Gas station - job hunting stuff

Por@szek · Jan 2007

Hi all.

Finally I desided to post the stuff I'm working atm in all mightness it have XD
So here we got a station, and props and its a wip, and i won't show wires and give u a polycount till I finish. And I need to finish this stuff 'cos I'm hoping to get some nice studio work ...
So ... let me know what U think

Enjoy

dabu · Jan 2007

looking good so far, like something I would see in HL2. I would dial the noise down a little on your wall textures, they look a tad busy.

What res are your maps? Working on a simple ground? Having a textured ground of some sort would help for making a good crit

Tumerboy · Jan 2007

Hey man, nice work, as always! Are you only looking in Europe? or would you be willing to migrate to the US? Environment Artist I assume?

Let me know.

-Nick

Xenobond · Jan 2007

All-in-all, it's pretty good. Would like to see some wires and flats, though. If you're as good with photo-reffed textures as you are at hand painting them, you should see about applying over at EA Mythic. We're definitely looking for people that know what they're doing.

http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=172033&an=0&page=0#Post172033

Jarrod1937 · Jan 2007

are those rust and scartches photosources or is it doen by hand? if the rust is done by hand i would be ineterested to know the techniques used.

dkorch · Jan 2007

personally I would tone down those scratches on EVERYTHING lol...I say that because right now to me it seems random. why does that gas pump, door, and everything else have billions of scratches on every part of its surface? think about that stuff.

right now your scratches to me look like an abstract painting where you just threw them on an overlay layer.

the building looks good though, however it could be used to be painted in more...

anywho, keep it up.

John Warner · Jan 2007

i think it looks pretty damn good man

ideas - i think it's too bumpy. it feels like you're trying to make it feel detailed by turning up the bump. all this does is make it look too bumpy. it needs less bump and more variety of detail. stains, drippage, water stains, dirt, cracks, damaged cement, dust.. you can do really awesome dust by applying a layer of desaturated peachish-grey to the model and wiping it away in layers with the pencil eraser. looks fuckin badass. anyway just stuff to give it a bit more character. it's close, but it still feels too perfect. yes, you've roughed it up, but there's really no weathering there. what about some sun-bleaching? (does that happen to this kind of material?) stains from an ashtray on the windowsill.. water stains from the roof and under the windows.. bird droppings on that awning.. stuff like that. you've got large details, and small details, but it could use some varied medium details.

Emil Mujanovic · Jan 2007

Looking nice, a few issues I see:
The red overhang bit at the front is just plugged straight into the wall and looks rather odd. There aren't any supports for it, there aren't any brackets holding it to the wall. It's just straight plugged in. A lot of things in the scene seem to be plugged in.
The tap would look better if there was a thin pipe coming from the ground fastened to the wall with the faucet attached to it.
The front door has no handle?
What's the go with the wagon wheel?
Might post more later, need to get back to work... Build in 3 hours! GAH!

-caseyjones

Tumerboy · Jan 2007

I agree with the less uniform & more purpose oriented scratches idea.

So here's some quick referrence I dug up from around the Interwebz:

http://www.dreamstime.com/thumb_15/1121457931d9bykG.jpg
http://squeegie.org/photos/old%20gas%20pump.jpg
http://www.mikejorgensen.com/images/Adair%20-%20Gas%20Pump.JPG
http://www.outbackphoto.com/portfoliowork/pw_21/500_1d2_0000_5901_gaspumpdesertcenter.jpg
http://www.guangmingdaily.com.cn/image/oldfueldispenser/18.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39903497@N00/249875452/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/windsurfgirl/221961130/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laja/182137076/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laja/182137095/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/familybmx/19092768/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lokfreek/349837543/

madman · Jan 2007

U know my opinion dude, cool stuff, but i don't like the soft corners and so far defined colors- white should not be white and red should not be red :P ofcourse in my opinion, that way or another this is really good work

Por@szek · Jan 2007

LOL, how many replies, i need to write it down in my calendar XD

dabu - ground is one of the last things I'm usually doing, and res is 1024 multiple for few objects on one flat. Thx

Tumerboy - thx man, I told ya XD

Xenobond - flats and wires I'll post in the end. Thx for the link, but I don;t want to move my arse from europe ... yet. And opinion about my skills I left for others, I rather low morale person :P

Jarrod1937 - they are mixed, half this and half this. U usually I paint rust, and pure metal like normal handpainted texture, after that I'm mixing on the layers, sometimes its need to cut part of the color texture beneath the rust or pure metal to get it clean.

dkorch - I was trying to do not put it chaotical, but my target was to create totaly forgotten, killing dirty, almost filthy place. Maybe to much XD I try to fix it a little. Thx for comment.

