Fantasy Inn [with Tutorial]

Cordero

Hello people of polycount!

I just finished this Inn here:



2923 triangles
2048 diffuse texture
final images are screenshots from 3dsmax viewport, using flat view mode..

Aaand I was wondering if maybe you guys could help me out with some hardcore critics on it!

I also made a progress gif for those who are interested:



and the tutorial I mentioned in the title I made about hand painting bricks.. I know there are many out there but I have not seen one which was free and narrated, so I decided to make one!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cjgZA_YKCg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cjgZA_YKCg[/ame]

I hope you guys like these stuffs, and can post some critices on this work!

OMGiFARTED

Looks good man. I would suggest in putting a little hit more bump in the normals(though I am looking on my phone) and maybe dirty up the textures just a tad. It's a little too too clean for me. And thanks for the tutorial. I want to do a hand painted scene myself soon. I'm subscribing so if you get any more time to put another tutorial I'll Definetly check it out

Cordero

I'm glad you liked it
Its only a diffuse texture so I can't bump up the normals. Or did you mean something else?

Cibo

My only concern is the stone. The Chimney and the stone wall are too different. The wall stones are not to big but the seams between the stones compared to the chimney.

ayoub44

Thanks for sharing this

Cordero

Cibo: I see what you mean.. a noob mistake on my part thanks for pointing it out!

ayoub44: sure thing

indiePub

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing

Owl

I think this is looking really cool, but the one thing I wonder about, and this is sort of just a general observation about hand painted projects I typically see on Polycount. Often, it seems that a hand painted project goes hand in hand with a low poly asset. And I get that because in the past most games that did the hand painted style also needed to be low poly because they were made for older tech or were an MMO or for a mobile platform.

BUT, we are at a place in the game industry where systems can handle a lot of polygons in games. Polygons are a lot less of a problem on current systems and we are on the verge of next gen systems...

SO, the point is, I would love to see some hand painted stuff that also had higher polygon counts to really push how good they could look. Often handpainted assets really suffer from looking flat and having poor silhouettes, because of their low poly limitation.

And that is my only real crit with your work here. It looks pretty flat in several places. I think the wooden boards on the walls would look better as geo. The roof could also use some extra polys to give it a better silhouette and and make it look less flat.

Also your bricks could use more geo. Push some in, pull some out.

I guess it depends on what you're aiming for here. If you're just trying to make a kick ass hand painted portfolio piece, I would spend more tris. If you are aiming for a nicely painted low poly object, then I think you are really close.

Just some thoughts. Either way, I think it's looking great. Nice work.

S_ource

Owl wrote: »

I think this is looking really cool, but the one thing I wonder about, and this is sort of just a general observation about hand painted projects I typically see on Polycount. Often, it seems that a hand painted project goes hand in hand with a low poly asset. And I get that because in the past most games that did the hand painted style also needed to be low poly because they were made for older tech or were an MMO or for a mobile platform.

BUT, we are at a place in the game industry where systems can handle a lot of polygons in games. Polygons are a lot less of a problem on current systems and we are on the verge of next gen systems...

SO, the point is, I would love to see some hand painted stuff that also had higher polygon counts to really push how good they could look. Often handpainted assets really suffer from looking flat and having poor silhouettes, because of their low poly limitation.

And that is my only real crit with your work here. It looks pretty flat in several places. I think the wooden boards on the walls would look better as geo. The roof could also use some extra polys to give it a better silhouette and and make it look less flat.

Also your bricks could use more geo. Push some in, pull some out.

I guess it depends on what you're aiming for here. If you're just trying to make a kick ass hand painted portfolio piece, I would spend more tris. If you are aiming for a nicely painted low poly object, then I think you are really close.

Just some thoughts. Either way, I think it's looking great. Nice work.

Don't forget handheld stuff like tablets and phones they cant handle to much polys yet.

Owl

@ S_ource - For sure! I don't disagree and I'm not saying there won't be a place still for low poly handpainted assets, because you're absolutely right that there will be. All I'm saying is I think there also could be a place for next gen games with hand painted assets that could use way more tris.

I'm saying I love hand painted stuff and would love to see it on a "canvas" other than low poly assets, because we have the hardware to handle it and it could make for some stunning environments. Just food for thought really.

I'm planning a project to try what I'm talking about, so very soon I'll put my money where my mouth is.

Anyways, don't want to take over this thread with this convo, just a thought about how it might be pushed further.... Sorry for the rant!

Keep going!

Cordero

Owl: Thanks for the great reply! I agree with you a 100% it would be very awesome to see more "next gen" stuff with hand painted textures! I belive the closest you get to that kind of game art is probably Darksiders, where I belive they hand painted most of the stuff, and its also normal mapet..

But why I'm using only diffuse is that because I want to learn to master diffuse maps before moving on to other things like highpoly and normal maps.. I believe its easier for me to learn whats pleasing to the eye on diffuse maps, and then apply those general rules on my highpoly and other next gen things thats coming up!

I'll definitely make a fantasy themed next gen piece thats for sure!

Tobbo

It looks great Cordero. I really like it.

Erafic

I love it Though I'm curious at the result you got there, you seem to be making the textures first and then you change the color afterwards. Is this a change you do through vertex colors?

BradMyers82

Hey man, nice job with this and its really cool of you to go threw all the trouble to make those tutorials.
My main suggestions to make this better would be:

-vary your line work more and take more advantage of your resolution. Currently you have a lot of very dark recessed lines and harsh highlights that don't have a lot of breakup in terms of line thinkness, sharpness, or quality. This makes the textures look more uniform and might be one reason people are asking for more detail or to make it less "clean". (I have the same problem with a lot of my textures as well btw.)

-Again, take advantage of your resolution, look at your image very closely and make sure you are using all your pixels and don't be affraid to go in there with the pencil tool in photoshop and work on antialising by hand.

-Just keep painting on things and play around with other color options when appropriate. The more you move around those pixels and work at it, the less "clean" and more natural the textures will look. Try to really push the values when doing this.

-While not totally necessary, you might want to also consider using some different brushes and give a final pass at things to add some subtle details.

-You might also want to tweak the uv's on the top of that brick wall too, looking pretty stretched there atm.


Great job man, and I agree with Owl that it would be really cool to tackle a higher poly piece next time around. Keep up the good work!

Cordero

Tobbo: thanks!

Erafic: thanks! I use several layer adjustments on my textures (like brightness, or hue/saturation) on top of my hand painted texture, so I can fit all the different textures together. (its all happening inside photshop)

BradMyers82: thanks for the useful advices! I'll most definitely apply those ideas on my next work!