Great to finally see the whole environment together guys! Overall I think it's looking really nice though I have a few thoughts that you may or may not agree with on it that centers mainly on plant placements and color use.
Right now the foreground is really dense, to the point of feeling a bit chaotic, and I have a hard time isolating individual plants. When I look at it everything seems to kind of blend together, and to me it really flattens the space and makes individual plants feel less significant. Then I look into the background and see a lot of empty open ground and it feels sparse. I think a reversal of this could really help a lot.
Also, I really like the duality of the warm and cool colors in the piece, but I think pushing it farther towards the "rule of thirds" could really help with the color composition, marking one third of the piece as a "warm region" and the remaining two thirds as the "cool region." You're kind of doing this in the center/bottom of the piece but I think if it was carried over to the bottom left + middle left as well it would make the center warm spots feel less isolated and give the color separation more of a smooth curve shape.
For the plant placement I would take out a good 2/3rds of the objects in the foreground and keep it really simple, maybe just a few different species to really showcase a few of them and show their individual personality. Then I'd go to the background and take out the three biggest wall-mushrooms (coincidentally all three have a yellow square in front of them), and instead place several groves consisting of a single smaller species, with a few of a larger one scattered throughout it like small trees popping up in a savanna. I think that approach, looking at them as a species slowly germinating and spreading over an area in clusters, with larger species popping up within those groupings, could fill in the background really nicely. That way you get more density in the background which will make the area look more lush, and keep some sparsity to the foreground letting the eye settle and enjoy a few objects closest to the camera before it continues on through the scene.
Aside from that, right now I think there are three areas of the scene that stand out head and shoulders above as the best areas of the scene for me. The first is the bulb and curvy bits + tongue/stamen at the end of the long stem on the middle right of the shot. The way the light hits the pinkish red pedals and tongue/stamen causing what looks like a soft warm transparent glow is really nice and makes the flower/tip feel very natural and alive.
The second is the orangey-lit area in the middle-bottom of the scene at the base of the roots. The way the small orange circles glow near the barnacle like creatures and light the cavity below the roots has a really nice warmth and illuminates the purple roots really nicely, giving the otherwise somewhat flat purple root diffuse texture a lot of nice color contrast. I think actually showing just a bit more of that area could really emphasize the depth that is shown there.
The last one is the blue colored glowing entrance to the vine-covered cave. This is another area that has some nice depth and has some nice contrast between light and dark with the roots getting silhouetted out by the blue back lighting. Having seen the inside of the cave in person though I really wish I could see more of it, it's a really beautiful part of the environment and I would be really tempted to have your second camera angle focus on a shot from its perspective.
Now, this is all just my two cents and you could very well be thinking entirely the opposite from me, so I apologize for hitting your thread with such a ridiculously massive amount of text, I just thought that the progress on the scene as a whole has been really great and had to get my two cents on it. I'll have no hurt feelings if you disagree, haha.
Composition looks like an utter mess to me. Looks way too confusing, nothing drags my attention or looks really appealing other than individual details scattered everywhere.
Composition looks like an utter mess to me. Looks way too confusing, nothing drags my attention or looks really appealing other than individual details scattered everywhere.
Usually it helps when you crit to give out suggestions then toss out negative comments.
Sorry dude, I dont know this Josh O guy you're talkin about. There was some dude that I think might have gone by that name but I dont remember traitors very well.
We are currently tweaking our lights and composition based on everyone's input. We are in the (fortunate/unfortunate) position of having just too many cool pieces to show off, but only 2 screen shots to do it in. Thanks for all your comments and input and as always your milkshakes will be drank in the order they are received.
awesome work guys, looks fantastic. what was your workflow for sculpting those rocks? they look awesome. cant wait to see the finished piece
Thanks, the rocks were alot of fun. The hardest part was keeping the style similar to the rest of our objects. I built a temporary mesh around the bottom of Dusty's roots. I sculpted the high res rocks in zbrush and brought the roots in as a subtool for placement. I exported the high back to max and used polyboost to re-topologize the rock. I found retopo in polyboost faster than zbrush considering the type of object. Bake- render to texture, and some quick poly painting in zbrush for color. Tweaks in photoshop, export to the Infernal Engine, create material, etc. Hope that this helps.
