JoeriV's sketchbook (3d)
polycounter lvl 7
Okay about me:
In september 2011 I started studying Digital arts and entertainment here in Belgium.
My main focus was programming, something I have done for a couple of years now, but the 3D bug got to me, and I just love modelling and texturing.
So there is a good chance I might shift my focus towards that over the coming months and years.
I like critiques, I'd prefer people pointing out all the mistakes and flaws, then just going "it looks good" or "it looks bad", so feel free to be harsh, but keep it construcive
I'm going to start off with 2 things for now:
First is the first assignment we got, it's a bit "akward" since it's basicly useless outside of the renders, because the assignment was to make a vehicle in 3dsmax using only primitives and a couple of modifiers (bend, taper, etc).
Second one is the assignment for the examens:
-Make a low poly cityscene (aiming for HL2 quality, but ofcourse it always turns out a bit higher in terms of models, since HL2 if you look back at it is really low poly
)
-Only Diffuse & Opacity textures.
-Use tileable textures
I learned a ton doing this, the only downside is, there is still tons of work to do, and I have to hand it in on thursday (about 5 days from now), so with my current schedule it's kind of to late to go back and fix some things.
Same if I get some critiques, I can fix some things in the textures/Mesh etc, but it's a bit to late to go back and change the layout/etc.
Luckily, I have a bunch of props ready, only got to finish up the textures here and there and then place them in.
Bad thing: I kinda left some things unfinished to finish later, so now as a consequence, nothing is finished, and there are a lot of unfished/bad parts that I have to go and fix/redo/finish.
(and yes the tree sucks atm)
And a quick youtube clip of an old version:
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TohTztZE8hM"]DAE 3D1 Cityscene final. - YouTube[/ame]
(color are really washed out tough, for some reason in the clip).
Goals for the coming weeks:
-Finish the cityscene.
-Try to do a lot of free work.
-Make props and maybe do some more complicated models.
-Work on Unwrapping/proper uv layouts.
-Work on getting better meshes.
-Do a lot of work on texturing (less photo-material, etc).
In september 2011 I started studying Digital arts and entertainment here in Belgium.
My main focus was programming, something I have done for a couple of years now, but the 3D bug got to me, and I just love modelling and texturing.
So there is a good chance I might shift my focus towards that over the coming months and years.
I like critiques, I'd prefer people pointing out all the mistakes and flaws, then just going "it looks good" or "it looks bad", so feel free to be harsh, but keep it construcive
I'm going to start off with 2 things for now:
First is the first assignment we got, it's a bit "akward" since it's basicly useless outside of the renders, because the assignment was to make a vehicle in 3dsmax using only primitives and a couple of modifiers (bend, taper, etc).
Second one is the assignment for the examens:
-Make a low poly cityscene (aiming for HL2 quality, but ofcourse it always turns out a bit higher in terms of models, since HL2 if you look back at it is really low poly
)-Only Diffuse & Opacity textures.
-Use tileable textures
I learned a ton doing this, the only downside is, there is still tons of work to do, and I have to hand it in on thursday (about 5 days from now), so with my current schedule it's kind of to late to go back and fix some things.
Same if I get some critiques, I can fix some things in the textures/Mesh etc, but it's a bit to late to go back and change the layout/etc.
Luckily, I have a bunch of props ready, only got to finish up the textures here and there and then place them in.
Bad thing: I kinda left some things unfinished to finish later, so now as a consequence, nothing is finished, and there are a lot of unfished/bad parts that I have to go and fix/redo/finish.
(and yes the tree sucks atm)
And a quick youtube clip of an old version:
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TohTztZE8hM"]DAE 3D1 Cityscene final. - YouTube[/ame](color are really washed out tough, for some reason in the clip).
Goals for the coming weeks:
-Finish the cityscene.
-Try to do a lot of free work.
-Make props and maybe do some more complicated models.
-Work on Unwrapping/proper uv layouts.
