Work in progress

looks recognisable as naruto so you are off to a good start.

the feet seem a little small, he seems to get drawns as a sightly deformed and short small boy, which makes the head, hands and feet larger relative to the body than those of an adult.

there is sometimes a question of if articulation of a persons posture should be in the rig or the model, since most people can not actually straigten their spine, i tend to like have the geometry contain the arch of someones hack (have a look at someone side on) so that if the model gets rigged, it can have a 'natural' pose without animator keeping on having to add the natural spinal curve....

hey, yea thanks for the crit. Its been a while since I havent posted progress, but i think ive finished now. The feet is bigger also now and has a bit of a big head :P



here is what i have so far: :)

Hey man, I downloaded it and had a go. Pretty cool

If I could make a suggestion, that would be change the '0' key (to place the blobs) to somewhere closer to the spacebar, so your left hand doesn't have to stretch to far to control those two keys. You know, I reckon you should put a level editor in game so people could make some wicked levels in there with those tiles .. or even open it up somehow so people can build their own tiles. That would be awesome

Cheer! I used the 0 key because as you play you open up a whole bunch of teleports, so all the number keys get used. I agree that it's annoying having to move your left hand, but it's probably better than using a random assortment of keys or using one key to toggle between teleports.

I hadn't considered making a level editor 'cos the whole map is automagically generated. It is a pretty cool idea though. I'll have a think about it. FarbsJW2007-07-03 18:20:00

I was playing and kept getting stuck trying to bring more blocks over to make paths up to the different height lvls, i think it was because when your carrying blocks your jump size decreases (does it or was that my imagination 0.o) which makes sense, but it made it frustrating having to go and get more blocks to make it back up the path.

I like it tho :) cute style

After getting to 1, the game started to become less fun and more falling down and trying to put blocks in the right place without getting stuck. Perhaps making it easier to remove and place blocks around the player would help? Otherwise, very cool idea and style :)

was a lot of fun! great work.

I'd say it looks good!
I don't know what's the thing from the top (a window?), but that doesn't look good. Something wrong with its edges.. all jagged, while the rest of the scene is clearly antialiased... (maybe UV/texture problem?)raicuandi2007-06-22 21:05:10

Your working on it by yourself?!?!?! How are you finding it?

It's hard to pass judgement on a couple of screens but good luck!!

I've been working on it for about two weeks didn't get a chance before - been busy at work for the last 6 months. But I did re-write a lot of the code from an old directx version - wow XNA is so much faster than directx9.

I'd like to post the working XP version but, I'd have to wait until after the judging. Also, the models are not mine and I've negotiated with a third party for there use but only for Microsoft's competition judging purposes. I'm allowed to give the screenshot renders to anyone - I'll post more shots over the next two weeks before the close.

New shot with much better lighting I think - anyone else?
The hall lighting

New shot: want to put a cloud sphere on top
Is that Earth down there?

Romance
poser2007-06-16 03:42:47

Some game play
Game Overposer2007-06-18 01:42:11

Well XNA Dream Build Play is now closed and I finally got my entry up - they had a pretty major upload server issue over the weekend in the States.

My three submission shots were...

Renegade drones start their attack from their Moon Base.

In battle the attackers are repelled.

Success in completing the defence of the station for the tour of duty ? some get through but the defence was valiant.

Only regret didn't get network play finished so had to can it - so close but just too buggy.
poser2007-07-03 03:28:28

What are you supposed to do in that game? O_O

It's basically just to stop the enemy getting to Earth by shooting them - not an epic. Once the submission is closed I'll put the 500 word blurb up that I did for the entry. They've extended the deadline so I'm going to do something I should have before and add more characters and special effects to make it more interesting.

OK these really are the final entry pictures as they have now shut the submission down - thankfully as I didn't get to bed until 9am this morning. I've added granades and a bonus level to destory two transports as well as an extra enemy type a blue battered veteran who is harder to kill and can throw grenades...

Game start Moon Drones attack.

In the middle of battle.

Mission complete and rank awarded.

Will post the blurb when I find out if I went ok if not may keep quiet.poser2007-07-07 01:04:17

very happy to see some of what you have been working on.



It looks very good, though i am not certain what nature of comment you are looking for so i may mention some things that spring to mind.



yes, that is a fantastic polygon count for environement and droids, but to me it suggessts a lot more work to be done to get the lighting and item interaction working together to get the scene to feel solid (talking about way feet conect to ground and light being part of the environment rather than direction drop shadow) depending how the light is to be treated in the environment, it could influence the cast shadows through the steam or if the steam should cast shadows...



also a difficulty in the computer medium is to express mass, there may be zero gravity for your environement but being floor bound suggests a directional gravity, so the droid may be lifting the crates on it's back and leaning against the force of the weight rather than everything straight up and down...



as i said these are just some random thoughts, presumably other details are the focus of these examples (like getting something with a nice polycount working) so my own comments are just about secondary impressions from that...

very impressive screenshots...

i was tried XNA ealrier, but it eats my brains mostly by c#...
.. and i returened to good old Torque Game Engine, its enough to make good game prototype for me...

thats really cool, great work on the personality, lighting and background.



the fingers look a bit strange to the hand (hand could be less broad but that would mess up proportions) or line work for fingers simplified/ fingers made thicker.



would be tempted not to have a line under the jawbone above the neck, and to change the shape of the highlight on the left shoulder to suggest a bit more connection of deltoid to pectoralis

Going to stylise this character up. Sea horse solider that fight in packs. Currently not really looking like a sea horse, though it will some what resemble it. Hopefully it will turn out how I want it to look, in which will be incorporated into my demo real. A quick paint over the ZBrush work to get a rough idea how it will look.

