[CryArtTest] Snapghost - [WIP] Environnement asset

Snapghost

Hi, everyone.

It's my first post, so i gonna introduce myself a little bit. I'm 22, living in Belgium, i'm a student (one more ... =D) and i hope to be graduated after this next 9 months. I registered long ago but I never found the time or the right opportunity to start a topic.

Today it's over, because Crytek - Nottingham granted, to all students of my class, a chance to get their first work experience with a pro team during 3 months. GORGEOUS !!!

The challenge is quite "simple" :

- Create a hero asset ("WW" effect is essential)
- Texture limit of 1 - 1024x1024's for each pass (Diff, Spec, Norm, etc)
- Should not exceed 8000 triangles
- Must be presented on a base (no specifics limit for the base, just be rational)

_________________________________


I have already choose a conceptart, he seems to be perfect for this kind of purpose. Not to big or to small and pretty complete.

It's a matte painting by Geoffroy THOORENS




So my goal is to reproduce this little temple, his tree, the rock island and this huge lighting or something similar. My work isn't actually so advanced but i will keep this thread up to date each time i can with new stuff.

Here Some of my first references for the temple.



And my first quandary was : do i create 2, 3, or 4 sloped roofs. I thought that 2 or 3 was the most dynamic shape. But i'm still open too new proposals.

Here the first screenshot of my work. (Yep Wippy :poly124:)



Any proposals, critics or councils on workflow or anything else is welcome. I'm still learning everyday. Thanks


Snapghost.

Clark Coots

this will be a very nice peaceful environment, keep at it

megalmn2000

Today it's over, because Crytek - Nottingham granted, to all students of my class, a chance to get their first work experience with a pro team during 3 months. GORGEOUS !!!

Wow! You're so lucky!!!

ParoXum

I wish you good luck and hopefully I'll be able to help as much as possible during your creation process

Not that much to crit yet, modeling's clean; looking forward to seeing how it goes.

Wow! You're so lucky!!!

Nothing's granted tho. I offered the students(30 of them) the opportunity to make the test during cry engine classes they had last month, possibility of an internship highly depends on how much they blow our mind with sexy pixels.

Oniram

wow that sounds like a great opportunity for students! good luck with it Snapghost. ill be watching this thread. no crits just yet tho.

tristamus

I wish you good luck - it looks very fun, and what a damned lucky opportunity you have to work with those pros for 3 months.

Use this opportunity to learn as much as you can and never be lazy!!

Freaking crazy..

Butthair

That's an awesome opportunity, as everyone else says. I wish you luck.

I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but the wow factor of the concept was about the environment with the sunlight and the waterfalls and mountains, however, if you make that gazebo thing look beast, then all is good. Some rock assets (possibly even waterfalls) will help as a base.

Looking forward to seeing how you take this. Make it look "cool", make it look good. Good luck!

Mr_Paris

Very Jelly, do your concept proud

e-freak

Butthair wrote: »

That's an awesome opportunity, as everyone else says. I wish you luck.

I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but the wow factor of the concept was about the environment with the sunlight and the waterfalls and mountains, however, if you make that gazebo thing look beast, then all is good. Some rock assets (possibly even waterfalls) will help as a base.

Looking forward to seeing how you take this. Make it look "cool", make it look good. Good luck!

If it's gonna be presented on "a base", then I guess just doing a few modular rock assets and a waterfall, some modular basic grass patches and just throw it together. the lighting should be quite easy to match in CE3.

awesome concept and good practice! looking forward to see more.

and nice to see more crytekkers in the educational branch (Vincent/Paroxum: How do you do a class in Belgium from Nottingham?)

scotthomer

e-freak wrote: »

and nice to see more crytekkers in the educational branch (Vincent/Paroxum: How do you do a class in Belgium from Nottingham?)

Yeah I wondered about that too? Still its great to see you getting involved with students

ParoXum

e-freak: I went in Belgium for a four days long seminar about the complete art pipeline in CE3 last month, at their school. They learned how to use the engine like we do in production and a lot of interesting stuff. Some of it got recorded as well on video but I don't know if it's available yet. Tho, everything was in french.

