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The Resistance

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This is a project we are doing for our final year at The University Of Hertfordshire


The team:

Joshua Khusal: Environment Artist

Benjamin Lane: Environment Artist

Georgia Jeffries: Character Artist

Adelaide Coldham: Animator

 
Freelancers:

Matt Jenkins: Rigging

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Pitch:

Our aim with this project is to create a highly detailed small trade town in the 15th century in the style of the byzantine empire, that sits in the middle of bridge that spans a rapid flowing river, populated by the town’s residents. 

 
Trailer:

Short cinematic sequence of the environment, mixture of landscape shots, as well as shots in street level, followed by a playable sequence of the character walking through the town, towards the Barons house.


The Story:

The city state of (insert name of town here) is stuck between two warring armies.

The city is very crucial for trade and diplomacy so the surrounding countries treat it as neutral ground. Now a war has begun, both armies need to use (insert name of town here) to get across to the other side to invade, but the nobles of the city are worried about the damage either army passing through would cause, and in turn has restricted access into the town for anyone without specific permission (traders, important/wealthy people, etc). The inhabitants of the city are getting agitated by the threat of either army and many refugees are finding their way to the bridge only to find that they cannot pass to escape their plight. The tension between the rich and poor gets to breaking point and the poor in the city and refugees unable to afford the substantial toll to cross has started a resistance to take the bridge under their control. The nobles are aware of this issue and have been hiring many mercenaries to help discipline the resistance to little success. They have now ordered the help of (PLAYER CHARACTER) to help them, a highly successful and famous mercenary. The player will make his way through the town, towards the Barons house, that sits at the edge of the town.

 
Research: Trip to Croatia

The architecture we have chosen is 15th century Byzantine architecture. We therefore organised a trip to one of the best preserved old towns with this style of architecture, Dubrovnik in Croatia.


From this trip, we gathered a total of 1,700 pictures, ranging from modelling ref, to texture ref (to turn into tillable materials) to city streets layouts, as well as the general atmosphere we want to aim for. We organised all the pictures, into respecting folders and have them on a server for the whole team to use during the project.  

 
This is the overall style we want to aim to:

https://preview.ibb....k/moodboard.jpg

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Concept Art:



Concept art made for us ( By Iacocca Khen Arasy)

 
Town Layout:

https://image.ibb.co..._sketches_4.jpg
 

Concept Art:

https://image.ibb.co...t_Art_final.png

 
Concept Art to real world reference:

https://image.ibb.co..._Real_World.jpg

 
The concept art is more of a layout guide than anything else, as while we’re building it in 3D, things will most likely change. We are planning to make the streets feel very busy, dirty and used. Filling it with props, such as crates, barrels, people in cages, market stalls, traders, carts as well as all the people which will be around the scene.

 
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That’s an overview of the project! There’s lots of other things that we’ve been researching and organising as well! Everything is still a work in progress and we’ll most definitely end up changing a lot of it, but here it is in its current state!

Crit and feedback welcomed as always!

TL;DR:

We're making a small medieval town that sits in the middle of a river populated by the towns residents.


 

 

Replies

  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Overview:

     


     

    Market Square:

     

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    Lords House:

     

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    Front Gate:

     


    Other Places:


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  • Georgia Jeffries
    Here is the first character. She is modular so the body (with clothing), head and hair are all separate and I will be creating more variations so they can be switched around. I am hoping to create enough (both male and female) to populate the environment without any duplicate characters. I also have the hair material set up so the colour can be changed in a material instance for even more variation. Each of these characters will be around 15-20k tris to keep the scene optimised.




    These renders are from within Toolbag 3.
  • BenjaminJohn
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    BenjaminJohn polycounter lvl 4
    Hello I'm Ben I'll be helping Josh out with the props and environments :) 

    Here are some WIP renders of a statue I've been working on the past couple days, planing on cleaning up the folds, adding detail to the belt, and doing something with her hands or giving her something to hold like a flag or a staff 









  • Avcat
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    Avcat vertex
    Hi, I'm Adelaide. I'm working on animation in this project and also sorting out ai for the citizens as we don't have a blueprints specialist on the team. 

