All three projects look really good, the noble house would be my personal favorite.
My crit would be that although the temple is really well done that temple is very, very overdone as a portfolio piece. I have seen people far more knowledgeable than myself be critical of others portfolios just for having that temple in it because of how over used it is.
Take what I say with a grain of salt though. I am sure others could advice you much better than me.
For the first environment, I would say get some bigger sculpted details to help your normals pop more. This will also help break up the lighting on the surfaces and help to contrast against the high frequency detail.
For the manor area, I like the detail you have on the ground. The decals, leaves, and brick textures mesh together nicely. I would say though, pump some more polygons into certain assets to make them less perfect looking, and to also help break up the lighting. The stone walls seem too simple to me, maybe have some bricks stick out as real geom... also there is a tree clipping through the wall in your last shot. Try messing with the fresnel settings for your metal surfaces too.
The windows on the manor really stand out, I would say fake the interior with a box inside, and give those windows a real glass material to give them some reflectance. Add some variation to the rooftop of the manor too, the polygon count there really stands out. You have some really highly detailed pieces that look great with complex silhouettes and high polygon counts, so they make the more simple elements like the stone wall look out of place. The trees look a little random in the courtyard too, typically with a brick ground like that, the trees would be planted in planters like the plants are, in a symmetrical fashion.
It looks like you are going for an autumn look too, but the trees really contrast against the ground level flora quite a bit. I would mix up the leaf colors in the trees, or add more oranges and yellows to the ground flora.
@mats effect: Thank you Yeah, I agree with you that the temple is very overdone as a portfolio piece, but this scene was a test at my uni so the topic was already given.
@RexM: Thanks for your detailed improvement suggestions, this helps me a lot! I was afraid that my polycount would explode but in the end I reduced geometry at the wrong places^^ As you already mentioned I had problems with creating an autumn look however I didn't really know why so thanks for you tips and references!
Replies
My crit would be that although the temple is really well done that temple is very, very overdone as a portfolio piece. I have seen people far more knowledgeable than myself be critical of others portfolios just for having that temple in it because of how over used it is.
Take what I say with a grain of salt though. I am sure others could advice you much better than me.
Great work though
For the manor area, I like the detail you have on the ground. The decals, leaves, and brick textures mesh together nicely. I would say though, pump some more polygons into certain assets to make them less perfect looking, and to also help break up the lighting. The stone walls seem too simple to me, maybe have some bricks stick out as real geom... also there is a tree clipping through the wall in your last shot. Try messing with the fresnel settings for your metal surfaces too.
The windows on the manor really stand out, I would say fake the interior with a box inside, and give those windows a real glass material to give them some reflectance. Add some variation to the rooftop of the manor too, the polygon count there really stands out. You have some really highly detailed pieces that look great with complex silhouettes and high polygon counts, so they make the more simple elements like the stone wall look out of place. The trees look a little random in the courtyard too, typically with a brick ground like that, the trees would be planted in planters like the plants are, in a symmetrical fashion.
It looks like you are going for an autumn look too, but the trees really contrast against the ground level flora quite a bit. I would mix up the leaf colors in the trees, or add more oranges and yellows to the ground flora.
http://www.komar.de/fileadmin/media/Fototapeten_Bilder/8-068_Autumn_Forest_hd.jpg
http://www.mrwallpaper.com/wallpapers/Autumn-Forest-Street.jpg
Looking at these, I also feel like you could make thicker piles of leaves on the ground.
@RexM: Thanks for your detailed improvement suggestions, this helps me a lot! I was afraid that my polycount would explode but in the end I reduced geometry at the wrong places^^ As you already mentioned I had problems with creating an autumn look however I didn't really know why so thanks for you tips and references!
I really like your vegetation sculpt, but i'd pay more attention to diffuse, they seems a little bit noisy, imo.