[WIP] Astronomer's Tower

kippernicus

Hello chums. Started this a couple days ago and I'd like to get it ready to throw into UDK (maybe Unity, too) by early next week.

I'm going for a happy medium between what you might see come out of WOW or Guild Wars. Architecturally, I'm leaning towards WOW somewhat with their fantastical and disproportioned style. Texture-wise, more-so towards what you might see on the ArenaNet art test. I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from Christopher Swick's submission.

http://cls3d.blogspot.com/2011/09/arenanet-art-test.html

So yeah, if you guys/gals see any glaring mistakes I'm making; please point em out to me. I'm still relatively new to both of these styles and I'm anticipating a lot of edits.

kippernicus

Energy drink: opened, wubstep: blaring.

Majority of the modeling done. Working on color scheme/material definition/shading.

kippernicus

A nap is sounding pretty good right about now. Getting somewhere with these textures. Stone's finished, everything else still needs touching up.

I've been trying to think of some cool designs for a contrasting decal running along the stucco texture. Something tribal but still themed to Astrology. I have 4 different panels to use, but I have 2 set aside for an AO bake on the windows and another for some painted-in, decorative wood trim. Same thing for a design on the door and maybe a couple more unique, themed models to help break everything up a bit.

kippernicus

Another texture update. I'll be taking a break from the tower now and focusing on the telescope. I'm not 100% happy with the design I've chosen for the breakup on the stucco, but it'll do for now. Maybe something better will come to me as I start to focus on other things.

Krissleh

Hey Kippernicus, I've been looking at this and thinking about what you were talking about with a bend toward World of Warcraft in the building style, and I was wondering what you thought about this paintover:



I'm suggesting that you make the roofs much more pointed, and possibly curve the bridge roof a bit inward. That seems to stylistically go with what I've seen in WoW.
I played with opening up the top floor to create a kind of visual difference between the front and back towers (I'm sure there is an artistic term for this) although I can't really come up with a reason why it would be open besides ladder access.

I'm not sure if you are having doubts on the arm, but I'm wondering if you tried something like a mounting plate in the middle of the guilded panel on the rear tower, with perhaps some gears/ropes attaching to the joints (coming from the top of the tower). For some reason I also thought about a hot air balloon suspending the telescope... although that might shift the balance up too high.

I also played with shrinking the first level wooden supports next to the stone base. I think Wow building have a tendency to smoothly arch up, reflected in the lines of the buildings.

Just my thoughts!

glottis8

Those textures look really high contrast. They will be really busy to look at once you start putting other things around. What kind of style are you going for?

kippernicus

Krissleh: Thanks for taking the time to do that paint-over! I really like how you opened up the top floor, that looks really nice. I'll have to mess around with that mounting plate idea you mentioned; that sounds like a good alternative to what I had in mind. Thank you for those suggestions, I'll put some of those to use as I get more work on this done today.

Glottis8: Yeah, now that you mention it, the contrast is pretty high. I'll level it out before I post another progress shot. In terms of style, I'm taking a lot of cues from a couple different submits to the ArenaNet environment art test. There's a link in the op, showing an images I'm taking some cues from. Hope that explains it, thank you for the input.

Krissleh

I also have that tendency to push the saturation when I'm working. I don't know where it comes from It's something I'm sure I need to work on.

kippernicus

Same here; I usually keep the saturation and contrast pretty at first high out of habit.

Here's another update. The telescope texture is good to go for now. I figured a way to combine the open space in the tower with a mount for the scope. I wanted to figure out a way to incorporate some gears and such into the scene and I think this'll be a good way to do it. I leveled out the contrast, as suggested, and I plan on editing it quite a bit more as I add some more elements to the scene.

Nap time.

Krissleh

oooh yeah! I like using the open spaced area to show off the mechanics of telescope mount.

kippernicus

Thanks Krissleh, I think it'll work out nice once it's finished.

Here's another quick update. Working in those smaller details I referred to earlier: vines, lantern and a bit more to the door. Once these textures are refined a bit more I think I'll move onto the steps and rocks. I'm thinking I might light this at dusk and try to work in a slightly overcast sky with a violet hue. I think that would go good with all the orange and brown in the scene.

kippernicus

Oh, and if anybody knows of some good tutorials for painting rock textures in photoshop, I'd certainly appreciate a link.

glottis8

You should also take into consideration how close you'll be looking at these. Is your shot gonna be from far away? Then your textures look good... if you will be looking at them from that close, they are a little busy right now.

Looking better tho. I'll dig up some tutorials when i have time and pass them your way.

kippernicus

Glottis8: Good point on the camera distance. The final shot will have everything in frame so yeah, I guess you could say it's going to be far away. I'm a little hazy on what you're referring to when you say that the textures are too busy. Is it the amount of detail or the colors you're talking about?

And thank you for looking for some tutorials.

glottis8

I think its the saturation of the colors. They are too busy. Look at them in BW. If they look bland all over, that means that your highlights could be brighter to make your texture pop, and accent parts of it. Right now they just look too even and you get distracted and confused trying to make out what you are looking at.