Cooljay's Progress Thread
Decided to open up my own progress thread just to have one specific place to show my work.
Here is a lighting/texturing composition I did. Trying to to put more effort in my work lately.
Here is a lighting/texturing composition I did. Trying to to put more effort in my work lately.
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http://www.3drender.com/challenges/hauntedhallway/index.htm
Did all the textures myself, then lit the scene to my specified mood.
It's just some practice of lighting scenes, and learning more about about Final Gathering, Ambient Occlusion, Mental Ray's Features. Texturing as well
but as said, try to render it in udk or unity. your final result will be much better.
A couple things.
1. It's hard to tell where your light source is coming from. It's unclear if it's from the window or a hanging light.
2.The floor is evenly lit throughout with no shadows to be seen. No matter where the light source is, there would be shadows on that floor. Not to mention the rest of it is lacking visible shadows as well. A hallway light that would have some strong shadows even during midday.
But dude, keep at it! Keep cranking out work and things will slowly come together.
Pick the area that you like the most and just work at that, if you spread yourself to thinly you won't get anywhere.
@ BrontoThunder, Yeah I'm basically into characters right now. Anything that I post otherwise is just school work or just for fun (TF2 stuff)
And take the turbosmooth off, you're making it harder on yourself with it on. Also, could you post the link to that particular entry? That way we can help you fix what is wrong since this doesn't look like a nose at all really
In all honestly what you've posted does not look like the reference. It's not even recognizable as a nose. You need to learn to critically analyze your own work, and also everything see. Don't just assume you know what something looks like, but truly observe what it is you aim to recreate. And when you are creating it, always closely compare the reference with your work, and correct any errors you're making along the way.
Something I would recommend is for you is to do some still life drawings. Practice measuring with your eyes, and accurately recreating what you see. Until you learn these skills your 3d models will always be off (unless you're using some really detailed schematic views.)
This constant;
"start a project"
"slap something together"
"ignore comments"
"move on"
Is a strategy that's just going to be an uphill and fruitless battle for you.
There are other members that do exactly like you, Models (and forgive me for the bad language) pure speed crap without logic or concept, just like if you played for a couple of minutes with a box of crayons and you made a 4 Y/o drawing of tree with a sun.
A lot of people here is kind enough to put some of their time on posting good comments for you, to help you improve and to guide you the best they can, but if you keep ignoring them then you are better off posting your stuff some were else and not making this people lose their time trying to help you.
These people sit here and give you great advice, and you don't listen to any of them. Why should they even bother trying to help if you can't even help yourself?
You sit there and cry about people calling your work "bad", and you don't ever try to fix it.
You keep saying, "I'll do better next time." "I'll work on something new that will be correct."
Those promises will never be fulfilled if you don't realize your flaws in your past work.
I see you commenting on other people's work all the time in different threads, giving your opinions on their work. Nobody wants hear your critiques on their work either because you are incompetent and seem like a fool.
If you start putting to use the critiques and advice you're given, maybe some people will take you seriously.
As I said before. I seriously want to sit behind you while you work and wonder what goes through your mind when you're trying to make something.
you are compensating accuracy with speed, ie. replacing quality with quantity.
right now, you need to step back from the 3d apps and do some research and observation.
step 1.
google search and real life examples are all you need. ask someone you know in real life to sit down in front of you and study their face. google face anatomy, face sculptures, drawings, 3d scans, etc. study and observe and when you look at something, try to dissect what you see in cross sections so that you really get a understanding of the form.
step 2.
then do some 3d practice again with some reference image on the side.
repeat the process again and again.
I don't think people called you a liar, but why you don't do thinks like people suggest you to do them? I remember that post were you posted the head of your avatar.. at first I though it was a joke or plain trolling, but then I realized that you just dint listen to all the comments at all and you just went on and on making the model look even worse.
Like a guy said below, work model by model, learn how to make something look good, your models looks like if you made then without caring about proportions, shapes or anything at all, ยฟa gun looks like a box with a tube on it and another box rounded up for the handle? so be it!, lets just apply some noisy plain low res texture on it and its good to go!, that's the way you seem to do things right now, and what people tries to explain you is that you must take more time on each model. and work slower instead of making everything Fast and faster out of Primitive boxes and cylinders.
I hope you are really reading all people comments including mines and that you understand them properly.
For me it's something complicated. Never get anything right, any attempts to fix it make it even more worse and get new problems. I get the big picture, but I always miss something again and again. I look at the reference extremely often to check, but I always miss stuff that others would've seen right away. I may have the creativity of the artist, but my awkward perception will always make my work a redundant failure. If even hobbyists can make decent character models within a week, and I make the most horrible models known to all. What chance do I got if I cant percieve what's normal . Let's face it I suck at characters.
Just dont get in your mind that you have done something perfect, because nothing is. You always have room to improve as a artist and should always strive to be better. Yes you may miss something obvious but once you see what you missed, you will learn and not make the same mistake. You will keep doing this over and over untill something decent comes out. You just have to keep trying and have fun with it.
Reading this makes me sad. I don't know what to say.
If you love making 3d then continue it, but don't get $60k of student loan debt with unrealistic expectations for employment without a major improvement in your visual perception and art skills.
It's because humans weren't built to perceive from memory. We can recreate the world around us with an astute and profound accuracy if it's staring us in the face, but ask someone to draw a tree, and unless they keep it basic it will come out looking wonky.
I think you're expecting yourself to crank out models that compare to people like Neox, and are ashamed when they don't come out as expected, but you have to realize you're just a starting.
