Long time since I posted here. Been working on Wolfenstein and finally I can show you some of the stuff I did. I worked a little bit on everything but mostly guns, vehicles and robots. I probably won't render out every little prop, so I'll post some of the more interesting things I did.
It might get pretty image heavy, so I'll start of with only highpoly renders and add some ingame shots later.
Tor Frick did the render setup, lighting and materials.
You guys are so freaking awesome... the amount of juiciness in those models is something beyond!
Just wondering how long did the production on the game actually last? I mean from the exceptional quality you got going there time frames weren't really short right?
Yeah as Fomori said Tor Frick set up the whole render scene for me in Modo. It's a pretty simple studio env with a spotlight and a shadow catcher. I just made some small changes here and there and re-rendered some models from different angles.
perna: Hehe well, I would say sometimes a conscious decision and sometimes not. Since we are a pretty small art team we have to be flexible, and there isn't always time to get detailed concepts for everything. As long as I stuck to the general art direction I was pretty free in the design of most of the models (and that was awesome!)
Fnitrox:
I came in very early actually, got hired just when MachineGames started up. I would say that I sat in actual production for 3 years. Btw the first week when I started went something like this:
Artdirector: Hi welcome, I'm gonna need you to build a Panzerhund.
Me: ....a what?
Artdirector: *shows concept*
Me: Fuck yeah!
Of course that thing went through a couple of redesigns...
God DAMN that`s some nice work !
How long did you have to spend on a weapon or vehicle etc? I`m just curious what's the time frames per asset you guys work in in production.
Also Modo should pay you guys , after this and Tor`s art dumps ... Modo is the cool kid in school )
I also did a lot of stamping in Wolfenstein. It's the whole reason we have Megatexture, and it's like...painting on geometry after the env artist are done building it.
My biggest stamping project was the whole rebel base chapter. So many different types of rooms, hangars, sewers. Big challange, but very fun.
Some examples:
(tip: open up in two different tabs and switch between them)
amazing work, can i ask, what is your workflow like? is it entirely hard surface subdivision, or do you use zbrush also? what is your main 3d program? i wish i could model like that!
Awesome stuff dudes. I have fallen in love with the megatexture decal stuff, it's so clever. I wish we could do that stuff in other engines without the huge performance cost you get from not baking it all down!
How long did you have to spend on a weapon or vehicle etc? I`m just curious what's the time frames per asset you guys work in in production.
If the concept and base model is done and locked, and nothing goes wrong, it would take 2 weeks. But very often we have to tweak models during the building, revisit the concept and design, change something for easier animation etc. I would say it's more often 3 weeks from concept to finished and working in game.
Of course simple models like this torpedo takes just a couple of hours
This also a good example of a typical model we don't get concept for. A torpedo was needed and I just build it.
mr_ace: Personally for me the workflow is 95% hard surface subdiv in Modo. The few times I have used Zbrush is when I buckle some metal, leather seats for vehicles, or wood props (chairs, tables etc) I used Marvelous Designer a couple of times as well for draping cloth on objects.
Examples where I used Zbrush:
Leather seats on this wheelchair.
Wood planks...(I cheated, it's actually just one wood plank copied four times, rotated and flipped heheh)
Question: Do they tell you a poly count limit to not pass? And for your high poly models are they usually for cut scenes or in-game, and do you have to make changes for say ps3 or ps4 version? A lot of questions sorry, but your art is incredible!
There wasn't a hard polycount number set, I had to adapt depending on what type of model. For example the London Monitor is pretty much by himself in an arena so I could give about 35k polys. Things that would only be in cutscenes could be pretty high.
Weapons have to work in pretty much the whole game in every environment and situation, so they have to be fairly optimized. For PC, PS4 and Xbox one we had kind of a rule not go above 10k. We had hoped those would work for old gen consoles as well but in the end we had to build a cheaper version of the fps weapons. A very lowpoly 3rd person version was also built for npc's and enemies.
Example:
Assault Rifle 60
Top: current gen console version 9700 tri
Middle: old gen console version 6000 tri
Bottom: 3rd person version 800 tri
Did the 3rd person weapons have their own separate bakes from the 1st person versions? If so, did you have to texture them twice by hand? Or did you use something like Substance Designer/dDo to automate the process?
