[CE3] Forest
polycounter lvl 6
FINAL
ORIGINAL POST
Hi guys
since I've always had (and still have) a very very hard time making all that natural stuff (trees, foliage in general, rocks, ground materials, etc) I figured I'd start a natural environment to really push my skills when it comes to natural elements.
Every time I try to make trees/rocks/foliage it looks weird to me and not realistic enough so I guess there is definitely something I'm doing wrong.
A huge inspiration for me are Rex McNish's and Steve Oberman's foliage work but it seems like I'm not able to catch up with their amazing vegetation.
Alright enough bla bla, here is what I have so far:
This is all the stuff I made so a bit more isolated so you can see better:
Next I plan to create a lot more ground cover plants like ferns, dandelion,etc before I move on and create some tree stumps and broken branches/trees. There is a lot more foliage to add in general.
I also want to create a little chapel (maybe ruined) to give the whole thing some kind of focal point/hero piece and tell the viewer what time it is set in.
If you want to see texture flats, wires, high poly renders, etc just give me shout and I will be more than happy to post them so you can have a closer look!
Would love to hear what you think and of course looking forward to some crits so I can finally start improving on this stuff!
Thanks in advance!
Replies
How exactly did you do these ivy leafes growing on that tree? just planes with leaftexture/alpha arranged arount the tree or any special workflow for that?
Thanks!
Yeah, it's actually just like you said. I made the ivy as a seperate asset (just planes with textures) and just placed it around the tree trunk.
@mettigel:
Thanks for your comment. Can you specify what exactly about them is looking strange?
The colors are not right on that screenshot due to a problem with the shader but I fixed that already as well as the weird plane I've used for them. They are all much flatter now and don't have this strange, trumpet like shape. Do you think I should re-do them?
These were my main references:
Jeff Parrot has a section on his blog that explains it a little bit more.
http://blog.environmentartist.com/?p=1127
Also, the grass is consistently dense everywhere that there is grass. It may help to vary that density up a little bit. I would expect the grass beside the dirt path to be a little bit shorter and less dense.
I hope this helps! Keep it up! The assets themselves look fantastic!
I would only add to the other comments that your idea of ferns etc will really beef up the ground and add some variation. Go to any wooded area and there is usually less grass and more coverage by various plants etc
The comments about the flowers are spot on, I think they look too straight and sharp.
Keep it up.
Thank you!
Thanks for the link! Very useful! Even though I understand the theory, I don't really get how to do this in practice and really improve the value separation. Do you have any particular tips on that?
I definitely agree about the grass and it's one of the next things on the plan to fix this ugly "seam" between the path and grassy parts as well as get some areas with less grass.
Thanks again!
matt bryan:
Thanks man!
Yeah, I saw it again as I looked on reference photos. In fact, there is a lot less grass than in my scene at the moment. As I said I'm going to fix this soon!
I changed the flowers a bit but only the meshes but I agree that they look pretty unrealistic so I think I'll redo them.
So I did a few things.
I made some more ground cover plants like I planned some dandelion and ferns and also some generic ground cover leaves.
Also here is a shot of the flowers and how they look atm:
I also changed the lighting slightly and made it a bit more realistic and foggy to give it some kind of an "early morning" feel. Apart from that I added a bit more DOF to seperate the foreground from the background a bit more and get rid of some of that noisy values Tobbo mentioned.
Finally I started the blockout for the small chapel.
I have some problems with separating the interior from the exterior since working with VisAreas is a bit difficult. If anyone knows more about that I would be happy about hearing it.
Thanks guys!
From a beginner in this landscape game art, your stuff is motivational to say the least.
Mike
Thank you!
Lots of broken stuff like branches, tree stumps and broken trees are definitely part of the plan as well as dirty puddles! The Animal tracks are a great idea actually, will sure take those in!
TeotiGraphix:
Ha, thanks man, glad to hear you like it!
It's rendered in CryEngine 3 which is an awesome engine if you ask me!
So, small update here.
I tweaked the lighting and personally think it looks better now since it's much softer.
What do you guys think?
I have a really hard time figuring out how to do the smaller grass on the side of the path. Should I make some smaller grass patches and splatter them around? Would be happy about any tips on that!
Thanks in advance!
Yeah, I would just make a separate small grass patch asset to spread around.
The lighting and post processing I think plays a large part in value separation for more realistic scenes like this. The last 2 screenshots have much more separation between the middle-ground and background giving it a much cleaner read.
It's looking good. Keep it up!
Hey! Out of curiosity, would you mind giving the poly count on that tree in the foreground, and if possible showing the wire frame?
