Shrine of Peace
grand marshal polycounter
Doing the ArtStation Challenge. Here's the concept I'm working off of (Ivan Ilko);
Here's the basics of what I've got so far. I've sculpted the rocks and stairs, and am working on the temple, which is actually far more complicated than you'd initially think by looking at the concept. After perusing Bing images (yes, I switched to Bing), I actually found the references used by Ivan. Critiques along my journey are appreciated!
https://www.artstation.com/contests/feudal-japan/challenges/51/submissions/34466
Here's the basics of what I've got so far. I've sculpted the rocks and stairs, and am working on the temple, which is actually far more complicated than you'd initially think by looking at the concept. After perusing Bing images (yes, I switched to Bing), I actually found the references used by Ivan. Critiques along my journey are appreciated!
https://www.artstation.com/contests/feudal-japan/challenges/51/submissions/34466
Replies
You may be well aware of this but made your own decisions regarding it, but there does seem to be a little difference between the scale or the concept and your block-out so far. It seems small, but to me it makes a difference in how the scene feels. There is a couple factors at play, I think, such as the framing of the image, the camera angle, and some pieces still to come such as the grass, but in the concept the shrine seems a bit further away, the camera is a little more narrow, and all this makes it feel a bit more... sort of mysterious or maybe a little more religious as the shrine seems to reside higher above the viewer and feels far away.
Also, the arch covers like 2/3'rds of the image, which helps kind of frame the whole thing. Sorry if you are already aware of all this and just intend to crop the image and adjust final camera angle later, or maybe intend to deviate a little from the concept and put your own spin on things.
Adding the canopy
Worked on the bamboo quite a bit. Spent the day creating leaf cards, and surprisingly had a fun time doing it. All alone, the bamboo trees look kind of plane, but that's fine, because when they're put together, they look just dandy. I might go through and cull some more leaf cards, because right now the canopy looks a bit too thick.
I added more green to the ground texture. Once I start adding foliage on top of the ground it'll improve. Started on the side bushes (reeds?). The bushes are going to be tricky. Right now they look like they're from N64 or something. I'm having a bit of trouble with the scale of things. For the shrine to look right, it needs to be pretty far back, and that makes the pathway look tiny up there. May just scale those steps up so it sits right.
I need to spend some time in ZBrush, so I think I'll sculpt those weird non-bamboo trees in the concept now.
So far it looks nice
If you wanted to copy the concept art, you are progressing quite good.
At the same time there are quite a few things you need to improve.
The steps are too linear. Look at the concept art. All of them are sort of bent. At the same time, they are not following a pattern. Some are bigger, some are smaller. They look like they were made by human hand. Yours have a "made by a robot" feeling right now.
The stones on the sidelines need a lot of love. Too smooth, not enough variety.
Same goes for the side brushes. Right now they don't look good at all. Feels way too generic.
The bamboo could use some work too. If you did not show the concept art or told us what they were supposed to be, i would have guessed that they are very thin birches. Bamboo has a very distinct form. Might want to look at the bamboo part again.
Also, the stone arc is missing a lot of details. Look at concept art. At the top there are quite a few leafs. The moss is a bit too strong and the stone with the inscription need to be a bit more out. Right now it does not feel like it is a unique part of the arc.
Overall it is a good start, but it needs a lot of effort before you could call it "perfect"
I hope i don't sound too harsh. I like the idea and i want to see it finished.
Keep up the good work.
Spent some time today sculpting trees. It's just to get a natural shape, not like I'll be baking them or anything. I'll be relying on my tiling texture I created below, which was pretty fun to make. I also spent a few hours redoing the reeds, breaking them up into more separated pieces to give me the ability to add more variation. Will post images of that soon. I feel pretty pumped that I still have over a month left in this competition.
High poly for the shrine is now complete.
Not finished texturing the shrine yet. Trying to decide whether to make more of the wooden parts painted or not.
Will probably make some leaves tomorrow that I can paint all over the place.
Made some leaves for scattering, hanging & sitting moss, and grass. The grass looks a bit cartoony, so I'll be going in and playing around with that. The forest floor in the concept is a golden fall colour, and I think I'll need to go into the textures and adjust some colours to achieve this look, as I don't want to leave all my colour choices until colour correction. I think I'll make some small vegetation for the stairs. I'm also going to sculpt some sticks and scatter them around a little.
I'm curious about the newest leaves you added. Are these supposed to have come from the trees?
Its just that the trees seem to have brownish leaves and these ones are like fresh green ones that I wouldn't imagine would be falling off.
I'd like to see you have more moss geometry breaking the silhouette on the torii, the stairs, and the shrine. You've got a little on the torii, but take it further-- really lump it on.
Your ground material's gotten pretty dark, and it's making your ferns 'float' a little; it also looks like the yellow grasses may not be getting shadowed correctly. Is that the texture, or the lighting? Are you using an engine which lets you visualize your render elements, like Unreal?
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. No wait, you don't have to keep moving.
Worked on the colour grading today. Looking Really heavenly and fall-like. Now looking back on this, I kind of strayed from the concept quite a bit. It turned out well, but I feel as though with my next project I need to put more effort into replicating the concept more precisely.
Is this fiinished, or are you doing more still?
There is a couple small critiques I hope will help.
1. The weathering and color on the arch is really nice and makes the thing feel ancient. But the path looks fairly new, or recently cleaned anyway. So there seems to be a disconnect between the age of the two things. I feel like it may be a stronger scene is they were closer together. If the arch was clean it may reflect more light and feeling kind of shining and magnificent. If the path is more overgrown and ancient, you'd be closer to the concept.
2. Less background trees behind the shrine would make it stand out more prominently against the sky. Help make it more of the focal point.
3. Falling leaves should generally be more perpendicular to the ground, otherwise they seem like they are rising by magic force. edit *** I think I mistook the leaves of the reeds as falling leaves. In the case that these are riverine plants like alder or similar, I'd recommend a more distinct leaf from the falling deciduous ones. And given that it's late fall and most leaves have fallen, those remaining should generally be down-hanging.
droopy hanging leaves -- makes a person feel introspective, inspires poetry
I hope these help, but overall I rerally am enjoying this scene.
I agree on the age thing. It was difficult trying to make the steps, arch, and shrine all look the same age. I'll be updating the texture for the gate for sure, removing some of the grime. The colour is off too. All the moss in my scene is brown and yellow (due to the fall season), but the gate was textured ages ago, and I made it green, so I'll need to brown it up. The stairs are actually covered with a ton of moss, but due to the angle of the light reflecting off it, it still looks shiny and smooth. Hopefully with the gate's texture update, it'll magically mesh with the age of everything else :P
I've played around with the trees behind the shrine, and if I take a lot away, it actually looks a bit odd, like the forest suddenly stops at a sudden point behind the shrine.
I don't think I'll have time to redo the reeds though. Those required a tooooon of work to create them, and I'd have to go all the way back to the baking stage. I see what you mean though, they shouldn't be so perky for being a fall leaf!