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.
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
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.
@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.
@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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Replies
I'm no environment artist, but the roof looks good, the rest still needs work, but good so far
Good luck with it!
@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.
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.
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.
I look forward to seeing more!
@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.
Skip the render stage and just post UDK screens
I really appreciate the feedback given so far. It has helped a great deal. Here is my latest effort.
Adding some post processing and decals, saturated some of the textures to remove the grayed bland look