New to the Forum and new to the Industry, here's some stuff!
polycounter lvl 4
Hi all,
My name's Martin and I'm a BSc undergraduate studying Sound Recording at Glyndwr University, Wales. Over the latest summer break I discovered that I have a little bit of a passion for game art! I've been teaching myself to model in Maya, how to texture in Photoshop, how to work with shaders in UDK and have also picked up a few handy bits of kit along the way to smooth the pipeline (Marmoset Toolbag, CrazyBump and xNormal are awesome!) I also have a copy of ZBrush and a whopping great tome of a book on how to use it, but I haven't yet used either of those in any meaningful capacity. I'll get round to it though!
Since I haven't been at it for very long I don't have much to show for my efforts, most of my earlier creations (a few months ago) were terrible, but they helped me alot in bolstering my understanding of the modelling process (learning how to layout UVs effectively probably took the longest, but when it clicks, it clicks).
Here are a couple of my more recent modelling efforts (rendered in Marmoset Toolbag), comments and critique are very welcome!
Shipping container,
M3 'Grease Gun'
Let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading,
Martin.
My name's Martin and I'm a BSc undergraduate studying Sound Recording at Glyndwr University, Wales. Over the latest summer break I discovered that I have a little bit of a passion for game art! I've been teaching myself to model in Maya, how to texture in Photoshop, how to work with shaders in UDK and have also picked up a few handy bits of kit along the way to smooth the pipeline (Marmoset Toolbag, CrazyBump and xNormal are awesome!) I also have a copy of ZBrush and a whopping great tome of a book on how to use it, but I haven't yet used either of those in any meaningful capacity. I'll get round to it though!
Since I haven't been at it for very long I don't have much to show for my efforts, most of my earlier creations (a few months ago) were terrible, but they helped me alot in bolstering my understanding of the modelling process (learning how to layout UVs effectively probably took the longest, but when it clicks, it clicks).
Here are a couple of my more recent modelling efforts (rendered in Marmoset Toolbag), comments and critique are very welcome!
Shipping container,
M3 'Grease Gun'
Let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading,
Martin.
Replies
Let's take a look at this image, which I did not make, but it was given to me by a fourm buddy so I'm not entirely sure where he got it.
I've found this image to hold quite true. It's unfortunate really. In my mind it should be reversed. I think it's the average artist that has lots of room to grow, due to desire and work ethic (in theory), and is deserving of critiques and feedback.
Annoying noobs have a lot of ways to go to get to average, and the inspired artist doesn't really need a lot of people drueling over their posts with responds. I mean, it might be a nice ego boost and all, but it doesn't help them improve.
So don't be discouraged. Turn that frown upside down and get active in the forum community. It'll do you a lot of good.
With texturing, you have to ask yourself at least 'how' and 'why' (there are lots of other questions really, but start with those.) The gun probably has a 'story' for itself and why it looks the way it does. Where did the dirt come from? What kind of dirt is it? Why is it settling where it's settling? Is there rust? Why does rust form? Where does rust form? Are certain parts handled more than others? How would this affect the surface? The magazine slides in and out a lot, would it not have scratches due to this? And on and on ...
Oh and welcome to the forum!
That's so perfect.
@ the OP, can you show the flat textures of the crate, it's pretty nice
@SsSandu_C - The handle definitely IS off by quite a way. I was having trouble interpreting the width of certain parts from the reference pictures I found. I made lots of mistakes with that model, but I now know what to look out for/take care with. As for the scratches on the container looking too unform, this is likely down to having used a mouse to draw them, rather than a pressure sensitive tablet. I do have a tablet, I was just having a lazy day! I'll remember that pitfall in future.
@Randalph_The_Black - That graph is spot on if you ask me! I've had trouble from day 1 with making metallic surfaces actually look metallic, think I need to do a bit more reading on the subject. I'll keep browsing the wiki on this site, some of it is pure gold dust. I tried to localise the rust on the container around the areas with moving parts and on the corners/exposed areas, but I don't think it carried very well, too many grime overlays busying up the texture. I'll keep at it and see if I can't improve on it.
@SCB - Now that you've said that I know exactly what you mean, doesn't exactly look like it's been dragged through a warzone
Thanks again guys,
Martin.
Here you go. Compressed to .jpeg to save some Dropbox space. Again, C&C are very welcome!
EDIT: I should mention; as of yet I've only used greyscale specular/gloss maps, because I don't know any of the theory behind a colour specular map, such as what colours different surfaces should be, and more importantly why. I'll get around to reading more on the subject though and hopefully I can then start experimenting with colour speculars of my own.
Crits wise, your work looks pretty good, the shipping crate looks pretty game worthy, though you'll no doubt find a lot of ways to improve it as you progress.
The grease gun could use some work, the material doesn't look very metallic, it looks kinda marbly, you need to look at reference, figure out what makes the metal of the gun look like metal, and try and imitate that in your texture.
Also, the grip is much too fat, your hand would not hold that comfortably
looking good so far though, just keep making more stuff and you'll be there in no time
I disagree.
How do you explain:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90110
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90135&highlight=gears+war+3
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90220&highlight=gears+war+3
etc.
Pump up the contrast and the brightness on the specular. You lose alot of the red in your diffuse couse of the high average brightness in you specular.
I really like you diffuse, but i think that the worn bits is too uniform. Make them count instead!
