Splash Damage art test

SinisterUrge

I was given the go ahead to try out the art test to see what I could do and here is a WIP. The texturing is still a bit of a mess, a little like a building site.

PolyMonstar

Seems like it could use some more saturated and visible colors in the dock.

JustinPunio

Great to see real studio art tests, glad they didn't make you sign a NDA. Could you tell us the brief given, what where the targets poly wise? How long have you been given?

I'm no environment artist, but the roof looks good, the rest still needs work, but good so far

Good luck with it!

Snader

Justin: it's pretty much a public art test, anyone who wishes to apply with them can just make it. http://www.splashdamage.com/envarttest

JustinPunio

thanks snader, I'll keep a watch for any character tests from them..

SinisterUrge

Cheers guys

@PolyMonster: I'll work on the colours and saturation towards the end.


Here's an update. Hope to be finished this soon, though I got bogged down making the traps and other manual painting.

Habboi

Alright since I saw this thread I looked the test up and I looked up what others have done. Most of them are pretty sh*t because they're either:

1. Rendered like they were students who never rendered before.
2. Textured the scene very poorly.
3. Lighting was crap and washed out.

Your latest picture suggests some of those above. The render quality is poor, whether it's image compression or just a bad render. Textures aren't bad but they need shaders. Are you planning on putting this in a realtime engine? Also lighting is very white and needs mood.

Your actual geometry from what I can see is good though. Don't send it to them just yet though, I feel you're far from finished. You can really push more out of this. Good luck.

Oniram

could we see your texture sheets?

SinisterUrge

@Habboi: Still working on the the textures. Only have diffuse maps and a few opacity done so far.

As for the render, it was only a simple render. The plan is to show it in UDK when finished. I think the skylight in max washes out alot of colour and not to mention, details.

I googled other art tests and the quality varies. A couple of the best art tests lead to the artists getting hired. I appreciate the blunt honesty and I have to say I totally agree with you. Rendering in max using mental ray is still my weakness, but this was just a quick render to show the progress.

@Oniram: I can show a few of the texture sheets when I get normal and spec maps completed. Only have diffuse and opacity completed so far.

SinisterUrge

Just an update playing around with the sunlight. Its quite nice, but looking forward to seeing how my work in UDK late down the pipeline.

Oniram

hmm.. no normal maps. id guess you havent done any high poly objects for this scene then?

SaferDan

I would look at the wood on the supports going into the sea. The dents of the wood on two of them are massive!

I look forward to seeing more!

vofff

A curious question SinisterUrge, the work assignment, did they set you a time limit?

EMC3D

Dont they have a new art test or is the dock one still on their site?

SinisterUrge

@Oniram: Haven't gotten round to making the normals and specs yet

@SaferDan: Definitely, someone else pointed that out to me as well.

@voff: Yes

@mr Bear: So I see they have a new art test. Though they are still on the hunt for artists, so not the end of the world. May take on the new art test as well.

SinisterUrge

Trying to get this setup in UDK right now, but did a render last night in Max so I could get some input from the good people on polycount.

Snader

It looks as if you're only using diffuse textures, and pretty much straight out of photo reference too.

SinisterUrge

@Snader: No, I added normal and diffuse maps. I think those details were lose in compression

sltrOlsson

Don't render out your models man - if you don't have propper mentalRay/vray materials on them. Don't know for vray, but mentalRay just fucking slaughters normalmaps and handles specular very strange.

Skip the render stage and just post UDK screens

SinisterUrge

@strOlsson: Bit late telling me that now, but definitely gonna do just that from now on.

SinisterUrge

Finally, after much heartache learning the ins and outs of UDK I imported everything into the engine. How's it looking?

Sean VanGorder

It's a good start, but it's looking very monochromatic and desaturated at the moment. Try to break it up a bit and draw the eye with some color. Splash Damage uses a lot of color in their stuff.

confracto

honestly, the first thing I saw was the seam on the bottom middle of the tires.

glottis8

I think you should add more geometry to your work to smooth edges. Then the first thing i notice was the fog in your scene just washes any detail or silhouette from your environment. You should get rid of post processing effects until you get your materials rendering in UDK the way you want them to be. There is plenty of things that could benefit from more work. Like your tile looking texture for the moss. You can use your material to apply those in.

SinisterUrge

I really appreciate the feedback given so far. It has helped a great deal. Here is my latest effort.

AnimeAngel

Looking pretty good, but it really needs a focal point or something to draw the eye. Currently it has no real focal point. I know many people on polycount have taken this same test and you might look at some their versions of this to get some ideas.

whats_true

If your going for grey and boring, you naild it. It needs some color dude, something to give it more life then what it is right now.

SinisterUrge

Adding some post processing and decals, saturated some of the textures to remove the grayed bland look