Environment: Ruins

spahr

Hey Everyone, this will be my first project WIP thread. I havent done environments in about 1 year since I graduated from art school. Ive been working mostly on vehicles and various props. So here is my crack at getting back in it.

A few things I'm hoping to gain from this, is a solid understanding of mudbox and transferring that into more hand painted textures. Along with bringing it into Unreal 3(most of my knowledge comes from 2004), which I would like to try and tinker around with some interesting lighting, water effects. So this is really a blank canvas type of project, just a spot where I can keep working on new things.

Here is a quick grey block of what I'm thinking the layout will be. I just wanted to do a pretty little fountain, all overgrown, with an old temple building in the background with a big tree growing out of the side.


And to get practicing with mudbox I did a few simple stone bits.


There were a few more props, but I wont bore you with the details , they just look a lot like those but are railings and pillars.





If there is anything youd like to C&C on, please feel free.

Cheers

jocose

Hi Spahr,

This looks like a good start, my only comment is on the tree roots. Usually tree roots have a more complex shape than just a cylinder. Right now they kind of look like tentacles. Tropical tree roots tend to branch and also have flat sides and rounded tops. They will also change shape from flat to round and many times other roots will travel along an existing root. So you don't often see single large roots.

Here is an example: http://www.highonadventure.com/Hoa07apr/Vicki/Ceiba%20Tree%20Roots%20Spread%20Across%20Jungle%20Floors.JPG

http://img2.photographersdirect.com/img/19309/wm/pd1708284.jpg

spahr

Yes, I totally see what you mean with the tree. The whole tree is going to have to be roots, going to be very fun figuring out how to optimize that .

Well here is my first pass on the fountain. I need to make it overgrown a lot more. But the general idea is there. Thats in unreal with no real specific lighting. I am going to take my grey block into unreal and see if the layout works. And of course, replace the octo-tree i have going on ;P.



Ive just been playing around in unreal, LIGHT MAPS FTW. lol but yes, grey block and lighting pass next to see if anything doesnt work. My idea of the lighting will be right after the sun breaks the horizon, so lots of colour and stars in the sky. Lets see if I can pull that off.

Thanks for the comment Jocose

jocose

Looking good, would be neat to see some of those tiles dislodged. If it's overgrown plants generally tend to displace stones over time.

You might also want to try and clean up some of the areas where the rounded parts meet the triangle parts. Doesn't look like there is a well defined single or pair of stones there. It just kind of merges together.

spahr

I cant agree more about the steps. The style and UVs just don't match up with the rest of the fountain. All it takes is you noticing it for me to change it. Doing that Asap. Thanks. And as for the stones pushing out, I think that's a must, might even be cool to take that to the next step, model a stone, and then make one of the step sections and turn it to rubble, and place the stone prop here and there.

Keep it coming!

DInusty

if you scale up the texture of the bricks on the main ground near the steps that should work. its just a size issue i think. lookin cool though keep it up!

spahr

Teah your right about the resolution contrast, I just slapped that cobblestone on the fountain floor. Just reusing as many textures as possible. Ill see what I can do when I re-uv/texture the steps.

Thanks

spahr

So this is what I've been thinking of



Those trees are awesome i know! :P