Replies
fantastic work
Right now the foreground is really dense, to the point of feeling a bit chaotic, and I have a hard time isolating individual plants. When I look at it everything seems to kind of blend together, and to me it really flattens the space and makes individual plants feel less significant. Then I look into the background and see a lot of empty open ground and it feels sparse. I think a reversal of this could really help a lot.
Also, I really like the duality of the warm and cool colors in the piece, but I think pushing it farther towards the "rule of thirds" could really help with the color composition, marking one third of the piece as a "warm region" and the remaining two thirds as the "cool region." You're kind of doing this in the center/bottom of the piece but I think if it was carried over to the bottom left + middle left as well it would make the center warm spots feel less isolated and give the color separation more of a smooth curve shape.
For the plant placement I would take out a good 2/3rds of the objects in the foreground and keep it really simple, maybe just a few different species to really showcase a few of them and show their individual personality. Then I'd go to the background and take out the three biggest wall-mushrooms (coincidentally all three have a yellow square in front of them), and instead place several groves consisting of a single smaller species, with a few of a larger one scattered throughout it like small trees popping up in a savanna. I think that approach, looking at them as a species slowly germinating and spreading over an area in clusters, with larger species popping up within those groupings, could fill in the background really nicely. That way you get more density in the background which will make the area look more lush, and keep some sparsity to the foreground letting the eye settle and enjoy a few objects closest to the camera before it continues on through the scene.
Aside from that, right now I think there are three areas of the scene that stand out head and shoulders above as the best areas of the scene for me. The first is the bulb and curvy bits + tongue/stamen at the end of the long stem on the middle right of the shot. The way the light hits the pinkish red pedals and tongue/stamen causing what looks like a soft warm transparent glow is really nice and makes the flower/tip feel very natural and alive.
The second is the orangey-lit area in the middle-bottom of the scene at the base of the roots. The way the small orange circles glow near the barnacle like creatures and light the cavity below the roots has a really nice warmth and illuminates the purple roots really nicely, giving the otherwise somewhat flat purple root diffuse texture a lot of nice color contrast. I think actually showing just a bit more of that area could really emphasize the depth that is shown there.
The last one is the blue colored glowing entrance to the vine-covered cave. This is another area that has some nice depth and has some nice contrast between light and dark with the roots getting silhouetted out by the blue back lighting. Having seen the inside of the cave in person though I really wish I could see more of it, it's a really beautiful part of the environment and I would be really tempted to have your second camera angle focus on a shot from its perspective.
Now, this is all just my two cents and you could very well be thinking entirely the opposite from me, so I apologize for hitting your thread with such a ridiculously massive amount of text, I just thought that the progress on the scene as a whole has been really great and had to get my two cents on it. I'll have no hurt feelings if you disagree, haha.
One of you guys really need to make some UT3 map or something with this content once the contest is over.
http://englishrussia.com/?p=2059
Other than that, awesome.
but really, im digging the candyland on acid look.
it would make a beautiful desktop background
btw, does josh O still work there?
Usually it helps when you crit to give out suggestions then toss out negative comments.
little tact goes a long way
( http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5430 )
maaaybe he does... maybe he doesn't.
moar updates and walls of text!!!!!
i'm crying. i can't stop crying.
Thanks, the rocks were alot of fun. The hardest part was keeping the style similar to the rest of our objects. I built a temporary mesh around the bottom of Dusty's roots. I sculpted the high res rocks in zbrush and brought the roots in as a subtool for placement. I exported the high back to max and used polyboost to re-topologize the rock. I found retopo in polyboost faster than zbrush considering the type of object. Bake- render to texture, and some quick poly painting in zbrush for color. Tweaks in photoshop, export to the Infernal Engine, create material, etc. Hope that this helps.
Congrats on finishing and best of luck!