Art Pass Club

[Gamer_X]

Went for an abandoned cave base theme, mostly to experiment a bit with displacements. Think it turned out quite neat.

 

[Paper Shadow]

I hope I'm not to late to show off my Spawn piece!
This was a wonderful way to take a break from a mapping block, but I may have gone over board

Those pictures look nice, but it seems the BSP file hasn't had its assets packed correctly, so I get a lot of errors and missing textures when checking out in-game. Just giving you the heads up!

 

[AllInTw0]

I guess ill go second with the intel room. I went with a mercenary park theme its my first time trying to detail in this kind of a theme. I got this idea from Wendy and keeping the upper space idea that Paper Shadow mentioned.
Note: I didn't clip anything so have fun jumping around if you download the bsp.

 

[Zacco]

Oh gosh. I really like yours, Rhamkin! I'm a little behind on mine since It's my first time detailing (EVER) so It's taking a while. I'm making good progress though!

 

[Tiftid]

For this one, I imagined a secret room plastered onto the walls of an old factory in the shady part of a London-y town... or something like that.
Curiously, I managed to achieve this without using a single asset from the London Pack.
The only custom asset I used is the sky texture, which is sky_dystopia_02.
It can't fully live up to what I want it to be without a 3D skybox that has a scrolling cloud texture and lots of distant smokestacks, but please try to enjoy it all the same.

 

[Miki]

Liked the artpass stuff so much I did more. I took inspiration from csgo's de_breach and some pictures from Vermont/Connecticut

Spoiler: References

Again, I ended up not using them because it's an interior space, but while messing around in the editor, I got the idea for GRN's base in a secluded trainyard.







While playing my own 4team map (ctf_4tokyo), one colorblind player mentioned they struggled to tell the difference between BLU and GRN base. This was partly due to the green tint lighting, but I kept their colorblindness in mind while building this. I tried to place other hints of base ownership like the team logo and curved elements in the entry hallway, as well as toning the green lighting down. Final compile came out too bright for my taste, and I think the interior fog broke, but I'd rather move on and just review what I got.

I like the details such as:

• bright tile floor at the objective for contrast
• open stairs to let light in the otherwise dark corner below it
• skylight to cast sunrays on the intel (but it's a weird spot to put a skylight)
• white/green/black palette like the split walls and railings.

I got a lot of mileage from Custard's Canaveral pack with the green textures, and koth_frigid being a much better example of 4team base identity.

 

[Urban]

Brick industrial is still my favourite!

 

[YOYOYO]

Took a step back with a more TF2-esque flag area, practicing with my lighting, details, and out of bounds.
I honestly like how this one came out, and would love to build an entirety of a map around it. Or at least take the idea and run!

And here's a slightly reangled shot of the "original" view

Tell me what you think! and please do tell me if i missed up the packing again:
(also one of the tires is a phsyics object. go nuts.)

 

[Paper Shadow]

Tell me what you think! and please do tell me if i missed up the packing again

I'm afraid I must tell you that the packing is messed up, sorry. On the plus side, it is funny to see the bottles next to where you spawn just drop down.

 

[Paper Shadow]

Season One Week Three (0103): Ins and Outs
Area Reference: Connector
Difficulty: *

It is time to venture outdoors (provided you didn't venture outdoors before this week, or don't decide to drag this next map entirely indoors just to spite me). I have already set up some displacements, but as usual you are free to adjust or replace them as you see fit. The main point of interest here is the building to the centre of the preview image which leads you to the bridge that connects the two buildings and overlooks the external route. The paths to further parts of this map have been blocked off by closed doors because this is Art Pass Club and not Full Map Club, but you are free to open these doors and expand the map, or replace them with closed doors that you can see through and slightly expand the map.

(Thinking of ideas for the recently announced Hot and Cold Detail Contest or want a way to experiment with concepts? Consider the Art Pass Club VMFs and use them as proof of concept!)

 

[AlrexX [she/they]]

Ooooh, this seems interesting! Gonna try my hand at something if I find some time...

 

[Miki]

This was inspired from Silence and Flooded, both maps from No More Room in Hell I liked the aesthetic of.










