Jess, this is coming out really good so far. My only suggestion would be to add a little bit of cool colors to your textures. I see you have a lot of warm colors, I think adding a hint of cool colors would make your textures and environment pop a bit more.
Synyster, choco, Hazardous, Hoodz, Hayden, fightpunch, claytonbarton, Rick, Chris - Thanks for the kind words everyone !
Kyuuu, Christian - Oh, yeah, I totally see about the roots - they could use some more love haha. I think i'll make the roots separate meshes actually, so I can place them however I want around the trees. Then I can have trees on the cliffs too, with roots angling downward.
lamar - Thanks for pointing that out - I shall work on it
Metall - Thank you! :] Yeah, I know there's so much more to do haha! Gotta do itt x] bit by bit
joebount - You are the second person to tell me so, so I will see what I can do about fixing the leaf scale. Once I optimize the trunk, which has many hidden faces atm, I can probably scale all the leaves down a bit and add some more. Thanks for the critique :]
Here's what I'm doing with the cliffs right now (max renders):
And some updated shots from UDK, trying to figure out lighting and stuff:
Critique and comments welcome. This week I will be painting some stone brick textures for the castle (model of which is not done yet!!! Gotta fix it up soon haha.)
I'm really not digging the cliffs. The "chunks" just seem too scaled down. In World of Warcraft and other games I don't think they would have that dense of detail. It just seems very noisy, and even if you plan to break it up, it will still be noisy. Just my opinion though, we'll see how it looks once everything else comes together :P
I agree, it comes off a bit noisy but that's partially because there's nothing really in the scene yet. I feel like the larger flat areas look pretty good though - Like this area.
Awesome Jessica! I agree that the cliff could become noisy with that kind of detail, but in clusters it could work. Reminds me of basalt pillars - scattered amongst flatter rock forms it could look pretty cool.
Small crit on the scaling/composition, the huge tower at the back is creating a bit of a scale conflict to my eyes. Perhaps if some of the smaller forms at the front were repeated or combined with the large tower it would give a clearer indication of scale?
That cliff is looking awesome! Only suggestion is to make the more flat non-"cliffy" parts a little more like dirt and rubble. Maybe you could have 2 different tiling textures on a 2048x1024 or maybe even vertex paint to get a nice blend.
The cliff is great but the larger non-"cliffy" parts look weird to me. I'd second Orangeknight's suggestion of making the non-"cliffy" more like dirt and rubble and maybe making the "cliff" parts bigger.
The cliffs texture is working great I think on your modeled rocks, but not so much on the flatter parts... I think it's because your rock objects are so nice and sharp and chiseled and the bigger areas are more blobby... which makes both feel a little disjointed. I think you could try to push the scale on some of your rocks so you get some bigger chunks in there to give eye relief. You also may want to make another rock model that is more of a "slab", something that would still have that chiseled look but create some nice hard/flat areas of eye relief. Ultimately I would try to replace the softer areas of cliff with something still hard edged and modeled, but still gives places of nice eye relief and steep falloffs like your getting now.
When I worked on Darksiders 2, we used only a few rock models, but would build entire cliffs and mountains out of them just by scaling and rotating them around, to create the look we wanted. You're doing that halfway now, but I think it will look better to do it one way or the other. Either big custom cliffs, or built with a few or several rock chunks. It's more "expensive" this way, but can be optimized afterwards, if you want. But then again, a lot of engines will handle a lot of tris these days, and this is a portfolio piece, so I would set the priority on presentation; optimization, second. Just some thoughts! Your stuff always looks great, so I'm not too worried.
Selaznog, Gannon, Orangeknight, Kyuuu, Bek - Awesome guys, thanks so much for the critique on my cliffs. I agree it's probably looking a bit noisy right now, and the cliffy parts need to be scaled up a good deal. I will keep the flat areas too, because I need some larger areas of rest, but I will fix them so they don't look all bulbous and blobby. When I add the texture blending of moss and dirt, it should all come together a bit better, and there will also be a lot of plants/vegetation sitting on the currently blank top planes, as Bek mentioned. On to fixing
benji - I will do something to fix the scale of the back tower. Some things back there are scaled up to compensate for the extreme FOV, but perhaps I overcompensated. Thanks for pointing it out:]
Owl - Thanks for such an in-depth explanation! That really helps. Also, I had no idea you worked on Darksiders 2 . . . big fan, heh x]
Makkon, EiGHT, duncan, Khaja, Skillmister, Ganon - I really appreciate the positive feedback!!
