Stylized Victorian City

Ashervisalis

Hey gang, it's time for my next project! I'm going to make a stylized environment inspired by Bloodborne. I'll not be going off a concept image, as I'd like some art in my portfolio to claim as something which came from my head (myself and a 2D artist friend (Hudson Partridge) having been banging out some concept ideas). I've spent some time collecting a ton of reference for the scene;

What I've got for composition so far;

I understand this scene is going to be a big undertaking, so I'll definitely be making lots of use of tiling textures, trim sheets, and especially modular pieces. A lot of the buildings in the background will be billboards, so I'll be seeing how simple I can get away with. I'll also be placing a big emphasis on running as much as I can through ZBrush to give it that super stylized look. I've got a couple of character artists interested in working with me on this scene to give it life, and am currently trying to figure out how to put a cool character or two in here. I know I'll be putting in gargoyles, and those themselves will be a lot of work, but I'm not sure if I want to give away the gargoyles because they'll be a lot of fun :P

If anybody has any critique along the way, I'd love to hear it.

teodar23

Good luck, man! This is going to be awesome!

Ashervisalis

@teodar23 Thanks bud

Still trying to lock down composition.  I've got @Torch who is going to make a sewer rat monster and Alberto Buitrago is going to make the gargoyles. I kinda wanted to take a crack at the gargoyles, but I think I have my work cut out for me with the rest of the enviro. Here we see a street which was leading in the direction of the cathedral in the background, but has deceptively lead to the plague filled sewers.

The below image is a concept for the rat drawn by Hudson. Its a first iteration and he's going to come up with a few more.

Here's a draw over Rodrigo Mizuno made for me based on when I had a slightly different design a few iterations ago;

Ashervisalis

Some updated drawings from Hudson. Looks like I'll need 3 gargoyles for the scene. This is the first gargoyle Hudson drew as well as the updated rat.

Ashervisalis

First prop! Stylized lamp post. I'm gonna run it through ZBrush tomorrow (I think I'll be running everything through ZBrush to get the same final feel).

Ashervisalis

Detail pass of the lamp through ZedBrunch. Almost finished UV mapping this bad boy but my gf kicked me off the computer because I was spending too much time on it this weekend!

JuniWonderland

I really like this slight crooked style looks really nice so far  

Ashervisalis

@JuniWonderland Thanks so much!

So I wasn't really into the base of the lamp, it seemed more medieval stone block than poured Victorian cement, so I changed it up a bit. It allowed me to add more wonk. This is baked, will throw it into the scene soon. Probably won't start texturing until I've got a few assets with normal maps in the environment.

Torch

Hello all, jumping in with my buddy @Ashervisalis to show some progress on the creature for the environment!  Concept by Hudson. I will be adding some further polish and refinement now, right now the fur is the weakest element so want to improve that. To do:

• Improve forms, head especially, add some more infection/wart areas
• Improve props a little
• Finalize high poly

Torch

Another update - I am now going to be doing a final (finalfinal) pass to refine stuff like the fur and hands, I would ideally like to have it close up enough to match visual fidelity for maybe a third person cam/distance. I am hoping to add some extra tertiary deets, infections, scarring in the painter stage.

Some color ideation for texturing later on. Shortly moving onto the game res

Ashervisalis

Been making some of the materials, as well as the pillars (bottom of stairs and at the base of the arch). I also sculpted that dope street stone material, but its gonna take some clutter and blending to make it sit well. Gonna work on a distant building or two next, plus get that wonk factor into some of the buildings early on.

Ashervisalis

@Torch is killin it in the rat department! Here's a little update. We might need to bring the character more into the foreground due to the rat looking so dope. Been chillin on the materials lately, plus pushing the shapes in the buildings. In this image I've deleted the obj in the top right, I'm looking at references now for how I'm going to fill out that area.

sacboi

Eh! @Ashervisalis  dunno how I missed this, really cool project and originality going on here - duly subscribed  

Ashervisalis

@sacboi Thanks man!!

Made the fence today. Yesterday I worked on one of the background towers, which was super fun. It's still gotta be wonked up and made high poly though. I'm rethinking the gargoyle placements to top left of the screen and above the arch door on the right (extruded platforms on the walls for the gargs to stand on??). I think I'm gonna spend a day on making some textures for the distant buildings. I've been avoiding doing the wagon for a bit, dunno why. I guess I'm trying to hack off everything easy before I start on more complex things like a wagon.

Torch

This scene is really coming together man!

KW_Arts

I don't know why but this gives me Kingdom Hearts vibes with moodier lighting and I love that! I feel the ground could have a little bit more geometry though? Its making the material seem a bit flat atm. Looking forward to seeing this progress

Ashervisalis

@KW_Arts Thanks man! Yeah, The ground is going to have a lot of work done to it. I kinda just threw my tileable on there and moved onto something else for now.

