Low Poly Cthulhu Altar [WIP]

heyguy

Hello everyone! I'm working on this small project for my portfolio and I'd really appreciate some critique. I'm shooting for a low-poly mobile style/restrictions/limitations. It's an altar to Cthulhu along the coast. I've made progress but I'm definitely missing that extra flair found in professional work. I took screenshots of my Maya viewport.

I'm thinking I need maybe some small props on the floor and else where. Small mushrooms, buckets, rocks, etc. Cthulu likes gold I believe. I'm also thinking maybe I should enclose the sides of temple with a brick wall and maybe just have the open view to the sea at the end by the altar. I've used a lot of photsource textures and it might be good to hand paint some even though I do want a realistic look. I also don't like the pillars either. I could really use some help with this project. What could I do to improve this project so I could put in on my portfolio? Thanks!

Nathan3D

You should put it into a game engine seen as that's what I guess your going for seen as you want it on mobile?
Right now if your keeping it in maya I think your materials are lacking definition and your lighting is quite flat keep going it looks like it could be quite good though  

KrisLW

The most important thing would be to either put this into a proper engine, or do a legitimate render. Proper lighting/atmosphere and materials are paramount to making something presentable, and will make a huge difference. Maya's viewports are garbage for presentation. Mobile content is not as limited as you might think, take a look at how UE4 is shaping up to operate on mobile: ProtoStar demo

As far as actual content goes, I think it is a little sparse. Some foliage (lots of vines, maybe?),  some rocks/rubble, and some treasures and trinkets are a good idea! Some shiny things would be a nice contrast.

I actually rather like the columns, and the open design of the temple as it is now - although having something outside of the temple would help fill in the scene a bit as well.

heyguy

Thanks! I'm not sure what to put engine to put the project in. Unity is used a lot more than UDK for low poly mobile stuff, right? I'm opening up Unity and I'm about to start importing stuff now.

What kind of props do you think might be a good idea for me to add. I took one of the screen shots and did a paint over.  Thoughts? I like the benches on the side. I think I like the idea of walls but not those bricks. I feel like I should be careful because there's a point where it can get to cluttered. Right now though, the current "finished" product look unfinished.

heyguy

Thanks for the advice guys. Had some trouble with Unity, I had to reactivate it but it's all good now. I'll post an in engine screenshot in my next update. In the meanwhile, I've still be experimenting with the paint over. I added lots of vines like you suggested KrisLW. I quite like it! I'm not sure it works though if the temple is one in use though. It looks kind of jungle-y too. I had imagined this coastline somewhere on the North Eastern United States. I added a center braizer too. Very WIP. I like the warm lights it can possible provide to the scenes. What does everyone else think? Any critique is appreciated!

KrisLW

In regards to which engine to use, I prefer UE4. I used Unity while I was in school, and although it is a capable engine, I feel like Unreal allows you to achieve much better visuals much faster. It you are willing to take the time to get to know the engine, then either one is just fine.

I love the brazier idea! The walls, eh, not so much - but that's of course up to you. I does seem awful jungle-y, it needs some water! What if the brazier was the top of a fountain? Or if there were troughs of water along the sides? Perhaps make the entire ground water and have a stepping stone path or some such going along each side up to the stairs? Also, waterfalls! What if the crack in the ceiling was instead duplicated and moved so that there was one on each side of the temple, with water pouring down into troughs of some kind? (The bottoms of which are scattered with gold coins)

For general props, if the temple is still in use, people would probably be leaving offerings...? Valuables of some sort - gold/silver trinkets, coins, maybe a sword or a weapon or two?

heyguy

Here's an update. I brought the assets into Unity. I'd like to aim for a Dead Trigger 2 level of quality. Looks like a very high res PS2 game with nice AA, some normals and special effects like reflections, etc.

I can't seem to get lightmapping to work. I brought the entire project into Unity as one asset. Might that have something to do with it?






Thanks for the advice KRISLW! I definitely prefer Unreal over the other engines. I think I might go with Unity though since it would be a great opportunity to brush up on that engine! I like the water idea, I did want some puddles and reflection on the floor. I don't want to expand the project too much by making the temple larger though. I like the small contained nature of the project. Having no walls, I realize I'm probably going to have to concentrate more than I want to on the outsides.

KrisLW

Assuming Unity's lightmap is what I am expecting, the fact that it's one piece may be the problem. Am I correct in that I now realize the texture sheet you posted in the first post is actually the texture sheet for the entire scene as one object? I was thinking it was all separate meshes, as how a scene would typically be made in a modular fashion now days.

Light maps can typically be significantly smaller than the actual textures for an asset, but the "ideal" would be to have one pixel on the light map for every pixel that is being rendered in the scene. Having the entire scene as one object will require you to utilize a rather large light map to get enough detail for shadows. Also, lightmaps typically require unique UVs - if you have that entire scene textured onto that atlas of small texture samples, the overlapping UVs required for that kind of texturing will not work for a lightmap. Trying to uniquely UV map an entire scene onto one map might be a bit... difficult. (Also, I have no idea how Unity handles lightmaps vs UV maps)

That is a good point about the scope of the project - I wasn't envisioning making the temple larger at all, but yeah, I get what you are saying about walls vs no walls. Overall, I would say leave it open (vast expanse of the ocean and all that for Cthulhu, but if that means you sacrifice quality and time spent working on the inside of the temple, I can understand why you might wall it in.