/3/ - 3DCG

>>494594

Would that not be more of an issue with the tank design itself? The things I changed are merely rendering, not design (with the exception of the paint decals). Therefore, if the tanks indeed look like 'just tanks', maybe the design of the tanks could be improved?

I admit, I'm not aware of your design document and how you imagine the factions should look. I did what seemed right based on what I saw. Perhaps, if I drew the wrong conclusion on what I saw, maybe the design doesn't communicate clearly enough? (Not meant as insult, I'm just asking).

Also, OP, just out of curiosity:

Why is part of the ground, with alpha, part of the model? I would say that you would get better performance if the dirt decals are a separate model with separate material. You would be able to optimize it.

>>494551

Hi OP, I did the tank as well, with some description of what I did.

>>494169

Hi OP, the stuff you've made looks already quite professional, so I guess most of my suggestions would be obvious to you, but I thought I point them out anyway, just in case you missed any

In general, I think that the buildings lack colour depth. Shadows and shading is done with grey, which kinda kills it a bit, and make things look boring and artificial, but I think that would be fixed to some extent when you will adjust the real time lighting in the game with some coloured sunlight and ambient light.

Nevertheless, Making sure that there is some subtle colour variation will really help making things more dynamic.

Regarding the vehicles (didn't feel like doing a paintover for those):

- Since they're huge tanks, the worn edges are a tad too big by comparison. It makes them look small.
- The tanks are pretty much dark grey spotty blobs with some colour spots on them. It would be good to unify the look, reduce contrast and have detail in some key areas, while reducing it in others.

About the building, I added text in the image.

Good luck with the game. Hope it will work out with the textures!

>>494050

I'm using UV Squares together with blender 2.75 and it works without problem.

As always, it is good to first look at any notes that are provided with an add-on.

Please note the following:

- You have to select UVs or an UV island first.
- Only select one UV island at a time. Having multiple islands selected will only cuase the first selected to be changed.

>>493938

Hi OP. Please download the 'UV Squares' and 'UVDistribute' add-ons for Blender. This will make it easy

Also 'Copy Paste UV' is a helpful add-on.

Creating seams and then unwrapping it is a good way to go. It just takes some experience to find the best way to do it to create the most efficient islands.

>>491149

I apologize for any intrusion into your private life, but I'd like to make a suggestion.

Have you considered talking with your boyfriend about what he is doing? To ask if he can give some simple explanation what his goal is with this particular model. If he is perhaps exercising specific techniques to get better and what particular aspects about the model he would like to show in his portfolio?

I've been happily married for 11 years now. I work in the game industry, I like sci-fi movies and LEGO. My wife is a professor in art history, works for a museum and has no interest in games at all and at most a passing interest in the other things. Vice versa, I'm not really into her specific interests.

However, the thing that makes everything work wonderfully is that we talk about everything we do. We share our little exciting discoveries, what we've learned, what we work on and what our plans are. This way, even though our main interests might not fully match, we give each other ideas and we support each other. So much so, that we know straight away when we've found or learned something of value to the other and we're excited to share it.

>>490335

Your UV map doesn't look good. It looks like the scale of the different parts is off. not to mention that some parts are shaped strangely, which will cause warped textures.

Do you maybe know how to add UV seams to your model and use UV Unwrap in Blender? If not, please try to find some tutorial about it. It will help a lot.

>>490753

I got my first tablet in 1999, I think. It was the gray A4 Intuos GD. since then I've worked on a variety of different tablets. Mostly Wacom, though for a very short while I used another brand but that one was busted and really lousy.

Overall I've worked on 6 different models.

The best advice I can give is as follows:

- Don't buy a tablet that needs a battery in the pen. I don't know if this still exists, but I used one once long ago and it was lousy.
- I can't recommend an A5 tablet. I find it too small for comfortable use. Either the active area covers only a part of the screen and you must reposition the cursor to reach other parts of the screen, or the active area is mapped to the whole screen and you have low drawing resolution.
- Too big is also of limited use. It is nice and cool and I used to have it, but I honestly admit I always used the center area. I now have a medium sized one and it is much better and I've got more space on my desk.
- Don't be fooled by the argument that you need a Cintiq to be the best artist possible. I know I'll get a lot of hate for this, but they are simply overrated. I think that a substantial portion of people buy them as status symbol. I hate the colour noise caused by the anti-scratch layer, I don't like the distance between the pen and the actual screen [which requires you to calibrate the pen and cursor position] and it's just so absurdly expensive.