SnapGhost, sorry for the thread hijack :P

Snapghost

Haha, really happy to see so much enthusiasm from the community (So much pressure), thanks to everyone of you. Nothing to show you right now. This morning, i was at school practicing some LUA and CGFX scripting.

@Butthair. That's true, the background is pretty usefull to get this awesome picture ... but i hope to get anyway a good asset. i will do my best, i have to !

@ParoXum. No problem You are welcome. ^^

Snapghost.


EDIT:
Some new stuff, rough model. The roof feel too straight i will curve him a little.



still listening to your point of view ! Thanks.

Snapghost.

Snapghost

Hey !

Low poly is done.



Any comments are welcome, see you !

Snapghost.

ParoXum

This part of the building seems a bit weak. It looked stronger on your blockout when angles were 90.






Also you might want to move some of your budget for chamfers a bit lower, where the player might go. At the moment you have chamfered beams at the top but the lower wood beams are not. While the object is seen in its entirety it is also meant to be seen from the player point of view.:)

myles

And this is a hero asset how? Your going to have a really hard time producing the temple, the rock and the tree in a single 1024 texture and in 8000 triangles. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding and what you are doing now is the base?
I guess a 'hero asset' is very loose though...
Well best of luck and the concept you have chosen is great.

ParoXum

You'd be surprised what can be done using a single 1024. Just have a look at Snefer's recent datacore map. Also, the pedestal is out of the budget, but needs to stay consistent in its texture usage, that's all.

hamzaaa

Woah nice, I wish we had the chance to do this. I would rip my limbs out to get the chance!
I like what I see so far. The concept ist really nice and I am looking forward for your progress

Snapghost

Hey !

@ParoXum: Thanks for your new critics, really help full.

@myles: Maybe my breiffing was quiet to short, sry. 1024 texturemap and 8K tri are just for the temple.

@hamzaaa: thx, hope the result will be very good.


Nothing to show you sorry, but new screenshot will updated soon.


Snapghost.

Adam L. Gray

Great job so far, really liking how this is coming along!

Here's some pointers for you though.

If I'd been working on this one, I would've started off by changing the bent supports back into a 90 degree angle. The reason for this being that it'd help accentuate this kind of look: http://www.prowellwoodworks.com/fences/patterns/chippendale_1.gif which you see quite a lot in some eastern architecture.

I'd also remove the chamfers on it, as in the end I don't think it'd make for much of a notable difference, and then use the saved tris there to add back some silhouette in the roof top.

Where the tiles meet the top beam, it seems to be completely leveled out (If it's not, then my bad, looking again it seems as if it might not be, but with the lack of shading it's a tad confusing ) and I fear that's going to look quite flat in the end, even if you bake it out to make it appear as if it's passing underneath the beam.

Here's an image to illustrate what I just said:



Cheers

EzMeow

My main critic would be that while you got a lot of geometry on the top of the roof, you don't have much detail at the player average line of sight(which would be under the roof I believe).
I think you could save some more triangle and put them back to the bottom.
It looks like you've started from the top with all the detail here, then run out of budget once you reached the bottom (simple geo, no more bevel...)

ParoXum

I think you should not add more triangles on the top of the roof plates. That's a place where your normal map should fake it. It's really only important on the lower line of the roof where you have all the cylinders coming out of it.

randomind

that is an awesome opportunity man.
Its time to impress!!

Snipergen

Good start man! Can I ask where you study? DAE perhaps?

Veel succes nog!

Snapghost

Hey !

@Tiros Hi and thanks for sharing with me your point of view.Yes, it would be interesting to avoid this straight line on the roof.

@EzMeow Yup, you right ! i started from the roof ... Can i save some tris by using only 6 edges cylinders on the edge of the roof ? It would look too much low poly, no ? Actualy, i'm using 6 edges cylinders, refined into 8 edges on the end.

