Not posting any shots this time, but i figured i'd give some advice to any noobs who might not have tried to tackle this before. I hit a lot of hickups making my first scene, so here goes:
Advice:
Decide on an environment that can get by largely on just a few high quality textures. Lots of planks, or lots of rock, lots of SOMETHING. Totally nail this texture. Then make sure this texture looks good paired up with your other major textures. Look at the example shots below, you'll notice they reuse LOTS of their textures, but they look really good!
Frame your shot: Don't go totally open ended and create and entire world. You're not designing the next MMO, you're creating a single scene. Narrow your scope. I really goofed here and now i'm spreading myself thin.
Don't reinvent the wheel: Do barrels, do pipes, do the things that work. Can't stress this enough. Yeah you're an artist, you want to be unique, do something that will "set you apart". What's going to set you apart is your execution, not unique hard to make assets. It's really easy to UV map cylenders and boxes. Make some really kick ass pipes and boxes, do maybe one or 2 really nice unique assets to show the skills necessary to create dynamic assets. But think of cool ways to use cylenders and boxes, think of cylenders and boxes that haven't been done before.
Flora: Flora, like your textures, keep them limited. Do maybe 1 or 2, 3 tops i'd say. If you get a single type of flora really working, you can totally fill your scene in with it. Flora can also really pump up your scene and color pallete if you find it to be a little too bland when you're finished with minimal additions.
Technical stuff: In the end, your peice is going to be a still shot from angles of your choosing. If you spend days optimizing things so it runs smoothly, you're losing time you could be speinging making things just look better. Little blemishes and texture seems can be masked by lighting and assets and stuff. This isn't a game you're making this is a portfolio piece, treat it as such. People are going to expect it to look better than what's possible in a game, so make it better, whehter it looks good in real time or not.
Hope this helps someone. I find myself breaking a lot of these rules despite my best efforts so it's good to have this listed out even for myself.
Solid advice, crazyfingers. Things go much more easily when you stop trying to force a sense of originality and just relax and make whatever you want to make. The less cliche something is, the less reference material you will have to work from, and the harder it is to learn from the exercise since you have no good examples of what things are actually supposed to look like. Not to mention the more unique and uncommon your subjects are the less relevant they are likely to be to the projects of prospective employers.
crazyfingers - The advice you gave above really is great. This will be my first time attempting this with possibly a few others, and I'll show them that post as well. So thanks.
Is it still the same drill as last time, with a selection of concepts to pick from? Guessing even those details are hush-hush!
Once again, artists will work in teams to create the most Unearthly game-ready environment imaginable, but gone are the pre-made concepts of last year. This year, as a new chapter in the series unfolds, the role of concept artists shall truly be unleashed!
I'm getting antsy myself, i was going to start a new environment fresh for the 'folio, but it seemed stupid to kick it up knowing the unearthly challenge was starting any day. Hope it starts soon cuz i'm really itchin' to concept! Got some general ideas going though...
I said this year I'd actually like to follow through, but hope its a bit delayed as I'm in the process of moving, so no puter. Also finding a team mate would be cool.
But either way, look forward to seeing what happens this year.
Loving those first two screens, Makes me think that a game imitating the styles of some of the fantasy artists like Vallejo and Frazetta could actually be made, really inspiring!
Really nice video, but i think the water isn't that good. I mean, it looks fine, but there are a lot of games with alot of better water...but no one would give applause for it. Am i right?
Dodads, haa that brings back memories of the custom StarCraft maps I made many many moons ago. I agree about the water but compared to what they had its a huge step forward.
I always threw up a little when I had to look at the old WoW water.
Reallllyyy digging that vertex painting in their engine, by any chance does UT3 have a feature like that? Cause that would be crazzzyyyy handy for painting in some highlights / shadows that otherwise would be tricky to do so.
for me the cool thing was the props video and the fact that their placeable objects seem to snap and follow the ground in the editor automatically. the vert thing was neat but c'mon, you can do that in maya/max easy peasy. really like the new water, those final shots looked fantastic.
Reallllyyy digging that vertex painting in their engine, by any chance does UT3 have a feature like that? Cause that would be crazzzyyyy handy for painting in some highlights / shadows that otherwise would be tricky to do so.
I WANT!
Well, when you think about it, lights are vertex painters in a way, you could string a lot of low intensity lights together to get the same effect but it wouldn't be real time obviously.
