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Monthly Environment Art Challenge - March & April 2017 (47)

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greentooth
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kadeschui greentooth
Hello everyone and welcome to the Monthly Environment & Prop Challenge for the month(s) of March and April !!!

I'm glad to see more finished pieces this past round than ever! Truly hard work and great breakdowns/critiques by all.

Remember if you don't finish in the time allotted, just keep plugging away and post when your work is finished. There's always some good progress that falls off the radar - we want to see your work! So keep going and finish those pieces!

We had some pretty close votes on the hard surface prop this time - I figure since we have multiple hammers for the hand-painted category, why not multiple turrets! Good luck all and can't wait to see all the awesome work this time.

 Without further ado, here are our options for Challenge 47!

HARD SURFACE CATEGORY:

artist: oscar cafaro

HAND PAINTED CATEGORY:
Pit City Production Art by niuner
artist: William Niu


HAND PAINTED CATEGORY:

artist: Yana Blyzniuk

HARD SURFACE CATEGORY:

artist: Colin G


artist: Evolution - Battle for Utopia

If you want to change up either concept a bit, as some people wanted, then feel free. Interpret these concepts to your liking.


Please read all the rules before starting.

When you are just starting out making a scene, it can seem complicated or imposing, so take the time to break it down. 

Think about how you can re-use assets, re-use textures, break it down as simple as possible and plan it out. A lot of people will break it down in their own way when they start out their challenge. Gather some reference images as well for different parts of the scene, maybe gather some refs and make it your own.

Take your time planning and blocking out, it will set you up for success later on.

Here are some specifics.
  • Try to post one critique for every post that you make. This will make for a better learning environment and help us all grow as artists.
  • You must use a game engine to present your work. Unreal Engine and CryEngine are very common engines that can be used but feel free to use any alternatives that you want. (Marmoset Toolbag is allowed as well)
  • You must try your best and finish as much as you can in the time frame provided.
  • Post what you are working on in this thread so that way it's a more centralized place for advice and critique. We don't need to have 1000 disjointed threads littering the forums. 
  • I would strongly encourage you to go and look at other games and see how they make their assets as well   as get concept art to give it your own feel, but it must stay very close to the concept, if not super close. 
Well, that's about it. If you think that any rules should be changed, or there should be new additions to the rules, please let me know. As always, please feel free to provide feedback / suggestions in this thread or by messaging me directly.

All that matters is that you learn while being able to effectively critique others, as well as accept critiques on your own work. Remember to have fun. Cheers!

Replies

  • Piemaster
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    Piemaster greentooth
    I'm gonna give the hammers a go, really enjoy stylised sculpting and handpainted texturing :smile: 

    Good luck to everyone!
  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    Hello guys, i started modeling the sci fi turret from Colin G in January and i`m almost done with it. So for those who will be modeling this you can check my thread to see what i came up with -> http://polycount.com/discussion/182544/hardsurface-modeling-sci-fi-turret-gun#latest.

    Here is a picture with the HP done. From now i will post here and in my thread the texturing process. Still need to add some rotation function to the HP. Dont forget to have fun :>


  • Nathan M
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    Nathan M polycounter lvl 4
    I thought I give this a shot, been a long time since I did any actual 3D so it would make for a good reintroduction. So far I have blocked out the majority of the shapes of the buildings, and floors, scale looks ok so far, probably reduce the top floor size a bit though... Here is what I have so far (the object in the doorframe is my player scale):

  • limit3d_me
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    limit3d_me polycounter lvl 5
    Question, when we post on here, do we just edit in updates to our original post? Or do we make separate post on progress?
  • kadeschui
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    kadeschui greentooth
    @limit3d_me you can just make new posts, no need to edit and update the original post. Plus it helps the conversation flow as everyone works through their scene / props :)

  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    Baking done in SP. What do you guys think?

  • Piemaster
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    Piemaster greentooth
    @s1dK
    High poly looks great and the bake looks pretty crisp from what I can see, well done :) Would love to see a wireframe.

