MikeF's Enviro Portfolio Log

MikeF

Trying to get back in to the swing of things, building a new portfolio focusing on environments.

Here's a wip of my first piece.



Just finished baking the normals, i'm pretty happy with the sculpt, first time doing hard surfaces in mudbox. did a rough texture pass on the base before calling it quits tonight, so i know that needs some work still.

Crits are most appreciated

Autocon

maybe its just because I have a filthy mind but I didnt see a rock formation when I saw this piece.

on a more serious note did you use reference for this piece? because I have never seen rock formation that looks quite like that with all these semi large rocks kinda glued together to form an upwards shaft.

MikeF

heh, i know, too phallic?

Not really going for realistic, gonna try a cartoony look. think warhammer scenery

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/3/6/1/9/1/0/webimg/149688430_tp.jpg

Richard Kain

I think that type of rock formation is a bit rare. Rocks don't usually look like that. Right now your columns look like a bunch of smaller rocks cemented together. It has a decent stylized effect, but the eye simply fails to register it as real. Tall slender rock columns generally tend to have more of a stratum to them. (more consistent horizontal leveling) Find some pictures of Southwest canyons for reference.

Remember the fractal principle as well. Things up close often look the same as things far away. A small clump of rocks will often look similar to the mountain that they are resting on. Think of the pile of rocks as tiny mountains.

Zephir62

Looks like the crap my dog took on the lawn yesterday.

SHEPEIRO

needs bushes round the base

Jeremy Lindstrom

Yes, I saw penis rock too...

pliang

To at least have some sort of function, might want to widen the base and arrange some rocks around it, it just oddly stands out too much. Some growth on it would do fine.

killingpeople

mikef: fuck the haters, they love poop and dicks

the problem ihave with ur pile of rocks is that they don't seem to be piled but 'fused' together. if that's the look you're going for, cool. the forms remind me of rock candy, so texturing them as crystalline might give them believable function to form, in my eyes. but it could be all this dick and poop talk that makes me see candy, i'm such a cock and shit hungry fag sometimes - polycount brings out the best in me it seems.

Pope Adam

I like the style you're taking with these rocks here. Chunk-poop-shlong-like as they may be, they are interesting looking.

I'm assuming you're going for a very stylized work here. I'm curious if you plan on adding anything else to this besides a bunch of rocks and grass. As a portfolio piece, you probably want to have osmething else in here to add visual interest.

Show your prospective employers that you know how to tell stories through the subtleties of your models and textures. Will there be primitive paintings on these rocks? Some more interesting foliage around? Where are you going with this next? :P

MikeF

thanks for the replies fellas.

killingpeople:
good idea with the rock candy comment. i've got a mental image of glowing oar protruding out of a rock base now i think i'm going to go with, thanks.

pope adam:
I was thinking it needed something more, but i just havnt made up my mind yet, i've got some mushrooms and shrubs thrown in now, but it still seems as though it needs a focal point. Kinda like the idea of primitive paintings, might try and do something with that.

Justin Meisse

Making rock pillars that don't look like penises, one of the many challenges of the enviro-artist!

Like everyone else, I don't like the formation you have going but the look is good.