks are mounted with one single bolt in the center. How does it make sense?=)

Your spec map has tons of unfulfilled potential. Looks for some tutorials around the net on how to do those. You could add a lot of interesting details there. And metal is pretty much defined by it's specular.

I'm actually surprised that you went and redid your UVs instead of loosing interest and starting something else, so kudos. That shows a bit more determination. Just a little more and you'll have yourself a nice asset. Good luck!