[CE3] Environment for Witcher 3 Concept art.

justcraske

First time posting to Polycount, so please excuse any noobiness I may possess.

I found the concept below and have been working on turning it into an environment for a university project I am currently undergoing.

(this isn't my concept it is that of CD Projekt Red - I am just doing a fan art spin on the piece)







I am happy for people to be hypercritical of whatever they wish and if anyone could offer any advice it will be welcomed and appreciated.

Many thanks!

Kobalt Kiwii

This is really cool! good work it'd be great to get some cubemaps around the place to get these floors looking as shiney as they do in the concept. I'd be careful of the contrast in the ceiling between the struts and the area inbetween. at the moment becuase they're almost opposite values it just doesn't sit right. Some nice rugs/skins on the floor will make it really look nice watch out for the saturation in your lights as the concept is quite desaturated yellow and yours seem fairly saturated orange. Lastly I'd be careful that things like the lectern don't become too small, the concept one looks pretty darn weighty.

Anyway, its looking really nice so keep it up!

Tensza

Looking good so far, the only things I see with it are the really harsh look of the whitish grey on the arches and then the dark browns just seem to not fit together and also in the concept the room looks really cluttered but with yours it just seems that the props are a little too small. Other than that though its looking really good, and nice to see it as a WIP instead of the final 'masterpiece'

Keep up the good work

justcraske

Update for those watching this thread.


@Kobalt - Yeah, I am planning on using cubemaps once I get the lighting right, you may also notice perhaps more than half of it is purely diffuse textures at the moment which is why I haven't used them just yet. In regards to the ceilings, I've been told that a lot so I've been thinking of completely revamping the walls, the tops of the pillars (as in just the texture) and the roof and roof struts to give it a more coherent structural look sort of something like the below, however I will play with the colour a little to make it fit with the scene a little better.


Also I have fluffed around with the saturation of light, to give it a semi realistic feel whilst keeping to the concept (It probably will change again at some point knowing me), added shadows and effects to that light to let it become a more dynamic environment. Also I have made the lectern more weighty as you said and added textures to the lectern, candle wall pieces (in progress) and water pot (which isn't that visible).

@Tensza - Again I agree, the arches don't match the scene that much they are way too light and to be honest I am not really digging them :P As I said to Kobalt I will probably revamp them shortly along with the walls to keep a coherent style within the environment - I am actually really looking forward to doing this. Also, I agree, I need to clutter the environment up a little more, some things like the candle-stand are completely off and therefore off-putting, but I do have some models to add, like the ornaments on the table, books, furs on the floors and some of the furniture, that sort of thing. I figure I will probably deviate a little from the concept on this one just to fill out the environment that little more.

Thank you guys for your critique and kind words. Keep them coming

Mr Significant

A lot of work to do here. Cant read this wall of text, tired now.

Few things that I can see now:

Pillar on the middle, on the concept is sharp on corners. I mean, you have one smoothgroup on model.

As for the floor tiles: black tiles are too black. Maybe some mid-desaturated, blueish color, for those.

Subbed. Love witcher, so It's very interesting project. Still early WIP do say anything.

RobeOmega

I feel many of your proportions are off

justcraske

Hey guys, sorry I've not been around, I've been trying to work up a storm. From now on messages will be concise.

Here's the newest ver with the log and replies below.


Log:
- Roof and roof runner remade (added geometry and changed texture)
- Altered fireplace
- Added soot to roof and top of fireplace
- Added scorch marks to necessary parts of fireplace
- Altered geometry of half of assets (supporting damage to change silhouettes)
- Revamped the wall to be more of a stone brick formation and textured
- Altered some current gloss, norms and specs
- Finished all diffuses
- Re-baked very basic cubemaps

@Mr Significant;
- Agree, and changed the fireplace to be more hard of edge (there is also no norms yet, so that also doesn't bode well)
- Floor tiles (I've it noted, although haven't fixed it yet).

@Robeomega;
- Agree, It was a tough call between making it to scale concept or in-game ready (scaled to pre-existing char). I chose the latter. Although tried to keep to the concept as much as possible.

Cay

Really cool concept. ^^
I don't like these giant stone "bricks" on the walls, also.. you got the smaller bricks near the staircase. I feel like they don't really work that well next to each other. You could try scaling the big ones down and/or remove some of the contrast from the texture.
In the concept there's a lot of light coming in from outside through the windows, your room is almost only lit by the fireplace right now.

