Building Game Environment Portfolio, looking for feedback!

Chris10

Hello and thanks for stopping by. I'm an army vet that decided to change my career and now I'm in the process of building my portfolio and would like to get as much feedback as I could get from the community. I'll be posting periodically my progress and changes that I make based on the feedback that I will hopefully get. I'll be doing a total of 4 environments and if I have time,  texture an old small environment that I have.
Software that I'll be using: 3ds max, Zbrush, quixel suite, substance suite, topogun, marmoset toolbag 2, photoshop.
Game Engine will be UE4.
Concepts used are from the following artist:

Jedd Chevrier - jedd-chevrier.squarespace.com - www.artstation.com/artist/jeddchevrier
Andrew Kim - www.andrewkimart.com - www.artstation.com/artist/andrewkimart
Sabin Boykinov - sabinart.blogspot.com - www.artstation.com/artist/boykinov

Thanks again for stopping by.











Everything pretty much is in the early stages so nothing is set in stone...

Chris10

Here is a prop I recently finish modeling. Texture is not final...

Chris10

a couple of props for the sewer environment

KrisLW

The pieces you have look great as far as prop modeling goes, but... that's it, literally just pieces of a scene. (Aside from the castle, which I love, by the way! Definitely my favorite so far, possibly because it's the only thing that resembles an environment thus far) You've got some wonderful concepts - although, are you trying to make all of them simultaneously?

What's the big floating obelisk for? It's the most complete so far, but I can't tell if it's going in the big blue Aztec-type cave thing, or if it's part of the sewer scene? The main thing that currently stands out about it is that the level of wear is extremely uneven. The top and bottom are cracked and crumbling away, while the middle section is cracked, the silhouette still has perfectly straight lines and no signs of physical damage when compared to the two sewer column props and how worn down they are.

I'd love to see some progression as the environments become whole!

3dcaspar

Hi,

first off: you already got some nice stuff going on, and you sure set yourself for a lot of work at the same time.
Maybe it's better to focus on one environment at a time (also to not lose motivation throughout the process).

I really like the castle.

But in my opinion your sculpts are a bit too soft when talking about the cracks and wear.
You should try and make the chipped parts / edges harder (you can always achieve a hard rocky look when using Morph Targets in ZBrush).
Also one more thing comes into my mind: the diffuse texture of the floating obelisk would benefit if you'd also add another texture to the broken parts, but I guess this is on your list anyways since it's not finished yet as you stated.

Keep going, looks nice overall!

purplekami

Great concepts to work off of! My only suggestion is to not try and make multiple environment scenes at once as that can quickly become overwhelming. As the others have mentioned I fear that your forms are a little soft, especially the stone materials. The edges have good definition but they should still have some areas where it's still crisp and defined as though it had been crafted.

Loving the castle so far, that one's my favorite!

C86G

Haha, I had to make one of those statues, too (actually three)

Chris10

First off, thanks to every one for taking some time to look at my work and giving me feedback.

 

KRISLW - I decided that for the second concept I would switch the civilization to that of an Aztec/Mayan. I had to option to either create 1 big environment or 3 to 4 small/medium environments, so I went for the small/medium ones. I only have 2 quarters or 22 weeks of class time and 3 weeks of break to finish my portfolio but since I wanted to use substance designer and painter, I had to learn them in my free time since unfortunately my school doesn’t have them or the quixel suite for that matter. The obelisk is part of the Aztec/Mayan cave, I was following one of the obelisk in the concept. I get what you’re saying that it is extremely uneven in terms of wear, I might have to go back and probably break some of those straight lines of the silhouette like you suggested. Anyway thanks for the feedback and I’m glad you stopped by.

