m1kclark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Florentine Library]

Hmmm

(This review applies to all three "Library" 3D pieces.)

First, a detail: this isn't "Pixel Art", it's "3D Art". This is important because NewGrounds has fans of 3D Art who *only* look at 3D Art submissions. Those people (your target audience) won't see your pics if they are mislabeled.

Okay, the image. All your textures are properly anti-aliased, but your geometries are not. The wooden pieces of the window, for example, look highly pixelated when they should be smooth. Also, you have a pretty low polygon count: there isn't a single round surface that isn't clearly made of flat polygons. Now, IF this is for a game environment, that's fine, but you need to tell us that. If it's to make high-quality 3D art, a la Pixar, then you need to increase the detail in your geometries.

There's also an inconsistency in your detail level overall. The textures are really highly detailed, specifically on the scratched marble columns. But the object itself looks very low detail: a single rectangle. Again, this is something I might expect in a game, but otherwise you should use a normal map to make those scratches stand out a bit. (And some modern games DO use normal maps for this purpose, even in real-time.)

Finally, the lighting. The light from the windows make some sense, although the color and brightness of the light from the windows doesn't match the color and light of what we see outside. If it's that dark and cloudy a day, then I would expect a dull, blue-tinted light instead of that bright white. Also, the lighting around the torch (on the right) again doesn't match the light source. It looks too white, when the torch should be giving off a soft-yellow glow. It also looks like that light is a spot-light instead of an isotropic lamp: the torch clearly isn't illuminating the ceiling. Which brings me to my final point: you appear to have an ambient light that just illuminates everything uniformly. That's okay, but a better approach for such a detailed environment-model is to use radiosity. The newest game-developers have special tools that pre-calculate radiosity so the game-engine can handle that kind of dynamic lighting in real-time, but you aren't restricted that way. If this is truly for a game environment, then you'd want to include radiosity anyway, in the hopes that later game tech will permit its use on a home computer's graphics card. For technical delivery of your concept, I rate 6/10 if it's a game (if not, 2/10).

THAT SAID. It's an excellent level design, and the feel of the hall is pretty consistent throughout. It feels like an old castle. And the work on the textures is truly intricate, and it is the textures that are the *most* realistic part of the image. It's obvious how hard you worked on those, in all of your images. The placement of the incidental objects (chairs, books) is also a nice touch. I give you a 10/10 for your ideas and creativity. It's a great level.

6/10 + 10/10 = 8/10 starts and a 4/5 vote

simonoc responds:

Wow! Now that is the kind of feedback I wished I got earlier when I was developing this scene. My mistake on the category, I did not realize there was a 3D art section, I assumed it was computer pixels for me (this is certainly not drawing stuff).

Well the lighting is something that started out going in the right direction and then due to me changing the sky to something more cloudy affected the indoor setup. The original scene had blue ambient lights for the ceiling to create the impression of cold above but the light entity size was too big and created a flat texture look instead.
I have changed the torch light entities to have a better fall off value so that the floor circle light pattern is not too harsh anymore. I have switched both window sides to blue and turned all the central lights to yellow. It certainly creates a better contrast and makes the central area feel warm. I have bumped up the central area lights to give the torches a more hot light feel against the marble background.
The original scene was more about me testing out the photo sourced textures on some architecture to see how well they perform. (Which is why there was not much detail or dirt to the scene) The textures are photo sourced from my summer holiday trip to Italy (Florence area mostly) and should feel vibrant and detailed. I do plan to create a final normal pass for them but I wanted to see if the diffuse is good by itself.
The prefabs (chairs/tables) are really basic 3D items because I wanted to create a medieval theme with a rustic feel. The wooden texture is certainly not great up close and lacking a normal map makes it painfully obvious. The current test engine I am using does not support normal maps so I have doubled the texture density instead.
I have deleted the other artwork images and have updated the image above with the better version. I did not want to resubmit because I wanted to keep these comments.

Thanks for the feedback, it was exactly what I needed. :)

[Darth Vader]

Darth Cylon

I can't help but reminded of Battlestar Galactica. Either way, this is epic and I'm glad you posted this "oldie"!

MindChamber responds:

ha yah I can see that, it was more at a stab at the republic commando troopers, but yeah I see some cyclon

[Jonas brothers]

:-°

I'm having trouble believing this isn't an altered photo. If it is, then I'm not a fan at all. If it is not, then I think you've got epic skill and a singular taste. My rating is the average of these opinions, though I invite you to tell us how you made the picture.

msg2007 responds:

its part of a product design for watchs, No I did not draw the pice but I did do the effects ect, its an altered photo

thanks for the review

[Smoking Space Man]

I love Blender

This is a nice model, but the composition (pose, background, lighting, camera angle) need work to really show it off. Right now, I can't really comment on materials or geometry because, well, I can't see it.

Also, some technical details: increase the anti-aliasing (OSA in the Render panel) to 11 or 16. Increase the resolution to at least 800x600, preferably 1024x768 or even 1200x800. Also, I don't how/why you did it, but the JPEG quality is seriously low. There are JPEG artifacts everywhere (see: above each foot, between arm & body on right).

Having said that .... THANK YOU FOR BEVELING!!!

falariem responds:

Well, thank you. I've only using Blender for a short time, so I'm not really concerned much with scene creation as I am with getting the character modeling right.

I agree with you on the anti-aliasing and the resolution settings, too. I've only just recently discovered those settings in the interface, and I usually work toward something around 700 square. As for the JPEG junk, my copy of Photoshop sucks. That, and I need to figure out a better way to handle the reds - those are the colors I notice the most not saving off correctly.

As I said, I'm still fairly new to the app, and I appreciate any feedback from those who see my work. :)

[Tomb Kings]

New style!

