The North Kingdom - Assassin's Creed (Fan Art)

7bajwa

Hello Everyone!! I am going to polish my old work that is based on Assassin's Creed 1 Concept Art by Raphael Lacoste.

This was my student work around 4-year-old and I know!! it is not even close to the concept!! 

Check out the previous work of mine that I recently finished

Envenomed Stone Lantern

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8lB9xO

7bajwa

Broken the assets into some assets from my previous file and brought into unreal and then set up the basic scene.

MarcoAntonio

Go for it! I loved that artwork!

7bajwa

Thanks, @MarcoAntonio .

I Go on With the blocking and added some more assets. Now starting with the sculpting.

7bajwa

Started with Main Arch. I will polish it a little more then I will start with the structure on the top.

7bajwa

Sorry For Disappearing guys! I caught up with something. I got lots of feedback from colleagues and Friends on the main arch and some more ideas. So I am not going with the upper sculpt(As everybody was saying it looks blobby and not like stone So I have to do it again properly). 
So later I went with pillars and finished em till the texturing so It will be easy to texture the upcoming related structure to texture. 
I also create the block of Cypress with base textures. I will increase the texture size so we get the crisp leaf formation as these are like the needles.
After that, I participated in Artstation challenge and put this on hold. I will post one update on the planning for the main arch. How I am doing it. It's blocking already done. I just have to set it up and take a screenshot. I will continue with the Wild West Challenge(Check out My progress) until the submission then I will be back to rock this scene.   

7bajwa

Piller High Poly and Wireframe. Hope you will like it. Soon I will post the Scene with the new assets and main Arch WIP.

7bajwa

The North Kingdom - Main Arch Texture update. Did some tweaks in the mesh. This is the screenshot of the current progress.


Baked tileable texture for the main arch


High poly sculpt for the tileable texture
Let me know what you think.
Should I start with rocks or the Cobble ground after this?
Enjoy!! Keep Motivating and Keep Supporting

7bajwa

The North Kingdom - Light updated a Little. Have to add more light to lit the main arch as of now it look a bit dark. Worked on the silhouette of the center arch. Going to work on the structure on the top of the arch and pillars. Planning to finish those by the weekend.
C&Fs are most welcome. enjoy!!

MarcoAntonio

Oh yes! nice progress
Try to remove some polygons. There are a lot of unneeded loops there. Textures could also have some more work. I would recommend you to set the scene up first with the assets you made. Then, after having all set up try to improve their quality. I say this because sometimes you think that an assets looks great and then, after making some other ones, starts looking like shit (This happens to me a lot with big projects like this).

7bajwa

MarcoAntonio Thank you. Glad you liked it.
I also want you to thank you to be the first person to give feedback. Well, I removed some loops afterward form the pillars. I will post one more update with wireframe as I finish with the main arch. The main scene is already set up. these are the major assets building up the scene. I agree with that we tend to find new things as we proceed and we improve so the first one start to look a bit off. I made the smart materials for that so once the bakes are done I just put the materials and then manually paint the details I want. so I am going one type by one. are you suggesting polishing all the assets a little more like blocking shapes and adding placeholder textures to make up a scene more than a white box? I was thinking about it though. 
Can you tell me more about the texture improvement a bit? I will see what I can do.
Thanks
Aman

MarcoAntonio

7bajwa said:

I removed some loops afterward form the pillars. I will post one more update with wireframe as I finish with the main arch. The main scene is already set up. these are the major assets building up the scene. I agree with that we tend to find new things as we proceed and we improve so the first one start to look a bit off. I made the smart materials for that so once the bakes are done I just put the materials and then manually paint the details I want. so I am going one type by one. are you suggesting polishing all the assets a little more like blocking shapes and adding placeholder textures to make up a scene more than a white box? I was thinking about it though. 
Can you tell me more about the texture improvement a bit? I will see what I can do.

You have already set the blockout. An environment artist (I am a weapon artist) should be able to tell you if it is right or not, but I think that what you have done is quite fine.

As I see it, setting up a blockout and then replacing those blocks with a modular sets and hero props is the right way to go. Using at first smart materials to set up things speeds up everything but once you are happy with how the scene looks, you need to go a step further. Ask yourself about what kind of damages could a ancient wall have, where could be the moss, what kind of materials were used back then, how this materials erosionate, what kind of erosion happens, does it rain a lot in this place... . Gather some real references to see this kind of things.

As I see it, those materials look awesome already. But it is always better to take things further. Maybe a more experienced environmental artist could tell you what is wrong or what you could improve.

