The Bi-Monthly Environment Art Challenge | January - February (82)
Happy New Year everyone! Welcome one and all to the 82nd Bi-Monthly Environment Art Challenge for the months of January and February!
This challenge is a way for real-time 3D artists to test their skills and create a piece of work based on concepts provided. It's open to those of all skill levels and we do our best to provide meaningful feedback along the way so everyone can come away from the challenge with actionable points on which they can improve their craft!
Anyone is welcome in this challenge no matter your skill level! It's a test of your own ability not a competition between members. We're all here to improve as artists and learn from each other.
- ENVIRONMENTS -
HARD SURFACE ENVIRONMENT:
Memory Lane by JonasDeRo
https://www.deviantart.com/jonasdero/art/Memory-Lane-262883938
STYLIZED ENVIRONMENT:
tree house by Oksana Govorova
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Oenr6
- PROPS -
HARD SURFACE PROP:
Guild hall props by Carlyn Lim
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/leZ1J
STYLIZED PROP:
Factory buildings by WHJ
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L2OALk
- RULES -
Please read all the rules before starting:
- Try to post at least one critique for every post that you make. This will make for a better learning environment and help us all grow as artists.
- Try your best to finish as much as you can in the time frame provided, but remember even if you don't finish by the end of the challenge we encourage you to keep pushing and finish your piece!
- Post what you are working on in this thread so that way it's a more centralized place for advice and critique. Please avoid creating a new thread as we don't want to spam out the forums.
- It is recommended to use a game engine to present your work. Unreal Engine, Unity, and CryEngine are very common engines that can be used but feel free to use any alternatives that you want. (Marmoset Toolbag for example.)
- Feel free to change up your chosen concept a bit if you want! Interpret these concepts to your liking, especially if your aim is to add storytelling elements.
- If you finish your project and decide to post it to Artstation, make sure you give credit to the concept artist in the form of a link to their profile. Additionally, it is recommended to ask a concept artist for their permission to post a 3D piece based on their work before doing so.
- RECOMMENDATIONS -
- When you are just starting out making a scene, it can seem complicated or imposing. Take your time planning and blocking out, it will set you up for success later on.
- 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, don't be afraid to make it your own.
- We 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.
The goal is to learn and grow both artistically and in your ability to both give and receive critique, but don't stress about it and remember to have fun!
Good luck!
Replies
This is my first post here so hooray!
I want to fill up my portfolio in the hopes of landing a job as a generalist or prop - environment artist for games for small to medium indie studios.
The stylized prop seemed like a good choice for me since I am still adjusting to blender and I need to work on my hand painted texture skills.
For the moment all I got is a rough block-out down and would like some feedback at this stage on my proportions / accuracy to the reference image. The other props form the scene will also be added later.
Something that I am also considering is, doing a sculpt pass after refining the base shapes a little more to add chips and other little pieces of organic wear to the model before moving on to the textures.
Here is to hoping to become an active part of this community and get employed doing what I love.
Thanks for reading
( I will edit this post when I have new things to show to avoid spam, unless that is not how you are supposed to do it here? )
@Fronk3D Congrats and welcome to Polycount! I probably should also learn Blender, and make the legendary Blender Donut XD.
Regarding your rough blockout, it might be a bit too wide overall. Your wooden posts can also either be too wide or just right depending on which wooden partition you look at, but at least foreground-wise the wooden partition looks closer to 2x4 than square ends. You can go for the best of both worlds which is to make the top a square cross-section and just taper it down into a 2x4 cross-section once you get to the curved section. The plus sign crank on the side of the Garment Factory Building also doesn't look like it has additional bits between the Plus-Handles and it's just solid 90-degree angles (though logic-wise your version definitely makes more sense.)
Personally, I love the idea of a sculpting pass, I think it'll really add great detail to the model that will make it look very fun.
Also from what I've seen people just add new posts to the thread as they make progress.
SIDE-BY-SIDE (ISOMETRIC VIEW)
PERSPECTIVE VIEW
It took me a while to find this thread cause it wasn't pinned, but here I am on my first official Polycount Bi-monthly Environment Art Challenge! (I did Nov-Dec 2022 kind of on time, but I didn't start until around Dec 28th so decided against posting) I'm tackling the Stylized Prop first, but since it's a relatively simple one this time around, I might also do either the Hard Surface Prop or Environment depending on how much time I have especially since I'm working on 3 other sets of props and 1 room environment right now 🤪.