By and large, your other stuff is more anime/line-art style. This more realistic shading (there's a "painted" feel) is a very nice deviation, and very successful I think. The metal parts are particularly well done. The bones are where the "painted" feel is most prominent: I can't decide if that's a weakness or a strength, given the more realistic feel to the metal. Oh, and the shadows are (to use a technical term) BITCHIN'.

P.S. When I saw the thumbnail, I definitely thought, "It's Scorpion!!!"

Brakkenimation responds:

Hee, yeah - I've been trying to expand my drawing styles a bit from my usual lineart stuff. Glad you like it! I will keep your points in mind for future paintings (bitchin' shadows, good to know :P )

Haha, nope - not Scorpion! Maybe I will draw him someday :D

[Content not available]

Ugh, SOPA cartoons

The Art: Nice composition and gradients, a clear style giving a clear message, and an emotive character.

SOPA: (a) I hate SOPA too. (b) I'm getting tired of cartoons decrying SOPA because of "censorship". The bad thing about SOPA isn't its censorship, it's that SOPA provides the power to regular people and companies, to wantonly shut down other regular people's and companies' websites due to infractions of law that are (1) not so egregious to warrant a shutdown, (2) not within the website's purview to control, and (3) that could have been uploaded by the very person trying to eliminate the accused website. It's like McCarthyism but more arbitrary, and it goes WAY beyond blacked-out boobs.

So I guess I'm complaining that you don't hate SOPA *enough*. </rant>

[Thrust Into Chaos]

Is doing a dangerous thing our fault?

I read the (brief) entry on your profile about this. It's easy to judge, to say that you were doing something dangerous and paid the price. Of course, you had done it before and were rewarded that it worked before. That's why "danger" is such an amorphous concept. Your art appropriately brings forth the confusion and chaos of suffering because of your decision, but a decision made when you could not have appreciated this possible result. I know I would blame myself anyway ...

This image is a nice expression of (what I imagine is) your personal turmoil. I hope you continue to adapt and that the chaos calms.

[Scooby Doo (Set 1)]

I support thee, but

Much as I like the idea of using ads, etc., to distribute your content in a profitable fashion, I'm not such a big fan of the porn-ad-popups. In general, if I'm trying view your art (regardless of its adult-oriented nature), I'm probably not looking for the Live Jasmin webcam show. I personally wouldn't go this route for very long, but then again I don't know how to make porn-parody art, so my advice isn't strictly applicable!

In either case, good luck. Your 80s-animated parody-porn is the perfect mix of sleezy and nostalgic and deserves more attention. :-)

AKABUR responds:

Hm... I think I can switch those adult ads to "kid's friendly" ads. I'll do that with next scooby-doo set.

[Concrete bathroom]

Awesome

I think this is great. You're a few steps away from true professionalism, but given some of the challenging things you took on, I think you were really successful here.

Compliments:
The textures for the stone, wood, trees, lamps, and towels are all very nice. Those palm-leaves on the trees are great; I like the placement of the leaves, whether by algorithm or manual positioning, and the material really looks like that plastic you find in bathrooms. The "tile" form of the back wall is appropriate, and maybe that would've worked on the floor as well. The silver hardware has the right amount of reflections, and the towel has the right amount of coarseness. Lighting, specularity, and radiosity all look right as well.

Nitpicking:
The furniture-wood looks a little too perfect, as if some long-range noise would do it more justice, but that's only noticeable in Full View. Those lamps seem like they look REALLY cool at even higher resolutions, but right now they look a bit confusing. Also, the light-source from the left isn't really intuitive. It makes me think there's a mirror off-screen that's surrounded by bright lights. Finally, the furniture itself looks off. Somehow the angles look too sharp, which I know isn't right because I can see you beveled them (yay, beveling!).

Lastly ... is this image anti-aliased? I'm looking at the towel/toilet paper and its silver holder, at the tree leaves, and the silver cabinet-handle: doesn't that look strangely pixel-y?

Still, overall it's worth a 10 in my book. :-)

<deleted> responds:

Thanks for another useful review;
I'll respond from the back

It is antialiased, but only with an edge pronouncing filter, making the non-edges weird-ish. The furniture was modeled rather quickly due to this being a lighting-focused image and should have spent a little more time on it, but I think it looks good.
The walls would certainly work on the floor as well, but due to contrast and the feel of the scene I wanted it not to be the exact same texure being resued all over the place :p

Oh, and I do agree that I am becoming better at lighting and rendering, but still, I need to perform some heavy modeling tasks in order to improve. I plan on going to VFS when I get the appropriate amount of cash to do so ;D

[Crystal Cave Dweller: render 1]

Good design but

So the creature design is pretty good, but the one weakness of both your submissions is that we have no sense of how the thing might move. You can put a creature in poses and in contexts such that the audience will "see" how it moves and what's about to happen within an image. This pose doesn't do that. This is sort of the "statue" pose, like a human standing straight with arms outstretched. To really make the creature stand out, it needs to feel alive i.e. moving.

Also, I love the background "ice", but it doesn't look like ice. I wish you had made it green-tinged and called a kryptonite cave, or maybe made it read and called it a crystalline-lava cave ... but ice? Ice is either transparent with microcracks, or it is white with a highly grainy (read: not crystalline) surface.

You're so close to delivering a fantastic piece, but there's little mechanistic things standing in its way at the moment.

toshema responds:

I understand what you are saying, I wanted to pose them differently. I was just having lots of trouble with transpose in zbrush and I couldn't pose them correctly.

and I decided to change it from ice to crystal, thats what I wanted at first anyways. I was told by someone else that it would be better for it to be ice.