THRONE ROOM - The Derelict Mantle - pour.quoi & Kenton_TS
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Hello Polycount! Kenton_TS and I are teaming up to create a very special throne: A Techno Lich's!
The core idea is a throne that uses incredibly advanced machinery to keep whomever sits upon it alive. The King that possesses this throne would be completely insulated from death by the wonders of technology, free to rule indefinitely.
Or at least, he would, if that technology had not fallen to such a state of disrepair. As it stands, this once glorious throne sits in the shambled remains of its fallen empire; unable to move, biding time...
It’s a mash-up of concepts that lends heavily to science fiction and fantasy elements. Art direction wise we’re shooting for a fairly realistic; albeit stylized visual flare, similar to something like Destiny, Warframe or in the case of books, Dune.
Both Kenton_TS and I are attending college and are using this as an opportunity to both hone our skills and cut our proverbial teeth in a real world application of our skills. On top of this, maintaining a project like this in a team setting is an invaluable skill we both hope to improve on with experience.
For this project we’ll be using:
Maya
Photoshop
Illustrator
Zbrush
xNormal
Substance Designer
UE4
We’re both excited to be here competing with so many talented people, and look forwards to showcasing our work and visual styles!
The core idea is a throne that uses incredibly advanced machinery to keep whomever sits upon it alive. The King that possesses this throne would be completely insulated from death by the wonders of technology, free to rule indefinitely.
Or at least, he would, if that technology had not fallen to such a state of disrepair. As it stands, this once glorious throne sits in the shambled remains of its fallen empire; unable to move, biding time...
It’s a mash-up of concepts that lends heavily to science fiction and fantasy elements. Art direction wise we’re shooting for a fairly realistic; albeit stylized visual flare, similar to something like Destiny, Warframe or in the case of books, Dune.
Both Kenton_TS and I are attending college and are using this as an opportunity to both hone our skills and cut our proverbial teeth in a real world application of our skills. On top of this, maintaining a project like this in a team setting is an invaluable skill we both hope to improve on with experience.
For this project we’ll be using:
Maya
Photoshop
Illustrator
Zbrush
xNormal
Substance Designer
UE4
We’re both excited to be here competing with so many talented people, and look forwards to showcasing our work and visual styles!
Replies
We both liked it for different reasons, but ultimately the tall, thin and imposing shape of this throne was what did it. It plays both interesting shapes with negative space, as well as creates the subconscious profile of a guillotine, which helps tie it into the Lich motif we outlined for our initial concept. Couple it in with the crystals to break up the profile and add more visual interest, and I think we have a really solid throne!
I saw you were hoping to give the impression that this throne is keeping whoever it is alive, artificially. Though I like the concept I would say that may it should look a bit comfier? I mean if this thing is a king's or queen's life boat, they don't want to sit on stone or metal. Just something to consider!
Keep up the cool designs and look forward to seeing how it evolves!
We're going with crystals. While it would make more sense for the throne to be comfortable, we designed it to be more imposing or threatening; a throne of a mad tyrant as opposed to a benevolent king or queen.
I'm glad we're doing this contest, this is so exciting!
Layout:
Mood:
Here we have a side-by-side comparison between two platforms, one with a simple lambert, and one with a platform material built in Substance Designer, before several bitmap images were exported and then used to build the final material in Unreal:
We're probably going to change the color of the metals to something less inky, although I can't deny how beautiful it looks in a physical rendering engine!
On top of this the thrones block model is done and is set for UV mapping and texturing; as well as the center dais and overhanging crystal.
Let us know what you're thoughts are on our throne, we're always happy for feedback!
I think we're succeeding!
The metal material was constructed entirely out of procedural maps in Substance designer, along with several color masks and layer overlays. The crystal material was a bit more challenging however, and I ended up using a modified version of the material laid out in this tutorial, built almost entirely in Unreal: [ame]
The Graph is broken up into parts here:
With all these posts about metal and crystals, you might think we've forgotten the most important piece, the throne! Rest assured:
You won't have to wait long to see it! We're just adding a few finishing touches!
Leave a comment if you'd like, we'd love to hear what you think!
I spent a lot of time bringing together the textures and tweaking the the glow and crystal to get something a little more visually pleasing.
Real time rendering is probably my favorite rendering method because of how quickly you can tweak and modify what you're visually seeing, rather then more traditional rendering methods. It's that speed that lets you so quickly iterate until you have something that looks passable to downright beautiful!
That being said, there are some things I'd change. Although I love the inky black background, I'm not sure if it works as well as some other backgrounds might, and as well, I could stand to tweak the lighting more. The biggest thing I might change however is the seat of the chair. Although I loved the concept, looking back I made some choices with the design that could have served the overall design better (Mostly in the shape and form of the chair).
I'll be taking the next few days off to relax with family and enjoy my one week free of school. I'll be periodically checking on things however, and don't think I'm not going to be making plans for my throne during the whole time!
Also; @lopezmolano? Cheers to you bro!