    @Nathan M
    Looks like a solid start so far, I think the stairs on the left of the building just need some spacing between them, they look as though they are stacked, whereas the concept as small beams between each one. I hope that is clear, otherwise good job, I can't wait to see more :)

    I will hopefully upload some of my progress tomorrow sometime :)


  • Gambit23
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    Gambit23 polycounter lvl 6
    Started grooming my hairs.
    Xgen crashing like hell. 5 crashes in last 30 minute.... my gtx960 going to hell with redshift i think xD

  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    @Piemaster Thanks dude, here are some wires from SP, the entire model has 72.000 polys or 137.000 tris


  • cfey
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    cfey triangle
    @Gambit23 hairy environment that you have got there, or is it yet a prop? ;-) just kiddin' - i think the ears are a little bit to translucent, aren't they?
  • Valravn
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    Valravn polycounter lvl 7
    @s1dK

    How the hell did you UV that beautiful object?
  • Gambit23
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    Gambit23 polycounter lvl 6
    cfey said:
    @Gambit23 hairy environment that you have got there, or is it yet a prop? ;-) just kiddin' - i think the ears are a little bit to translucent, aren't they?
    oh my god. How do i delete it? i thought i was posting this on What are you working on xD
    For the ears. Yes they are :D gonna fix that :D 
  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    @Valravn hey man, i did the uv`s manualy, by hand :) here are the uv`s for mid piece, the weapon has another texture set.


  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    Hey guys,
    I started texturing the bottom piece, still wip. The material i am trying to achive is from this motorcycle from Terminator.

    Any C&C is very welcome.


    Ref

  • Piemaster
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    Piemaster greentooth
    Nice one @s1dK what are you texturing with? Really keen to see how it turns out :)

    I have blocked out the hammers, the leather straps will come once I start sculpting (will just extract from the handle mesh and sculpt from there).
    The plan is to have a stylised sculpt and then I will do handpainted textures on top :)
  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    Thanks @Piemaster, i use substance painter for baking and texturing.
    Your hammers looks solid, waiting for the sculpted version, have fun :>
  • Daniel_Swing
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    Daniel_Swing ngon master
    As soon as I'm done with the bi-weekly substance challenge I'll get started on a hammer!
  • Shuaws
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    Shuaws polycounter lvl 5
    my first hammer is in zbrush, time for sculpting!!




  • Poseiden
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    Poseiden polycounter lvl 9
    hello,

    I've blocked out the market scene and started trying to get everything in the right perspective. I might sculpt the cat but will see how long it takes to finish the rest. 

  • plord
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    plord polycounter lvl 5
    Started today thinner turret :D Small progress below, slowly adding shapes to blockout. Not sure about some parts so c&c always welcome :D

    @s1dK Looking awesoome! There will be some references to look at if I stuck with something haha :D Great job man! Hard to see on the screen but maybe more contrasty materials? I mean some chrome on small pieces and dark, rough(er) metal on the rest?

    @Piemaster oh its gonna be cool :D


  • Shuaws
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    Shuaws polycounter lvl 5
    @Piemaster I like your hammers so far.. Looking forward to the sculpt

    @Poseiden nice block out 

    @plord that block out looks like a great start do you have turbosmooth applied already? 
  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    @plord Thanks man, you have a solid start in there, keep up the good work, i`ll be watching this thread!

    Hey guys, i`m calling this one done, maybe i will revisit sometime to make another texture variation, but for now i`m done.
    I had a lot of fun model this thing and learning in the process, thanks all and have fun in the challenge! You can see more on my Artstation -> https://www.artstation.com/artwork/a60d0
    or here -> http://polycount.com/discussion/182544/hardsurface-modeling-sci-fi-turret-gun#latest


  • Omnicypher
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    Omnicypher polycounter lvl 9
    s1dK: thats looking great! but maybe the edge wear could be toned down, not every edge needs to be chipped.

