[nickmarksdotcom]

Here is a texture test I am doing for a company in hopes of getting a job. They gave me the model and I was supposed to texture it as realistically as possible. Hope you guys like it.

[CapnPyro]

lol nick don't you like, own turbosquid?

anyway i think theyll be impressed, it looks damn good, you definetely gave it an atmosphere and a 'bar' look to it. the pictures and clutter along the back wall is a nice touch. the drink stains on the felt table are also great, really great attention to details and thing that make it look more realistic

[nickmarksdotcom]

LOL. I wish Capn. I didn't finance the thing...I co-created it. I do have a nice little chunk though but I still need money to live on and a job since I am not with the company anymore

[Jezebel]

The grungy top of the table is awesome

[geoman2k]

i love you

[DiXter]

wow .. I wanna do stuff like this too..

You're awesome..

[Cicinimo]

WOW!

The texture quality and style reminds me of what I saw in Max Payne, except better. Amazing!

[BlackMunky]

AWESOME !
How did you get te textures. Did you run around with a digital camera or did you make them by yourself ?

[nickmarksdotcom]

Thanks so much guys!

Jezebel: That is my favorite texture. I really dig the ashed cigarette on it.

Chip_artz: Good eye. Yah I tend to screw up on tiling and am to lazy to fix it.

Awetopsy: I think I the job based on this work Thanks anyway Awetopsy

MoleculeMan: We are working out salary right now. I think I am a shoe in.

Geoman2k: I love you too

Dixter: Just a get a copy of photoshop, digital camera, and 3D studio Max...it's easy

Cicinimo: I love that game. It rocks...I am humbled by a comparison.

BlackMunky: Yep. I live in the french quarter and just went down there with my camera and took the pics. Then I jazzed them up in photoshop.

[shahar2k]

those are REALLY nice, heh but it seems like that scene would KILL a current day videocard , what's the total size of all the textures?

[shahar2k]

hey you wanna texture one of my models?

[roundeye]

good luck with getting the gig, you deserve it. really top notch work, man!!! its got such a nice warm atmosphere to it! i dont even mind the tiles mismatch, looks like it was the bar that fucked up in laying them .

[Icannon]

sweet job! i want to see that rendered in brazil (or any other radiosity renderer). good luck with the job.

[-- Transcendent --]

Awesome texturing

[nickmarksdotcom]

shahar2k: Hey shahar2k ! Thanks so much. LOL well I think if it was jpg images it would be under a meg.

I thought I replied to your letter. Thanks for thinking of me but I just don't have the time to work with anyone else on anything if it isn't a paying gig. I need money for rent Thanks though.

Roundeye: I am humbled by the praise of such a great artist. I will also tell the guy that. Having them fucked up makes the bar look more real

Icannon: Brazil is badass...for this though I had to use nothing but a flat render to mimic how it would look in a game.

Transcendent: Thanks man. I do what I can

[shahar2k]

are ALL the shots flat renders? the lighting looks very good if they are (I know the nontextured one isn't flat...)

hm, btw I didnt get your reply for some reason, but I totaly understand the money problem, i live with my parents now because I dont want to be bogged down by rent, although it's bogging me down in OTHER areas

[chip_artz]

All looks awesome the only thing that needs work is the tile...it's not seamless see

That would be the only thing holdin you back from this job. Your textures are simply awesome.

[MoleculeMan]

If they don't hire you i will personally gather a mob, but someone else has to be the lead peasant.

needless to say it looks excellent. I am not sure how you could improve it. :/

[Awetopsy]

nick, I would hire you in a second for that.. thats Awesome!!!

[cybertoker2001]

SWEET!
I love the table and the bar stools. Awesome detailing!
They'll hire you, look at this. How could they not?

Great work.

Take it eazy ya mook,
CT2001

[jcFIG]

Nick, your a sheer genius at texturing. Will you take me under your wing as your Paduan Learner?

[Hjeldnes]

I think you did a very nice job of texturing that. A game company can't ask for much more. You have probably used to high resolution depending on what it will be used for. that you used jpg only means that they will take little disk space. Video cards won't take advandage of that. To calculate the memory the texture uses. f.ex a 256x256 texture would use 256x256x24(bits)/3(to get it in bytes) = 196 608
divide by 1024 to get it in kB = 192K
Quite a lot, but the most new cards will use texture compression, so it'll take a lot less.
Soo.....Anyway, big textures. but very nicely done. The company would be stupid to turn you down

[Akolyte]

Damn, I do hope you get the job. Would be sweet to have games with more stuff like this in it.

