[Seeking Feedback] WoW Garrison Fan Art (WIP)

AustinLabarbera

Hello everyone. 

I have been working on this model in my free time .


https://www.artstation.com/artwork/wVJWY 

It is roughly based off Jimmy Lo's wow concept art here: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r2QaM_av4IY/VHLGIX5p66I/AAAAAAAAAeo/3dzvEGqbpLY/s1600/Alliance_Garrison_WorkShopv02.jpg 

Model made in Maya, and textures done in Zbrush and Photoshop. This is very much a work in progress and very rough around the edges (Quick UVs, textures are under developed, etc...) but I would like some feedback on how its coming along. I am following the concept art, but not religiously. Although,  maybe I should go down that path when I continue to work on it. I mostly been trying to get textures on the model, then focus on dialing them in. I am also doing weird things like combining PBR, and Non-PBR shaders. Not sure if I want to make it purely diffuse or PBR in the end.

If I do decide to make it purely diffuse, I would like to find some methods of using ambient lighting in Marmoset if that is possible. So far haven't been able to find any info on that.  

So yeah.... I have kind of just been doing it very loosely, but I think I can use more direction with it. 

I appreciate any feedback anyone is willing to offer. 

Thanks guys! 

pazonearth_

I like it so far. I'd like to see what other polycounters have to say in regards to critique 

Dethling

Really nice work. Only thing I would change is to make it less blocky  by bending/sqashing the wooden pillars a little bit. This would sell the cartoony style of WoW more (there are no straight lines in WoW^^)

AustinLabarbera

Thanks, Dethling! Sorry for the late reply., been away. I see you what you mean! I'll be going back and adding those changes. 

praetus

Since you're in the texturing phase you should decide if you're doing a pbr approach or a diffuse only.  Right now it seems a little bit og both and it's not really helping the style.  A few things right off- The shingles on the roof need depth.  Whether they're painted or pbr, you need to keep in mind that when texturing you're conveying a 3d object in 2d.  Your shingles have no sides and they appear to be paper thin.  Also, they're going so dark in value they're black, which is a no-no when hand painting.  Have them go darker and shift hue a bit but never full black (or highlights go full white on the same token.) 

As Dethling mentioned, you're using too many straight lines.  Most things in wall bough in, flare out, etc.  Find natural curves in the structure to make it interesting.  Look at silhouette in Wow, Disney movies, Mario games, etc.  Look at all the curves and varying shapes.  Figure out how to incorporate those into your design.

AustinLabarbera

I think I am going to go down the PBR route since I also want to add more polygons to the roof. Also since Overwatch's new "Blizzard World" map looks incredible, and inspires me greatly seeing well known buildings from their older games being built in a modern game pipeline. I had issues in the past with the roof looking thin, and my creases looking too dark. I have some thoughts on how the normal map may be darkening the creases in some of the textures. I used a dark blue for the creases in the roof tile-set, but it is probably is way too dark even without the use of a normal map.

Thanks for pointing these out! I appreciate it so much. Will post updates soon! 

AustinLabarbera

Here's some progress on my project: 

I did a black and white test on my render and realized the contrast on the wood and the stone bricks were too similar. I brightened up the bricks, and bumped down the contrast on the material. I also darkened the wood and added more contrast. Much happier with the result. 

I tried many things to fix the roof looking flat issue. I ended up adding some extra edge-loops to the roof and adjusting the height of the top surface. I also modeled out some shingles to sit along top of the roof. Its not perfect, but I think it is better than before I will return and try to dial it in more and maybe add more shingles along the edges of the roof. 

I moved onto the metal and touched up the base texture, and added more micro surface information. There are still way too many dark and contrasty spots which I am going to try to work on fixing. As pointed out, that issue also is apparent in my other materials as well. I went back to the brick and roof texture and removed a lot of the areas that were reading as black and filled them in with a lighter and more saturated color.  I also went back and added a sharpen filter to all my textures which I like a lot. 

This week I want to go back and give the stone some love, and continue to fix mentioned issues above. I need to also play around with the lighting more, as well as the camera angle.
Just thought I would share an update, and if anyone has anything they would like to point out that could help make this model better, or to point out mistakes I am making that would be greatly appreciate. 

Again, all critiques are very welcome and appreciated-- Thanks!