I finally chose what I think are good shots. I could only get it as low as 5. It's a set and every item has it's best qualities that I feel like I should present. Here are the shots:
It's an honor to show case my work to some of the best 3D artists out there, who have worked and still working, at my favorite companies and projects.
Thank you so much!!
Possibly..... XD
Can't decide.
Prop description
I'm generally happy to indifferent about how the topology turned out. I couldn't manually retopo, since I was working on a set and I won't have time to get the best out of them. Which also made unwrapping them tough, but I think I did a not so bad job on that. I had to compromise somewhere, and I think topology is where that happened.
As ambitious as it'll sound, I still tried to maintain game hero prop quality, and I'd give my self a B to a B+ on that. Ofcourse, I'll see what the judges think about it soon.
Beauty shots
Rendering done in blender, post process is done in Krita and set dressing is done using Megascans. They're a set, it made sense to put them all together in a context that is fitting. I used blender for rendering, post production in Krita and set dressing was done using mega scans. I really hope this isn't a foul play, but I've tried my best to not let the scans take a lot of the frame. I might do more renders tmrw just before the deadline.
Texturing Update
UV improvement and baking updated for Spoon and Mandala. There was a couple of issues with intersections.
Chest Box Texturing
I hand painted the illustration on the box and I reimported them into substance painter. I made them into modular pieces to improvise what will be illustrated on the box.
This was extremely fun!
On to final renders!
Texturing Update
UV imporvement:
I've given a bit more texel density to sections with high detail. Making sure it won't be that obvious.
Texturing
Dirt might be bit intense on the smaller detailed sections but depending on how it'll react to light I'll update them for final touches.
Texturing Update
These are WIPS, I'll update them as I notice details I can add.
The Bowl
The Spoon
Updated UV Map for the Spoon and Lotus Bowl main body
Spoon
Mandala
Lotus Bowl
High-poly polishes
I wasn't very happy with the chest box, I felt like it lacked structure and detail. So I added some paneling and damages. I used the Trim border brush and Orb crack to achieve this.
There are some streaks I skipped from the top section of the Offering bowl.
I'll try to add the noise in the texturing phase.
Up next is creating a lower poly version for these and unwrapping.
Mandala Highpoly Modeling Update
This was very tough especially on the mandala pieces. Creating and applying those patterns was challenging since I had to keep the subdivision count a bit high to accommodate the detailing without low poly artifacts. Array was a bit finicky so I had to do a lot manually.
You can see that none of my models have detail noises applied to them on their respective high poly model. I feel like that could be added during texturing. It's much more flexible that way. And since most of these are not organic detail noises are not really required as much during this phase.
Next steps
Go back to the other props one by one and start polishing some rough spots and start re-topologizing and unwrapping.
Highpoly Spoon
On to the offering mandala.
Design Blockout for the offering mandala and spoon.
I'll be creating a hybrid of different mandala and himalayan props. I also got inspired by the bowl for the details. I think it'll bring coherence between the bowl and manadala.
Some are already modeled but some are new. I'll proceed to detailing by exporting only one version of the patterns and details to save some time and energy.
Blockout
Just like the chest box I'll be combining mandala designs to visually work with the other props I've made.
Ofcourse, the details won't all be used. It's a pool of references I'll inspire the mandala design with. Same goes to the parts, their count will be the same but the details in the rings from the reference won't make it to the final design.
This is just to help me focus. And for the spoons, I'll pick one or merge details to design one of my own.
High poly continued
Added cushioning and wooden splits to the base chest box.
Next I'll proceed to the mandala plates.
Just like the Lotus Bowl, there are few parts that will require a bit more polishing, but I'll have to wrap up all props and see how much time I'm left with to do this.
Chest Box Blockout Update
Changed some details blockout around the box before I proceeded to high poly.
This was done by friday.
Chest Box Highpoly modeling
I started out by splitting parts that will look the same.
I have duplicated the remaining parts for the sake of presentation. I also still have the chest box base body to model and detail.
There are some parts that will require polishing, which I'll do along with the base part of the chest box.
I used substance designer's new tool to create the ivy alpha.
I'm extremely happy how this is panning out, especially because I really struggle getting my ideas to fully flesh out in 3D. And this is one of the few that turned out well. The part I often struggle with is, saying "this enough references", before I overwhelm myself with the infinite possibilities. But you know the saying "Fail a lot to learn a lot."
Blockout Update
I think I'm done blocking out the chest. I'll be moving on to detailing it.
Besides the paint and the details seen above, the chest is made up of wood. And since it's old, I've gathered decent references of damaged wooden chests.
Began chest box blockout
Blocking out chest box based on the crappy draw-over I made.
Gathering and organizing references
This is what I'll be working on next. This box as mentioned at the beginning, will store the lotus rice bowl for when the monks are not using it. I'll be designing this myself and I'll be basing it on a lot of references for a more accurate representation it's purpose. The symbols I'll mainly use are the Knot, Two fishes, and Flower.
These symbols represenent life's continuity, abondance, and beauty and it's end.