[Frost]

Very nice work NickMarks. The only thing that bothers me are the bad tiles as mentioned. I like how it creates a "used up" and historic feeling, but maybe that could have been acheived better by tarnishing areas and removing a few of those 1" tiles. Great job. Got some stats for us? # of textures and resolutions? I assume the lights are lightmaps, or are they simply rendered by the renderer?

Hjeldness: "256x256x24(bits)/3" .. don't you mean "256x256x24(bits)/8" ? (you must have gotten confused with the resulting 3 bytes per pixel and wrote 3 instead of 8). Thanks for explaining that though, it's good knowledge to share with others.

[ October 10, 2001: Message edited by: Frost ]

[black_fish]

It sure looks nice but as game art textures there are several problems: first the size. Don't hope for bigger than 256x256 on PC and a lot smaller on consoles. I guess for a scene like that you could probably get 5 or 6 of those 256x256 pages (depends when you load, how many characters you want in the place, etc.) So obvioulsy you have too many textures.
Second, the photos. Good game textures are PAINTED. I'm not saying you shouldn't use reference, but you definitely shouldn't use photos. Good painting skills are what companies are looking for in a texture artist. Look at the Quake textures and you'll see what I mean.
But if you already have an offer, good for you

[Hjeldnes]

dooh.. Frost, you are of course perfectly right.
Its been too long since mathematics classes

[Probotech]

Ooooh! Very nice.

Defenetly Max Payne Style...defenetly.

[Marvel]

Pretty nice stuff from what I can see, though some of the objects look a bit too saturated to me. The cards and the dart on the table truly brings in mind our game (Max Payne), and had we need for a texture artist, we might be interested in you also.

All in all, keep up the great work!

And black_fish, I totally disagree that good game textures are drawn! Drawn textures just look drawn - if you try to go for a realistic feel (granted, as you say, even 'quake textures' use photos as a refrence), no way you can achieve that just by drawing textures. Sure, you can never use photos directly, but even editing them into great-looking textures is a heinious job.

[ October 11, 2001: Message edited by: Marvel ]

[samdragon]

I understand what blackfish is saying, but in most cases you don't have the time needed to draw(paint) hundreds of textures.
And yes, you can use 512x512 textures, I use them everyday.
The downside of using photographs is the lighting is usually off and if you make adjustments in photoshop or what ever, it's easy to tell, mostly because of the grain(or pixels if digital).
I've seen some very talented artists make 128x128 textures that are photo real, but it takes alot of time and they usually start off by using photographs for a starting point.
As Marvel said, it's a heinous job to edit photographs for a scene.

I think your scene is great nickmarksdotcom,
Something I would suggest in the future that may help you out. Edit your textures so they appear to be lit from above and just to the front or back a little.
Not all engines can cast shadows from imported geometry. So try to "prelight" things with the texture if it's possible.

Did you get this file with the lights already in it? Or did you set those up?

And each game company has it's own methods of "hiring" talent. As you can see already, some companies prefere that you have a better painting ability, while others prefer that you have both and can work quickly.

Good luck and I hope all goes well.

[nickmarksdotcom]

THanks everyone for the great replies!. Guess what! I got the job whoohoo. I am the new texture artist at Luxoflux They make Vigilante and Star Wars Demolition. I start in Nov. and can't wait.

shahar2k: yep all the shots are flat renders I did the lighting myself

LOL. I almost moved back with mine

cybertoker2001: You were right! they actually did.
jcFIG: ROFL. Yes you can be my Paduan Learner

Hjeldnes: Those were the specks they gave me. Glad you likeit. I think 512 by 512 are becoming more and more common place.

Akolyte: i did! I did get the job whohoo


Frost: I think there are about 28 textures in the scene...some 512 by 512 all the way down to 64 by 64. I rendered the scene in Max. I agree with you about the tiles...it was late and I was tired. I got lazy. Thanks for the comments.

black_fish: I know what you are saying. I know how to paint textures...go check out the front page to my site...www.nickmarks.com
but all textures don't have to be painted...it depends on the project.

Marvel: YOU MADE MAX PAYNE!! you are my hero. That game rocked.. I played it beginning to end. I loved the dream sequence. The game was A++

I made the textures bright so the guys at the company could see them. I didn't want them to think I was hiding mistakes in the shadows or having the scene dimly lit.

What exactly did you do on Max Payne?

samdragon: I totally agree with you SamDragon. Lighting is a bitch. It really is an artform in it's self editing textures.

Good advice on the lighting...I will be sure and take it.

Nope I lit the scene myself.

[ October 11, 2001: Message edited by: nickmarksdotcom ]