The Shire
polycounter lvl 5
Well, I'm tackling something I've always wanted to but never had the courage/skills to. Now I've at least got the courage to attempt this. Here's some of my reference thus far.
EnvironmentMoodboard by camraab, on Flickr
DoorwayMoodboard by camraab, on Flickr
The end goal is, obviously, to complete this and add it to my portfolio. I've set some goals for myself along the way that are centered around the acquisition of new skills. The things I hope to learn along the way are:
- Height maps and terrain in UDK
- Vertex painting/Advanced shader techniques
- Building modularly
- Sculpting, retopologizing, and baking the results of that process.
Now, I'm in the very early stages of planning for this, and I don't want to bite off more than I can chew and end up burning out. I want to do this environment justice, as I fell in love with it ever since I first read the descriptions of it in the Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. This will more than likely be a slow process, and I'm going to attempt to stay sane by breaking it up into manageable chunks.
I'm going to go pore over my reference and start to gather an asset list, as well as determine just how much of this area I want to create. Ideally I'd like to have 2-3 different homes. I may not stick directly to the reference, as I'd like to combine pieces of the environment into one smaller area to hopefully keep this whole project manageable. I'll be upgrading my 4 year old graphics card before I really get going on this, but for now, I wanted to get all this down somewhere, more to keep myself honest than anything else.
In the meantime, I'll leave you with a quote that first got me interested in the shire, "But where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet and good, tilled earth. For all hobbits share a love for things that grow."
EnvironmentMoodboard by camraab, on Flickr
DoorwayMoodboard by camraab, on Flickr
The end goal is, obviously, to complete this and add it to my portfolio. I've set some goals for myself along the way that are centered around the acquisition of new skills. The things I hope to learn along the way are:
- Height maps and terrain in UDK
- Vertex painting/Advanced shader techniques
- Building modularly
- Sculpting, retopologizing, and baking the results of that process.
Now, I'm in the very early stages of planning for this, and I don't want to bite off more than I can chew and end up burning out. I want to do this environment justice, as I fell in love with it ever since I first read the descriptions of it in the Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. This will more than likely be a slow process, and I'm going to attempt to stay sane by breaking it up into manageable chunks.
I'm going to go pore over my reference and start to gather an asset list, as well as determine just how much of this area I want to create. Ideally I'd like to have 2-3 different homes. I may not stick directly to the reference, as I'd like to combine pieces of the environment into one smaller area to hopefully keep this whole project manageable. I'll be upgrading my 4 year old graphics card before I really get going on this, but for now, I wanted to get all this down somewhere, more to keep myself honest than anything else.
In the meantime, I'll leave you with a quote that first got me interested in the shire, "But where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet and good, tilled earth. For all hobbits share a love for things that grow."
Replies
LOL^ This. Please dont let us hardcore LotR fans down