So this seems to be a pretty popular thing to do, and with it keeping me accountable to actually produce content and be able to get feedback easily, I thought it'd be a good idea to start one of these myself. Lets see how far we can go.
thecabbagedetective Hi Aaron. Would you be interested to join me and some other volunteers on the journey of creating an open world postapocalyptic Metro/Stalker style game ? Consider it as warmup before working on your own game :)
ssmurfmier1985 Yeah, one thing that's always concerned me is I want to learn everything, which I love learning don't get me wrong, but in terms of job prospects it doesn't help. Hence why I'm gonna have to either wave the little white flag and commit to one avenue or pray to some higher being in that being a generalist pays off (not to imply specializing is bad, far from it, it's just I personally don't like the idea of doing it). Though wearing different hats for a small company sounds neat, especially if it's an indie video game studio...
I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on those vids, cheers! Maybe I'll do something similar in the future. I like the idea of the blueprints but to my knowledge of Unreal and coding they're best utilized when used in unison with C++, so I still definitely want to learn that. Would probably be a great way to start, as you said, get some assets moving and whatnot.
Thank you for the good luck, and I wish you an equal amount in your animating!
Wayne is working on a Rigging Bootcamp
That's all you had to say...
tthepainter I'm admittedly going to be quite a bit busy for the next few months so not sure how much I could help in that time but if you're okay with that and my current skill level then by all means shoot me either an email or a Twitter/Instagram DM (they're open) so we can further discuss!
So I decided to enter Nvidia's Characters of the Future competition (details here if any of you are interested in joining) by starting out and doing absolutely nothing related to characters and/or the future whatsoever! I decided to model one of the props in the scene, namely a dumbbell:
I was going for a slightly stylized photoreal look (is that a thing?) and outside of a few details like scratches on the handle I think I did a pretty good job so far. Though the "screws" are looking oddly matte, despite having very low roughness. Maybe it's the HDRI or the depth of field, I'm not sure...
Well with that, I wish you all a good night and happy Blending!
thecabbagedetective Well, if working at a small indie studio wearing different hats is what excites you, then by all means start creating all kinds of game related projects and fill up that portfolio! 😬
And you're right, the power is in using both coding and visual scripting, they really enhance each other. Still, according to Gonzo learning visual scripting should make it easier to learn the logic of coding, so it's a great starting point 😊
Great looking dumbbell by the way!
open world postapocalyptic Metro/Stalker style game
I don't want to say something demotivational, but if it's your first experience, it's not a super good idea to start with something that big. And it's definitely can't be considered as a "warmup". For a small team, a project like that can take years and have a big chance to fail. Especially on "volunteer" terms.
Pavel, i am aware of it can fail and to be honest in the long run it doesnt matter. If it success it will be great if not, no worries. It is about the experience, that invisible thing which forces you to make the best art you can and some regular new stuff for my portfolio. I will try to do my best to create high quality assets. We are now creating a map 250 x 250m as tech demo. If the tech demo will be interesting and get noticed than it is planned to use crowd funding to build the studio. Thats all i know as for now.
I am just an artist here :)
thecabbagedetective cool looking event . so you decided to enter. will you then make a character for the contest or skip it ?
the dumbbell looks really great. amazing work those scratches are a great touch and the texture too on the iron in the middle (dont know the word xD the silver iron stick) really amazing work Aaron
tthepainter In all honesty I have to agree with nekronavt, it does seem a bit overly ambitious, however I'm happy to contribute as it means I get a few portfolio pieces.
yyukinoh1989 Thank you! I've tweaked around with the textures since but since procedural textures aren't allowed I'm gonna have to bake it, but hopefully it'll still look good! And yep, just rendering the other prop now and then I'll be on to making the character himself.
thecabbagedetective
why is procedural textures not allowed ? and where is that forbidden . i sure love forward to see youre progress :D
thecabbagedetective I gave your contact to "developer". Expect a message from him.
yyukinoh1989 Whilst the rules didn't strictly say they were it was clarified later. As for why I have no idea, maybe it's because you're supposed to present UV maps? Either way, thanks!
Fun fact, I've got a friend trying to break into 3D so I livestreamed me making the dumbbell, I won't lie it was fun playing teacher as it came rather naturally to me, looking forward to getting these breakdowns done and then who knows where I'll go from there?
But back on to the competition, the other prop is done, namely a barbell. I admittedly got a little... economic with my time and reused the materials from the dumbbell, but I might end up making a few new ones for it.
Also, here's the wireframe for it!
And here's the wireframe for the dumbbell:
They're a little dense but nothing a bit of touchup can't fix.
Right, tomorrow forward I'll be working on the character themselves, which is... daunting. I have approximately 40 days to become an anatomy expert, so no pressure eh? I'll see you then, and happy Blending!
Hey there!
So, I got about 40 days to become an expert on anatomy, no problem right? Oh Lord...
Well I've been working on the torso so far, thanks to ZygoteBody.com, the book "Anatomy for the Artist", the CG Cookie Realistic Character Course and a massive thanks to the people over on the Discord who actually know what they're talking about when it comes to anatomy so they can point out all the stupid mistakes I made.
Firstly, I used the base mesh supplied by CG Cookie and made what I thought was pretty decent, until how much was pointed out:
One thing that was pointed out to me was that using the base mesh probably wasn't the greatest idea due to not learning proper proportions, so I decided to make my own, and despite having some improperly measured limbs it wasn't a bad first attempt:
After that, I got to work again and have - what I believe - to be significantly better. Not perfect by a long shot, and I'll be improving it in the coming days, but in comparison to my first body I modeled in October and even this on here I think it's better:
I'll be asking for feedback on this soon (hell, there's even some things I can point out, like I believe the knees are too low) but for now I'm willing to call it a night. I promise I'll be checking the other polybooks in the morning as I have gotten rather behind but until then, happy Blending!
thecabbagedetective It helps to have basic proportion guides for things like limbs and such. For example, the legs are approximately twice as long as the torso, so the knee will fall in the middle. You can check this on yourself. Your hand is smaller than your face, but still bigger than you think. The middle finger is about as big as your palm, maybe a little bit shorter. So start with the general proportions, then tweak them as you sculpt. Your knees are a bit low, and maybe the elbows are a bit too high. The forearm looks about right, but the arm overall may be a touch short. But, I need to practice anatomy myself, so take this with a grain of salt. Keep going, dude!
thecabbagedetective probably won't fit your already busy contest schedule, but just in case:
There's a game asset creation contest hosted by Unity & Substance you might find interesting, good way to fill your portfolio with game ready models too 😊
silentheart00 Ah, it crossed my mind that you might find this one interesting too, totally forgot to tag you though... sorry about that. Glad you found the message anyway!
This is the first contest I've seen that I find interesting too, I might join 😊 if I come up with a good idea...