(University Assignment) WIP - World of Warcraft - Mogu'shan Palace environment
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Greetings Polycount,
I've just started getting my Masters Degree in computer games design and for the first project I've been given, I have to build an environment from a piece of concept art from either Halo or World of Warcraft. I haven't attempted an environment piece in two years and last time I tried, it went horrendously! I tried so hard to exactly replicate the concept art and it came out looking very dull. That and well, we had just made the switchover from UE3 to UE4 at the University and the concept of PBR was lost on me. Still, as Garrosh once said, Times Change!
The piece I've chosen is one from Mogu'shan Palace, from Mists of Pandaria. I really loved the theme of that expansion so it will be fun to give it a shot.
(Mandatory "I do not own this image, all rights to go Blizzard", etc)
Here it is blocked out in UE4.
The scene looks pretty large but it in WoW, it was designed for the Mogu who are dramatically taller than humans. I couldn't find exact numbers when I was doing my research but I'd estimate they stand somewhere between 10-14 feet tall. There are no sources of light in the scene just yet but as you can see from the concept art, the room is entirely lit by the lanterns and braziers dotted around. I'm going to have to very carefully approach creating them with a blueprint so that I can have the light working in sync with the particle effects.
For our first deadline we've had to do all of our research and planning, so most of what I have right now is paperwork, mood boards, floor plans and art reference. For our first deadline we have to create six tileable materials, three for fantasy and three for sci fi. They don't need to be used in the project and as far as I'm aware, the purpose was to make us practice a bit. Even so, I styled my fantasy tileables after World of Warcraft because Blizzards art style is pretty unique and I've not dabbled much outside of photorealism in recent times.
This was my first experiment following Fanny Vergne's tutorials,
It's been pointed out to me by one of my lecturers and by Fanny Vergne herself that these are nowhere near flat enough. With people walking over them, they should be much flatter than this. I had a lot of fun making them though, I've not had much chance to practice either stone sculpting or photoshop texturing in recent memory, taking a break from characters has been quite pleasant. I have a screenshot of it tiling in UE4, but it's quite washed out by the lighting. I'd like it on record that I'm awful at setting up proper lighting and it's one of the goals I've set myself for this semester, learn how to do it right!
I did build a marmoset scene for this so if I can work out how to do it, I'll embed it in the thread later on.
Next up, I tackled a common recurring tile from the Pandaria expansion.
And last up, one from a piece of Uldum concept art.
As you can see, I didn't use a high enough dynamesh resolution when I sculpted this and it came out looking a lot more low-rez than I would have preferred. I didn't realise my error until I was in Photoshop and by then it was too late. I had other parts of the assignment to be getting on with. If I get time before the deadline I'll go back and fix it.
I'll post the sci fi ones here too in case anyone is interested. I had them looking pretty good in substance but trying to show it off in other packages is pretty difficult without good lighting. Once again, my Achilles heel!
The first sci-fi panel I built was mostly just experimental to get back into the groove of hard surface modelling.
I'm not entirely sold on the barricade tape pattern. It was an experiment to see if I could do it in Substance Painter but I'm not convinced it's really working.
The next one seemed like a great idea when I was building the high poly and then when I textured it, all I could think was "Oh god, what have I done?"
As a single tile this totally works, but when you put multiple of them together, it gets pretty garish very quickly.
The last one I built was my favourite. That time wasn't aimless messing around, I built a section of tiling from a Halo concept art.
I have a friend at Rockstar North who got incredibly excited when I showed him this tile. He initially refused to believe I built it, and then told me that in his opinion, it's the best thing I've ever made. I still have absolutely no idea if he's being serious or just trolling me (Probably the latter, like a 99% chance). I'm feeling that this was the strongest sci fi tile that i made, the others were more experimental than practical and truthfully, I couldn't picture the other two in a game but this one might have a chance.
If anyone wants to see the full set of textures I can post them, but for now I didn't want to flood the thread with every variant of roughness, metallic, normal, AO and emissive that I made.
So, as of roughly Saturday I'll start working on meshing out the Mogu'shan Palace scene. I'll keep posting updates over the course of the next nine weeks so if anyone wants to chime in with feedback, tips, advice or anything else, I would really appreciate it! This is the first time I've posted a project on Polycount so I'm a little nervous of what people have to say but it's time to take the training wheels off, I can't keep relying on just my lecturers for feedback.
For the time being, I hope you enjoyed reading this and have a pleasant day!
I've just started getting my Masters Degree in computer games design and for the first project I've been given, I have to build an environment from a piece of concept art from either Halo or World of Warcraft. I haven't attempted an environment piece in two years and last time I tried, it went horrendously! I tried so hard to exactly replicate the concept art and it came out looking very dull. That and well, we had just made the switchover from UE3 to UE4 at the University and the concept of PBR was lost on me. Still, as Garrosh once said, Times Change!
