Desmond Man - Environment/Hardsurface Modeller
Hey guys!
I'm new to polycount and I was told by a friend to join and post some work
So i'm a 3D Environment/Hard-Surface modeller who's just finished the final year of the Games Art Degree at the University of Hertfordshire.
I've come across a lot of problems during my final year which has lead me to end up with a showreel which I wouldn't consider to show the level of understanding/skills that I have because my head just wasn't in it at the time when I was given this brief.
however excuses aside, this is all i have to show so please critique it any way so i may learn where i went wrong or how i should have done something
my showreel is auto-playing on my website front page
www.desmondman.co.uk
and my current W.I.P is this SWAT Van Vehicle and an Environment around it which is still in the early stages of it's development
I am very excited to be apart of this community and I hope with everyone's input it will better me as a 3D Artist and hopefully bring me to a junior environment artist in a games company soon
All crits welcome
I'm new to polycount and I was told by a friend to join and post some work
So i'm a 3D Environment/Hard-Surface modeller who's just finished the final year of the Games Art Degree at the University of Hertfordshire.
I've come across a lot of problems during my final year which has lead me to end up with a showreel which I wouldn't consider to show the level of understanding/skills that I have because my head just wasn't in it at the time when I was given this brief.
however excuses aside, this is all i have to show so please critique it any way so i may learn where i went wrong or how i should have done something
my showreel is auto-playing on my website front page
www.desmondman.co.uk
and my current W.I.P is this SWAT Van Vehicle and an Environment around it which is still in the early stages of it's development
I am very excited to be apart of this community and I hope with everyone's input it will better me as a 3D Artist and hopefully bring me to a junior environment artist in a games company soon
All crits welcome
Replies
I modelled one plane in full detail with the tire's pattern etc... then I made sure i set them up to tile seamlessly and I duplicated them 5 times, attached them and then used a Bend modifier and bent it by 360 degrees to link
And to Jordan, Thanks much appreciated... I actually really enjoy this song xD almost seemed perfect for showreel music haha, anyhoo yeah to answer your question yes i did model in all the tiles.
I know it's not the way to do it but there's an explanation behind haha, you see... when i began modelling this piece i didn't actually know whether i was going for games or production so it ended up squeezing right in between which was quite a foolish move haha... if i were to fix it now, i would bake it into a normal map xD
more updates to come!
For your links, I would put less glow, since the text is a bit difficult to read too. I know it's your style, but we must being able to find important stuffs easily first. On your gallery, you should also put your wireframe and textures. It's important to recruiters to know how you made the models to bring it into a game engine.
yeah i agree about the info at the end... i noticed it the first time too when i embedded it onto my website since it looks fine in HD, just goes all blurry when it's that small/compressed... but yeah I was meaning to change it but I completely forgot! lol... thanks for reminding me
also, i'll get the wires up and i'll drop the glow too.
Any crits on the WIP vehicle as well?
haven't touched my website layout or current showreel... they're still crits i have on my to-do list... but as of these last few days i've been really into this model... so as a result i've finished the lowpoly from the high-poly and i have successfully unwrapped all of the exterior (the interior is also on my to-do list for unwrapping)
all crits welcome
but i did also have the thought that the wheels are just as equally important especially when there's 6 of them and they're very visible.
My initial plans for the bonnet weren't that epic really, I decided that it was going to be matte but at the most with a few bumps and scratches with dirt maps etc.
so i assumed i wouldn't need loads of space for the bonnet, but obviously still enough for detail, but at the same time i'm working in 2048x2048 texture resolution.
i'll reoptimise the UVs though
Of all things to change i'd say first the thing should be the pink text on your site. It's really difficult to read to the point of offputting, makes me kinda want to click away rather than look at your work. A few things about the reel stuck out too. The animated girl, the seams in her neck and feet show up really bad in the turnaround. You might wanna revisit that one if you're planning on keeping it in the reel. The horizontal pan on the car is really really fast and in general a lot of the cuts in the reel seem just a bit too rushed, no time to see anything. I'd also drop the life drawing from the end, for a 3d hard surface guy it's unnecessary and will probably just be skipped anyway. Lastly, no information on polycounts?
Also, i don't intend on keeping the girl at all but this was actually my graduate showreel (for hand-ins specifically) and it's just in there for the sake of hand-in.
(my initial thought was, i don't see my showreel as industry ready at all but having it up is better than not having it up incase anyone DOES decide to hire me from just that... lol unlikely, but again all down to chance xD)
but yeah, My goal right now is to make 4 new pieces... 1 of which being this swat scene.
Also about the website, I'll change the pink to a less contrasted one, anyone wanna pick my shade?
and fiiiinally xD
Here's the updated UV layout btw that Dragonwalker suggested
What I don't see anywhere is a demonstration of your knowledge of lowpoly skills and specs for game engines or use of them. It's too early to be showing your portfolio until you can show that stuff in a solid fashion, up until that point you are a young max guy enjoying the render settings, not really a game guy yet.
I'd crack open UDK or Cryengine and poke around, see what their specs were for static objects in the environment, your cars for instance would be environment assets because thats what you are aiming for, make a scene with them and other parts that would suit a car scene if that is your interest.
Or don't.
Do however make a scene, don't just make 1 thing and leave out there like an unfinished thought, because thats how it looks. It doesn't show you know how to follow through or what the ancillary pieces connected to your first object should be, its only characters that are allowed to just stand there and say 'look at me, I am complete'.
Environment art is like having a team, a variety of memebers each with different dimensions, style and skill. Apart they are just people, but together they are a team and they can take on other teams and do cool stuff they couldn't do on their own.
