The 3D Thread

[Number 28]

When you finish drawing the spline, and you click back on the first point you made, it should come up with the option 'Close Spline?', to which you select 'ok'. Then just right click on the thing, and go to 'Convert-->Editable poly', and it will fill in the shape with polys. Then you can select extrude to make the shape 3D instead of just a flat plane.

[Sprite Machine]

That's it. Many thanks! Seems I wasn't joining the lines up.

[Number 28]

No probs.

[Pycofox]

Some Models that I created using blender,please let me know if you like them.

[utero2001]

Some very nice work there matey, the final image is a great composition

do you have any wireframes that you can post up too?

Are these uni degree related or done in your own time?

[Pycofox]

Some very nice work there matey, the final image is a great composition

do you have any wireframes that you can post up too?

Are these uni degree related or done in your own time?

here are some meshes not the best in the world but I have self tough myself to use blender. I was in uni for a year doing Computer Science/ Games Design but i couldn't hack the Computer Science bit and never actually managed to get to the interesting stuff in the second year, so to answer your question its all done in my own time.

[fatbob]

Hey, long time reader, 1st time poster. Thought I would get round to putting some things up, a little bit of everything.

Some of my more recent projects:

The first stuff is a 1st go using Maya (more of a Max person) sooo, the lighting and rendering settings are as basic as can be. Still needs a bit of work.

Some low poly stuff done for DS and PSP games:

Some lighting experiments done with HDRI in Mental Ray and SSS.

But i'm more interested in games design itself and level design. Just finished a demo in Unreal 3 based on Escher's Relativity for my Final Year Project at uni.

Heres a few quick gameplay screens, i'm hopefully going to have a playthrough video sorted soon (as BigShimmeryWall is helping with the music for the demo) so will post it when it's done.

Sorry for the amount of stuff. Feel free to give feedback

Now to try and get a job when I graduate next month.

Chris

[SuperCat]

Now to try and get a job when I graduate next month.

Chris

What course are you graduating and what are you aiming to get a job doing if you don't mind me asking.

[fatbob]

Doing a Games Design BSc degree at Staffordshire Uni, along with BigShimmeryWall - although a year ahead of him.

Like I say, my interest is mostly in games design and level design, although i'd be looking into environment and charachter work too, as I realy enjoy modelling and texturing.

[fatbob]

I'm going to be putting together a portfolio soon, anyone get any advice?

[SuperCat]

Hard to know without details. A portfolio of what? Character work? Design? Environments? If it's character based, I could give you some advice perhaps.

[fatbob]

I'm finding it hard to be objective about what sort of thing I want to do specifically. Like I said i'm into level design, but like doing charachter work and environments too. Its something I need to decide myself.

Just after tips realy on making a concise collection of things. I understand its better to target a specific area, but I tend to do a lot of different things. Some people say to do one great piece and have a couple of smaller bits to support it, as weaker things obviously detract from the whole. But other people I have spoken to have said its good to show your range. I'm guessing the latter is not realy as true depending on what job you are targetting.

Is it worth have separate collections of different things?

[SuperCat]

You're putting together a portfolio for job applications or just for uni? If it's the former, I'd really put in the hours as Uni's seem to allow sub-standard work through (not aimed at you, but generally this is the case).

If you're putting together a demo reel/portfolio for finding work, what I would say is competition is tough. So if you can nail down what you what to do and tailor it for that, it will benefit you far more than being a 'bit of this and some of that' portfolio. If you want to be a character artist for example (judging from the work you posted it seems thats more your thing), you'd better focus on getting shit hot at that. I can only really talk specifics on that subject as I don't do environmental or design work. If you have enough work to support seperate character and environment reels then maybe go with that, if you're 50/50 on what you want. Can't speak for design.

Do not include anything that isn't great. 3 fantastic pieces are better than 5 decent ones. It's quality, not quantity. I'd also think about what studios you have in mind and their type of games, this is just a loose rule but at least try and tailor your stuff to that specific studio. Epic aren't going to be interested in your Samuai Pizza Cats for example, where as smaller studios might be portable only. Are you presenting the stuff above or newer work?

[fatbob]

You're putting together a portfolio for job applications or just for uni? If it's the former, I'd really put in the hours as Uni's seem to allow sub-standard work through (not aimed at you, but generally this is the case).

If you're putting together a demo reel/portfolio for finding work, what I would say is competition is tough. So if you can nail down what you what to do and tailor it for that, it will benefit you far more than being a 'bit of this and some of that' portfolio. If you want to be a character artist for example (judging from the work you posted it seems thats more your thing), you'd better focus on getting shit hot at that. I can only really talk specifics on that subject as I don't do environmental or design work. If you have enough work to support seperate character and environment reels then maybe go with that, if you're 50/50 on what you want. Can't speak for design.

Do not include anything that isn't great. 3 fantastic pieces are better than 5 decent ones. It's quality, not quantity. I'd also think about what studios you have in mind and their type of games, this is just a loose rule but at least try and tailor your stuff to that specific studio. Epic aren't going to be interested in your Samuai Pizza Cats for example, where as smaller studios might be portable only. Are you presenting the stuff above or newer work?

Yeah, this is with job hunting in mind.

The pieces i've posted are all related to Uni work, the last stuff is level design stuff to do with my final year project. Obviously at uni its difficult to conetrate on anything too specific, so you end up producing stuff as you are learning which is far from ideal. I was hoping to build further on my FYP stuff to build a decent portfolio piece, but once I graduate I realy need to start from scratch I think. As university deadlines are rarely condusive to my best potential work.

Charachter wise, i've actually never considered myself good enough to go that route, the best charachter artists I know are pretty much only interested in that, and the general level seemes to be pretty damn high. My interests being split hasn't helped me focus enough.