Ashervisalis

Finally getting back to this. Spent the weekend working on some of the side houses, as well as the bell towers. The buildings in the background are all going to be textured using Painter, as they're just billboards and not meant to be seen up close. Both the bell tower and the spiky building are low poly right now, I've gotta go through and high rez them for baking. I actually had a ton of fun making this bell tower today. The thing looks like its barely standing!

I'm going to create some windows, architectural decorations, etc, which I can paste around the scene later on (although I'm making sure to not add too much detail. Please ignore the red roofs; those are going to get some toony shingles on them.

sacboi

Nice, looks like they're holding each other up...lol

teodar23

Very interesting sir.
I like the idea of a bridge between the towers.
What i would suggest is to open up the front tunnel and to be able to see a part of the town through it. Maybe something important like a monument or a far away significant building. Just a thought.

Ashervisalis

@sacboi Yeah I wouldn't feel comfortable standing below them!

@teodar23The tunnel is actually an entrance to the sewers. I'm working with Torch; he's making a rat character to stand around that area of the scene.

Ashervisalis

Worked on the clock tower and the Spiky McSpikerson building. I also created some tiling textures for the random buildings here and there (I'll be adding some decorations to them later to break up the solid edges and add silhouette). I'm enjoying working on the background buildings, but I think I should return to the foreground with some nice TLC.

Ashervisalis

Spent the day making the wagon. This is just the block in, I've yet to add wonk factor and bevels and stuff.

pixelpatron

Can't say I love the composition of your latest shot. Too many towers, and the tunnel/archway leading to a dead end/brick wall is not great. One lantern will be better than two to decrease the symmetry, and the whole thing is suffering from some weird lighting choices and way too much stonework. I'd consider making the ground a different surface, or covering most of your brickwork with foliage. There is defiantly a lot to look at here...and in the process, it's hurting the environment because of that. Less is more.

Ashervisalis

@pixelpatron Hey, thanks for your crit, means a lot to me. The lighting is something I kind of rushed and haven't gone back to yet. The end of the tunnel is actually a T-junction, and I was hoping when I decreased the world light, it would make the depth of the sewers darker, and look less like a dead end. I'll have a think about how to change that up. When I open UE4 next, I'll delete a few towers and the lantern on the right and see how that looks. I'm a bit perplexed as to how to change up the stonework though, since the era calls for it; is the stonework/bricks too noisy for you? If so, I'm a bit worried when I add the roof tiles to the closer buildings, it'll noisy up the scene even more.

teodar23

I think the size of the bricks creates the repetition. If you would have some really large bricks on the front wall and some small cobblestones on the ground it will look less repetitive. Maybe do a material that blends bricks with plaster on the houses so that it lessens the "brick-fatigue". Or maybe do different depth in the brick walls so that the brain perceives the flatter bricks as an almost flat surface.
I have to say that the lighting doesnt do it for me either. I think a combo of cold light from the moon and warm light from the lamps will create a much better mood. But thats just my personal pref.
Keep it up, tho.

Ashervisalis

@teodar23 Yeah I see how your brick suggestions could work. I'll see what I can do. Lighting wise, I was hoping to go for a monochromatic colour scheme on this one, but now that I look at my references, I need some cooler temps in there. I'm going to keep the moon as orange, but maybe I'll give the shadows and world light a cool blue touch. Thanks!!

I've finished the high poly for the wagon. There is a rip in the seat where I think I'll have some fluff come out of. I was about to give the roof of the carriage a wooden look, but it actually made it look a little too medieval.

sacboi

Carriage looks good!

I'm also guessing instead of a wooden roof, probably a fabric one similar to London 'cabbies' during the late Victorian era?  

Ashervisalis

@sacboi Thanks dude! Yeah, I've gotta look up some ref's. I might have to adjust the high poly to make it look like wrapped fabric.

Ashervisalis

Here's my carriage so far. I think I need to add a bit more variation onto the red wood. Probably make the back suitcase a brown instead of a red.

Ashervisalis

Today's work. I think I gotta desaturate those wheels, and work on some of the paint strokes next.

edit: colours are way too toony for environment, prepare for a chaaaaange

valentin_baguirov

Reminds me of McGee Alice or the old grinch movie how they changed the shapes and I love it! Quite unsettling feeling. Cant wait to see this progress!

Ashervisalis

Was informed I needed to pull back the colours a lot to match the vibe I was going for hahahaha

Still gotta work on paint strokes and metal. Any crit welcome

@valentin_baguirov Thanks bud

SeekeroflLight

Loving the look of your carriage I think it's dope! I do have one thing that stands out at to me are the curtains I think would benefit to have a lighter value or a cream color to have it pop and add some contrast with the wood in the back window and door.

KW_Arts

Absolutely awesome stuff for this project so far. I think the change in the colour palette for the carriage was a really good move, it definitely  sticks more with that original atmosphere and style that I picked up on when looking at your work earlier in development.