John_Warner - great thx, most of things u wrote i wanted to put htere later, in the end, i mean in total pumping part but thanks for a dust tip, i'll try to check it

Thx alot.
caseyjones - about red overhang i think i cret alpha lines connected to roof, tap is going from the inside, there will be bruise ( i have such a thing in my home, from garden side). LOL raelly no handle, this one i totaly missed. thx

And a wagon wheel is some sort of fantasy, i found it on my reference photo but scene start evolving since i start creating it ... here it is

Tumerboy - thx man, for sure I'll use it for later anatomy rust topic

madman - U will not tell me that white is white and black i black, lol. Thx matey

Thx guys for all of this replies, I'm touched

And 1 more thing. Is here someone from Rockstar UK, 'cos I'm interested in apply there, and I'll be very glad to talk a little about working in there. I'm able to relocate. THX

Tumerboy · Jan 2007

no prob, now goto sleep! LOL

Por@szek · Jan 2007

I'm a bit confused atm.
I was playing a bit with the scene, and change the walls a "bit", so i need ur advice...
old one ->

new one ->

Joseph Silverman · Jan 2007

I like the new walls a lot more, but I don't understand why you removed the bottom red stripe. A lot of stuff just blends together now.

Tumerboy · Jan 2007

ya I'd keep the red & yellow stripes, as they add a needed border to the building. But I do like the grimier & dirtier version of the texture. Think about toning the overall dirt down a bit, and leaving it in the places that would really get it (corners etc.) maybe a crack or two as well? And possibly some of that streaky black gunk that happens to buildings along the top edge after years of rain & such? Maybe instead of just dirt, try some chipped/pealed off paint as well, maybe a different color below? Stickers/Ads in the windows?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smkymtnman/349282536/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smkymtnman/349282527/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/retro-girl66/325337654/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnranch/55163950/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/exquisitelyboredinnacogdoches/347342609/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennwren/165205543/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytravelphotos/368532345/

Personally, I'd lose the wagon wheel & well. They're good assets, but don't fit the scene terribly well. Perhaps replace them with things that would be there, an old ice machine, oil bottle rack, etc. I'd also remove one of the two wheel hubs on the side of the building, or at least move one of them to the other side of the building so that it's not as obvious that they're repeated. Oh, and just pull off the reciever of the payphone, and leave the wire hanging there.

Fjornsvavne · Jan 2007

Agree with SupRore. Looks alot better. Handed it a rougher look. Think of the transitions between materials and it all will end up great. I also think you should add your rough edges into your mesh, for example those boards that're old and probably been through this and that, will most likely have cracks and stuff messing the shape up.

btw, what is that red,blue,green box in that corner? Not referring to the untextured ones, hehe

motives · Jan 2007

keep the bricks showing and make them smaller. Your house right now looks a bit toy:ish in proportions. Smaller details helps that

Em. · Jan 2007

I think if you blend the old wall texture with the new one, it would look sweet. I also agree about keeping the lower red stripe and ditching the well and the wagon wheel in the scene, they don't seem to fit. Wall texture seems a little too noisy still, but maybe that's just me. There's a lot of good crits up there.
It's soo close to being awesome. Good work, keep it up.

Por@szek · Jan 2007

SupRore - thx, stripes strikes back :P

Tumerboy - lol mate, U make me a headake, all that referencies just show how much i suck, but, pls, keep it up

I move to trash stuff the wagon wheel, but I'll try to fit the well, I like it much and I;m really glad of it so its about why? :P More most of stuff U mention I'll add later. Great ideas, with stickers and bottles. But they are so shitty small so I left them to the end. Thx once more man.

Fjornsvavne - lol, this red blue something something box is a toolbox i start painting, but I didn;t finish it yet. I put the checker on in till i finish it.

motives - smaller bricks ... hmmm maybe u have right ... thx

oglemeanimations - I'll do my best,

And here is a small update, hard to say exacly what i change 'cos it was a bit of it, still some work to do, but slowly I'm tired of it, I'm too lazy :P

Tumerboy · Jan 2007

the problem with the brick is that they're uneven, which works for an old castle or something, but a building like this is built out of cinderblock, all regular & even.

Having the "S" in "GAS" falling on both sides seems wierd to me. I'd leave "GAS" intact on one side, or a letter slightly askew, but not falling off yet.

