Thanks Sweetangel! Yeah, I know how to do it in UE4 but I meant I don't know how to do it in CE3 (since that's what I'm using).
But no worries, I figured it out and it works fine now!
Thanks a lot anyway.
My bad Been working in that engine so much last couple of days, I assumed without thinking. It's looking really nice atm.
Looks good. Reminds me of dragons age inquisition.
You should check the environments if you haven't very it's similar to what your doing and it might give you some inspiration!
You should also get the Art book. It's pretty awesome. So is the game!!
does the artbook contain some environment art? I've seen so many containing the 10 15 concepts you find everywhere and otherwise just characters and stuff.. meh
btw.. I think he mentioned inquisition as source of inspiration
Yeah it contains both. Got some nice concept art for the environments in it. Worth checking out. You could probably find the majority of it online, i personally just like having a collection of art books i can reach off the shelf at any point.
Ah i didn't read through all the comments just briefly flicked through the images. I instantly got a dragons age vibe going on though which is cool. Thought it would be worth mentioning just incase AkiRa hasn't checked it out and it might draw in extra inspiration for his piece.
Kaine123:
Thats one interesting connotation. Glad you like it!
Sweetangel0467:
Thank you!
Yeah, same for me here. This environment would've been in UE4 if the terrain painting system would've worked correctly.
FemCharles:
Hey, great that I could make you think of DAI since it's lighting and style is one of major sources of inspiration. Sometimes I just start up the game an hop around taking screenshots, it's an amazing game indeed, gameplay, story and art wise.
Thanks for the hint about DAI anyway!
Some update here.
I've worked a bit more on the nature part and made a natural stone wall as well as some more foliage such as some bushes, etc. (Ivy on the tree trunk is to be changed!)
I also played around with the lighting a bit (just for fun though)
Just wanted to ask you guys what you think of the scene in general and if you think I'm on the right track with this?
What do you think about lighting/color and composition?
What do you think is missing/should be added?
Is there something I'm completely overlooking?
Really unsure about these points so I thought I could just ask.
I think it looks really boring for some reason and just don't looks that good overall...do you maybe have an idea what I'm missing/doing wrong?
Thanks a bunch in advance! Any replies are highly appreciated!
I think what your scene might need is some focus points. Like objects for which the viewer can tell he's in a specific part of the level if he ever were to tell another person.
It might not be your intention of having someone walking around in it, but that's a feedback I once got for my scenes I think it's really useful feedback that can be applied in most environments as well.
Try to not use all of your props in one spot btw. I know you're not already doing this but for example, you could have a patch of specific foliage in one spot with a type of flower that grows only there.. Those could be foliage focal points.
What do you think about lighting/color and composition?
What do you think is missing/should be added?
Is there something I'm completely overlooking?
Looking really good overall, I think the direction is solid.
One thing that sticks out to me is that a lot of the scenes are a bit monochromatic or one-note. For example, the large rocks in the exterior near the river don't seem to have much breakup. Try and get some variation in the individual asset like heavy moss or even just subtle color variations in the hues. Then when more assets are placed around them it'll create a very rich harmony.
Similarly, for the castle stuff I'd say consider making a trim texture sheet for interesting details. Something like this (in an architectural style more appropriate for your scene of course):
You've got a very strong foundation in progress, and you can push it further by adding those kinds of elements. Underground lighting is looking great by the way!
edit: here's another example, the breakdowns at the end are particularly helpful
I think because your environments are quite big it lacks focus and composition. You have posted a lot of screenshots but i'm unsure what your final ones are (composition wise.)
Maybe you should work on one shot now and polish that section. Once you've got one shot down you can grab a few more and carefully place props to make the most of your composition.
Sweetangel0467:
Thank you!
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm planning to do!
Elsir:
Thanks man!
peanut:
Thanks!
Depends on what you mean with "hard" I guess. Once you've set up all the exporter stuff it's pretty easy. And I think they made it easier in the way that your models get exported even if there are exporter errors now.
S2Engine:
Thanks a bunch for your crits and those links! They're super helpful!
I'll change the environment quite a lot based on some things I recently realized and will definitely apply your advice!
Kaine123:
Thanks a lot! Very interesting picture! Will definitely search for more pictures of these!
FemCharles:
Thanks so much!
Exactly! That's what I finally realized! I always made big environments instead of small, really detailed and good composed ones. That's what I need to fix I think!
Alright, what now?
So, as I wrote in reply to "FemCharles" post, I recently realized that I urgently need to focus more on detail, lighting and composition instead on size. In addition to what "S2Engine" wrote (and info I gathered with the link he/she posted) that means, that I really want to focus on ONE single part of the environment (i.e. a way smaller, way more detailed scene!) and really polish that to perfection and cut/ignore anything else.