    Poseiden: nice blockout so far, but the building in the concept looks about 2 meters wider than your model.

    I started blocking out the heavy turret:

    [ Image deleted due to Photobucket's greed ]

    this design doesn't make alot of mechanical sense, so i might try to engineer some of these hinges and hydraulics to look more like they are functional. for now, i am just making a quick block out of the large proportions, and hopefully this will give me a nice chunky mech surface to play around with Star Citizen techniques i have been meaning to try out, like medium poly geometry with face weighted normals covered in mesh decal panel lines. i doubt ill finish this, but ill play around with detailing parts of it, just for a bit of practice, and to add parts to my mechanical kit bash collection.
  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    @Omnicypher, thanks man, i agree with you, i actually did paint some of the edges manualy but still to much, i will revisit this when i have some more time, now i`m busy with something else.
    Your blockout looks good, keep going!
  • plord
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    plord polycounter lvl 5
    Hey guys, found some time today to push this turret further. Decided to redesign some parts like bottom and legs (not happy with them yet, some critique here would be cool). Think tomorrow I will touch the legs again and finally move to the gun part :D 

    @Shuaws Nah, I'm using Modo for work, so I havily rely on edge weights and rounded edge shader :) 
    @s1dK Nice textures man! Still, I will moan You about the contrast in textures or on mesh parts :D - You can pick 2-3 materials (different colors and/or roughness) and use them on different parts of the turret so It will be easier to read particular parts. 
    @Omnicypher Nice idea! I've read about their workflow and it looked super cool, want to try this someday. I was curious how they blend the albedo/rough texture seamlessly between main mesh and that decal plane that is holding the normals (or they working with opacity?), wondering if it will be easy to do in engine for casual person :D If You have some resources about the topic I'm eager to learn haha :D


  • Mainrak
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    Mainrak polycounter lvl 3
    Hello, I'm new here. I graduated a couple of months ago so i'm not sure if can give good advices/critiques. :/
    I chose the Pit City invironment, so here's the 2D block out. I divided the scene into buldings (blue), walkways (purple), metals & lights (green) and everything (yellow).

    And here is the 3D blockout. The angle and the right staircase were giving me a hard time.

  • M.Petersen
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    M.Petersen polycounter lvl 6
    My blockout untill now, I think I got everything in.


    @Poseiden Nice blockout! you got quite some details in there, lots of assets. the perspective looks a bit off indeed, it might be useful that when you start your blockout you setup the camera first, put the image in the background, add some basic cubes and shapes and make them roughly line up, it doesn't have to be 100% matching of course but just to get the general idea of how the shapes fit in.

    @Mainrak Good start:) Maybe a tip for the stairs, add a reference 'character'. I always add a standard character, or just a cube and give it a rough size of a human character. It looks like you are using 3ds max, what you can do is just add a biped and use that as scaling reference. Place it next to the stairs and see if the character would actually be able to walk on it.
  • SDimitrius
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    SDimitrius polycounter lvl 14
    I'll be going for the hammer's in this challenge... They are a bit simple, but I think this is going to be perfect practice for me. Been awhile since I've made anything. I really like the stylized environment too, but might be a bit out of scope for my abilities atm.

    This is what I have so far with the first "Tier 1" Hammer as I've labeled it. Low poly model and normal/ao baked in substance painter from my zbrush sculpt. Looks like I have to fix some of the UV's in the pommel, but otherwise I'm really happy so far with the result.

    Also brand new to texturing in Substance Painter, so I'm super stoked to try it out, but it also might take me a bit longer.


    @Piemaster digging your models so far... excited to see where you go with the sculpts and textures.

    @M.Petersen Blockout is looking good! What's your next step?
  • melisac
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    melisac polycounter lvl 8
    I didn't complete the last challenge but this time i'm determined! 

    Here's my progress so far, still have a few bits to model in before I move on. So far I'm really liking this concept. 

