Hand painted windmill environment

Jeff Parrott

Figured it's about time for me to move it out of the WAYWO thread. The texture sizes are a bit off on things now. I'm just painting them and I'll resize them towards the end of this. Shooting for another hill in the background and a sunrise maybe. I was hoping for a few outside ideas and critiques from here.

Here's an angle close to what I was thinking for the final:


Still working on these textures around here:


Up close shot of the bottom area:


The texture flats so far (Again some sizes are a bit nuts):

BlvdNights

Can you show it with some light on it? I think you might be tiling the aqua bricks a bit too much.

Wells

Personally, I think you have too many different things going on. none of your stone is the same color or size, they all contrast sharply with each other, making the piece feel very disjointed and slapped together.

your yellow bricks have highlights on three sides but no corresponding shadow, implying it is built like a step-pyramid which contrasts with the shape of the model.

the gray stone has highlights everywhere and even shadows on all sides - this is painted like a ground texture, but you have it on the walls. you also have these blocks going around corners, which look wrong.

in fact, there's almost no shadows or ao on anything, so everything feels floaty

the door looks striped - don't go light/dark/light/dark. variation is good, but our brain picks up patterns too easily.

the blue bricks are the best. they have shadow, highlights, light and dark variation. but it's all very monochromatic. and i'm not wild about the blue color. the indented bricks might be a bit too much, as well, as they stand out in the tiling quite a bit.

the white rocks look pretty good. again, they have highlight, shadow, nice variation. cracks are all a bit soft in them, making them look almost sea-smoothed.

wood is a bit too contrasty for my tastes.

the windmill vanes should be much larger. they're small and unimpressive and get lost in the piece.

i don't like the angled dark parts of the door frame. they come off as looking like poor UVing.

texel density is painful, but you said you're aware of it.





Having said all that, this is a good start. you've got the bones of something cool here, it just needs some refinement. Don't toss out everything you know simply because you're making something hand-painted, all the rules apply.

Jeff Parrott

BlvdNights: I'll post up a shot with some lighting in there soon. I was going to wait till this is closer to being done to light it. But I'll mock up some temp lights by tomorrow.

Sectaurs: Thank you! Exactly the feedback I was hoping for. Yes I totally agree about this feeling disjointed. I've painted it in 3 hours blocks once or twice a month (during a lecture I give) so it makes sense it feels like that.

I'm going to rework the textile density across the board tomorrow.

I will tackle all the texture changes you suggested too. Great eye on all those things. Everything seems super fixable. The 'seastone' and blue bricks are probably the textures I'm happiest with. I really want to rework a lot of this. Probably defining values first then colors (like I normally do) is how I how rework this.

Thanks again for the badass critiques. It's definitely what I needed. Give me a bit and I'll post an update when I get most of the textures reworked.

itismario: Thanks I'm digging the grey bricks more than the rest. I think like Sectaurs said the cracks need to be sharper though. Nothing ends early.

Joopson

Yeah, Sectaurs knows his stuff. I was going to mention how inefficient this windmill would be. No wind would catch the propeller.

Make those things HUGE.

Jeff Parrott

Starting to rework a lot of this. I need to vary up the bricks more than they are now. But the texel density is more consistent than what it was.

Jeff Parrott

Here's an update with some working lighting in. Still reworking a lot of this. The blue bricks are not going to stay up top and tiling too much below. Thinking about doing stucco with a few bricks showing underneath for the top area.

Noors

In progress.
Yeah the blue tiles are too small. Then you can maybe add more color variations to it.
Also for the texture above, only make a quarter of that grey circle
mmh i think i prefered the white stones on top and the double row of grey stones below.

Mark Dygert

I like it you've got something here.

You might want to think about a the function of a windmill a bit more which could lead to a bit more detail. I'm specifically thinking about how they normally rotate and how there is a sail wheel in the back that helps rotate the upper housing of the blades so they align for maximum umm... windage...

