Trying to model realistic environments

pongstah

WIP PROGRESS





MUSEUM ENTRANCE

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Mythology scene from concept to engine.  (looks like engine part will have to wait until I get sorted out so in the mean time I paint paint paint) 

Hi, I need help picking which image to continue with. Thanks in advance, crits also welcome.

BeserK

They both look great so far, I really like the rain through the god rays.
The blurriness in the first pic is a little off-putting, make it looks like a miniature scene :P

Auldbenkenobi

I really like the first one, the sense of scale seems to work better.

samnwck

The first one is definitely neat and I think it has more visually interesting design elements in the foreground.

j.god

I really like the first one as well. I might darken some of the clouds in the upper left to create some spacial effects. The lightning bold on the far right, although might be physically possible, looks odd with the other two striking directly down. But I think overall its much more dramatic and visually interesting. I might vary up the bird formation as well.

Great work and I look forward to seeing your progress on this piece.

pongstah

Thanks for the replies. Here's some more work done on the first image. I've lost the sense of scale from moving the elements around. I'll try to fix that later. Also hid the foreground layer, can't seem to get the DOF to look right at all, might also just delete the lightning, it looks a bit distracting.

pongstah

Haven't worked on fixing the individual details yet. Here are some new revisions, which composition is better? The first one's viewpoint is the same level as the torso of the statue, the second one's viewpoint is lower and is angled higher almost looking up, will need to change the statue's pose and perspective to reflect this. Thanks.

Boozebeard

the first one is way better in terms of the position of the monument at sea.

pongstah

Thanks for the input, made changes to the overall composition. Made the scene a bit simpler to bring the focus back to the landscape and statue.

jsargent

This is nice, I still much prefer the first composition though. Gonna follow this one!

TylerKnighton

love the work you did on this, though i liked seeing the rain inside the god rays. It gave it a Heavenly feeling

pongstah

Thanks, I'm thinking of saving the godrays and rain for a different composition, it makes the scene look gloomy to me. For this one, I'm going for going for a calmer mood.

I'll add brush strokes later for a painterly look.

pongstah

Started painting, haven't detailed the statue yet.

pongstah

Flipped the image to check if the compostition is ok. Going to add a platform on the foreground pillar for the char to stand on.

Starting to look more like an office environment than ancient Greece. I'll change the camera angle to show more of the landscape.



Removed post effects.

Can anybody pm me a link where I can purchase QUALITY high resolution unedited landscape pictures? I already have bookmarks for HDRI and tileable textures but I haven't found a site with quality high resolution landscape images. Thanks.

pongstah

Trying some stock photo for the background before I buy.

The atmosphere looks a bit ominous atm, I'm actually after divine but not too surreal. Not sure how to achieve this yet.



paintovers




...actually melancholic seems to work for this shot, so sticking to this palette




skin render test, not sure if adding a character will improve or ruin the composition



going in circles




...better get back to modeling

pongstah

more lighting and composition study. I feel that I can't move forward until I nail this part down.

pongstah

taking my time with this key art making exercise to get it looking presentable.

Stirls

I saw another artist here working with the golden mean in their environment. Perhaps consider it when you're working on the composition?



http://www.apogeephoto.com/may2014/how-to-use-the-golden-ratio-to-improve-your-photography.shtml

I really like how you've made the statue absolutely massive. The mountain as a backing also helps to accentuate this. I think that works better than the watery, island background you currently have. Perhaps try casting a mountain shadow over some of the statue?

pongstah

Thanks for the link, never really paid attention to this during college...haha

Yes I think removing the mountain changed the dynamics of the image greatly. I'll try to incorporate it back into the design somehow, probably indirectly as you've suggested.

pongstah

Thanks. I think this iteration is closer to the mood I was aiming for.

Here I tried to loosely follow the Fibonacci spiral. Still need to work on softening the effect of the clashing diagonal lines. Probably also need to change the pose to a have an organic flowing motion.

I'm thinking of putting an ancient relic on the left platform to help guide the flow of the compostiion

Stirls

Definitely liking this one. My only complaint would be that the platform sorta seems to be out of nowhere. Have you considered what might be in the background? What about removing the cropping/black bars?

