It starts May 12, and ends Sept 12. Let's see what you got!
https://polycount.com/discussion/237047/the-brawl²-tournament
Hard Surface Blog: Sci-Fi Processing Station
Hey PC!
This is my little 3D Blog / Progress thread on my current portfolio project I wanted to share with all of you.
small pre-cursor: (Skip if you don't care about back stories / starting ideas for a project)
I've been on a quest as of late to increase and refine my modelling skills, after a couple years ago of being super... super humbled by the likes of the legendary Paul Pepera, and people like Connor McCampbell. After seeing work from these super talented folk, I was inspired to make something, that would hopefully do them justice in some respect. My rabbit hole of research on Astroneer (One of my favourite games of all time) led me to learn all about him and Adam, and was a gratifying awakening to how much I could increase my skill sets in modelling. Coming from a Maya/ Zbrush background of 6 years, I begun to slowly feel limited in my creativity when modelling in Maya, and found myself relying on Zbrush way too much at times to explore my designs and conceptions. Hard surface, is hard ass work and I begun to realize you need all the tools / versatility at your disposal to soften the blow. I needed to find a way to level up. :P
This is what got me started on researching the people before us. I thought, "I need to look to those who've come before me who've done it better than I could ever do now in the present." You know, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all... and a great way to learn. All while working a separate job that was Maya based.. I began slowly researching, and trying to transition to 3DS late last year (round October-ish). To see what the fuss was all about. I found 3DS has a lot of aids to make hard surface easier in some respects, I found that conclusively in some aspects it felt clunky, but the level of control over your meshes.. Is fantastic, and love modelling / designing in 3DS max. It's sort of like sketching in 3D due to the modifiers. I believe art should be as non destructive as possible cause it helps get your roots laid down so to speak. I realized ultimately, it doesn't matter.. what DCC you pick to use, but you need to find what makes you most comfortable that matters most. For me currently that is max. But who knows that may change in the future.
I'm now in full production mode, and soon to be wrapping up the modelling. Although with a new job opp on the horizon, it may be slowing down a little here and there. There are some small things still yet to be finished and touch ups, but I've already begun transferring everything in UE5, where I plan to make this a full game ready environment with ray-traced lighting.
Then I got the idea to come here and blog the progress and share it with all of you guys! Share the journey with others as I push the ball forward on this little idea I had. The idea, is a SciFi Ore Processing / Hazardous Material Processing Station. You know.. the sciency unexplained futuristic processing nerdy stuff! haha
I was thinking of posting the starting block-outs from the screenshots I took when I first begun this piece, right from the start to now. I'm not sure how many of you would be interested or benefit from that, but if it's something anyone would like to see I can do that. :)
Criticism is always welcome, and I'll take it into consideration as I chisel away.
Cheers, and thanks for reading if ya did!
Matt
Replies
I'd love to see some rim/back lighting on the outer meshes. Upper left and upper right seem needlessly dark, and devoid of visual interest. Same with bottom left & right.
Hey thanks Eric! Means a lot coming from you! I appreciate it. Yeah that was an effort to help focus more of the central focal point towards what is going on in the foreground, but I see what you mean! I just made some more adjustments that were nagging me and ended up with this so far.
Upon some recommendations, scale wasn't hitting properly for some when viewing it, and needed some more 'anchors' to help nail that gigantism look.
Re-purposed a sci-fi bridge I have in the background, added it up front with some mechanical sense (access to the door in front there)
But gave a good excuse to add a human sized element there. Cranked up the height fog just a touch to help contribute to the depth better, and changed the walls back to their original concept. sometimes, less is more, and found the eyes need to breathe a bit. Drove them a bit harder with some AO mixed into the base colour.
The fog, has helped add a bit more bounce lighting I think in some areas. But Yeah I could try and find a way to get some more rim lighting in for sure! Even if it's just 'fake' lighting coming from no where, it can help reveal a bit more detail like you said.
Cheers!