THRONE ROOM - Deep Chasm - MARKDIDIT
polycounter lvl 6
Hi art buddiess! Im MARKDIDIT (mark ehlen)
I think this is my first thread in Polycount? Saw the contest and couldn't resist!
ABOUT ME
24 year old 3d modeler / digital sculptor currently living in Las Vegas.
Specifically, I'm a creature concept artist who has recently transitioned over to learning stylized environment art.
I've been using Zbrush for approx 3 years, but I've toyed around with other 3d software on and off for maybe 10 years now. I've recently entered into that purgatory of 'not yet having previous industry experience' and getting tired of re-watching every single 3d tutorial on the internet over again. All that to say, the challenge of this contest sounds PERFECT for me!
THRONE ROOM IDEAS
I'm starting my thread super late, but I've been working on my throne room little by little since I saw it announced. Ive spent much (maybe too much) time concepting as opposed to actually modeling, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out.
I've been getting into the habit of -before starting visually at all- forcing myself to design a few ideas worth at least a sentence or two. Here's a google doc of some description/thumbnails I jotted down for this project:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15DzH_-lR9Xgl8e54Zwa5hGtUJWf0z4L0O2dsNdl5QdA/edit?usp=sharing
A couple of the above ideas started getting really interesting to me, but were either a bit too ambitious to do solo, or wouldnt translate well to a single image / static environment. I realized a couple of the ideas call for a handful of characters to act out a scene to come across like I imagine them.
TRYING TO PRE-VIS BUT I CANT EVEN
Anyways, here are a few early block outs I did in Blender and Zbrush to test ideas for lighting and camera angles. At this point, I was actually still exploring which concept I liked best.
Aaand heres my destroying sheets of paper with a pencil. I seem to be channelling both the sense of perspective and the creative freedom of a 7 year old. But I'm finally starting to like where this concept is going visually. I know, its poorly lit so you can hardly see anything, but theyre not amazing enough to properly scan right now. Also, Im lazy.
Im now working mostly in Zbrush. The goal of these sculpts is still concepting or pre-vis but I am partially exploring style and detail at the same time.
And we're up to date! I really think I might finish on time since I feel like Im really fast with Zbrush and Ps. But then, I could be totally wrong. hehe
TO DO
Anyways. Super stoked to finally be posting here. Awesome community.
Thanks for viewing, check back soon
Cant wait for C&C from you guys.
I think this is my first thread in Polycount? Saw the contest and couldn't resist!
ABOUT ME
24 year old 3d modeler / digital sculptor currently living in Las Vegas.
Specifically, I'm a creature concept artist who has recently transitioned over to learning stylized environment art.
I've been using Zbrush for approx 3 years, but I've toyed around with other 3d software on and off for maybe 10 years now. I've recently entered into that purgatory of 'not yet having previous industry experience' and getting tired of re-watching every single 3d tutorial on the internet over again. All that to say, the challenge of this contest sounds PERFECT for me!
THRONE ROOM IDEAS
I'm starting my thread super late, but I've been working on my throne room little by little since I saw it announced. Ive spent much (maybe too much) time concepting as opposed to actually modeling, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out.
I've been getting into the habit of -before starting visually at all- forcing myself to design a few ideas worth at least a sentence or two. Here's a google doc of some description/thumbnails I jotted down for this project:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15DzH_-lR9Xgl8e54Zwa5hGtUJWf0z4L0O2dsNdl5QdA/edit?usp=sharing
A couple of the above ideas started getting really interesting to me, but were either a bit too ambitious to do solo, or wouldnt translate well to a single image / static environment. I realized a couple of the ideas call for a handful of characters to act out a scene to come across like I imagine them.
TRYING TO PRE-VIS BUT I CANT EVEN
Anyways, here are a few early block outs I did in Blender and Zbrush to test ideas for lighting and camera angles. At this point, I was actually still exploring which concept I liked best.
Aaand heres my destroying sheets of paper with a pencil. I seem to be channelling both the sense of perspective and the creative freedom of a 7 year old. But I'm finally starting to like where this concept is going visually. I know, its poorly lit so you can hardly see anything, but theyre not amazing enough to properly scan right now. Also, Im lazy.
Im now working mostly in Zbrush. The goal of these sculpts is still concepting or pre-vis but I am partially exploring style and detail at the same time.
And we're up to date! I really think I might finish on time since I feel like Im really fast with Zbrush and Ps. But then, I could be totally wrong. hehe
TO DO
- This next week will be spent really nailing down that cartoony visual style while I sculpt the rest of the assets.
- The week after will be doing retopo (thank god for static meshes) and baking maps.
- Then I anticipate a bit of back-and-forth between Unity, Blender, Zbrush, and Ps (and Substance?) while I determine the final look of the low-polys and their textures.
- I guess that gives me a week or two to polish and refine lighting and composition, and hit the send button?
Anyways. Super stoked to finally be posting here. Awesome community.
Thanks for viewing, check back soon
Cant wait for C&C from you guys.
Replies
I'm sort of stuck in a phase of planning modularity while I'm not sure exactly what makes up the side walls? Is it a natural cave or ravine? Are these all giant carved stones? or is it a bunch of tiny runed bricks that were each manually placed? Not sure whats the best combination of mentally cool / visually feasible.
Also, I'm having problems coming up with a strong enough semi-realistic light source.... I wanted to let the engine (Unity5) light it naturally from the opening in the top, but as you can see from my first block-in in the engine, I'm realizing I'm going to need other major sources of light than a couple 'arm torches'. MAJOR sources.
I could just throw ambiguous blue glowy crystals, glowing runes, and endless lava everywhere as is the trope, but I'd like to think of a more personal and style-appropriate solution to light for this scene if I can. If not, get ready for lava. MOAR LAVA.
Lastly, just today I did that painting to explore what a the sidewalls could look like, and to try out a single massive asymmetrical arm torch as a light source. Happy with how my 2d is progressing in this project (I NEVER paint) but once again, I managed to completely ignore the challenge making the walls more interesting. oops.
more to come soon!