7bajwa

Thanks, @MarcoAntonio I will polish the textures. Experienced Environment Artist you said!! @kimmokaunela @m4dcow @hydzior @frmdbl@BootScoot @AbKI May I have a little help here!! 

Here is the update everyone. I polished the Main Arch. It Needs some more love to match with the concept. I updated some lighting and placement of the objects. Assed placeholder textures to all the assets. I will add small assets and setup vertex paint for the moss and dirt then I will go with rocks or floor. Which one you suggest I should work o first?

Hope you will like it. Let me know what you think. Keep supporting and keep motivating.

m4dcow

Your trees look a bit too saturated and are a cooler tone compared to the reference but that is an easy fix.

While there are a bunch of little things you need to do before finishing this, I would suggest first working on the rock meshes/textures. Right now you have those blobby blockout meshes, but even a version of them with just a normal map which matches the jagged ones in the concept would go a long way.

I would also try to have the same dead tree near the second arch, the silhouette looks cool there.

You might also want to look into mesh decals for some of the damage.
https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/MeshDecals

Other things would be vertex paint shaders and small meshes like tufts of grass and rocks to polish it off.

Good luck, the scene coming along nicely.

7bajwa

Thanks, @m4dcow
Yes, all of the other assets are WIP except Arch and pillars. Trees and rocks just have placeholder textures. I will sculpt the rock. 
yeah! decals will be awesome for more decals. I am planning to add dirt and moss through Vertex blend.
I will polish the scene more and place more assets to fill up space. Thank you for your help. Keep supporting!!!
-Bajwa

BootScoot

Hey, I've had a quick look over your work. OK, my five cents! it's a good start, but here are some things to work upon as you start to reiterate.

To my eye the stone brick texture that you've worked on seems flat and too uniform in colour. Adding subtle colour variation to each brick will make them read as being carved from individual stone. The colour noise overlay that you've added over the top of the texture needs to be broken up a bit too, as it seems too even and unbrick like in its distribution. Maybe create some masks based on vertex colour when you bake to help. Also don't be afraid to go and paint some light edge highlights on the bricks in its colour/albedo, to simulate chipping/edge wear. A bit more roughness variation per brick will also help.

I don't really consider myself an expert at sculpting stone or rock, but I suggest you try using the trim smooth borders brush with a square alpha on it. Have a look on you tube. This will help you get the jagged look of the rock/cliff that sits to the left. It can also be used on your stone wall and pillars sculpt.

In terms of your ground plane, I'd remove the tiling stone texture and would use more geometry for the ground tiles, as the surface appears a lot more uneven in the concept art. Maybe try the approach that was used in dark souls?

One other thing is your stone colour and the lighting that you've used: it's too yellow/brown. When I look at the concept art there is more blue and mauve in there. Try tweaking your textures and lighting and have a bit of play with your colour grading in UE4's post processor. Don't go too overboard with it, as post processing and lighting, I've found, are best tweaked at the end of a project.

I hope that helps you!

7bajwa

@BootScoot Thanks, man!! how did I forget about the brick color variation. I will definitely update the color and overall noise variation. I will add the edge variation also. That will look good and give it more readability. thanks.
Brick distribution in via tileable texture and its tiling twice on the arch. I am afraid it will be difficult to update at this stage. Still, I will see what I can do (you are talking about the scale variation of the bricks on the left pillar. right?). 
I haven't started with the rocks yet. Only arches and pillars I have worked on. I will sculpt the rocks. Also, I will do the ground as you are suggesting. I will look into the reference that you told while I create it.
Yeah, I agree that lighting is washing everything out. I wanted to bring the feel so I added PP and fog.  I am working on a laptop that is not as much good for level work. Even placing the lights and moving the objects its very slow and it lags very much. I will tweak the PP more.
I will post the update today or probably tomorrow after all the polish.
Keep supporting. Keep helping
-Bajwa

BootScoot

By distribution, I meant the colour noise overlay, not  the brick amount/density. The overlay would look better (I think) if it were broken up more on a per brick basis. Hope that clarifies it. Good to know that my suggestions helped.

7bajwa

I broke the noise and added variation to the bricks. reduced the gap between the bricks. I polished more according to the more feedback I got earlier. 

This image is not high resolution. My pc is crashing while taking a high-resolution screenshot. I will post some closeup today evening. I also started with the floor. Figuring the scale of the tiles.

