Viking/Nordic environment
HEy guys This is a new Environment that I am working on. It is a Nordic/viking environment.
Things to be added:
1) beer stein on table
2) weapons in weapon rack
3) proper sky dome
Any feed back would be greatly appreciated!!!
Things to be added:
1) beer stein on table
2) weapons in weapon rack
3) proper sky dome
Any feed back would be greatly appreciated!!!
Replies
I think the bumpmap for the ground texture is a tad strong but everything else is looking good. I was trying to think up some more props you could add in to fill some space but couldn't come up with much except for maybe a bear rug or a bear skin hanging from the wall.
Keep going though!
Your modeling is too perfect. Everything is planar, as in perfectly straight up/down, perpendicular, parallel, etc. You need to rough things up to make them appear more natural, organic. Simple tricks to this is knocking chunks add chips out of profile edges, modeling stones up/out of the floor and wall. Here's a visual example of what I mean:
the black version is display silhouette enhancements.
The tattered edges to the banners are too inside-the-box. They are all the same size and distance all around as though a cat used it as a scratching post. You don't really need to alpha out at the same amount all around, just take out little cuts and tear it here and there.
This scene looks natural, I would not be surprised to see a Viking wander over, sit down and draink ale, I wonder if another would then return from the balcony and tell the other what news he just received by raven.
It's just got that sort of feel, pregnant with atmosphere enough that those viewing it might wonder about whats going on.
I'd still like to see the suns rays strengthened to illmunate swathes of the interior more so as to open the scene a little further to speculation about what is outside and also to show some of the 'pop' side of each materials specular value and contrast how things still hold up in the darker more musky areas out of the lights rays.
Oh and Chris is right about some more profile interest in 3d being helpful on your large forms... but control it!
However, the main thing that bothers me is the lighting, it's too flat. I did you a little paintover to show how it could possibly be improved: Clicky It's not the best, and I'm not sure if those stands are meant for fire, but hopefully it helps... :poly121:
You could also add a large carpet underneath the table (as seen above) in the same style as your flags, insignia included. And, as has been mentioned already, I think the bump on the ground is too strong.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
Keep it up!
Vikings rarely(or never, not sure) had such large buildings as castles. The biggest typical viking structure found through out scandinavia was the Long House("L
Would love to see some more atmosphere in it though.
Nice one with the paintover Szark, personally I'd maybe go for a more natural colour for the fire than green. They really help to illuminate the rear of the room though.
yeah thats cos alot of LOTR style is taken from viking/norse mythology
i like it but yeah needs soem more detail, esp the super flat floors, add the odd health and safty risk paving stone and maybe bow the floors a bit and it will light alot better
Ok, let's look at some viking structures.
All made of wood.
Let's take a look at Viking Structures within LoTR like Rohan.
The structure itself is made of wood.
Let's look at stone structures, like Minas Tirith.
Clearly the influence is not from Viking architecture.
If he's going for something more like Minas Tirith, that's cool, but all I'm saying is that a Viking structure would be made of wood and probably less lofty.
Loqq, with your lighting, imagine it is an illustration, and try and place your lights to creat the most interesting composition and colour variation. Remember that whatever colour your light will be the shadows will be the opposite temperature. Warm light= cool chadow, cool light = warm shadow.
i dont think there is the intention here of an ultra realistic history lesson, and the exagerated lofty scale of this lends itself to videogames well, you will notice in alot of (3rd person not 1st) games you need to exagerate the size, this is true of film and tv, as both needs to fit a camera in aswell.
anyway back to the art i think you need to re-do the stone floor, they would have been smoothed off and polished by many feet, so remove the noise and get some nice big shapes in there again will help with lighting
The scene needs more shadow and light in certain areas. At the moment the scene has no strong defined areas. It looks like you're going for a dark, overcast and moody feel, some bright torch light in areas would create some nice contrast. Lighting looks too diffused IMO.
right, but they were normans. by that time they had taken in a significant portion of french culture, and even talked old french. they were also some of the first people in northern europe to fight mounted. much like the anglo-saxon buildings, the first norman motte-and-bailey castles were made of wood.
anyways, my point is: viking = richly ornamentated wood.
Yeah, I see your point, I guess what I was trying to write, is that for the purpose of the scene theres not a problem having stone walls and such. If it looks good then all the better for it.
French culture wasn't around until later, much of France was split up into smaller territories and the French language, as we know it nowadays, wasn't created until the smaller languages were quashed and unified into the monarchist language.
That's not to say the production values are realistic by today's standards but it's still a good film to get reference from more so than Beowulf which does indeed have much higher production values.
Around the time that the Vikings were plagueing the Celts on the east coast of Scotland and causing them to move more toward the west and absorb the Pictish tribes and culture into their own, both nations were already well versed in the use of whatever materials ( including rock and stone ) were around them. Both cultures were also used to extensively travelling and interacting with other cultures through trade and warfare so you tended to find a lot of overlap of art styles and building constructions.
I always found the look of Broch's from that era ( that survive today) to be pretty stunning and possibly good reference for stonework, same kind of watery cold climate affects them like they would those in the nordic region.
http://www.gowsport.co.uk/Images/Optimised/pictish_broch.jpg
http://www.joyflowers.net/images/Scotland2000/Peter-in-rain-Carloway-Broch.jpg
http://www.walkshetland.com/assets/images/BN02__Burra_Ness_broch.jpg
http://www.walkshetland.com/assets/images/M005_Mousa_broch_2.jpg
Personally, I think theres a lot of ground to cover in the regions between realism, low fantasy & high fantasy. Enough ground to grant us the right to plain make up any old shite we want as long as it looks good.
I don't think I need to say anything about the lighting... seems like everyone else picked that one up pretty quick. good start so far keep up the good work.
then give him an axe, or a hammer, or a guitar or something.
here's some to choose from:
oh and add lots of mountain and sea. and optionally snow.
here's some alternate viking house design:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/St%C3%B6ng_Viking_Longhouse.jpg
anyways, if you want reference, outlander has one of the better viking feels to it. those guys took a decent amount of time studying norse architecture and clothing styles.
shame the movie is a bunch of hollywood horseshit.
I agree with Cholden and think you should still beat up the silhouettes on the support columns more. You have geometry wrapping around them that does not enhance the silhouette (if they do, it's too insignificant).