The part I want to focus from now on is this part:
The elven ruins and also the caves get scrapped and I'll some more realistic but less complex gothic ruins to the scene (maybe in/right next to the water).
I know it's a bit weird that I change the course of this environment that often over it's course of creation but I since I don't have a particular concept art to follow, I'm iterating until I get something I really like. I guess it's just part of the learning process so I'm good with it and go with it.
Here is another shot from the area from another angle:
So, I hope you guy aren't mad at me for changing stuff over and over but I guess I finally realized and understood that a small, well made scene is worth 5 big, undetailed, boring scenes. I also know that I took quite long to understand this but I think I'm now able to take this scene to the so often mentioned "next level"!
TL;DR:
Will make scene much smaller and more detailed!
Of course I'd love some C&C!
Thanks so much for your help guys! Can't even describe how appreciated it is!
So, after I wrote my last post I started to tweak the lighting on the old scene but for some reason CryEngine decided to crash and corrupt my level file.
Due to that I started a new scene more with scale (like in: not too big!), colors and composition in mind. I also made a blockout for the new ruin pieces and just slabbed some tileable textures on it.
This is where I'm at now: (Ruins heavy WIP as I said!)
Would love to hear what you guys think!
Does it look better? Is it worse?
Right now it looks like a bunch of arbitrary arches sitting there.
Haha, thats exactly what is right now. I just wanted to get some basic composition down and brought the blockout of the first wall piece in the scene and duplicated it a few times. That's why it looks so wrong at the moment.
Its looks much better! I only had a little bit of time over lunch but i took your first shot and done a quick little paint over. (its super rough) But i was thinking about ways to improve the composition.
So i painted in more sky, change the direction of the rock a little. broke the wall so you could see the river at the side. Darkened the right hand side more and brighted the left. put a sign in the middle, added some little splashes of red flowers. Added some warmer tones of oranges, pinks, purples.
I was mostly focusing on composition, i still think colour/lighting wise it could do with more work. My image is quite large so look at it as a tiny thumbnail
I also think it could do with something in the foreground although i don't know what.
I'm really impressed with your iterations on this, keep posting! I think your last shot is definitely going in the right direction. The composition feels a lot stronger, but the thing I notice though is it still feels kind of flat: there is a foreground that is mostly shadowed silhouette and a mid-ground with some visual interest.
I think you could more clearly define a background to add more depth, and use more color and value contrast to separate the layers. The added blues and oranges in FemCharles example really add a lot to the scene IMO.
Maybe consider adding an element of visual interest in the foreground as well to complement the ruins and help lead the eye there?
FemCharles:
Wow, thanks a lot! That paintover is ace!
Even though it's an older shot, I definitely get your point! I'll try to add more color variation break the greenness a bit more.
Thanks a again, this is super helpful!
atomander:
Thank you!
Yeah, the flatness was one of the points I definitely wanted to improve on since it takes away a lot from the scene if there is no proper background. I'm would definitely like to add something in the foreground but I don't really know what to be honest.
So, I did a bit more work on this. Scrapped the arcs again and added the more elven style ruins back in.
I also worked a bit more on adding some details and a proper background.
But I still feel like I'm missing something...it still doesn't have a "WOW"-effect to it I want it to have. Any ideas what I could be missing?
Thanks again for your great crits guys, this is helping big time!
Hey this exactly the kind of environment I love the most.
I honestly didn't have much to say except it is insanly beautiful !
As for your last picture I think the lack of "WOW effect" comes from color and contrast. Right now everything is a bit ochre and washed out. Maybe adding some contrast and playing with the grass green and blue sky will help
This latest iteration is great, I'm liking the integration of the elven ruins with the forest details, and the mountains add a sense of scale and depth. I agree with Sebvhe about wanting to see more contrast and punch in the colors and values, but that could also come later after you decide on exactly which elements you want to focus on etc. Keep at it!
I must say, i'm literally jawstroke by your work. If anything for critic, it would be that some ruins look modularely placed and squarish. Other than that splendid
!
So, long time no post here, sorry about that. In the meantime I finished a different portfolio piece with a completley different setting (sci-fi in this case) which helped me to look at this with some fresh eyes.
Thanks a lot for your crits about the contrast/colors guys, this helped tons! Also thanks for your crit peanut, I tried to hide that a bit more with the ivy.
This is where I'am currently at:
I pumped up the color and contrast as you can clearly see and also applied some slight color grading to give it a bit more of a dreamy feel.
I also added more details along the path and some more ivy.
I'm not really sure what else to add/do to this piece to be honest, therefore I would love some suggestions/tipps/crits about that.
