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The Bi-Monthly Environment Art Challenge | January - February (94)

ngon master
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Pinkfox ngon master
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful time over the holidays. Welcome to the 94th edition of the 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:
20241227 by baotong YU
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nJ2x8X


STYLIZED ENVIRONMENT:
abandoned place by Erin Lin
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gBPJx


- PROPS -

HARD SURFACE PROP:
Yellow Flashlight by Tony Zenitium
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/K31vlW


STYLIZED PROP:
National Park - Stylized Props Concept Art by Mikael Yusifov
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/W2wPNQ


- 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 Godot 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 something like 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 everyone!

Replies

  • Hymil
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    Hymil polygon
    Hey everyone!
    I'm Charles, a recent graduate from Sydney. Can't wait to see everyone's work on this challenge!
    Started the block out so far with a focus to get the proportions and shapes right. Also spicing things up and doing this project in Blender over Maya since I just want to get comfortable with such a versatile (also free) tool. Been making a lot of environments recently and want to take a step back and focus on a prop for a bit with an emphasis on texturing and modelling.
  • Fabi_G
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    Fabi_G high dynamic range
    Cool designs, looking forward to see them translated into 3d.

    Looks like a good start @Hymil. What's your plan for the edge-treatment? Will you bake from a highpoly or something else? Are you going for some stylization or realistic texturing? Keep it up!

    I had to give the abandoned place a go. Once again will use Unity and baked lighting. Aiming for a video sequence and maybe a web build. Perhaps I need to re-scope in order to get it done, I'll find out.

    Sketches of different modules: 


    Screenshots of scene in engine:

    Lighting the foliage via light probes to reduce amount of lightmaps.

    Overview of modules in Blender:


    edit: web-build of current state can be found here
  • ATaylor96
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    ATaylor96 polycounter lvl 8
    Hey everyone! I'm an Unreal Engine tech artist working on the games industry. I've been following these challenges for a little while now but struggled get started on personal 3D projects so have never participated. However, it's been awesome seeing all of the results and with it being the new year I figured I'd try to start the year off well and get something finished.

    Here's the blockout so far (with a bevel modifier enabled so I can better visualise the end results). Still plenty of work left to do but I'm taking my time with this and trying to make sure the proportions look great and things match up to the concept art as best as I can.



    Great work from everyone so far, as more progress gets shown I'll try to give some feedback in my next posts =)
  • Vertz

    Hey guys, first time doing one of these challenges, not sure what's the scope quite yet, anyways here's my blockout (Blender EEVEE with RT).
    Do I need to follow the concept as close as I can? Because right now some things about it don't convince me like the piping on the ceiling that looks like Windows XP idle screen, the dead fish laying on the tray (I'm assuming this is a koi pet shop).
    While I await some direction I'll go ahead and modulate the various pieces and get it on UE5.
    Cheers!

  • Fabi_G
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    Fabi_G high dynamic range
    @Vertz Cool to see this concept being picked up :+1: I'm curious to see how you will tackle the fishes. To me, your blockout geometry seems to match the concept quite well, looking forward to see it implemented in engine.

    Do I need to follow the concept as close as I can?
    "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." So, no :) Personally, I would care more that the mood of the concept/design was captured instead of it being an exact 1:1. If the environment proves too big for the time available, I think it's even fair to break out a chunk/modules/props. 

    Keep it up!
  • EtotheRic
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    EtotheRic polycounter lvl 20
    Good starts! I started on the binoculars in zbrush/zmodeler. For fun I tried skewing them to add some forced perspective. I don't think I'll use that for the finished item as it may look kind of googlie-eyed. Sculpting pass next. 
  • Eric Chadwick
    I recognize that hard surface prop, since I have an actual one just like it! 



    I took a few photos, in case it helps : https://photos.app.goo.gl/PChZHYfXMfBJDiyX9

    Let me know if you need closeups or anything.
  • Pinkfox
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    Pinkfox ngon master
    That's awesome @Eric Chadwick, thanks for sharing! Great to see all those intricate details in it. Especially that edge damage on the underside that accumulated just from the natural use of setting it down over time.
  • Bullyzhd2205
    Hey Guys, Recent graduate from AIE sydney, Was wondering if I could get some feedback on my pre much finished blockout, was going to noodle around some of the Leather strap shapes then hoping to take it into Z brush for a little sculpting work. Gave it some colours to better visualize what it will look like.
    .
    Would appreciate any critique.

    Kind Regards
  • Hymil
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    Hymil polygon
    Fabi_G said:

    Looks like a good start @Hymil. What's your plan for the edge-treatment? Will you bake from a highpoly or something else? Are you going for some stylization or realistic texturing? Keep it up!

