Graveyard Diorama
polycounter lvl 3
Hey guys, hope everyone's doing good.
I'm going to be starting a small new project today. I want to continue improving my skills and i feel a diorama project could well do that. It gives me the opportunity to just create a few assets, but make them look amazing and continue with my development as a 3D Artist. I'm going with a graveyard diorama, more along the lines of a haunted one and have put together a small moodboard.
In terms of assets i'm going to create, currently these are what i have in mind:
- Cemetery Gate
- Cemetery Walls
- Dead Tree (Maybe up to 3 variations)
- Wall Railings
- Head Stones
I feel this should keep me busy and can make up a small scene. Perhaps i'll add more later down the line. My tools for the project will be Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop and Unreal Engine 4. I will hopefully indulge into Substance Designer, as i feel this could be an ideal time to learn the it. I do have a few questions i'd like some help on:
- Dioramas can be of any shape can't they? They don't necessarily need to be of a cylindrical shape?
- Vegetation such as grass and bushes i will add later on. However, my experience with this is vague, so some hints into the right directions would be helpful!
Some of the images i've collected are from projects. The bottom right image is from a project posted on Polycount a few years back, and i plan to use this as a starting point, so to speak. I will start blocking out soon!
I'm going to be starting a small new project today. I want to continue improving my skills and i feel a diorama project could well do that. It gives me the opportunity to just create a few assets, but make them look amazing and continue with my development as a 3D Artist. I'm going with a graveyard diorama, more along the lines of a haunted one and have put together a small moodboard.
In terms of assets i'm going to create, currently these are what i have in mind:
- Cemetery Gate
- Cemetery Walls
- Dead Tree (Maybe up to 3 variations)
- Wall Railings
- Head Stones
I feel this should keep me busy and can make up a small scene. Perhaps i'll add more later down the line. My tools for the project will be Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop and Unreal Engine 4. I will hopefully indulge into Substance Designer, as i feel this could be an ideal time to learn the it. I do have a few questions i'd like some help on:
- Dioramas can be of any shape can't they? They don't necessarily need to be of a cylindrical shape?
- Vegetation such as grass and bushes i will add later on. However, my experience with this is vague, so some hints into the right directions would be helpful!
Some of the images i've collected are from projects. The bottom right image is from a project posted on Polycount a few years back, and i plan to use this as a starting point, so to speak. I will start blocking out soon!
Replies
I don't expect too much feedback, as not much can really be given. I still have the headstones to block in, and to complete the dead trees (which i've started on.) The walls, railings and gates are all place holder atm, and will be pushed further. I'll be creating a whole new wall, before taking it into ZBrush and sculpting out the desired bricks. The gate and rails will more than likely be taken into ZBrush to be given some edge wear, cracks and crevices. The gaps are going to be filled with broken walls and railings, as well as some rubble/debris around it.
Not much feedback can be given, which is fine but it's always better to be safe so if any obvious problems are sticking out, feel free to give me the critique needed. In terms of height, i've gone by my height and i'm 5 ft 8 (which is around 178 cm tall) and built from there.
I've created some headstone models. These i will probably make duplicates of, take into ZBrush and do some sculpting onto to make some broken headstones.
I've also done some stone sculpting, for my walls. I've created a high poly wall, shown below.
The wall i plan to make another version, this being a broken wall with bricks missing. I'll also take this back into ZBrush and start to tear into a bit more, adding more definitive cracks and edge wear. I plan to do this once i've created the pillars, and if i decide, to make a stone floor although this would make no sense, as a cemetery floor typically is made up of grass and concrete. The pillars i will make up of the stones used for the wall. I created around 7-8 separate stones, which make up the wall. Here's a shot of the wall inside of ZBrush:
I still need to go into this a bit more, take another pass on some edge wear and tone down some of the noise frequency. Once i'm happy with all my stone work, only then will i start putting in some definitive details. Any critique is welcomed.
It's been a while, been busy with games and art tests, still trying my hardest to get that break through into the industry!
I've been working on a pillar sculpt, using the same bricks i made for the wall to create said pillar. Here's some shots of the pillar in marmoset, along with the wall and the rest of the blockout:
Below is a shot of the pillar in ZBrush
I plan next to level out the frequency on the bricks, and really start going in and adding some finer details, the give the bricks some character. This also goes for the wall. This will then lead into me making variations of both pillar and walls.
