MGAC #69 - Entryway

[matsman]

On the one hand I could use this as a previz for the secret agent... make a cool looking door for in the secret hideout... but I feel that would be rather dull... I really want to make something with a bit more colour and cartoonishness.

I think the door to the hut of a witchdoctor will do nicely. I'll check back when I have something.

Good luck everyone!

[velenosangue]

Nice topic Swizzle. I'm not sure what I want to do for mine yet, but should be pretty fun.

[Auctane]

Sweet, simple and quick environments, I like!

http://www.flankyou.com/picture/MGAC69_Door.jpg

[Swizzle]

Looks pretty good, Auctane, but don't you think you should get some specular in there to show off the normal map?

[Auctane]

The viewport i used for this has enough spec by default so I didn't see value in it for a single image presentation. If I were to use it in game, yes I would put a spec map on it.

[Wozner]

Will be optimization of model a cheating? I mean like a real optimization? Delete some verts to achieve less amount of polys ?

[velenosangue]

Will be optimization of model a cheating? I mean like a real optimization? Delete some verts to achieve less amount of polys ?

Hi Wozner,

I'm not sure I understand your question. It's actually expected that you would optimize your model in this kind of contest. Just make sure the amount of triangle you say you are using matches the version of the model you post.

It would not be okay to post an image of a model that uses, say, 1000 tris then optimize and post the new triangle count without showing the new version of the model as well.

It also occurred to me that you may be asking about deleting anything that is facing away from the camera. This can be justified in some cases, since some games use fixed camera angles, especially in non-video cutscenes. This tends to be more appropriate for scenery than props or character models, since the latter two usually need to be able to be seen from any angle. Ultimately it's up to the judge whether to allow it or not.

[Swizzle]

Veleno pretty much nailed it. If you're doing a door that slides down into the floor, for example, you could delete the faces on the bottom of it since nobody would ever see it. If the player would see something, though, don't delete it.

[Lamont]

Cool, this should be a nice break.

[matsman]

Well I finished! took me a nice 4 hours I think... with some mudbox fun and I have some memory issues... I think it is time I switch to 64 bit... it is starting to bug me.

So I didn't make the witchdoctor hut... I got inspired by a picture of a greek temple build for the goddess Vesta. It actually is a very round building with lots of columns all the way round... but I didn't want to go all the way low and try to put the whole thing in so just the entryway in reasonable detail and fantasied up a bit too :p

http://www.matstm.com/CGtalk/entry_beauty.jpg
http://www.matstm.com/CGtalk/entry_wire.jpg
http://www.matstm.com/CGtalk/entry_textures.jpg
three textures, diffuse, normal and lighting map.

Looking forward to more entries!

[Auctane]

I guess I just needed to sleep the other night...

Just before I put the submission together I popped a blank texture into the spec channel and before I started working on it I was thinking to myself "Pfffttt this isn't worth it." Then I did my screen grab. So I had 0% spec on that screen cap and noticed when I looked at it a bit earlier. While I was in there updating my screen cap, I went ahead and put a spec map together and simply updated the pic on my server.

[Lamont]

Here's my submission. Simple dark alleyway door. Took it into UnrealEd and did a screen grab. Modeled in Maya, textured in Photoshop/ArtRage.

http://digitalweaponx.net/Forums/CGTalk/MGAC_Door.jpg
http://digitalweaponx.net/Forums/CGTalk/MGAC_Wire.jpg

[Chrisis]

I made a mansion gate of some sort. :) For some reason I cannot get AA to work any more (I used to able to overwrite the setting). I think maybe my video card sucks now.

http://www.hpetrov.com/images/gatescr1.jpg


http://www.hpetrov.com/images/gatetex1.jpg

http://www.hpetrov.com/images/gatewire1.jpg

[Swizzle]

A friendly reminder:

The contest ends TONIGHT. If you're planning on getting an entry in, do it quick.

[Steen]

http://www.steen3d.com/misc_images/door_cgtalk.jpg

[velenosangue]

I didn't finish before the deadline, but figured I'd finish up anyways since I'm pretty bad about completing personal projects. Ultimately, I finished three hours too late, so though I think I did a pretty decent job, I'd like to stay out of the running for this one. Here's my non-entry:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v394/rrimgeaper2/contests/MGAC69_Final-Entry.jpg

[Swizzle]

The contest is closed (and has been for several hours now, but I needed to get up early today).

I don't have time right now to write out full comments and crits for all the entries, but I do have a winner in mind and I'll have comments for all the entries later today.

[Swizzle]

Let's have some critiques and comments before I get to telling who won, eh?

Auctane:
This is a quality model with some pretty good texturing. However, it's somewhat difficult to tell what materials it's made of because the lighting is somewhat flat and the specular map isn't really showing up with good edge highlights and such. It could've looked stronger with slightly more contrast or direction in the lighting.

matsman:
Did you use a second UV set for the lightmap and the normal map here? That's an interesting solution, though it might've been better if you'd used a single UV set and then used non-repeating textures for the pillars. It would've allowed you a bit more freedom with some aspects of the diffuse, though I can see why you might do things the way you did.

Lamont:
The final product here looks good, but you might run into issues if you wanted to use the same props with different lighting because of the specular map. Generally, rust and grime on real stuff tends to be very matte and doesn't reflect a lot of light, but on your specular map the reverse is happening. If you saw something like that in a game, it'd look pretty odd unless the rusty parts were also supposed to have water running over them. Another problem would be how you did the normal map; usually, running the diffuse through a normal map generator like the Nvidia Photoshop plugin or Crazybump will not result in good effects because they mostly take into account how light or dark areas are, so things that should be recessed might end up bulging out or vice versa. Filters and normal map generators work fine for things like surface details, but for larger features it's best to extract the normal map from high-poly geometry.

Chrisis:
This is some very interesting use of repeating textures, and there's definitely a place for that sort of thing, but I think you might've achieved something better if you'd taken the time to model the gate as a couple of large shapes and then painted a texture that wasn't just a repeating tile. This would've allowed you to do a lot more with interesting curls and handles and other details that were impossible with the way you modeled and textured it. Building the gates as large single meshes could also have saved polygons, even if it did mean you had to sacrifice texture detail.

Steen:
This is a pretty solid entry, though I'd suggest adding things like hinges and bolts to the door or unique and interesting wear and tear to the rock wall to make it feel more lived-in and believable. Something else you could do to save triangles is weld the seam going down the center to one side or the other. That would give you a few more polygons to play with and it could let you add things like decals.

velenosangue:
That's a very good non-entry. Too bad I don't get to say much about it since yooooouuuuu weeeerrrrre laaaaate. :p

..........................................

AND THE WINNER, BY UNANIMOUS DECISION OF THE JUDGES (er, well, judge) IS:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v394/rrimgeaper2/gold_trophy.png
Auctane!
This entry demonstrated that you know what you're doing when it comes to designing, modeling and texturing. Even though there were some minor details that could've been pushed a little more, it's very solid overall.

AND THE RUNNER-UP, TAKING SECOND PLACE AND THE SILVER (picture of a) TROPHY:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v394/rrimgeaper2/silver_trophy.png
Lamont
Though there might be some room for improvement, the end result is still well made and nicely presented.





Auctane, it's now up to you to pick a theme and start the next MGAC. If you don't want to do this, send a PM to me or the runner-up and one of us can take it on.

[Auctane]

Nice entries everyone!

I'm a bit torn on the next topic, I have two in mind. It will be another simple environment piece. The specs will be rather similar to this challenge, however a little more forgiving on the poly count.

You put on great challenge Swizzle, thanks for the feedback.