Some more work.

Awesome stuff. ZBrush really is a fun app to work in. The seahorse character be very cool @:-D

yeah! bring on the artwork.. good stuff HD, cant wait to see the progression.

Started on the high poly tonight.

Have analysed the shield and broken it down into 3 shapes, and will build it as it would be built in real life.

The core of the shield is the polished wooden underlying structure.

Ive already added 2 bend modifiers to my stack to give it some shape on 2 axis.

Will build silver edging next, and finally gold! HazarD2007-05-03 05:43:08

Added some silver trim, still some work on the shaping to do, but thought id post up the progress.

Ive added a basic reflective material.

Good to see your back in the action, keep it up.

Few updates tonight,

heres the first.

Tweaked around on the silver - and just started on the gold.

HazarD2007-05-07 02:35:34

More Goldage, still roughing out shapes.

Its so smooth and pretty !

Heh - yeah it is at the moment!

rest assured by the time im finished it will be a little less comical and a little more assasins creed.

Added a few more shapes....

Full Silver render - SHIZAM!

HazarD2007-05-09 06:17:12

Small Update tonight, added a couple more shapes in the phoenix emblem.

HazarD2007-05-10 06:36:48

Starting to come together and looking good! Its a weird one, the original drawing has the shield looking like it comes to a sharper peak in the middle, and has a concave curve falling back from there. If that makes any sense. Doesn't even matter cus I like the way your's is looking anyway

Hey Oco, yeah i do understand what you mean i think.

if you were looking down the shield from the top the original would look more / like than the gentle roll ive got going on?

Its a good spot I think, something I might push into it after ive got all the shapes there.

Cheers!

Okay im gif'ing from now on, just adding a frame for each update.

Finished all the basic emblem shapes, a fair bit of tweaking to go from this point to get everything welded up and sitting just like it should, before the first zbrush pass.

looking good Hazard. After Oco's comment I had another look at the reference image too, the base shape is a bit ambiguous but I think i agree a sort of 'v' shape looking from the top, maybe with a rounded peak on the 'v'. Also it looks like the top curved edge has a big chamfer on it.

Not much to show, have been working on the mesh / cleaning it up etc. All the silver is pretty much solid now.

I thought though, id show something which I often find useful to check how well my chamfers are going to translate into the low poly upon normal mapping. Helps me to visualise how well everythings going to come through.

So heres a 2 triangle version of the shield!!!

A 1024 normal map + alpha on a flat 2 Tri plane.

I had a bit of a fiddle with the 'V' style of curve, but i didnt like it as much as the smoother traditional curve - so ill go with the way it is for this one thanks for the feedback tho guys. - Keep it coming. HazarD2007-05-27 02:24:35

lookin great HD, what are you generating your normals with?

hey killa dee, just max's render to texture

haha, nice!

You're not doing anything wrong. The uploading functionality doesn't work anymore. I've moved the forum over to a new server which doesn't have any upload components installed

What you can do is upload your images to your Sumea profile account, and then you can post in the forum and embed the pic in your post.

Thanks Souri, i'll do that tonight.

Well i can't figure out how to post the images in the forum so if you would still like to view my entry click the link below.

Sorry everyone

http://www.sumea.com.au/sgallery.asp?p=A&news=2253

Nice 1! my Sharmens and Grunts could bust down your city walls, maybe.

How many polygons in that little fella?

umm.. I think he was either 690 or 790 can't remember >_<

With a 256 x 256 texture (size you can see on the render).

ohh its so cute and small in game, I like how you made the shoulderpads the part that changes colour for your team.

I would also like to make a Warcraft3 unit, where can i find the max4 exports and the relevant tutes?

Well I tried to get a character into War3 years ago which didn't go so well, pretty much because there were no tools to do so.

But Blizzard was nice enough to release some tools! YAY! which can be found here:

http://www.battle.net/war3/files/

You will need max 4 installed before you can install the tools.

Anyways good luck with it, can't wait to see what you will pump out.

do you want me to post my pics here? or in my own thread?

Maybe u could rename this the 'warcraft3 model thread' and we can all make em here! KILLA DEE2007-04-26 21:53:53

done and done, post away :)

You sure post fast! but i can post more! hahahah

Install tools: Check!

Select concept: Check! hehe - it's not a ninja

KILLA DEE2007-04-27 05:06:31

Great work, good to see you finished. Awesome character    

I said this before, I think your in with a good chance of winning a prize. I got my fingers crossd 4 u!    KILLA DEE2007-04-05 17:05:42

Looks good! now where is the Xwing and r2?

Actually they are already ingame, this character was a design for a bf2142 mod called firststrike ;)

Haha! I just saw this this morning when i was on patrol at the dominancewar.com finalists.htm. Very nice model USF! All your submission sheets are rad.   