7bajwa

My laptop was not working so I was not able to work from a while. they formatted it. So, I also reinstalled and setup everything again.
So, since this Sunday I worked on the floor more. Polished the texture of the tree. Trying to find the bush from the reference but not able to so I will make one which will look as close to this and let me know if you have any bush ref in mind. I also updated the scene a little. Currently, I am working on the floor. Let me know what you think.

MarcoAntonio

Oh that looks nice!!

7bajwa

Thanks, @MarcoAntonio Glad you liked it.

Here is the update for the scene. I updated the rocks. I was looking for the bush or plant family of the game and concept. But didn't find a correct one. I would really like if you can help me with that. another way I will go for a common generic one. I want to work on bush and dress the scene more. 



Sculpted the rocks and quickly decimated and added texture

I will add some more medium and small details on rock 2. As I feel it's looking a bit empty. Let me know what you think.
Keep Supporting!! 

MarcoAntonio

That looks better!! However, the scene looks a bit empty. Maybe is just me but I think there is something missing. Maybe after working a bit more on it and setting some moss and vegetation...

7bajwa

Yes, @MarcoAntonio I agree. I am planning to add dirt and moss using vertex blend. and the vegetation is in WIP. Small grass and Ivy is still pending. Those will do add interest to the scene. I will try to add those elements by this weekend. I will polish the structure on the left also.
Right now I am trying to figure out the bushes types. So I can decorate the scene.

7bajwa

Hello Everyone!!!

I couldn't work much since the last update.
I mainly updated the structure on the left. working on the blend shader for moss and dirt. also added on the main arch and the same structure.
Let me know what you think. 

Keep Supporting!!! Keep Motivating!!! 

7bajwa

Some Scene Update. Added shrub in the corners. Updated the blend shader and some vertex paint.

7bajwa

Well, It was a very good weekend. Updated the scene more with small elements. Updated the shaders and vertex blend. 
There is still a lot to update in the scene. I have to address some rock feedbacks that I got from my fellow artists.
For the future. Blend shader needs more update and supported mesh also. I was going to update cobblestone textures but sadly files are missing.  No worries those can be recreated. I want to address those mountains in the back also. Want to update the mesh to give more details on the silhouette. Still, a lot of work needs to be done. Let me know what you think.
One more thing, I am participating in the Artstation Feudal Japan Challenge. So, this might get slow (which it already is. ) 
I will be working at the office on the challenge so on this I will mostly work on weekends and if I get time on weekdays. 

7bajwa

Updated the Floor mesh and textures. Updated the shaders and vertex blend also. 

PS. Don't forget to check out my Feudal Japan Entry  and Keep up for the updates.

7bajwa

I worked a lot since the last update. I updated the scene more. Did some blending on the pillars and floor. Extended the scene a bit.
Here is how the current scene looks like. Hope you will like it.

I have to work on the BG mountains and Polish some assets here and there. Then this project will be finally over. I would really like your views.  What do you think  @kimmokaunela @m4dcow @hydzior @frmdbl @BootScoot @AbKI @PixelMasher
One more call before I finish this project. Thanks!! Keep Supporting!!!

Ged

very nice level of polish on this

chriszuko

I saw this a few weeks ago and I liked seeing the start of it. Once the mountains are polished up like you said then I think its gonna be golden!

AFsoft

very inspiring ! 

Rajeev

looking nice ...and good progress

Sourav

Looking good .. keep going ..

7bajwa

Thank you, everyone!!! Glad you liked it. 
Yes @chriszuko , I will update it soon.
Keep Supporting!!! 

RonanMahon

Great to see your progress in the thread @7bajwa . What caught my eye initially is the stonework looks very fragile and unbalanced structurally.
You've gone for quite an ancient and ruined look and yet the stone is very tall and looks about to topple at any moment. Especially your horizontal arches - I'm finding it difficult to see how they would stand up.

The arch and pillars are a little one dimensional, when viewed from above it appears to be quite a thin line of assets all in the same plane. 

Composition wise you could maybe collapse a section toward the camera in order to provide some depth and invite the viewer in to the image.  Looks like a little more atmospheric fog would help with reading the layers of the image,  the mountains are almost blending with the arch, it might be nice to pop them more and make them the hero. I made a quick paintover. 

Keep up the progress

7bajwa

Hello!! @RonanMahon First of all thank you and Congratulations to be the first one to give paint over feedback.  I really appreciate that.
Lot of things you said make sense. I will add some support to the horizontal arches and thicken the 2nd arch. 
As I was going mostly as per the concept so I made all the things those were present in the concept.
I did think of adding broken pillar debris on the bottom of the round pillars. The green Debris you painted is that fallen from the main arch and horizontal arches, I guess. I have to create some debris pieces from the existing mesh and textures. That I think is possible at this stage.
I updated the mountains and increased the fog to show some depth. 
At the current stage, thickening the base will be a lot of work. And I don't know how it will look. I will do a mockup for that and then let me know if it's looking good or not. As per now, I was focusing more on the concept for the shapes.