>>490745

Nah, man. It looks more like the grenade from Blender Guru:

http://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/how-to-grunge/

But it's not exactly the same.

Why is nobody suggesting adding UV seams and using UV Unwrap?

Sheesh.


- Select edges and press Ctrl+E (or use button in menu) to mark edges as UV seams.
- Use this to create UV islands with minimum of stretching.
- Press U to unwrap
- Check if unwrapped islands look ok. You might need to fix some UVs.
I strongly recommend downloading the following add-ons: "UV Squares", "UVDistribute" and "Copy and Paste UV"
- Use Blender default grid texture to check for warping/stretching.
- For in-game models, I would overlay identical UV islands to save texture space.
- Bake normalized Ambient Occlusion on the texture as starting point.
- Export UV Layout (with 1.00 Fill Opacity)
- Paint texture in Photoshop.

>>480502

Blender does NOT import or export everything.

I'm lucky enough that I can use Blender at the studio where I work, since the end models are used as FBX's and it doesn't matter that much if it's from Max, Maya or Blender, but we do regularly have issues swapping files.

- Blender can't import ASCII FBX files, only binary.
- FBX's converted from ASCII to binary have messed up normals.
- Blender can't properly import or export smoothing groups.

I think Blender is an awesome tool to have and I'm grateful I can work with it, but Blender is still very far from being the software you imagine it to be.

First of all, it is important to have the right attitude. Just because you do something fast, doesn't mean you can be sloppy and ignore basics like the direction of the wood grain.

The challenge is "How can I do a good job in the shortest amount of time", not "How can I do a quick half-assed job."

I do not mean to insult, but this is important if you want to work professionally.

Secondly, it is good you didn't use nails. Metal was expensive and would have required the help of a blacksmith, while a good carpenter could perfectly make a bed using slots, pegs dovetails, etc.

Finally, the polycount is not too bad, but could be a little less on the headboard and mattress. I would be curious to see the UV mapping and textures. I have a sneaky suspicion that it's too big.

>>479581

Sounds like someone is jelly.

But seriously, artists often don't have the time and inclination to keep things organized. And trust me, management can become a real time-sink, leaving little time for finishing tasks. Actually hiring someone to keep things on track is a pretty decent thing to do, instead of just letting things muddle on and slowly collapse into chaos, just to save money [while in the end this chaos costs more].

Yes, it doesn't sound glamorous but it can be a really good start. This is good experience on how things are done [really, you have no idea how much good organization matters], it will help make contacts and lead on to better things.

I started out as junior environmental artist, just fixing other peoples errors and checking for bugs in levels. By now I've worked as lead artist and art director on some projects, but all the stuff I learned still matter and I teach it to others.

I'd say go for it and do your best to get it.

>>479232

here you go

http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf

http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterTextureGuide.pdf

What kind of interview? What is the focus?

>>478318

'Cursor to Edge Intersection' is available in Dynamic Spacebar Menu but not in the Snap Menu [Shift+S].

That's stupid.

>>477810

Basically, most programs nowadays allow you to work seamlessly on 3D models and any post-processing work is not needed.

For example:

Substance Painter
Mari
3D Coat

Even Photoshop allows you to import 3D models and paint directly on the model.

Did you set the Mapping to UV in the Texture tab/settings?

>>475403

Before you model anything, you have to make sure the gameplay is fun and interesting. So, start with building a simple greybox level that has the features you want. Keep playing it and moving stuff around until you have the right gameplay experience. Only then you start modeling the pieces you need and build your level from that.

How you creating the pieces depends on the end result. you can make high poly pieces in Zbrush, bake normal maps and put them on low poly models. Or, if that's too much work, make tilable textures you can map directly on your low poly models.

You might have some double faces. Or flipped normals.

This is a pretty decent video explaining things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4j5tzAIflU

In the Texture Tab, you have to make sure that 'mapping' is set to 'UV'.

Also, you're using subsurf which might break your UV mapping, especially if you use it after you did the mapping.

To do anything decent in Blender's game engine you will need Python scripts, even for a simple FPS mouse look set-up.

UE has Kismet, and for Unity you can buy Playmaker in the asset store.

I'm a big fan of Blender and BGE, but please do not talk nonsense.