    Thanks @Fabi_G! Atm my plan for the bake is to make a high-poly subd/remesh model which Ill then bring into ZBrush to do damage on. Onto a currently non-existent low poly. for the texturing I'm learning towards realism, but I'm not completely sold on that approach yet. 

    I explored your environment on Itch, love the way you chose to present the scene and the foliage so far. Though did have some issues with the cursor snapping wildly in different directions, though that might just be my computer. With the screenshots you provided in-engine it seems the fog is washing out a lot of the colours in the scene. It could be worth pushing back the fog distance from the camera.

    ATaylor96 said:

    Here's the blockout so far (with a bevel modifier enabled so I can better visualise the end results). Still plenty of work left to do but I'm taking my time with this and trying to make sure the proportions look great and things match up to the concept art as best as I can.
    Great stuff so far @ATaylor96 , how are you planning to connect that back handle piece to the main handle segment and handle the underside of handle?

    EtotheRic said:
    Good starts! I started on the binoculars in zbrush/zmodeler. For fun I tried skewing them to add some forced perspective. I don't think I'll use that for the finished item as it may look kind of googlie-eyed. Sculpting pass next. 
    The exaggerated look is kinda fun looking though! The buckle looks super clean @EtotheRic .
    I recognize that hard surface prop, since I have an actual one just like it! 


    I took a few photos, in case it helps : https://photos.app.goo.gl/PChZHYfXMfBJDiyX9

    Let me know if you need closeups or anything.
    Instantly adding this to my ref board... thank you so much @Eric Chadwick!  Do you happen to know the name of the torch model / design to find more / similar things online as well?
    Bullyzhd2205 said:
    Hey Guys, Recent graduate from AIE sydney, Was wondering if I could get some feedback on my pre much finished blockout, was going to noodle around some of the Leather strap shapes then hoping to take it into Z brush for a little sculpting work. Gave it some colours to better visualize what it will look like. 
    .
    Would appreciate any critique.

    Kind Regards
    @Bullyzhd2205 Solid start so far on the block out! The colours are a great boon for helping visualise the asset. I've done a cheeky paint over for you, though feel free to discard any suggestions, they are just my opinions after all.

    Main things to improve with the block out are pushing the shapes more to exaggerate and put emphasis on the stylisation. Then also adding more geometry to the cylinders since the faceting is quite obvious, though that's a stylistic choice, might be significantly less noticeable depending how you texture it. 

    One thing I missed in the paint over is the gap between the focus gear teeth being larger than the reference. It might be nicer to try and fit more/closer together.

    Another thought to ask yourself is how you plan on presenting your prop in the final render. Do you plan to have it float in the air? What about resting it another prop table with some small bits and bobs to sell the prop more? This will also change how the strap rests, which is why some foresight might be needed.



  • Hymil
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    Hymil polygon
    Progress on the hard surface prop, starting with a sub-d high poly model, which I'll then take into ZBrush for a damage pass. Creating a low-poly from the high-poly shouldn't require too much work with just deleting support loops and other similar decisions. 

    Though my high poly isn't quite to a point I'm satisfied with, I've taken some liberties with the reference like adding a cushion under the handle, car battery on the interior, etc. Though I have a nemesis with the handle... It doesn't look comfortable to hold with the sharp edges that the reference shows, and the cushion I added only serves to weaken the wielders grip. So, I plan to rework that area with help from the references @Eric Chadwick shared (thanks again).

    It felt like such a waste to not do an interior for the flashlight, which is why instead I decided to do a mini car battery inside. It's still in the works, but I'm liking how it is shaping up.


  • Eric Chadwick
    @Hymil
    Do you happen to know the name of the torch model / design to find more / similar things online as well?

    There’s a logo stamped into the bottom:

    Valiant
    Made in Hong Kong


    That’s all I know though.
  • Fabi_G
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    Fabi_G high dynamic range
    Happy Monday :)

    Cool to see some binoculars. Looking at the concept, I find it a bit hard to tell what materials are used, so I'm curious to see peoples' interpretations.

    Those are very nice lamp photos :-B

    Nice Progress on the lamp @Hymil, don't have anything to critique really :+1: I find with such hard surface props it's key to find the right bevel widths for the edges, so they show nicely in the normal map at the intended texture resolution and viewing distance. I find this image is a good illustration of the matter. 

    Great to see all this feedback :heart: Will investigate the web build issue and likely make a windows build at the end, too. Agree about the fog, have reduced it a bit since and will most likely have to dial it in more.

    Some status update since last WIP - feel like threw a lot of stuff in, that I now have to balance/ refine:
    • modified environment - layout, skybox, lighting, fog (still to dense, I think), ...