@everyone I will work on it after the Artstation Challenge. you can have a look at my entry I will love to have your views on this also.

RonanMahon

@7bajwa Yes the green debris is fallen from the main arch. For some quick debris you could definitely cut up some of your main assets. You can hide any ugly edges maybe with some foliage or ivy etc. When i'm sketching Ill just duplicate any assets I've got to try things out - quick and dirty. You could see what thickening the base would be like with a shortened copy of your main pillar upright - just scaled out a little. Best of luck 

Dante_mL

Ue4 has pretty good vertex paint capabilities. You could use it to blend some dirt and gravel on the ground without adding any more geo. Could also be useful for parts of the columns to get some moss or greenery going on them, only makes sense for more northern atmosphere. Quick way to add variety, just gotta get that height blending correct.

What irks me is the arch and the what the outer pillars are supporting. Support arches are usually made out of smaller pieces that fit together into an arch. It helps distribute all that force from above into sides (pillars). A single arch made of stone that wide wouldn't be the most stable thing. Any internal cracks could force entire thing to collapse. The outer pillars seem to be supporting a brick stack. Doesn't really make sense as it'll just collapse, it should be one big rectangle slab with smaller slab stack on top. 

Looking good so far. Want to see this through. 

7bajwa

Thank you @RonanMahon and @Dante_mL for the feedbacks. It's hard to start again after the breaks. 
@Dante_mL yes vertex blending is the beauty. I do have the blending on the assets. Moss on the left structure is vertex blend. There is dirt here and there, not visible much.
 I started with the scene. Polished the mountains and depth. Polished the arches and added support.
I will add the rubble and thicken base tomorrow. We will see how it looks. I also have to add more visible color variations in the texture.

7bajwa

Updated the scene and assets. Also updated some lighting. I will polish the broken pieces and add more column's broken pieces. Let me know what you think.

BootScoot

Hey @7bajwa, you've made really good progress!

A few things to me stand out.The major one is the upper stone brick section of the archway. As per RonanMahon's post and Dante_mL's, those upper elements are still unsupported, despite the ledges/lintels that you've added. Instead of a row of bricks, it may be better to use a stone block that runs the entire length and also make the lintel solid as well. The highlighted bricks looks like they're floating.

The minor ones are the dirt on the stone tiled area is too strong and reads (to my eye anyway) as being more like mud. Maybe try knocking it back and using a colour that is not as dark. If you wish to stick more closely to the concept, the exposed rock face to the left could benefit from more planar and angular faces. In the concept the rock looks a lot less weathered and eroded.

You've made some good progress so keep it up!

7bajwa

Made the single stones for the arches. Added some rubble also. Polished lighting, textures and vertex blend.
Honestly, I don't know what to do with the rocks. I will still do a sculpting pass on the rocks to make them look less eroded and flatter.
I have to polish some textures and foliage. placements and some more set dressing before I call it done. 
Hope you will like it.

Enjoy!! Keep Supporting!!!

BootScoot

@7bajwa it's just a suggestion and it's your project. The rocks to my eye  look like they have a lot more planar chipping in them and a lot more stratification. I've just done a quick google and this guy's videos are really helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReYMH6wJ2As

The opening shot is this video, I think, is more representative of what I'd go for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLFRX_p0WGo

Hope that helps!

7bajwa

Thanks @BootScoot second one looks great. I will surely try that out. Thanks

7bajwa

Updated The rocks, textures, and scene more.
Few more polish before I call it done. 

7bajwa

The North Kingdom - Assassin's Creed Fanart.
Here are the final renders for the environment. Check out the Artstation link for more screenshots, Video & Breakdowns.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQ4vQ6

I want to thanks all those who gave me valuable and constructive feedback especially @BootScoot & @RonanMahon
I learned a lot during the project and which was the main reason I started the project and also taking feedback as much as possible. All the progress shows that how much it is important to take feedback. How much you can improve and grow with guidance. If you want to know anything else regarding the project then do let me know. Thanks again for the guidance and support. Enjoy!!

RonanMahon

I think you captured that arid ruin look nicely. Well done on completing! You should embed the video also

BootScoot

Nice work! I'm glad to have helped out.