Knot - seen on the bowl, it makes sense to repeat it on the chest as well, as to nourish the monks and help them spread the knowledge and relevance of Buddha.
Flower- Purity, and reminder as that all will fade away even though the hunger persists through the spiritual journey.
Pair of Fishes- Happiness, fertility and abundance of the offering.
High Poly Update
I didn't like the result I got from substance designers splines. So I quickly modeled the wave patterns, grabbed a height map in zbrush and just put them at the bottom of the bowl handle and the lid.
I will proceed to smaller detailing on the symbols and some parts and further polishes to rough parts.
High Resolution Update
Created poly groups for ID map baking. Isolating patterns ( to save some time and energy) that can be duplicated across the prop.
Sculpted Triratna symbol on top of the Bowl and the repeating pattern around the lid.
Small progress, but I believe I've made it convenient for later processes, through careful planning.
Additional details to these parts will come once I'm done with the whole bowl.
High resolution update:
Started modeling the symbols; 2 left. I'll be using these and the other 2 as modular kits on the other props.
Blockout Update
Very very small update.
Reduced the bottom detail blockout count, blocked out the symbols and tested out a way to create the paterns on the lid of the bowl. The patterns by them self at the moment lack some detail, but I'll pop those details while creating the high resolution version.
Next, I will be creating the high resolution version of this prop.
I've continued creating the patterns. Each of these, that I've pointed out, will be a single piece that will later be scultped on and later distributed around the prop.
I believe blocking out phase is very very important so I'll be doing this for this prop half this week.
Lotus Rice Bowl
This will be modeled based on the reference.The symbols will be modeled as modular pieces so I can reuse them on the other assets. So I haven't yet included them in the blockout, but it's the first thing I'll start working on when I start modeling this prop.
Mandala
Here I tested how I can create the patterns procedurally and scatter around the props. Figuring this out should help out on most of the patterns that will be modeled. The smaller ones that won't contribute to the silhouette of the asset will be made using textures either made in substance Designer or Painter. I've also decided on what details will be present on the mandala besides the symbols by collecting the relevant references to help me focus.
Chest
A very rough block out to determine the overall shape, scale and design of the chest. This should fit the Lotus Bowl in it, therefore it's scaled to fit them.
My next move is to start modeling the Lotus Bowl. The symbols on it will be involved on detailing most of the props, so by the time I'm done with it, I'll pretty much hit 2 targets with one shot.
Patterns
The offering of rice is a common ritual in Buddhism. This signifies the value the people have for the priests and Buddha. Offerings are used to purify the ritual venue and participants, as well as to make symbolic gestures of reverence and devotion to deities.
The priests have a larger offering bowl to collect these offerings and the people use Mandalas to bring their offering.
There are many types of bowls used by monks. I'll be using the "Lotus Rice Bowl" as the bowl used by the monks.
And for the Mandala, I'll be creating my own that will use Buddhist themes associated with offerings and that visually will work work with the Lotus Bowl. I'll be using different ritual items as a reference for the patterns and details around the Mandala.
I'll also be creating a chest/box the Lotus Bowl will be put in when the monks are not using it. This, just like the mandala, will be fictional design I'll be working on. This will also use symbols and patterns that help contextualize the items details.
Symbols
These will help me keep my creations religiously and traditionally accurate. I'll be making this by trying to put my self in the point of view of someone who crafts these. I believe this will challenge me even more.
Name: Dagmawi Tsegaye
Country: Ethiopia
I have read the terms and conditions and participating for fun/ if possible, for prizes.
Chest Box
Workflow
Creating a low poly
I first exported the high poly after decimating them to a rational poly count so it won't be too expensive while on my system while I'm creating the low poly or any adjustments. Then I proceeded to creating a lower poly count using decimation master. As I'm doing these parts that are loose can really be affected, so I decimated them until those parts kept their form but are still very low. Then I used Dynamesh to combined them into one, then proceed to Zremesh to give them a decent vertex flow. Then bring them into Blender and do a bit more adjustment if form becomes questionable or is causing any issue while baking.
The not clean meshes
The reason I have meshes with mutliple faces/verts is due to time concern. I'm creating a set and giving every item a very clean vertex will take time and given that a lot of engines can simplify these using auto-LOD features.
I've kept some details on unique sections to preserve crisp details.
Unwrapping
To optimize uv-maps, I shrunk parts that are not visible to the camera, and used latest Blender version to get an efficient packing. I used the UV stretch display to see any horrible stretching that could affect baking.
Shading
I've split the shader count for the low poly props inorder to have a uv map efficient enough to keep the details at a lower texture resolution. Primary example here is the Lotus Bowl. Since it's a hero prop, I've split it to 3 parts, and due to that, the UV for each can look less efficient (causing a bit more draw call) but it's a trade off for lower resolution textures for memory efficiency. This will be revisited if I find out more adjustments to uv won't affect the quality.
Up next
I'll be creating Base materials that will be a challenge to create in substance designer. Such as the lotus bow tile like material, the illustrations on the box and some noises to add to add micro details with such as wood grain and dents.