And you should turn that back part of the building into a garage. Or maybe restrooms.

God, it's so much easier to give crits than actually do any work :P

Joao Sapiro · Jan 2007

i still think that it is too dirty , looks a bit unbalanced

Por@szek · Feb 2007

Thanks guys for comments

Slowly finishing. need to pimp it a little in the end, add few details and i think its done. But atm I'm tired of this piece of crap and need to change the atmosphere. Need to do something different 'cos I;m going mad.

Catch the crap :

Crits will be nice

Flewda · Feb 2007

The sign doesn't really cut it for me. It definitely looks more like its being projected, rather than being emitted from neon tubes. The sign itself also doesn't really feel much like it would have neon lights on it anyway. Try going to flickr.com or something and do a search for neon signs, you'll find a lot of good reference there.

Joseph Silverman · Feb 2007

Starting to look pretty good, but I really hate the lighting. Doesn't do it justice at all.

motives · Feb 2007

looks pretty cool

few things i would consider:
make the planks boarding up the window thinner
Rework that sign as flewda mentioned. Lokos like it belongs on studio 54 rather than on a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
The texture on the roof border tiles pretty bad.
The graffiti seems misplaced. Why have one single tag on there and nothing else? also, location. Is there really that amny kids with black markers running around where this gas station is supposed to be located

Also, i know you got that metalroof sticking out from your reference but it looks pretty weird imo.. Maybe break it up in a few different pieces or remake it into something that looks less.. uh weird. corrugated sheet metal or something

And i agree with rore, the lighting needs some loving

Keep it up though, think its starting to come togheter nicely!

Por@szek · Feb 2007

I want to thanks all of U guys, ur crits becomes very helpfull. Some of them I used, some of them I'll use in next projects.

And here is final product of my work. Mov, 81mb - 4min.
http://www.abandonedland.net/diploma/

Tomorrow I'll paste also renders, flats and other stuff, but atm ... i need to sleep

Cheers.

p.s i also start uploading the second version in wmv - around 68 mb.

Flewda · Feb 2007

I'll be honest. That video wasn't really worth the download. 81 megs is a lot to see one scene. I think the biggest issue I had with it was that it just did 3 revolutions of the same scene, Fully textured, then with the normal/spec, then wireframe. Then doing the same thing with the props. You would be much better of using just a couple of really well done renders of the scene IMO. Then just showing 1 or 2 angles of the normal/spec only, and a wireframe.

Josh

Steve Schulze · Feb 2007

It feels a bit anachronistic. You've got old style bowsers and an ancient typed well coupled with a modern looking sign. For the well maybe capping it and adding a petrol or windmill powered pump might be a more realistic option. TO make the sign look like it was made in a similar period to the fuel pumps, go with the bent tube neon deal

Pretty simple to do, just make all your corners curvy and join it all up into one long bendy line.

John Warner · Feb 2007

i think the model/texture looks pretty good, but i seriously think you're killing it with the render/lighting. the lighting is flat and un-expressive, and the render is aliased. it's pretty damn cool that you've taken it this far. i think some better mood lighting and some clean rendering would make it great.. cuz on the superficial level, i think it reads as un-appealing. i don't mean to be an asshole, I'm just trying to be honest

a few ideas: add some lighting contrast. make the shaddows darker. how about a night scene? perhaps add a light above the door and make it a warm organge/yellow color. make the shadows more cool. push the color and value contrast so you get something artistic. you could even do a depth map render pass and overlay it in after effects for a very subtle hue/value shift or some depth of field.

adam · Feb 2007

If someone with a hiring duty at a company spends the time to download 80mb's of someones reel you should give them more than 1 scene. That scene can have a lot of time knocked off if the well and gas pump were knocked out and it was just the scene being showed off.

I second the lighting comments, they're killing this scene.

Por@szek · Feb 2007

Thanks guys for replies. I will use them in next stuff I'll work on. But the light wasn't my good side ever. There is no good stuff about setuping it, especially in development soft like max. In engine its different.
And this is not a reel. Its my diploma, i need to show this in that way, 'cos most of my teachers are noobs in cg and if they see a sphere and box with skylight they are getting an orgazm. So they need to see this like it is shown in the avi. I never said its a reel and i will send it to employee like this.Sorry for bothering U guys of this crap.

John_Warner - thank U for lighting tips, I'll do with this something very soon.

Jackablade - thx for the reference

I;m too tired of this project to do something more. It takes me too much time, i need to concentrate on more simple stuff atm. thx anyway.

Gas station - job hunting stuff

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