-Work on getting better meshes.
-Do a lot of work on texturing (less photo-material, etc).
Replies
It was meant to get people used to the software (3dsmax) and the hotkeys, etc.
So we couldn't even delete the hidden faces, since we weren't allowed to convert it to a editable poly
So texturing it would be a complete nightmare I think.
Maybe after the second semester when we have done high-poly modelling (complete first semester was low-poly) I might start it over again in a proper way.
And polycount was around 600.000, but that doesn't really mean a lot because of the way it was made
Had to turn in the assingment last week for the final assignment for the first semester:
Just Diffuse and opacity maps, and had to be low poly (no normal maps, etc), and we had to use tilable textures.
So this was the end result, some things are a bit unfinished, but I didn't want to have untextured stuff in there.
End result was just over 22k poly's.
360 rotation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TohTztZE8hM
(sorry for the colors, the program I use to convert jpeg's to avi kinda desaturates the colors by a lot for some unknown reason).
Collection of some shots:
Separate: http://img849.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=1dae9vrommanjcityscener.jpg
slidehsow: http://img849.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=1dae9vrommanjcityscener.jpg
(slideshow is kinda crappy quality).
Wire:
Started doing some high poly modelling, but I'll show that tomorrow or somewhere this week.
I think you should definitely make a lowpoly for it and bake all of that eye candy.
I am amazed that's your first assignment, very good job
it looks like you have a very good understanding of making lowpoly meshes, you get rid of any unneeded polys by triangulating, keep up the awesome work
can we get some close up shots like person height inside the scene?
edit: oops never mind didnt see the link
@allmighty_thunder
Could you maybe clarify wich parts have some weird tri's?
So after some tests and just figuring some stuff out I'm gonna start working on something, and gonna do the whole thing, so high and low poly, normal map, spec map, etc.
Plan is to finish it by the end of the week, hopefully I won't run into much trouble.
But I guess first time doing a proper normal map will give me some headaches
So here's the basic blockout, need to fix up the underside, and maybe change some things here and there, and then start doing the real work (high poly).
Reference:
http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=17577&PHPSESSID=9tj0ikvucg6odvh34sdnav8340
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/5083/constructionblockout.jpg
(everything is still heavy wip, the "tube", and everything attached to it hasn't been touched yet, the wheel + the "guard" above it don't have turbosmooth applied yet, and just in general everything still needs some work, but it should already give an idea)
Wire:
http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/5664/wirefu.jpg
Started working on a exercice on lights in 3dsmax.
(models are NOT done by me, just the lighting).
Standard lights & scanling renderer, etc.
Mainly looking for feedback on this, I feel like I still have to look up a bit more reference.
So gonna do that (and maybe if someone would be so nice to give some feedback on this), use that, and do a second try, and then also do materials.
Need to finish some parts (and planning on redoing the reels), finish the materials.
End goal is to make a vintage photo of a product.
If anyone would be willing to give some feedback I'd be very gratefull, since I'm starting to feel kinda lost on this, can't really find a direction to take it atm, and some materials are just not working out at all.
Once this is finished I will make bake it down to a low poly (have done quite a bit of small tests, but this will be the first object), and then use the knowledge of materials I gathered so far to make the spec/etc map.
Wires: (a bit outdated, but most parts are still the same)
So yeah, started working on the final assignment (and the last non-realtime, next year everything is gonna be realtime stuff).
Goal, Fiat 126, and make a rally version out of it.
Need to take a step back though atm, and work a bit again on the basic ship and flow since that's definatly not good yet ><
Wire:
Just a quick material test I did, not really working out the way I want yet:
And a quick test render with some reflection etc
only nitpick would be that the rims are a bit too white even with the bits of dirt added
also nice match with the picture
keep it up
And yes Navillus, the top one is after playing around with it in PS, the bottom one is just the base render, how it came out of max.
Gonna split it up into 2 posts, one "finished" and then one currently working on.
