Quick Crit thread 2012

Another year, another thread.
Quoted from Con:

The QC Thread is a place for your most current works of any kind or any game and get quick advice. Why use this instead of a [GALLERY] thread or a WIP thread in another section? You can post your projects in their own thread if you want, but if you want fast advice on a smaller project, this is the place for you. This is not a place for you to dump all your work (It's not a big truck), but rather a place for work that doesn't require a whole thread in the Studio. That being said, please avoid posting loads of images. Keep that to your [GALLERY] threads. Essentially, this is like the good ol' Offtopic Gallery Thread minus all crap that plagued it and its sibling in the CE section.

So here are the rules:

• This is not a [GALLERY] thread, only post your most current work that does not require a whole thread.
• Make sure your images are big enough to crit, not too dark, and remember that wireframes for models are helpful.
• Images larger than the page size must be put in [shot] tags.
• Use [spoiler] tags sparingly; it's annoying having to click to open and view every single one of your images.
• Last but not least, no shitposting. This thread's been going good so far, don't ruin it.

Let's see some work!

p0lar edit:

Please note the following addition to the AUP as of 2/17:

CRITIQUE

Keep in mind that there are professional artists, modelers, writers, animators, etc in this community who have taken college courses and have degrees in varied areas. When posting your work for critique, please specify if you are looking for professional advice to make it as perfect as it can get, or if you just want a basic rundown to improve your work.

• When asking for professional critique, you are opening yourself up to comments that you may find mean or rough. Feel free to inquire further or challenge the critic if they're too vague or you disagree, but do not retaliate to these comments (i.e: "fuck off, it took me X days to make this what do you know"), as this is normal in the professional world, and retaliating in such a way makes you look incompetent.
• If asking for basic advice, make sure to specify what the final role of the work will be. Is it an artistic piece? Will it be going into a game?

If you do not specify what kind of advice you'd like, it will be considered by default that you are looking for a professional review.

updated bake with most of the errors fixed and some MFG markings

http://i.imgur.com/3zxQS.jpg

poob

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...hmorePSD-5.jpg

Almost done. Going to upload video tonight. :)

UAGH PENG THAT SWITCH!! UAGH!!!

just bake it to a plane instead of a crappy cylinder, alphamap that stuff.

just uagh.

yeah i fixed that right after the render D: kept glancing over it until I took that render

Oh my, what am I doing here?
Attachment 2584
please ignore the pecs' contour

@mrbig
Whats the focal point of the painting? If its the white tree, it's too isolated from the other elements in the painting. Your eyes go straight to it, look at it, and go "OK I"m done with this picture.". if you made it larger it would help move your eyes around the image.if you wanted it to stay that size you could lower the value to a bit so it doesn't hog the attention.

some more progress

Well done :iamafag:

don't use the sharpen filter ffs.

didn't, it was a shitty compression fail. I'll try not to f that up next render. Still doing spec map tweaks

the word "Magpul" is mirrored on the right side of the gun on the handle, but im sure you already knew that

Been working on this for the past day.
Had some help from Nero earlier getting my sub-D nailed down.
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...7/spiker-1.png

i don't see any subdivided geometry there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neuro

i don't see any subdivided geometry there.

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The blade is the only thing with turbosmooth on at the moment.
Getting the constraints worked on for the rest of it.
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...ntitled-22.png

first you can probably up the iterations by another level, and those edges, loosen them up. no reason to be that sharp

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1725586/crit...widthmodel.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neuro

i don't see any subdivided geometry there.

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.
This. At the moment, I still do not see the turbo smooth being applied. =o

turn off the smoothing groups option in your turbosmooth

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PenGuin1362

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1725586/crit...widthmodel.jpg

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my mind was just blown.

really? pretty sure i made a post about exactly this at some point.

Working a planet to render for using as sky sprites:
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...tsnomoon-4.jpg

E:

Very nice!

I made a tire.

Yes you did.

Update to the sky.

The ring has been made in 3ds max and then rendered to create a sprite.

Looking real nice. Only criticism I have is that without other background info, it looks very close to the canyon and out of place.

Also, are there stars in the planets? It looks that way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobtheGreatII

Also, are there stars in the planets? It looks that way.

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Yeah, that's one of the troubles I'm getting at the moment.
Crysis doesn't do Skyboxes in the normal sense and you can't import new skybox models.
The bitmaps for the skybox barely make much sense either so I'm having to make planes and apply shaders which have alpha channels which is resulting in stars showing through the planets and the ring looking much closer than it should be.
If I scale the ring any more it get's clipped out entirely.

Make it faded. Art 101. Objects in the back fade out and have less contrast with the surrounding environment compared to objects up close. This can be accomplished by editing your colour palette (on the ring and the sky), adding fog, etc.