Here's a castle texture. Taking Iamar's advice to work with some cools more. I'm currently starting another one, probably a bit more intricate/designy to break up these plain old bricks haha. Probably some fancy trim. I'll be making heavily damaged versions of these castle textures as well. Critique and comments welcome:
Shown tiling:
And I actually saved my process this time around, in case anyone is interested haha :
brilliant starting with the blue. i'm so attached to my fresh gray canvas it always keeps my colors coming out like lobotomized mud...consider yourself emulated.
Wow looks so nice - really like youre progress. The texturework !
One thing, youre concept castle looks very mighty from this point of view.
The trees on youre last progress let the castle look a bit tiny.
Thought that the tree size should max. be the gate size.?! To keep the impressive scale?
I really like the texture work so far. Not a huge fan of the cliffs currently though. The solid hard edged cliff pieces are fantastic but currently it looks like theres just a green slime poured down it. The smoother areas need to either read more as rubble and dirt, or more as large solid rock.
The brick texture is great when it comes to the execution of it, but what really bugs me are the big seams:
Vertically, there are two big lines. I feel like the bricks there should overlap more, so you get rid of those vertical lines. (unless that's what you're going for...just sort of bugs me is all)
The brick texture is great when it comes to the execution of it, but what really bugs me are the big seams:
Vertically, there are two big lines. I feel like the bricks there should overlap more, so you get rid of those vertical lines. (unless that's what you're going for...just sort of bugs me is all)
I think good way to get away with this would be painting some dirt into cavities, or it can be mortar, wile bricks looks great they seem to be stuck to each other.
Love the under painting approach, thanks for sharing!
I have to concur with Selaznog about the tiling. Those vertical seems just seem more obvious than they need to be - unless, of course, they're intentional for some reason.
Alphavader - Ok, I have scaled down the trees. Thanks:]
RJBonner - Cool, looking forward to it!
Uncookedtrout - No, wasn't going for cool bricks, just looking to add some cool tones for contrast.
Hey guys, I got my current textures in UDK. Haven't altered the cliffs at all yet! I think my bricks are a little small, probably will scale them up. Thoughts?
Selaznog, Argent, Kyuuu - Thanks for pointing out the seams! I have fixed them and also painted a broken version of the brick texture this week. Here it is, and a test in photoshop of how they're blending together. I'm hoping to achieve a similar affect when I do my texture blending on the actual mesh. Critique and comments welcome:
You are hands down my favorite hand painted texture artist, there is SO MUCH eye candy in here! Thank you for the breakdown gif, I really hope you plan to explain your process in more detail at some point!
At first when I saw the broken brick texture on it's own, I was worried, but the way you're blending it in looks awesome. Looks very natural and the colours work well together. Keep going!
Do I spy some mossy bricks in there as well? Loving it, as always. My only concern - and I say concern because I don't know your final vision - is how geometrically stiff your architecture feels. Not sure if the towers are just place-holders but at the moment they're so straight they feel at odds with your gorgeous texture work. I'm positive you can give that castle a much more interesting silhouette and if you're not already planning to, I encourage you to consider it. Keep on arting on!
Gah I love your textures so much, can't wait to see some of that texture blending going on inside UDK.
Not a huge fan of the trees yet, might be a personal taste thing, but the trunk to leaf ratio doesn't work for me. Even though I love the bark texture, I feel like the trunk is to wide for such a tiny cloud (can't think of the right name ) of leaves. I always feel like trunks are huge and bulky when they have to support a lot of branches and leaves.
TL;DR To much trunk, not enough leaves!
Looking forward to see more, inspiring work as always.
TheRealFroman, Kyuuu, tottot, Selaznog, ablaine - Glad you guys like it!