@ParoXum Hard to see on these screenshoots but my mesh wasn't so well optimized.

screenshot better than words.



@randomind Yeah i know. More pressure please :poly124:

@Snipergen Sure. Studying in the HEAJ (Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard). It's a graphic designer school.


Will work on the HP of the bell tonight. Thanks again to everyone.


Snapghost.

Snapghost

Hey !

New stuff over there.

It's the bell.



Have a nice day !

Snapghost.

Clark Coots

Nice job so far. Why not model any dents or anything into the HighPoly of the bell? The texture work I like, although I can see the Symmetry line in some places, maybe paint some of that out so it's more subtle. Also you have warping in your normal map at the top of the bell. There are some threads about that issue with baking normals to a cylindrical object, you should search for them and you'd end up with a cleaner bake. heres one to get you started
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap

ParoXum

I don't know if the bell is still work in progress or not, but you might want to add some specular work on it.

Snapghost

@coots7 Thx for the links, i'm working on the normal bake

@ParoXum Still in progress, yes.

I have tweaked the normal with crazy bump to get some dents details and improved the spec. Artefact on the top not fixed.



Snapghost.

Snapghost

Fixed top of the bell. And added the top part of this one. (Texture map 512x256)



Snapghost.

IchII3D

Hmmm, not bad. Watch the noise in your texture though. You really want to focus on form and silhouette, the jaggies at the top of the bell are nasty pasty.

Don't add detail for the sack of detail and don't just ramp up the contrast. If all your objects are full of detail and high contrast your scene begins to lose depth, composition and becomes very difficult for players to navigate.

You texture doesn't feel like it represents a metal very well, I would assume it would still have polished areas and instead of overall noise the noise would be contained in the joints or damaged areas.

http://v5.cache2.c.bigcache.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/40286727.jpg?redirect_counter=1

Snapghost

Hey !

New try, is that better ? less noise and less color variations. Hope i'm going in the right way.



Edit: too much gray ...

Snapghost.

e-freak

actually i liked the previous iteration better, the specular and contrast worked better for me

edit: pardon the question. but why are you rendering your asset in udk (when doing a CE3 test)?

polyly

Try to use POM! It makes much more detail.

Snapghost

Hey !

@e-freak Still working on the bell, and i'm rendering asset in udk because CE3 was'nt installed yet. He is now, here a screenshot of the first itteration in CE3.



@polyly sry, but POM is the acronym of ???

Snapghost.

IchII3D

It seems like a lot of the texture work is just simple overlays with no real purpose or specifics, focus your details where they would be and not just randomly. Add contrast to areas with features and detail, not the overall object.

I don't have much time but I quickly put together this to show an example of how I your metal/rust/form might look.

- base (fairly simple, selling the surface type)
- rust (selling age, only rust where you would physically get rust)
- features (does it have a dent? crack? Something to draw your eye?)
- small details (the finishing touches to make it feel real)

Snapghost

Hey.

@IchII3D I'm extremely grateful to see you sharing your knowledge with me. i take everything in notes.

Snap.

raul

i was going to comment and say the same things Ichil3d, so ill just add to it.
Basicly instead of getting all crazy on the rust and stuff. Simply look at the details you already modeled. And now think how you can make them pop by "grounding them" using rust, and ao and that sort of thing. I like to start mine by adding a contrast layer where i go in and make things pop by using iether a lighter of darker shade of that color. I then start adding other colors to break up the texture a bit. Rust and grime is the last thing i add. You are doing awesome just pimp your textures a little bit more!

The other thing i wanted to say is that your 1st attempt looked really noisy, then you got rid of it. Started looking better, now use your spec map to highlight things where the normal map is higher and darken things where is lower. To start giving your textures more depth.

IchII3D

Considering the scale of the object its also very low poly, I should very rarely be able to see jagged edges on first glance. They stick out like a saw thumb. When making round objects always use the polygons where needed. It looks like it has 4 edges along the bottom for a quarter so adding up its like 300-400 triangles?