I will say that I do like the floaty feeling that the sky gives in that last picture. We are on a ring only 10,000km in diameter, orbiting a planet with a relatively thin (if compressed) atmosphere.

It would be interesting if during night maps, the other side of the ring (the side in the sky) was illuminated. Which it probably would be, taking into consideration the angle of the ring in relation to the sun that would be necessary for either side to be dark.

Working on my first car model. I was stupid and picked the hardest one I could find.

Wheels look great so far man. Your topology is a bit harsh at the moment though. Before adding all those loops, get the main shape down. If you add details in, plus edge loops, your model will have soooo much pinching going on.

Get shape down.
Add details.
Add edge loops for turbosmoothing.
this is how many edgle loops I had:
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...er/renders.png

I understand ur car has a lot of weird shapes, but dont look at those small details, like those weird slants in different areas. You can cut into your model later and add them.

Also, when you move verts, make sure you have either face or edge constraints on, so you dont destroy the topology/look of that area:
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...r/renders1.png

Keep at it man!

I have the swift loop tool binded to my ~ key.
Have an edge selected with the swift loop tool enabled and click on an edge with the alt key held and then move your mouse.

Your welcome.

Wow Josh, that low poly makes the high poly look isolated. Excellent job!

Just messing around with particles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOcQO...ature=youtu.be

How do i follow my own damn perspective lines, damn

http://i.imgur.com/te34A.jpg

that monster thing's p cool

also an attempt at quest-style art

http://sadpanda.us/images/832999-CUF2X4Q.png
http://sadpanda.us/images/832987-JUDH7JY.png
http://sadpanda.us/images/833017-DN3ED8O.png

The sketchyness in the last panel makes things a little hard to understand what's going on, but otherwise good job!

I made some more progress on the car. I took you guys' advice and waited until I fully blocked out the car to start cutting in the little details. Once the front is looking good I'm moving on to working on the back.

Oh damn that's going to turn out sexy! Good job so far man, keep at it!

Btw, how are you rendering that? :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nero

Oh damn that's going to turn out sexy! Good job so far man, keep at it!

Btw, how are you rendering that? :)

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Thanks man! As for how I'm rendering it, I'm just importing the model into a cyclobate with a couple lights and a camera I set up a few months ago. For the most part, I haven't really touched any of the render settings except for image size and force 2-sided, because my laptop will only show one side of a plane unless I render it out.

Thanks. :)

Edit: You may be interested in reading this:
http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011...speed-run.aspx

one of their 'trade secrets' is that they don't use normalmaps on the cars themselves.
they build in extra edges for proper smoothing instead.

I forget if I posted these here.

Took them with a digital camera of unknown make, I borrowed it from a friend for the occasion.

Also have no idea what I'm doing so if they suck well they suck.

sunsets are p awesome

also, some more stuff...

kobold wizard in the same style as before. if nothing else it's practice with light sources I'd like to think..

http://sadpanda.us/images/834536-2IC4ZGZ.png

a shark spilling pistachios and beer (inside joke, don't ask :/ )

http://sadpanda.us/images/834576-ROKFZLV.png

and some super kawaii aminu art

http://sadpanda.us/images/834538-BMS71KY.png

I don't know about you, but I bet the last one one would get ALL OF THE FAVS on deviantart. I would become internet famous

practicing animation

i thought that was pretty cool!

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...7/Dalek-10.jpg
Working on texturing this guy.
There's one section still in need of unwrapping but i'll get there soon.

So I made a little prop for practice. Still needs to be textured.

Attachment 2625
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s15/SAH1R/new-1.jpg

floater-ambient-fail

Killer has to clean the AO still. :p

clean?

just set that shit not to cast shadows.

I was having trouble baking in MAX so I did it in xNormals.

xnormal >_<

Some more progress! Next up is some more refinement followed by taillights and headlights.

It's coming along man! Can we have a wire frame?

Thanks! I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible with the base, unturbosmoothed version, to avoid any pinching. Personally, I think the wireframe on the rear looks like ass, and I'm still working on it, but other than that There aren't any issues with pinching or overlapping. A modeler at Lockheed suggested tracing out a wireframe over a reference image and working with that.

you've got waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many irregularities in your mesh.

basically if your wireframe looks 'scribbly' like that, you're doing it wrong.
i'd say you've simply got too many edges everywhere.
believe it or not, this car is VERY simple shapes, you really don't need this many edges to define the shapes properly.

also, low-spec renders like that only hide your mistakes.
you should make a nice shiny glossy render, it'll bring out the flaws in your mesh (sounds backwards i know, but you need to see where you've gone wrong)

Plus it will make your life a hell of a lot easier if you get a decent base mesh down before you subdivide that way you have a better working point for your low poly. If you were to make a low poly out of this you'd be better off scrapping everything.