Still just trying to improve and figure out what to focus on.
had a go at handpainting, should find a hour or 2-3 to finish it up.
Some panels+prop trying to match the style, not to happy looking back at these, but I did learn a lot, so they served theyre purpose.
testbake + quick try at the brownish metal
http://i46.tinypic.com/ie2mw7.png
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/9461/captureemy.png
Have to do a gun for school, decided to just pick something that a couple of months ago I would have said about "nope, no way, can't do that" and just try.
Very wip, the front part and the bandages around the grip are just placeholders atm.
(funny timing actually with the borderlands artdumps/borderlands 2 coming out).
So for now, the bottom gun is getting finished first, since it's on a deadline, then finish the dust514 one.
And hopefully I'll have a week or so of some spare time to fit in something else (so much to do, so little time) before rampup to the examn madness starts at school.
Great Modeling !
Keep posting ^^
And a general update.
Where that gun ended up:
MP5:
Challenger:
Wanted to do a proper environment for a long time now, so just going for it
after a little struggle with udk I managed to get some basic stuff done, now onto more blocking out, and then I hope I can finish this in a reasonable amount of time.
(based on a concept by john park).
and a small environment for school, roughly based on a concept by neil hanson.
All the rocks are UDK placeholders currently.
should look a lot better (I hope
and we have to make a quick movie out of it, so gave that a test.
[ame="
Time to update this, to keep track of everything, and to remind myself to finish up the wips, so that I have my portfolio done by the end of january, wich will line up nicely with my 2nd year here since my first post
And a new highpoly wip that I have worked on a bit now and then the past 1,5 week, a lot of parts are still in blockout stage.
Quickly rendered in marmoset2.
concept: http://halofanforlife.com/wp-content/uploads/Rail-Gun-concept-Sparth.jpg
For your question:
It's just a basic max material (see settings in the image):
http://imageshack.us/a/img27/7863/89i1.jpg
For the plastic parts I added one of max's procedural noises to the bump slot.
Then just some basic spotlights:
http://imageshack.us/a/img13/8110/ykjj.jpg
For rendering, mental ray with nothing fancy at all, just upped some quality settings such as AA/resolution/etc.
And then afterwards just some color tweaking in PS.
And while I'm here, update time
Close to finishing this up, need to do the shells, the eotech, and some unique details, and the strap, hopefully done by thursday, quite busy atm.
And doing some thumbnails for something in the future.
Not to happy about them yet, but I'm having fun with them, so i'll get there eventually
If you don't mind me asking. How do you create your lowpoly?
It basicly comes down to what is the fastest.
Sometimes that means taking the high and quickly deleting all the edge loops/rings (for more simple things usually).
And sometimes with complex shapes with lots of part or cylindrical things (since usually you will have an amount of segments that made sense for the highpoly, but not for the low)
I find it a lot faster to just build a new mesh over the highpoly.
Or a combination of those 2.
For the KSG for example, the main body was done by removing edges from the high, and then merging parts together and cutting out new holes where needed.
But then for the eotech or the shotgun shells or the strap at the back I just build a new mesh over it.
Hope that helped a bit.
Have you ever tried using floaters when it comes to normal baking?
For example on the ksg there are some on the plate that holds the thing that holds the shells in the 4 corners (the small bolts).
Generally it comes down to this:
-I just model it in because I'm not sure yet if I am going to add a bit of geo, but if the KSG for example I had set a 12k triangle limit I would have used a lot more floaters.
And you use floaters to save time, and I don't really have any strict deadlines because these are personal projects, and modelling it in doesn't take that much time anyway.
Besides that, I prefer when it's to time consuming to model in (or I don't know yet how large/small I want it) I do it in nDo later, since I can easily change/iterate it without having to rebake all the time.
When I do use them:
-When I just get it done quick.
-When I expect a bit of UV distortion in that place, so then a floater is easier.
Reed