Personal Portfolio Project - Square of Yahargul

EpicBeardMan

Latest:



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Hello Polycount!

Since my last big project, Throne Room Challenge, I have taken a little brake. But now I started making stuff again. This project that I'm working on is an exterior type of an environment with gothic-like architecure (mostly inspired by Bloodborne, as is the name of the project - Yahargul).

What am I trying to achieve with this project?
Well, I want to add new stuff to my, still small, protfolio and I want to study modular geometry, specificaly materials and textures of modular geometry since that seemes to be, for me, one of hard and tough parts of 3D environment art and I want to be as skillful as I can in that field. Except modular geo, I also want to imrpove my modeling, sculpting and material design in Susbtance Programs (and PBR study with that).

Why am I posting here?
I do this for discipline. I will strive to keep this thread active with constant updates of the project so they can be there for you to critique and so I can learn something from you.

I've already began the project with basic blockouts (which are slowly getting more complex) 2 weeks ago.
Here are the latest screenshots of the blockout of the Square.






Here are also some references that I have in mind.






There are more things for me to do before I finish my initial blockout. Soon I will have it finished.
*Just to mention that lighting is a "little" bit wierd, but later, I will have it fixed.
Everything in this blockout is just to get the rough-to-detailed layout of the environment, to get the basic atmosphere and feel to it and to see what effects I'm gonna use, so that later I can fully focus on 3D art.

If there are any questions or critiques, feel free (obligated ) to post them. I will respond to every single one.

Cheers!

P.S. From 25th to 30th of this month I will not be doing any work (and with that there will be no updates) since I'm attending IFCC in Zagreb. As soon as I get back home, I will resume my work.

Maxilator

I think the buildings in the horizon are a bit to uniformly high, It is quite easy to see the same being repeated to. If you look at bloodborne they really made the game seem very vertical and really filled the skybox/background with stuff.

EpicBeardMan

I will keep that in mind, thank you for the critique.
Those buildings are, of course, placeholders. When I get into modular geometry, for the buildings, I will make as many variations of buildings as possible, maybe I will make so that no building repeats.

Cheers!

Tits

I don't know much about environment so I won't crit much, but definitly will be watching !

EpicBeardMan

I appreciate that @Tits

EpicBeardMan

I got some screenshots of some beginnings of modular geometry on this project.
Keep in mind that these (even though they are modular) are blockouts, in other words, they are placeholders. I just wanted to show them out.




Tell me what you think.

Cheers!

EpicBeardMan

Update #1

Here are the new screenshots of the environment:






I've made couple new buildings for the Square. I added a new "element" or a new chartacteristic for the buildings.
With this, I have, basicaly, finished the blockout. But now, I will start with the testing of modular pieces for the buildings and the streets

There are couple of things to keep in mind (writing this for my sake):

- Fix those damn chimneys on the factories
- Add more "soul" to the streets
- Lower the height of the metal fence around the streetlight
- In production add more variations of streetlights
- Make a new design for the square fountain and make something up to take the pillar's place
- Chimneys on houses need to be smaller, not bulkier.
- Figure out how to implement the street texture (onto the landscape directly or make separate meshes for the streets)

That is all that crosses my mind right now.
I plan to keep ya'll updated about the progress of production of modular pieces.

If you have any questions, critique notes or anything else, feel free to post them.
Tell me what you think so far.

Cheers!

Tobbo

Looks like a massive undertaking. It looks like you have a solid block out though!

The scale is all great and everything, but just remember for portfolio work to keep it Quality > Quantity. Just be aware that your project is set up to be a massive undertaking for it to be REALLY well done.

Also, the wooden boards in the 2nd pic look like their ends are flush. It might make a stronger silhouette to have some boards a little longer than others and stick out a little more.

Looking forward to seeing this develop!

EpicBeardMan

First of all, thank you for posting your critique.