Here's what I got so far after starting today! I'm not 100% sold on my proportions, but I don't think it'll change much from what it is currently...maybe. In hindsight, as I'm posting this message, I think I actually made my "loom" angled fabric angle too sharp as well as the top of the frame beams too slim. I also need to increase the size of my bucket...and yes I did make my camera into an isometric camera for the side-by-side just so I can judge the proportions correctly (Very useful for stylized props since I see them come in isometric a lot of the time). Would love to get feedback on what else looks wonky (please ignore the missing clothes they'll be there in the next pass).
Also for the stylized prop is it supposed to be low poly?
Hi! Very nice progress on your cloth factory prop so far 👍️ Looking forward to your updates. What do you have in mind regarding the workflow? Highpoly to lowpoly, uniquely hand painted lowpoly, vertex colors, textured by trims/atlas, anything else?
@Fronk3D I tend to edit my posts when nothing was posted in-between. However new posts will keep the thread alive 😀 And updates of edited posts might get overlooked.
@AdePar Ultimately the target specs are up to you to decide. I would have put this asset in the mobile game category. Depending on the game camera you end up going with, I would decide the thickness (e.g. fabric) so it doesn't become noisy.
I liked the Tree House concept very much and decided to make a sprint to transfer it into 3d. During the execution, I had the Albion Online art-style in mind. Some techniques used:
Certainly turned out a bit more muted compared to the concept. If I find the time, I want to:
Screenshot of the model on Sketchfab:
Model on Sketchfab:
https://sketchfab.com/models/6758e633cf384723ad4bcf6eda024546#UNIQSKFBVANILLA
Some rough breakdown/planning:
Initial Blockout:
Learning Blender - A step by step beginner Tutorial for 3D Artists - YouTube this video has made the transition from maya doable for me since it goes over most of the operations you'd need and shares some plugins to make it more familiar to autodesk users.
Also goes over changing the keybinds to make it better, blenders native hotkeys are crazy in how they are spread out across the entire keyboard.
@Fabi_G How did you do the particle scatter? I have seen it a few times but I would have no idea on how to implement the technique for myself.
Its also hard to give feedback on your piece as it feels more like nit-picking but I found that this part of your tree is kind of hard to read. Maybe you could add some more AO to help the pieces stand out?
And even more nit-picky
your faces leave a gap in this part.
Though if I have to be honest it really doesn't matter that much if you look at the model from the intended distance
@AdePar I love how accurate your model looks when comparing it to the ref. I do think that the top of your model might be a little too slim compared to the ref you are showing in your post.
You already mentioned scaling up the bucket so maybe you already implied this piece of feedback intuitively, I'll share this regardless on the off chance you did not account for it.
When you compare your handle to the one in the ref then you can see that the ref has a way more prominent handle, which is also where the stylised feel comes from I think.
I would personally also add the little bend in the clothes hanging stick(?)
In the ref you can tell it is sort of bending as it gives in to the weight of the coat hangers. The beams supporting the bar for the coat hangers also seem to be slightly angled outwards to create a top heavy feeling.
exaggerated example so it explains easier.
@Fronk3D many thanks for pointing out those areas. Certainly something I shall keep in mind when revisiting the model 👍️ Generally, polish is something I have to train 😂
Regarding basic distribution of meshes by particles, I think the hair tutorial/presentation by Daniel Bystedt covers the process I use pretty well.
Hello everyone, it has been a while since I had the time to work on this challenge, but I did end up making some progress on it during the last few days.
The rough block-out is a stage I wanted to move past and I figured it would be time to move on to the sculpt pass as I added in some detail in places I will later bake into a normal map for my high to low poly bake. (img1)
I did struggle with getting the clothing right. Would anyone be able to offer some guidance or tips on how I could make them look better ? (img2)
The paint bucket feels a little too high poly compared to the rest of the prop, but allocation of proper polybudget is something I also tend to struggle with. The intention is to have this as a game ready asset by the end of the process. (img3)
For now I will move on to the sculpt pass and do some slight retopo on the sides of the wooden panels as I figure this triangulation wont be the nicest surface to sculpt on. (img4 and 5)
I do also plan on animating the belt, pump and the big cross used for turning the main cylinder. If someone knows the correct naming for those things please let me know (img6)
Most of the animation feels fairly straight forward, though getting the belt to be animated is something that stumps me.
Scrolling textures would work but I really want the mesh to move instead, as I modeled in a little tear on the edge that I want to see spinning around.
If you know how to do this, then I would love to hear about it since this one has been on the back of my mind for the better part of a month and I still have no clue on how I could animate it to behave like that.
That was my update on the project for now, I hope to allocate a little more time in the upcoming weeks so that I can put this one on the growing "finished pieces" pile.