All of those threads you listed have pages and pages of people doing exactly what I said they'd do to the "inspired" artist. They're all just saying how great it is.
Which again, is deserved, because the art is very good. But those guys already know they're good because they're working at Epic.
So I'm not really sure what it is you're trying to demonstrate.
I'd say your crate is your strongest piece by far.
Exactly
Thanks for all the critique, I've tried much harder on my texturing for this next asset. I've spent another day ignoring my University deadlines and working on my modelling/texturing skills. Today I started and finished (if you can call it finished!) a tileable section of a stone wall. It looks very tiled, but I think it's inconspicuous enough that you could get away with it in-game by breaking it up with decals, foliage and other meshes.
Here's what I've got so far,
The workflow went Maya (to make a box) > Mudbox (to sculpt the stone) > ZBrush (for decimation) > Maya (for retop'ing) > ZBrush (for UV Master) > xNormal (for the obvious!) > Photoshop > Marmoset Toolbag. Let me know if that sounds normal or not
Crits and comments are very welcome, I realise that the low-poly mesh has a few harsh blackened edges on it, it's only 400 tris as it is, I'll probably go back and do a little more optimisation with it. Also, the line of black along the bottom is intended to be sunk into the ground, so you wouldn't see that.
Martin.
EDIT: Upon close inspection there are quite a few normal map artifacts in there I didn't spot the first time
Did I get any Uni work done today? Nope. But I did read a brilliant article which Pivot posted up on another thread for someone else who was having trouble getting textures to read like the materials you want them to.
This is the one: http://www.manufato.com/?p=902
After reading it last night I HAD to try it out, so today I grabbed a messy tile texture off of cgtextures, edited the hell out of it, made it tile horizontally, slapped it in CrazyBump, which got awfully confused about the shapes of some of the tiles, so I painted in corrections for it in photoshop. Then I took what I'd learned about specular maps from the tutorial and created a specular with the intention of having a matte finish on the top and bottom sets of tiles and a high gloss finish on the rest, and of course I made sure to colour the specular so that the highlights would come out true to a 'dielectric' material.
A small victory I'd say! Crits and comments very welcome
I completely agree that the modified image is not really accurate. Plus, I'd say that any comments, useful or not, can help in some way... In the end you just have to take it face value. It can be an opinion, an accurate critique or just a matter of taste, but it should all add up anyway.
Is the stone texture supposed to be used on any other part of a scene or something? If not, you should make it intergrate better with the beams and get some AO in the texture
Keep it up!
I've also finished the fixings that attach the rails to the sleepers and stuck them in. Any thoughts?
Here's my reference (good ol' wikipedia),
And here's the context I intend to use it in (indoors),
C&C very welcome
also notice how there is some discolouration in the spec for the exposed metal. you've got greys browns blues and reds. put that into your spec/gloss map and itll pop much more.
Heard that loud and clear!
Will this m1911 cut it?
(still very W.I.P.)
I know it's not the most complicated of weapons but I think it has enough curvy-bits to be a challenge for myself. It's also the first time I've actually used ZBrush or proper SubDiv modelling techniques so I'm learning loads whilst building this. 'Is it exciting enough though?' I suppose is the question.
And if you want to choose something exiting to create, just look up your favorite artist/movie/book/whatever and be inspired by that. Just choose something that YOU find interesting. Don't pick stuff you think other people would find interesting. The best art gets created when you create something you like, not when you create something you think other ppl will like.
According to this graph, I am somewhere between average joe and decent artist. I get positive replies stating my modeling skills have been beefed up from the ones I started with. I do get crits for minor tweeks.
hmm..
Welcome to the Polycount OP, really nice work right there sir.
I actually find guns quite interesting lol! At the moment anyhow, mostly because of Battlefield 3 (back to Karkand is out in like 2 days or something, SO EXCITED!). On a broader scale what I really enjoy is weapons, be it a gun, or an axe, or a sword, or a rocket launcher, or some sorta ice-spike shooting wand thingy, or... you see where I'm going with this.
With that in mind I think the next thing I want to do is make a sword, axe, or hammer, or all three! Because I've also fallen back in love with TES series since Skyrim came out, and I really love the new weapon sets; the iron ones in particular look really cool with that celtic knot-type pattern. Would love to do something like that. Plus I'm eager to do more work in ZBrush and hand hammering some polys to get a hand hammered metal look would just be a cool thing to try out.
Thanks for the crits guys, that pinching on the grip is really giving me some ball-ache, any idea as to how I might go about smoothing it out? (Not a trick question btw, the smooth brush just makes the hard edges either side of it collapse and for some reason won't just smooth the bits I want it to, apparently it can't read minds, or something like that.)
Here's the lo-poly in Marmoset Toolbag, and the hi-poly in ZBrush,
I've had trouble making metallic surfaces look metallic ever since I started a few months ago, so any crits/comments on how I might improve the material of the lo-poly are greatly appreciated. Well, I'm off to bed!
Martin.
Here's what I've got so far (some of the larger areas could do with another subdiv level, but I've only got 3.5GB of RAM so I try to save it wherever I can),
Let me know what you think! Never done a character before, and I'm still very new to ZBrush, so there're bound to be all sorts of rookie mistakes. Also, if there's a quick and easy way to up the standard of my renders do let me know, at the moment I'm just turning on AO and hitting the 'Best' button.
Thanks,
Martin.