MeintevdS - Yeah, I'm getting a lot of crit on the proportion of the leaves to trunk, so I will expand the canopy, increase the frequency of leaves on the alpha card, while decreasing the actual leaf size - Thanks!
Argent - I thought the castle silhouette and shapes were looking a little boring tooo. So:
Over the last few days I got some great paintovers and critiques from some friends, so here is what I've come up with. I'm undecided on a few little details though still. Help me pick between 1, 2, and 3? 2 has little offshoot towers instead of plain straight ones, and in 3 they are offset. And if anyone else has suggestions/further paintovers, that is appreciated too!:
Out of 1, 2 and 3, I like the 3rd one the most too because of the broken assymmetry. It makes the scene look a bit more approachable, a little bit less iconic.
I feel the re-designed versions remind me more of a fancy aristocrat castle than a defensive military fortress because the building's structures have more ornamental and delicate shapes.
All three of those are a huge improvement! I agree with the general sentiment that the asymmetry of 3 makes it the most interesting. Can't wait to see more!
if you're going for an asymmetrical design for this fortress (castle?) you're going to want to push that approach far more than what you have here.
as you have it here we're looking at a symmetrically designed fortress with one fallen tower in the foreground and two askew towers in the background. it's not a very strong (or to be frank, compelling) asymmetrical design and feels like an afterthought.
an asymmetrical design for your fortress would be a far more appealing design. giving the viewers eye a chance to really explore the structure is far more compelling then having them look right up the middle and maybe spotting one or two different elements (like a fallen tower). changing the fortress to this degree would require a rework of its design completely so I guess it really matters what your goal is with this environment.
Cinderella's Castle is an example of a fortress (castle) designed with an emphasis on asymmetrical design.
TL;DR: an asymmetrically designed fortress would be far more appealing than what you've designed so far. other polycounters have suggested you use the asymmetric option with your fortress. i do not agree with them that you should use those designs because they aren't very strong ones, but i do believe an asymmetrical redesign is in order, and will be more visually appealing than its current design.
EDIT: i re-read the description of the tower as you posted it to see if anything about it specifically sounded symmetrical in design. unless i missed something, that element of its look does seem to be up to you.
Replies
Kyuuu, Christian - Oh, yeah, I totally see about the roots - they could use some more love haha. I think i'll make the roots separate meshes actually, so I can place them however I want around the trees. Then I can have trees on the cliffs too, with roots angling downward.
lamar - Thanks for pointing that out - I shall work on it
Metall - Thank you! :] Yeah, I know there's so much more to do haha! Gotta do itt x] bit by bit
joebount - You are the second person to tell me so, so I will see what I can do about fixing the leaf scale. Once I optimize the trunk, which has many hidden faces atm, I can probably scale all the leaves down a bit and add some more. Thanks for the critique :]
Here's what I'm doing with the cliffs right now (max renders):
And some updated shots from UDK, trying to figure out lighting and stuff:
Critique and comments welcome. This week I will be painting some stone brick textures for the castle (model of which is not done yet!!! Gotta fix it up soon haha.)
So..good.
Small crit on the scaling/composition, the huge tower at the back is creating a bit of a scale conflict to my eyes. Perhaps if some of the smaller forms at the front were repeated or combined with the large tower it would give a clearer indication of scale?
more please.
When I worked on Darksiders 2, we used only a few rock models, but would build entire cliffs and mountains out of them just by scaling and rotating them around, to create the look we wanted. You're doing that halfway now, but I think it will look better to do it one way or the other. Either big custom cliffs, or built with a few or several rock chunks. It's more "expensive" this way, but can be optimized afterwards, if you want. But then again, a lot of engines will handle a lot of tris these days, and this is a portfolio piece, so I would set the priority on presentation; optimization, second. Just some thoughts! Your stuff always looks great, so I'm not too worried.
Can't wait to see more!
http://i.imgur.com/sG8v6.png
This is just perfect, i lose my word. Your stuff is incredibly inspiring !!
Congrats
benji - I will do something to fix the scale of the back tower. Some things back there are scaled up to compensate for the extreme FOV, but perhaps I overcompensated. Thanks for pointing it out:]
Owl - Thanks for such an in-depth explanation! That really helps. Also, I had no idea you worked on Darksiders 2 . . . big fan, heh x]
Makkon, EiGHT, duncan, Khaja, Skillmister, Ganon - I really appreciate the positive feedback!!