Really nice job on the grass and plants. Its awesome seeing how much this has progressed since you started. Wouldn't mind seeing a few prop break downs for both the big and small stuff
mats effect: Thank you! What kind of breakdown would you like to see? I don't think it's very interesting since I used mostly pretty standard workflows.
Sweetangel0467:
Oh, sorry about that, I thought 1080p would be a very common resolution for screenshots these days. I could post them as links but I don't think that would help you much since the pictures need to load anyways...
Alright guys, I think I'm calling this done for now!
The last things I did was to play with the lighting a bit more, tweak some values and place some more stuff here and there but that's about it.
So, here are the final images
And some wire shots of some of the props
I want to thank you guys again for all the awesome critiques, comments and all the polycount love! You have helped me so much! During this project I learned a ton! Thanks so much!
I love it! very nice sunny atmosphere
the only thing that I don't like at its current state are the small trees, but I know how hard believable trees are, I just recently failed myself trying to make a good one.
Replies
My bad
You should check the environments if you haven't very it's similar to what your doing and it might give you some inspiration!
You should also get the Art book. It's pretty awesome. So is the game!!
btw.. I think he mentioned inquisition as source of inspiration
Ah i didn't read through all the comments just briefly flicked through the images. I instantly got a dragons age vibe going on though which is cool. Thought it would be worth mentioning just incase AkiRa hasn't checked it out and it might draw in extra inspiration for his piece.
Thats one interesting connotation. Glad you like it!
Sweetangel0467:
Thank you!
Yeah, same for me here. This environment would've been in UE4 if the terrain painting system would've worked correctly.
FemCharles:
Hey, great that I could make you think of DAI since it's lighting and style is one of major sources of inspiration. Sometimes I just start up the game an hop around taking screenshots, it's an amazing game indeed, gameplay, story and art wise.
Thanks for the hint about DAI anyway!
Some update here.
I've worked a bit more on the nature part and made a natural stone wall as well as some more foliage such as some bushes, etc. (Ivy on the tree trunk is to be changed!)
I also played around with the lighting a bit (just for fun though)
What do you think about lighting/color and composition?
What do you think is missing/should be added?
Is there something I'm completely overlooking?
Really unsure about these points so I thought I could just ask.
I think it looks really boring for some reason and just don't looks that good overall...do you maybe have an idea what I'm missing/doing wrong?
Thanks a bunch in advance! Any replies are highly appreciated!
Cheers!
It might not be your intention of having someone walking around in it, but that's a feedback I once got for my scenes
Try to not use all of your props in one spot btw. I know you're not already doing this but for example, you could have a patch of specific foliage in one spot with a type of flower that grows only there.. Those could be foliage focal points.
I hope my rambling is a bit clear to you.
just a quick question is cryengine still hard to import assets into or did they made it easier now ?
Looking really good overall, I think the direction is solid.
One thing that sticks out to me is that a lot of the scenes are a bit monochromatic or one-note. For example, the large rocks in the exterior near the river don't seem to have much breakup. Try and get some variation in the individual asset like heavy moss or even just subtle color variations in the hues. Then when more assets are placed around them it'll create a very rich harmony.
Similarly, for the castle stuff I'd say consider making a trim texture sheet for interesting details. Something like this (in an architectural style more appropriate for your scene of course):
You've got a very strong foundation in progress, and you can push it further by adding those kinds of elements.
edit: here's another example, the breakdowns at the end are particularly helpful
This one seemed the most interesting to me:
http://www.artbysebastianschulz.com/upload/ne/9/1.jpg
Maybe you should work on one shot now and polish that section. Once you've got one shot down you can grab a few more and carefully place props to make the most of your composition.
Thank you!
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm planning to do!
Elsir:
Thanks man!
peanut:
Thanks!
Depends on what you mean with "hard" I guess. Once you've set up all the exporter stuff it's pretty easy. And I think they made it easier in the way that your models get exported even if there are exporter errors now.
S2Engine:
Thanks a bunch for your crits and those links! They're super helpful!
I'll change the environment quite a lot based on some things I recently realized and will definitely apply your advice!
Kaine123:
Thanks a lot! Very interesting picture! Will definitely search for more pictures of these!
FemCharles:
Thanks so much!
Exactly! That's what I finally realized! I always made big environments instead of small, really detailed and good composed ones. That's what I need to fix I think!
Alright, what now?
So, as I wrote in reply to "FemCharles" post, I recently realized that I urgently need to focus more on detail, lighting and composition instead on size. In addition to what "S2Engine" wrote (and info I gathered with the link he/she posted) that means, that I really want to focus on ONE single part of the environment (i.e. a way smaller, way more detailed scene!) and really polish that to perfection and cut/ignore anything else.