Just curious about how expensive it is with all those silhouette breaks.
Yeah I feel neebie for sure, the subject line had [CE3], heh I guess that means Cry Engine 3. ;-)
The new renders look great. How high is the camera off the ground?
Thank you!
Yeah, I guess that's what I'm going to do then. Planning to do those small grass meshes tomorrow and then see how it looks.
Popeye9:
Thanks for the crit! Yep, I totally agree! I'll definitely re-do the ivy!
Archarial:
Thanks for your comment! Sure thing, here you go. Screenshot's straight from 3DS Max. You can see the tricount in the top left corner.
EDIT: I know that this is not a maple tree. I just forgot to rename it.
Stormfreek:
Hey man, thank you! Glad you like it!
Yep, really good advice! Did that and it helped a lot!
TeotiGraphix:
Thank you!
Yeah, exactly. But I guess there are lots of people who don't know exactly what those prefixes mean so it's totally okay to ask!
Phu, good question. I guess around 50 centimeters maybe? Not totally sure though, sorry.
So, I worked a bit more on the scene.
I worked a bit on the chapel and applied some first materials to it.
These are the materials I made. Some tiles and wood for the walls. Not totally sure if I should go with wood for the walls or make some rough stone/brick walls. Would love to hear some opinions on that.
Apart from that I made a material for fallen and dried pine needles to break up the grassy areas a bit more. There is is still too much grass so I'm going to make it a lot less tomorrow.
Having a bit of a hard time figuring out how the terrain layer blending in CE3 works exactly so the blend is very blocky and harsh at the moment. Going to find this out soon hopefully since it really looks bad like it is now.
At the moment the VisArea still gives me a bad headache...I managed to get a transition from outside to inside but sadly the whole chapel (in- as well as outside) are now inside the VisArea and get lit by the environment probe inside the VisArea (i.e. not affected by outside lighting) and that results in a very bright interior (as you can see on the screenshot: The interior is very washed out, I would like it to be a lot darker). Does anyone maybe have any ideas on that? I would be grateful to hear them!
Thanks in advance guys!
Cheers
Thank you!
Yep, I agree. I'm working on a stone wall material right now and will post screenshots as soon as I got it done.
I'm using the EaaS version.
locater16:
Thanks!
Interesting tipp! So you think around 5.9 - 6k tris for a big tree is feasible?
I still think my firs look strange for some reason. Does anyone know some good tutorials on branch distribution on firs?
Also, where you have sub_branches growing off main trunks, they're not flowing with the growth of the tree. Check out more reference for that.
Overall, looking good.
Oh my...!
Thanks a lot for your crits!
Really happy to see a post from you here!
Here is a small update:
First of all I re-structured the firs to and re-made their trunks to make them a bit more realistic and adress the issues RexM mentioned.
Second I made the first broken trunk/branch and oriented it on RexM's broken trunks since I absolutely love the way they look and also wanted to practice sculpting such things.
Here is the low poly in marmoset and the high poly in ZBrush.
Not really satisfied with the bark though. I just don't get how to sculpt really nice looking tree bark. Definitely a point I need to work on. Would be happy about tips on that.
Here are two shots showing it in the scene and also the current state of the scene besides of some lighting tweaks.
And lastly I made a new road and tweaked the lighting a bit.
Next up is to finish the stone wall texture for the chapel and make some more broken stuff.
C&C is appreciated!
Thanks guys!
Oh and happy new year to all of you!
Some update here.
I'm trying to make all this a bit more natural looking so I spread around a bunch of smaller stuff like some broken branches, some bushes, etc.
Let me know what you think, all C&C is appreciated!
Thank you!
Parallax mapping never seems to look right, probably why no on ever ships it. There's also alpha stippling artifacts on a bush to the left of the road, I'm not sure where or why that's showed up.
Thanks for your crit! I agree about the rocks. Just toned down the effect and it looks way better. Seems like POM is a case of less is more...
locater16:
Thank your for your comment!
I see what you mean. I checked it in engine but it's not visible there for some reason. Seems to be something with the screenshots. I'll check it next time when I take a screenshot and try to figure out where the problem is.
So, I didn't really like what I had so far so I deleted the map I had a started over again.
I felt like I should make the area a little bit bigger so that the scene felt more like a forest rather than just some path in the middle of nowhere.
This is what I have now, very WIP of course!
Still I feel like my vegetation (especially the trees and grass) don't look realistic enough but I can't really tell what exactly is causing it.