I knew I was doing it wrong, son of a bitch.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PenGuin1362

Plus it will make your life a hell of a lot easier if you get a decent base mesh down before you subdivide that way you have a better working point for your low poly. If you were to make a low poly out of this you'd be better off scrapping everything.

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I really wish that we started off with a low poly class instead of jumping straight into high poly models. Every time I work on this I know I'm doing things wrong, but the classes so far are only concerned with high poly modeling. We're told that the fewer vertices/edges the better, but other than the fenders, we're not given any exact details.

Believe me, I would love to learn low poly modeling instead of this, or at least learn how to create a smooth mesh without using Turbosmooth.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neuro

you've got waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many irregularities in your mesh.

basically if your wireframe looks 'scribbly' like that, you're doing it wrong.
i'd say you've simply got too many edges everywhere.
believe it or not, this car is VERY simple shapes, you really don't need this many edges to define the shapes properly.

also, low-spec renders like that only hide your mistakes.
you should make a nice shiny glossy render, it'll bring out the flaws in your mesh (sounds backwards i know, but you need to see where you've gone wrong)

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Do you mean the triangles? The only reason they're still there is because I'm trying to fix the shitty geometry in the back, but I have no idea how to do that without ruining the smoothed out version. I did try to block out the car earlier on without adding any additional vertices. After what I thought was a clean, blocked out car, I started my assinine attempt to refine it.

I should already know this, but how do you make a glossy render?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MXC

I knew I was doing it wrong, son of a bitch.
Every time I work on this I know I'm doing things wrong, but the classes so far are only concerned with high poly modeling. We're told that the fewer vertices/edges the better,

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then you're getting fucking scammed.

there's a 'rule of thumb' that less verts makes your mesh easier to control and adjust, but it being BETTER is the biggest pile of horseshit i've ever seen.
more often than not (at least when you're making more complex stuff) you're going to NEED a dense mesh to be able to support whatver you're trying to efficiently.

try asking your TEACHER to make a cylinder with one of the faced extruded inwards.
any pinching makes him a retard. like this

obviously don't show him that, but that's a prime example of you NEED more edges to be able to support a decent curve.
remember, it's a HIGHPOLY.
it doens't have to be a geometrical masterpiece, you only need good normals to bake.
polycount in highpoly models is 120% COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT.


as for a glossy render, just apply a material with a (higher) glossiness and don't have a skylight in the scene.
there's a BUNCH of render tutorials on these forums, and even more everywhere else.
shouldn't be to hard to find.

also, i'd like to point out that your car is by no means bad. it's pretty dern great for somebody who doesnt even have a basic grasp of lowpoly modelling.
(priorities man, priorities!)

I love neuro's posts. They're like the most degrading thing that can teach you a lesson at the same time.

I don't think he's trying to be degrading, he's trying to get a point across, except for that bit about the school. Honestly dude the school isn't going to teach you everything, a lot of it falls on you. What can really help is posting your work around to get feedback. Try a few exercises outside of class and post them here or at a place like polycount.

Also what school do you go to?

Penguin is right. I am going to the Art Institute of Dallas. The animation/modeling teachers know what they are doing, which is why I've been able to make it this far. My problem with their program is the order of the modeling classes, not their actual teaching.

I really should have said this earlier, but before I dig the hole any deeper I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I struggle to word things correctly. The teacher is nowhere near as bad as I'm probably saying he is, he's one of those guys that's been modeling since before the existence of 3dsmax and encourages going out and communicating instead of holding your hand through the entire course. The majority of my problems could probably be solved if I could word my questions to him correctly, I'm sure of it.

But whenever I ask him for help I'm just staring at my model trying to figure out what to say or ask that's not going to make me look like an idiot. Then I ask something really basic that I already know.

Whenever I DO manage to word my questions correctly I get the help I need, which is why that pump turned out as well as it did.

I am going to rework the organization of the vertices before I make another progress shot, and also make some glossy renders and look at what's really happening. I might also make a Polycount account and post my work there, but I doubt it'll get any feedback.

if you post here

i WILL give you proper feedback if you'd like.
i told uhhhh... nero (i think) the same

^ The reason why it's important to post your work. Nothing against your teachers or your school but I've notice in some cases that professors can be too soft when critiquing your work and don't always tell you what you need to hear.

Quote:

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I might also make a Polycount account and post my work there, but I doubt it'll get any feedback.

