Environment set: The Weapon Shop
polycounter lvl 19
Creative title, I know.
Anyway lets get to the goods, shall we?
It was this about 4 days ago...
And it's this as of last night...
Still on the burner:
<ul type="square">
more interior/roof top props
stretch the buildings width slightly, its a bit square compared to the concept
unwrap
make sweet sub-d love to the buildings base
then bend it over the couch and hump it without a rubber in Mudbox
texture
render
post[/list]
Voila!
PS: The text box you type in for posting is insanely small here. I just noticed this now, wtf!
Anyway lets get to the goods, shall we?
It was this about 4 days ago...
And it's this as of last night...
Still on the burner:
<ul type="square">
more interior/roof top props
stretch the buildings width slightly, its a bit square compared to the concept
unwrap
make sweet sub-d love to the buildings base
then bend it over the couch and hump it without a rubber in Mudbox
texture
render
post[/list]
Voila!
PS: The text box you type in for posting is insanely small here. I just noticed this now, wtf!
Replies
Question, I know Im pretty much a noob, but I like to chamfer some edges here and there on building edges, cause I think that nothing (short of knives and razors) have a complete sharp or 90degree edge. What do you think?
Otherwise, CANT wait to see this done! All the props that you've placed in (from the concept) really make my eye travel. Looks great!
Xenobond: I sure did! :P Haha point taken, I'll see what I can come up with.
keep it up man
Even though it isn't on the concept I think it would help the ground transition if you created a piece of thick trim to run around the outside of the building. It would also help break up the straightness of the wall shapes.
Also in the concept it looks like there is a road/big brick texture in front of the door that fades into sand? I think a well painted decal would work nicely? If the sand is disturbed like someone swept it or it was moved due to foot traffic in and out, it will help guild players to the entrance a little bit more.
Looking awesome, keep plugin away!
Vig: I think I can create a decent ground transition through the textures. If I have trouble though I'll definitely create a trim.. good pointer. As for the road section, good eye. I hadn't caught that before but I think I can pull it off with a good decal. Or I could do that particular part in mudbox and mud in the traffic details. Thanks for the comments I was hoping you'd chime in on this one.
redmond_david: Hey thanks man :P I'll have some more stuff once the texture happens. But before I do that I still have to unwrap all those pieces and do their high poly work. Close up the environment? I won't be - the focus is the weapon shop - the surrounding pieces are just support. I've got an idea as to how to wrap it up though but I'll save it for the final shots. Thanks!
Initial crits would be-
I'd try beveling the edges of the building ever so slightly, it should give it a subtle rounding. Not sure how well a normal map can convey rounded edges on a 90 degree angle.
Those top pillar things look too straight in the model, might want to add some geo and make some slight adjustments to them, give them subtle angle changes.
Is the dealio hanging on the left side of the building suppose to be that dirty area on the concept? seems a bit too dynamic for the concept.
Lastly, the big rocks are too low poly. They look alright now, but once they're textured and contrasting with the sky their low-poly-ness will stick out like a sore thumb.
Looking forward to the rest, good sir.
edit- You replied while I was typing mine :P
You really should add a slight chamfer to the hard edges. It will help you get much better looking lighting and normal maps.
Also chip away at some of the edges, and add some edge loops for the top pillar thingies and make them wonky a bit, nothing is completely straight in the concept.
Some foliage growing near the top right on the trims like the concept would be a nice touch too, really breaks up the trim which will no doubt tile at least a little
Definitely good progress though dude keep it up!
the main structure may work nice with some good layered materials
keep it up (lot of textures to make there!)
The treatment on the left side of the building is for IVY, so I can easily copy that to the top right as well. Good call on that Electro.
Thanks a lot everyone. The next time I post there'll be textures to show which'll mean that its been unwrapped and the high poly stuff is done.
Woo!
Edit: Oh and I also added in a sign indicating it as a weapons shop
Just updated the mesh and its now final. No more work will be done on it unless its for unwrapping.
Thanks for the feedback!
Looking great so far, geometry is sticking quite close to the concept. Can't wait to see more.
Basically you seem to have pulled in the silhouette too much - if you look closer at the concept you'll see that the massive lintel over the whole front of the building is jutting out a lot more than how you've modelled it. This means that no matter how much you rough up and jitter the verts on the sides of the building to make it seem less straight-edged, the overall volume of the building is still much more box-like than the concept suggests.
Basically the concept looks fairly squat because the top appears wide and heavy, while in your model you've lost the weight and volume at the top of the building which is making it look quite boring and boxy instead of heavy and solid.
Also I find your poly usage quite strange, it's varying drastically across "mapobjects" (like the pots, plants and armour pieces). It's not bad as such, it just looks like it could be better.
Also, I don't think the way you've set up the ivy there will look very good - not only is it fairly high poly for the result you will get, but also will probably use up a lot of UV space - I'd probably just do a simple set of planes for the ivy creepers, then have a few slightly more complex alpha planes with ivy leaves on them rotated out from the wall more - that will give it a lot more depth and make better use of the polys there.
Something else I just noticed is that the way you've cut in the "damage" around the top, makes it look more like the building is melting slightly than it's had pieces fall or crumble off. I think in your quest to get away from straight edges you've gone too far in the smooth direction, especially on the far right crenellation. If you look at the concept, you'll see it has a hard edge on the corner which looks like bricks or mortar have crumbled and fallen away, while yours looks like someone's had a go at a block of cheese with a blowtorch.
