WIP - The Outer Wolds Saloon

sarasumm

I'm working on an environment model based on the art of Obsidian's 'The Outer Worlds'. I'm pretty new to environment design, so I would appreciate any feedback! So far, I've modeled out the main low-poly structure. I'm currently working on adding more furniture and decorative pieces (and I still need to go in and adjust my normals on a few meshes)

Ashervisalis

Nice!!

sarasumm

@Ashervisalis Thanks!

dsmka

Looks greally great, what software did you use?

sarasumm

@dsmka Thanks! The modeling is all done in Maya and render is from Marmoset Toolbag

sarasumm

Update! I've got everything mostly finished and took a first pass at texturing. I still plan to add more small props, foliage, and give the banners cloth sim. I'd appreciate any feedback before I start final renders

NikDemidko

Looks cool! Can you post some still images? It's a bit hard to fixate the eye and see the details when it's constantly moving.

sarasumm

@NikDemidko

Thanks! I'm getting the scene ready in Arnold now and here are some of my test renders. I'm debating on whether I should rotate the model for each shot to get it more into the light or just have one static light arrangement. Ideas?

NikDemidko

I'd make one light arrangement. It will give the feeling that saloon is in the real place and not just lit in the studio. Plus, you can play around with the lights and make each side look interesting. Maybe the front entrance can stay in the shadow instead of the back side, because it has some emissive materials to break up the darkness. Otherwise, your shadow side of the saloon looks too dark to me now. Can be resolved with a couple of extra lights also. Sorry if my suggestions sound too vague or confusing. Just some thoughts.

About other aspects of your diorama - pillars at the entrance are too obviously copied. Maybe it's better to rotate one of them to turn that repetitive piece of texture away?
Your pipe has too reflective spots. I think the difference between roughness should not be so big. I'm not sure how this material was intended to look, just seems a little bit off to me.
And these pieces look too angular  as well:


Especially if you compare them with very smooth saloon door and tank. 

I hope that helped a bit and gave you some ideas  

sarasumm

@NikDemidko Thank you for the advice! Good call on the lighting, the scene looks much better backlit. I also went in and smoothed those jagged edges and tied to fix the repeated textures as much as I could. I treated the whole scene as a prop and gave a unique unwrap to each object so there was a lot of UV stacking going on here. I also added a clamp to my metal maps as Arnold made them look a bit too shiny.

Overall, I'm much happier with this piece and I think I'm ready to move onto the next project now! Thanks again to everyone who left helpful comments!