The Yawning Portal [Modular Enviroment]
polycounter lvl 9
Hello!
I am starting my first big project! I have done several smaller projects to get the prop workflow down. Now that I have a decent understanding, its time to make a project that I can chew on for awhile as I search for a job.
I am making The Yawning Portal from dungeons & dragons. For those of you who don't know about this infamous tavern in the castle ward of Waterdeep, I'll include a link here to wiki page for it: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Yawning_Portal
Basically, it is a tavern that sits atop a giant 40ft by 120ft deep well that leads into a massive series of tunnels and eventually the underdark (subterranean d&d land). A wizard's tower used to sit here but after that was destroyed someone built a tavern on top of it. Now as a avid d&d player I was sad to see that most illustrations for the yawning portal are pretty boring. As an aspiring enviroment artist I felt compelled to do something more, and make a tavern that actually played off the fact that there is a giant hole in the middle. Also I have quite a bit of experience wood working so I wanted my enviroment project to feature a lot of wood. Since I don't have a wood shop, I guess 3ds max and substance will have to do for now.
So to start off I made a mood board of what I was wanting the feel to be. I am choosing a timber frame construction style. I am still a little undecided if I should go with a wattle and daub wall or wood paneling.
After that I went ahead and blocked it out in 3ds max. I then brought it into unity to do a couple of scaling tests to make sure the bar felt the way I wanted it too. A lot of the elements are proportionally off... but I just wanted to test the lay out of a building for now.
This is what you see when you first step into the bar. A giant room with 2 tiers of seating, a fireplace to the left and rooms to the right. The bar is on the far wall. It's pretty hard to see with this janky grid that I made real quick.
This is the fire place that is off the the left when you walk in. It is mentioned in the description that there is a big fireplace area. Now I don't think this is needed to heat the entire bar. Waterdeep where there bar is located is a southern coastal city. It probably wouldn't get very cold there. However I will still put a little fireplace in some of the sleeping rooms.
This is the bar at the back of the tavern. A reeeaaallly long bar that has a opportunity to have lots of curios behind it. A zombie hand that never stops moving? Or maybe a small black onyx statuette of a panther?
Here it is looking from the 3rd floor down. The bar looks really big and spacy now, but I just have to keep telling myself that it will fill up quickly once I start placing assets.
So, what do think is the best step from here? Should I start making concept art now that I have something to base my perspective off of? Should I start building assets from the ever growing list in my sketchbook? Should make the lighting in the bar real quick to make sure the space still holds up? I'll probably jump over to unreal to make it. I just threw it in real quick unity since I know it best and am pretty comfortable scripting in it.
Thanks! Looking forward to hearing feedback and posting more updates!
And uh, if you know any jobs open let me know
I am starting my first big project! I have done several smaller projects to get the prop workflow down. Now that I have a decent understanding, its time to make a project that I can chew on for awhile as I search for a job.
I am making The Yawning Portal from dungeons & dragons. For those of you who don't know about this infamous tavern in the castle ward of Waterdeep, I'll include a link here to wiki page for it: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Yawning_Portal
Basically, it is a tavern that sits atop a giant 40ft by 120ft deep well that leads into a massive series of tunnels and eventually the underdark (subterranean d&d land). A wizard's tower used to sit here but after that was destroyed someone built a tavern on top of it. Now as a avid d&d player I was sad to see that most illustrations for the yawning portal are pretty boring. As an aspiring enviroment artist I felt compelled to do something more, and make a tavern that actually played off the fact that there is a giant hole in the middle. Also I have quite a bit of experience wood working so I wanted my enviroment project to feature a lot of wood. Since I don't have a wood shop, I guess 3ds max and substance will have to do for now.
So to start off I made a mood board of what I was wanting the feel to be. I am choosing a timber frame construction style. I am still a little undecided if I should go with a wattle and daub wall or wood paneling.
After that I went ahead and blocked it out in 3ds max. I then brought it into unity to do a couple of scaling tests to make sure the bar felt the way I wanted it too. A lot of the elements are proportionally off... but I just wanted to test the lay out of a building for now.
This is what you see when you first step into the bar. A giant room with 2 tiers of seating, a fireplace to the left and rooms to the right. The bar is on the far wall. It's pretty hard to see with this janky grid that I made real quick.
This is the fire place that is off the the left when you walk in. It is mentioned in the description that there is a big fireplace area. Now I don't think this is needed to heat the entire bar. Waterdeep where there bar is located is a southern coastal city. It probably wouldn't get very cold there. However I will still put a little fireplace in some of the sleeping rooms.
This is the bar at the back of the tavern. A reeeaaallly long bar that has a opportunity to have lots of curios behind it. A zombie hand that never stops moving? Or maybe a small black onyx statuette of a panther?
Here it is looking from the 3rd floor down. The bar looks really big and spacy now, but I just have to keep telling myself that it will fill up quickly once I start placing assets.
So, what do think is the best step from here? Should I start making concept art now that I have something to base my perspective off of? Should I start building assets from the ever growing list in my sketchbook? Should make the lighting in the bar real quick to make sure the space still holds up? I'll probably jump over to unreal to make it. I just threw it in real quick unity since I know it best and am pretty comfortable scripting in it.
Thanks! Looking forward to hearing feedback and posting more updates!
And uh, if you know any jobs open let me know
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