    So far I've put together this really simple blueprint so our characters will walk to random places around the town. I'm still waiting for a rig from our freelancer so for the moment, the ue4 man is being used as a placeholder. I'm not really keyed up much on blueprints so I had to search through a lot of tutorials to find something I thought would work but was still easy to set up. Behavior trees made me want to cry XD. If anyone has any ideas on how to improve this, it would be much appreciated. 
    https://i.gyazo.com/3a69aa4da61993a3442b6461f8672ee9.mp4

  • BenjaminJohn
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    BenjaminJohn polycounter lvl 4

    Some updates on the statue, adjusted the length of her legs, posed her hands and added in a flagpole for her to hold, I've started retopology and should be moving onto texturing soon  


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  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Ive been making a modular building pack for the more wealthy people of the town. The textures arent yet finished, and theres a few lighting artefacts because i haven built the lighting just yet (: Ive made the geo in such a way where i can vertex paint on top of it, ive set up a height based vertex paint material which ill use to break up the repeating forms/patterns (: 

     

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  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Been doing some more texturing, developing the textures I had already done. Also experimenting to see the different designs/ forms I can make with my asset pack with what I have so far, still got loads more to make so I can create all the building shapes I want to. Still far from final and everything is still in the early stages, but slowly getting rid of the block out and replacing it with assets! (:

     

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  • Poinball
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    Poinball polycounter lvl 6
    Starting to look really interesting !! keep it up :)
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle
    ^Thank you! (:

    Been making more assets and seeing how far I can push my asset pack to create all the shapes and forms I want to, trying to be as unique and slightly quirky as I can, still pretty rough, but im hoping it will start coming together as I start texturing more of the assets. (: Its really time I need to start vertex painting and baking the lighting so I can see what everything looks like properly (: 

     

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  • kohg
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    kohg polycounter lvl 8
    how do you plan to break up the repetitive brick/stone wall pattern?
  • aclund3
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    aclund3 polycounter lvl 6
    Good question from @kohg.  One approach could be subtle corner quoin stones, and maybe some other verticals in the cladding at desired locations. You could probably use the material you've already made, and upsize and readjust the position for a corner element... There's already a blending of a few architectural things going on here, so even though stone cladding on houses typically wraps the corner it shouldn't be a big thing.

    Looking really cool so far!!!
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle
    kohg said:
    how do you plan to break up the repetitive brick/stone wall pattern?
    aclund3 said:
    Good question from @kohg.  One approach could be subtle corner quoin stones, and maybe some other verticals in the cladding at desired locations. You could probably use the material you've already made, and upsize and readjust the position for a corner element... There's already a blending of a few architectural things going on here, so even though stone cladding on houses typically wraps the corner it shouldn't be a big thing.

    Looking really cool so far!!!
    Thank you guys so much for the kind words!

     That sounds like a really good idea, ill have a play around and see what I can come up with!

    To break up the repetitive patterns Ive set up a height based vertex painter material, where I can paint in some moss/dirt/sand textures over the top! For the edges ive got a bunch of seemingly random bricks to place around the corners of the buildings to break up that super straight line, so hopefully that will fix those issues! (:


  • kohg
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    kohg polycounter lvl 8
    Looking forward to it, and please do keep sharing your process
  • Georgia Jeffries
    Here's the high poly for another female peasant outfit. This one is a "washerwoman" type character.


  • Georgia Jeffries
    Got my character(s) in the scene to check out textures with the environment lighting.




    My next task is to make more heads so I have some variations for the faces.
  • Meloncov
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    Meloncov greentooth
    The corners of you buildings are looking very rough. I'd recommend either beveling the edge and making sure the textures line up, or adding a quoin to cover them.
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle
    Meloncov said:
    The corners of you buildings are looking very rough. I'd recommend either beveling the edge and making sure the textures line up, or adding a quoin to cover them.
    Yeah i agree, im in the process of making a seemingly random set of bricks to act as an edge trim to break up the edges of the roof
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Been texturing the roofs and also playing around with foliage, just having fun mostly. Also modelled the balcony, but most of my time has been taken up by making tillable materials (: Im still yet to build the lighting, as I need to replace the ground with a proper mesh asap and not just a stretched cube that has no uvs.