Here's a castle texture. Taking Iamar's advice to work with some cools more. I'm currently starting another one, probably a bit more intricate/designy to break up these plain old bricks haha. Probably some fancy trim. I'll be making heavily damaged versions of these castle textures as well. Critique and comments welcome:
Shown tiling:
And I actually saved my process this time around, in case anyone is interested haha
Cannot wait to see the end of this it's going to look amazing.
Get in some distance fog and that should fix the mountain issue I'd say.
One thing, youre concept castle looks very mighty from this point of view.
The trees on youre last progress let the castle look a bit tiny.
Thought that the tree size should max. be the gate size.?! To keep the impressive scale?
totally enjoying your progress
Vertically, there are two big lines. I feel like the bricks there should overlap more, so you get rid of those vertical lines. (unless that's what you're going for...just sort of bugs me is all)
I think good way to get away with this would be painting some dirt into cavities, or it can be mortar, wile bricks looks great they seem to be stuck to each other.
I have to concur with Selaznog about the tiling. Those vertical seems just seem more obvious than they need to be - unless, of course, they're intentional for some reason.
Keep going!
Alphavader - Ok, I have scaled down the trees. Thanks:]
RJBonner - Cool, looking forward to it!
Uncookedtrout - No, wasn't going for cool bricks, just looking to add some cool tones for contrast.
Hey guys, I got my current textures in UDK. Haven't altered the cliffs at all yet! I think my bricks are a little small, probably will scale them up. Thoughts?
Selaznog, Argent, Kyuuu - Thanks for pointing out the seams! I have fixed them and also painted a broken version of the brick texture this week. Here it is, and a test in photoshop of how they're blending together. I'm hoping to achieve a similar affect when I do my texture blending on the actual mesh. Critique and comments welcome:
Not a huge fan of the trees yet, might be a personal taste thing, but the trunk to leaf ratio doesn't work for me. Even though I love the bark texture, I feel like the trunk is to wide for such a tiny cloud (can't think of the right name
TL;DR To much trunk, not enough leaves!
Looking forward to see more, inspiring work as always.
MeintevdS - Yeah, I'm getting a lot of crit on the proportion of the leaves to trunk, so I will expand the canopy, increase the frequency of leaves on the alpha card, while decreasing the actual leaf size - Thanks!
Argent - I thought the castle silhouette and shapes were looking a little boring tooo. So:
Over the last few days I got some great paintovers and critiques from some friends, so here is what I've come up with. I'm undecided on a few little details though still. Help me pick between 1, 2, and 3? 2 has little offshoot towers instead of plain straight ones, and in 3 they are offset. And if anyone else has suggestions/further paintovers, that is appreciated too!:
Working on the castle trim sheet right now!
Thanks,
Jess
I like 3, less symmetry~
Good luck jess
I feel the re-designed versions remind me more of a fancy aristocrat castle than a defensive military fortress because the building's structures have more ornamental and delicate shapes.
Keep it up!
as you have it here we're looking at a symmetrically designed fortress with one fallen tower in the foreground and two askew towers in the background. it's not a very strong (or to be frank, compelling) asymmetrical design and feels like an afterthought.
an asymmetrical design for your fortress would be a far more appealing design. giving the viewers eye a chance to really explore the structure is far more compelling then having them look right up the middle and maybe spotting one or two different elements (like a fallen tower). changing the fortress to this degree would require a rework of its design completely so I guess it really matters what your goal is with this environment.
Cinderella's Castle is an example of a fortress (castle) designed with an emphasis on asymmetrical design.
TL;DR: an asymmetrically designed fortress would be far more appealing than what you've designed so far. other polycounters have suggested you use the asymmetric option with your fortress. i do not agree with them that you should use those designs because they aren't very strong ones, but i do believe an asymmetrical redesign is in order, and will be more visually appealing than its current design.
EDIT: i re-read the description of the tower as you posted it to see if anything about it specifically sounded symmetrical in design. unless i missed something, that element of its look does seem to be up to you.