not an environment artist but tried to dabble in those realms, anywho i wanted to mention that i always enjoyed viewing these kinds of "environment pieces" not to stagnate anyone's exploratory creativity but i can't get enough of those, especially the ones that have buildings sliced in half showing say a home and then the alternative side is the interior. simple things are cool too example.
Hi! Some thoughts on the lighthouse project: The geometry looks bit simple/flat in some places, like it's still in blockout stage. Larger meshes and modules can be detailed with smaller modules like individual rocks, stones, slabs, ... . Repeating structures like railings or walls can be created using tiling, detailed meshes which can be put in an array and be deformed (e.g. along a spline). Doing a breakdown of the subject first certainly helps to identify necessary building blocks. Showing these modules would be cool too.
On the topic of textures: some areas look like they are flat colors, in others tiling becomes noticeable. For architecture, using a trim atlas and combining it with tiling textures might be an efficient approach. When using tiling textures, masks (vertex color, secondary uv channel, world projected, ...) can be used to modulate or blend the surface to break up the tiling and to add variation. Polycount wiki might contain some examples.
Regarding presentation/render: Since it's based on is a real place, I would look at photos for reference for atmosphere and framing. I'd also think about what kind of story to tell. Personally, I think this structure looks a bit like a secluded stronghold. To strengten this idea, I would pull the camera back, showing more of the narrow bridge toward it and the cliffs. Communicate it's a good defensive position and something the viewer is goin towards. Maybe more dramatic weather, so that the building gives refuge. Can have multiple renders of course.
Sculpting with Dyntopo while preserving Face Sets, UVs, Vertex Colors, and other mesh attributes.
For having Layer support while sculpting in Blender, I would advise to use the commercial Sculpt Layers Addon which can be purchased at Blendermarket or on Artstation etc. https://youtu.be/8-T67eG_VnI
If you want a remesher based on Zremesher (the same developer - Maxime Rouca - worked on both), you could give a look at the commercial Blender plugin of quadremesher.
This is a quick look at blocking out linear details on softgoods, before sculpting the surface details.
Use basic subdivision modeling strategies to block out the larger shapes then place key edge loops around the seams on the fabric shell. Shrink down the middle support loops to create depth along the seams. Undulations and macro fold details can also be created by generating subtle height differences in the shell geometry.
Randomly select and move some of the vertices away from the surface of the shell to create a subtle height difference. This can be done either manually with randomized selections and scaling operations or with a displacement modifier. Triangulating the base mesh, before subdividing, creates additional edges that change the localized smoothing behavior and that's what helps generate these larger surface wrinkles.
All of these operations are done at subdivision level 0 and using
modifiers to control the localized displacement of select vertices and
the triangulation order makes it really easy to quickly change stuff.
It's also not that difficult to set up since most of it is just throwing a
modifier into the stack and adjusting the parameters.
Localized differences in surface height controls where the wrinkles
appear but the triangulation method used controls the orientation,
scale, and frequency of the wrinkles themselves. The difference can be
subtle but there is a difference in the smoothing stress created by each
triangulation method.
This effect can be controlled non-destructively with modifiers.
Different triangulation methods produce different stress patterns for
the wrinkles. It's a really cheap, quick, and easy way to generate
undulations and macro wrinkles on certain types of softgood shapes.
It's not perfect but it's very fast and completely reversible since
the surface displacement and triangulation can be controlled with
modifiers. Subdivision resolves the mesh to all quads so it's pretty
much ready for sculpting the fine details. The rest of the sculpting work can be done either in zBrush or Blender using the cloth sim brushes that inflate, stretch, and manipulate the folds on the high poly sculpt.
Alternately, just use Marvelous to model and simulate textile shells. It's a fairly straightforward application with a lot of documentation and learning a little bit about sewing also goes a long way towards figuring out how all the pieces of fabric shells are stitched together on real products.
Some additional examples of similar soft hard surface shapes:
Hey everyone! I am also working on the hand lantern and loved the others' works. I am also questioned the backside hinge&plate, also the handle joint to the end(the side of the sphere of lamp). So I tried to make some adjustments to make it seem more believable and not to harm silhouette. I am planning to use this version of the model as base for the high poly and I will clean this up for low poly version. I would love to hear from you