In terms of criticism, perhaps the colour variation on the main wood for the carriage could use with some height differentiation. I would assume the carriage has been painted on top of a particular wood and that paint is now peeling away. I feel you could make it pop more with a bubbly nature to fit with the stylised aesthetic and i feel it would just add that extra context to the wagon and show people a more clearer picture of the fact that this wagon is old and worn down and even broken in some areas


Just something to potentially think about!

So excited to see this progressed further!  

Ashervisalis

@SeekeroflLight Yeah, you're right, cream colour works nicely!

@KW_Arts Gave the discolouration some height, thanks for your suggestion

I think I'll leave my carriage at this for now, see how it looks as I put the scene together. The values are all around the same amount, but that's just me thinking ahead to the lighting process.

KW_Arts

Ah that's looking so much stronger now, excited to see the other stuff!

KrashDer

It's getting better and better ! love the style ! 

Ashervisalis

I was relying way too much on the lighting to control the colours in my scene. Here's a new iteration. Pushing the colours in texturing atm, still playing with scene composition. Threw in an older version of the rat @Torch made. Him and I gotta decide on a placement for this little dude. Was going to stick him in the tunnel earlier, but he'll be too far away to see much detail, wouldn't want to hide such a cool character. I got rid of the stairs on the left because they were just contributing to the noise in the scene. Same with a bunch of the buildings. Replaced the texture for the sidewalk, since it was just so noisy before.

Torch

I told you already, but the lighting looks way better, composition looks great too - ace!!

sacboi

Beginning to come together!

Had thought might be a little too 'busy' in terms of your initial brief however in my imo turned out that the individual elements especially in this latest update gel quite nicely, enabling an audience's eye to logically rest. Also one aspect I think worth mentioning are atmospherics or suggestion of a fog like ambience prevalent in most artwork relative too this period, perhaps a possible addition at some point?!

Anyway, will continue following along. 

Ashervisalis

@sacboi Thanks mah dude. I'm definitely going to put some mist cards above the street, to give it that Dracula misty ground vibe.

Ashervisalis

Been slowly chipping away. Here's some updates!

Torch

Hi all - I keep finding more things I can improve about the base sculpt and go back to improve it I promised myself this is gonna be the last time I do that as I'll never finish it if I don't commit! Some more shots soon, will move to texturing shortly.

UchiLT

I gotta say the progress of this collab project its being cool. Since I'm more a character artist than environment artist I got some feedback for @Torch
Probably you are on it since you said you found more things to improve:
-Refine the brachioradilis line , right now it makes like a snake form instead of being a more or less straight line
-Think about how you want his loincloth folds to look, at the moment they seem like a placeholder to me
-This is just personal opinion, but I would make his thumb slightly longer

+ I like the way you are doing fur
+His face looks hella nice

Ashervisalis

Heck ya, nice @Torch !

Ashervisalis

Spent today playing with textures and having fun in general. Made the crates to the right. I think the scene needs to be desaturated more. Gotta work on buildings and such, you can probably see I've been removing buildings here and there. I'm really pushing the blues in the cement stuff.

Ashervisalis

I spent today making my lighting non turd-like. It's more moonlight appropriate now, with decent shadows and detail highlighting. I've tried going with a crescent moon, let me know what you all think of crescent vs. full moon! Please note, the moon is currently still a turd, so I will be doing more work on it; it's pretty much a couple of masks with a uniform colour assigned right now I've also added the windows on the right, as well as the stone wall decor on the left. Windows have a little bit of emissive to make em pop. I looked back through all the screenshots I've made, and I think I'm missing out on some aspects atm. SO MUCH TO DO. Several background buildings still look like turds and are only halfway done.

I've really gotta tackle;

tree, metal wall decor, barrels (not going to be barrels, since I think barrels are overdone in 3d environments),puddles, clutter (thinking of books having been tossed onto the ground, or a bucket or something), mid-ground building, background building decorations. After that I can move onto some sick af fog cards for our spooky ground. Oh yeah, there is that flag hanging over the carriage, but I honestly dunno if I want a flag there. I might do some cool autumn vines or something. The flag makes no sense and was just a happy mistake, but that mistake needs to go away,

teodar23

Looking much better.
I think the smaller the moon reflective area the less light it produces. But that is an artistic choice after all.
Totally agree with the barrel excess in games. We need a new "crate".
I'm digging the plan you made and cant wait to see more progress.
Cheers

Ashervisalis

@teodar23 thanks man!

sacboi

Coming along

Oh yeah, there is that flag hanging over the carriage, but I honestly dunno if I want a flag there. I might do some cool autumn vines or something. The flag makes no sense and was just a happy mistake, but that mistake needs to go away,

Howabout another one! (kidding)

Anyhow, imo I do feel that corner is in need of jazzing up a bit so instead of a flag maybe a shop sign or something?

Remember being quite fascinated as a lad with the dizzying array of decorative signage hanging outside 'ye olde' English pubs, especially.