Oriental Market Enviro

100Chihuahuas

Hey there! I'm working on an environment piece for my demo reel, it is a Southeast Asian marketplace, with a crowded and bustling atmosphere. It will be colorful and vibrant, with realistic/semirealistic modeling and texturing style. The scene will be set sometime in the past, so no vehicles or modern buildings.

I've started to block out my scene, but I'm not very satisfied (I'll list why) and would love some pointers from more experienced people than I.




Above is a rough block-out of my scene I’m not to happy with the ground shape/layout for some reason, I think perhaps because the dock area isn’t big enough before it turns into market. I got a critique yesterday from a professional -He liked the way my scene is going and he thinks more stuff needs to be added to make it feel more busy and market-y. I agree, I’ll add some more booths. My scene is going to be pretty asset-heavy, but I won't rely on them as I want my main map and buildings to be as well-done as possible.

Should I make the dock area larger and filled with equipment, and move the fish market up with the other booths?

Is the layout bad- should I make a new map? I'll post another map shape idea I had.

I love critiques, thanks guys!

rustim

Is this something you want to be able to walk/fly through or are you looking to render stills? I think you have some interesting elements already, but you need to put more consideration into your composition. Don't scrap it though, play about with what you've already got.

100Chihuahuas

I want the camera to move through it, and yes, I need to work on the composition a lot. I feel as if I've just been thinking about assets!
Here is a pic of a few reference/inspiration images

If anyone has some composition ideas or tips on what direction I should go, please let me know!

Buddy_DoQ

Looking really nice. I would take your own advice and move the fish market up. Replace it with some sort of loading/unloading machinery (Ropes, pulleys, crane, etc.) I'll hold back crits on the polygon density until you start moving toward optimization.

100Chihuahuas

Here is another scene layout idea, which one is more interesting?

rustim

If you want to do a fly through I would try and figure out roughly what path/shots you want to take through your scene and try and position things accordingly (if you're spending a lot of time on certain assets you want to make sure they figure prominently). I always try to think from big to small, so don't be afraid to just chuck down a bunch of simple geometry until you get something you like. Also you should try and make the scene as self contained as possible so you don't have to worry about having to model a crazy amount of stuff. Overall, I prefer the more compact layout still, maybe trry adding more height to some of the buildings. Hope this makes some kind of sense

100Chihuahuas

Thanks for the replies!
@Rustism: Thanks for the tip! I figured out where I want my camera to be moving through, so I can put the most time into those areas. I played a bit with my composition and think it has improved.
@Buddy_DoQ: I moved the fish market-y area up and like that much better. I love the idea of ship loading machinery, but am having a tough time trying to figure out how to have it look like it belongs in my little technology-less time era. Oh and thanks for not mentioning polys yet, I won't bother about those until I am happy with layout and how my scene is going
@Bretmcnee : I like your suggestion! Check it out, I tried that and I like it much better than before.


I made a few layout changes
-moved fish market up to second level
-added a few more market stalls
-added base meshes of the large animals
-curved the rock wall slightly by the bridge






Questions! I would love to get others' opinions on this. Is my scene too large? I've been thinking about that a little. I have a lot of stuff in my scene and there is a lot going on, I'm slightly worried that the quantity will overpower the quality.
Most of the enviro. reels I've seen focus on one small area, maybe I should make mine smaller? I would personally consider this a small area, but perhaps it should be smaller.

What are some opinions on this scene so far?
Thank you

100Chihuahuas

I'm back with a bit more work done!
I changed the layout of my scene a bit. Now a canal runs through with two small bridges. I ditched the covered bridge and went for a more graceful arching bridge. I did a bit more work on the marketplace (the main focus of the scene)
I created a rough camera path so I know which areas to focus on (Establishing shot w/small pan, start from bridge and dolly in and pan across produce stands, pan back through middle isle looking at stands, look at dock, perhaps look over at buildings).
I'm considering making the dock area smaller and with less equipment/stuff, and putting my ships in the distance a ways.



I'm focusing on a bit on several small items, ones I can complete within the next few weeks. I will try to complete the market bird stall, a small bridge, a tiled rock wall, and perhaps if I have time, a building. Today I created some base meshes of all the birds I will be sculpting and texturing, as well as a bamboo/fishing net cage (which needs to be textured now).

haikai

The thing that has always struck me about places like this is the claustrophobic compactness of everything. You've got many vendors vying for the attention of many shoppers in an area that has grown more and more crowded over time. These are rarely planned developments so you've got a lot of makeshift constructions and additions to old structures. Building up and on top of things because they ran out of space horizontally. There would probably only be enough space to walk through from one place to another, and I think your current layout doesn't have that "make-use-of-every-square-inch" sense yet. I don't think this really requires much changes to the assets other than seeing how you can rearrange them and lessen the overall scope of the scene.

Still, great job. Amazing amount of detail here. Looks like you put a ton of work into this, and it will be cool to see the scene with textures and lighting.

danshewan

I think you're off to a great start. It may seem early, but I'd start thinking about what you can do to differentiate your scene from others - as I'm sure you're aware, Oriental street / market scenes seem quite popular, and you want yours to stand out. I think using / emphasizing the docks and ships and thinking about lighting and time of day would be a great way to do this. If it were my scene, I'd be thinking either early morning sunrise, or early evening sunset.

You've got acres of potential to add so much life to this scene, so definitely start thinking about this kind of stuff now. Haikai's definitely on the right lines about use of space, too - though be careful to balance the sense of structural density with a clean composition. Again, if I were planning this scene, I'd make use of the natural lines created by the narrow streets / lanes to lead the eye along the stalls towards the obvious focal points of the ships and the sky / ocean behind them.

Also, if you're planning on displaying the scene in a game engine, I'd recommend getting your assets into it ASAP - it's amazing how different scale can seem in a 3D application versus an engine. The sooner you get it in-game, the less work you'll have to do in terms of scaling and rearranging.

Great start, keep going!

BlvdNights

How bout you post some dynamic shots of where our eyes will be when its finished. It would help out greatly for your overall compositions of the finished shots if you do. It's kinda hard to imagine what the finished part will look like from these overhead shots. Looks like it's going well though.

onionhead_o

can't wait to c how this turns out. i did something similar a while back, not to this scale but it was fun.

attattattack

check your plucked chicken and duck models, for chicken they usually remove the feet and bend the neck for easy hanging. Duck's neck are also usually bend back. Nice progress.

edit : reference http://www.ilovetogo.com/FileUpload/Editor/ImagesUpload/WebContent/Singapore/ThingToDo/FoodRepublic10.jpg

100Chihuahuas

Thank you everyone for the advice! I was hoping to have something to show by now for your help, but it may be just a bit longer as I'm focusing on sculpting a few things right now.

@Haikai - I totally see this, my scene needs more business. I got this critique a while back and aded more to the scene, but I guess it needs even more! I'll try to add more booths and perhaps(in the isle I won't bring the camera down, perhaps, and just reuse assets), this will be something I'll have to spend a bit of time on to try and make it look nice.

@Danshewan - I am going to light the scene as if it were early evening/dusky, so I can play around with lanterns as a lighting accent. I like what you said about density vs clean composition, I will definitely keep that in mind.

@Blvdnights - Yes! I shall do that

And thanks Att and Onionhead!