Thanks Julz,

Your model is awesome as well from what I can see on the front page. Now hurry up and get yours up as well so everyone can enjoy it

that goes for you to Shadowbreeze I see your work on the front page UniqueSnowFlake2007-03-29 00:25:41

Congrats on finishing !! looks great and best of luck !

Nice work man, your getting better and better every day. Keep up the good work. I'd probably change a few little things. Hands a bit bigger, head a tiny bit smaller and the hat a bit bigger.

Like I said looking great :) Can't wait to see him textured?

I saw you were playing around with normal maps.. are you planning on Normal mapping this guy??

Keep it up Cody!UniqueSnowFlake2007-03-28 23:11:31

Started texturing this character. Been extremely lazy lately, hopefully get it done soon though.

EDIT: Another quick update. Coming together fair quickly now.

codyalday2007-05-02 06:41:13

Pretty much finsihed this character. Few more touch ups here and there and additional maps to be appllied.

Finished the character, fairly happy with him.
codyalday2007-05-14 22:39:03

Here is my character sheet, It's not perfect but it should be okay.

KILLA DEE2007-03-19 15:54:22

Hey KD, haven't we seen the whole futuristic-ninja-cyborg with gas mask thing from you before? don't you want to mix it up a bit?

;)

Next time I promise no more futuristic-ninja-cyborgs. I could turn him into a Intergalactic space pirate?

KILLA DEE2007-03-19 02:43:41

WIP WIP! Here is some progress on blocking out the lowpoly volume. No work on cutting in good edge loops or trying to get the right flow yet, I guess that will come next.     

KILLA DEE2007-03-21 04:18:55

I should tweak this hand some more but its okay for now.
KILLA DEE2007-03-22 02:25:33

Jet pack wip, hopefully I can get this sucker into zbrush on the weekend.

KILLA DEE2007-03-22 04:37:23

Lookin really nice, the hands are super detailed !

Thanks Neffy, I used this tute (which is in portuguese) for reference while modelling the hand.

the hands are cool.... I dont know what kind of poly count your goin for with this guy, but compared to the rest of the mesh, the hands might have a teensy bit too much poly density...... unless of course the hands are going to be a focal point of animation or something.....

[QUOTE=GuyBrave] the hands are cool.... I dont know what kind of poly count your goin for with this guy, but compared to the rest of the mesh, the hands might have a teensy bit too much poly density...... unless of course the hands are going to be a focal point of animation or something.....[/QUOTE]

Yeah there is a obvious difference. I'm planing on pushing the whole character to about 2 million polys in Zbrush and Max then remaking the low poly model using the high poly model as the base. I also want to try out Xnormal for baking the normals and the ambient occlusion. It should be fun :)KILLA DEE2007-03-23 01:14:01

Great start Julz, only thing that bugs me at the moment is the distance the thumb is from the main hand, Check your own thumb and see that it runs much cleaner into your wrist. love the detail in the concept should look really nice when its normal mapped. Show more please :

Yeah the thumb is wacky :P I'll fix that asap thanks USF... I got a little side tracked with the model below, after I saw a sweet thread at www.subdivisionmodeling.com and had to make my pwn symmetry thingy, hopefully I can get back on track. Fingers crossed some of the techniques may help with my hard surface modeling.

KILLA DEE2007-04-02 04:19:08

ohh thats cool looking, im going to go check out that link

KILLA DEE: Do you have the exact URL for the thread on subdivisionmodeling.com which contained techniques used in building that shield?

Cheers,

[QUOTE=Neffy] ohh thats cool looking, im going to go check out that link[/QUOTE]

That Subd forum is wicked.

Hey Junkers teh direct link 4 u.

Here is some Wednesday night modeling. It's pretty ruff and I can see plenty of verts I want to tweak. Hopefully I can start to cut in some detail to this and my character over the long weekend + eat lots of chocolate bunnies!

*EDIT* This mesh is a little embarrassing ATM the back leg looks like like spew. I think I will try turn it into a panther like this image i just found -->

*Update*

KILLA DEE2007-04-06 00:33:12

lol at my first mesh. 400kb animated gif

KILLA DEE2007-04-06 18:39:07

Looking good man, keep up the good work :)

thanks cody.

I wish every weekend was a long weekend.

ohh looking good, love the pet... hunters rulezor

I think the panther might need a few peices of armour or a spiked collar or something to match the guy more.

[QUOTE=Neffy] ohh looking good, love the pet... hunters rulezor

I think the panther might need a few peices of armour or a spiked collar or something to match the guy more.[/QUOTE]

haha, i havent played wowza in ages.. I miss my pet pig stinky :( The nerdzor sitting next to me is in Azeroth right now, they want spikes on the helmet but their not sure if it will ruin the flow-zone (whatever teh hell that is)

here is my wednesday night throwup, armour is a golden idea thanks nef.   

KILLA DEE2007-04-11 08:21:52

yea that looks sick as !! ^_^

Here is a model I made today for Tribes:V, I didn't make the texture it came with T:V, i used it to match the style of the other vehicles. I have been driving it around in game for the last 20 minutes its lots of fun. I will post some screenies tomorrow.(maybe)

If you want to check out the WIP its at team-VT.com (you'll need to login, to access that page) I also put about 4 hours into a drop-ship model last night I will postup some images soon.