Another option would be to export your level as an OBJ, maybe just the terrain, and just vertex paint it in max, though you'd have a nightmore of multisubobjecting to do, unless it was just the terrain, which is all they were doing really.
yea for unreal you could make a material instance parent which has a vertex color node multiplied by the diffuse so you just swap the textures for each mat ID on an object per instanced material. you could also plug in the vert alpha into a lerp to control texture blending between 2 textures within the material too.
this is great for baking AO into the verts too for tiling texture meshes.
Replies
Really interesting to look at these shots...
Looks like the trick is to have a very simple color scheme going, and one or two really kick arse textures that tile very well and work together.
Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts
Okami...still looks good to me(though most the screens I can find are low rez).
Not Game art, but Studio Ghibli stuff usually does the trick, they have the most amazing painted backgrounds:
WoW
I think I generally get inspired more by movies, cartoons and books than other games.
Advice:
Decide on an environment that can get by largely on just a few high quality textures. Lots of planks, or lots of rock, lots of SOMETHING. Totally nail this texture. Then make sure this texture looks good paired up with your other major textures. Look at the example shots below, you'll notice they reuse LOTS of their textures, but they look really good!
Frame your shot: Don't go totally open ended and create and entire world. You're not designing the next MMO, you're creating a single scene. Narrow your scope. I really goofed here and now i'm spreading myself thin.
Don't reinvent the wheel: Do barrels, do pipes, do the things that work. Can't stress this enough. Yeah you're an artist, you want to be unique, do something that will "set you apart". What's going to set you apart is your execution, not unique hard to make assets. It's really easy to UV map cylenders and boxes. Make some really kick ass pipes and boxes, do maybe one or 2 really nice unique assets to show the skills necessary to create dynamic assets. But think of cool ways to use cylenders and boxes, think of cylenders and boxes that haven't been done before.
Flora: Flora, like your textures, keep them limited. Do maybe 1 or 2, 3 tops i'd say. If you get a single type of flora really working, you can totally fill your scene in with it. Flora can also really pump up your scene and color pallete if you find it to be a little too bland when you're finished with minimal additions.
Technical stuff: In the end, your peice is going to be a still shot from angles of your choosing. If you spend days optimizing things so it runs smoothly, you're losing time you could be speinging making things just look better. Little blemishes and texture seems can be masked by lighting and assets and stuff. This isn't a game you're making this is a portfolio piece, treat it as such. People are going to expect it to look better than what's possible in a game, so make it better, whehter it looks good in real time or not.
Hope this helps someone. I find myself breaking a lot of these rules despite my best efforts so it's good to have this listed out even for myself.
GamesArtisans Challenge
The Witcher
The graphics inspire, in places, gameplay not so much.
Far Cry 2
Ninja Gaiden:
HL2
POP:
Wipeout Fury (All In Game):
Saw this and thought it might stir some ideas, would be a cool 3d scene. Space pod landed on earth in an open field. Very doable and cool.
Is it still the same drill as last time, with a selection of concepts to pick from? Guessing even those details are hush-hush!
I wouldn't say such things, if I WERE YOU!
Shot from Rage, may be using it for inspiration.
this thread sure is helpful to get me in the mood, but why are we forgetting:
the rest of my fave environment art pieces are pretty well covered in this thread already i think.
Trine:
Mirror's Edge:
Cry Engine:
TF2:
Modern Warfare 2:
Cant wait for Unearthly. Do wish it started after GDC Austin though ><
The Pitt
man this level design is SWEET!!!
But either way, look forward to seeing what happens this year.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraftcataclysm/video/6216021?tag=gumballs;title;3
Really nice video, but i think the water isn't that good. I mean, it looks fine, but there are a lot of games with alot of better water...but no one would give applause for it. Am i right?
That said, I agree.
Well i guess this isn't true so much any more, but shaders used to bog down gameplay.
I always threw up a little when I had to look at the old WoW water.
I would like to see the video without hand-cam filtering technology.
I WANT!
Ebagg should remember him to
Well, when you think about it, lights are vertex painters in a way, you could string a lot of low intensity lights together to get the same effect but it wouldn't be real time obviously.
Another option would be to export your level as an OBJ, maybe just the terrain, and just vertex paint it in max, though you'd have a nightmore of multisubobjecting to do, unless it was just the terrain, which is all they were doing really.
any way you slice it it's way better in wow, haha
this is great for baking AO into the verts too for tiling texture meshes.