Those are just the main issues which I think are stopping this from being a really nice environment piece at this stage - and I'd definitely recommend sorting them out before moving on to texturing, because no matter how nice you make the textures, the underlying problems of shape and proportion will still be there, and will bring the quality down.
Keep it up though, should look nice when it's done!
Thanks
I've began to texture this little beast and I am having quite a bit of fun with it. I threw this little comp together to give an idea of where I am heading with it. One thing that this doesn't show is the reflections in the metal I am going to be doing with this piece via a cubemap. Also, I am planning on a closer angle to get some good use out using high(er) resolution textures.
So have a look below, just keep in mind that pretty much everything in here that is lighting or backdrop related will be different. I'll be doing a proper lighting pass (with Vahl's help!) and throwing together a more fitting background I'm pretty happy with how things are going and am looking forward to the closer/tighter shots.
And yah - the "Sale!" is just temporary
Lookin' good man. I'm glad you said something about the sale sign, since that was the one thing that really stood out as out of place for me. Aside from that, keep on rockin' it, and stop making us wait a month between updates! :]
Crits:
- The ivy/vine growth seems too transparent. On another track, what about running some procedural Ivy and baking it into a texture?
- I "kind of" expect some nifty lighting coming thru the window in the back of the shop?
Looking great!
Crits:
The helmet on the ground and the body armor in the front leaning up against the wall doesn't have any smoothing groups.
The trees look really flat and fake. Maybe just clone a few more of the branches and rotate them so they aren't so flat looking.
Keep it up and show some more updates soon.
I'll work on the trees, my budget can take more.
Vig - Yah man, with the help of Vahl here I should have some stellar lighting on this piece. So ignore the shitty grainy comp job on the image above.
I would suggest adding some broader detail to your textures, they're a bit too fine and dont really contain and medium or large detail in them, especially the main texture of the building.
The carvings on top of the building could use some more contrast, maybe make them appear more sunken in or more dirt has gathered on them, they're kind of hard to read currently.
No really looking good. Where are the updates?
You doing AO passes?
I would also add some small rock pieces or parts of the building to the ground and scatter it around a bit.
The next assets in line that I'd like to do are the weapons and armour and I'm going to use a cube map for their reflections. I'll be using these lighting tests to get a feel for the final cubemap pass and an idea as to what the reflections could look like.
A few quick notes:
-The dust is a (shitty) paintover and looks more muddy than dusty
-Athe extension of the frame that goes out to the right is also a paint over
-Wanted to see how it'd look with some dust being kicked up around the base and entrance of the shop
-I will probably go with more close-up shots than far away so don't consider this angle to be the final angle or the final composition.
What I'd change if I went with this\ setup:
-tone the dust down so it doesn't hide the pot assets like it is there in the foreground
-change it to something more like dust blowing in wind, rather than looking like soft mud which was obviously over-layed atop of the image
looks amazing!, really nice job on the lighting, I think the interior wall looks a bit empty and could do with some more detail, whats your budget?
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30k tri and I'll stop. I'm at about 26k now. I agree on the back wall and would like to do silk tapestry hanging from it. Also, rolled up carpet, parchment, clearly marked oil barrels, etc.
Just testing colours, comp and such now so nothing higher res this time around.
Yah these are just comp jobs to get a better picture of what I'd like to have the scene look like in the end. In the end the only thing that should be done in post is any vignette I may want to do, slight colour corrections, the sky, and render info. I'm going to try and do the dust at the scene level and not in post.
I should have a couple of more tonight then will move on to the armour and weapons.
HIGH RES VERSION
In hind-sight I chose the backdrop image rather quickly and should have at LEAST flipped it so that the clouds were catching the orange lighting from the top. And the ground itself could have used more attention, but really this piece was about the shop so I'm too worried about it.
I'm going to try and take a break for a while to finish up something else I'm working on that is NOT a portfolio addition but am anxious to show everyone.
However, if I do decide do another project I'm thinking this.
One thing worth noting is almost all texture photo sourcing was taken from CGTextures.com. Big thanks to Marcel for having that site around.
-caseyjones
I agree with Johny and Casey about the lighting. I also liked the test 2 lighting.
One thing that bothers me about this one is the lack of light internally for the shop. The shadows below the soffit look really dark as well. There is a low sun hitting the front of the joint but not much evidence of bounced light.
Even though your calling it done. This may give you some ideas for lighting. Sorta a middle ground from your test 2 and your recent render
Tuscan Villa Aaron CDS
And its like a box!. No broken bits, no missing part, No interesting dirt, (other then random metalic dust noisy on everything . generic UHOH) A box on a plane with generic metalbrick texture YAOUZA!
The render make it feel like its windy, but all the weapons are straight Lol.
I like thoses plants thing growing on the brick tho and that wheel a bit .
Following up on what others said, I remember you had some rocks and other objects filling the surroundings, if you had some of those showing in the bg would make it seem more in place...but for this shot it would make it cluttered.
It's great work
"Done", pfft. Adding more colour and toning the blues ala this:
Wire shots tomorrow.