It's a very nice start nonetheless

Mr Significant

Yep looks better, but as Cay sad: bricks dont fit here. Just madke a wall as on concept. With concrete.

As for lights: U have to adjust your AO, becuase it's too strong now. You can do that in TimeOfDay settings, AOgroundHeight or something like that.

Fireplace looks better. There is no need for normals, you can do tileable texture for marble, or stone.

justcraske

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies.

I decided to keep the bricks, in part because of time spent on them but I did heed both your advice on them in order to make them stand out less (see below) I hope you agree it looks much better now ^^



Log:
- Altered ceiling textures a bit
- Altered brick size for walls and texture slightly
- Brightened floor texture and added more saturation into it also
- Changed the brick wall archway (bottom left)
- Changed interior of brick wall archway (can be seen ever so slightly)

DWalker

I'd tone down the cracks in the white tiles, especially the ones running from one corner to the next.

justcraske

Quick update;
(sorry for the camera angles (im not that great at positioning/ presenting. (The scene is hard to capture well at the moment))







Log;
- Revamped some old textures
- Norms, specs and gloss added
- Floor both lightened and more saturation added to the blues tiles
- Final geometry added to assets

Still a bit more to do until I am happy but I feel it's on the right path.

Next on the list;
- Particles (candles, main fire, some dust? some smoke?, steam)
- Lighting
- Adding in some filler assets (books, furs, water for bath, ornaments?
- Scorch decals

Abrvpt

Looking very good ! The only thing I could suggest is to make the floor Really more uneven. You clearly have some height variations in your normal map, which is good, but it could be even better if your floor geometry had some height variations.

Mr Significant

Also as for the normal map: there is some issues with green channel :



btw looks better and better.

Only: maybe objects, globe, chair. etc, etc, can be more grounded ? I mean, there is almost no shadow/AO under them, so they seem floating near ground. Especially globe.

justcraske

Apologies for leaving this thread unattended, university finished not long after my earlier post and therefore it meant a mad rush to pimp everything up to a better standard overall (everything listed above basically).

Within a week I worked up a storm and produced the below, please note though it's not finished yet and it'd be great if you guys could continue giving critique.








Again, apologies for letting this thread go quiet. I've been recovering from such a stint of work and moving back to my home town.

Please give critique and I'd be sure to work on it!

Thanks for sticking with me guys!

LaurentiuN

Looks good mate, but the actual concept is sooo bright and nice, you need to work more on your lights, some objects are so dark, and try to replace those wall bricks, looks ugly, keep up the good work and don`t be afraid to change things " experiment stuff " to see how it looks.

marcobar

The ribs on the ceiling vaults look a lot better after incorporating the feedback - well done! Sorry to nerd out about medieval architecture (I have a degree in it, so I have an excuse :P ), but there are a couple of things I think are worth mention to make the scene feel more believable:

The column capitals throughout the Witcher games (and many other architectural details) are mostly Norman cushion capitals. The reason I mention this is because they're shaped a little differently than you currently have in the image. This image should give you an idea of what's going on:



It's a minor quibble, I know, but the as you can see the bevel on the semi-circular edges is just a little more pronounced.

The other thing that bothers me a bit is the stone texture in the wall portions surrounded by the arches. The stones all feel too 'regular' to me. Almost like cinder blocks. I think you could get a more medieval look with a mix of small and large stones, set out in irregular courses (rows).

However, all this being said, you're the artist so you have the right to take creative license! The scene also looks great overall, and I'm interested to see how it will all come together!

justcraske

Sorry I haven't replied in a while, I've been juggling projects and life.

Here is where I am at with the environment, as always help is appreciated!






Fixed some stuff!
- Wall now is irregular and more medieval.
- Cracks have been temp taken out of the floor, they will be retextured in but in a less reccuring fashion.
- Ceiling lightened temporarily.
- Darker aspects of scene lightened (until relighting).
- Small asset fixes.

Anyway, onto your guys advice.

@s1dK - The original idea was to have the scene as more of a moonlit room as apposed to the daybreak concept. Just as a trial to see if I could get some of the basic elements of lighting down. But I may well make one of each, so a moonlit version and a daytime version! For now though, I'd just stick to the nighttime one until it's there or there about. Thanks for the advice.

@marcobar - Noted! I will be taking that into account, and by all means lay this stuff on me. It all helps! I'd try and make them a little more defined as in the picture shown. And yeah, the archways do need changing up a little, I may just go over them at some point, although I am generally happy with where they are at the moment but I do agree they could look better!