Details I like:

• Multiculturalism with the European outlets
• Selective lighting at points of interest (doors, health packs) and visible lighting at night
• Autumn hedges and grass (including sprites)

 

[AlrexX [she/they]]

Went for a relatively normal theme since this is the first week I'm doing but I think I pulled it off pretty well.

Didn't do a 3D skybox and I ran out of ideas for the room in the last screenshot but I still think I did alright lol.

 

[Miki]

Since I’m still waiting for the next detail vmf, I revisited my apc02 and copied it for RED, BLU, and YLW. I assumed the map would be a symmetrical CTF in one location (a trainyard), and started by copy & pasting the GRN base 3 times. I swapped the textures with a team equivalent, but it left something to be desired creatively. Especially because I believe YLW and GRN deserve to be more than just recolors (koth_frigid demonstrates this idea very well).

There are at least two approaches to symmetrical design:

1) Unique silhouettes and materials (ex. 2Fort, Hightower, Doublecross, Granary)
2) Pragmatic 1:1 texture swaps (ex. Turbine, Powerhouse, Hellfire, Sunshine)

Both have positives and negatives, but neither is inherently better than the other. I think it comes down to judgement and what suits the map better.

I compared 2Fort’s intel room (we don’t need to disguise Spytech) to Well’s distillery facade (using a team’s favored building materials) and applied that to my map. RED got bricks, BLU got concrete and a shiny floor, and YLW got worn metal. This variety in materials, even in such a small space, gives some personality to the 4 teams. After all, this is YLW and GRN’s only time to shine in the game.

Details I like:

• Team tinted lighting (which could be toned down)
• Trapezoid shaped beam in YLW base (which may or may not serve architectural purpose)
• The lack of a sky (Turns out TF2C cordons don’t use a skybox texture by default)

Bonus: I liked using named cordons and an encompassing skip brush to copy shared changes to all bases. It’s crucial to track changes made so you can quickly apply them to other bases. In my case, I lowered the lobby ceiling to meet the big doorframe.

 

[Urban]

Took my time with this connector one and finally decided to call it finished today, my attempt at gorge style this time around!

 

[AllInTw0]

Wheen is the next art pass "level"?

 

[Urban]

Wheen is the next art pass "level"?

On hiatus until the Hot & Cold contest is over I think?

 

[Paper Shadow]

Season One Week Four (0104): Keeping Track
Area Reference: Payload Track
Difficulty: **

A section of a Payload map sandwiched between two capture points, this (admittedly far too choke-heavy) area has various rooms and varying heights to design around, but the biggest challenge will be the centrepiece of the main room - currently a big cube, whatever you put in its place will likely be the visual landmark of the area but also must still serve the gameplay purposes of the cube to block the sightlines and provide a space for Demoman to fire over. The map also has a multi-jump prop jump for you to reimagine in whatever way you see fit, and the current flat omni-present roof could do with some love and care to create a more interesting space.

(Thanks to 14bit for the Microcontest 6: BATT Builder template file from which I shamelessly used to create the track so that nobody had to line up any track pieces if they didn't want to (like me, I didn't want to). Unfortunately, I did some edits to the track so you aren't allowed to travel back in time to use this template as a starting point for an entry, apologies for those amongst us who was considering doing so.)

 

[Miki]

This was inspired from this CG in Find Love or Die Trying:

Details I like:

• Seagulls flying in the sky (huge thanks to Blaholtzen's Sharkbay assets)
• Multiple blends on nearby displacements (grass, dirt, sand, washed sand) giving the texture more variety
• Canaveral Ocean foam, which can be alpha painted as a non-solid displacement
• Grass line at cliff edges
• Sniper nest with contrasting white wall paint, a visibility trick I like from Counter-Strike's de_mirage

 

[AlrexX [she/they]]

Wanted to try to do a RED complex inside a cave to practice for a map I've been working on recently, but I got a bit sidetracked and ended up giving it a tropical twist. I think it turned out pretty great tho, I'm especially happy with the displacement work I did since I haven't really done displacement walls to this scale before. Also did a 3D skybox this time, lol.

Did like a billion screenshots so I'm gonna put them in a spoiler.

Spoiler: Screenshots