Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 11:08 am Post subject:
2-hour 3D tower challenge results
Hey guys! It's been a while since the challenge ended, I was busy irl with moving to another city and stuff. Now I've finally scored the submissions.
I was amazed how efficiently you can spend 2 hours to create very nice looking 3D towers. Thank you all for participating.
This is how I judged:
Design 20 pts: Desing consists from 4 areas: concept, detail, complexity and creativity.
Quality 20 pts: Quality consists from 4 areas: lighting, detail, texture and usability.
Remap 10 pts: Remap consists from 2 areas: amount and placement (quality).
Bonus 5 pts from anims: Bonus 5 points will be received if the animations/damage frames are functional and useful. Either 5 or 0 points will be received, nothing between them.
So maximum amount of points you're able to get is 55.
Here are the results:
1st place:Nod Spotlight Tower by Lin Kuei Ominae by 55/55 points
*Design: 20/20: I'm amazed by this. You spent 2 hours with this and it still looks like there's more time spent than that. Damn you're so fast and creative! Tower's function is simple, it's a spotlight, but a badass one. Matches really nicely with the other TI Nod buildings.
*Quality: 20/20: Lighting is great, just right amount of contrast even if the building itself is dark. Detail quality is really good. Texture quality works wery well. Highly usable in TI.
*Remap: 10/10: Ebin man, epic ztyping win! See animation comments for details.
*Bonus: 5/5: This tower has the best animations, it has combined remap and animations. It even has damage frames! Really nice work with this LKO. Bonus 5 points goes to you.
2nd place:Civilian Tech: Spy Satellite Tower by MadHQ by 51/55 points
*Design: 20/20: Epic concept, detail, complexity and creativity.
*Quality: 18/20: Lighting is great, could use a bit more shadows darkness. Detail quality is really good. Some parts of the textures are blurry and some sharp, could use more consistency. Highly usable in RA2 mods.
*Remap: 8/10: There's nice amount of remap on the moving part, but it could use more on the body, almost didn't notice them on the first glance. Placements, however, are good.
*Bonus: 5/5: The tower has a rotation animation and it loops nicely. Bonus 5 points earned.
3rd place:Russian Tower by Trans C by 50/55 points
*Design: 17/20: Concept seems to be a Russian turret tower with some medieval touch. It doesn't look futuristic, but I still think it matches well with other Russian buildings in RA2. Design is very simple, it's mostly blocks, but with the handmade textures you've brought a lot of life to 'em. The design is quite creative.
*Quality: 18/20: Lighting is good, it has good amount of contrast and it's not dull at (including colors). Â Textures has a lot of nice details. However, there's some blurryness on the main tower's brick texture which could have used a bit more sharpness. Â I think the style is a bit similar with RA3, but I can see that this tower has high usability in common RA2 mods.
*Remap: 10/10: There's just right amount of remap and placement is very well done.
*Bonus: 5/5: You've used the limited time efficiently with the animations. You have really nice buildup and turret rotation animations. This definitely deserves bonus 5 points.
4th place:Power of Darkness by Agent Z by 39/55 points
*Design: 11/20: The design is interesting, but maybe too simple. It could use more detail and complexity. Tower's foot could be thicker so it'd withstand the upper part's weight better. I like that you took a chance with the idea. This can be improved.
*Quality: 13/20: Lighting is good, could use a bit more contrast. The base could have used slightly more texture detail. I can see this is usable in TS mods either as Nod or Cabal asset, but having a limited usage in RA2 mods because of its color scheme and details.
*Remap: 10/10: Nice amount of remap and places are good. I probably would have placed them just like that.
*Bonus: 5/5: This tower has buildup and active animations. They don't sync very well, but this still gets the bonus 5 points.
5th place:Stealth Transmitter by PillBox20 by 26/55 points
*Design: 8/20: I see what your goal was with this. The design is quite simple. I would have wanted to see more small and functional detail. Would have been better if you'd used a concept art to come up with the better details and design.
*Quality: 8/20: Lighting could be better. Currently it's very dark and shadows are pitch black. I see no textures, best place to get them is from www.textures.com (free textures). I could only think of usage in TS mods.
*Remap: 5/10: Placement and amount of remap is odd, I wish you'd have placed them around the body than just used on the front body area, on the tip and the middle part. Middle part's remap looks like it's made with paint (even though it's made with Blender), thicker lines would have been better.
