Rate our models

#21 Wow, very nice. It kinda reminds me of the marines of the Starcraft Terran.

#22 Awesome... Now we're talking 10/10

#23 @Brice

The models are great. Especially if you angle the camera right in the actual game. You can also BAKE the textures with lighting which would increase virtual glossiness. Not unless you'd be using TSE of course.

By the way, what is your average polygon count?

#24 Actually I thought all of the ones shown so far are great!
It's awesome to see some of the stuff going on around Project Raven finally. :)

#25 IMO The marine havent got normal human proportions, its feet -mostly under knees-, and the torso are too long, and the head is small. (just try to imagine this
marine without armor)

I think to keep the right proportions is one of the most important thing in modelling.

Another comment : this marine cant see to left and right, just becouse the armor around the shoulder disclosing the sight, when he is rotating
his head. Thats could be critical for a marine ! :)

The texturing work are ok, maybe could be better with normal map technology, but for a common game thats enough.

Keep up the right work, with little bit more polishing its will be cool.

#26 This is from an artist's perspective.. so im used to giving and taking crits so please dont take offence :)

@Burning "Awesome... Now we're talking 10/10"

sorry but they still arent at a 10/10 standard, now not to say they are bad models - they are far from it.. they just need a little bit of extra loving to push them much further then they are at now.

your texture artist needs to be adding alot more contrast into those models, you need to have better defined areas as it looks very wishy washy at the moment...

I think your artist needs to think of a few thinks before working on the texture,

a) there isnt much 'texture' in those models - he is obviously a soldier and has been in many battles, where are the scratches/dents in his armour?

b) does he belong to a particular regiment/unit? If so is there an emblem or sticker or something to identify this, or even who he is?

c) Try and break up that colour scheme a bit - its very monochromatic and very bland. I think it has been mentioned in here already but from a distance that would just look like a grey blur... I think the overall sillhouette of the model is good, but the texture is letting it down. How about breaking up the grey blandness a little with a splash of colour?

but yeah, overall its a good model that with a little bit of effort can become a great looking model through the texture.

hope I am of some help :)

#27 I knew someone was gonna say that. The thing is... Look at todays models in games... That's how you should compare... They said they'll be using TSE, which will push the realism on them. Those characters needs some shading which i'm sure it will have. It's better than most models. I think too much "constructive critisism" is harmful... This thread was started to see how his compares... and to other games this rocks... and I give it a 10/10...

About the scratches...
Maybe it's a new suit... Maybe it's part of a Microsoft organisation that have money to actually give them new suits.... Maybe it's on a verge of a great war, without anybody being in a battle for 70 Years... Maybe It's a marine diver ;)
So many Maybes...

The proportions of the body looks wrong because of that shoulder things...
The Legs too... There's nothing wrong with them.

My point being... in the right setting, it's 10/10...
Master Chief wouldn't have gotten a high score in a Fishing Sim now would it?

#28 Your models and textures are great!

It can be very easy to fall into a pattern of constantly re-doing your work. Granted, everything comes out a little better each time, but you wind up never getting anything finished because of it.

Your work is professional quality and doe not need to be redone.

Always be moving forward, never go back - else you'll never finish your project.

And also remember, your artwork doesn't have to be Doom 3 to catch a players eye - if there's actual STYLE present (which in your case there is).

Once you have the style nailed, anything beyond that is just gravy IMO.

#29 That second soldier image your showing is lookin hot, Brice. Tell your guys to keep it up!

#30 I think the proportions look a little skewed then their actual proportions in the first one because of the angle of the screenshots. His legs look short but if you looked at it head on I think it would be ok. The importance of Front/Back/Side/Isometric shots. :)

Ashley has some great ideas for polishing the models I think.
I think everything has a great start, but a little polish goes a long way.

One thing to keep in mind is when your working under a time-frame or deadline like most game artists, perfectionism is one thing that almost all artists expect but almost none have the luxury of having and no one notices in game.

WoW is a good example of this, when you look at it, the game looks amazing, but when you sit down an analyze it, you notice nasty things like misaligned textures and bad geometry and UV seams in obvious places, but you never notice those things unless your looking for them really because stuff is always in motion. (Obviously you need to be more careful wtih stationary things because they are not in motion).

I'm kind of babbling here though (concussion is throwing me off) so I'm going to wrap this up since I lost my focus of what I was originally going to write. :)

#31 The great thing about making game art is, it's not like a painting -- there are other areas the player will be focusing on, like the gameplay, and music, and so on... so the graphics/art don't need to be perfect, or as "perfect" in say, a painting, where all you have to look at or experience is the image itself.

Also, sometimes an audience can be more forgiving towards flaws in artwork, when they can appreciate the ideas behind it... like in WoW, as mentioned.

#32 Alright guys thanks for the information. Seems like most people like the models but think they could use a few tweaks. What we will do is wait until TSE has the lighting and everything then try the models in the engine and decide how they look.

As for the proportions they are off because you can't see the size of the suit, it's actually close to 10 feet tall. The human is 90% in the torso.

In Project Raven you are a merc that gets paid to explore the surface. At any one time there is 1-4 mission from you to choose from. Equipment upgrades depend on which missions you choose and how much money you have gathered. These sets of armor are supposed to look new. We may add in a feature so the more you use the armor the more beat-up it looks , that would depend on how hard it is for a programmer to implement.

@ Kirby I'm not worried about finishing this game. We have most of it finished already. Only thing I'm slightly worried about is that we need a couple of highly skilled TSE programmers which are hard to come by. Other than that we could use more skilled people but we don't need to have them to finish the title.

#33 Well done Brice! I really like the models. I'd buy them if they were in a content pack.

We need more content packs :)

#34 @Burning 'Maybe it's a new suit... .............'

That maybe so, but the point I am trying to make is that these little features help bring life to a model.

To me you need to give your characters 'character' but without these details its just a bland very standard scifi futuristic armoured soldier. by adding little details like the ones i mentioned it goes a long way with not alot of effort.

#35 I know what you're trying to say :)

If you look at the bottom screeny you can see some wear-a-tear in the bottom left corner of his ummm.... what's the word again... Damnit... Look where the shadow starts above his stomach... Even on te arm on the right (Soldiers left) you can see some...

So what you're talking about is there... :)

#36 I agree with Ashley,

these things may be there in the tiniest detail, but if the end result means you cant see it then thats wasted effort.

everyone has their own opinion, but people that are seemingly negative are offering constructive criticism to -help- in the long run. Its important to realise that we arent picking faults because of spite, and that hopefully it will be of use.

(edit) im looking forward to seeing them again with shaders on though, that can make all the difference. especially since the doom3 diffuse+normal+bump+specular method favours a lower contrast diffuse texture, very much like you have there already.

#37 Very good art. Production quality from what I can see. I wish I would have such a good modeler.

Martin

#38 Probably 5/6 out of 10 so far.

My own issue with them are mainly stylistic. It just feels so very generic. Not something I can put my finger on absolutely, but definitely not something I would recommend.

Personally, I know its hard, but I wouldnt settle for 6/10 if I was working on that style of game (of course, not being a modeller, I'd probably have to).

I'd be trying to go for something of the quality of killzone (incidentally, killzone was a bit generic from the artwork too, but the quality was nice).

Overall, youre on the right track, but could do better!

#39 Those are, without a doubt, some of the coolest models ive ever seen! keep up with the good work!