KILLA DEE2007-04-17 04:52:40

Here is some screen shots in game.

KILLA DEE2007-04-17 04:51:34

Here is a quick Wednesday night model, I found this concept at Joe ulbarri site after a google search for 'jetbike'. I'm planning on importing it into trives on the weekend.

KILLA DEE2007-04-18 04:54:36

Here is a Lambo I made last night 4 teh ratman, I'm planning on adding it to my vehichle.pkg now that I have got all my classes organized. I will add some more model detail and then texture it after I test the mesh in the engine.
KILLA DEE2007-04-19 16:03:44

Certainly churning out some good lookin' stuff dude! @:-D

Hey Brain, yeah I've been try to play less and model more in my spare time.

I'm not sure if the Lambo's warranty will still be valid if you drive it off road like that Killa.

I'm enjoying seeing some models in game, good work.

Hey JohnN, yeah warranty is now void.

here's 1 of the jetbike (i got some better shots at home i'll postem later.)

more updates, hehe.

KILLA DEE2007-04-30 05:11:48

HB OLD MAN!!

Dear Codyalday,
This is looking really good. I like the colour scheme and face. Feet look great too!
Crits; The head is too big (unless he's a hobbit or something). Humans should have about 7 or 8 heads I think, in the height of their body. That's for your 'heroic' anatomy, check out some books.
Also your fabric is really terrible. Sorry, but you haven't thought about drappery at all. Grab a sarrong or sheet and wrap it around your body like your man is wearing. Stand in from a mirror and make a few notes or sketches. Doesn't have to be a masterpeice, just think about where the lines are eminating from.
I think you'll find doing this will result in rapid improvement.
Regards,
EtaCarinae

Finished this character a while ago now. Final presentation picture.codyalday2007-05-01 20:27:46

Very cool, the environmental pics look especially great, well done!

Will be watching this one.

- Doble

The water in the terrain engine seems too reflective, see how in the 3rd picture you can?t see a horizon line it?s an exact mirror copy of the sky.

Looking good so far :)

Yeah, but I like it like that :P If I added some fog, or added some more color to the water itself, the effect would go away :P

Im digging that terrain. Are you writing the engine? Ive found with highly reflective water that once you start moving round, its just too clean and weird. My 2c. Could you have particles on the watermesh to simulate mist/fog rather than fog fog?
AC

Yes, I am writing the engine. At the moment it reads in a heightmap file, texture file and normal map file. I could also add some Steep Parallax Mapping to the terrain for some real snazzy effects. My next step with it is to make it create the texture, eg: have a bunch of smaller textures instead of one large one, and in a shader, set which texture is used for which height and slope.

As for the water, I have had many attempts at different water effects, and the problem with this one, is that even though it simulates ripples, it doesn't simulate waves. In the picture where it goes on and on, there should theoretically be waves (the terrain should also have a more lush, tropical feel to it). I am currently looking into applying steep parallax mapping (similar to parralax occlusion mapping), to the water, and so far the results have been pleasing. I will post pics when I get the time.

As for particles on the water mesh, what do you mean? Are you talking about like dust specs the float throughout the fog?

Hey Doble,

I take it you're looking for a junior game artist position? If that's the case I think you need to demonstrate a few more skills in your reel, i.e. unwrapping and texturing. It's unlikely that a company will hire a junior for the sole purpose of creating low poly models, so show off some efficient UVs and texture sheets.

My favorite piece from your reel is easily the battle tank, it has a really interesting design IMO, why not bump it up to the start?
I'd cut out the Dozer and the animation at the end as they feel really weak, the dozer looks like a 10 minute job and the animation isn't all that impressive (spaceships flying through space? meh).

You might also want to finish that space marine...

good luck with the search dude

Hey James,



I hope you don't mind but I thought I would give you a bit of a critique on your reel.



We have all been through the trials of trying to get that first gig and generally the feedback you recieve is vague at best.



Mechanoid

- This guy looks pretty cool.



- Has this model been textured though? I can't tell if you have or wether you just applied coloured materials to different pieces of the mesh.



- It is important to both prop and character modellers to have some basic skill in texturing.



- Show the UV's and texture sheets.



- The pose is very boring and uninspired. It also looks as if it could topple backwards at any minute.



-Adding a decent pose will bring your mesh to life, you don't need to be an expert rigger or animator, you just need to give the model some personality.



- While the mesh is pretty clean I think you could get it a lot lower than 7600 triangles.



- The density of the distribution of the tris are erratic, think about where the actor will need to deform.



- Try to keep the smoothness consistent where possible, having really smooth fingers but chunky calfs isn't that important unless your actor is a hand model for Oil of Ulan. lol





Raider:

- Its a pretty messy mesh in parts and the triangle density isn't very uniform. Some areas are smooth while others are lacking polys.



- Show the UV's and texture sheets.





Viper:

Much better use of triangles than the Raider, a lot cleaner and optimised mesh.



- Texture needs work, think about the decals, scratches from battle and space debris, lighting etc.



- Show the UV's and texture sheets.





Dozer:

- Cute and cleanly built but not really showing anything an employer would be impressed with.



- Again, is there no texture?



- Show the UV's and texture sheets.





Battle Tank:

- Nice design but it feels incomplete.



