Topic: Tri-Monthly Dungeon 3D Art Contest (Deadline for entries Dec 31th 2014) UPDATED

[BLOOD MONKEY]

Alright guys! One more day! Hurry up.!

[darkmanx_429]

Alright guys! One more day! Hurry up.!

Get em' Zero...lol

Awesome entries guys! Remember, you still have 1 full day to make any adjustments that you feel fit.

I will post the next contest up shortly so you guys can get started if you wish! It's a good one!

[darkmanx_429]

First Place Winner
C Belmont

Second Place Winner
Aelfwine

Third Place Winner
BMC_Warcmchine


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UZO
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Due to the great disparity in poly count and rendering, it is hard to determine if the intent of the contest was to make a prop you would see in a game or not. Luckily that factor was not necessarily to clarify for me to make my judgement. I examined each piece for consistency within itself.

1st Place: C Belmont
I picked this entry as the top winner because you went the extra mile and made the interior to your coffin. In addition there were no actual defects or high points of criticism heavy enough to outweigh that. The gold work on the lid and the handles on the side are pretty well done. They add a good amount of variety to the piece, even if they are somewhat plain. That said everything seems really consistent with it’s own style which is a big plus and a crucial aspect of art. Dracula would fall asleep soundly in the nice interior of this coffin.

2nd Place: Aelfwine
What kept yours from taking the top spot was mostly not having gone the extra mile to do an interior. I might have picked it for the top depending on how that came out if you did it. I think your texture work on the wood is superior and looks overall better. The cross design and the monster hand design for the handles gives it a little bit of a unique twist. Some of this does feel inconsistent though. While the wood texture is nice, the cross itself looks as if it is not up to the same level of realism. It looks really plasticy. The hands also seem to be much higher in detail, mainly noticeably higher poly count, than the rest of the coffin and it’s details.

Also while I did not deduct any points for this, since I’m sure ti would have never been shown in any scene the prop would be a part of, the wood texture on the bottom of the coffin is grossly out of proportion with the actual size of cut wood. Perhaps it’s not meant to be seen, but I’d imagine you’d leave that part essentially blank as C Belmont had.

3rd Place: BMC_Warcmchine
The lack of texture use is really what set the higher placing entries apart from yours. It feels like a work in progress, or a prototype/’3d sketch’ to use as a reference for a future piece. The intention and amount of detail your piece contains could have potentially overtaken them if you had continued to work on it into a final piece. The blood splatter was a nice touch, and the presumingly marble stand looks pretty neat. Overall, it feels almost like a plastic model or a clay sculpture. The whole thing looks in a way lumpy. Noticeably edges, ridges, scratch marks, etc are all rounded and unnatural looking. More like they were hand shaped out of clay, not cut into stone or metal, or wood.


Did Not Place: DarkmanX
Obviously disqualified for being a judge entry, but of course it’s meant just for fun anyway. Would have easily swept the competition away, but I’m sure you knew that going in. The engravings were handled really well. CUts into the coffin are clean and nothing looks muddied or infringed on by them. WHat is clean cut is clearly clean cut, and what is curvy is clearly curvy. It is certainly a tomb the Dark Lord would be font to rest in.



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DARKMAN
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1st Place: C. Belmont - This is an fantastic entry.  Aesthetically your color choices are solid and the design is simple yet effective. I checked your wireframe in p3d and it has perfect edge flow and no n-gons. This would be a game ready model. Nice hand-painted textures. The scale of your textures is excellent too. The only suggestion I have for you is to add a bump/height map to your models in the future. This model could benefit from the Bump map to bring out the texturing in your wood and the difference in the texturing of the inside padding. The height map would bring out the inside of the coffin plus your side handles and cross and trim on top.

2nd Place: Aelfwine - Good entry. I like the overall design and the cross looks cool. Those side handles are really well done and bring out the model. (I am a sucker for the smaller details like that.) Good wireframe, no n-gons, and solid edge flow. You could definitely use a spec map on your model. That would bring out way the light bounces on the metal parts of your side handles from the way the light comes of the wood. (Yes, the wood would also have some spec but not as much as the handles. You could also benefit from a height map, for the etching on the top. They would give the illusion of the “Simon Was Here” really itched in the wood. And you could also use a Bump map to really bring out your wood. Be aware about the scale of your textures in the future in relation to your model, particularly the back of the model. You also have a couple of sections where you have seams in your texture and it doesn’t look seamless. particularly the top of your model. You need to smooth that out in the future.


3rd Place: BMC_Warcmchine - Good design choices, especially the damage design in this piece. I know that you are still a novice to 3d modeling/Zbrush but you are getting there. What really sells your piece is the damage. Artistically, great texture treatment went into there. Areas for you to work on would be your coloring. Everything is too grey scaled in your piece, even if you would of added some coloring in the erosion of the top of the coffin (maybe some browns/greens)it would of made a nice contrast to the other colors. Also be wary of the scale of your texturing particularly the ground textures. The scale of those pieces are highly noticeable in relation to your coffin (which should be your focal point). Also those ground pieces could have benefited from some different texturing than everything else even if it was grass, mud, etc. Definitely keep up the edge build up and such in your textures, games love grime and damage in their props and assets so you are on the right track there!


Did Not Place: Darkmanx -Nothing too serious only a couple of hours of work went into this piece. Mostly a study in some edge work and damage design in Zbrush.The texturing was made with some hand painting and custom alphas in Zbrush. Just practice, the entry doesn’t count anyways. I could have smooth the etching out in the coffin top alot more. That’s the only major gripe I have. Maybe, i’ll do something with this piece in the future and finish it up..

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ZSG
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1st Place: Aelfwine -The attention to detail in this piece is amazing. With the way you have the textures, nothing looks completely flat either. The handles really bring this piece out. I also like the way there aren’t too many scratch marks, but just enough to make it look not-brand-newish. “Simon waes her” made me laugh.

2nd Place: C_Belmont -I really like this piece. What could have really brought this piece out though would be more polygons. It looks like the handles are stuck to the sides, and the padding looks like stone. The design itself is really good. The texturing is good, although it looks brand new (?).

3rd Place: BMC_Warmachine -I really hate to put this piece at third place, but it looks completely unrealistic. Everything looks like a bad plastic-rubber sculpture. The lack of color doesn’t help either. Although it looks like you put a lot of time into it. The scratch marks make it look really cool though. I’d suggest a sharper model.


Did Not Place: Darkmanx -This peice is REALLY good. The only reason I didn’t place it because you’re a judge, and that would be unfair for a judge to place in a contest.