Sketchbook: Luke Neubaum
polycounter lvl 6
Moving over to the forum because I'm really starting to get tired of my blogspot. (Especially the way it looks) My names Luke Neubaum I'm a 3d Environment Artist and recent graduate. Starting up a new project, and going a bit more on the stylised environment side. This means more exaggerated sculpts and less specular variation. I've posted the reference and my art test. (My art tests are just where I do a quick run through of a few assets and mess with the lighting, just so I get a feel of what I'm going to create. This is even before blockout.) I'm always open to critiques, it's how you get better as an artist. Sorry the reference is so tall.
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More work on another project, much more stylized than my other works. Worked a great deal more on color and movement.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/enJnD
https://www.deviantart.com/nerd-scribbles/art/Terrarium-Bots-452569049
Really been influenced by Simon Stalenhags work recently, and I thought I'd pay homage with a little 3d scene. (I'm sure there many people who have done it before, but that doesn't mean I can't have a go at it!)
I'll be poasting a lot of WIPS and if anyone has any questions or critiques, feel free to engage, it's always appreciated. I'll give a general outline of my workflow. I'm going to be using a standardized real-time workflow focused on a solo environment artist modeler. That is Maya------>Substance-------->UE4. I'm going to be using SpeedTree, Marvelous Designer, World Machine, and Reality Capture to assist me along the way.
To start things off- here is the reference image of Simon's Work
https://www.simonstalenhag.se/
Current Tri Count is I would say relatively high, but I'm trying to cut as many corners as possible. I'll do some more re-topology later when I'm less sleepy. Cylinders are expensive. But on the other hand, this is a high fidelity hero asset, so 130k is horrific. I'm on the fence about this, should I retopo some more and bring it down, or keep it at its current fidelity? I'd love to hear what you guys think.
I went a bit more lower on the snow, like it's just starting to melt, so you get all this criss crossing snow melt, and even the color of the soil is different. I would say I went to 80% accuracy of the reference images, because whats the fun if you can't exaggerate some rock formations here and there.
The actual height information is pretty easy to create. Just adjust some perlin noise generators, and then run them through erosion filters. The key to get believable rocks is through Rock hardness and soil flow. Water and snow break down rock in different ways, so don't just put one erosion filter on you generators. Here I had two filters, one for the soil carry in the valley, and the other for the jagged mountain peaks.
The rest of the graph is creating your texture height maps for UE4. It's mostly grabbing the height, slope, and erosion carry masks and blending them together in a believable way. If you would like me to create a more in depth tutorial on some World Machine techniques, let me know!