- Is it a work in progress? If so I personally would have finished this piece or not shown it. Unless you are trying to show your workflow an incomplete piece in a portfolio seems pretty pointless.



Space Marine:

- Not bad but space marines are a dime a dozen, it needs to be really good to sell and a work in progress shot isn't doing that. Again, finish it or maybe don't add it.



- There are some questionable choices with the mesh, especially around the side of the helmet. High poly modelling isn't just about throwing more triangles at a mesh, you still need to make smart choices.



Animation short:

Its obvious you went to a lot of effort with the animation however its a common mistake people do when they start out, fly throughs really don't show employers anything great, they certainly don't give them an idea of how well you animate.



No to mention the extra time it must have taken to set up the cameras, lighting, build planets etc.



Think about how many times you would be called upon to animate a ship flying through space? Unless your working on a space flight simulators cutscenes then its going to be very little.

(I personally did a fly through of a wizards tower for my first portfolio, can't say I've been called upon to do that again recently. lol.)



I think your time would have been better spent taking your Mechanoid for a stroll.





In General:

Overall you certainly put a lot of effort into the reel, more than most of the reels I see at work.



My advice is to decide which area you really want to do.



Its a common trap for people to do the 'jack of all trades master of none' reel first time.



Personaly from your reel I'd say the best skill you have shown is your low poly modelling.

If you were to show some texture and unwrapping skills then applying for a junior props position might be a good foot in the door.



If you are more interested in character modelling then you are going to need to work on your polyflow, optimisation and density. You need to think about how a mesh will deform during animation otherwise you will be the bane of your animating workmates. :P



Also, most of the character guys I know have a few skills sets. All model and texture but some can rig and/or animate as well.



Overall you certainly have the potential, just think about how your reel defines you when presented to an employer.



I hope that helped, good luck.

Sorry, don't know why it double space the lines?!

Nevermind that for the moment, I'm fixing it up now!

Thanks for the replies! I wasn't expecting such great feedback, thanks so much!

[QUOTE=shika]I take it you're looking for a junior game artist position? If that's the case I think you need to demonstrate a few more skills in your reel, i.e. unwrapping and texturing.[/quote]

Yeah, I am currently looking for a junior position, and I agree, you are right. Since I have finished my course and the frenzy of getting everything finished on time has passed, I look back on my reel and see a lot of things I could improve, and much of it seems obvious, not showing texturing/unwrapping is one of my big mistakes.

[QUOTE=shika]My favorite piece from your reel is easily the battle tank, it has a really interesting design IMO, why not bump it up to the start?[/quote]

Its funny you say that, because when I was working on it, I thought the battle tank was the worst of the lot, but time and again people tell me that was their favourite. I must be onto a good thing

[QUOTE=shika]I'd cut out the Dozer and the animation at the end as they feel really weak, the dozer looks like a 10 minute job and the animation isn't all that impressive (spaceships flying through space? meh).[/QUOTE]

Good point, the dozer isn't much to look at, in hindsight I shouldn't have included it in the reel. As for the animation, I suppose it isn't very interesting but I was more trying to convey that I have a good sense of cinematics rather than my animation skills. Perhaps I should work on my delivery.

[QUOTE=Malus]Mechanoid
- This guy looks pretty cool.
- Has this model been textured though? I can't tell if you have or wether you just applied coloured materials to different pieces of the mesh.
- It is important to both prop and character modellers to have some basic skill in texturing.
- Show the UV's and texture sheets.
- The pose is very boring and uninspired. It also looks as if it could topple backwards at any minute.
-Adding a decent pose will bring your mesh to life, you don't need to be an expert rigger or animator, you just need to give the model some personality.
- While the mesh is pretty clean I think you could get it a lot lower than 7600 triangles.
- The density of the distribution of the tris are erratic, think about where the actor will need to deform.
- Try to keep the smoothness consistent where possible, having really smooth fingers but chunky calfs isn't that important unless your actor is a hand model for Oil of Ulan. lol[/QUOTE]

First off, no he isn't textured, he has a basic 'car paint' style material to give him a nice metallic sheen, but thats about it. I had originally wanted to make this character part of a short animation, but as the year wore on I lost interest and finished him quickly for my reel.

Regarding the pose, he's in the default pose I modelled him in, while I initially modelled him with animation in mind over time that changed to a model that I wasn't going to animate, hence my not taking any real interest in mesh deformation. In hindsight it was pretty stupid, since modelling a character like that and not taking animation into account is a waste of time, but I didn't think of that then.

I agree with you on the pose, while the model itself isn't fantastic a good pose would make it twice as good. I would have to fix up alot of the mesh to be able to pose him properly without modelling issues, but thats something I plan to do.

I didn't spend a lot of time optimising the mesh, like I said I had lost interest in the character, so working on him became a chore. I've been working to change my attitude and I find I'm better able to see projects through nowadays.

Regarding the hands, I had never modelled hands before, so it was sort of a challenge to see how good i could get them looking, I had a bit of fun with it and they came out well, but very mismatched when compared to the rest of the mesh.