The part I want to focus from now on is this part:
The elven ruins and also the caves get scrapped and I'll some more realistic but less complex gothic ruins to the scene (maybe in/right next to the water).
I know it's a bit weird that I change the course of this environment that often over it's course of creation but I since I don't have a particular concept art to follow, I'm iterating until I get something I really like. I guess it's just part of the learning process so I'm good with it and go with it.
Here is another shot from the area from another angle:
So, I hope you guy aren't mad at me for changing stuff over and over but I guess I finally realized and understood that a small, well made scene is worth 5 big, undetailed, boring scenes. I also know that I took quite long to understand this but I think I'm now able to take this scene to the so often mentioned "next level"!
TL;DR:
Will make scene much smaller and more detailed!
Of course I'd love some C&C!
Thanks so much for your help guys! Can't even describe how appreciated it is!
Cheers!
Due to that I started a new scene more with scale (like in: not too big!), colors and composition in mind. I also made a blockout for the new ruin pieces and just slabbed some tileable textures on it.
This is where I'm at now: (Ruins heavy WIP as I said!)
Would love to hear what you guys think!
Does it look better? Is it worse?
Any C&C is welcome!
Thanks!
Cheers!
Right now it looks like a bunch of arbitrary arches sitting there.
Haha, thats exactly what is right now. I just wanted to get some basic composition down and brought the blockout of the first wall piece in the scene and duplicated it a few times. That's why it looks so wrong at the moment.
So i painted in more sky, change the direction of the rock a little. broke the wall so you could see the river at the side. Darkened the right hand side more and brighted the left. put a sign in the middle, added some little splashes of red flowers. Added some warmer tones of oranges, pinks, purples.
I was mostly focusing on composition, i still think colour/lighting wise it could do with more work. My image is quite large so look at it as a tiny thumbnail
I also think it could do with something in the foreground although i don't know what.
I think you could more clearly define a background to add more depth, and use more color and value contrast to separate the layers. The added blues and oranges in FemCharles example really add a lot to the scene IMO.
Maybe consider adding an element of visual interest in the foreground as well to complement the ruins and help lead the eye there?
Wow, thanks a lot! That paintover is ace!
Even though it's an older shot, I definitely get your point! I'll try to add more color variation break the greenness a bit more.
Thanks a again, this is super helpful!
atomander:
Thank you!
Yeah, the flatness was one of the points I definitely wanted to improve on since it takes away a lot from the scene if there is no proper background. I'm would definitely like to add something in the foreground but I don't really know what to be honest.
So, I did a bit more work on this. Scrapped the arcs again and added the more elven style ruins back in.
I also worked a bit more on adding some details and a proper background.
But I still feel like I'm missing something...it still doesn't have a "WOW"-effect to it I want it to have. Any ideas what I could be missing?
Thanks again for your great crits guys, this is helping big time!
Cheers!
I honestly didn't have much to say except it is insanly beautiful !
As for your last picture I think the lack of "WOW effect" comes from color and contrast. Right now everything is a bit ochre and washed out. Maybe adding some contrast and playing with the grass green and blue sky will help
!
Thanks a bunch for your crits!
S2Engine:
Thank you!
peanut:
Thanks!
So, long time no post here, sorry about that. In the meantime I finished a different portfolio piece with a completley different setting (sci-fi in this case) which helped me to look at this with some fresh eyes.
Thanks a lot for your crits about the contrast/colors guys, this helped tons! Also thanks for your crit peanut, I tried to hide that a bit more with the ivy.
This is where I'am currently at:
I pumped up the color and contrast as you can clearly see and also applied some slight color grading to give it a bit more of a dreamy feel.
I also added more details along the path and some more ivy.
I'm not really sure what else to add/do to this piece to be honest, therefore I would love some suggestions/tipps/crits about that.
C&C is really appreciated!
Thanks in advance guys!
Cheers!
Alright, I tweaked the lighting a bit more, added some more smaller details here and there and also made some new trees to break it up a bit more.
As I said in the previous post, not really sure what else to add/change, therefore I would love some c&c here.
Thanks in advance guys!
Also thanks a ton for your help to this point! This environment wouldn't look how it looks now without your amazing comments and crits!
Cheers!
Sweetangel0467:
Oh, sorry about that, I thought 1080p would be a very common resolution for screenshots these days.
Alright guys, I think I'm calling this done for now!
The last things I did was to play with the lighting a bit more, tweak some values and place some more stuff here and there but that's about it.
So, here are the final images
And some wire shots of some of the props
I want to thank you guys again for all the awesome critiques, comments and all the polycount love! You have helped me so much! During this project I learned a ton! Thanks so much!
I really like this one
the only thing that I don't like at its current state are the small trees, but I know how hard believable trees are, I just recently failed myself trying to make a good one.