You aren't going to catch simple mistakes, if you can't tell they exist, and you won't be able to mimic reference if you don't keep stabbing at whats wrong in a particular model. Stop comparing yourself to other people, until you actually have the propensity sculpt. And the propensity comes with the application of continually battling with your art piece until you've sucked it dry. Otherwise, you're just going skim the absolute surface of all your pieces and it will take you infinitely longer to drench your hands in the art. That's all we're saying.
Never give up, but stay dedicated to putting more hours into it. if I had stopped when people said my 3D sucks then I wouldn't be making awesome fun shit like I am now.
I get mad as hell when I see someone who can do stuff better than me (tons of people) and they have such high accuracy, but what helps me is asking them questions and just remembering they were at one point working their ass off too. So to try and compete I started at the basics and studied anatomy full time for almost 4 months, and now I have enough knowledge to hit a body pretty nice the first go, but I still have problems. Its the improvement that fuels me, but what about you? It doesn't look like you do anything different yet you're so hung up on "next time".
Can you make us a video of you modeling that nose? Im extremely interested in seeing this unfold in front of my eyes.
All these things and more work together to create interesting environments. It can be difficult to look at a good environment and know what makes it so good, at first glance it just does. But by breaking down the individual pieces it will make things clearer.
Same goes with characters. Don't try and make a full character or you'll get nowhere. Start with the basics. Go grab a good book on head anatomy. Study that thing until it falls apart. Anatomy and proportions are very mathematical, learn those numbers. Open up Scultpris http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/ and practice heads until they are anatomically perfect. Then start another.
Once you get heads down move onto a body. once you get good results with a body then try cloth, then textures, etc. And build from there. But start with the individual pieces that make good character art and learn it. You can't skip it and you won't get better otherwise.
But above all else stick with it! you show a lot of determination and you work a lot. Something a lot of people don't have. But make that valuable work and not wasted time.
Definately trying to ask for a lot of help for anatomy for our character modeling teacher to make sure I'm not too ahead myself, and that it's done right.
If anyone here that can help me to get a good demo reel for 9 months time(mandatory for graduation), I'm certain you guys would be more than able to. I will certainly need to do a lot on my part.
Let me tell You:
You are no different from any of us. We all had these problems when we started. When i think of my first character model i laugh, about my first enviro models i cannot remember anything it must have been so bad. But right now i'm working in a major game dev studio.
To be honest Your work looks like sh*t, but so were the begginigs for most of us. You have the balls to post it here and that is a plus. I say roll with the punches and get even bigger balls to swallow Your pride and take the crits head on.
One more thing, You get Your sh*t done, it looks crappy, but it's done in Your perception. And that is a solid perk. As long as You improve with every next work You do, and try to make it better than the previous one keep doin that. It means that You have love for what You do, and hell, that is more than most people have doing whatever they think is they job.
Get Your sh*t together, there is no glory for loosers.
Just as an visual indicator for you, heres me 1 year ago:
and
Now it's:
Just keep at it..
(hopefully this doesn't come off as brag
Here's my progression:
First ever environment: http://twhl.info/mapvault/1890.jpg
Latest environment: http://www.habboi.co.uk/images/personal-work/sci_fi_final.jpg
Eventually you'll get there. I don't even compare my work to other people anymore because they all use their own styles and techniques and I prefer to find my own way to the goal. It's also very overwhelming so just take your time and devote an hour or more a day to learning something new. I like to read books so I bought some 3DS guide books a few years back and read them outside with a nice cool lemonade.
P.S. Look how much I changed as I aged as well. This is how I used to type http://twhl.info/vault.php?map=1890
Thanks a bunch!
Never knew about the uncanny valley,
Has a lot of info about what makes a believeable design, and answered my ever wondering question of whether realism makes a good character or stylization.
All in all what has been said here has been motivating too.
Not too sure if there is any map fans out there, but this is my block out for one. Idea is of a working class based area/construction with total madness.
Edit:
To anyone who want's perfect rocket jumping stats in UDK
ProjFlightTemplate=ParticleSystem'WP_RocketLauncher.Effects.P_WP_RocketLauncher_RocketTrail' ProjExplosionTemplate=ParticleSystem'WP_RocketLauncher.Effects.P_WP_RocketLauncher_RocketExplosion' ExplosionDecal=MaterialInstanceTimeVarying'WP_RocketLauncher.Decals.MITV_WP_RocketLauncher_Impact_Decal01' DecalWidth=128.0 DecalHeight=128.0 speed=1500 MaxSpeed=1500 Damage=40.0 DamageRadius=220.0 MomentumTransfer=190000 MyDamageType=class'UTDmgType_Rocket' LifeSpan=8.0 AmbientSound=SoundCue'A_Weapon_RocketLauncher.Cue.A_Weapon_RL_Travel_Cue' ExplosionSound=SoundCue'A_Weapon_RocketLauncher.Cue.A_Weapon_RL_Impact_Cue' RotationRate=(Roll=50000) bCollideWorld=true CheckRadius=42.0 bCheckProjectileLight=true ProjectileLightClass=class'UTGame.UTRocketLight' ExplosionLightClass=class'UTGame.UTRocketExplosionLight'Have these settings in your UT_Proj_Rocket.uc located in UT Game/Classes in the DevelopmentSrc Folder1 Rocket-Slight Boost
2-Major Boost
3- Up to the heavens
Sorry for the smooth this picture was before all that's been going on.