     

    Quick runthrough:

     

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    Roof Texturing:

     

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  • Georgia Jeffries
    A new HP head sculpt, this time an older woman. I've also made a start on a new "hairstyle". I took some advice I received and added a kerchief (I think that's what this would be called...) Crit appreciated. 


  • Gazu
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    Gazu polycounter lvl 11
    I like this Thread :)
  • Georgia Jeffries
    Got some more characters in the scene. These are all the variations possible with what I have at the moment, although I probably won't be including all of them.







  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle
    Gazu said:
    I like this Thread :)
    Thank you very much! (:
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle
    Been super super busy re working the layout a bit. Ive now added more of like a high street right at the beggining of the level, here there will be lots of props, like carts and crates and barrels etc...Ive also sunk the entire marketplace down about 2 meters, mostly for compositional reasons. Been texturing the roofs, roof trims and chimneys. Feel free to ignore the foliage, just in there so i can see how all the colours are working together. These screenshots and gifs arent with the lighting built, because when i build it, although my models come out nice, all the white block out just turns to pitch black, probably because they arent unwrapped and stuff, looks really jarring so ive just shown my progress without the lighting built for now (: 
     
    New high street:
     
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  • BenjaminJohn
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    BenjaminJohn polycounter lvl 4
    Some updates on the statue, got it fully textured and in engine (above) here are some renders from Marmoset: 
    (The asset is 15k tris and using one 2k texture)










  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Ive made lots of changes, added a brick trim around the edges of the buildings to break up the sharp edge. Also added another trim to break up the repeating patterns as well as laying out more buildings.

     

    Ive finally done a very rough preview (since it takes bloody ages) lighting build, just a simple directional light, havnt tweaked any of the settings much, just wanted to make sure my models were shading properly. Ive still got far to contrasted areas so in the coming iterations ill be tweaking the lighting lots (:  And of course havent got round to post effects or anything like that, so its still looking pretty raw at the moment (: 

     

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  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Ive been working on a way to create a pavement system where i can create it and modify its properties in engine, to get some nice sweeping pathways. Its a blueprint system that creates mesh based on a spline and has parameters to tweak the twistyness, width and options to turn the side walks on and off (: The texture on it isnt final, still working on it and refining it, and ill be vertex painting puddles/mud/dirt over it in the coming weeks (:

     

    Ignore the people walking in the spot, our animator added her animation in the scene since she was pre vising (:

     

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  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Heres our verticle slice tomorrow (: Finally a proper video, no more gifs!

    Ignore the watermark in the music, its just a placeholder since we havent decided on final music yet, and all the other sounds are placeholders as well.

    The AI dont move at the moment, we're still trying to get that system working, but in the mean time they just walk on the spot and stuff.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXFZHwD97K4&feature=youtu.be



  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    nice, make the lions close to the spiral stair at the end a lot bigger (one on each side) !
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle
    Thanks! (:

    Sounds like a good idea! (: when i get to that section ill have that in mind!
  • BenjaminJohn
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    BenjaminJohn polycounter lvl 4

    Some updates: here's a building I've been working on, you can see where it will be placed in the vertical slice video at around 0:40.

    Still have to finish texturing, add in the window planes, texture and add in the doorway which is already modeled, and fix the arch clipping but thought I'd post it here anyway 


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  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Been making the gatehouse (: still pretty rough at the moment, just trying to get the shapes/forms that I want, and try and get a unique silhouette! 


    Apologies of the lack of updates, ive had a really horrible cold for 2 weeks, which means my progress has been a lot slower than usual :( but im just recovoering now, so hopefully speedy progress from here on out! 


    We're back to good old gifs unfortunately! 




  • Georgia Jeffries
    Hey! Just thought I would show a quick screenshot of the richer looking clothing I've been working on. It's pretty much ready to be textured now so I'll post again when it's all done.


  • Georgia Jeffries
    The peasant has been working hard and has earned enough to become noble! (Or it's her more successful twin, who knows?)   Going to try and get a new face out soon.





    Still keeping each character at around 20k tris.


  • BenjaminJohn
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    BenjaminJohn polycounter lvl 4

    Some more updates on the building I've been working on.