Feel free to point out anything you figure is worth pointing out, I am trying to learn as much as I can with this project.
Thanks for reading.
Hey @Fronk3D, cool to see that you continued with the model. Here some thoughts on what you wrote:
Sculpting: Curious to see the level of sculpting you will apply. As I see it, the subject is primarily hardsurface, so one could get away with s-div modeling. Or even paint textures (e.g. height to normal map).
Clothes: I think the shapes are well defined. If you wanted them to animate, you would need appropriate topology. I think the concept made some simplifications with the way they are fixed to the hangers. An indication for me this is intended to be viewed at a distance. With thin objects you could consider using planes with alpha masks.
Bucket polycount: Curvatures take more geometry, that's just how it is. Especially when baking from highpoly, matching its curvature closely is worth it to avoid waviness in the normal map. If you map the UVs to strips this can be worked around. Another way would be to solve this in the design - have chunky objects (e.g. the buckets curvature is made up by straight boards)
Animated belt: Where do you want to present your model? As you mentioned, letting the texture scroll by shader is probably easiest solution - but you have to ensure you can implement it on your target platform. With scrolling texture the edge damage would have to be in the texture. If you want to use a bone animation, you will need an even amount of segments along the belt, each skinned to a bone in a chain. Bone-chain can be moved along spline and the animation baked down. Downside is, it will likely take many bones (as many as belt-segments). Surely there are other ways to animate the vertices.
Overall I would say, best keep it as simple as possible :P
Keep it up!
Hi everyone.
I'm a bit late jumping back into the challenges now, but I decided to dedicate some time on the weekend to quickly bash out the greybox step. I've always been super fixated on scaling, so I tend to spend too much time proportioning everything really early, which of course is important, but I typically fixate on it too much to where I fall behind and lose motivation. I've done this too many times and not crossed the finish line. So my goal for this challenge is to cross that finish line, which means I am going to be far more forgiving to myself for things not being perfectly matched to scale, proportions, etc. but of course not leaving glaring issues. Hopefully doing so will condition me to not wasting time hyper fixating on perfectly matching the concept art.
Of course any feedback is welcome.
Hey @PastyPict, cool that you decided to give it a go.
I agree, getting scale and proportions, aka the "big picture", right is important. When the reference features a clear perspective, f-spy can be used to replicate it in Blender and then trace it. But with concepts like this eyeballing might be better. You could take one element as measurement, e.g. the house and measure the other elements by it. Another thing you can check, is how the silhouette/ negativ space compares:
In the end, I think it's important to transfer the "feel" into 3d, therefore making adjustments so it works in 3d space. In your particular case, I think the tree and the bird house are fairly big compared to the main house. But hey, maybe that what you are going for.
Using a modular approach (tiling textures, trim sheets, detail meshes) might help you too make adjustments later on without having to redo things. I believe Iterating is part of the process. With some distance to the work, one will start to see it with new eyes and get ideas how to improve it. Of course it's a double edged sword, at some point it's time to move on :D
I can relate to "not crossing the finish line" due to getting stuck. What kind of works for me, is to see those challenges more as an experiment and to not necessarily follow strict workflows or conventions (e.g. high poly to low poly). Of course during the process, goals/ expectations come up anyways. If you have concerns about finishing, you could break the scene down even further to increase your chances. In this example, one could just create the small floating island with the letterbox or the branch with the bird house on top. After all, finishing something is a great. And if it goes well, one can apply what is learned to the rest of the scene.
Hello all! I've always wanted to attempt a stylized prop and took this as the perfect opportunity to start. Here's an overall blockout of my piece. I'm starting off in Maya and plan on adding chips and wood details in ZBrush very soon once I get all proportions final.
Current block out for the factory building. I plan on taking the model into zbrush so that I can get the details further to where they need to be.
Hi @mikaelsantiago99! Your blockout is looking solid so far. I love the reference by the side, you're getting all those proportions right. I would recommend making the center rolling cloth piece a bit more rested, right now you have it quite firmly sticking upright, whereas an actual piece of cloth would droop down without support- it is a nitpicky critique since it's just a blockout but I'm sure you're aware to make those changes. Great work!
@aunesty great work on the block out, so far the modles look well shaped and defined! I can't wait to see the wood detailing in the final product!
Hello,
Like others on here, I am also doing the stylized factory prop. I loved the look of it and wanted to post my own block out on this thread. I'm excited to continue on with this throughout the next few days
any critique is appreciated, so long it is beneficial
Hello everyone,
I am currently at my sculpt pass and I am starting to have some doubts on my original idea of putting this trough a sculpt pass.
