Sketchbook MK II

[angry_monkey]

Nice that you're progressing. Have you studied the human skeleton much? One thing I have learned is that the skeleton plays a huge part in how the body is shaped. Try to picture the muscles overlaying the skeleton and flowing with it. Also it may help to study insertions of muscles and where they go, how they act, etc. For example. The pectoral muscle is supposed to sort of slide under the deltoid and attach to the humerus. Hope this helps.

[Krallis]

I am aware of this, however using this guy as reference you can see where I got that particular area from, It could do with some changing though because my guy isnt quite as bulked up as this guy.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/imag...kenyattaw1.jpg

[Krallis]

Quick model Ive been building today, going to finish up the textures tomorrow.
578 Triangles for final low poly, I tried to keep the polycount as low as possible as its to be optimised for running on a good smartphone.

[Krallis]

There was a brief for this model.
Must be lowpoly enough to run on a smartphone.
Should look like a post apocalyptic building.
It should look good from an RTS viewpoint.

So this is what I came up with, a ruined Cafe that uses Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Opacity and Glowmaps.
And the final model comes in at 578 triangles.

[Krallis]

I am making a large pistol that fires Large steel bolts using compressed air.
I spent a fair amount of time trying to get the design looking right, and im fairly happy with it, just changing a few things and adding details and refining it.

[Krallis]

Update to the gun... looks kinda like a badass hair dryer I think.

[angry_monkey]

What sort of post apocalypse were you going for? Zombies? Nukes? Reason I ask is your cafe looks good but doesn't really tell a story of what happened there aside from the sign hanging over it. If it was attacked by zombies maybe have some smashed up/ boarded windows? Also people are hysterical during an apocalypse so it might help to add some trash to the ground texture.

[Krallis]

I was not given a specific reason in the brief. I was just told post apocalyptic and to make it look grimy and broken down.
And it was also done to meet a very tight deadline. It only took a few hours to do.
And it fulfilled its job rather well.

[poopipe]

Originally Posted by Krallis

There was a brief for this model.
Must be lowpoly enough to run on a smartphone.
Should look like a post apocalyptic building.
It should look good from an RTS viewpoint.

So this is what I came up with, a ruined Cafe that uses Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Opacity and Glowmaps.
And the final model comes in at 578 triangles.

it looks good - technically solid, normals have worked well and everything so yay! I'd brighten it all up personally but meh, unimportant

However, I think you're pushing it in the context of a whole screen full of stuff.

An iphone4 will vomit at the mere thought of a whole screen full of multipass shaders like that. It may run ok on the very latest kit but that knocks you right out of the biggest section of the market.


So, even if it's all imaginary, ask the following questions...

Is the object going to be lit by dynamic lighting?
no? then you can bake lighting into everything and use an unlit/constant shader
yes? then you're going to want diffuse lighting and to consider the use of specular maps only on assets that need them (specular > normal on assets that don't move)

Does the engine support lightmaps
no? bugger, that makes things a bit awkward in terms of re-using assets - consider ways of faking uniform lighting
yes? excellent news, now you only need to bake detailed AO and local lighting

Do you need alpha?
yes? no you don't, unless we're talking about chainlink fences and trees I can assure you that making it out of geometry is cheaper than alpha blending
no? correct answer


In this case, assuming you have lightmaps and dynamic lighting (ie. unity/unreal) I'd say go with baking AO and sky lighting into the diffuse and add a specular map. The viewpoint won't drop enough to warrant normals but panning around parallel to the ground will bring out specular.

you'll get the whole thing drawn in 2 or 3 passes rather than 9 or 10 that way and it'll take up a shed load less video memory




Have a read of this because it illustrates almost every point I try to beat into our art team on a daily basis

http://artisaverb.info/Hygiene.html

[Krallis]

Lack of updates due to work and so forth. But Ive made an Astrolabe inspired by Game of Thrones' title sequence.
Also useful for experimenting with the Bokeh Lens Shader.

[Buzzy]

As poopipe said, the Cafe scene is technically quite sound. It's not extraordinarily sophisticated but still solid. Aesthetically it's fine, but I wouldn't worry too much about aesthetics when you are learning. That link poopipe posted is a good read.

As for smartphones, an iPhone4 can probably push the scene fine, but you're not gonna be able to do a whole lot more. An iPhone3 will absolutely not be able to run this however because it only supports OpenGL ES 1.1

I like the thoroughness of your concepts. You have well thought out descriptions of how things actually work and some backstory. These little details can go along way to helping you design and build things.

The astrolabe is neat. The bokeh filter is always fun to play with. As a general rule, if you want more realistic metal, try using high-contrast environment maps rather than specular highlights. For nice metal materials, I will usually turn specular off entirely and just use reflections.

It's really really difficult to stay focused when you are learning 3d. Suddenly you have all these amazing possibilities of cool things you can make and you want to make all of them. So you end up jumping around a lot. I would recommend you try to stay more focused while learning... for example, you could just focus on your character and his anatomy and working with the sculpting tools. Of course jumping around, being over ambitious, and making lots of mistakes is how I learned.

[Krallis]

Well the Astrolabe is still a WIP, its actually part of a bigger scene im doing...but im reluctant to show that off until im happy with it.

Ive got a lot of assets made lately aswell. But they're all for work, so I'll need to get permission to post them.

Also that cafe was made as a sort of "test" they asked me to show what I can do and it wanst built to go into the engine itself. Im not aware of the exact specifications of the engine. Im just doing whats asked of me. Bearing in mind im not a lead artist im just trying to make things that look like they fit with the game.

This is the trailer for the game as part of this indie spotlight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1R5anyIM9Y#t=00h02m40s

[Krallis]

Well. Here's what Im working on to go with the astrolabe.
Im pretty pleased with how its going so far. Ive got the design and features blocked in so im just slowly going around and refining/fixing topology etc.

The mask is pretty much done for now though Ill probably go back and add a few more details towards the end.
Im working on the chestplate atm, and its still kinda rough.

[Krallis]

WIP. Im not a fan of the chestplates midsection. Think im gonna be modifying that overall shape.

[paulius-st]

well, if i'mnot mistaken is the best stuff you have ever did . thumbs up.