Jason_Gullion: Blizzard Student art contest

morokeiill

I am working on a piece for the blizzard art contest in a style similar to moonglade, focusing primarily on a uniform cool ambient light, while using several secondary lights to enhance mood. With this project Id like to develop my skills in lighting, texture paint, similar fog effects and simulating water using animated textures, displacement maps and reflection.



id like to simulate a small amount of water flowing out of the well, which will give off a small amount of illumination. And would love any tips and instruction from the community.

some basic reference, more to come:

morokeiill

Here is my reference sheet, to help describe the concept further

morokeiill

some updates

morokeiill

this is my colour sheet, the items are depicted as follows:
bark, unique tree center, wood pannel hut, chimney and stone pieces, roof, water pannels, leaves, flowers and foliage, water, roots, dirt.

I intend to have a solid concept piece for upload shortly.

SaboR1996

What are you rendering this in? This is looking good!

morokeiill

I am currently rendering in vray, but I am working on a udk version

morokeiill

here's an update as we near the deadline xD
over the next few days I intend to finish all my particle effects and include some more simple props like rocks plants and bushes

Gannon

Lose the normal maps - Use them as a part of your texture if you want this to fit into the WoW universe. It's about the volume the maps add, not about dynamic lighting effects.

The Tiling rock texture is missing secondary shapes and the tertiary detail is too noisy imo. Something less consistent through the whole texture but still noticeable and stylized. Try to break down some of Fafs textures you showed in your original post to get the correct look you want to achieve.

I'm not buying the construction method the house uses. It doesn't fit your reference that's using mostly night elf themed architecture. I couldn't really think of any of the races that would build a house in this manner.

You clearly know the tools, you just need to focus in on the art and try to replicate what's already in place as best you can. Good luck on the finish, I can't wait to see the finals for everyone.

morokeiill

Thanks Gannon I agree with the relevance to any current race in the game,yet I noticed the designs for previous winners were creative instances that held grip in the Warcraft universe, but were not specifically connected to the present races. I would indeed like to revisit the design as you noted, to me it does read as abit unrealistic and impossible.

The idea is that some forest dwelling hermit created a house by rooting stone and wood to four trees and through various experiments instilled magic into the trees, he did the same to the well outside of his house, creating a portal that spilled mystic water forth. I will post some more screenshots and texture references momentarily.

Your advice has really helped me see a path for this final week.

morokeiill

morokeiill

feel free to provide comments on the textures
also for the following screenshots I have removed the normal maps

morokeiill

Okay so the project is done deadline was friday. I thought I would just post the remaining pieces of the project for the community to see.

morokeiill

I'll post my texture sheets as well shortly

morokeiill

ducckz

the first final render looks really nice

morokeiill

Thank you it was done in udk

Dethling

My problem with it is: It don't scream WoW to me.
I think your textures are a little to detailed.

Take a look here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-egqBDcTUBcQ/UG7MSlzJ8fI/AAAAAAAAByk/-4k76DHbPVo/s1600/moonkin_pandaria.jpg

Try to ignore the fat moonkin and focus on the wood texture in the back, they are far more stylised then yours.

morokeiill

Yeah sadly I got the same feeling near the end :P I really wish I would of caught onto that earlier on. I'd definetly like to revisit this project in time thank you for the link!!