Second of all, main part that will be made to have as much quality as it can is the middle part of the square (with all the fences, the fountain, pillars, street stuff and so on), cathedral and the houses that go around the square edges. Those houses will have as much detail on them as possible.
I'm fully aware that this is a huge project, and I will break it down for me and for you all so we can understand it's development together

And thrid of all, thank you for pointing out the wooden boards problem. I will take care of it.

Cheers!

EpicBeardMan

A quick update before about the modular pieces I'm making right now.

Today, I have made only 4 modular pieces of the wall, and here, I have asembled them so you can see how should they work in-engine.
There's a lot more pieces I need to make, but I will call it done for today, since I got some work regarding school so I need some time for that. There will be more pieces done over the weekend, and I will probably make another quick update before the IFCC in Zagreb.

Here are the screenshots:




That's all for now. Hope you like this.
If you have anything to say, feel free to write it down. It would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

BubblegumTate

I think the one thing this piece will need, and I don't quite see, is the dominating structure the scene will be built around. A city street alone can be compositionally nice and detailed, but for this to grab attention it needs a core piece to hold everything together. For example, the St.Mary's Basilica grabs your eyes, and it's silhouette is fantastic, but when you look around see the entire area has great architecture.

EpicBeardMan

There is already a cathedral that will be made. That's the building that all the other smaller (less important) buildings are built around.
I guess I should make it higher-reaching, make it taller so it can stand out.
But don't worry, the main buidling is there

Thank you for your crituque, much appreciated.

Cheers!

pixelpatron

Seems like you should spend more time on your lighting. I'd even suggest going back to your throne room, throw away your lights and start over. (your starting a new scene, sure some new challenges, yet not understanding lighting, or composition.)

You should be getting your throne room closer to one of your concept/inspiration pieces before tackling another scene. Working small (on a throne room) is good cause you don't have huge areas to solve. You need to spend the time to understand on the small scale before scaling up to something as complex as something like this.

Just my 2 cents.

EpicBeardMan

Thank you for your input @pixelpatron.

The lighting in the new project is not final, as it is only in the blockout stage. But, you might be right saying that I should go back to Throne Room and it's lighting. I might do that, but I consider that project "archaic" (even though I finished it not long time ago).
The real problem for me is that I have a really weak computer right now and that really slows my experimenting with light.

But, of course, I will look into some advanced tutorials on lighting and composition, as I need to get it up to higher skill level.

Cheers!

EpicBeardMan

Another quick update for today.
I have made a fair progress in making these modular pieces. I figured I didn't have a precise designation for that collection. So I decided they would be modular pieces for "luxurious" and "big" or "important" buildings (not the cathedral of course).
I have also took time to make an example "building" inside Blender to showcase the pieces I've made so far.

Here it is:




I also figured I'm not being well organized, lately. So, in the next 2 days I'm gonna make a plan or a to-do list for the pieces I got to make.

As soon, as I finish this collection, I will get it into Unreal so I can asemble couple of buildings and see how do these pieces work together in-engine.

That's all for today.
If you have anything to critique, feel free to post it.

Cheers!

EpicBeardMan

Update #2

Second big update is here.
This will be the last post before my departure to IFCC in Zagreb, so I won't be able to work on my project until next monday (on June 1st). Although I will be able to respond to your comments.

First off, I made some major changes to the overall atmosphere of the environment itself. I added dark orange fog (in a sense that it gets its color from street lights, like you see big cities illuminating the fog in them) and also I've scaled up the smoke on the factories so they would be more noticable and more impactful on the scene.
Another small thing I've changed is the street light that actually emits light. Not, it's "light container" is open and now you get some cool effects from it and lighting is now a bit better. (There are still things connected to lighting I need to do to make it better).

Here are the screenshots of the scene:






Another thing I have for this update is the finished modular collection for the "luxurious" buildings. I have the pieces in order and also I have, from those pieces, made an example building in Blender. I had no time to export it in Unreal so I made a primitive render inside Blender.

Here are the screenshots:






That's all for now. Tell me what you thinkg about the changes I made to the scene.

Cheers!