I think it just feels a bit barren currently. I can see what you're trying to do, though. You need to tie it together!

pongstah

Yes the platform looks a bit odd, balancing this part has become a bit of a challenge. I want the scene to look like it's part of a large city without showing too many structures. You're right about the background, I think I can just put something there instead of having a platform in the foreground, perhaps a large waterfall or fountain structure.

pongstah

I'm thinking of just replacing my Athena mesh with Poseidon, seems more logical, less accessories to detail as well.

pmiller001

the last few, it looks like the statue is on vacation and taking pictures for post cards.
All jokes aside, compositionally I like your earlier iterations better, specifically the 6th post. IT has a much better sense of scale IMO.

pongstah

Thanks. Yes I've lost the dramatic mood from the first iterations, still trying to figure out how to tackle this challenge.

pongstah

I think bringing the camera closer to the statue restored the original sense of scale and height. Now I can probably put a freeze on the positioning and start detailing.

The structure on the left is a tall wall/pathway that I will detail with small winged statues.

CarlCraft

I'm not really convinced on the statues scale. I think I know what's bothering me; Even though it's cloudy and gray, the statue is lit as if there's a clear blue sky. If the statue truly is massive it would be surrounded by fog, or at least be dimmed by it. I did a super quick paint over:

Also brought back the birds (I know they're actually leaves, just imagine they're birds ) for scale reference. I think the details to the structure will help with this, but having birds ON the statue will be a more hands on reference.
Edit: I also think bringing in some background elements would push it to the next level. Currently there is foreground (structure) and "middle" ground (p.o.i: statue) but no background. Bring back mountains maybe?

Stirls

Have you thought of placing a person there? That would most definitely show us the scale. As callebo said, a more obvious background would also work well, for sure.

pongstah

callebo wrote: »

I'm not really convinced on the statues scale. I think I know what's bothering me; Even though it's cloudy and gray, the statue is lit as if there's a clear blue sky. If the statue truly is massive it would be surrounded by fog, or at least be dimmed by it. I did a super quick paint over:

Also brought back the birds (I know they're actually leaves, just imagine they're birds ) for scale reference. I think the details to the structure will help with this, but having birds ON the statue will be a more hands on reference.
Edit: I also think bringing in some background elements would push it to the next level. Currently there is foreground (structure) and "middle" ground (p.o.i: statue) but no background. Bring back mountains maybe?

I see what you mean, sometimes though, I observe this fogging depends on the time of day. not really sure. Could be the background looking really lowres and flat thats contributing to the lack of massiveness on the statue.

Yes I'm thinking of adding birds but I'm not sure what kind to put there. I was planning on putting seagulls at first but at that height I imagine only predatory birds can reach it.

For the background I might put other tall massive structures far in the background to establish depth.

Stirls wrote: »

Have you thought of placing a person there? That would most definitely show us the scale. As callebo said, a more obvious background would also work well, for sure.

Yes I plan to add a character there. Maybe a common villager... or a champion type. Part of me wants to add some magic-scifi elements to the theme similar to those found in the Thor movies' universe, part of me wants to keep it just fantasy-magic... in the mean time here's some characters I'm working on. Thanks.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2220914

pongstah

bump 

pongstah

bumping 

pongstah

  

pongstah

Switching over to painting once again, suggestions are welcome. Tell me if there is already a too similar design out there so I can change mine.



*made a separate threads for this here so I can get foused feedback.

pongstah

Trying to wrap this up as quickly as I can. I think I have a solid composition now with the foreground, middle ground and background in place. In the foreground I'm thinking of putting a stone block and a person resting his hand on it and in the background some buildings. The My goal is still for this scene to look more fantasy than realistic but but with the statue being of normal size proportionate to other structures in the scene instead of my original monument sized composition. I want the scene to look like the veiwer is entering a new location or has reached a new area. For the fantasy part, I'm thinking of adding a glowing tattoo on the characters hand. I'm still at a lost on how to compose the background buildings though, thanks in advance for any suggestions on this.