I'm just going to have to spend a bit of time creating some realy good stuff to put out.

Thanks for all the help.

[utero2001]

I'm going to be putting together a portfolio soon, anyone get any advice?

have a quick look at my site

www.ryan-astley.com

keep it really easy to navigate and make it really visual. Interest people with cool stuff on the first page. and put only your best work on there. For most of my projects I include a short line of text and loads of images. Maybes include a showreel video on the front page. Keep the video short, no sound required and in a format that everyone has the drivers for.

[fatbob]

Cheers Ryan, i've been on your site in the past after I spoke to you, its the kind of thing i'm looking at doing, so its nice to have some reference.

[Asura]

Keep the video short, no sound required and in a format that everyone has the drivers for.

Can't stress this enough. Put a video on Youtube, one in WMV, and then one in a high-quality DivX format if you want, but definitely put the YouTube and/or WMV ones there.

Also, did some playing about today with my old Mobile Suit model:

[Asura]

Also, I have a question for the MAX experts.

Now that I have the model, and the background, it seems a shame not to actually animate the thing, even for a quick 30 second job.

Currently, I have all the centres of rotation set to the joints, so I pose it like that, which is fine for stills but too laborious for animation. I want to create sets of bones and animate it that way; just create bones for each limb, with some implicit objects for the upper and lower torso, and a bone for the neck and head, then just constrain the objects to the position of the bones.

The problem is, I've been trying to create the chains of bones tonight and have just got nowhere. I tried, for the leg, drawing the bones, then selecting the ankle bone and moving it, but it only moves the shin; the thigh does not move. I've done extensive FK/IK in XSI, and it was really simple in that - but I can't seem to suss this out.

Does MAX have the features I'll need? I know you can get Character Studio, so does MAX lack the necessary tools for character animation, beyond the simple humanoid stuff? The mobile suit's proportions are too far removed from standard human proportions to use the biped rigs.

[BigShimmeryWall]

Is this any use?

[Asura]

Is this any use?

Yeah, seems ideal - and funnily enough, the topography of his RX-78 model is actually very similar to my GM Custom, though it's closer to the detail level of my high poly model I used for normal mapping. Shame whoever made the model hasn't textured it with a bit more detail, or gone the whole way and done cel-shading - Gundams with their bright colours are a difficult challenge to texture, but they look great when done well.

EDIT: Yeah, all I really needed in the end was the first instruction - check the "Assign to Children" box. That makes the bones handle in the manner I expect from XSI.

[Spuck]

Just a few, older pieces. I'm stuck working in graphic design at the moment, need to kick myself in te ass and get up to speed with 3d again *grumble*

Something of a 'how low can you go' challenge

Modelling exercise for an A-team style armoured up VW camper

I'm so shit at finishing things

[FozZ]

Nice models Otta. Just to reiterate something that has been mentioned several times in this thread by myself and others (and not necessarily aimed at you). Don't give details of poly count, as you have with the low poly church. Give details in number of tris. That church certainly has more than 14 just on the side I can see. Obviously this is very important when showing work to potential employers.

e.g. Max would tell you this is 1 poly, but it uses 3 tris (whether these are visible cuts or not). Obviously over a full model this difference in value can create a large gap between the apparent poly count and the actual tri count.

[Number 28]

If you hit 7 in Max it will tell you the number of tris, although you need to go into the viewport config to tell it what exact figure to display. You want 'selected' to be displayed at least, it's ridiculous that this isn't the default.

[FozZ]

Aye, very annoying at work. I've tried looking into making a max script for it on startup, but so far the only options I've seen are for maximising the viewport and setting whireframe/shaded/etc as the initial view (can be handy when loading large levels and objects).

As 28 has said, triangles shown, and I use total + selected just so I can keep an eye on the overall number when I'm using an isolated view.

[Number 28]

Aye, total and selected is best... the default in Maya. *wink* hah

Ah, you're at Rebellion. Make AVP3 dude! Rebellion's AVP was insanely awesome, but Monolith's AVP2 sucked (imho). Get those rights pronto!

[FozZ]

Aye, total and selected is best... the default in Maya. *wink* hah

Ah, you're at Rebellion. Make AVP3 dude! Rebellion's AVP was insanely awesome, but Monolith's AVP2 sucked (imho). Get those rights pronto!

Going a bit off topic here, but go to http://rebellion.co.uk/ and click on news. Not the studio I'm in though sadly since I love all things Alien and Predator (well, apart from the AVP films)..... ooookay, back to 3D talk

[Number 28]

Ok, i've just hyperventilated...woohoo! Shit, mebbe I should apply for a job there. I'd be *so* up for that. I'd make sure the aliens looked 100% spot on, that's fersure.

[Spuck]

Nice models Otta. Just to reiterate something that has been mentioned several times in this thread by myself and others (and not necessarily aimed at you). Don't give details of poly count, as you have with the low poly church. Give details in number of tris. That church certainly has more than 14 just on the side I can see. Obviously this is very important when showing work to potential employers.

e.g. Max would tell you this is 1 poly, but it uses 3 tris (whether these are visible cuts or not). Obviously over a full model this difference in value can create a large gap between the apparent poly count and the actual tri count.

Ah, cheers, didn't know that the difference was important in a folio, nice tip!

[Asura]

Ah, cheers, didn't know that the difference was important in a folio, nice tip!

Yep, massively so. From there you can naturally see that a model quoted as 5k polys could actually be maybe 10k tris. That Gundam model of mine has about 4000tris.

[Spuck]

Yep, massively so. From there you can naturally see that a model quoted as 5k polys could actually be maybe 10k tris. That Gundam model of mine has about 4000tris.

Oh, yeah, I know that much. I try to create everything in quads wherever possible, is that still relevant/important?