The Yawning Portal [UE4]
polycounter lvl 9
Welcome!
The Yawning Portal is a fictional tavern in the castle quarters of waterdeep, set in the world of forgotten realms. This tavern is unique because it has a 40ft wide by 140ft deep well in the middle that leads into the underdark where vast riches await the hungry adventurers. Playing d&d and wanting to find concept images of this infamous bar, I could only illustrations of a conceptually bland tavern with a hole in the middle. So this is where I come in! I want to build a new tavern that plays off of the uniqueness of the Yawning Portal rather than just have a regular old tavern.
Also I want to make a modular enviroment for my next portfolio piece, and I wanted it to be fairly large so I could chug on it for awhile. I wanted to also be made mostly out of wood since I have done quite a bit of wood working before. That way constructing the building would take minimal research into types of wood joinery and such.
So I started by blocking it out in 3DS Max, then I took it into Unreal several times to check the proportions of the rooms and how the space felt to be in. After that I went ahead and did a quick lighting pass to see if the space held up in lighting. During that time also tried my hand at doing my first hand painted texture. I am still somewhat undecided if I should stick with a stylized enviroment or go with a realistic one. Anywho! Some images! I'll start off with a picture of my mood board.
What you seen when you first walk in. 3 tiers of seating centered around the well. Off to the left is the big fireplace, to the right is to rooms, and at the far back is the bar.
The firepit
The bar at the back. This is going to be a fairly long bar, with plenty of room to sit, and lots of room to order.
Looking up the stairs with the doors that lead to rooms in the background.
The view from the 2nd teir looking at the fireplace.
A view of the hallway with rooms.
Here is a picture of the flooring that I created. I would love any feedback on this since it is my first stylized texture. And suggestions or critiques would be greatly appreciated.
And so that's it for today folks! My next step will be creating an asset list for one of the bedrooms and creating all of those, that way I can start small and build up from there. Any suggestions or critiques would be fantastic! If my workflow is wrong or I need to revisit the space feel free to tell me so! We aren't here to kiss each-others asses.
The Yawning Portal is a fictional tavern in the castle quarters of waterdeep, set in the world of forgotten realms. This tavern is unique because it has a 40ft wide by 140ft deep well in the middle that leads into the underdark where vast riches await the hungry adventurers. Playing d&d and wanting to find concept images of this infamous bar, I could only illustrations of a conceptually bland tavern with a hole in the middle. So this is where I come in! I want to build a new tavern that plays off of the uniqueness of the Yawning Portal rather than just have a regular old tavern.
Also I want to make a modular enviroment for my next portfolio piece, and I wanted it to be fairly large so I could chug on it for awhile. I wanted to also be made mostly out of wood since I have done quite a bit of wood working before. That way constructing the building would take minimal research into types of wood joinery and such.
So I started by blocking it out in 3DS Max, then I took it into Unreal several times to check the proportions of the rooms and how the space felt to be in. After that I went ahead and did a quick lighting pass to see if the space held up in lighting. During that time also tried my hand at doing my first hand painted texture. I am still somewhat undecided if I should stick with a stylized enviroment or go with a realistic one. Anywho! Some images! I'll start off with a picture of my mood board.
What you seen when you first walk in. 3 tiers of seating centered around the well. Off to the left is the big fireplace, to the right is to rooms, and at the far back is the bar.
The firepit
The bar at the back. This is going to be a fairly long bar, with plenty of room to sit, and lots of room to order.
Looking up the stairs with the doors that lead to rooms in the background.
The view from the 2nd teir looking at the fireplace.
A view of the hallway with rooms.
Here is a picture of the flooring that I created. I would love any feedback on this since it is my first stylized texture. And suggestions or critiques would be greatly appreciated.
And so that's it for today folks! My next step will be creating an asset list for one of the bedrooms and creating all of those, that way I can start small and build up from there. Any suggestions or critiques would be fantastic! If my workflow is wrong or I need to revisit the space feel free to tell me so! We aren't here to kiss each-others asses.
Replies
Hey guys! Just finished up my first prop. I wanted to make a prop real quick so I could flesh out the style that the rest of the inn will be made. Renders done in Marmoset.
I used a combination of 3ds max, zbrush, and Marvelous Designer to complete this. I textured it in substance painter.
And as always c&c welcome.
I made these both in zbrush, and then took the renders into photoshop to paint them. I exported the normal just in zbrush and it seems to be working out pretty good so far. I might jump in xnormal to see what it spits out comparably.
Stone floor texture.
Wooden beam texture.
If I may, the ingraved dragon's head looks too neat though. It doesn't feel like it has any interaction with the grain of the wood. No splinters, the paint is perfectly even...
Nice work on the stone floor!
Here is screen shot from substance painter. I added the inconsistency with the paint. I'll definitely noodle it some more to get it to look more like paint. Thanks!
Here are some candles for the bedroom which will be the primary light source in the room. I was pretty happy to get away from making another asset with wood for a little bit. Here it is in UE4, I got to use SSS for the first time in UE4 so that was fun to learn.
This is a quick screen-grab from the corner of the room. It's really filling out fast!
And as always, C&C welcome.
I am still struggling with the lighting a little bit, so that will most likely be the next problem to tackle. Just the way I have it set up right now feels pretty jank, and I want to learn how to do it properly. Right now I have all the point light's intensity set at 200 and the camera's exposure pretty low as well. When I had the lights intensity higher and the camera's exposure to match it, the candles were just too blown out. (As see in the the above posts) Onward to tutorial land!
I would love any critique about anything. Thanks!
Here is the concept art for it from the Dungeon Masters Guide.
Wireframe:
You can see how the chair's texture is a bit blurry and painterly. Whereas the bag is incredibly sharp. But hey I love the bag itself, bravo
Haha Thanks! I will definitely keep that in mind going forward when setting up renders for my objects. The chair texture looks fine in the context of the scene but this up close with the bag on it... Yep.
I had my friend who is a level designer over and he wanted to take a pass at populating a scene himself. He had a few notes and suggestions for me so I'll be working on those for the next few days. Gotta make a rug, few decals, possibly a wizard's hat!
If you have any suggestions or critiques, I would much appreciate them! Thanks!
Not sure why you opted for a single room. Hope you get back to the original intent. Go back to greyblocking out that entrance bar shot and make a bad ass comp
Since this is my first full enviroment that I have done, I realized I should have started a little smaller. So I moved onto doing one of the side rooms for the bar for now. Just to learn and really get into the process of making props. I have learned and improved a great deal from making this small room. I do want to finish this room for now and make it actually worth putting into my portfolio. (Not that the bar is high right now) I am also considering abandoning this project for now since I have joined another passion project that I want to focus my time and energy into. This next project is cyber punk and that really excites me right now, I am still figuring out what styles I really enjoy making and what I want to really focus on.
Thanks for the comment, I really appreciate it!