Desert Valley - Environment [WIP]
polycounter lvl 6
Hey everyone, I just wanted to share this here since the unity forum doesn't seem to be the place for any specific art tips and critiques. I've been working on this project to finally add something to my portfolio but I figured I'd get some tips on improvements in its current state if possible. I was going to use unreal engine 4 but because I'm trying to go for something that can give me a quick result without having to deal with light maps I decided to use Unity 5 with a few addons. This piece is eventually going to be shown to one of my professors who has been in the industry for a long time and I'd hate to show this off once it's done only to find out a lot of things look terrible.
About the scene: So this piece is suppose to be an entrance to a cave that leads into a temple which is kind of seen in the background. My focus is just the entrance and trying to make things look as good as I can make it. I'm going by what one of my professors has stated and that is Quality over Quantity. I currently have to replace the sand textures, add a few more rock assets and other filler objects, and replace the pillars which were just a test. The only models that are 100% complete at this moment is the rock-like cliff pieces.
To get straight to the point, does the lighting seem to be too much at the moment? are there improvements that can be done in certain areas? and do you have any possible recommendations?
(Most Recent Screenshots, lighting has been toned down a bit):
About the scene: So this piece is suppose to be an entrance to a cave that leads into a temple which is kind of seen in the background. My focus is just the entrance and trying to make things look as good as I can make it. I'm going by what one of my professors has stated and that is Quality over Quantity. I currently have to replace the sand textures, add a few more rock assets and other filler objects, and replace the pillars which were just a test. The only models that are 100% complete at this moment is the rock-like cliff pieces.
To get straight to the point, does the lighting seem to be too much at the moment? are there improvements that can be done in certain areas? and do you have any possible recommendations?
(Most Recent Screenshots, lighting has been toned down a bit):
Replies
Maybe you could gather some references of egyptian temples and ruins (as they are in the similar environment as yours) - it can help you understand what you are working on and inspire you. When making an environment it's good to have some sort of backstory the environment should. It doesn't have to be a novel a simple few lines will be enough. Let's say your temple is abandoned for some time now,(maybe because it's in the middle of desert) so the manmade structures buit around are slowly wearing off and dissolving, the sand is covering everything and weeds tend to pop off the ground as there is nobody to prevent all these things to happen. To add more story you can ask yourself questions like what purpose the temple had etc.. It can be simple but it gives you something to work with.
Also give some love to the composition. You have some realy great rocks! Try to create some interesting natural shapes with them. Maybe use them as shadow casters so you don't have boring flat light everywhere. Work with a color little bit.
I couln't ressist to make a quick overpaint so here it is. Have a good time and keep working hard!
Thank you so much for your feedback as I always appreciate other artists criticism. I also appreciate the quick paint over concept as it does show a more interesting composition and in my early stages helps me to figure out that I could just add a lot more to it. I was completely stunned when I saw you included statues with a spear because I had drawn a quick illustration of how I wanted the environment to look and I had a statue with a spear and a shield kind of on the sides almost next to the pillars. It's really interesting and well I didn't include statues, well at least not yet because I felt my sculpting skills were a bit lack luster. I may be able to get away with just modeling it and trying to do some light sculpting or just add details through the texture in substance painter. I never thought about the vegetation since in my mind for some reason I thought the whole environment would be in the middle of no where with nothing. However this particular area is suppose to be as I stated a temple entrance so it does make sense to have some vegetation and variety around. I was also thinking of adding some sort of destructed stone along the center to create a vague road. Once again thank you Jeden for your input, you have definitely helped me see more to my scene here and I'll go ahead and have a look at more references since I've gathered only a few when I started which was for the assets I have now. The cliffs were just made kind of in my own way I guess since I couldn't get a previous result.
Making environments is hard so don't let any boundaries to discourage you and welcome them as they are great opportunity to test yourself (it can be very frustrating but that's the fun of it)
When in doubt, I like to remind myself JFK's words:
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
Hope it helps.
Note:This project was done by the end of july and I'm just posting it here now. I switched from Unity to Unreal 4 and it has given better results. Everything is in real-time and all the assets were created and sculpted by me. The foliage came from other places such as cgtextures however I still had to create a normal, spec/metal, roughness map for all the foliage. The only custom material that I made for this was in designer, which is the tree bark. I tried to be more creative and break up the pillars a bit as well. If you see some yellow splotches or so that is just particles I used to create some sort of sand or dust particles around, I didn't go crazy with this though.