Canada Post Mailbox
Wanted to do another prop for the portfolio and decided a mailbox was a good practice. But had seen way too many American mailboxes so decided to throw some Canadian flavor to the mix.
I wanted to keep the mailbox texture realistic, and not with too much grunge or graffiti that most people put on their 3D models. Everything in teh texture was created by me except for the actual Canada Post Logo.
Basically looking for all of your comments/critiques/recommendations to make this a strong portfolio piece.
I wanted to keep the mailbox texture realistic, and not with too much grunge or graffiti that most people put on their 3D models. Everything in teh texture was created by me except for the actual Canada Post Logo.
Basically looking for all of your comments/critiques/recommendations to make this a strong portfolio piece.
Replies
get it reflecting an environment with a cubemap and use the spec and normals to really bring out the materials.
all in all, the texturing is pretty solid, nice attention to detail. maybe some scuff marks on the bottom plastic parts.
Great job!
How would one go about reflecting an environment with a cubemap in Maya?
Thanks for the quick reply!
Someone beat you to it
The key area could be more beat up, it barely looks like it has been used. and the some of the edges are pretty beat up even though they aren't exposed edges.
Sorry about that!
I don't want to play a devils advocate here, but seriously guys... Chris Tate now holds an exclusive rights to produce images of canadian post boxes? Did he invented them?
I mean unless that guy has stolen project files somehow and tried to pass them as his work, I don't see what is all that noise about.
Can you honestly say that every time you post your new piece of art, at the bottom you include list of all your teachers and sources of inspiration?
No, and you make a fair point. I think what riled the minds of the people who posted though was that the OP almost went out of his way to suggest the work was entirely his own.
Not crediting or mentioning the artist behind original works is one thing, trying to pass it off as your own is another entirely. And unnecessary too really, I mean, the work looks nice enough, and the OP has obviously gone through the process of creating the asset well, but he could've got just as much good feedback and comments by mentioning that it wasn't all his own idea/work.
I don't believe he's lost any credibility to any of us here. He made the art regardless of if he followed a tutorial or not. He wants to get better. Is that so hard to ask? Also, you are saying that every person who has made something similar as another artist loses credibility? This is a mailbox. The geometry is simple. Does it even matter if he followed the tutorial or not? Also, I don't believe he went "out of his way" to pass this on as his own work. He just stated he wanted some Canadian flavor to the mix.
I haven't seen this tutorial, and even if you did, I'm pretty sure you haven't seen how tyl3r was making his mailbox, so you can't really tell if he followed it step by step. Because I honestly cannot even begin to imagine why someone would be watching tutorial to make a .. box! Literally.
Also, that site cgtuts+ offer ONLY ref images, source for textures and some uv-checker. You may stop screaming STOLEN! STOLEN! now. Please.
iv seen that tutorial and i will admit there are some things different but also Chris Tate supplies textures and reference pics and everything needed to make in on his personal site
but model wise it is pretty much identical its only the texture thats really any different, that said if hes making a Canadian mailbox then its bound to look the same right?
I wasn't saying he "stole it" just saying if you used someone else's textures or tutorials, or concept, it might be a good idea to mention it.
Thank you Prophecies and linkov for backing me up here. I made this from scratch with photo reference that I collected from the net. For example, here is the model I followed almost to a T to model the thing:
And for texturing I used a whole bunch of different Ref pics. I'm sorry that I have 'lost' credibility to some users here for posting some art.
I don't think it's fair to call someone a blatant plagiarizer just because they have modeled a mailbox to which someone just happened to post a tutorial of on the net. If two people are given ref's of an object with texture and are told to model it as realistically as possible, you can bet damn well that they will come out looking close to identical. Does that mean that they plagiarized each other's work? Hell no. They both looked at reference pics and created what they saw. The only reason I was passing this off as my own was because that is all I knew, no one else on this site that I had seen had made a Canada Post mailbox, I had seen some American ones so I thought I would switch it up for my portfolio being Canadian and all.
I don't think there is much more to say, but I would still like crits on the texture and what I can do to improve, including the cubemap idea which I have no idea how to do in Maya.
I came off as an asshole, please feel free to treat me as such.
Kinda cool though, that you can watch someone else process and see if there's any way you could improve your work flow.
Hehe, big apologies then man.
I was actually wondering, 'hmmm maybe he hasn't seen that tutorial' the thing that mainly made me think that was your unwrap is different.
I won't give crit because to me, you've nailed it. Looks absolutely spot on, but of course people with more experience could give you better crits.
If anything, and it's only the tiniest of minor things, the bottom could be made more 'plasticy'... right now it kinda looks like it's made of metal, but looking at that photo it is plastic I think.
EDIT: Maybe the bottom is metal? Heh I'm not sure, I've only been to Canada once and I don't even remember seeing a postbox.
and the damage along the edge should be rusted if u look at the ref pic where its damaged its all rust not really shiny metal underneath