Low Poly Art

[PolyPilot]

Nice work! I really like the style you chose.

The only thing I have to say is, that the texture is very flat without any depth.
Maybe you should try to add some darker areas under the arms and between the legs for example.

Cheers,
Marcel.

[codyalday]

Thanks Marcel, I will get onto the texture ASAP:)More low poly to come.

[codyalday]

Quickly pumped out this today, hopefully turn this into a farm scene or something similar. Comments and crits appriciated.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/chickencoop.jpg

[Artician]

Hey, good luck on your industry break-in. I know that's tough.

It's a good idea to keep on pumping out these little images though (if you're aiming for portable platforms). Building up a solid, consistent portfolio is a good plan while you search for work.

For all your images overall, you might want to invest some time into learning technologies that will further your art, such as baked in lighting. Give all your models an ambient occlusion pass, and bake that into their diffuse maps. It will help flesh out the form of your models very well, and will help with areas like PolyPilot mentioned, giving your models a better sense of depth and volume.

For your chocobo farm, the textures a very muddy and don't look clean and appealing. I would work on handpainting something like this if the texture resolution limits you to a point that photos just don't come across very well. Since it looks like it's based on squares content, definitely take a look at the way they do it. Check out some of their DS games (http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff3ds/screens/ff3ds040.jpg) and look at their chocobos (http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff4ds/screens/ff4ds79.jpg).
Note, I'm not saying you should copy their style, obviously you're going for a much more proportionate chocobo, which is cool and will let yours stand out a bit from existing work, but you should definitely look at what doesn't work on your own, and what does for exisiting content, and adapt that to your purposes.

As for the baseball players, it's hard to see the details on them because they're so small on the screenshot. Since they're all derivitive of one another, give a close up of just one of them in the corner or something, diffuse and wireframe views. Otherwise they look pretty cool from what I can tell.

Good luck and don't give up man.

[codyalday]

Updated the baseballer with a lighting map, wow it makes a different, totally forgot about it, thanks Artician for your comments, ill will attempt to hand paint the textures, see how it goes. Updates soon:)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/Base_Ballers_10.jpg

[Tronno]

He needs something to break up those flat grey areas, like folds, seams, pinstripes, a breast pocket, things like that.

[J-RBeans]

Nice work! These are super duper low. I think the comments posted by the other users are all justified.

keep up the good work.

JR

[codyalday]

Slight update, added some folds on the clothes, thanks Tronno:) Not calling this guy done till the forum says so, need to land a job so you can pick on me as much is needed, lol so comments and crits appriciated.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/Base_Ballers_12.jpg

[Artician]

Hey, looking good. A few more comments for you -

The folds in his clothes do not look natural, and they also betray the mirroring going on in the UVs. Take a look at some images of real cloth folding (http://image.bizrate.com/resize?sq=160&uid=677250345&mid=176215) (sorry I couldn't find a better pic), which usually concentrate around the waist and the armpits. Generally where ever there is the most movement.

Also, on a real game project you would need to figure out a way to display all the team numbers. Right now the number 8 is working for you because it's mirrored, but that wouldnt cut it if this were for an actual game. You have a few choices here:
- Copy a section of polys on the players back and detatch them. Float them just above the area they came from, then apply a texture with an alpha that has all the team numbers on it.
- Or you could not mirror the players back texture, and have a seperate back texture with team number for each player.

Personally I would go with the first choice. It saves you more memory, which is more critical than polycount for a console game. The only issue is that you have to make certain that the verts would be weighted appropriately so when the guy deforms you don't get clipping between his back polys and those of his team number which aren't attached, but sitting very close. (You won't have this problem at all right now since you're not actually posing him anyway). You could also go the extra mile and do this for other areas of his body, like adding a front pocket on one side, and a second, smaller team number on the front as well.

Also something that stood out to me was the pixelation of the lines around the players collar and front buttons (the blue border). Since I suspect your texture map is just so low that it's causing this effect, you might want to just add a sub division along this whole area and give it it's own UV space. If that collar and button area are their own strip of polys you wouldn't have that issue. If you're concerned about polycount, you could probably sacrifice the beveled areas on the upper sleeves of his shirt, as those aren't gaining you a huge amount of added detail at the moment.

The last thing I can recommend is that once you're satisified with this guy, make the whole team! Tall skinny guys, funny looking guys, guys with beards. You might not want to go too far with the bodies, since you can typically only have one or two rigs that are shared for every character in a console game, but at the very least give everyone their own head and make them stand out. Then finally maybe even a nicely detailed ball park for them to play in. One of the things I felt helped me in finding my first job in the industry was to go as far as you could making your own game. Don't just do a few props, make every asset of the game that you can, without need of a programmer. That way you have whole, huge sets of assets to show.