3DCASPAR – Hey thanks for that feedback on the sculpts and suggesting about the morph targets. I’ve never used morph targets for props like this before. I did some searching and found this great tutorial on using morph targets (http://eat3d.com/free/zbrush_stone). I know is a lot of work at the same time but I think I can accomplish it. I had to have all 4 environments blocked out for the first portfolio class. I think I'm going to drop it down to 3 environments, that way the quality doesn’t suffer that much for trying to finish that 4th environment. As for the diffuse of the obelisk, I definitely have that suggestion in my to do list.  

PURPLEKAMI – Thanks for stopping by, I will follow that suggestion on working with one environment at a time. But I guess I will start with the textures since I’m almost done modeling all 3 environments. I will definitely take into consideration fixing some of the stone props. Thanks again!

C86G – Hey thanks for stopping by. I looked at the statues you made and wow they came out really good. Your props got some great shots in the video congrats on that. It’s funny how we both had the same concept but the end result was somewhat different. 

I have more props but I didn't want put every prop in here. I guess is better to see them in the environment once I post some screenshots in here.

Kid.in.the.Dark

Hey Chris,

I'll be direct because it's what will help you along this journey as an artist.

All the artists here have already stated the obvious things about multiple environments at one time etc etc... I'll have to agree with KrisLW about the castle scene being the one closest to resembling an environment.. My advice is that you just stick with that environment only for now, as it's the one that looks most complete it's the one you've done most of the leg work on so far... The fact is that if you're trying to learn something like Substance Designer/etc... it's a bad call to make multiple environments whilst learning it for the pure reason that it's a fact that from the start to the end of any new piece you do you pick up a butt load of new techniques, knowledge, practice that by the end of the project you would have gone back and cleaned up a lot of the pieces you started the environment with because you could by that point see what you might have done wrong with it... and from that fact is the realization that if you have 3-4 environments all going on at the same time and you're picking up substances designer along that journey by the time you reach the middle or the end you might have already learnt a bunch of stuff that may bring you back to have to clean everything up again which ultimately might make you feel like you've actually made no progress on the project what so ever and can be quite disheartening/demotivating to finish.

Complete one environment, clean it up if you have the time... move onto the next, because by the second environment you would have changed a lot of your pipeline if you're still learning programs to implement.

Keep going though, your castle scene already shows potential. Hope this helps.

Kid.

KrisLW

Also, I would like to throw in that I hope you don't feel attacked or ganged up on in regards to the way you choose to work. It's just that for 99% of people, it's much easier to work on one project at a time. You really get "into" the scene when it becomes your primary focus, and there is a very organic flow of ideas that start to sprout as you work from element to element in your scene. You simply don't get the same immersion if your subconscious is trying to bounce across three or four different environments at once, all of your "trains of thought" are going to be cut very short.

Not to mention, as far as motivation, watching a scene you've made come together is almost like magic - it's kind of addicting. Working in a rotation of multiple scenes, only doing one or two elements at a time, progress is going to be extremely slow and most people find that kind of disheartening while they work since it feels like you're spending a lot of time with no results. You'll probably also start to favor a certain scene after it gets going, and then you're not going to work on the others as much. Suddenly, what you originally wanted to do is now a chore and it further compounds the other issues.

In the end, though, it's totally up to you - certainly feel free to play with your workflow and discover what really works well for you.

Chris10

KID.IN.THE.DARK - Hey thanks for the comment, I’ll took that advice and I already started working only on the Floating Capital environment. I have to agree with you that by the time I get to my 3rd or 4th I’ll probably will have a ton of new techniques to improve my work and be more productive. I learned how to use substance designer and painter awhile back so I’m comfortable using them right now, I just want to get better like everyone else. I’ll have to post some of the texture I’ve made in the forum for designer sometime soon and hopefully get some more feedback.    

KRISLW – I don’t feel like I’m being attack at all, don’t worry about that. I now know better thanks to you guys as well as other artist that I’ve talked to. I have to agree that when you start to see your piece come to life it really motivates you and it feels wonderful to see your piece get finish and have people say good things about it.    