    @Poseiden I actually really like the way you've proportioned your building, it adds lots of character! I was also thinking about doing the wood boards as one piece but decided to go with a tileable design. 

  • Jesse Walsh
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    Jesse Walsh polycounter lvl 7
    Started one of the hammers in Z-brush.

  • jonnavidson
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    jonnavidson vertex
    The work so far. Not sure what crits I can give anyone else at this point.
    Keep it up.


  • Jesse Walsh
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    Jesse Walsh polycounter lvl 7
    Finished the high poly for one of the hammers... now comes the not so fun part of getting a low poly to look like this and into substance painter.






  • Omnicypher
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    Omnicypher polycounter lvl 9
    plord I would thicken those feet/shocks, right now its looking kinda flimsy. you should look up "kelly backhoe" for some good references.

    Jesse Walsh that sculpt is looking great, but maybe the bolts could have more of a bevel, so it shows up better on the normal map. also the straps could be a bit thicker. 

    i blocked out a quick environment, with fog and lights to get the mood going, and i made a hard surface material that uses 16 x 16 color pallette and 16 x 16 masks texture, along with a 1024 noise texture, which gives me a wide variety of metal, rubber, plastic, and glow. I still plan to play with adding deferred decal meshes to get panel lines and painted details, but here is what it looks like in game:

    [ Images deleted due to photobucket's greed ]
  • plord
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    plord polycounter lvl 5
    I've sunk into modeling of this turret (much fun) so I think that I've finished the hp, rest of details will go on the painter pass :) Some parts have been redesigned (legs on purpose, didn't like the thin-spider-like, rest for fun :D) I would be great to hear some c&c right now - want to start LP and uv's - it would be awesome to manage to finish it till may haha 

    Hey guys @M.Petersen @Mainrak @melisac @jonnavidson nice work! It would be cool for me to see the process, how to approach this subjects :D Looking forward to more!
    @SDimitrius Nice work! Yeah, looks like unfolded uv's :D Also maybe try bake with higher res?
    @Jesse Walsh Whoa man, that's nice work and sticking with the concept! Awesome! I'm curious about painter pass for stylized weapons, didn't know much about it :D



  • fsanin
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    fsanin polycounter lvl 4
    Hi! Everybody is doing really awesome stuff.

    Arriving a little bit late, decided to do the "Pit City" environment. So far I've done the blocking of the environment.
    Getting the proportions and the right angle is really tricky!



  • jonnavidson
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    jonnavidson vertex
    Redoing the block out following M.Peterson's advice to set up a camera in max before hand.
    My proportions were way off my first try.



  • jesusblasco
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    jesusblasco polycounter lvl 2
    Hi! Great work everyone, I am very impresed by all your models.

    I am a bit late, I decided to join this challenge, I don't have a lot of experience at 3D (first time uploading my work to polycount too) , also never modeled nothing Sci-Fi related yet, I hope to learn a lot from this challenge, will be doing some mistakes but let's give it a try.

    I am going to model the turret in my free time, already made a basic blockout to get those shapes working, What do you think?





  • Xelan101
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    Xelan101 polycounter lvl 10
    I keep forgetting to make an initial post on here. Been a long time since I committed properly to a personal project. Wanted to jump into a few of these challenges and get back into the swing of things.

    Anyways here's sculpt progress, my plan is to use this to get familiar with PBR and test it on stylized shapes like the dagger below from
    stevston89.







    Image result for PBR dagger


  • Piemaster
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    Piemaster greentooth
    Xelan101 said:
    I keep forgetting to make an initial post on here. Been a long time since I committed properly to a personal project. Wanted to jump into a few of these challenges and get back into the swing of things.

    Anyways here's sculpt progress, my plan is to use this to get familiar with PBR and test it on stylized shapes like the dagger below from
    stevston89.







    Image result for PBR dagger


    Love the sculpt man! Look forward to the final.