POM = Parallax Occlusion Mapping
http://wiki.polycount.com/ParallaxMap

Snapghost

Hey !

@Raul Thanks sharing with me your tips. Always really helpfull and instructive !

@IchII3D I will think about it but i have already a very high polycount. ~7700.

My new test : hope he is better to you guys. He is to me.



MainRef : Here (http://yun.com/jpeg/yun_5999.jpg)



Snapghost.

ParoXum

Much much better, and symmetry is handled quite better too. I'll join Ichii3d on the jagged edges, one more edge loop on the top of the bell would sell the silhouette more.

Edit: your ref url isn't working

ES_139

looks ok so far, i would however voice my concern over crytek nottingham looking at overseas students when there are so many unemployed graduates in the U.K. Given that its so hard to break in (from my experience at least) and you are faced with the constant chicken and egg situation that you cannot get hired without experience (how can you get experience without being hired) but i guess it comes down to your skill and talent at the end of the day. Forgive my potential thread derailment
/rant

your materials read ok but i would get on with a larger blockout given the scale of the scene your taking on. I would suggest that you perhaps start looking at a basic terrain and water setup and work on the lighting with your blockout models and then move on to smaller details like rivets on a bell? It might give you a bit more incentive to complete the scene as well as it might not seem like such a huge task if you feel you have a decent lighting/shader setup opposed to concentrating on small details which leave you feeling like you still have a mountain to climb! (no pun intended)

Snapghost

@ES_139 I'm not doing this test for a job it's clearly explain in the first post. It's for an intership of ~3months and Crytek is totally free to refuse my art test or take no one of students. Here my goal is to realise the temple with is base but not all the concept, i'm still a student i have others projects to complete for school.

ES_139

apologies for any offense caused i must have miss understood.
My critiques are still the same!

Snapghost

Hi !!!

A long time without any screens sorry but i was too dispelled by school, my workteam and this stuff. But this project is still alive and here it is the first export attemp.

7.972 tris and a 1024 texture map



Hope you'll like it ! Have to finish the base this afternoon.

Snapghost.

Snapghost

Thx

Default terrain Material


Snapghost.

Torch

This is turning out really nice man, keep going!

BlvdNights

Put one more edge loop near the top of the bell. It looks really good but the silhouette seems to break up badly.

Lightweight

Snapghost wrote: »

Snapghost.

I like where this is going, will be watching with interest!

In regards to the bell, how did you model it? Is the left image a high poly or a a lowpoly with phat normal maps on it?

Regards

Snapghost

@BlvdNights Hi, i fixed this in another iteration but i didn't posted a new screenshot. Good advice anyway thx.

@Lightweight Hi, the bell on the left his the HP, the main shape has been created with Zbrush and the little clover with 3DSMax. The technic is simple.

I will be really brief but if you need it i can create a complete tutorial, but not right now i'm a little bit busy .


1. Create a lowpoly shape with UV's.

2. Subdivise the mesh with zbrush and create a mask with CTRL+ CLIC and unmask with CTRL + ALT + CLIC. When you get your wanted shape go to Masking > Create Alpha. ( if it didn't work, look for overlapped UV's or i notice that uv's snapped to the uv range's limit can be a problem too)

3. Export and refine the alpha with photoshop.

4. Reimport the new alpha and go to Masking > Mask By Alpha.

5. And apply a deformation ( Deformation > Inflat for exemple ).

If you have already some basic skills with zbrush you will get a result quickly.


Snapghost.

ES_139

why not just paint those details on your normal map with ndo or something similar rather than using zbrush? your obviously competent with photoshop if you are refining the masks your using in it.
Just seems a bit long winded.

Snapghost

Hi !

So it's my work ! That was my first attemp to start and finish a project on Polycount. I hope there will be more of them in the futur. I'm really grateful to each one of you, your advices were really helpfull.

I will increase my skill as much as possible until the next topic that i would create ( and my english too :P).

The last points of view are still welcome, i will keep them for futur projects. (I don't have more time to put in this work)

Thanks again !



Snapghost.