Critque Wanted/WIP: Hand Painted SCI-FI Egyptian Environment
Howdy all!
So, I've decided to finally post some stuff on here, as I'm rusty and in dire need of feedback from you folks to get back into the swing of things. I know a lot of stuff I want to do to this environment myself, but it never hurts to get other's perspective whilst I start working on it.
This project is something I started/completed early last year, and I am coming back to kick its ass!
(horrendous concept art I did at the time to get idea of layout)
I decided to do something a bit crazy mixing sci-fi with Egypt, but I think with critique and with more love thrown at this environment now that I've developed further, I should be able to make this a solid piece for my portfolio, or at least salvage some parts.
Some things are un textured due to time restraints at the time(university assignment), they'll be something I'll work on eventually, I think my priority at the minute is playing with the lighting and improving the sphinx hotel vastly. I have a lot I can see I need to work on already, but I'm still interested in what you guys think!
Here's some back shots showing gaps I hadn't intend to develop for, but can now I have more time.
The idea was supposed to be in the future, some guy decides to make a themed hotel/resort, and this is the result I came up with. Because of time restraints with balancing 5 modules I didn't get as far with this as I'd like but I think I'd be able to go further now hopefully.
I did do some vertex blending too with sand on the floor, which I can make bigger if I want to due to it being done with tiles. I did intend to add more variety to these tiles.
I also made a grass texture as a study to practice tiling textures and hand painting, was hoping you could critque this too, it didnt get used for this project but helped me practice for it.
And a grass texture I did whilst practicing hand painted, for feedback on whether or not i'm getting the right jist of the style or not.
Tree:
Around 200 polys, and the tree part can be rotated to add some "range" to how they look even though there was only one tree.
Some Textures used for the project, including tiling floor texture.
skybox Texture:
Because it's in space, I don't know if I'm missing out a great opportunity to do some cosmic stuff and add some more colors into the scene, like purples pinks and greens that you're not getting a lot of at the moment?
All feedback and critique welcome
So, I've decided to finally post some stuff on here, as I'm rusty and in dire need of feedback from you folks to get back into the swing of things. I know a lot of stuff I want to do to this environment myself, but it never hurts to get other's perspective whilst I start working on it.
This project is something I started/completed early last year, and I am coming back to kick its ass!
(horrendous concept art I did at the time to get idea of layout)
I decided to do something a bit crazy mixing sci-fi with Egypt, but I think with critique and with more love thrown at this environment now that I've developed further, I should be able to make this a solid piece for my portfolio, or at least salvage some parts.
Some things are un textured due to time restraints at the time(university assignment), they'll be something I'll work on eventually, I think my priority at the minute is playing with the lighting and improving the sphinx hotel vastly. I have a lot I can see I need to work on already, but I'm still interested in what you guys think!
Here's some back shots showing gaps I hadn't intend to develop for, but can now I have more time.
The idea was supposed to be in the future, some guy decides to make a themed hotel/resort, and this is the result I came up with. Because of time restraints with balancing 5 modules I didn't get as far with this as I'd like but I think I'd be able to go further now hopefully.
I did do some vertex blending too with sand on the floor, which I can make bigger if I want to due to it being done with tiles. I did intend to add more variety to these tiles.
I also made a grass texture as a study to practice tiling textures and hand painting, was hoping you could critque this too, it didnt get used for this project but helped me practice for it.
And a grass texture I did whilst practicing hand painted, for feedback on whether or not i'm getting the right jist of the style or not.
Tree:
Around 200 polys, and the tree part can be rotated to add some "range" to how they look even though there was only one tree.
Some Textures used for the project, including tiling floor texture.
skybox Texture:
Because it's in space, I don't know if I'm missing out a great opportunity to do some cosmic stuff and add some more colors into the scene, like purples pinks and greens that you're not getting a lot of at the moment?
All feedback and critique welcome
Replies
Also you might want to think about breaking up the floors a little bit. The texture your using does tile a lot...but you have very large flat surfaces...breaking it up with some trim or something might help.
The sphinx is lined up fine with the two pools, but imagine walking down those stairs. There is no obvious path, just a cluster of obstacles.
I did a botch job in Photoshop to show you how it could be improved:
Well I've done a few bits, I still have a hell of a lot to do I know that, I've got some distance to travel.
Firstly, design amendments. I totally agree @Sushi, and I have taken your advice and cut back the river part to make room, and cleared the front entrance a little bit which was way too messy.
Also, as the second picture shows, I've revamped the floor texture. I still need to do a few variations to help make it less obvious it's tiling, but overall I'm a lot happier with the texture, but don't feel its quite finished yet, will probably come back to it again later to break it up.
Aswell as this, I've started to tackle the foremost important problem with this scene which was the sphinx's lack of detail/ugliness. I'm currently taking my time with this as I have had a lot of fun painting so have put off the modelling a fair bit haha, but will finish its design soon, but overall can say I'm happier(keyword, happier, not happy), but very interested in what you've got to say about it's alterations.
AND last but not least, I have been trying to figure out a better way to do those cliffs, and have practiced painting and such. I am currently working on some rocks to break it up a bit, but overall what do you guys think to my cliffs? I am unhappy with these myself, I feel like they don't feel "cliffy" enough, and act more like ledges.
Mostly I'm eager for feedback of the sphinx, as that's the core problem at the moment. I love hand painting, it's so much fun.
Screenshot of new cliff texture and model in place with vertex blended sand texture on top.
I still need to add the rock models i am modelling to help break it up and make it less flat and predictable, I'm really unsure if this is a good way to do these cliffs though...
Adding to what gsokol said, the sphinx is pretty much the main focus given the size and assumed lighting based on the structure (hotel), but there is too little detail around the face area which is what's causing that weird shading around the mouth.
Specifically regarding the sphinx head: despite it being a building, it's still in the shape of a face. You should get much better visual results if you try to match the edge flow of your sphinx to that of a character's face.
The sphinx itself need a complete overall. It's size is overbearing the scene. The head is humongous, and really need an anatomy and edge flow pass.
FTIW, I have a similar scene I might finish some day. Might give you some ideas http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/788940-Papyrus-%28working-title%29-Complete-Documentation