Sketchbook: Harley Gresham
polycounter lvl 2
Hello everyone, my name is Harley, I am an environment artist living in Tokyo. I'm trying to break into the industry. This is where I will post weekly updates on what I'm learning, and trying to improve on.
My portfolio is available here: artstation.com/harleygresham
Critiques are super welcome! Please feel free to give your input, good or bad.
My portfolio is available here: artstation.com/harleygresham
Critiques are super welcome! Please feel free to give your input, good or bad.
Replies
This is for my Shrine project, which is a small environment in Unreal Engine 4. I'm taking some of the work I did for my unfinished Feudal Japan Artstation project and down-scoping to something more achievable! Should be fun.
Please excuse the roughness. Just a blockin using some older meshes.
This time thinking about the original concept, it had water in it, so I might incorporate some water somehow.
Hmm. Playing around with having running water instead of a set body of water. Of course, I'm not sure exactly how I'll fill in the edges of the environment. I have to keep playing with this. For now, I like the direction it is heading in.
I think this starting to really take shape.The overall layout is similar, but the changes to a flowing river/stream give the scene some nice focus and also introduces some movement to an otherwise static scene. I've also been thinking about where to place cameras to best show off the environment, so I've been learning more about composition and shape language. Really interesting so far.
I need to nail down exactly what feel I'm going for this time, and I'll update next time with my decision. I at least know that the environment is set in Autumn, hence the HDR choice, but by no means though will I be using this exact HDR.
I've also been watching some daedalus51's lighting academy on Youtube, and it's been really interesting. Lighting in UE4 is something that is still very confusing for me, but is becoming more and more clear.
Alright, general look and feel is established, and I have some base meshes to take into zbrush. I'll start things off with working on some wooden planks that will make up the floor of level. Should be fun!
Photos are mine, and some from Jonas Ronnegard's Japan photo reference pack. These aren't all the reference photos I have of course, these are just to understand the scene's direction better.
Still using just the meshes exported from UE4. Haven't made trees or anything that organic before, so, should be a fun challenge.
Doing some Zbrush sculpting with these planks. I'm trying to go for floor boards that have been polished, but have also been weathered by rain, and foot traffic. think I over-damaged them though? Anyway, I would love some critique. I'm not great at Zbrush yet.
Got some good feedback on my sculpt from yesterday, namely that I had gone too far with the damage, and that the surface was too uneven looking. So I've flattened it back, and instead worked on emulating the angular chipping away of wood. If that makes sense? Almost there, maybe just a little more TLC.
Working on the low poly of the wall piece, with an extra detachable piece for extra interest if I like it. Wooden planks are have been quick uv'd and decimated in zbrush, with a sloppy paint job in substance painter. I'll have a proper go at texturing it, after I preview it in UE4.
This weekend I learned the importance of choosing the right tool for the right object. I spent too much time in zbrush doing sculpting on my wood, but really it was unnecessary. Still, these textures are coming out pretty nice.
Learnt a lot about proper baking, unwrapping, and some substance tips. Lots more, but yes, here is an update.
I made a game for Gamejam 2019 with two of my web developer friends. I did all the 3d artwork. It was a really great experience.
Come play it: https://globalgamejam.org/2019/games/metal-baby
Long time no update
Made some good progress on my leaves material for my project. It's been fun making this. I don't think this is quite finished though, yellow leaves in particular need more love. Damage, dirt, etc. Also, some of the leaves are still overlapping each other. Using masks is a bit fiddly with the tile sampler, I wonder if there's a better way.
Also, just for fun, I followed 3Dex's tutorial on this stylized ice material. Man, stylized work is really fun. I like how fast you can iterate on it.
Wow, so long time since I last posted here. Well, some things have changed! I've been busy learning landscapes, lighting, materials, and much more. Some of the foliage are still placeholders, but other objects like the rocks are my own meshes. Yes, the buildings still need texturing! XD. But I'm happy with the progress.
This is a good point to put this project on hold so I can recharge my batteries by doing some smaller objects. I'd welcome any comments people on composition and lighting specifically, but anything else would be lovely too.
Current Personal Critiques:
- Red is pretty but overwhelming. Needs more variety.
- Skybox quite dull. Needs something...
- Lighting inside the shrine needs to be stronger, and should have a reason for casting such light in a day time scene.
Unfinished Assets:Spinning Wheel - Took a week off my shrine environment to work on a smaller prop I could do in a week or so. Definitely coming along. Looking forward to adding wear and tear to it to show its usage and history.
Known Problems: Top "Banana" shaped piece is not correctly modeled, and there is no wool on the mesh!]
I'd like some feedback on proportions.
I recently posted my Shrine Project in its own thread: https://polycount.com/discussion/210957/lakeside-shrine-ue4#latest If you'd like to give me any feedback, I'd be very happy to hear it.
I also worked on this a week ago, some new renders of some materials from 2018 and early 2019. There's a texture breakdown and more available on m ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/harleygresham
Also brushed up some older work. It's really cool seeing how much a new render can refresh a piece.
I think there are definitely some areas on the model that could have been better UV unwrapped, baked, and modelled, but for an older piece of mine, I am happy with it.
More breakdown shots available on my Artstation portfolio: artstation.com/harleygresham
Lastly, I made some new renders of some in-progress work. I'm not sure if I will finish the grave piece, but the spinning wheel is definitely on my list to finish soon.
If I were to finish this piece, I'd definitely change the details on the front of the tombstone as well, since I'm fairly sure I took them from a photograph of a real tombstone.
Spinning Wheel - Damage Pass in Zbrush.
Just screenshots from Zbrush for now. I am having trouble properly sculpting the wool from the reference. I think it would add a lot to the piece, so I really want to add it if possible.
Does anyone have any suggestions for properly sculpting thread like this?
Reference for interest:
And how about my damage details. Natural? Too much?