Environment: Wonderland Throne Room (WIP)

ArkOfDarkness

I decided to take on something a bit more ambitious. For the most part, I've lately been doing Character Models and isolated Prop Models, so I figured this could be a good opportunity to diversify the portfolio a bit and take on the task of building a complete environment (in this case, an Alice in Wonderland-style Throne Room)

First Step was just sketching out a decent thumbnail for general layout, and to figure out what assets I'd need.

The general design considerations were:

1) The Color Palette would be restricted to what could usually be found in a deck of Playing Cards (Black, White, and Red, with the addition of Gold Accents)

2) Integrating the various Card Suit Symbols was a small secondary goal, but the Heart Motif needed to be the most dominant (I mean, it's the Queen of HEARTS, not the Queen of Diamonds, Spades, or Clubs)

From that, I made some quick sketches of the most important individual props (not necessarily to scale, but enough to work off of as a basic orthographic for modeling)

Each model was blocked out and UV'd in Maya, using the sketches as a basic orthographic, then they were passed into ZBrush for detail sculpting and beveling out the edges for Baking.

After that, it was back into Maya for any necessary Retopology and UV Adjustments, then they were passed into Substance Painter for Texturing, then sent into Marmoset Toolbag for Rendering.

Technical Constraints:

-Tried to Limit Polycount as much as possible, without sacrificing too much Silhouette Cleanliness

-PBR Texture Workflow (Albedo, Roughness, Metallic, Normals - as well as Emissive for the candelabra flames)

-No Texture Sizes above 1024x1024, unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. (So far, nothing has exceeded this size)

At the moment, I'm currently placing the first batch of finished assets within Maya, making scaling adjustments, then exporting the total scene back into Marmoset Toolbag. (Still going to need to make Floors, Walls, Doors, Windows, Rafter Supports, and a few additional Hanging Cloth meshes)

Generally been working on this during on-off for somewhere around 20 Hours so far (I think - really need to start keeping track of this stuff with a Timer or something).

~ArkOfDarkness

ArkOfDarkness

And a quick posing test to see the Throne with someone in it. Just couldn't resist.

ArkOfDarkness

Update #1 - Wall Tiles

I'm trying to be smart and modular about this - so environment tiles are clearly the best way to go.

(Not going to lie, I'm more of a Character, Props, and Weapons kind of guy - building entire environments is definitely exploring outside of my usual scope)

Step One was planning and laying out exactly what tiles I'll probably need. In this case, it made sense to start by dividing up the floor, then using those divisions to plot out tiles for the walls. If everything is following the same grid, that should eliminate some painful headaches later on, since there shouldn't be any scale/placement issues.

Step Two was sketching out a general concept to follow. (Mostly personal preference - when I try to go all freeflow with sculpting/modeling, it usually goes slower, and there's a lot more backtracking due to exploration.)

I will need a total of 6 Tiles for the Walls/Ceiling:

Wall - Plain Marble

Wall - Plain Marble with Double Doors

Ceiling - Plain Marble

Ceiling - Plain Marble with Window

Entry Wall - Marble with Giant Door and Window

Back Wall - Marble with Giant Rose Window (to give it a bit of a majestic cathedral 'wow' factor)

Additionally, I wanted to make sure to include some windows to allow for some decent lighting.

I've never tried to simulate lighting through Stained Glass before, so I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

(Still debating between trying to shine light through a refractive material, which would be resource intensive, or just shine a spotlight with a Color Map plugged in, which would probably be far more economical)

Step Three - The first Wall Tiles were modeled, sculpted, and textured.

The UV's for the Plain Wall ended up being efficient enough to also fit the Doors on as well.

It still needs the Floor Tiles, Ceiling Tiles, Entry Wall, Back Wall, Rafters, and some more Hanging Cloth elements, but it's hopefully getting there.

~ArkOfDarkness

ArkOfDarkness

Update #2 - More Cloth Assets

A smaller update - just adding in some more Cloth/Drape assets as shown in the original concept sketch.

Overall, it seems to be doing a good job of breaking up the areas of pure white marble.

(The floor is a bit overexposed/blown out, but that should resolve when I make the actual Floor Tiles)

The Total Scene Polycount (Finished Assets Only - not counting the Floor, Ceiling, or Window Stand-Ins) is sitting at 43,433 Tris.

Not too shabby - there's still a lot of room to play with, and still be within a reasonable current-gen amount.

Thus far, this is every asset used to make this scene.

Any Comments/Critiques/Feedback is greatly appreciated,

~ArkOfDarkness

ArkOfDarkness

Update #4 - Ceiling Tiles + Preliminary Lighting in Marmoset

Finished the basic Ceiling Tiles, and decided to take a moment to start setting up some proper lighting in Marmoset.

(Will probably keep tweaking it with each new Update)

I also put in a quick stand-in Spotlight to try to more or less simulate the extra lighting from the Giant Rose Window that still needs to be added.

Looks pretty eerie when I turn off the Sky Lighting, as well as the Rose Window Spotlight.

As always, any feedback/critique is greatly appreciated,

~ArkOfDarkness