The piece I've chosen is one from Mogu'shan Palace, from Mists of Pandaria. I really loved the theme of that expansion so it will be fun to give it a shot.
(Mandatory "I do not own this image, all rights to go Blizzard", etc)
Here it is blocked out in UE4.
The scene looks pretty large but it in WoW, it was designed for the Mogu who are dramatically taller than humans. I couldn't find exact numbers when I was doing my research but I'd estimate they stand somewhere between 10-14 feet tall. There are no sources of light in the scene just yet but as you can see from the concept art, the room is entirely lit by the lanterns and braziers dotted around. I'm going to have to very carefully approach creating them with a blueprint so that I can have the light working in sync with the particle effects.
For our first deadline we've had to do all of our research and planning, so most of what I have right now is paperwork, mood boards, floor plans and art reference. For our first deadline we have to create six tileable materials, three for fantasy and three for sci fi. They don't need to be used in the project and as far as I'm aware, the purpose was to make us practice a bit. Even so, I styled my fantasy tileables after World of Warcraft because Blizzards art style is pretty unique and I've not dabbled much outside of photorealism in recent times.
This was my first experiment following Fanny Vergne's tutorials,
It's been pointed out to me by one of my lecturers and by Fanny Vergne herself that these are nowhere near flat enough. With people walking over them, they should be much flatter than this. I had a lot of fun making them though, I've not had much chance to practice either stone sculpting or photoshop texturing in recent memory, taking a break from characters has been quite pleasant. I have a screenshot of it tiling in UE4, but it's quite washed out by the lighting. I'd like it on record that I'm awful at setting up proper lighting and it's one of the goals I've set myself for this semester, learn how to do it right!
I did build a marmoset scene for this so if I can work out how to do it, I'll embed it in the thread later on.
Next up, I tackled a common recurring tile from the Pandaria expansion.
And last up, one from a piece of Uldum concept art.
As you can see, I didn't use a high enough dynamesh resolution when I sculpted this and it came out looking a lot more low-rez than I would have preferred. I didn't realise my error until I was in Photoshop and by then it was too late. I had other parts of the assignment to be getting on with. If I get time before the deadline I'll go back and fix it.
I'll post the sci fi ones here too in case anyone is interested. I had them looking pretty good in substance but trying to show it off in other packages is pretty difficult without good lighting. Once again, my Achilles heel!
The first sci-fi panel I built was mostly just experimental to get back into the groove of hard surface modelling.
I'm not entirely sold on the barricade tape pattern. It was an experiment to see if I could do it in Substance Painter but I'm not convinced it's really working.
The next one seemed like a great idea when I was building the high poly and then when I textured it, all I could think was "Oh god, what have I done?"
As a single tile this totally works, but when you put multiple of them together, it gets pretty garish very quickly.
The last one I built was my favourite. That time wasn't aimless messing around, I built a section of tiling from a Halo concept art.
I have a friend at Rockstar North who got incredibly excited when I showed him this tile. He initially refused to believe I built it, and then told me that in his opinion, it's the best thing I've ever made. I still have absolutely no idea if he's being serious or just trolling me (Probably the latter, like a 99% chance). I'm feeling that this was the strongest sci fi tile that i made, the others were more experimental than practical and truthfully, I couldn't picture the other two in a game but this one might have a chance.
If anyone wants to see the full set of textures I can post them, but for now I didn't want to flood the thread with every variant of roughness, metallic, normal, AO and emissive that I made.
So, as of roughly Saturday I'll start working on meshing out the Mogu'shan Palace scene. I'll keep posting updates over the course of the next nine weeks so if anyone wants to chime in with feedback, tips, advice or anything else, I would really appreciate it! This is the first time I've posted a project on Polycount so I'm a little nervous of what people have to say but it's time to take the training wheels off, I can't keep relying on just my lecturers for feedback.
For the time being, I hope you enjoyed reading this and have a pleasant day!
Replies
As always I'd appreciate any feedback! Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful day!
Decorative Wall
Wall 2
Wall Platform
Brazier
Ceiling centrepiece
Centrepiece surrounding tiles
Cross Section (Pillars)
Dragon Statue
Drum
Pillar Base
Entry Gate (The sides are deliberately left blank as they're not visible)
Main Pillar
Decorative tiles
Stairwell
Throne (Perspective)
Throne (Front)
Roof Piece One
Roof Piece Two
As part of the assignment criteria I had to follow the PBR workflow so it does look a bit more Overwatch than World of Warcraft, but I'm still quite happy with the result. Any feedback is always appreciated and if not, then thank you for reading this thread these last thirteen weeks and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!
Last of all, I do have a video rendering. It was my first attempt using Sequencer so beware that it didn't quite go as planned. In UE4 it looked pretty good but when it rendered out, it was much faster than it looked like it was going to be. Apologies in advance if this induces motion sickness!