Temple Mini Scene
Hey guys, I'm just about finished with this little project I've been working on in my spare time. I used this concept from Heavenly Sword as reference, although I knew from the start I didn't want to include the rain so left that out. (couldn't find the image online anywhere to link from unfortunately just in case anyone is wondering why it's linked to directly)
Here's the still shots and a little camera movement clip
Video clip: http://www.vimeo.com/6008088
My thoughts
I used this as an opportunity to try Zbrush, I've was using mudbox for sculpting but after getting the hang of Zbrush I don't think I'll be going back. Once I got used to the Zbrush UI I found it a lot easier to work with, and especially with the decimation master plugin the workflow from Zbrush > 3ds Max was very efficient.
I used the grid to make sure everything fit together and to construct the high poly walls and pillars to bake down, trying to use the techniques that Kevin Johnstone posted up.
I still feel like the scene is a little bit empty, I also feel that it works better in the camera movement than through the still images so that is something I need to work on for my next project.
Finally, here's a gif showing it being built up. Thanks for reading, any crit is much appreciated.
Here's the still shots and a little camera movement clip
Video clip: http://www.vimeo.com/6008088
My thoughts
I used this as an opportunity to try Zbrush, I've was using mudbox for sculpting but after getting the hang of Zbrush I don't think I'll be going back. Once I got used to the Zbrush UI I found it a lot easier to work with, and especially with the decimation master plugin the workflow from Zbrush > 3ds Max was very efficient.
I used the grid to make sure everything fit together and to construct the high poly walls and pillars to bake down, trying to use the techniques that Kevin Johnstone posted up.
I still feel like the scene is a little bit empty, I also feel that it works better in the camera movement than through the still images so that is something I need to work on for my next project.
Finally, here's a gif showing it being built up. Thanks for reading, any crit is much appreciated.
Replies
- Your sculpts and textures are too clean and perfect. Look back at how rough and chunky the surfaces are on your concept -- there's a lot of irregularity there. Cut into your silhouettes more, make them irregular and wobbly. Get big fat irregular bevels and gaps between things. Approach it with the idea that these are surfaces made of roughly hewn stone rather than bricks from a factory. Considering the scale of the scene you may even want to consider modeling in some of the detail on the floor tiles.
- The face looks a bit too stuck on at the moment. The concept has structures to either side of it to give it a better sense of integration. Architecturally, you never want something to just pop out of the middle of a wall. There should always be some kind of trim or support that integrates the protruding element into the overall design.
- Work on improving the ambient lighting. If you're using a uniform ambient light, consider toning that down in favor of using a number of low-intensity point lights along the length of the hallway.
Hope this helps, keep at it!
Simple gradients can add a ton too. Just slap down a gradient overlay in photoshop at the bottem of wall textures and on all sides of ground textures and toy with the opacity and blend modes till you see one that looks cool and try it out. If you have tiling texures you can do a second alpha or whatever map and just do a quick multiply with the untiled new texture. Here's a quick mockup of how it might look:
Used a mid greytone and the "difference" modifier.
Great flora though, and as has been stated, small lights here and there would really help break up the flat look of the flora.
From all your crits and comments, I'm going to change and improve:
- the details on the floor, will model them in rather than leaving it as a flat plane
- the end wall, I will build some sort of alcove for the face to sit in
- the textures. I like how your paintover looks crazyfingers so will definitely take that on board, thanks for the tip.
- the lighting. Right now I'm pretty much relying on the directional light with a skylight set to a low brightness. I will lower this even more and put some omni's in there to break it up but I'll admit lighting is my weakest skill.
I'm not too sure what I can do with the wall to get it looking less flat, apart from go back to the high poly to add more shape to the bricks and rebaking out the normals.
needs moar imperfacshunz
Also changed up the lighting, I think it's working better?
Still got to do the walls + pillars, textures, and build an alcove for the face.
Snader, cheers for the paintover. I like what you did with the pillars, I can see that I definitely need to work on the silhouette so it doesn't read flat.
i just noticed the greenery at the back, ontop of the face thing. that looks REALLY good. upclose though, as aesir said. needs some variation
Yea, that's also a good idea. I love it how vines/trees kind of rip through tile and push them out of place. Flatness is evil!
Next thing to work on is changing the greenery, adding in a few leaf variations as aesir pointed out earlier. I hope the new rear wall makes the face sit in better.
Not sure if I will put in logs and trees as I'm just trying to stick to the concept, but I can see how it would really improve the scene.
Hope the improvement is positive, please keep the crits and comments coming
Also, the first thing I spot wrong in this scene when first looking at it, is the color/saturation of the ivy(and grass), it's too much compared to the rest of the scene's tones. The drawback is that your eye does drift imediately from the rocks/ground/sculpts to that foliage and forget the rest.
I don't see a lot of evidence of previous seasons of plant life? Moss or debris in corners and cracks that would be the basis for the advanced plant life. As plants die they turn brown, break down blow around and end up collecting in specific places and become food for bigger plants. Some leaves stain stone as they decay.
I think you could paint quite a bit of that into the diffuse textures. It's almost like you thought about the stone and the vegetation separately? They've probably mingled well past that point I imagine?
The shaft of volume light is a bit perplexing, not saying it can't happen but you have a lot of open sky above and very little atmosphere (dust, humid ect) to account for the volume light effect.
Paint Over:
This might be a bit too dirty and over the top on the vegetation.
I used a brush called Moss02 from this collection.
http://www.vigville.com/forum_images/Adobe/Moss_GrassBrushes.abr
New layer, set to multiply. Background color brown, foreground green.
Not saying this is the perfect way you should take it, or that this is how it absolutely needs to look, just a suggestion as with all paint overs.
Thanks for everyone pushing me to put more into the scene and the paintovers, I feel like its really paid off. If anyone is interested I'll post up some construction shots. Crits and comments welcome
Another thing is that it seems to falloff way to early. The light as travelled millions of miles from the sun and seems to be decaying in just a few feet.
Id suggest making the scene brighter and changing the colour of the beams as well.
Id also add some flowers somewhere to break up the green ivy.
Other than that, it looks really good!