Farm Scene (Need feedback)

BradleyMAdams

I'm currently doing this scene and this is what I've got so far,

Things to do:
-Finish lighting
-add better distant hills
-more vegatation
-clouds?
-dirt road or something for the foreground near the fences.
-more detail on the windmill, windows, doors etc
-improve textures on tools and such

I want to keep the scene simple though but I'm not entirely sure what else to add in besides what I've listed above.


Please provide your own thoughts, feedback, criticisms.

pixelpatron

Your fencing still a blockout? Hopefully, cause the construction is either posts with wood slats inserted (see images) or slats attached to the outside of posts.





Are you working from Ref? Most of the windmills I looked at did not have a catwalk around the cylinder, I'd say you'd be better off working out your composition, nailing a solid block-out with some reference images to shoot for in terms of lighting/mood/atmosphere, and then execute.

Examples:




Good luck.

BradleyMAdams

Yeah they are, just doing the main parts first before going into the details, I am loosely referencing this bircham windmill.



Thanks for the inputs.

pixelpatron

BradleyMAdams

I've done some more work on the scene, still have some more to do.

moonlazer

I have to add this disclaimer that I'm not environment artist but what interests me in terms of constructive constructive criticism is composition. Especially when it comes to the vast amount of work in environments. I don't know your process but what is the scope for the project? Fly through or stills? If stills I'd consider what your focal point is or what you want the viewer to see in the scene. If the windmill is the main thing in the scene then it's being overshadowed by tall grass. Though when I look at it its hard to say cause like most work on PC it's WIP. But yeah if it is something like the windmill falling into one of square spots for the rule of thirds then the scene could use balancing.

chrisradsby

I usually like to do fly-throughs but considering how much it is to create whole environments it might be better to do a couple of stills. It's very commendable (in my opinion at least) when you see people do whole environments. It gives a feel of what you've actually accomplished.

As for you current scene, I'd see the grass is too big, you should think about creating a natural landscape before you even add the grass, just slap a grass-texture on there. The main thing with environments is that it's always easier to work Big -> Small. So you making tools is the wrong way around when you should focus on the bigger shapes and composition, making what you're looking at feel natural and nice.

So spend more time on terrain, the grass should be a compliment to the scene, not take over. The windmill should be the highlight, and the rest should in harmony.

(terrain and natural landscape, rolling hills etc)


There are major pitfalls when you're only working from one angle, it's way easy to make things look out of scale and not right. Because you're moving all objects in your scene to only work in that one angle.

BradleyMAdams

Thanks both of you for your key input, personally if you compare my current version to the previous one post I feel that I am going in a better direction. It still feels like something is missing or perhaps I've over complicated the scene with the extra windmills but I'm still going to keep on at it and hopefully I'll get there.

So here is my current version of the scene.

Swaggletooth

I have mixed feelings about the changes. The fence there looks more like a garden fence than a farm one (which in my experience are generally more shaped like the ones in your first shot). Depending on what kind of look you're going for, you probably will want to add in wear and tear on the bitmaps, along with nails; for close up pieces you could have splintering wood or planks that horse have chewed (see below for example)


The ground I thought looked better as sand (??) like I was looking at the edge of a dutch coastline or something, the one you have there is very flat looking and quite unusual colour.

The clouds are a nice touch, but be careful to see that the lighting and sky colour match up with light seen on the clouds. Speaking of the sky colour, it looks like late day there but it doesn't seem to match the overall lighting seen in the scene.

I think you're almost there, if you fix these things up and add some subtle fog to your scene it should look pretty nice.