I took some pictures from Ryse as a reference for the layout and placement since they really nailed down the natural environments (especially the grass!) and tried to reproduce their color scheme and the look of their grass...didn't work so good.
Would love to hear what you think and maybe also some tips on how to make my vegetation more realistic.
Thanks guys!
Also, thanks for linking to those two foliage artists. Their stuff is pretty great. Although I will add one more to the mix!
http://everettgunther.weebly.com/
Ah yeah, I know Everett's works. Super amazing stuff and his foliage indeed looks pretty awesome!
The only thing I can think of is to tint the bottom of the grass brown so it has a nice gradient going up. It could help it blend in better with the ground.
Hope this helps
Thanks for your reply!
Tinting the bottom of grass brown is a very good idea! Just did that and it helps a lot!
Thanks!
Sweetangel0467:
Thanks!
Yeah I'm definitely going to populate the tree trunks and roots with some moss and lichen to make them look better!
Thank you!
I originally didn't wanted to make this a fantasy forest but since I don't have an exact concept I'm following and always loved this high fantasy I decided to bring in an elven ruin to add some main focus point and a point of interest.
I'll keep the forest realistic but will orient the style of the elven ruins a bit on the ones seen in Dragon Age Inquisition.
I made a super quick, super rough blockout for the ruins to evaluate their style:
If someone has any suggestions/ideas please let me know!
Would also love to hear some opinions if I you think it's good to go for a fantasy type environment or not and also what you think of the style of the ruins!
Thanks in advance!
Thanks for your reply!
Good to hear! Wasn't really sure about it.
godejon:
Thank you!
And thanks for the crit!
Yeah, it's actually the same on all the trees currently. I'll definitely going to make some more variations when I get to make some more (and different kinds of) trees.
Bit of an update:
I started to make some textures for the ruins and added some elements to them but I think the textures look way to boring at the moment. I will also add some vertex painting to the wall pieces soon to give them some more of a ruined look.
What do you think about the textures/layout/general style/idea of the ruins?
All C&C is really appreciated!
Thanks guys!
Cheers!
Update!
I worked a bit more on the ruins themselves (re-made the brick texture) and also re-made the ivy.
Apart from that I made a little cave to go below the collapsed ruin floor.
Cave is obviously far from being finished yet!
Also sorry for the pretty low res screenshots. Haven't figured out how to take hires shots inside CE3 yet. Anytime I try it only captures a small part of the image instead of the entire frame for some reason.
All C&C is very appreciated! Thanks guys!
I'm not sure if the tower ruin is possible the way it currently is.... the walls are very thin, I think it would have collapsed already.. (wind).. if you want it to be this high it might be a good idea to have more of the tower standing to support it
I'm super nitpicky here.. so I could be wrong.. just something to consider
I'd also consider thicker walls in general.. if this was meant for defense.. it shouldn't fall apart so easily.. medieval fortresses had walls that were atleast a meter in thickness.. so maybe two or 3 bricks in thickness atleast?
Thanks man!
Cay:
Thanks for your crit! I totally agree about the thickness of the walls! They are way too thin! I've had a look at a lot of reference images again and you're totally right! Will fix that right away!
Thanks again!
Composition-wise, the detailed, tiling sun tiles seem a little out of place. They are kinda noisy, and seem a little too intact to be right next to that big hole. I wonder if something simpler with more signs of wear would fit the scene better.
Really amazing stuff! Keep posting!
Would agree, otherwise amazing work! Go go go:poly142:
Thanks for the reply and the crit! Yeah, I did that, hopefully it looks better now.
atomander:
Thanks!
I agree about the tiles. I removed the sun and added some more wear to them so they look a bit more beaten up. Maybe I'm going to add some more broken variations.
locater16:
Thank you!
Update!
I worked a bit more towards that Dragon Age Inquisition look I want to achieve and therefore removed most of the fog and DOF and also tweaked the lighting a bit. Apart from that, I made the walls a lot thicker.
Also still no high res screenshots, still couldn't figure out how to make them sadly.
Would love to hear what you think!
Thanks in advance for any C&C!
Cheers!
It does, however, fuck up when you have a depth of field.. since it keeps the settings but the blur goes over a larger screenspace and so your end result won't look like what you see in the editor.
But no worries, I figured it out and it works fine now!
Thanks a lot anyway.
Finally HiRes!
Also started to add some wooden structures to the cave (story wise they have been added to prevent the rest of the structure from collapsing).
C&C is appreciated!
Hey mate
http://www.cryengine.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=311&t=92863
I already figured out how to do it (it's so easy and took me so long to get it to work... -.-)
Thanks again!