First time here! Tips? Critiques?

Rocan91

Hi there! New member, just joined today!

I'm a 3D rigger, but on the side I do 3D models when I have the time or when I need a break from my rigging.

This was a piece I did with about 10 other artists, all students like me. We had a concept, but due to a deadline we scratched it and just put something together.

I didn't do the lighting or composition, but I did the side wall and the ceiling piece.



Here is my asset, low poly and textured in UDK.







This is a separate pillar that I made based off of an asset in Unreal. I tried to get most details in, and texture and light it.




Here's the original high poly concept.




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I seem to be having trouble getting a proper low poly model along with transferring the high poly details into the lower poly. Here's an example of a statue I did for a garden scene.





Her arm, although I UV'ed it separately, seems to block some of the details on the dress in the low poly. Is it a problem maybe in the software I'm using? I'm using XNormals. Or maybe it's a problem with my modeling or UV layout? I will look for the UV layout for this model if needed.

I tend to struggle a lot with creating low poly models for the high poly models! I'm working on a head bust which I want to be able to rig later on, but I'm afraid to even start on the low poly model for the reason that I worry about it turning out like my statue.

Any tips, suggestions are welcome! I would really like to be able to create my own good models to rig instead of nagging other artists for their models. And thanks for your time!

jimmypopali

Hope Kevin see's this since it's his high poly pillar, see what he thinks

What are the things in the low poly that it is missing, anything in particular? It seems to be some of the overall noise in the chipped off bits. Overall it's not too bad, there is a bit of stretching on the larger chipped off bits on her dress.

For character retopo in MAX, you can look at this page for a script HERE along with others that could help.

Rocan91

jimmypopali wrote: »

Hope Kevin see's this since it's his high poly pillar, see what he thinks

What are the things in the low poly that it is missing, anything in particular? It seems to be some of the overall noise in the chipped off bits. Overall it's not too bad, there is a bit of stretching on the larger chipped off bits on her dress.

For character retopo in MAX, you can look at this page for a script HERE along with others that could help.

I hope so too! I'd like to know what he thinks of it as well.

Well for example in the statue, the roses are missing, because I don't know how to exactly put those in without increasing the poly count and making it look like weird blocks on them.

And I see what you mean. I will look into the page.

Thanks!

jordan.kocon

Nice work, I like your sci fi props. I did a quick paint over though on where I think you can clean up a lot of poly's. Hopefully I'm not blowing smoke out my a*s and someone can back up this paint over. I have learnt a lot... or so I think about reducing polycount from... polycount, so here is my 2 cents.

Dylan Brady

eh? not sure why you decided to cut all those edges up to the top instead of across like the rest.
No need for all that wierdness just straight edges from on side to the other would be fine

Bombshell

you could save at least 38 faces if you were to do it like
__________
|_________|
#\_______/
#|_______|
##\_____/

etc. (sorry about the text visualization, I cba to draw it)

jordan.kocon

Doh. Ya sorry, I'm gonna blame it on being tired haha, or just plain stupid. Straight across is definitely the way to go

Mark Dygert

The lighting is mess... so many different conflicting colors There doesn't seem to be much overall atmosphere, composition or focal points but just, dark where there shouldn't be dark and glowy bits of primary colored lights... yuck. Lighting should drive players to look at important things and it needs to flow, which its not. The scene would almost work better if you flipped it upside down...

If I was you I would get a hold of the scene and throw out the lighting and redo it. It's not doing your pieces any good.

Personally I would do something like this:


More light on the floor, so players can see where they are going, preferably laid out in a way that guides them around the scene.

Unify the colors a bit, this is a touch monochromatic but it was hard fighting the rainbow.

passerby

i would recommend not to use things like Kevin's pillar as a direct concept like that, it's a very recognizable piece from ut3 and is used in multiple forms, and it is instantly recognizable as being based on on of Kevin's pieces so it would look out of place in a environment.

though i would still use ideas and elements from it since it is a good piece.

Rocan91

Bonebrew22 wrote: »

eh? not sure why you decided to cut all those edges up to the top instead of across like the rest.
No need for all that wierdness just straight edges from on side to the other would be fine

Thanks for the tip! I will certainly retopo my pillar!

Rocan91

Mark Dygert wrote: »

The lighting is mess... so many different conflicting colors There doesn't seem to be much overall atmosphere, composition or focal points but just, dark where there shouldn't be dark and glowy bits of primary colored lights... yuck. Lighting should drive players to look at important things and it needs to flow, which its not. The scene would almost work better if you flipped it upside down...

If I was you I would get a hold of the scene and throw out the lighting and redo it. It's not doing your pieces any good.

Personally I would do something like this:


More light on the floor, so players can see where they are going, preferably laid out in a way that guides them around the scene.

Unify the colors a bit, this is a touch monochromatic but it was hard fighting the rainbow.

I will try to get a hold of the person who has the completed scene and I will mess with the lighting! Thanks for the tips!

Rocan91

passerby wrote: »

i would recommend not to use things like Kevin's pillar as a direct concept like that, it's a very recognizable piece from ut3 and is used in multiple forms, and it is instantly recognizable as being based on on of Kevin's pieces so it would look out of place in a environment.

though i would still use ideas and elements from it since it is a good piece.

You're right. It wasn't used in that scene though.

It was an exercise my teacher suggested I do, where I take a pre-existing piece and try to recreate it exactly as I could within a time limit. However I will keep in consideration about using ideas and inspiration from pieces like that.

Rocan91

Thanks everyone for taking the time to see my stuff and let me know how to fix it. I'll put up my next project soon so I can get some tips on how to start on the low poly since I'm absolutely stumped on that part.

passerby

ya keep things up shows promise

Rocan91

So I can't get a hold of the scene, the person who had the put together scene left the school and no longer uses the email they previously had. Oh well. Next best thing is to locate every individual person and ask them for their prop.

Here's my other piece I'm doing though. It's based off of this sculpture I made.


I want the same basic zombie like appearance along with the chains. I


Here's what I've got so far;






Here's the closeup.


My hair is in the process of being redone, as I'm looking for references to hair like that---the floating in water kind of style. I like it a lot better than just being flat.

I also haven't added the chains, and I need to refine the zipper eye and make her mouth look more fleshy like as if it were just cut. I'm using the black dahlia's autopsy photo as reference along with other shots of ripped flesh.

so yeah I'm in the process of getting it done, but my main concern is how I'm going to retopo this. I keep thinking of it as I'm modeling, but I am at a loss. I do have a basic head model, but it's not as low poly as I'd like it to be.

How would I go about the low poly of this? Do I make everything a separate object and retopologize it that way and then later on put it together as one object?

Thanks again for your guys's feedback! I appreciate it!