And just like @Fabi_G mentioned, going for a subd workflow to model in my visual interest might be a bit better, though I have not given up on the sculpt pass fully, just yet.
Getting to something that resembles wood took me a long time of messing around without any clear method behind the madness and even though the result (top part of the mesh and a little of the side of the panel) is fairly close to resembling wood, I do feel like I am straying away from the concept a little too much.
I would like some external input, whether or not you guys feel like the sculpt pass is worth pursuing.
It might work if I smooth it out to be really subtle compared to its current state and use it as an additional layer of visual interest over hand painted textures using a normal map since I plan on high to low poly baking regardless.
For now I will leave the sculpt pass for what it is and move over to taking the model to 3d coat. It will be my first time using that software and it seems like its free for learning purposes which seems nice.
Will keep you guys posted on how the texturing goes.😁
It has been ages since I have done something hand-painted and I was never that good at it to begin with, so here goes to hoping enough time and elbow grease will get me a great result.
Thanks for reading, any feedback is welcome as always!
Like many others, I decided to model the stylized factory prop, I love the design and wanted to share my WIP.
my plan is to block out a good chunk in maya then take it further with Zbrush for more design.
Any feedback and critique is appreciated.
Hello @mikaelsantiago99,
Your block out is looking good overall,
My main critique is that your spun cloth seams to be looser than what is shown in the reference. You did a good job on the side planks, that was my personal challenge so far, good job!
@CruddierPond44 I took the liberty of screen grabbing your link and pasting it in here, using the windows snipping tool so that it is a little easier to view without having to click links.
If there is any specific reason you posted it using that link and want me to take this down, then please tell me to do so.
I am personally not that familiar with Z-Brush so it is hard to tell how much of this block out would be altered anyways, So I'll give this feedback at the risk of looking stupid because it might not matter as much in your workflow.😉
Overall I really like the subtle shapes you added to the mesh, but I feel you are a little to subtle with these parts in particular as they could rounded off a little more.
To me the shapes in the ref feel more like a flat cylinder than a rounded cube if that makes any sense.
Hope it helps.
Cheers
Walker small
I also decided to do the stylized prop and wanted to post my WIP here, I plan on doing the large and medium shapes in maya and do the finer details in Zbrush
Hi, I have started the stylish prop for the challenge! I used Maya to start Box Modeling. This is my WIP in Maya.
Hey @mikaelsantiago99
your wip is looking really good so far
The only real things i see that can be improved upon are the cloth pieces, the bottom part is a bit to loose and the top two can be extended or even flattened a little
This is a quick block out for this particular project. Would love some feedback on how I can improve everything before I move on to the next steps.
@KwanYeeLo everything looks like it is starting to take shape on this project. Everything is looking good so far but I would just watch for the coat rack as that part looks like it currently is not complete as is. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.
Hi @Walker_FaintPup
I Like the topology and the silhouette; it is pretty clean.
but I think there is some Geo that not really needed, such as the cloth has too much Geo on it.
@Fronk3D Thoughts on sculpting: I believe many objects can be broken up into shape and surface. Each part can be worked on separately and combined during texturing (or in engine, reusing textures).
Imo, if an object has a very organic or damaged silhouette a sculpting pass makes sense, else it yields diminishing returns (if overdone, the object might even loose definition). Surfaces can also be sculpted and then used as a base for tiling texture sets (rock or wood patterns, rough up trim sheets).
Of course, when time and motivation is not a factor, sculpting everything is cool. And surely it's also a matter of what tools one is proficient in and what one want to do.
Good idea to push on, looking forward to your next update 🤓
Hello, here is my WIP for the factory building. I used Maya to start box modeling and currently just working on getting the silhouette correct and readable.
Priscilla C-M
This is my block in for the stylized prop. Still a few things I want to fix and change, like adding the breaks in the fabric and bevels.
Hello! This is my Block-In for the Cloth Factory. I have to fix certain proportions and silhouette aspects for some of the pieces but overall its getting there.
Here's my quick block-out for the leather making guild hall prop. It's just a quick set of shapes in Maya as I plan out where everything is going to go and how I'm going to approach it.
Hey @aunesty , I really like the way your block out looks! The only thing I can see that could be improved is the size of the bucket? It's a bit weird. but the bucket does look significantly smaller than what it's supposed to be. It's probably a stylistic choice but yeah.
@mzlexa Your block-in is looking really good so far you are nailing the silhouettes and stylized look from the concept.
Otherwise it's looking great and I am excited to see the full scene!
