God of War 4 - Midgard

Ashervisalis

It's no secret how amazing this game looks. Since I seem to have an obsession with sculpting pillars and rocks, I feel trying my hand at creating an environment for this game would be fun. Considering the skill level of the artists who worked on this game, I have the following goals for this project;

1 ) Don't botch it (does anybody even use this word anymore?)
2 ) Don't f it up
3 ) Create something that doesn't look like garbage.

With that being said, here are a few other goals;
4) Aim for God of War quality level.
5) Create the level in an efficient way, with the final product running at a smooth 60 fps.

Now, this project may take me a bit longer than usual, due to being really busy with life right now (AKA currently playing God of War 4). I'd like to set a goal for 2 months, but to achieve goals 1-3, I'm going to say 3 months. I'm going to take my time making sure my material definition is spot on, my snow looks great, and fans of GOW don't come into this thread tearing it apart. I've watched the below video, so I've got a few take aways;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-ojZiMGllY&t=2219s

A ) Textures won't have high contrast. I want the sculpting to really shine through.
B ) Create 'slamless' meshes. Nothing will be slammed together, the meshes will all work with each other.

I'll be working heavily off these concepts. I know the first two images are by concept artist Luke Berliner, but I was not able to figure out who did the others. If anybody knows, feel free to fill me in and I'll put their names in.

This is going to be the main scene. I'll be getting creative with the areas not in camera, taking from other concept pieces for the game.


I'll be taking this piece as the construction for the piece to the left of the camera. 


I just found an image of my quality goal that, turns out its the same scene! I'll be working on making it my own though, so we'll see how that goes.


I'm currently working on my blockout, will post when leaps and strides have been made.

There's actually a GOW fan art contest on their website, closes in April 2019, so I guess this would be a cool thing to submit.

Alex_J

You'll nail it, so long as you commit 100% to redoing things as many times as necessary until the quality is there. I started a big project several months ago in which I said, "the quality will be as good as the top character artist right now." But I also said I'd get it done in 3 months. But it's going to be more like six (that's what I say now at the 3 month point, but usually things take three times as long if it's my first time, historically speaking). I just mention that to give you some forewarning, if you are anything like me. 

Thanks for the shoutout in the other thread, btw. Though, to be honest, my large post count is only a reflection of my procrastination. And still I take more than I give. But thanks nonetheless -- hopefully I've provided something worthwhile if only encouragement.

Keep them updates coming. 

Ashervisalis

Well guys, finally finished! The game, not the art.

@BIGTIMEMASTER Thanks man, I'm pretty committed due to the amount of sculpting I've been doing this past week! My hand has started to be sore in ways it never has been before.

Here's the blockout so far. I've gotta keep sculpting the mountain on top of the temple entrance because it's not really fitting quite right. The temple sculpt is just a decimated version of the temple so far, having tons of fun there. Made a mountain, looks great, don't know what to do with it.... Stuck it off in the background for now! Also sculpted some rock piles, and used them as a placeholder for future rock piles.

Ashervisalis

Here's the low poly of the pillars I've been chipping away at (pun intended). I'll post the level so far in a few days.

Ashervisalis

Here are some support pieces I've made for the bridge. And what they look like in engine. I think I'll need to make the wood a little more rough.

theobi55

Ashervisalis said:

Well guys, finally finished! The game, not the art.

@BIGTIMEMASTER Thanks man, I'm pretty committed due to the amount of sculpting I've been doing this past week! My hand has started to be sore in ways it never has been before.

Here's the blockout so far. I've gotta keep sculpting the mountain on top of the temple entrance because it's not really fitting quite right. The temple sculpt is just a decimated version of the temple so far, having tons of fun there. Made a mountain, looks great, don't know what to do with it.... Stuck it off in the background for now! Also sculpted some rock piles, and used them as a placeholder for future rock piles.

Hey, bud! I think you should have started by sculpting a very basic landscape to give you a good plan for placing your placeholders (getting feel and composition early on), and then started with the bigger pieces before you start attacking the nice medium rocks. I found an awesome channel that a few days ago... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGXr6E_g91ue1rfhA9j4TLA

Ashervisalis

@theobi55 I think you're right. I became really discouraged on the weekend because of this project. I think I'll go back a few steps and sculpt the landscape as you say - maybe in ZBrush? The terrain sculpting in UE4 is feeling really clunky to use. I also might try bringing in a height map from a mountain region and see if I can fool around with that. I'll check out that YT video when I get home tonight, thanks so much