  • Clement_N
    Hi Guys, i'm doing the Pit City ! I had a hard time on the proportions. Now i'm texturing the big part, i'll do the props later !



  • Jesse Walsh
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    Jesse Walsh polycounter lvl 7
    @Xelan101 Awesome hammer sculpt! It makes me want to go back and exaggerate some proportions on mine!
    @jonnavidson  You might want to double check some of your proportions. The ladders in the concept are at approximately the same angle and are the same height. Your top left ladder looks correct, but the top right one is way different.


    @Omnicypher  @Plord Thanks for the feedback! I took the advice and beefed up the bolts and the leather straps a little. I then baked the bolts as part of the hammer head, which might have been a mistake....

    Speaking of baking... I have a 800 vert baked lowpoly that I am somewhat happy with. The only problem is that some of the noise I had on the hammer head in zbrush didn't translate well. It looks like lines on the hammer head. I want to smooth it out in Substance Painter, but can't figure out how to do so. I think I need to convert the normal to a height map within painter, but I am a substance newb and dont know how to go about it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


  • Daniel_Swing
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    Daniel_Swing ngon master
    Here's my progress so far! I'm trying to keep the poly-count as low as possible (sitting at 540tris atm). I'm also not too familiar with hand-painting textures, so I'm experimenting a lot. I've remade the wood a couple of times (this is the one I'm the most happy with) and I'm really not sure what stylized leather is supposed to look like. I'm also struggling with the rock material. Sadly, the metal isn't properly lit in this render (it has a lot more color value variation than seen here). I'll make sure to catch it for the final image.

    I've tried to keep the sculpting to a minimum and let substance painter do most of the work (I feel like it takes too long to bake normals from ~30million tri HP models) Any feedback or tips are welcome!
  • Mainrak
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    Mainrak polycounter lvl 3
    @M.Petersen Thanks for the tip! I have already done that, plus i kept the doors in a real life standar dimension. :)
    @Clement_N Looking good!
    @Xelan101 Looks amazing! At first, i thought it was a different hammer because the concept one has clean edges, but still looks amazing :D

    In projects like these should i be trying to have as low polygons as possible, since it will be in an engine?
  • DkuCook
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    DkuCook vertex
    @Xelan101 I was also going to be attempting to mimic the look of stevston89 dagger. Hopefully we can contrast and compare further down the line. Love the sculpt you have produced.

    I have created my sculpt and was just about so create the LP and bake my maps. I'm not going to worry too much about polycount, but I won't go mad of course. Mainly I want to focus on the creation of stylised PBR textures.



  • plord
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    plord polycounter lvl 5
    Pushing the challenge further - managed to bake some normals today :) Still they have few mistakes that need to be resolved, but generally think it looks ok :) I divided turret to three parts (materials/texture sets) - symmetry, unique and gun. Symmetry and unique part are 90% ok, need few corrections and I will go for a gun. Can't wait for texturing this piece :D 

    @Jesse Walsh Think that some noise maps like 'bnw spots' (content in painter), in fill layer, and working on the height channel only, tiled few times will do the job :) Or maybe some higher resolution will catch some of this small details?
    @Daniel_Swing Looks nice man! The thing that catches my eye are those bright-white highlights on the hammer, maybe a bit less on opacity?
    @Mainrak I think that tris count is personal preference If it is not specified in the first post :D Engines can handle a lot of tris so no bother :)


  • Daniel_Swing
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    Daniel_Swing ngon master
    @plord: I will definitely refine the hammer head. I'm probably even going back to the sculpt to re-do all the cracks and the wear (DkuCook puts me to shame, I really need to do something about that ;)).
    EDIT: Oh and your stuff looks super sweet!
  • Xelan101
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    Xelan101 polycounter lvl 10
    SDimitrius "I0 think your tier one" hammer is a good starting point but I might slow down a bit and refine the sculpt further. The forms feel rather soft around the edges and cracks. Whether you're shooting for a metal or stone hammer, both of those materials would crack, ding nick etc in much sharper harsher and more defined angles.