I've continued working on the cemetery some more. Some progression shots are shown below:
As you can see, generally the stone work is complete. The main structured of the scene is up and running now. I took the decision to change my railings, as i felt the previous straight railings were bland, and boring. I'm going to take the railings and gate into ZBrush, to add some scratches and chips into them. I've also created some lanterns, and these will be my source of lighting. I'll have these emit fire, through the use of wood burning
I still have quite a bit left to do on the scene, before i start baking down. I need to create a destroyed pillar, push the broken railing some more and add some details to my stone work.
The gravestones, i will start taking into ZBrush soon. Any feedback is more than welcomed!
Wouldn't mind some feedback, before i start working on this again in a few hours
About the art, it's coming along nice. I would get some ambient occlusion in there, would make it easier to judge.
We have some info on the wiki about making grass, and foliage.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/GrassTechnique
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Foliage
So it's slowly getting there. At the moment, it's taking much longer than i would like, i'm quite demoralized atm, with wanting a job and stuff -.-
I plan to next create a destroyed pillar, another destroyed wall, add some wear and tear into the gates and railings. I'm going to add scratches and chips specifically to the railings and gates. A few bits of bobs here and there like rubble and such, and i'll have got to the stage my high poly is complete. Any C&C as always is welcomed.
I'm going to have a play with substance designer for my texturing stage. Having seen several projects implement substance on polycount, i feel it'll be a good time to implement it for this.
Substance is an excellent and fast way of texturing assets so get stuck in when you can! I'm just picking it up now and it's great
Try not to get disheartened. If you feel like the scene is too big and you're losing interest then make the scene smaller. Always better to have a small selection of assets finished to a high standard than loads at a lower standard. Have a look at Scott Homer's stuff
Ahh yes, sounds like a good idea i'll keep in mind for the terrain! This'll be done once i've created all my assets but i'll definitely add some undulation to my terrain.
I suppose i'm more wanting a job in a 3D area, that i'm just getting extremely frustrating
I plan to place this into Unreal Engine 4 once everything has been complete. I'll be going with a night time/moon atmosphere, but i agree that i should start lighting it up a bit at the moment.
Once i'm back on the project, i'll start breaking up my stone work more, working on the 90 degree edge wear, deforming and adding some character to it. Thanks for the feedback everyone!
I'll be starting some work again today, been feeling run down past few days, so haven't touched this!
And here's a shot with the moon atmosphere i've created:
So here's what i'm feeling at the moment i need to improve upon:
Lighting & Atmosphere: I think i need to perhaps adjust the post process volume and lighting a bit more. Maybe adjust the LUT map i created for the post process.
Trees: These are purely placeholder at the moment! I'll be creating some much better ones.
Church: To me, at the moment the church makes the scene look quite squashed. Maybe i could remove the church all together? The church is also an blockout and far from a final version.
Lanterns: The lanterns will have fire burning in them from wood (pine wood etc)
Terrain: I'll be adding some undulation to the floor. This will help the cemetery be on a slight slope, and get rid of the boring straight terrain i have at the moment.
-Consider picking one angle and setting up the scene around that camera (composition, light, shadows, etc). Imagine that this shot is the one people will first see on your website, artstation, etc. so pick the one you think is best. It's much easier to nail down an interesting scene that way and it will be easier to critique as well.
-Check your scale. The height of the fence, church, church door and gravestones. There's a lot of irregularities. If you can't get accurate measurements then put a dummy/dude in the scene and compare the scale to references.
-Add lights. I know you are planning torches but just adding simple point lights early on is a good idea to get a feel for it.
I wouldn't remove the church. It could be the focal point of your piece! The squashness is most likely scale related. Having less even ground is probably a good idea, definitely something I'd play around with even if you just do a couple variation sketches.
I'll take the suggestion you gave me @griffiti for the low angle camera, to get the atmosphere i've set into my scene. I'll tweak around with the positioning of the moon and so on. I suppose i was in a rush to start making the scene look somewhat more nicer with sculpting bricks out and what not, and forgot to nail down composition. It's a learning curve, and one i'll learn from! Thanks for the feedback!