Theres no I in environment art, only WE.
In fact i agree with you, i know environment modellers come as teams and not as an individual.
However, i'm not entirely sure whether you've read everything i've written (doesn't entirely matter but i'll explain my intentions now.)
My current showreel in production is 'hardsurface' and environment that's why i have 2 cars in question, however i also said to someone just a post earlier in this thread that i would be scrapping practically all my showreel pieces that are currently there.
My 4 new pieces are planned out as follows:
- swat vehicle / mini chaotic street environment.
- one low-poly games model based on a real building/tourist attraction based in London. (possibly the China Town temple, which is roughly 3m high and quite a tourist attraction.)
- a small cartooney games environment (with trees, plants, etc)
- my nissan vehicle in a garage parking lot. (maybe)
- an environment modelled based on a concept by someone else. (maybe)
i have infact worked in UDK before, i understand how to run/work in UDK and how to model for UDK (since our 2nd year FMP was to build a games level and then render a games trailer from that.)
I won't argue, my current showreel does not in any way explain what kind of modeller i am nor show commitment to production or games in the topology (because it's some kind of failed mix in between both). So, You have me there really haha.
But my next 4 coming pieces will all be specified towards games engines and i'm going to be rendering in the marmoset engine & udk engine for my showreel.
Sorry if the website/entry card and exit card on my showreel have confused the concept of my showreel... never really thought about it when i put it up, but my upcoming 4 pieces are what will represent me as an environment/hardsurface modeller.
but check this thread regularly and i will demonstrate my knowledge of lowpoly modelling, of course with the guidance of my fellow modellers right? haha n_n
It was introduced but we weren't taught a proper pipeline/workflow... just how things were done on models and elaborations on top of those methods, i actually learnt most of my lowpoly knowledge from researching other games artists and first hand knowledge by friends on the course who probably did the same. However modelling methods and explanations of pipeline/workflow was definately explained... just not enough i guess.
and Thanks giles, checked it
Oh and when I said theres no I in environment, theres only WE I was making the point that making singular assets in a vaccuum from each other isn't as useful as making a collection of assets that fit together to make a whole scene as that is an environment artists job more than a character artist who makes 1 asset that is meant to stand alone as its own self contained creation.
My main point would be pick one thing and aim for it purely.
If you would do do vehicles, sell yourself as a vehicle guy, if you want to do animations do that. Whats important is that you have a collection of focused work that makes it clear what you do and what you are aiming for.
ohhh, definately understand now... guess i misunderstood where u were coming from.
Alright so... say for what i'm doing now... my intention was to have the van as my main focus point for the piece and model my environment around it to compliment it but since i want to do environment and not so much vehicles, i chose this vehicle because i considered it quite games genre based and i guess it hadn't really hit me entirely that it's become my only focus in this piece...
So i guess my focus now would be to model the environment and have the van compliment my environment instead?
i could only assume that's the best decision, in fact... i'm actually horrible with cars haha, i know nothing about how they work etc apart from driving of course haha... so modelling vehicles as a job pretty much isn't what i want to do... i'd rather model environment scenes or assets for scenes.
Sorry Kevin, i Do want to go environment so forgive this piece for now haha... i just didn't wanna give up on this model since i went so far into it already... so consider this is practice for me...
I actually just want to do environments and not vehicles...
All crits welcome... i need to make this model shine
i've spent the few days here and there optimizing the Mesh into tris as much as I could find on the model.
I've also sculpted in some of the dents on the exterior... it's still a WIP so expect more work on the dents because i know they look quite flat =T
C&C very welcome... and SOON
Unfortunately the vehicle is actually quite boxy =T... here's the main reference i modelled/textured from with a few tweaks of my own.
Also, the bulking around windows sounds quite interesting... would u happen to be able to find a reference image for what you're talking about? now that i look at it again the windows look like they could use something haha xD
Also, the Interior is getting a bit old now and i haven't stated what crits i've taken from other people... i was planning on redoing the chairs etc because someone said the chairs looked too racer car like... and suggested i went with cotton black? or something like that haha
I think I might've been talking rubbish about the bulking. But I do think that the window and doors lack thickness. The cab lacks interior detail specifically the dashboard. do you have reference for the interior of the van?
In fact having so many problems with the texturing of this van made me take some time away from it, I've just recently come back to it and done a few projects in between.
I agree a lot that swat vans are painted and shouldn't be sanded down lol, thanks for the screamingly obvious yet needed feedback on that.
I redid the whole texturing/baking process again and hand painted all my base textures to begin with this time round!
I would love some feedback on my work,
The only piece i feel like I would actively retouch is the swat van right now since I've left the other projects on my hard-drive untouched for some time now but I'd still love to have some feedback on them so I'll remember what to avoid or what approach i should take on the next upcoming projects!
http://www.desmondman.co.uk
Thanks a lot
Also the way that SWAT shield is balancing is odd.
The mesh itself however, is mostly nice BUT I think you need to rexamine the windows, on your reference they are sagging down quite a lot on the sides making a nice ^ shape which your model lacks.
- regarding the specular, are you implying the grills in the front? or as a whole? once i find out i'll tweak it
- what do you suggest i do about the amount of maps i have? obviously i'm hoping i won't have to reorganise the UV's back into 2 UV sheets and redo all the texturing again but i'm prepared to if it's the only solution you can think of.
- I'll find a better way to balance the swat shield for the next render i put out.
- i'll cut out the +ao on the maps section and reorganise the presentation layout
Thanks a lot!