Hyperborean landscape

saija

Hello!

I have started a new environment again! This will be one of my final projects for the university, so I hope to learn a lot from it.

I'm using Maya and UDK, and I'm currently learning Mudbox and Worldmachine.

Here are three quick concepts I made to illustrate what I'm planning on doing.
I'm hoping to create a sad environment without relying too much on the subject matter; I decided to keep the aqueduct whole rather than in ruins. I'm relying on the colour scheme and shapes to convey an atmosphere of a cold, desolate place. Basically I'm trying to create a depressing world by using beautiful things.



Blockmap in UDK:


Architecture in Mudbox:


Landscape currently in UDK:


I always love to hear critique and advice!

Mr Smo

very nice start! i'm looking forward to this, my only crit at the moment is the zbrush looks a bit blobby but that could be fixed with a nice texture. have you looked at age of conan for refernce?

saija

Thank you!
I had huge problems trying to export the heightmap from mudbox, for some reason it always ended up really flat (most of the time it wouldn't extract anything at all), but I'm hoping to fix it in UDK and texturing.
This is what it looked like in mudbox:

saija

Here is what I have so far.



Not yet any other models except for the aqueduct pieces. I still have to give them some love and curve the whole thing a bit.

Kerstin

That's very nice! I love the details on the textures! Looking forward to see it finished.

saija

Thank you

I started adding foliage and rocks.
At the moment UDK absolutely refuses to build lighting, but in the meanwhile I tried to find some interesting screenshot angles for later:

J0NNYquid

I like it so far. Your idea of making a desolate environment using beautiful things instantly brought to mind the "destroyed beauty" concept from the Gears of War series. I'd really dirty up that aqueduct, make it look weathered, as if it's been abandoned and unused for years.

saija

A few people have suggested making the aqueduct more dirty, so I'll get to it soon!

I have been working on organic props and foliage now. A bit worried that I might be filling the scene up too much and suffocating it.

saija

It has been a while, but it's all done now!
Great learning experience with Mudbox and WorldMachine, feeling much more confident about making rocks now.



Favourite sculpts, even if all of them didn't make it to the final scene.



Final polycount for one aqueduct piece is 2804. Textures are both 1024x1024.



Favourite texture! (1024x1024)



Modular castle pieces. I'm using the architecture as a distant backdrop, so I reused a lot of the textures and tried to keep the polycount quite low.

MisterSande

looks sweet dude.