Realistic Cigarette In UDK

Kenn3dy

Hi guys, this is my first time posting on polycount, this is a little game asset that I am currently working on. The base mesh is modeled in Maya, sculpted with zbrush and texture map and normal map editing are done in photoshop. The shader and final composition are done in unreal. Please feel free to critique and comment.

Thanks!

PogoP

To be honest, something like this could just be hand painted in Photoshop. It's such a tiny, miniscule asset that doesn't really warrant Zbrush and such a large texture.

Is it part of a larger environment?

Hayden Zammit

I agree with PogoP it's so small and so many tris for something so small. Only way I can imgaine doing such detail for something like this is if it were to be used in an important in-game cinematic close-up.

KartoonHead

Materials are very well defined; the paper looks like paper, the ash looks like ash, and the foil strip around the filter looks like foil. Tri-count seems fine to me, especially if it's intended for next-gen quality or is to get a lot of camera time (like the one the Illusive Man smokes in Mass Effect 2), although I'd personally only use a 6-sided cylinder maximum for small details like this, and if it wasn't getting much camera time at all 3 or 4 sided would do just fine. The texture is clearly too big for such a small asset but that's not a big deal, you just scale it down.

Also, you can reduce your polycount by changing the topology of planar circles (you can just remove all edges and verts from it, select the face, and hit 'triangulate'),

Lazerus Reborn

Badass cigarette throw you say?

It's pretty yes, but very wasteful for the objects normal relative size. What are you planning to do with this? or is it just a practise piece?

Its good work at any rate. Try reducing texture and poly size? a simple 3 sided cylinder would suffice for ingame really.

Lonewolf

Small is a relative thing
he wanted to make a realistic cigarette and he did a very good job

i like it

dont forget the point here, hes showing his art skills not technical skills

Clark Coots

+1 Lonewolf.

size is relative. If this was for a game where you play a Mouse and the cigarette is a torch for a light source while exploring the sewers, it's perfect. regardless of polycount and texture size the materials are well defined and the texture is nice. good job!

Joopson

Personally, I feel like the normal map on the paper is too strong. Cigarettes usually look pretty smooth, where yours is almost corrugated. Of course, I don't smoke, so maybe a smoker can give input. For me, though, I'd say weaken it just a tad.

jordan.kocon

Yup I agree that its a mighty fine looking cigarette. I like that you added the gold trim at the end of the filter.

Kenn3dy

Hi guys, thanks for the awesome feedback, this is actually a practice piece that I am working on trying to get my hands dirty with zbrush again. I totally agree with you guys on the texture size and poly count, in the future I will be more careful with the poly count and texture size when working with a tiny asset.

Holi

I quit smoking and now I want my cigarettes back.. joke aside, nice texture work, fun and unusual piece of work, I like it!

lildragn

+1 to Lonewolf also. Technical 'issues' aside, it displays solid skills and execution. As a side note, reducing an asset such as this is child's play, don't see why peeps are all up in arms about it.

Ciggy it's time for your close-up. Like some stated, it's all relative to its use.

Keep on keeping on Kenn3dy, sorry your first post wasn't so welcoming.

~t

Ace-Angel

Seriously, it looks good, and from a technical stand point, the execution and feeling of each material is well done, maybe the ash tip part needs more work as it feel too slimey, but other then that it's good.

RANTON:
I also don't understand why people are up in arms about this piece, I bet if someone from Bioware posted up the Illusive man's ciggy from ME2, everyone would have said how it compliments the character, and how much love given to each detail.

Seriously people, chill out. Not every piece needs to be a female mech-angel with a G-Spot rod.
RANTOFF:

KartoonHead

Ace-Angel wrote: »

I also don't understand why people are up in arms about this piece

They're not, 3 out of 12 responses suggested that the tri count was a bit high, and the remaining 9 responses stated that it's a subjective matter and not a big deal. Everything seems perfectly chilled out to me...

gilesruscoe

Nice work, materials read really well. Agree with the tip benefitting from a bit of work on the gloss map though.

PogoP

Yeah chill out, I was just being realistic. With our engine at work, we commonly use 256/512 texture maps for entire cliff sections!

As an individual piece it is good. I don't even know what I'm talking about now.

adam

This sort of feedback is entirely useless without context.

If this is a show piece that we'll see an upclose of while a character smokes from it - its perfect.

If its something we won't wouldn't get within 5 feet of, then sure it can be optimized.

I say: Good work, now move on to something else you can clearly make game art.

Kenn3dy

Hey guys thanks for all the comment and feed back it really motivates me to work harder thanks again!

jimmypopali

This straight away reminds me of the opening shot of Bioshock.

I'd say for that kind of scene where the cigarette is up close, then this would be perfect.

Chimp

I also like the gold trim the burning bit looks lovely too- a hard thing to get right.
If it were to be used in a cut-scene, really close up then yes I think that you can get away with that detail and then just half or quarter the size for general use.

AngryMindtricks

Very nice work

I agree about the ash at the tip of the cigarette needing a little work... just a suggestion but to bring some more depth into the ash i would try applying a bump offset to it to really bring it.

Good work

Ikosan

really nice materials

Snader

Smokables can definitely be hero props.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gteDPSJX9m0"]Quake 3 arena Intro - YouTube[/ame]
(nowadays, cutscenes like these are often done in-engine)

Jessica Dinh

Nice material definition!