[QUOTE=Malus]Raider:
- Its a pretty messy mesh in parts and the triangle density isn't very uniform. Some areas are smooth while others are lacking polys.[/quote]

To be honest, I'm surprised, I thought this was probably one of the best models on my reel, but I would very much like to know how to improve it. When you say triangle density, do you mean using a lot of tris in one area of detail but not much in another? Because I thought that was alright, in terms of showing detail in one area that needs it (say, the face grill) but not showing detail in another area which is flat, or lacking detail (say, the top side of the wing)

Can you explain a little further about that? Or maybe link me to an article I can read up on it?

[QUOTE=Malus]Viper:
Much better use of triangles than the Raider, a lot cleaner and optimised mesh.
- Texture needs work, think about the decals, scratches from battle and space debris, lighting etc. [/quote]

Compared to the Raider, this was designed from the ground up to be a game model and to be low poly, so I'm glad my intentions were recognised, heh. The raider was more of a medium poly model, I had intended it to have a low poly version which would look alright in a game but also look good when smoothed for use in my animations. Perhaps this is why you picked up on it being a messy mesh.

With the texture, I had begun work on a battle-scarred version of the clean texture, but I ran out of time to finish it, I was spending a lot of my time finding my way around UV unwrapping and playing with bump maps and whatnot.

[QUOTE=Malus]Dozer:
- Cute and cleanly built but not really showing anything an employer would be impressed with.
- Again, is there no texture?
- Show the UV's and texture sheets.[/quote]

No texture on this one, it was designed for a friend of mine who was doing a programming course, he wanted an ultra low poly dozer for his game, and a texture would have been a waste of time, since the game had very cartooney graphics, so simple materials were more than enough. In hindsight, not really showreel material.

[QUOTE=Malus]Battle Tank:
- Nice design but it feels incomplete.
- Is it a work in progress? If so I personally would have finished this piece or not shown it. Unless you are trying to show your workflow an incomplete piece in a portfolio seems pretty pointless.[/quote]

This is a work in progress, yes. While my lecturers hammered into us the idea of not showing work on our showreel that was incomplete or not to the highest standard, when you are looking at your showreel with only three models on it the night before it goes on show to a bunch of people from the games industry, you tend to throw that advice to the winds. Once again hindsight is 20/20 and I agree with you that incomplete work is not worth putting on my reel.

[QUOTE=Malus]Space Marine:
- Not bad but space marines are a dime a dozen, it needs to be really good to sell and a work in progress shot isn't doing that. Again, finish it or maybe don't add it.
- There are some questionable choices with the mesh, especially around the side of the helmet. High poly modelling isn't just about throwing more triangles at a mesh, you still need to make smart choices.[/quote]

Once again another work in progress that shouldn't have ended up on my reel.

This was actually the first model I created myself when I began my course at the start of 2006, this is why alot of it is poorly modelled when you look at the mesh. As the year picked up I shelved the project to work on other things, and ended up sticking the half finished thing on the end of my reel, without spending any time to clean it up etc.

[QUOTE=Malus]Animation short:
Its obvious you went to a lot of effort with the animation however its a common mistake people do when they start out, fly throughs really don't show employers anything great, they certainly don't give them an idea of how well you animate.
No to mention the extra time it must have taken to set up the cameras, lighting, build planets etc.
Think about how many times you would be called upon to animate a ship flying through space? Unless your working on a space flight simulators cutscenes then its going to be very little.
(I personally did a fly through of a wizards tower for my first portfolio, can't say I've been called upon to do that again recently. lol.)
I think your time would have been better spent taking your Mechanoid for a stroll.[/quote]

When I began thinking up animations for my showreel, I was pretty wary of animating, I didn't have much confidence in my ability, and as such I was worried that I would make my models look even worse by having poor animation. I remember my lecturers saying "If you have a great model, but you can't animate, its better to have the model stationary than ruin it with jerky, dodgy animation." I think I took this a bit too much to heart and steered completely clear from character animation all together, and ended up with some dull flybys showcasing my modelling ability.

I agree with you once again, and character animation is one area I want to improve my skills in.

[QUOTE=Malus]In General:
Overall you certainly put a lot of effort into the reel, more than most of the reels I see at work.
My advice is to decide which area you really want to do.
Its a common trap for people to do the 'jack of all trades master of none' reel first time.
Personaly from your reel I'd say the best skill you have shown is your low poly modelling.
If you were to show some texture and unwrapping skills then applying for a junior props position might be a good foot in the door.[/quote]

Yeah, I definitely fit this description, I had a very hard time picking a speciality because I felt like I had done so little of each field, picking one to specialise in so early in my career was impossible. Of course, I know now that I could have just picked one and ran with it, then moved elsewhere after a year or so, but that didn't occur to me last year.

Since I completed my course, I've started to hone in on low poly modelling, I've got some friends who are doing a mod for FarCry and I started modelling an AK-47 for them, as an experiment since I had never modelled a gun before, and its turning out quite well. Since that is probably the sort of thing I will be doing in a junior position, I figure it might be worth putting on my reel along with a few other game assets once its finished, what do you think?

I just recently got a job tutoring on the weekends at my college. I'm a strong believer that one of the best ways to learn is to teach others, plus this keeps me in the loop of the 3D industry and active on the subject. I'm really looking foward to starting there (the college year hasn't begun yet) and pushing out another showreel with even better work.

