Fairy Forest in Cryengine (critiques please!)
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Hey guys.
In my final semester of school and just finished my first environment in Cryengine. I was aiming for more of a semi-realistic Fairy Forest, with a sizable dose of fantasy. I'll post a quick ~2 min vid of it, that I'll be using in case I get job offers until my second environment is complete and I can put out a full demo reel.
The second environment I am working on is Edoras from Lord of the Rings. I am completely rebuilding Meduseld (the Hall where Theodin rules from) inside and out, and then the entire town itself and the surrounding area (mountains, plains, etc.). I'll be building the town itself outside the main hall modularly to maximize efficiency, and the estimated completion time for it is in December, at which time I'll be able to use both of these environments for my reel.
I know the environment is lacking breakdowns, but there was just too much content to fit into my time budget. I'll be posting much more breakdown content on my website once it's up. There'll be a couple breakdowns below as well as some screencaps of the environment for the lazy ones who don't want to watch the vid.
Enjoy!
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcSc2crkURw"]Fairy Forest Game Environment in Cryengine - YouTube[/ame]
Portfolio: www.scottmctavish.com
In my final semester of school and just finished my first environment in Cryengine. I was aiming for more of a semi-realistic Fairy Forest, with a sizable dose of fantasy. I'll post a quick ~2 min vid of it, that I'll be using in case I get job offers until my second environment is complete and I can put out a full demo reel.
The second environment I am working on is Edoras from Lord of the Rings. I am completely rebuilding Meduseld (the Hall where Theodin rules from) inside and out, and then the entire town itself and the surrounding area (mountains, plains, etc.). I'll be building the town itself outside the main hall modularly to maximize efficiency, and the estimated completion time for it is in December, at which time I'll be able to use both of these environments for my reel.
I know the environment is lacking breakdowns, but there was just too much content to fit into my time budget. I'll be posting much more breakdown content on my website once it's up. There'll be a couple breakdowns below as well as some screencaps of the environment for the lazy ones who don't want to watch the vid.
Enjoy!
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcSc2crkURw"]Fairy Forest Game Environment in Cryengine - YouTube[/ame]Portfolio: www.scottmctavish.com
Replies
For more info, I basically used layered geo so I could get two shaders, the top layer was a glass shader tweaked pretty heavily, while the bottom layer was masked clear with an animated and illuminated decal, depending on the crystal type.
Just saying. Hope this helps
Looks really cool!
There's some stuff that you could do fairly quickly that I think would really help though.
-Screw around with the dof and the focal length depending on the shot, so that you get a really nice cinematic feel to the environment. Points added for tweaking it in real-time for the video.
-Some of the camera movements are a little jerky and go back and forth, when they seem like they should just fade into different shots (specifically the cave one).
-The overall color values are very very green. Almost monochromatically so. I'd color grade the image so that your shadows have some blue in them, and your light is more yellow / orangey.
-Find a better way of exporting your video. The quality on it is pretty rough when the camera is moving, even at 1080 p. You added all that detail, so find a way to show it at it's best
I didn't want to do too much with the camera moves, in fact I absolutely abhore doing camera animation. I'm just the art guy! But it's always good to improve in all areas, so I will take your suggestions to heart, lincoln.
Also good tip on the colour values, I was trying to find different ways of breaking up the overpowering green of the environment, so I had to rely on tricky lighting and looking back I feel I should have added a few other colourful vegetation pieces to break up the green feeling.
Learned to much from this first environment, can't wait to apply what I've learned to my next piece... excited.
Critiques:
I agree with the above it has a very green wash over everything, making the shodows a nice dark blue tint will add a lot.
I see in your maps display with the foliage that your specularity values are a mono tone grey color. I went to the walk through to double check but your spec maps on the moss rock and most all of your foliage needs some clear cut black and white values to really boost the humidity and general moist air that you have going. Inside the cave itself is very nice where the Trichetra is, you just need to carry that over to the appropriate foliage.
I'll definately have to give it a try with the next vegetation I make, thanks a bunch Spangles!
ps. Your video really reminds me of this one. Take it to the next level!!!!!
[ame="
Agree with lincolnhughes on the camera movements, some are a little jerky.
Also some of the ground areas seem a bit flat, mostly in this image:
You have vines over the rocks, might be nice for them of them to trail across the path to. Lead your eye into the glowy rocks some more
Yeah I remember first making most of the assets - particularly the vegetation - and after a few months of pumping out stuff I have really learned much more about optimization. I'm just thankful that I don't need to LOD anything for actual game use... yet.
Question for those of you working in a studio right now; for an out-of-school environment, would this be considered hire-worthy or do I still have a long way to go? (I know I have no hard surface or architectural work in it, but if it was paired with an equal-quality piece that showed off those skills)
If you make those changes to this piece, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find a job in the industry fairly easily