Low Poly Shinto Shrine Forest Path [FINISHED!]

beis

Starting something new!

I am finally jumping into Blender, and I wanted to make a project that would push me but wouldn't require having to learn everything in Blender to pull it off. I've wanted to try out low poly, flat color art for a while, too, and this seemed like a good situation to try it with.

Still in the blocking phase, trying to get better at composition before moving on. After trying a handful of different ideas, this is what I have landed on so far.


Eventually I'll replace everything with nicer models, tune the colors, work on lighting, add fog, etc. etc.

What do you think? 

Ashervisalis

Will look cool when done. I think you should develop the lighting early though. Below are just some ideas I've got for ya!

beis

Ashervisalis said:

Will look cool when done. I think you should develop the lighting early though. Below are just some ideas I've got for ya!

Yeah, lighting has been my bane for a long time - I think developing it earlier is a smarter idea as well.

Thanks for the suggestions! Good stuff in there

beis

Back with a little update:



Been trying to focus on the lighting like it was suggested, and I am glad I did. Never been particularly good at lighting, so this has been good to force myself to learn about things like color temperature and shadows, keep figuring out the color palette I want to use, and just try a bunch of tests and iterate faster.

The shadows are just a simple test to see how foliage might look before committing more time. It's not perfect, but I like the breakup I am getting, so that is encouraging enough to keep going with it. Also got some bamboo trees in the background and the beginning of a gnarly pine tree. Gotta think of something interesting for the right side, as well as address some of the other suggestions that I've gotten...

Is the lighting working for you? Anything else that feels like it could use some attention at this stage?

beis

Been working on this on and off again; slowly making some progress:

Built some of the stone lanterns, started to make the path have some shape, added some kanji to the sign.

I've been trying a few tests with the shaders, playing with spec and roughness. Decided I don't want spec on everything like you see in a lot of low poly art - the results felt washed out and was highlighting a bunch of stuff I didn't want to focus on. I'll try targeting the spec on a couple of items (perhaps the gate, moss on the lanterns when I get around to it).

It's hard to see right now, but I have a small amount of normal variation on the lanterns, to help them feel harder and more textured. Right now I want to keep objects a single color as my restriction and see if normals and roughness can make them visually interesting enough. Limiting colors has helped me group objects visually and make it easier to focus on the palette I want instead of getting distracted with more textures.

Here's the list of things I want to focus on next:

• Plus up the right side - more interesting tree shapes especially, but also spruce up the lighting behind the gate
• More interest on the hill, get the shape of that more defined, add the path in the middle (and some ropes along the side for interest?)
• Make proper tree branches, replace the shadow test with something closer to branch shapes
• Lanterns hanging from the edges of the gate?
• I've looked a bit into volume light rays, now I want to test some dust particles hovering in the air

That's probably enough until the next update... How's it looking?

pixelpatron

I think the path and the cliff in the back could use the most work. Lighting isn't very interesting.

beis

Back for more!
Spent some time sculpting the cliff, path and stairs. The cliff is still not entirely where I want it to be, but it's a step in the right direction, I think. The stairs also feel a little too wobbly, so I might pull that back, too, but they're more interesting than before.

The big thing is I started to play with Sapling and got some base trees in the shot! They're not quite pine trees like I was shooting for, so I might spend some more time with these again, but they're definitely more interesting than my previous stuff, and I'm liking the shadows on the ground more. I'll work on different types of trees and trunk shapes as well for variety's sake.

Also added a mountain in the background that I think helps ground the space better.

Next step include filling in the upper hill spot with some more interesting stuff, and sprucing up the trees (ha).

What do you think? Step in the right direction, or otherwise? How do you feel about these trees/overall stuff?

beis

Another week, another update!


Added some pine trees in the mix, as well as some grass. I'm not entirely in love with the grass, but it does help to fill in the spaces at least. Maybe I will come back to revisit those before the end.

In the meantime, I do think I am ready to wrap this one up soon. Before that, I want to plus the gate and stone lanterns (maybe add moss to the lanterns?), add some rocks and interest to the path, and do... something with the cliff wall and path. Sculpt the red tree on the left side. Maybe add some dust particles in the air?

beis

I've gotten to the end! Here is my final image:



The Artstation link is here

This has been a fun first project to make in Blender! It ended up being a good project for getting my hands dirty in a lot of Blender things without getting too complex or taking too long to get something I liked.

Thank you for all of your feedback! It has been very helpful