    Have started setting it up in engine too so will post renders when that's done as well  

     

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  • Georgia Jeffries
    I've added a new female face. Starting to get a bit more variety now! (For the women at least.)


  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Been working on the gatehouse some more (: The textures for the most part are still rough, mostly just trying to block colour in them to see what sort of colours/ materials I want to go for, also been sculpting lots of HPs

     

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  • Sajeet
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    Sajeet polycounter lvl 7
    Looks really intresting... keep it up! :)
  • Georgia Jeffries

    Adding some men into our NPC roster. I'm just using the guard head right now.

     

  • Elithenia
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    Elithenia polycounter
    Hey! Coming along nicely! :) 
    Keep it up :) 
  • Georgia Jeffries
    Elithenia said:
    Hey! Coming along nicely! :) 
    Keep it up :) 
    Thank you! We are definitely getting there! Still a long road ahead.

    Here is a male peasant complete with a new head and hat.



    I was also experimenting with a base beard texture on the face which I can add planes for on top for more variety in the faces.


  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Hope you all had a great christmas! (: 

     So ive been really busy texturing the gatehouse, a lot of the textures are still placeholders at the moment, so ill be going back and refining and polishing them, just wanted to get an idea of what the colours/materials are looking like together (:


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  • Georgia Jeffries
    Got a couple more characters done and in the scene. (I'll make up another female head soon.)   I think I will add a few polys to the archer's tabard thing at the bottom as it's looking a bit blocky.






  • slosh
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    slosh hero character
    What you guys have is pretty cool so far.  The environments are really starting to look good.  The characters are pretty mediocre to be honest.  I realize it's just one character artist so I can understand the limitations but it clearly shows in terms of deficiency.  It could be marginalized if you make a very nice looking hero character that ends up being the player character.  Is that the plan?
  • Georgia Jeffries
    slosh said:
    What you guys have is pretty cool so far.  The environments are really starting to look good.  The characters are pretty mediocre to be honest.  I realize it's just one character artist so I can understand the limitations but it clearly shows in terms of deficiency.  It could be marginalized if you make a very nice looking hero character that ends up being the player character.  Is that the plan?
    Thank you!

    Yes, that is the plan. I am working quite quickly to get these characters out, which sometimes may be too quickly. I'm hoping that if I have the time after the hero character is done (I have set aside MUCH more time for that) I will be able to spend some time improving and refining the modular characters that are a bit rough around the edges. :)
  • Josh203
  • slosh
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    slosh hero character
    That video is pretty damn cool but whatever the dude keeps saying, you should absolutely remove it.  It sounds low quality and it fairly annoying...feels amateurish compared to the rest of the video.  Just go with the music.  
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle
    slosh said:
    That video is pretty damn cool but whatever the dude keeps saying, you should absolutely remove it.  It sounds low quality and it fairly annoying...feels amateurish compared to the rest of the video.  Just go with the music.  

    Thank you very much!! 

    Yeah we are going to, its just temporary, its the music tracks watermark, we've got someone making some music for us at the moment, but until its finished I just used it as placeholder music! (:
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle

    Ive more or less finished the gatehouse section about a week ago but I completely forgot to post it, been working on the market square ever since (:

    Still got some more things to add but ill add them as I go along (: 


    Gatehouse:


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    Made a market stall in marvellous designer and started baking and texturing it today, only got the solid colours in there for now so i can start parameterising it in designer, then ill start adding some detail/wear onto it (: 


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  • ChristenLA
    Watching this come together is great! The birds are an especially nice little touch that adds so much to the world.
    One critique is that that the specularity of the skin seems way too high. They looked slightly greased with oil and a tad too clean, given the setting.
    Looking forward to seeing what comes next! You guys all do great work.
  • Josh203
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    Josh203 triangle
    Watching this come together is great! The birds are an especially nice little touch that adds so much to the world.
    One critique is that that the specularity of the skin seems way too high. They looked slightly greased with oil and a tad too clean, given the setting.
    Looking forward to seeing what comes next! You guys all do great work.

    Really appreciate the kind words! 

    Yeah I definitely agree, ill pass that on to our character artist!


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