The brick looks good from far away but the more you look at it the flatter it appears. Maybe attempting to stretch it too much with just normal maps and no tessellation/POM?
Maybe a bit heavy handed on the lighting? Allowing some of the interior ceiling to have pockets of shadow. Also you are hardly getting any sharp shadowing from objects, almost everything is diffused shadow.
And if that is the light colour you are going for, maybe try to find materials/colours in your environment that will contrast well with that.
But it looks like you're just applying textures to low poly models. You should model a high poly version and bake that version on to a low poly. Think of your low poly as just a reduced polygon count of your high poly. Which means that you make your high poly first and make your low poly based off of that.
And you want to avoid harsh edge angles by beveling your edges in your high poly. You will also get a nice edge highlight and the read will be better.
Even with something as simple as a cube. It makes a big difference.
It doesn't have to necessarily be that exaggerated, but I think you get the idea.
But it looks like you're just applying textures to low poly models. You should model a high poly version and bake that version on to a low poly. Think of your low poly as just a reduced polygon count of your high poly. Which means that you make your high poly first and make your low poly based off of that.
And you want to avoid harsh edge angles by beveling your edges in your high poly. You will also get a nice edge highlight and the read will be better.
Even with something as simple as a cube. It makes a big difference.
It doesn't have to necessarily be that exaggerated, but I think you get the idea.
Thanks. And yeah nothing has a nice beveled edges and sculpted details right now. Since it's well a w.i.p.
the new wall is looking a lot better, I think it would be more interesting if the predominant texture was the bricks, and not the white wall, if you really want to have more plaster than bricks it is a good some darker spots and play a lot with the roughness variation. Also, imo what is attractive about wine cellars is the dungeon felling they have, almost claustrophobic, it would help to sell that idea by adding more contrast to the lights (similar to your first images) and bringing the ceiling lower, or maybe even scaling the whole architecture down, in comparison to your scale reference on the 5th pic.
the new wall is looking a lot better, I think it would be more interesting if the predominant texture was the bricks, and not the white wall, if you really want to have more plaster than bricks it is a good some darker spots and play a lot with the roughness variation. Also, imo what is attractive about wine cellars is the dungeon felling they have, almost claustrophobic, it would help to sell that idea by adding more contrast to the lights (similar to your first images) and bringing the ceiling lower, or maybe even scaling the whole architecture down, in comparison to your scale reference on the 5th pic.
Thanks for the tips! Ill try to come up with something like it.
Made a pretty drastic changes to the lighting and added a new part of the level. What do you think? is it too dark, maybe there's still not enough contrast?
a bit too dark now, haha, but I like the idea of the Christmas lights (idk the proper name for those). I am not sure if the blue fog makes much sense, considering there is no windows or other cool light. Unless there is a window that we can not see from that angle. If you are to play with the idea on having candles on every pillar you could also try to add some randomness to it, maybe some went off by accident, or someone added 2 or 3 candles on the same corner spot to make that area brighter, just so you can break the repetition. Feel free to ignore that pic, I just played with the exposure and did some color correction to get rid of the blue and make the candles warmer (my "correction" might be a bit too red)
a bit too dark now, haha, but I like the idea of the Christmas lights (idk the proper name for those). I am not sure if the blue fog makes much sense, considering there is no windows or other cool light. Unless there is a window that we can not see from that angle. If you are to play with the idea on having candles on every pillar you could also try to add some randomness to it, maybe some went off by accident, or someone added 2 or 3 candles on the same corner spot to make that area brighter, just so you can break the repetition. Feel free to ignore that pic, I just played with the exposure and did some color correction to get rid of the blue and make the candles warmer (my "correction" might be a bit to red)
Nice improvements! One thing I notice hasn't changed and could use an upgrade is your brick wall/columns they look quite similar you could play with more vertex painted texture variations or decals, and, also give it some volume either by modeling some shapes (it doesnt take a thousand hundred tris, just few more edge variations do the trick), or by using displacement. More silhouette work will help I am sure
I like the idea, there are loads and loads of nice references out there and you already have some nice composition ideas on the posts below, have fun !
Replies
And if that is the light colour you are going for, maybe try to find materials/colours in your environment that will contrast well with that.
But it looks like you're just applying textures to low poly models. You should model a high poly version and bake that version on to a low poly. Think of your low poly as just a reduced polygon count of your high poly. Which means that you make your high poly first and make your low poly based off of that.
And you want to avoid harsh edge angles by beveling your edges in your high poly. You will also get a nice edge highlight and the read will be better.
Even with something as simple as a cube. It makes a big difference.
It doesn't have to necessarily be that exaggerated, but I think you get the idea.
Also, imo what is attractive about wine cellars is the dungeon felling they have, almost claustrophobic, it would help to sell that idea by adding more contrast to the lights (similar to your first images) and bringing the ceiling lower, or maybe even scaling the whole architecture down, in comparison to your scale reference on the 5th pic.
If you are to play with the idea on having candles on every pillar you could also try to add some randomness to it, maybe some went off by accident, or someone added 2 or 3 candles on the same corner spot to make that area brighter, just so you can break the repetition.
Feel free to ignore that pic, I just played with the exposure and did some color correction to get rid of the blue and make the candles warmer (my "correction" might be a bit too red)
Made a little bit more progress. Still not satisfied with lighting. Maybe i should change the brick wall to a stone one ?
More silhouette work will help I am sure
I like the idea, there are loads and loads of nice references out there and you already have some nice composition ideas on the posts below, have fun !