*Bonus: 5/5: This tower has a working and looping fading animation which also uses remap. I wish that you'd have spent more time with the tower itself, I bet you'd have gained more points that way. Still gets bonus 5 points.
That's all folks! If you want to download the entries it's up to the participants to (finish and) upload them here. LKO's Nod Spotlight is TI exclusive. Last edited by DonutArnold on Thu Aug 04, 2016 6:01 pm; edited 2 times in total QUICK_EDIT
Detail-wise MadHQ's takes the cake, though I'd say Agent_Z and Trans_C have the best animations.
From what I can see, I wouldn't have expected LKO's tower to win. It appears far less complex and detailed than MadHQ's tower. Although granted, if LKO's tower is the only one with damage frames, it's worth some extra points. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
^^agreed. Amount of details on MadHQ's seems best.
I think something that DA added to my animations scoring was also the windows, which i made in the typical TI way as separate, half transparent 1 frame activeanim. So it's not only the glowing rings as activeanim.
Then you could say they are actually 4 activeanims, since they have damaged versions as well. But that isn't visible on the preview image.
Well to put this a bit into the right light,
a) i had an almost complete sketch (down to smaller details) done before i started with the video, so i didn't have to think twice about placement and type of details during the work (nowadays the most time-consuming part for me is finding the right details and design ideas)
b) many time consuming things could be avoided due to my template: like Textures (i have the basic TI textures in a template) and camera/lighting (also in the template), a foundation cell and an example TS spotlight-tower remake in the template for size comparison are also in the template (can be seen in the video)
c) tiny TS scale is really thankful concerning detail amount. in the bigger RA2 scale (or as 2x2) it would surely have taken me a lot longer to add enough details.
Nonetheless: Thank you DonutArnold Â
It was a great contest and some very nice results.
Note for TI Staff: buildup was done shortly after the contest too. Custom alphalights for the tiny spotlight lamps are planned (those 2 brighter boxes/things near the top glowing ring). Last edited by Lin Kuei Ominae on Thu Aug 04, 2016 12:25 pm; edited 5 times in total QUICK_EDIT
Finally all the submissions are revealed! I'd say MadHQ would fit nicely into RA2, while LKO's one would blend into TI just fine, can't wait to see it in TI along with all the other Nod buildings you were about to finish. The Tank tower would look authentic in RA3-style mod indeed, or rather in EASB Hour, but I'm not sure it will fit into RA2. As for the stealth emitter, I'd say it quite matches the vanilla TS visual style, even though its shape doesn't really tell much about this thing's function (except the core which looks like one in TS).
Offtopic question: is that Rewire terrain? I really miss the news about progress on that mod. QUICK_EDIT
I think Agent Z's building could also fit into TI. Colors and design could fit to Nod.
Maybe as a special map prop, some kind of Nod transmitter/scanner thing.
Though depends if he finishes it with damage frames.
If he doesn't mind, i could also recreate it, using my textures and camera/light setup.
I think some lightning bolts in the top center could be nice (to give it some color and more details). Maybe even have this implemented as LightningRod=yes building to attract ionstorm bolts.
Crimsonum wrote:
Very nice! That should also be helpful to all who are learning 3D modeling and texturing for C&C mods/projects.
thanks.
You can also get a "behind the scenes" glance into my TI work folder. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Everyone has an opinion for 3D Studio Shapes here, I Prefere: Trans_C's Tower. _________________ If you are a MetalHead (Heavy Metal Fan) and don't want to be a metalhead, Just remove your metal ball from your head. �:p .
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Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Location: LocationNotFoundException at RealLife.Location.find() at line: -1
Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 3:31 pm Post subject:
Great work everyone! This was a fun contest
For anyone who might have any interest in watching my noob-ish blender work: https://youtu.be/a4ofBW4YXY8
(Forgot to mention that I used DonutArnolds cycles template to do the rendering, like I do for all my blender-made things)
Quote:
I think Agent Z's building could also fit into TI. Colors and design could fit to Nod.
Maybe as a special map prop, some kind of Nod transmitter/scanner thing.
Though depends if he finishes it with damage frames.
It would be cool if this thing could be in TI The only obstacle there would be that I still have no idea how to make damage frames... (Or snow frames for that matter.)
Quote:
If he doesn't mind, i could also recreate it, using my textures and camera/light setup.
I think some lightning bolts in the top center could be nice (to give it some color and more details). Maybe even have this implemented as LightningRod=yes building to attract ionstorm bolts.
He doesn't mind, he would even send you the model.
