Another 1st place over at Eat3D!

I competed in another Eat3D Contest and was awarded another 1st place for my work.

This time around the contest challenged us to make a small scene with a budget of 10.000 triangles and a total texture space of 4096x4096. A requirement was using at least four different materials and material properties.

Although I was very busy these last months with other stuff, I was able to find some time in the last week of 2010 to work on my entry. I just love having these periods of going in overdrive and loose myself in a creative vibe just being "wired-in" like the programmers in the movie The Social Network. The end result can be seen in the pictures below.

EAT3D Contest Entry

EAT3D Contest Entry

As with the pillar, I tried to incorporate story elements into the scene setting out small hints in the environment to tell a story. There's always room for improvement but I think these storytelling elements really helped to sell the scene.

I'll try to give you some insight in my process for these kinds of things in one of the upcoming articles. Until then check out the great entries for the Eat3D Contest here.

1st Place in the Eat3D Old & Damaged Contest!

While the next real article for this blog is almost finished, I would like to share an update with everybody.

I recently competed in a 3D contest hosted by Eat3D and won 1st place!
For those of you unfamiliar with Eat3D, they make great tutorials about things like sculpting, modeling, texturing and working in UDK so check it out!

The contest asked us to create a game asset that is “Old & Damaged” with a budget of 2.000 triangles and a maximum texture resolution of 2048x2048. Because of other tasks, I only had time in the last two weeks of the competition and instantly going into crunch I worked my ass off to give it my best. The end result is displayed in the picture below.

EAT3D Contest Entry

When working on my model I tried to add little story elements and show how the pillar was build up and how it got to the point it looks now. The things I kept in the back of my mind while working on the model are some of the things I was planning to talk about in upcoming articles so keep your eye on this space. It’s great to see in the feedback that the judges picked up on these things:

“The damage is believable, tells a rich story of what this column has experienced in its lifetime, and really has a strong sense of materials it's constructed from.

The damage and age on this piece doesn't seem arbitrary as in other pieces. Every ding and dent seems to "fit" and have a reason for being there. Specifically, the bumped section of bricks at the top, that subsequently pushed the drainpipe out of its channel. Expertly done here.

The color choices on this piece are something I'd like to call attention to. They are subtle, finely contrasting, and well matched to themselves. On the whole, I think this piece is the best of the finalists.”

The contest has been a great experience and I think there were a lot of awesome entries, you can check them out here.

The next article should be up soon so check back soon!