THRONE ROOM – The Humble Bog – monkeymintaka

monkeymintaka

Looking forward to taking part in my first contest:) All the ideas so far look pretty cool so far.

My first instinct was to go for a decadent ancient throne room, but I've decided to go a little left field for this one and use another definition of throne room: the lavatory (or bog in this case)

I hope this is still sticking to the rules:)

Seeing as I just had this idea like 45 seconds ago, I have yet to come up with a concept. But I'm thinking a little rustic, slightly beaten up, but charming outhouse. Owned by a outdoorsy huntsmen, who like to unwind after a hard day bushwacking (or whatever huntsman do) by chilling out and reading the latest copy of National Geographic in his own personal throne room.

Software:
3DS Max
Zbrush
Headus UV Layout
Photoshop
UDK (or CE3 - but I've only started learning that)
Substance Designer (Hopefully. I only have a vista 32 bit, so I cant use painter, but I am currently downloading designer and keeping my finger crossed my computer can handle it!)

monkeymintaka

o I've been planning my idea out a bit, and have mocked together a mood/concept image. This won't be the final composition, but kind of the mood I want to create.
I haven't ever done an exterior scene, so I feel the foliage and the general atmoshere will be a challenge.
I am basing the outhouse in the woods of the northwest USA, so I will be looking at those plants/trees etc at a later. Below is a kind of collection of outhouses/wood scenes that I liked. I want something lived in, but not abandoned/destroyed.

p

So the "king" of this throne room is a hunter and a tinkerer. He lives alone most of the year, sustaining off the land and upcycles what he can. I found a lot of cool things online of upcycling/recycling and general DIY and would like to include some of these things, as well as creating the actual room out of a mixture of supplies, so it looks as if it has been patched up over time.

Next up:
A list of materials and props to make.
A proper blockout in MAX

rheal

I love this! Really excited to see how it turns out.

monkeymintaka

Made a quick blockout in Max, still not sure how I want the land to be, but I will probably be using CE3 so I will have a go at the terrain early next week and get some compositions going.



Apologies for the basic screenshots. I wanted to be able to see all the actual building work put into the outhouse, so I started with a basic frame made out of four different width wood planks, then added in the walls with planks, plywood, shutters, corrugated iron.
Seeing as most of the materials are wood, I will be making a lot of variations (plain, painted, new, old etc) so it doesn't get so samey.
Here is the basic composition of the exterior props.


One problem I can see myself having is the interior shot. I would like to do at least one of the final three shots inside the outhouse to see all the knick-knacks, but it is a very tight space.

@rheal Thanks! Hopefully the final will turn out like the image in my head. I have a problem with matching the two up sometimes:)

wvaughn409

Awesome ambient occlusion shots! I love the attention to detail, and more-so considering that it's not even textured yet. When you get normals and spec on this piece, it is going to look amazing I just know it! Where i grew up we actually had one of these, though i was very young and barely remember using it. The antler is a very nice touch BTW

monkeymintaka

So it's been ages since I posted. I have been working on this in my spare time, but have been pretty busy at work. Hopefully I will at least get the exterior finished by the deadline.



 
I have spent the last month refining models and UVing like crazy. I also spent some time on some substance Design and CE3 Tutorials. And like a 2 days on a failed Zbrush wood sculpt, which my computer kept rejecting at like 1.4 million Polys. I need to upgrade!



Most of the exterior is modeled and UVed. Just need to do the antlers, welly boots and then I will get into CryEngine and get some terrain / trees going.

This is the tyre in progress. I am absolutely the worst at normal maps. I tried one in xnormal (right) and in 3DS Max (left) and they are pretty bad. I tried a simple turbosmoothed model for Max and then I tried to add some detail in zbrush, but I barely got it smooth before my computer had a nervous breakdown.


So if anyone has any tips?
SO, after my normal map meltdown, I figured I would make most of my base models more detailed (like medium poly) and then add surface detail with Substance. Because the camera shouldn't get too crazy close (especially if I only manage to finish the exterior)

I am hoping to finish the rest of the modelling / CE3 terrain over the weekend and then have March to texture / re-normal map things and possibly work on interior details.

@ wvaughn409 Thanks for your comment!