I agree on the lightning bolts, originally I thought of making that and black/dark energy clouds around the top part, as this was originally designed to be some sort of alien Gap Generator-like structure, which darkens the surroundings (Negative light post, but stronger). QUICK_EDIT
As far as the results go... I do not think I agree what you said about PillBox20 or Agent Z... the scores seem pretty low... _________________ MadHQ's Graveyard - Click here!
(Permissions) - (F.A.Q.) QUICK_EDIT
Since there was only me judging the scores only reflects my opinion about these. If there would have been more judges then the scores would have reflected more community opinion.
@MadHQ: Thanks for pointing that out, PillBox20 deserves better points and judgement too (instead of 4/20, I'll put 8/20 each) and Agent Z too (design 9 -> 11). Sorry for being so harsh. I'll fix those right away. QUICK_EDIT
Considering the origin of the competition I'm surprised you didn't enter PussyPus.
I spent my time on something very secret, And i may reveal it at a later time. _________________ If you are a MetalHead (Heavy Metal Fan) and don't want to be a metalhead, Just remove your metal ball from your head. �:p .
QUICK_EDIT
LKO: That tower... so tight, but so much detail on it. I like it alot. Congrats, mate! I am happy for you!
MadHQ: Don't take it personal, HQ, but it is quite funny for me. At first I tought that it was some giant robot. Too much colours at one place. I admire the details you have added. Very cool!
Trans_C: That KV-2 Turret!
I wonder what does those symbols on the flag mean...
I like the tower. Pretty sturdy.
Agent Z: Simple, but effective. I could imagine it as a containment field generator, or shield generator. Maybe some sort of chaos generator. I like the animation. It deploys smoothly. Nice one, Agent!
PillBox20: What can I say? My second building. I can see some stuff that could be improved. As DA said, the remap is not placed well. The textures are minor. I honestly don't know what could be done for the lightning. I am new to this kind of "production". The design is very drafted. I could have used some more "props" on it to be better recognizable.
I don't mind releasing it. I just want to make it better, before I do.
I won't be at home after a few days, so I won't be able to upgrade it at least for a week. I hope that when I am back, I will do something about it and share it.
If you need any help/advice let me/us know.
What program do you used? 3dsmax, blender?
For both we have ready camera/light setups available here.
For any further help according texture, details and model improvement, we would have to know the program first.
\edit: just noticed the video. it's blender. silly me
I guess for that, DA would be the one who can give tips and hints.
One thing i'd also like to know: how do you made the glowing activeanim? The details are pixel sharp like hand drawn. Also the accuracy is quite low like hand drawn pixel, yet it wraps around the base in a 3d way which is a bit too precise for being hand painted.
If you want the anim to be a bit smoother/anti-aliased, we might be able to help there too (e.g. you could check out my video towards the end, when i convert the glowing rings anim into SHP . i used there a small SHP Builder scheme file to remove all non-remap pixel)
Thanks for taking part in the contest. It's great to see new modders jumping in the cold water of creating SHPs.
If you improve your building, i could imagine this being added to TI as well. Though then maybe more as some kind of Beacon/Transmitter or computer core thing for special maps (e.g. when activated with an engineer, a crystal could start glowing on the top).
Or put a Nod flag on it and it could also look nice in Nod cities as a Nod flag post.
Agent Z wrote:
He doesn't mind, he would even send you the model.
I agree on the lightning bolts, originally I thought of making that and black/dark energy clouds around the top part, as this was originally designed to be some sort of alien Gap Generator-like structure, which darkens the surroundings (Negative light post, but stronger).
Up to you, how you want to go further.
Though since you used blender, i think it would be better if you finish it, or i would have to create it from scratch anyway. Because importing a blender model in 3ds max would then most probably still need a lot of adjustments afterwards like size, texture, animation etc, where it might be faster to create it from scratch. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Results surprise me too, LKO's little tower seems way too simplistic to be the winner here, but I also hesitate to say MadHQ's was "better" too...
I think given the tonal and shadow "depth" to all of them Trans_C's came out the most thoroughly addressed, with the greatest palette to make work, most of the others took the easy way out and went NOD scheme. MadHQ's entry really suffers from lack of contrast, and it's partly due to the R2D2 scheme he chose, it really needed more darkness to pop, and the whole thing doesn't seem to go with any of the games or mods I've seen yet.
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2-hour 3D tower challenge results
 
The only obstacle there would be that I still have no idea how to make damage frames... (Or snow frames for that matter.)
