My 3D Stuff

Re: My 3D Stuff

Hey mate, it's looking good; abit copypaste materials I think..

But yeah you need ambient occlusion, if you don't know how to make it just yell and I'll write it, or just google it


mental ray renderer
material editor
mental ray base material
shadow/surface = ambient occlusion material
128 pass, distance 20, rest can stand

Go to processing under render settings, and "material override" and simply drag your material in there (disable any glow/lume settings first) and render at high FG and high antialising and you should get a clay render in black/white.

Then comp with multiply in photoshop, it will do WONDERS for your scene, right now everything is floating but other than that I like your scene.

In my class there was a guy who made a post apocalyptic gas station, Falloutstyle, he had some worn out tires, a barrel, fog on the ground and modelled background mountains (really basic just triangles with noise + TS really) and depth of field.

You have a good vantage point, your shadows are smooth and nice, texture comping is good, ground abit blurry but fits.

Except for no ambient your only real problem is the background.. Unless night setting, black background does NOT do justice to any good scene/model unless intended. Better than my first scene.. But I didn't know about AO before a half year ;]

Re: My 3D Stuff

You've got quite a ways to go sir. However, after 2 months I'd say you're right on track with where you should be.

Re: My 3D Stuff

The thing is is that I can't use mental ray stuff because they won't work in the game engine. I make stuff so that they'd work in video games. And yeah, I would've worked a little more on my textures but I was running out of time, so I rushed a little. And yeah, no background for that same reason.

Re: My 3D Stuff

I've never seen a gas pump made of stone.

Also, just because something is lowpoly, and designed for a game, doesn't mean it can't look good. It would be worth trying out Mythix's occlusion pass (although that method is too lengthy for my taste)

I dislike game design courses in general. Today's hardware can process some pretty god damn dense meshes, so polycount is beginning to matter less and less, because "good" games are requiring more and more detail, while game design instructors simply preach LOWPOLY LOW POLY LOWWWWWW POLYYYYYY, YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS SPACESHIP OUT OF THREE TRIANGLES, NO MORE.

Re: My 3D Stuff

Yeah engines can push a million, just the character alone in god of war was like 170k~, we have game class at my school too and it's tiresome to hear the teacher always say it's "too many polygons", instead of teaching the students how to reach their realistic game boundaries/specific targets.. But my school is crap, pardon my french.

and oh it's for a game, but you can still have AO even if it's a game though- hell, 3DS max 2011 even support AO in viewport, and all sort of lighting things, but should probably be baked into the materials/textures

Re: My 3D Stuff

Re: My 3D Stuff

After only 2 months I wouldn't think that he would have learned texture baking yet, but for games, it's a necessity.

That tie fighter looks like around 3k-5k poly. Is that yours?

Re: My 3D Stuff

Yeah I don't know what texture baking is. Today I had my texture class and we basically try to improve our renders in photoshop as best we can. This is what I got.


Before you say anything, yes, I know it's not perfect and I know what's wrong, so you don't have to say it.

As for the pump made out of stone thing, it's a metal texture, but I guess it kinda does look like stone. And yeah, one of my teachers was exactly LOW POLY LOW POLY, but I know I should add a little more. My game engine teacher says the engine can handle 1 million triangles per screen. I have projects coming up so I'll post what I do later when they're done.

Re: My 3D Stuff

Na not mine, just googled it and it's labelled "normal map frenzy" so I guess it's really lowpoly with normal map on it..
I have a spacefighter for a speed modelling class though, but like a year ago xD

Re: My 3D Stuff

It's alot better now, and I will tell you what I find wrong with it regardless of you wanting me to or not :]

Have you tried rendering it with daylight system? Obviously you can't use daylight system for gamescenes but it looks sweet anyways lol =p

But yeah it looks alot better, not completely sure what you have done to it besides adding a background (which makes your gas station fly but better nevertheless)

Lighting is too excessive in the front, too shaded on the back.. Wouldn't really be a problem unless you had a outdoor background.. This is getting along nicely though will be nice to see where you end..

And exactly what is your req for this assignment? What boarders etc do you need

Re: My 3D Stuff

Biggest issue is the poor lighting, you have only one source of light, minimum should be 3 sources of light.

This is a pretty good page to learn about how 3 point lighting should work.

Re: My 3D Stuff

There actually is three point lighting in that scene. I just did a bad job with it.

Re: My 3D Stuff


I was in a rush to finish. The banner isn't proportional, some stuff stand out to much, just not very good, but I was running out of time. Ugh, deadlines. Really simple render, will do more later.

Re: My 3D Stuff

Seems like making a DDR/ITG machine is always one of the first things people make when they learn 3d haha. It was one of my earlier things too. I should make one now that I'm decent.

What the heck is up with the bar shadows?