    • exported the level-layout blocked out with primitives from Unity and built a level mesh with some vertex painting for texture blending

    • added tree canopy modules

    • added more building blocks. With some blocks, I made use of generative modifiers. Here is the setup for a cylindrical shape:

      Couldn't get the UVs right with modifiers, so I ended up applying all and UV manually. But I think it's still useful to iterate on patterns/shapes. On other shapes, made use of the displacement modifiers to add irregularities.
    • added moss and long-stem plant. I use a vertex color mask for blending colors and a simple wind/vertex offset. 

      For the plants, deform leaf instances along splines:

    • added large robot remnants

    • ...
    Until now, avoided any object specific texture maps, if any put masks into vertex color instead. Through lightmaps, hard edges get a softened. Set seams in strategic places and mostly align the UV borders with pixel raster to minimize steps at seams.

  • ATaylor96
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    ATaylor96 polycounter lvl 8
    Great work so far everyone! Quick update from me, things have been going slowly due to an illness the other week but I'm almost done with blockout out the main shapes - more of a mid poly at this point. Here's a quick render inspired by the orange renders @Hymil made.
    I realised after posting this that the charging contact is facing the wrong direction and has since been fixed)



  • klamante
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    klamante polygon
    Fabi_G said:
    • added more building blocks. With some blocks, I made use of generative modifiers. Here is the setup for a cylindrical shape:
    Oh wow, that looks sooo good already. Such a great idea! And I love the robot remnants!


    Here's my progress. The topology is a bit chaotic, but I've already learned my lesson to start with a cube with subdivisions instead of modeling the silhouette right away. Yay. (:


  • crayz4pnutz
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    crayz4pnutz triangle
    Hymil said:
    Progress on the hard surface prop, starting with a sub-d high poly model, which I'll then take into ZBrush for a damage pass. Creating a low-poly from the high-poly shouldn't require too much work with just deleting support loops and other similar decisions. 

    Though my high poly isn't quite to a point I'm satisfied with, I've taken some liberties with the reference like adding a cushion under the handle, car battery on the interior, etc. Though I have a nemesis with the handle... It doesn't look comfortable to hold with the sharp edges that the reference shows, and the cushion I added only serves to weaken the wielders grip. So, I plan to rework that area with help from the references @Eric Chadwick shared (thanks again).

    It felt like such a waste to not do an interior for the flashlight, which is why instead I decided to do a mini car battery inside. It's still in the works, but I'm liking how it is shaping up.


    You've got a pretty nice composition going on there! I like the car battery idea, it's a nice personal touch to the project. I can't wait to see the texturing on this piece, it's coming along well. 
  • crayz4pnutz
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    crayz4pnutz triangle
    Hi! My name is Gwenyth and I'm a recent graduate looking for work. Everyone's props look so nice! I've blocked out the basic shapes and am trying to add the required details beofore adding my own personal touch to the piece. I still need to add holes so the wires connect. I haven't worked on the inside, but that is my next step. I have the bevel modifier added, but I am going to bake that into the lowpoly to optimize the mesh. Any critique on proportions or general composition? 


  • SharelleCottee
    here's how my binocular model is going so far would love feedback and advice especially on topology as that's something im trying to improve on :) 
  • EtotheRic
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    EtotheRic polycounter lvl 20
    SharelleCottee - Off to a good start, before you start beveling things I'd add some support edges around the main body of the binoculars and round off the corners on that ring piece. Should smooth more evenly and give you a better low poly from the start. Hope that helps.



    Been working on the low poly but I also finished the head and added some wear and tear:



  • HarryT25
    Hello! My name is Harry, I'm currently a student at university and decided to take part in this challenge :) I have gone with the flashlight prop and this is my progress so far! Any feedback would be really appreciated, thank you!








  • loon27
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    loon27 polycounter lvl 8

    HarryT25

    It looks like some parts of your design different from the original concept.
    I can only offer some subjective thoughts on the design and functionality

    For the wires, I think the shape could be a bit smoother and simpler.
    The bottom charging contact seems a bit too thick—would that make the flashlight unstable or wobbly when placed down? (Just a thought about functionality!)

    Hope this helps. Keep it up!


    This is also my first time joining this challenge. Here’s my current progress
    The blockout stage is done, and I’ve already set up edge loops for some parts of the high-poly model.
    Next, I’ll continue adding more details to the high-poly model.

    Feel free to share any feedback or suggestions!

  • BillyJackman
    Everyone's work is looking good!

    @ATaylor96 your blockout looks better than my final high poly!

    @klamante - that model is looking very clean great work! Not too chaotic to me!