 

Chris10

Here is what I had in the other 2 environments so far before focusing in one  

Chris10

Hello everyone, sorry I've been quiet but I had a personal emergency so I was out of it for some time plus school on top of that but I'm on track now so here is my progress so far. I also had to model and texture a creature for school so if anyone is interested here is the link  https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kZAbd

Chris10

Hello everyone, sorry I've been quiet but I had a personal emergency so I was out of it for some time plus school on top of that but I'm on track now so here is my progress so far. I also had to model and texture a creature for school so if anyone is interested here is the link  https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kZAbd

Chris10

Here is an update, I did a cubemap and some post effects.

KrisLW

Great work on the castle! I love the whimsical approach, it's working very well The swirling clouds fit perfectly!

One thing I noticed (and it wasn't immediate, mind you) is that the castle walls appear to be solid stone? Oooorr on second thought I suppose they could be plastered over stones? The coloring is fairly close to the individual blocks along the ground so I find it hard to differentiate, when compared to the upper stones that are noticeably darker.

pixelpatron

The castle is okay, but a far cry from the concept art you posted earlier. You jumped into details before you had the shapes right. There almost there, but you lost the composition. The proportions of a building are just as important in 3D as they are in a drawing/painting. Your main tower and your two side towers all have the same visual weight. Go back...look at the concept, see the center tower, what's different about it? The castle could be a lot stronger. I'd also suggest making separate larger organic overhanging shapes/geo for your grass tops and a larger rock toolkit you can kitbash for your earthy spire rock/grass pieces. Take a look at the new Ratchet and Clank or All 4 one, they tackle these forms with the process I'm describing. 

Good luck.

Chris10

KRISLW – Hey there, yea first time doing a cubemap, I did that shot for a potential employer that was interested in my work. I’m creating a new one with better looking clouds and better color range for the sky. The walls are solid stone and for the floor blocks I supposed they should match the ones in the towers or vice versa that way they stay consistent with the concept, thanks for pointing that out.

PIXELPATRON – Hey thanks for stopping by, you’re right I need to go back and fix that focal point which is that center tower. I need to make stronger like you suggested. I will definitely go back and make it better, it shouldn’t take that much of my time. Could you show me some reference on what the process you’re describing is? I kind of know what you’re talking about but I’m not completely sure.  Is it something like the rocks in the images below? 

Chris10

I'm in the process of redoing some of the islands because they were just not fitting with the rest of the environment as you can see. Here is a screenshot of one of them

Dextkiller

Chris10 said:

I'm in the process of redoing some of the islands because they were just not fitting with the rest of the environment as you can see. Here is a screenshot of one of them

The castle is looking really good! I'd be careful not to make the tops of your islands look too curved. If you check out the reference they have more flat tops The same goes for where the top transitions into the sides and bottom. Right now it's looking a bit too uniform. The main island with the castle and the smaller one with the tree fit your reference better than the rounded looking ones. Be more wary of where your sides meet the top. 

Chris10

Dextkiller said:

Chris10 said:

I'm in the process of redoing some of the islands because they were just not fitting with the rest of the environment as you can see. Here is a screenshot of one of them

The castle is looking really good! I'd be careful not to make the tops of your islands look too curved. If you check out the reference they have more flat tops The same goes for where the top transitions into the sides and bottom. Right now it's looking a bit too uniform. The main island with the castle and the smaller one with the tree fit your reference better than the rounded looking ones. Be more wary of where your sides meet the top. 

Hey Dextkiller,
thanks for stopping by, you're right they're more flat than rounded. I took that into consideration for the following ones.

Chris10

I added some modular trees to start populating the islands. I also fixed a lot of the textures and added some roughness as well. I have one more Island to do and then to creating the water and foliage. 

Chris10

Still working on this...

Chris10

Here is the final for the Floating Capital, I think it could've been better but I need to move on. I did learn a LOT! from this and I'm already applying those skills to the next environment.