@Priscilla_CM I really like the way way you have everything blocked out so you can go further into detail. A couple things I would comment on is the bucket, the accordion thing in the back, and the fabric that goes around the rolls.
Other than that, I really like the silhouette of everything and nothing seems to get lost in the shape. Keep up the great work! :D
@arsantia
I think you have a good start. Your topology is pretty clean.
Main thing I notice it that everything seems a bit too wide compared to the reference.
Little nitpicks would be that the cloth rolls on the side look a bit flat. The fabric that's rolled at the bottom is clipping through the wooden leg at the bottom. The cross thing on the side could be a bit thicker. Also I think it could help to soften some the edges that make the curve on the main wooden planks.
You're doing good.
I decided to work on the leather maker but wanted put my own twist on it.
@Caleb1002 This is a really great start. I would just suggest making the roller that's on the bottom shorter to make everything cohesive and flow together.
Hello, my name is Eladio Yvarra. I have decided to recreate the styled loom props.
@Caleb1002 I really like your props so far. I suggest maybe push the turn dial into the rest of the loom, so it doesn't look too far apart. And then maybe for the two texture rolls on top, you could flatten the front and back sides of it
A WIP shot of my take on the Loom!
Still uncertain on if I should make a custom material for the cloth to make it more realistic or just stick to the reference, but this is the state of the project so far.
@arsantia I do like your loom and cloth on the side very much! The only thing that I think could be looked over again would be the proportion of the accordion item, the top and bottom parts look a bit like they're awning over the accordion section in the middle. Other than that everything else looks pretty solid, can't wait to see more!
Hello Everyone!
This is my first poly count challenge and want to be good a creating props and other accessories for games or movies, let me know what you guys think.
@AngieMtz, I really like you design you capture the block in perfectly. The only thing I see is that the textures are too smooth, I would like to see more roughness to the prop like wears, tears, and other weathering done to the texture. Very good job and keep at it!
Hello! I will be recreating the cloth loom. this is the WIP shot of my cloth loom, I've gotten the loom, spring stool, bucket, and the clothing hanging rope modeled out and next is the remaining cloth and the hangers with the clothes.
Hello everyone! I decided to work on a factory building concept by WHJ and started to block in the props! Here's my WIP so far. Any feedback will help to improve my skills and my props model. Thanks!
@AngieMtz, Good to see that you are heading forward and texturing! It looks good so far, maybe you should add a bit more roughness and apply seamless leather or fabric texture to the height on your cloth. It'll feel have a leather/cloth type of feel. Keep up the good work!
Hi all! I resonated with Oksana Govorova's Stylized Tree House and made a rough block of their environment. :-) I decided to poly paint the mesh to get a general idea of how end result should turn out. Stylized work is definitely different from my original style, but I am enjoying the learning process!
I'll be happy to receive any feedback going through the workflow!
@Sofia_Almanza02 Your WIP is going smoothly!
1) Your bucket feels a tad bit tall and much more boxy than the reference, but with some extra faces I'm sure it will turn out just fine.
2) The arms on the loom seem to cut off sharp near its midway point that reaches the base, similar to the bucket, adding a few more faces there will soften those harsh edges.
Excited to see the results. :-)
Howdy everyone! I chose the stylized factory machine! I'm still a little unfamiliar with maya so this has been a learning process for sure. I still need quite a bit of the pieces but then I'll be taking this into zbrush to add some wear.
@crazo97 You've got a solid wip so far! I'd say look a little closer at the spacing between all the reels of fabric and the top of the wood on the sides in the reference. It feels a little extra spaced.
@vmcards17 the block in looks killer so far! The only thing I see is maybe the spacing of that floating piece in the back right corner could be moved a little closer or scaled a bit but other than that it's off to a great start!
Hello, long time no see. Life got a bit hectic, but I'm back after a month with my final (pending feedback) version of the Stylized Environment Prop.
I opted out of doing a detail pass in Zbrush and baking it down into the low-poly model, so everything including the shadows was handpainted. I decided to give it a bit of a toon shader twist to give it a bit more of a cartoon feel. I also tried to be as accurate as possible on the most eye-catching "spot the difference" items such as the locations of flowers when colors change on the main fabric, scratch patterns, etc. This probably added a bunch of work, but what's the point of a challenge that's not challenging?
I'd love to get feedback on anything I missed or could be improved upon. This is my first time making a hand-painted stylized model.
Here is my finished stylized prop! I went in and did a sculpting pass in ZBrush, adding in some wood swirls and details- as well as some wood chippings and edgewear to later bake down in Substance 3D Painter. Here is my artstation post! I'm incredibly open to any feedback to better improve this piece :) https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8bWOlQ