THRONE ROOM - Throne Long Lost

Icariel

Hi!
New member, who just registered to join this contest.. I'm just a student and bit scared join in to the big boys competition but I think this could be at least good practice!

I got this idea of a throne room many years after attack where king was killed by super evil dark lord (been playing too many retro games lately...). Some dark magic keeps the ruined castle in some formation... So dark... Dusty... Magic stuff... Let's see how it goes...

Software and engine:
3ds Max 2015
zBrush
xNormal
Substance Designer
Substance Painter
Photoshop
UE4

EpicBeardMan

Don't worry, there might be other less skilled artist too in this contest, for example: myself. Wish you good luck.

Icariel

Thank you, you too! And of course to every one else too! So i started to block out yesterday my ideas here's couple pictures.. in first tried to think how it would look with broken pillars then i decided that first to make the room fully intact ant afterwards brake it apart.. It's in really early stage but feedback is always welcome!

Icariel

Hi again,

its been a while since my last update... Been doing other stuff and then there was Global Game Jam (btw next GOTY over here!http://globalgamejam.org/2015/games/houston-what-do-we-do-now made most of the textures with paint cause didn't have software on the computer i was working on but had lots of fun ain't that the point! )

aaand stuff but now I'm back and made bit block out in UE4 to see how it looks.

Next some tiling textures in Zbrush/Substance Designer and High polys for props after bakes I'll start to brake it to "chunks".

Oh and I'm still playing around withe the throne also more props coming in.

Here's couple pics where I'm at now (sorry about lightning I'm not doing it yet)

Feedback always welcome!

Icariel

Hi again.. Quick update..

Made bit face lift here and there and tileable texture with zBrush and Subtance Designer. Buuut still in early state..

Here's couple photos.. Eagerly waiting the part where I can finally brake it all to chunks and get some character in here!
Feedback always welcome!

Ryacabral

Looks good so far! It may be nothing but I was thinking about the overall size of your bricks for the walls. They must be bigger then a person is tall and quite wide. Perhaps my sense of scale is thrown off since there isn't much reference other then the throne.

Icariel

Yeah your right.. Well fortunately that's really easy to fix! I just threw it there to show texture that I mentioned so didn't pay so much attention to scale.. I'll update that to my next photos. Thank you!

Soy13

Hey Icariel, nice work. As general rule, try to avoid black in the background, that give you more space in the middleground / foreground composition (I am talikng about the joints in the rock wall). Hope this helps. Keep it up!

Icariel

I think the lightning in that scene (which I just threw in so I could see) makes it look blacker than it is.. But I made it lighter is this what you meant? any better?

First one is the one in the scene second is the lighter one.

Soy13

yep better man, just keep and eye on the light then . Good work. Keep it up.

Icariel

Sooo... It's been really long time since my last update but I'm still doing this!

My UE crashed couple weeks ago and corrupted my scene so i kinda took little nerve brake and started to really get into my textures and checking tutorials about zBrush, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Material editor and about the over all workflow. I made all textures again cause I wasn't happy with the ones I had aaand I think I did ok with them this time.. I haven't done more than like five or so textures with zBrush so far so still learning process going on.. Oh and also I got APEX clothing working on banners but they are not textured yet so they are not in the pictures..

Anyway here's some pictures about the over all scene now and my new textures in there there's still lot to do..





Don't mind the ledge in the middle, the walk way in the middle is bit lower and I'm goin to put stone border there.




Here's the new wall.


Still playing around with placing stuff and with colors and haven't done much for lighting so pictures are pretty dark..

Icariel

Here's quick update. I made spinning chandelier with candle lights (probably going to change color to something unnatural) Broke the floor and made a carpet on it (still no texture tho) also broke walls, pillars and that "halo" over the throne. Made vector field particles over broken pillars and some fog. Made new fire that i think fits better with the over all look.

Lights are mainly done with particles and couple point lights here and there point lights.. So its still in process as are colors...

Now I'm playing around with colors and lights and there's some textures still to be done... So still lot to do but it think it's starting to look something..

Icariel

New update! I'm pretty much done with texturing and models! I will do some tweaking and maybe couple re bakes but that's pretty much it.

I'm struggling with lights... I'm Not happy but I don't know how to emphasize the mood any more with them.. Maybe some post process tricks?

Would appreciate tips and feedback!!!

And here's some pics where I'm at now...

kimmokaunela

I like that color theme but I think textures needs more work. Also it´s really dark right now but I think you can try to shoot some lights coming from the windows.

Icariel

Yeah true... I'll do some re bakes today and try to make them more interesting.. (there is some normal problems I'm already aware of so I need some re bakes anyway..).

Actually I tried to get some light from outside by making windows transparent partly, but it seems to not work so well... I'll try to fake it today too. I'm sure that would definitely make scene better thanks very much!

I'll try to post results today.

Icariel

So it took longer cause I was doing other stuff..But now I have done some re bakes some tweaking to textures and I added lights coming from windows.

I'm not sure is this too light or something now should i add some screen effects or is it good like that..

So any suggestions and feedback is greatly appreciated!

There's still time for some tweaking till times up!

Here's where I'm at now.

Icariel

So it's done! Here's what I wrote in my submission and my pictures.

I started every texture by sculpting it and baking Normal and AO map with xNormal and after that went to Substance designer where i did most of the work and for some props like the throne and sword I went to Substance Painter and did the last details. (love to work with roughness in here! )
For the story behind the scenery I took inspiration from old school games where many final boss battles took place in their own "void" or "dimension" and for graphical inspiration I googled some old fantasy/IRL throne rooms and games like WoW.

Here's the story!

Darkness had taken it's grasp from this land. Populating it with it's dark creatures.
Till in one small town, folks had enough of this and decided to form a brotherhood to keep darkness at bay at night and hunt them in their lairs at day. This gave the world many decades of peace with only some unlucky encounters with creatures until lord of darkness him self decided to put end to this...
He marched in the greatest fortress like his own. He crushed every one who stood against him like bugs and stepped in to the throne room where stood the greatest hope of mankind. King unsheathed his sword but before he even realized dark lord had blasted his guards trough pillars and even walls and stood in front of him.. He broke the floor behind him to stop other to interfere but he wanted them to see how he pierced his hand trough his majesty's sword trough his chest trough his throne and even the rune stone behind the throne...
After this others fleed in terror and he let them run and tell how weak their king was compared his power.
He found this so amusing that he decided to take the whole throne room and preserve it as a trophy.

TL;DR
Strong dark entity preserved this throne room as his trophy after killing the king of a holy brotherhood.

Corny i know but it's supposed to be!

Here's my throne room.











Had fun and learned bunch of new stuff!

And still feedback much appreciated!