Seeking critiques/advice on how to improve my Stylized boulders.
polycounter lvl 4
Hello all! I'm currently working on a student led game and I'm working as an environment artist. Brief description of the game so the assets will make more sense:
Its camera is isometric (similar to Diablo's camera). The location is on the side of a snowy mountain. Our art style is leaning more towards Firewatch and Heroes of the Storm. So, here are some early boulders I've made. I've added damage to the boulders so we can add them in combat areas. The slashes and claw marks are from the enemy units in the game. Each boulder is approximately 600 polys. Using Diffuse map, Normal map, and Roughness map.
This boulder is more or less finished. It's breaking apart around the center (the crack goes behind the boulder too). I add some grey, blue, and a touch of green. I feel like this asset is fine, but I can't help but feel something isn't quite right about it. I'd love some critiques and advice. Remember, this is supposed to be a stylized asset, similar to that of Firewatch or Heroes of the Storm.
This is the second boulder that I'm currently in the process of texturing. It's about 20% through the whole process so far. The idea was to have a unique boulder that has 3 variations. These two images are two of those variations.
The workflow I'm using is:
high poly zbrush
low poly through zbrush + maya
bake maps
paint in 3D Coat and Photoshop
But yea, I'd really appreciate anything you all have to offer. This is the first time I've hand painted stylized assets without the help of a tutorial, and it's been so much fun learning the process.
Thank you for your time.
Its camera is isometric (similar to Diablo's camera). The location is on the side of a snowy mountain. Our art style is leaning more towards Firewatch and Heroes of the Storm. So, here are some early boulders I've made. I've added damage to the boulders so we can add them in combat areas. The slashes and claw marks are from the enemy units in the game. Each boulder is approximately 600 polys. Using Diffuse map, Normal map, and Roughness map.
This boulder is more or less finished. It's breaking apart around the center (the crack goes behind the boulder too). I add some grey, blue, and a touch of green. I feel like this asset is fine, but I can't help but feel something isn't quite right about it. I'd love some critiques and advice. Remember, this is supposed to be a stylized asset, similar to that of Firewatch or Heroes of the Storm.
This is the second boulder that I'm currently in the process of texturing. It's about 20% through the whole process so far. The idea was to have a unique boulder that has 3 variations. These two images are two of those variations.
The workflow I'm using is:
high poly zbrush
low poly through zbrush + maya
bake maps
paint in 3D Coat and Photoshop
But yea, I'd really appreciate anything you all have to offer. This is the first time I've hand painted stylized assets without the help of a tutorial, and it's been so much fun learning the process.
Thank you for your time.
Replies
Somethings I would think about.
-WHere is this rock going to be located?
-Depending on the location, is it going to be wet because of water in the air? or the beach? or is there going to be moss growing off of it? etcetera.
I'd suggest using a reference to make your own kind of builder.
Show us your reference images.
--So the idea for the scratched boulders was to place them in combat areas. So it's like the boulders have been damaged by combat that recently happened in the area. The enemies in our game have swords and claws.
--This rock is a boulder, and would be placed in the scene along/nearby the path.
--The game takes place on a snowy mountain. The area is covered in ice/snow. Ice is also a big mechanic in the game.
@Brian Yoo just got home from work. I don't have a current build of the game, so here is a render in Marmoset of the approximate distance.
This is about how far the camera will be zoomed out for the game...
Here are some reference images of the type of boulder I was trying to make...
The more round ones.
Also the more round ones.
But I've looked at rocks in the mentioned games that we're taking inspiration from (Firewatch, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm) and they seem to lack in micro detail, but really express their large detail in their hand painted, stylized design. Edges/shadows are pronounced so they can be seen more too.
I know this image is not a smooth boulder, but there aren't a lot of micro detail (normal and color) in these models. Sure there are cracks, chips, etc, but I'm trying to go for a smooth boulder. I have other rocks too that I'm building that aren't smooth at all, but this boulder was the first one I started on.
I guess my question for this thread is "Is this boulder stylistic enough?" "What can I do to help make this look more stylized?"
Not aiming for realism in the texture color.
I tried looking up rocks/boulders in other games that are similar in style. It's actually very annoying to search up "Heroes of the Storm rocks" and all that pops up are forum posts saying "YEA! That game DOES rock!" xD
I think that's my biggest issue I'm having ^^ Trying to find good stylized rocks and see how others have done it. I CAN find rocks, however they're not the boulder that I'm making...maybe smooth boulders just aren't interesting enough? The most likely scenario is that it's MY boulder that isn't interesting enough xD But that's why I'm here.
Sorry if I seem all over the place xD Thank you all for the help
Have you tried sculpting the rock first with the Orb set of Zbrush Brushes? As you'll notice with the Heroes of the Storm model above, they usually begin with a Zbrush sculpt and bake from there before they commit it all to a low poly object.
And you're right about the Heroes asset.
Here is a quick timelapse http://justletit.be/~brum/testsculpt2.webm