My current goal is to get a job in the 3D industry during the week, so I can work 9-5 from monday to friday, and then tutor on saturdays. (and possibly evenings during the week) I really love focusing in on one task and working on something for hours on end, I've been known to miss lunch and dinner, only to finish my model and poke my head out of cyberspace to find its 3am and I've missed out. The sense of accomplishment that I get from seeing my work come from a cube with some extrudes to a completed model really gets me fired up, and motivates me to do more. I'm hoping that this kind of constant high-energy work will be what I get when I find a good job during the week.

I find that if I immerse myself in a certain interest or hobby I'm able to improve my skills in that area and become the best, I've decided I want to be one of the top dogs in 3D so it's only a matter of time now.

Watch this space!

- DobleDoble2007-01-30 08:01:26

Here's the AK-47 I mentioned, the modelling is complete, its about 2000 polys and I plan on texturing it next. I've been working on this on and off over 3 days.

Its also fully ready (in terms of modelling) for animation, the clip and stock are easily animated, and the shell ejection bolt is also easy to work with.

I also did a lil test animation of the stock opening up to make sure it worked and looked good.

Click here (1mb)

Would appreciate some crits on this.
Cheers!

EDIT: Just after I posted this, I noticed a glitch at the back of the rifle, just above the stock where it curves, I've since fixed it :)

- DobleDoble2007-01-31 08:58:34

Car and wireframe.

R.I.P. Bushwick2007-01-14 23:30:49

MONKEY CHARACTER: I plan to add Max hair to this guy. I have built phonemes and it's rigged (the texture requires a little work, no bump or spec yet)

R.I.P. Bushwick2007-01-14 23:28:01

DEMON CHARACTER: No spec or bump ( More a classic Lucifer )

R.I.P. Bushwick2007-01-14 23:25:38

CLOWN CHARACTER: Clowns are evil.

R.I.P. Bushwick2007-01-15 16:59:46

A FEW GUN MODELS:

       R.I.P. Bushwick2007-01-15 16:36:19

FEMALE CHARACTER: Nude.

GREYHOUND RACE: The environment needs some work.

Hmms, well apart from a structured working environment I don't know if you'll get anything going to one of the schools.

What you've showcased here is pretty much on par with graduating students stuff in my opinion. It demonstrates familiarity with the program, and the rudiments of artistic ability.

Nothing really grabs me by the balls and demands my attention though. Check places like polycount and cgtalk out. Sumea is great for local stuff, but the community here isn't quite as developed. What you need to do though is go through the forums and look at the art there. If you think something kicks ass, ask to see how they did something (they'll generally provide texture flats and wireframes if you ask nicely - ie pad ego's).

Anyhow. Basic areas You need to improve upon.
Anatomy - Buy a book. They're handy.
Texturing - This is tough as there is generally no easy 'how to' guide out there. It's also probably the area you're lacking most at the moment. Polycount often has a lot of models that you can download and just texture. You can learn a lot simply by looking at how other people do things. When you look at their art, ask yourself why they do things. Why did they unwrap like this? etc.

Not sure how helpful this is.. I hope it leads you somewhere handy at least.Sorceror Bob2007-01-17 08:42:15

Thanks Bob, anything is a help at the moment. Been trying to research texturing humans lately, I'm finding there's lots of crap to wade through, The really usefull info seems scattered all over the shop, a concise guide would be great.
Apart from that I plan to introduce normal maps into my workflow this year, I agree also that my characters could be more interesting, working on that aswell. Always good to hear that stuff from someone else though.

I checked out some of the work at cgtalk, the standard is very high and really gives me something to aspire to, thanks again.

I know you can't shine a sh*t, but here's a couple of render tests. I can't justify doing too much of it at the moment as rendertimes break up my work too much, I know it's something else I have to work on though.

Hi. :)

I finally got around to playing your level. I think it is a pretty nice little game. Still a bit rough, but good for a bit of arcade fun.

The main issue I had was the vechile, sometimes it done some awesome flips and you get catapaulted into the horizon, I felt that was cool, but 90% of the time I was flipping it.

Also I saw lots of flickering polygon faces, I was using WinXP, so I am not sure if you get that on Mac.

Also there was a few other bugs like if you push against objects you can walk through them, and some of your polygon faces needs their textures realigned.

As for graphics, I didn't really like those really sharp extrudes on the desert, it is possible to smooth them out, cos that would make the game look heaps better. And maybe you could work on the palm trees, I feel they would look better if they were less cartoony.

Dispite all this negitivity I really did like the game and you got my interested in creating my own little project. :)

Hey thanks for that...
I used to want to be a musician, and you kinda get used to people saying stuff like"yeah your stuff is ok but I like Bob Marley" or "I like Chemical Bros", and you realise that with art, people subconciously compare you with what they truly do like. That is kina a compliment and a curse, because its not easy for one man to match those standards...
I am well aware of the bugs in this demo, and Im not too worried...Its not too bad for one mans efforts, I reckon...Cheers for your perspective.
AC

Dark corridors are a bit of a cliche aren't they?

Looks nice, but there's nothing here I haven't seen countless times before.

ummmm... somewhere inbetween.

The wing shape is also a little ambiguous as to whether they are in a 'folded'(for walking around) or 'unfolded' (for flying) position. Addressing this might well solve your stretched/unstreched delemma too.

[QUOTE=JohnN] ummmm... somewhere inbetween.