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No harm in trying. Also the polycount wiki has tons of information regarding modeling, baking, texturing. So it's worth looking

Quote:

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Penguin is right. I am going to the Art Institute of Dallas. The animation/modeling teachers know what they are doing, which is why I've been able to make it this far. My problem with their program is the order of the modeling classes, not their actual teaching.

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I am going to the AI of fort worth or UNT.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobtheGreatII

I love neuro's posts. They're like the most degrading thing that can teach you a lesson at the same time.

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Sooo...Neuro is the new Snaf?

Lol pretty much.

more like snaf WAS the new neuro and now neuro is the new neuro

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neuro

more like snaf WAS the new neuro and now neuro is the new neuro

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Or snaf was snaf and Neuro is tweek,

people still don't know that?

I thought it was just common knowledge at this point.

ban tweek for making alts

Who is tweek?

Btw, Sel, brighten that scene up. Candles would do nicely. Hard to make out anything in those pics...

What engine is that in? Also the details on your walls seem to large and stretched. And the wood on the base of the wall I think needs to be reworked as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PenGuin1362

What engine is that in? Also the details on your walls seem to large and stretched. And the wood on the base of the wall I think needs to be reworked as well.

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Elaborate.

It's whatever proprietary engine Amnesia uses, I believe...

First of all your assets seem to have these nice soft edges then your wood base has very hard normals and could probably benefit from a normal map. Plus you could use the normal map for some nice detail on floor molding which I think this could benefit from as well. The texture itself is just lacking. I'd suggest a more prominent wood texture. It doesn't need to be really noisy but I just don't think the current texture is really working. Also get some AO around the decorative squares on the wood, that will help to ground them a lot more.

Texturing is hardly my strong point, so I'll see what I can do. Is there a way to make AO bake more intense shadows?

As for the wood, I dunno, the reference pictures have painted wood that only has a small handful of imperfections, I'm not really sure I want to make something with more details, but I'll look around anyway if I can find something that might be more fitting.

Am I a pro texture artist yet

Diffuse and specular are lacking. The normals came out well but you could use a little more color variation in the diffuse and a more brick like texture to it. It seems to fit the style well enough but I'd tweak the diffuse some more

I kind of wish I knew the exact colour code for this but at the moment this will have to do.


E:
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...1-49-46-73.png

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...4-56-47-28.png

-Happy face-

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nero

-Happy face-

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http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...0-01-27-66.png

hilarious

Nice Dalek.

Very nice, in fact.

I like it.




Now make a Cyberman.

I think I'm about done with this:
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...3-29-43-50.png



http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...3-52-11-36.pnghttp://youtu.be/Jc7KkTJ1Gv4

experimenting

idk if this is even the proper way to make what I'm trying to do but whatevs

That's a really nice door you have there.

Digging it. I love all of the engraved lines, but my favorite is the middle section.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkHalo003

Digging it. I love all of the engraved lines, but my favorite is the middle section.

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I was definitely much more pleased with the middle segment too, but the sides are still more than enough to please me~

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/63494571/Mod...4_br_prog6.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/63494571/Mod...4_br_prog7.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/63494571/Mod...4_br_prog8.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/63494571/Mod...4_br_prog9.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/63494571/Mod..._br_prog10.jpg

Just need to add afew smaller details and the magazine. Tried to avoid making the edges TOO tight.

those floaters are bothering the shit out of me.

floaters are fine. But that charging is bothering the shit out me. It's got really hard edges and can't even tell what those details are doing

The fact that it's yet another Halo gun by Hunter really ruffles my jimmies

Ugh. Why use floaters again? Can some one tell me? I'm not a professional 3D modeler, but to me they always look wrong.

It's really a nice gun though. It just need a little more polishing.

it's faster to do floaters than to build them in properly. normalmaps don't give a fuck about stuff floating above your surface, but ambient occlusion can have a fit about it sometimes.

also it's more prone to fucking up if you're not setting up your projection cage properly

Also he's rendering them incorrectly. If you want them there, then it's fine. But you need to shut off "cast shadows" in the object properties for each floater. See this render of my updated BR:



As compared to:



Which is what you're doing. It ruins the whole illusion.

Also yes, floaters are great for normal maps... but aren't always good if you don't plan on actually baking them.

As for your model... The grip is uh... not right. Looking at it it even looks uncomfortable. And I'm not sure what's going on with your bolt... but it looks sort of silly black compared to the rest of the render. Did you fake bumps on it instead of modeling it? Over all there are just areas that didn't stay constant with the real design. Which is okay, as long as you plan on staying that way during most of the model. If not it makes a lot of it look off. Just my two cents though.

Bobthegreat got what I was getting at.

Btw looks great bob! but some more contrast would be great, to really make the details pop.
Edit: also, why is everyone using black backgrounds? heh.