PS - Your website was down when I tried to check it, and that doesn't help a job hunt. ;)

[codyalday]

Thanks Artician for the indepth response:) and sorry for the late reply, been real busy with other stuff at the moment. Anyways, back on track, 'attempted' to fix the cloth folding and added extra tris on the back for a alpha mapped number for the player. Comments and crits are appriciated as usual, thanks.
PS: Hopefully my website will be back online soon, my web hosting is down for the time been.....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/Base_Ballers_14.jpg

[Artician]

It's looking good man. I could definitely see this in a DS game at the least.

Keep it up!

[Clanker]

Nice evolution !
It lack a team logo imho :)

[CodeVeroby]

Haha, is that the chocobo farm from Final Fantasy 7 ?

[codyalday]

Thanks for the responses:) Team logo sounds to be a good idea, and yes that is sort of a chocobo farm, but different style i guesse. Anyways, still not calling this guy done until everyone else says the model is par to the industry standard or close to.....

[Blanks]

Hi great stuff!! I dont know if you have heard of a game called Eternal Sonata but i really think you could learn something by studying the texturing of the characters in the game. Heres a link : http://eternalsonata.namcobandaigames.com/

Have a look if you want.

Jamell

[CodeVeroby]

That's what I was talking about :


http://www.ff7-universe.com/Part9/Chocodance.jpg

[codyalday]

Thanks for the comments guys:) I took a look at that texture work blank, looks really good. Not sure if i could apply that smooth feel to such a low texture sheet. Anyways here is another update of a different player, comments and crits much appriciated as usual, thanks.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/Base_Ballers_16.jpg

[DanielWray]

from the first screenshot to your last the improvement is huge, the last screenshot looks really good. i could imagine those being profressional game assets they look really good. i have no crits about the models or textures, i would say they are complete?

do you paint your textures at true resolution or do you downscale?

[codyalday]

Hey thanks Dan:) Yeah i painted the textures true resolution, 128x128. I have learnt a lot from this, espically texturing in really small scale. Thanks for your comments mate, and not sure if these are done, looking for heaps more people to say i have the go ahead to put on my portfolio:)

[Clanker]

Hey that's great ! I think the 2 faces are too identical. Maybe you can make some differences.

[Blanks]

what a great improvement m8. They shading really works well. The only thingf i would do is get rid of those creases down the front of his belly. Its the first thing my eye goes to, probably because of the symetry. Hes got quite a big belly anyway and because of the way hes standing you could probably get away with having the cloth strech over his belly. It would make him look more fat but it depends what look your going for.

Btw have you done any work on the chocobos?

[codyalday]

Hey thanks for the advice blanks, i will get onto it ASAP. I haven't really touched the chocobos yet, i am attemping to do a stadium for the baseball players, hopefully have something to show for that soon:) Thanks again guys for the crits and comments and keep them coming please.

Finally got my website back online..... check it out, need to redo it a lot, i know most of the work there is not folio standard..... www.codyalday.com (http://www.codyalday.com)

[codyalday]

Started to attempt and make a stadium for the baseball players, not much to show, a lot more to go:) Hopefully turns out how i want it too....textures are quickly slapped on to show what is what, it won't be the same style in the end product. Comments and crits appriciated as usual.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/Base_Ballers_18.jpg

[Artician]

Nice. You're kicking ass.

Obviously there are issues with the tiling, but you said it was WIP anyhow. One thing I wanted to suggest to you for a scene like this - put a lot of creativity and effort into some polished billboards. Don't use real-world ads if you can avoid it, just come up with some interesting or funny products of your own and make them look super real. Cake them all over the place so it's really dense. That, combined with some very good lighting (using AO again if you can), will really make this piece stand out.

Good luck!

[codyalday]

Just a little update, been a bit slow lately....Comments and crits appriciated.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/stadium.jpg

[ansemsnobody]

Keep it up this is looking realy cool!:cool:

[codyalday]

A littel update once again, a lot more to go, almost there though. Comments and crits appriciated. Its cruntch time now:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/Base_Ballers_Field_2.jpg

[Clanker]

Yup, the tf2 cartoonish style is way better ! Nice work man, keep it up :thumbsup:

[GenZ]

Hey man great job on these,i have a special feeling for low poly stuff.Anyway i think the grass doesn't look right,you should try to keep it more simple because right now it looks too noisy,even from far.

[codyalday]

Hey, thanks for the comments:) Another update, almost there, few more things to add, billboards and such. Comments and crits appriciaited.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/Base_Ballers_Field_4.jpg

[codyalday]

Call this one done, around 1800 tris. Thanks everyone for helping me out with this project, on to the next one then the job hunt:)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/codyalday/Base_Ballers_Field_6.jpg

[GenZ]

looks great,it could still use some work but thats your decision :D
I hope you get a job soon :)

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