Also, would a lower LOD from the 1st person version have sufficed for 3rd person?
Replies
Assault Rifle 1946
Assault Rifle 1960
Laser Cutter
Laserkraftwerk
Axis Jet Fighter
Kellers Car
Grandpas Truck
Edit: Roommate says it's definitely Keyshot. Beautiful hard surface work none the less!
He said it was Tor Fricks setup and his high poly renders were in Modo. So it's Modo. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135346
Interesting to see people shifting to Modo....
Just wondering how long did the production on the game actually last? I mean from the exceptional quality you got going there time frames weren't really short right?
Yeah as Fomori said Tor Frick set up the whole render scene for me in Modo. It's a pretty simple studio env with a spotlight and a shadow catcher. I just made some small changes here and there and re-rendered some models from different angles.
perna: Hehe well, I would say sometimes a conscious decision and sometimes not. Since we are a pretty small art team we have to be flexible, and there isn't always time to get detailed concepts for everything. As long as I stuck to the general art direction I was pretty free in the design of most of the models (and that was awesome!)
Fnitrox:
I came in very early actually, got hired just when MachineGames started up. I would say that I sat in actual production for 3 years. Btw the first week when I started went something like this:
Artdirector: Hi welcome, I'm gonna need you to build a Panzerhund.
Me: ....a what?
Artdirector: *shows concept*
Me: Fuck yeah!
Of course that thing went through a couple of redesigns...
How long did you have to spend on a weapon or vehicle etc? I`m just curious what's the time frames per asset you guys work in in production.
Also Modo should pay you guys , after this and Tor`s art dumps ... Modo is the cool kid in school )
Seriously mazing work.
I'm gonna link some ingame shots so I can show you a little more of the texturing and lowpoly work. Warning lots of huge 1920x1200 pictures!
Panzerhund 1960
Panzerhund 1946
Kampfhund 1960
Male Power Armor
Female Power Armor
Axis Jet Fighter
Coal Loader
Prison Transport
Keller Car
Grandpas Truck
Assault Rifle 1946
Laser Cutter
Laserkraftwerk
My biggest stamping project was the whole rebel base chapter. So many different types of rooms, hangars, sewers. Big challange, but very fun.
Some examples:
(tip: open up in two different tabs and switch between them)
Do you think you guys are going to keep using mega texture going forward?
Huh thanks for letting me know! Guess I'm going to have to start learning Modo!
If the concept and base model is done and locked, and nothing goes wrong, it would take 2 weeks. But very often we have to tweak models during the building, revisit the concept and design, change something for easier animation etc. I would say it's more often 3 weeks from concept to finished and working in game.
Of course simple models like this torpedo takes just a couple of hours
This also a good example of a typical model we don't get concept for. A torpedo was needed and I just build it.
mr_ace: Personally for me the workflow is 95% hard surface subdiv in Modo. The few times I have used Zbrush is when I buckle some metal, leather seats for vehicles, or wood props (chairs, tables etc) I used Marvelous Designer a couple of times as well for draping cloth on objects.
Examples where I used Zbrush:
Leather seats on this wheelchair.
Wood planks...(I cheated, it's actually just one wood plank copied four times, rotated and flipped heheh)
Hey no prob, ask away!
There wasn't a hard polycount number set, I had to adapt depending on what type of model. For example the London Monitor is pretty much by himself in an arena so I could give about 35k polys. Things that would only be in cutscenes could be pretty high.
Weapons have to work in pretty much the whole game in every environment and situation, so they have to be fairly optimized. For PC, PS4 and Xbox one we had kind of a rule not go above 10k. We had hoped those would work for old gen consoles as well but in the end we had to build a cheaper version of the fps weapons. A very lowpoly 3rd person version was also built for npc's and enemies.
Example:
Assault Rifle 60
Top: current gen console version 9700 tri
Middle: old gen console version 6000 tri
Bottom: 3rd person version 800 tri
first person vs 3rd person:
Unwrap and Texture of the Kampfhund 60:
Did the 3rd person weapons have their own separate bakes from the 1st person versions? If so, did you have to texture them twice by hand? Or did you use something like Substance Designer/dDo to automate the process?
Also, would a lower LOD from the 1st person version have sufficed for 3rd person?
Thanks!