Environment Art Practise
polycounter lvl 4
About Me
I've been following a number of threads on here for a couple months now since I've started a Games Development course at Uni. Whilst over the past couple of months I have been focusing on the scripting side of development and small low-poly props, I'd now like to try environment art.
About This Thread
I'm hoping that this thread will be used to help improve my environment and modelling skills ready for my second year of university. Any C&C's are welcome and all other input is also welcome!
Concept
The first concept which I want to tackle is this image:
I will break the image down into the street level, buildings, building accessories, props, and detailed environment items (i.e, the bridge and the sky bridge). Some of the texturing will be done with SD so that I can get experience using that as well.
My original thought is to attempt an initial block out of the street layout in Unity, and then export and refine it within 3ds Max.
Replies
It's not going to be easy but it seems like a perfect environment to learn a lot in a few weeks or months.
Block out, block out, block out!
- Block out fast (don't get hung up on details early on, ramps are acceptable for stairs, big boxes for the buildings and so on).
- Once you've blocked out, throw it in engine and run around it. Check scale and tweak accordingly.
- Light the environment regularly, keep tweaking and changing. It's important to start this early on (then it's not such a big task in the end, and it's fairly easy to pre-vis the end result).
- You are going to encounter areas which are unreadable in the concept - so make sure you have folders and folders of reference early on! It will help in both short and long run.
- Break down the environment into asset types/material types. You will discover quickly where you can potentially reuse assets and how many props it takes to make up the scene.
- DON'T tackle everything at once. One asset at a time, one texture at a time. I would recommend taking it a prop at a time - make it look awesome, take advice and then to the next - reason being, if your unable to pull this all off (it's a big task) at least then you've learnt a tonne and carried several assets to a high quality.
- DON'T limit yourself too early on, don't think too much about tri-count and texture size. It is important don't get me wrong, but these are easy things to rectify. I am sure most would agree, it's much better to have a kick-ass environment which may be a little unrealistic to run in engine than something that is which looks mediocre (because remember there is a tonne of tricks that are used in industry which have been obtained with trial and error).
Main thing is, break it down - do a little everyday and keep posting here. We will help where we can I am sure!
I am very interested in seeing your progress!
- mix up the difficulty of your "small projects", don't do all the barrels, chest first only to get stuck on the difficult parts later. This can lead to a serious burn-out.
I would suggest starting with the difficult models first and when you realize your momentum slows down, do one or two small props to regain some momentum.
Also think of a good structure before (folder structure, workflow etc.)
Great tips, will help me as well, thanks a lot
a lot of objects to create and a lot thing to learn.
I would be excited to do the same project
looking forward to this and good luck to you :thumbup:
I'm in a similar position to you and am almost tempted to try it as well