The wing shape is also a little ambiguous as to whether they are in a 'folded'(for walking around) or 'unfolded' (for flying) position. Addressing this might well solve your stretched/unstreched delemma too.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the comments. well I was going for this sort of position .. but having adjusted them to this position would mean that they would be the starting point for all animations . Not sure if such a position would be desirable. Theirs a huge bend on the side and on top.

Run 'bats' through google images for references.

Look at how they're built, how their wings function in various poses or stages of movement.

In the picture you have, the wings behave more like a cloak (notice the perspective near the foot on the left hand side - the wing is in front of the foot), they're wrapped around the character.

Seriously though, look at bats. Ask yourself, 'why are those claws there' and 'how are they attached to the body. Think about the underlying structure of bones and muscle. If you think about it, 95% of the surface of the wings are a layer of skin. It's that other 5% you really need to focus on. Build that, make it kick ass in it's functionality, then worry about the rest.

Hmm these forums now kill formatting

[QUOTE=Sorceror Bob] Run 'bats' through google images for references.

Look at how they're built, how their wings function in various poses or stages of movement.

In the picture you have, the wings behave more like a cloak (notice the perspective near the foot on the left hand side - the wing is in front of the foot), they're wrapped around the character.

Seriously though, look at bats. Ask yourself, 'why are those claws there' and 'how are they attached to the body. Think about the underlying structure of bones and muscle. If you think about it, 95% of the surface of the wings are a layer of skin. It's that other 5% you really need to focus on. Build that, make it kick ass in it's functionality, then worry about the rest. [/QUOTE]

wow, thanks for that. I shall definitetly take that on board thanks again :)

Wow an afternoon reading about bat wings does do wonders. Thanks again Sorceror Bob. I will be attaching the wings in this spread position. When the wings get animated they will bend as shown below.

wow, big improvement, well done!

the wings could be detailed up a little further by defining the bone structure. but a lot better all up.

the pose where the wings wrap around the body, it looks like the bone have been deformed rather than moved at the joints? This makes the wings look not as realistic/natural as they could be. Modelling the bone structure of the wings might also help with this.

[QUOTE=JohnN] wow, big improvement, well done!

the wings could be detailed up a little further by defining the bone structure. but a lot better all up.

the pose where the wings wrap around the body, it looks like the bone have been deformed rather than moved at the joints? This makes the wings look not as realistic/natural as they could be. Modelling the bone structure of the wings might also help with this.[/QUOTE]

Thanks

Yeah .. I tried to model some detail before and used way to many polys, so this time i will be texturing the bones instead. At the moment i have used a bend modifier to bend the wings so this isn't the final animation .. bones will be placed on the different edges that make up the bones on the wing. Their hard to see but every bone of the wing has an edge beneath that goes up to the point of the wing.

Okay time for another update .. any crits welcomed .. good or bad

Hey always good to see your work in here :)

Nice work to, you captured the likelessness of her well. Something about her face givers her a slightly masculine look to it. ONly small though.

Makk
Thanks for your comment. I thought nobody interested in this stuff :)

You are absolutely right with your feeling about her face. I changed it a bit and remodel hair. Here is how she is looking now:

Best regards,
www.metro3d.narod.rumetro3d2006-12-15 05:57:04

ha ha, haven't seen the original Lucy but this model is gold. I have a perverse interest in the morbidly overweight, well at least drawing and painting them! maybe I've said to much

ha ha, don't worry we are all friends here, right? That's shot of original model:

Best regards,
www.metro3d.narod.ru

You've done well buddy. Perfect pin up for the locker, if you've got one big locker. The little pinch pigglet nose on the original model does alot for the feminine look. Reminds me of my sister In-law. Your heart goes out to my brother

haha, this is great:)
was just talking to some of the guys at work about giving quake3 a facelift with todays budgets:)

this is a perffect example of what it would be like

nice work bro..

Oh'god our bringig back memories for me :P

She is stunning. I always liked Lucy! great work.

This is such an old thread that's just randomly popped up again, but the timing is impeccable because Paul Steed, ex-id software modeller who worked on the awesome models and animations in Quake III where that Lucy model originally came from, passed away just two weeks ago...

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/175851/Obituary_Pioneer_game_artist_Paul…

I remember Paul being a frequent visitor to Polycount.com back in the early 2000's and posting his incredible low-polygon work and modelling challenges. It was amazing how much detail he managed to cram in to such low polygon models (particularly of his favourite theme - nude females).

The AIE managed to nab him for a visit in 2007, and I remember him coming along to one of the Australian Games Developer Conferences back in the day.

Anyway, he released a fair few modelling books which I'm sure inspired many modellers, although we've had some discussion on his particular style that could be hard to unlearn from for those starting out in anatomy. It's an incredible shock to hear that he has passed away.

Wow thats really cool, what polycount and what software did you use? Also could you post a wire frame.

I really like it awesome job.

Thanks mate.

Here is the wireframe. I used zbrush, max and photoshop.

Toolie2006-12-07 18:42:01

Looks great, allthough i notice that allmost nothing is connected (as in welded vertices) to other sections. Downs the polycount but thatll be a lot of wasted texture space. That aside, it looks really great. You going to texture it?

Thanks for the comment. Having things not connected seems the best way to do it for games, Imo. And I'm going to try and texture it