Blizzard Student Art Contest- WIP environment

liemnguyenart

Hello Everyone!

This is my very first post on polycount and I can't wait to see how this goes. I am currently working on the Blizzard student art contest and here are some of the stuff I have. This has been a big learning process, because I have not tried hand painted or low poly stuff in the past. If there are any suggestions or tips please feel free to post it!

Thank you! polycount community.
The Concept is a  WIP. It had changed a few times, but this was the last iteration I did, because the past ones didn't have enough personality.

This is what I currently Have in engine. It is an overall block out of the island. I am going to split the island and hold them together with chains in the future, but if there are other suggestions I would love to hear from anyone.
My attempt for a tree under 1500 tris. It came out ok, but I think I might try different ways to make the pine leaves.

some zbrush sculpts I had baked and composite in Photoshop and did a paint over for the hand painted feel.



WIP sculpt for the twin dragons. I left him in a stiff pose for rigging. Hopefully he deforms well with basic rigging for my piece.


Everything in the environment is textured with diffuse maps. I am not planning to use normal or spec maps, but if it will make the piece stronger and apply to blizzard's contest I might go forward with doing it. If there are any questions or suggestions please feel free to ask me!

12/05/15-Update

I was able to retopo and bake out some maps to start my texturing work for the dragon

it is around 4800 tri's

theblueturtle_

Cool project idea. Overall i think it's shaping up nicely and the scale is definitely manageable. Two suggestions off the bat. First the trees need a little more love. Right now most of the leaves seem to be pretty uniform and pointing in the same general direction. You should add some more randomization (change scale, color, etc.) to make them look a bit more natural.  The bark is probably a placeholder but it also needs some more attention to make visually interesting. I really like your rock textures but you should push them a little further. This could partially be due to your lighting and or the atmospheric fog effect that you have going but they look a bit flat. If you boosted the contrast by punching up the tones and highlights that might do the trick. Good luck! *subscribed*

Leon_Raven

Hey Liem,

Nice style you are using there. Maybe the dragon can be posed in ZBrush(?). I am not sure of the outcome, but you can try it. If it works it might save you time.

The stone pillar with the chain piece has lost some depth in the bake. I am not sure why, it might need some more polys and/or playing a bit more with the texture painting. 

I think the tree is the weakest part, but it might improve a bit if you'd add some roots right at the base, instead of having it "sticking out" of the ground like that. I know you are poly-limited for this, so see if you can work something out for it.  

Overall it looks very coherent in art direction and style. Just some clumsy bit here and there. Well done! 

ozzy310

I like it, I like it a lot!! I can't wait to see the two dragons on side overlooking the arena.

pixelpatron

Lookin' good, I like where it's headed. Although it's a bit too symmetrical atm, and paint by numbers. I've seen this type of environment a few times now.... I'd figure out a way to have less symmetry, and something stylistically that will set this apart. Possibly use yin/yang red and white dragons to theme the scene? Introduce lava, fallen leaves, or some other element into the scene to make it unique. 
Fallen leaves that give you splashes of color? Pink or fall colors? See how much more interesting this little thumbnail is? The silhouette is unique for every area, and it wouldn't take much to re-work what you have to get the same result. 
 
Maybe your trees are what is unique to this scene and contrast the standard architecture?
 
Use this theme throughout? Red dragon/white dragon or elements? The red and white might not work....might look like a candy cane if done incorrectly.....maybe the red and white are stone and wood? Dragon of stone opposite VS. dragon of plants? Wood or topiary dragon?
 
wood/natural dragon (possibly add features of natural grass/moss?)

contrasting your stone/lava dragon....yin yang?

I said your current scene is borderline stale cause we've seen this type of environment before. It needs something unique to set it apart, for it stand out, to have a soul. It's a bit soulless atm.

Great progress so far, solid foundation. NOW YOU NEED TO PUSH IT!

liemnguyenart

Thank you guys for the great suggestions! I will definitely try to break the symmetry of the piece. As for color I love the tree with the reds and am going to try to attempt to create those and see how they would look in my scene. At the moment I am trying to keep the temple and dragons made of iron/stone, but I think if I can sharpen the highlights on the metal i can add moss to the textures to give it a more rustic look. As for the Dragon I will be doing a basic rig, only because I want them to have a different pose (before they were frozen in time) which hopefully a nice pile of moss and maybe some flowers would help with.(textures are a work in progress so I would definitely go in and try to push the rocks and materials.

I have been playing mostly with a new composition and tried out the rule of thirds with a silhouette type of lighting.

Do you guys think it would work? also did a paintover which is the top one with the red trees.
 

pixelpatron

Your new composition looks pretty dope, careful not to have your moon and clouds too similar in value/color.