    Daniel_Swing If you're planning on doing a handpainted look I'd gather a sizeable reference of the particular style you want to achieve. Do you want it looking like  WoW? Wildstar? Diablo? etc and then take a good look at how they paint the materials you want to use. (also don't neglect real world materials either, that's where they learned it from) Look for example at the Doomhammer, for a good representation of stylized stone, metal and leather etc. Right now it seems in the early stages of texturing, but I think it'll really benefit from
    some serious ref consulting.

    Mainrak  Thanks! Yeah I decided to take it a bit further into the chunky bevel WoW territory, cause that's my comfort zone for stuff like this. I feel like it helps the forms read nicer and lets you own a lower poly model easier, cause you can definite those details with broad low poly bevels.

    DkuCook Nice :smiley: we'll have to compare our work for sure. I've literally never touched PBR before, so I'll be hunting down plenty of reference and tutorials on how to make it work properly. I'm really liking the impact cracks you've added to the stiking faces of the hammer


    I appreciate all the love for my sculpt, gonna work on the low poly today, see if I can keep the momentum going
  • SDimitrius
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    SDimitrius polycounter lvl 14
    @plord Thanks for the tip! I'm gonna fix those UV's and go back into the sculpt to mess around, then ill try a higher res bake

    @xelan101 You're right... after hearing that and looking back at my sculpt it is feeling pretty soft and not as defined as it should be for those types of materials. I'm really loving your sculpt btw! Specifically the details in the wood and the broader pock marks on the stone , and i see the sharper and more defined edges that you're suggesting for mine. I do think the silhouette of yours is a bit too rounded on the main head of the hammer... i  think it's being caused from the large bevel on the ends. I know you mentioned you really wanted to push those forms and that style, but I think if you toned that bevel back just a bit it might be more pleasing to the eye. Thanks again for the tip! Definitely put fresh eyes on it for me :smiley:

    @DkuCook I really like the details on your sculpt! Especially the cracks! And overall your sculpt is looking solid. I cant tell if it's just the perspective of your screen shots, but i get the feeling that the scale is off just a bit. Either the handle is too long, or the head of the hammer is too short for me. Cheers! cant wait to see more.
  • Go2frag
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    Go2frag polycounter lvl 6
    I see so much awesomness here! Great work guys :)

    It's been a long time since I made any 3d enviroment in game engine, so I decided to do one :) I choosed first hard surface option concept by Oscar Cafaro. 

    I thought it would be cool to make whole scene based on this concept since it could be plan on some kind of square. This is what I mean:

    I made simple color scheme to show how I see modularity for assets- Im not sure about and I'd love to hear some more experienced person opinion.


    Here is shot from Unity:


    I done blockout for models and light(Im not sure about it :) ) I had hard time setting proportions for everything :). After doing this shot like in concept I thought it'd be awesome to make it walkable around too :)

     Also I made first asset to test how it looks, I'll polish it later. Now I'm kinda testing my workflow with Blender and Substance Painter. 


    Thank you guys for cool challange! Wish you very best!


  • DkuCook
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    DkuCook vertex
    Just a quick update today. Been working on the wooden section of the handle. Any feedback is welcome.


    @Xelan101 This is my first time working with a Specular PRB workflow, I've worked with the Metalness workflow before. I found this post had some useful information to get me started if you were looking for guidance with PBR. https://www.marmoset.co/posts/pbr-texture-conversion/

    @SDimitrius Thanks for the feedback, I think your right. taking a second look, I think the handle is longer than in the original concept. For this piece I'm not going to worry about it. But I'm hoping to create all 3 of the hammers, to hopefully see an improvement in my work. So I'll make sure i nail the scale on my next one. :)

    @Daniel_Swing I love the texture you have created for your handle. Did you paint the lighting information into your diffuse? or are you using a PBR workflow to get that result?

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