Cgtuts+ Workshop #21 Low Poly Environment
tuts workshop

Cgtuts+ Workshop #21 Low Poly Environment

on Aug 2nd 2012 with 15 comments

We’re back with another entry in our weekly community project, where we post a render or animation created by a member of the Cgtuts+ community, and ask you to provide feedback and constructive criticism on their work. It’s a great way to learn more about the intricacies of computer graphics, express your viewpoint, and have your own content critiqued by your fellow artists!

Quick Ground Rules

  • Be nice! We’ve deliberately chosen work that isn’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
  • Feel free to offer any type of advice on – Modeling, Texturing, Materials, Lighting, Rendering, Composition, etc.
  • You can also link to another render that you feel offers a great example of this type of content done exceptionally well.

So let’s get to it, here’s this week’s entry created by Dipayan Paul!

Low Poly Environment

Cgtuts+ Grip Pen Render critiqueClick To Enlarge

A Little Background

This is a low poly environment I modeled in 3D studio max and rendered out using Vray. This one is a night scene very similar to an area in our neighborhood. I tried to model it as accurately as possible. Please provide feedback about how I can make this environment more realistic.

Thank you,
Dipayan

Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached this project or done things differently? Any thoughts on how it could be improved or taken to the next level. Chime in below!

The most constructive and helpful comments will be featured on the site. Interested in submitting your own video or 3D render? You can do so here! and have your work featured in a future Cgtuts+ Workshop!

 
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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

A long time Cgtuts+ author, Chris has recently moved into the role of co-editor at Cgtuts+. Chris has nearly a decade of experience working with 3D studio Max and has authored many in depth tutorials for Cgtuts+ as well as other websites. A generalist by definition, Chris spends most of his time modeling, but has many years of experience in the area's of UVMapping, Texturing, Lighting and Rendering. On rare occasions when he's not wasting away in front of his computer, Chris enjoys playing hockey, skateboarding, watching movies and playing games. You can find more of his work over at christateonline.com.  

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  • http://youtube.com/user/giridharzinta Giridhar Sharma

    Overall the scene looks quite dull.

    Seriously, no reflection anywhere?

    • http://www.dipayan-gfx.webs.com Dipayan Paul

      Reflection as in moon light hitting the streets etc? Yeah there are diffused reflections throughout the scene… increasing reflection value only makes it worse…
      yeah it does look a bit dull… any tips?

  • Vidfisher

    Very well rendered graphic although missing a few minute details leading to an overall impression that something’s not right or is missing.

    To start with the car headlights and their reflection on the floor seem to be completely off beat and have no connection. The flash/gleam in the car headlights is way too low.

    Same way for the street lights too, they seem like yellow bricks and lack the lustre/glow as well as the perspective/depth i.e the rightmost light should more dim than the one foremost in the centre which would create that depth effect. Also adding the light and shadow regions for each of these street lights would enhance the overall effect of the image rendered.

    The building and the panes are beautifully rendered and arranged however, the graffiti on the wall seems to bright and fresh and should have the wall like texture.
    The street pavement as well as the road paver blocks add the realistic feel to the image!!

    Bravo!! Good Going!

  • sunny anand

    The modelling and texturing are excellent. and when it comes to lighting, everythings good and matches the scene. but i think some small things gotta be changed. first, there should be glow in overall scene. second, the road should have some reflection and third the glow of cars and walls lights. if the scene is created keeping in mind about dullness and moonlight, than the glow of cars headlight and walls small lights should be low. and the area covered by cars headlight is too bright for the scene.

  • http://www.saranuts.com Sarah Pistachio

    Hi,

    what would be the limit on maximum of polys to be considered as low poly?

    thanks for response.

    –sarah

    • James F

      That really does vary from engine to engine, a good rule of thumb is to just use as few as possible to get the shape you want, look at wires of game meshes from todays games and study those

    • http://www.dipayan-gfx.webs.com Dipayan Paul

      Hi,

      Polys really do depend on engine to engine… but for an estimated value, today’s games like crysis and call of duty, an entire level can have anywhere between one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand polygons (including the LOD meshes)… mine is under 10000 polys (14000 including the car)…. but you should always keep your eyes open and reduce polygon count wherever possible…

    • http://youtube.com/user/giridharzinta Giridhar Sharma

      As gaming in concerned, the models in it should be of the lowest poly count possible, such as to fastly load up the scene as well as to handle the scene in real-time gaming.

      What they you use is known as Normal Maps for getting those detailed textures (normals maps doesn’t require high poly count as with the case of displacement map).

      Nowadays graphic cards are also using the Tessellation as one other option for such purpose.

  • http://poppe-design.at Bernhard Poppe

    Not bad. I see that you have worked hard! But overall, the scene looks “washed out!. Thats because of missing shadows (look at all the lamps fixed on the building. They have to be the brightest source in the scene. But all the elements under it look harsh.) Try to ad ambient occlusion. And reflections.
    Imagine that the floor is kind of wet, the glass elements have to reflect the environment.. This are all things that make the image more realistic.
    If you are really going for a realistic image, try to add some noise, caromatic aboration and make the corners darker to get the look of a modern camera!

    I dont want to make you feel bad, just want to help, because the image is not bad.
    Keep on learning!
    Sorry for bad english, I am from Vienna!
    Bernhard

    • http://www.dipayan-gfx.webs.com Dipayan Paul

      Thank you for the guidance…

      I’ll try to improve my next render :)

  • James F

    Aside from skills that will come later with practice you could look into how to create and apply normal maps, although it’s worth using specular maps only if those do the job as well (say for things which don’t have much of a bump in them but are maybe shinier surfaces), also look into creating those too.

    Another thing which looks like you’ve done quite well anyways is scale, just make sure everything is to scale, this may involve using the odd measurement here and there, but one thing I like to do is have a good male basemesh in my scene to roughly measure things against.

    A tip I only learned recently is that you should model things for a portfolio to look nice and not do it like you’re working at a games company, when you are working at one is when they will just want you to tone it down. So in other words you can afford to use a few more polygons. With this in mind it’s worth beveling corners a little to make things look less sharp, you’d be surprised how well this works in making things look more natural (even with inorganic objects!).

    With texturing you should definitely checkout these articles:
    http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/the_top_ten_tips_of_texturing
    http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/42-tutorial-hard-surface-texture-painting.html
    http://www.leighvanderbyl.com/texturing-for-dummies/

    Alot of stuff you will simple learn by practicing and looking into what others do, go on forums and get help for technical issues you may have with game engines or whatever (this may take persistence). And make sure to get criticisms for your work, useful ones, ask people what you can do to make something better in any way. Feedback can go a long way.

    Well that’s all I can think of for now XD Hope it helps!

    • http://www.dipayan-gfx.webs.com Dipayan Paul

      Thank you for the links, those were useful.
      Well I have to admit that I wanted to make this environment just like the video games but your tip about the portfolio, I’ll keep in mind…

      Thanks

  • Glenn

    he look bad ! th lighting is not corect

  • Anshul

    hello there. If you just got into 3d, you have done around alright for the knowledge you know until now. I’ll be pretty straight forward now, this is completely washed out scene, with no material information whatsoever. Car has no reflection. A suggestion, don’t rush out for vray. I know it’s in demand, but you have to first grasp the shader parameters. Once you get that knowledge in your mind regarding ‘specular values’, ‘glossiness’, etc, you can easily carry on with whatever render engine you want. First, get your basics cleared out.
    Hope to see much better, n improved work next time. All the best

  • http://create3dgames.wordpress.com Elijah

    The car is floating.