    @crayz4pnutz - all of your modeling looks solid. Unless I am getting tricked by the field of view/perspective, it looks a lot longer than the concept. I think it would help with the realism by shrinking down the overall length of your model. Great work so far!

    @EtotheRic - your binos are looking really good. love the imperfections and damage.

    @loon27 - that's looking really good so far! I'm digging the thick handle.

    Here is my stab at the emergency light asset. Grinded this one out without keeping track of the progress.



    Keep up the good work!
  • Eric Chadwick

    Very nice! One crit, if you're open to changes, would be to add more pronounced edge wear to the bottom of the unit. Someone pointed that out earlier when I posted the photos, just how beat-up the bottom was, from all the times it was set down on concrete or wherever. 
  • ATaylor96
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    ATaylor96 polycounter lvl 8
    Quick progress update, haven't managed to get too much done this week but I have been slowly refining the high poly model. Mostly cutting out shapes so things sit nicely in place and making sure everything looks good with a higher subdivision.


    @BillyJackman nice work! Really like the texture work on that, love the roughness variation across the model. I agree with the suggestion@"Eric Chadwick" made, would definitely get quite roughed up on the bottom so some more edgewear would help a lot. The handle looks a little sharp as well so rounding that off a fraction would go a long way but otherwise really great work!
  • Torch
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    Torch polycounter
    ATaylor96 said:
    Quick progress update, haven't managed to get too much done this week but I have been slowly refining the high poly model. Mostly cutting out shapes so things sit nicely in place and making sure everything looks good with a higher subdivision.

     This is my favourite so far, beautiful presentation. All these models have turned out great so far, awesome entries
  • loon27
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    loon27 polycounter lvl 8
    Nice texture!
    IMO, some of the dirt in the AO feels a bit strong. Maybe adding some variation could help balance it out
    Also, your work reminded me that the light cover is actually transparent! I made that adjustment in my update as well.


    Great model and render!
    One small suggestion—I feel like the red plastic light cover looks a bit sharp. Making it a bit rounder might improve the look! 😊


  • loon27
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    loon27 polycounter lvl 8
    My High-Poly  progress update
    I’ve completely refined my previous blockout model and added more details. The front and back light covers will be semi-transparent.
    Seeing everyone’s preview renders looking great, I decided to play around with Arnold a bit too. :)
    But my end goal is still a game-ready model, plan to render it in Marmoset Toolbag.


    Next update will likely be the low-poly model and normal baking!
  • crowlena
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    crowlena polycounter lvl 10
    Hi all, here is my modelling progress on the binoculars. I'm planning on taking these into substance painter next:)
    Here is the UV layout that I'm thinking of going with also:
    Any feedback appreciated, thanks!:)

  • crowlena
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    crowlena polycounter lvl 10
    Hi @SharelleCottee here are some differences that I noticed between your model proportions and shapes versus the concept art. It's up to you if you want to take these into account of course and keep up the good work:)



  • Hymil
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    Hymil polygon
    Woah, so many entries this month! Amazing to see everyone's takes on the concepts!
    crayz4pnutz said:
    You've got a pretty nice composition going on there! I like the car battery idea, it's a nice personal touch to the project. I can't wait to see the texturing on this piece, it's coming along well. 
    Thank you!
    Great work! My only advice would be for the grunge. You have a fair bit of grunge in the concave sections of the light housing and underside, but this is juxtaposed by the rather clean flat and convex surfaces. Perhaps evening them out? Anyways great work, it was fun spinning it around in the viewer.
    loon27 said:
    Lovely stuff! The modelling looks clean, and shapes have nice silhouettes. Excited to see how you end up texturing it and render with the translucent surfaces!

    crowlena said:
    Awesome progress so far! Only thing on my mind would be to simplify the topology on the grid fill circle areas if they're flat, and if you are going for game topology.
  • Hymil
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    Hymil polygon
    Cheeky progress update!
    Did the low-poly and been cranking out the texturing so far with Painter and render in Marmoset.

    Constantly going back and forth to compare and tweak. Looking for any and all texturing feedback, to my eyes it doesn't quite feel cohesive but that might be because I've been staring at it for way too many hours.

    @ATaylor96 inspired me to just keep all the images combined into one.

    Also funny to see everyone that did clay renders choose different colours ahaha

    Not sure why tho, but the small bit of blue in my render image get desaturated when I upload them to polycount, but oh well. Here's a little closeup just so you see the corrosion
  • SharelleCottee
    crowlena said:
    Hi @SharelleCottee here are some differences that I noticed between your model proportions and shapes versus the concept art. It's up to you if you want to take these into account of course and keep up the good work:)



    Thank you for this i really appreciate it 😁

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