[UE4] Handpainted Diorama- Just Another Cute Handpainted Diorama
interpolator
Current stage;
Hello! It's been a while.
I'm starting a new diorama as I'm teaching an online class, so I thought I'd share my process here! C&C encouraged.
Just at the concept stage so far.
Front;
Back;
Blockout I painted over and am using as my starting base for the scene in UE4;
Got it set up and ready for some blockout textures, so will be back when I'm done with that stage.
I think I might use Zbrush for this one. Been a while though, very rusty!!
-Anya
Hello! It's been a while.
I'm starting a new diorama as I'm teaching an online class, so I thought I'd share my process here! C&C encouraged.
Just at the concept stage so far.
Front;
Back;
Blockout I painted over and am using as my starting base for the scene in UE4;
Got it set up and ready for some blockout textures, so will be back when I'm done with that stage.
I think I might use Zbrush for this one. Been a while though, very rusty!!
-Anya
Replies
I don't like what's happening in the two archways either side of the door so I'm going to do some experiments.
As always, feedback welcome at any time!
Made a start on the water. Still lots to do with the shader but going to step away from it for now.
I also love the idea of the way you're using the workflow, it's something I've been trying to figure out with zbrush since I'd really love to push my modeling more.
The scene looks so lovely I'm looking forward to seeing more progress, take my book mark!
Cheers! Really appreciate it
Baking some sculpts...
Water update! And I've started blocking out albedos.
Thanks Ged!!
Thankyou so much
Hey Denzil! Thankyou! Your character stuff is looking great
Blocked in the leaves for the palm trees, trunk next and then ivy. Starting to hand paint some textures in 3DCoat too.
It's been a long long time since my last update as I've been working and also just generally busy doing some travel and other shenanigans. I did do some work on this project a few months ago but never posted it, and then I lost enthusiasm some.
The main thing blocking me from continuing work was that the main building needed sculpting and I wasn't really feeling it. I decided to just go for it the other day though and finally got that done. It's a very basic sculpt as I want to keep stuff quite clean. Once the sculpt was done I could get in and do the fun bit which for me is playing about with colours and testing them in UE4.
So, the colours on the building (and in mosy places really) are tbd. Once I'm happy with the colours I'll get in and do some hand painting on the building. But I thought I'd share a shot of where it's at anyway.
And here's a crappy gif;
I've had some good fun playing with the colours on the building and around the scene, but they're not quite done yet. For instance the tile colours aren't working for me yet.
The other big things I need to do are;
-The tree (leaves re-do)
-Fountain
-Fish
-Water VFX
-General VFX
-Ferns
-Additional foliage
Then it's general tweaking like texture work, fixing placeholders like rubble, adding moss and vines to the underground section... whatever springs to mind that I can be bothered with.
Hope you like!
Hello, time for an update
I've been having more time recently to work on this, so I'm really hoping to get it done this month. I've been on it on and off since March and I'm very ready for a new project, or to focus on some smaller projects and painting.
The main things I've done recently are to re-do the palm trees, finalise the texture under the water, and start adding small things like rubble falling down and more ivy. Just lots of little tweaks really. I'm trying to make a start on texturing the building properly too, but it's hard to motivate myself on such a large object!
The other big thing is the water, specifically around the back of the diorama where I wasn't really liking how it looked... it felt a bit empty and boring. So since last time I've added some more rocks into the water to balance it some, and then I've added some tiles like around the front of the scene. It just adds a bit of consistency and interest. The waterfalls are made using a modified version of the shader I was initially using for the waterfall at the front of the diorama. I've made it so that it has more 'foam' which is generated based on the normal map of the water, and the proximity of the water to other meshes. It's not perfect but if I compare it to water on other projects I've done, I've definitely improved!
There are some ambient particles floating around now too- one set is just slow moving small orbs with lights on to give a magical feel. The other is more like a falling leaf, but currently it just has an orb texture like the floating lights. I kind of like how understated it is, so I may just make some small modifications to that for the final thing.
Feels good to look at my list of stuff to do and feel like the end is somewhat in sight. Sometimes projects feel like that will go on forever. The solution I suppose is to make smaller personal projects... but that presents its own problems- I find it easier to abandon projects if they're small, and then I'd never get anything done!
Feedback welcome!
Anyway, the project! I hope you like. Feel free to critique, or let me know what you'd like to see me talk about in videos
(adding this image retroactively so we actually have a portrait shot in here)
Youtube turnaround (no music or sound effects yet, but maybe another time!).
Overall I'm happy with the project, but it definitely felt like it dragged. It was really nice to work on a project using Zbrush again, as it had been a long while and I was beginning to feel like I'd forgotten hot to use it! As usual, there are definitely things I would like to change in the future, but the biggest thing I will look into how I handle materials. The biggest thing I enjoy about personal projects is playing with colours and materials, so I want to look into a workflow that plays into that more so I don't waste days doing minor detail and sculpt work that I don't feel so excited about. I think next project will be about creating a large series of dioramas/environments from a world, but they will be more simplistic and about the overall read and the story/emotions they convey. Also more foliage, I love making foliage stuff. And fish. And water. I love making water shaders!! Ultimately personal projects are a chance for me to experiment, and I don't place so much focus now on creating portfolio worthy work, so I'm excited to have some more fun!
Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Take care
Anya
For the stills, is there any particular reason you're using a landscape image ratio? There's a lot of negative space and I feel you've compromised composition in a few shots to 'fit' the horizontal aspect ratio. Seems to me a portrait orientation on the images would fit the overall design and layout of the diorama a bit better. (Just noticed you've done this on some of your other dioramas, so maybe you're already planning on it.)
For the video, I'm not sure it's entirely necessary. Obviously you have some nice ambient animation, shaders, caustics and FX to show off, but I think the GIFs you posted earlier do a nice job of that. If you decide to keep the video, I'd recommend a more cinematic approach. Pick 3 or 4 camera angles that you really like and use simple camera moves that are based on common film shots (pan, dolly, tilt, etc...). Cut between those with pacing that matches the relaxed feel of the piece and I think you'd have a nice video presentation here. In my opinion, turntables feel a bit redundant and boring these days.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for your next project. Cheers!
Regarding portrait shots, yeah, I should probably do that again (in fact I'm going to do it right now haha). I tend to choose landscape with the negative space partially out of habit and also because I like them all having the same aspect ratio. I just feel like landscape sits better on a PC screen too, though I understand that many people use mobile devices now anyway.
Video was purely because I was trying to make gifs but they would end up too big to share anywhere, so the video was a desperation thing to share it before I get chance to make a 'proper' video with music/sound effects which I like making. Not sure why my gifs were ending up so impossibly unsharable... I've made them before... I'll probably end up deleting the videos in the future to replace with one more thought out video later, because yes the silent turnaround is not only lame but a little bit weird and uncomfortable haha!
Edit, just remembered why I don't have a nice portrait shot... temporal AA and reflections stuff is disabled in high res screenshots so the water looks awful