Armistice Day commemoration project

teaandcigarettes

Hey guys
Since I haven't posted any in-game work in a while, I would like to show you a little scene I have put together as a member of the Traction Wars mod-team, in order to commemorate the Armistice Day.

You can see the whole update at the following address - www.twmod.org

I did not create any of the assets used in it. Huge credit goes to michi.be for creating the European Nature Set and to my fellow members; General Naga and Sir Apple for creating the poppies and cross models. The rest of the models used were made by Crytek.



I consider this piece to be finished, however I would love to hear some feedback and critique regarding composition and lighting. I will certainly make use of your comments in the future.

Thanks

Razorb

shite... looks so nice ;o cryengine always suprises me .. really ;o good job!

whats_true

Would be more impacting if it were a gun in the ground with dogtags and helmet hanging on it. Would be more directed towards those who fought in the war, rather then a generic cross wich could be anybody.

Not a fan of center conposition either. To Boring. Lovely scene over all though.

MattBradley

I don't agree with whats_true. I think the simplicity is key in this scene and it is actually very 'impacting' (sorry). Adding dog-tags and a gun would be so clich

achillesian

whats the t stand for?

ZacD

achillesian wrote: »

whats the t stand for?

Time to leave.

ru4it

that is f***ing amazing!

whats_true

Lest we forget.

How do we forget when we don't know what were remembering though? Take the scene on its own, it becomes just a grave side. A very pretty piece, but no correlation to veterans or war. Its only with the title or quote that we understand what this scene is about. By not adding some type of symbo of war, so that the scene can stand alone on its own right, it looses the connection that your trying to make with those who were directly involved in war.
Heck, doesn't have to be a symbol of war. Even the usage of colors, a certain type of flower, or something related to remembering those who served will add to the meaning of the piece.

Eh, just my 2 cents at least.

ZacD

Pretty but a boring composition.

Sage

I didn't read the post, about what this was for but it has a lot of impact. The grave reminds me of a dead person, a soldier to be exact, it's probably a happy accident. I talking about the silhouette here, a real grave would be much deeper and wouldn't have that human form to it. It's really nice and far from boring. The reason I say it's far from boring it's because if you were in front of a grave that is more or less the angle you would see if you were standing in front of it. This might be another accident, but whatever. It makes me feel like I am there.

MattBradley

whats_true wrote: »

How do we forget when we don't know what were remembering though? Take the scene on its own, it becomes just a grave side. A very pretty piece, but no correlation to veterans or war. Its only with the title or quote that we understand what this scene is about. By not adding some type of symbo of war, so that the scene can stand alone on its own right, it looses the connection that your trying to make with those who were directly involved in war.
Heck, doesn't have to be a symbol of war. Even the usage of colors, a certain type of flower, or something related to remembering those who served will add to the meaning of the piece.

Eh, just my 2 cents at least.

Erm, sorry if I'm being ignorant, but I don't think you don't realise the significance of the Poppy. I guess you don't commemorate Armistice Day or Remembrance Sunday over there in the same way we do here.

If this image didn't have the title or quote then it would still be clear what this scene is about.

teaandcigarettes

Thanks for the comments guys

Razorb: Thanks mate

whats_true: We have considered adding helmet and a gun before, but my mod leader decided not to use them in the end. He didn't want to identify the soldier, nor his nationality - and any kind of equipment would pretty much give it away.
Regarding your second comment - poppies are widely regarded as a symbol of the Veteran Day, which is also known as Poppy Day. I wanted to make them more obvious by adding plenty of them in the background, but as I couldn't get the material settings right in time I had to abandon that idea.
But, if I have to explain myself then I obviously didn't do as much as I could. I will certainly keep that in mind next time

ZacD, whats_true: I take a full blame for the composition here. When I started working on the scene I didn't really had any special plan in mind.
Only when I was finished with the background I decided to place the grave.
I have considered different options but it turned out that nothing beside central composition was working for me. With such busy background, I found myself not paying attention to the grave at all. In the end I had no choice but to put it right in the middle.
While your opinions about composition are rather divided and some people are satisfied with it, I will certainly do more planning next time. Regardless of how it turned out, I would prefer to choose my composition.

Matt: Cheers That was part of the reason why I didn't include the helmet.

Why I am not very fond of composition myself, I really wanted to put the grave in the centre of attention.

By the way, just wondering - what is wrong with the grave? I have never been too concerned about the accuracy of my work I am afraid, hence why I ask.

achillesian: Treasure

ru4it: Haha, thanks man

Sage: Really glad to hear you liked it. You are right - most of that was unintentional. I rarely do much thinking before I start working and I prefer to figure out things on the fly - that's probably my weak side, although sometimes it produces happy accidents.
Yeah, I wanted to place the camera in a position that would suggest you are standing in front of the grave. However, as said by the guys above - I could probably achieve the same effect with a more interesting composition.




Hope I didn't miss anyone

SnarG

The image is exactly what it needs to be: thought-provoking. The poppy is a powerful symbol and needs little support from artistic tricks to make it so. Well done T&C.

whats_true

Regarding your second comment - poppies are widely regarded as a symbol of the Veteran Day, which is also known as Poppy Day.

Well, the more you know.

Dippndots

nice job man the atmosphere in the scene is great, and the lighting is really spot on. I agree with the general public on the composition though, is there anyway you can adjust the scene to something more like a 3/4 view and pull away a few meters?

teaandcigarettes

SnarG:


Thanks mate, glad to hear you like it

whats_true:

I still think that I should have made it a little bit more obvious - not all people have know this symbol. I should have emphasized it a little bit more - after all I shouldn't be explaining this to get the things across :poly121:

Dippndots:

Thanks I might try to play around with the composition in a couple of days, once I deal with my uni-work.

acc

I don't think you had to make it more obvious. Poppies are a powerful symbol to much of the world. I think it's better to do a good job appealing to the people who know about them than to water it down trying to please the entire planet.

I also think the composition is fine. The thing about centering objects is that no one does it because you're "not supposed to" which makes it stand out all the more when someone does.

Armistrice/Remembrance/Veteren's Day doesn't need a flashy image. Simple and unassuming is best. I wouldn't change it at all.

Nizza_waaarg

ZacD wrote: »

Time to leave.

Next time we'll use a capital 'T' to show them we really mean business :P


Is a really nice peice tho i got to admit. And i got the poppies thing but i dunno, still think some of whats_true's points are valid if you look at the pic by itself. Maybe messing with the colours and saturation could do somthing, not sure (tho i have just got mgs3 on my mind now :poly136:).

Anyway, it's a nice looking scene dude

3DLee

This is a great piece of work. It's simple, clean, and effective. Well done!