I like that you exagerated the size of the blades, and I like the slopes and curves on the building, cool stuff, maybe also exagerate the shape of the blades also?

telmac

I cant get over how much this looks like the clock tower from majora's mask. its looking pretty good, though like people' have said, the brick textures need work.

marq4porsche

I'm in love with the wood textures! This is looking good so far but I think the brick looks a bit noisy at this distance. Maybe you can scale them up a bit especially considering the size of the door you have there. Looks like a fun piece and I'd love to see it finished.

glottis8

Your color palette should be more uniform... then it won't be so sharp when you see the huge bricks on the bottom, and the small bricks. Maybe you can blend in some different things around. I am thinking some vines and leaves growing up the lower side of the walls in some places. You want to make sure that you break up your uniform look to make your windmill more interesting. But it's looking good. Keep up the good work.

Wells

looking much better

keep it up

PogoP

Looks really good, but I would really push that lighting and make it pop. It looks a little dark at the moment. Maybe get some dark blue ambient lighting on the sides and brighter, orange/yellow lighting on the front.

Jeff Parrott

Noors: Yes I switched over to a 1/4 of the circle. Much easier and more efficient. I think the blue bricks makes it look a little more consistent. I'm going to add in some windows or supports on the main lower area to break up the bricks some.

Vig: Thanks! Good crits. I've added those rear blades and tweaks the large blades to match the style of the supports.

Telmac: I've sadly never played Majora's Mask. I googled it and couldn't find much. Any shots of it that you know? I tweaked the brick scale some to match up.

marq4porsche: Thanks. The wood is pretty simple stuff. Reference and look at other games that have worked wood in this style is the best approach. The bricks have been scaled up.

glottis8: I like the vines idea. I'll have to work those in at the polish stage.

Sectaurs: !!!! Getting there. Just keep plodding away at this.

PogoP: Lighting is temp. Just a orange directional and a blue ambient. I'll rework that as I get closer to finishing this.

That all said here's an update. Hay bales and the shot composition is starting to get figured out. going to add in some background details in (house silhouette, fence, sky, clouds, etc) once I finish the door handles and the roof textures.

Jeff Parrott

This is set up in UDK now. I need to a proper ground texture. Debating about doing terrain with it too. Once the windmill is finished I might add in another one in the back right. Seems like I need something over there. Lightmaps are only on the ground now. I'll probably change the whole scene over to lightmaps since they are so easy to do in UDK. Lighting is super temp. Just put in some lights to see how things are working.

Snader

I think the end of the wooden beams are too much of a different tone and the bricks are very chaotic too, colorwise.

Not sure if UDK with lightmaps and realistic rendering fits this well, you might be better off with windwakeresque cel shading.

marq4porsche

Are you going to add cloth to the windmill arms? Also I think you can do more stylized grass kinda like the wind waker stuff, bigger and leafier to match the style you've already got. Also like Snader said the woodends stick out far too much.

Jeff Parrott

I adjusted the end of the woodbeams to match better. Also tweaking the sky, grass, ground, path and add windows, rocks, etc.

Decided to just lightmap the ground. It looked a bit off with lightmaps on everything.

Marquis I am going to add cloth on the windmill. It will probably be something a bit warmer.

Jeff Parrott

Started the texture on the path area.

Still have to make some rocks for around there, texture the crates/small prop on the side, and possibly add in background elements like a forest or castle (something off in the distance on the left side and right side.

Addieo

What colour are your lights? I may be wrong but I'd say somewhere around green, there' a strange discolouring going on. Great progress from your first post though, liking the style.

Pix

For something warmer you can put a fireplace or some sort of lanterns or torches, oil lamps perhaps? A nice thing to make this more alive is adding fireflies glowing in yellow, but that would make sense if the sky was dark and during the night. Also the scene can be made at early morning time with a sun rising between these hills and casting warm orange tones.

I like how this is progressing

Jessica Dinh

Nice progress! I agree this would look really nice if you added some warm lights to contrast with the overall coolness of the piece

marq4porsche

I totally agree with the above, Some warmer light coming in like a sunrise would be sweet. I did a small paint for fun.

Pix

I like that lighting paint over, I found some images and stuck them together with the ideas.





- The fields are in more of a yellow/brown/orange tones and have the hay sticking out of the ground.
- Hay blocks.
- two different wooden carts to add more things to the scene, also if you put a pitch fork somewhere.
- Hay sprites on the ground.

Just a list of ideas, always better then being stuck at some point.

Jeff Parrott

Thanks for the crits everyone. Marq4porsche thanks for the paint-over. Here's the lighting adjustments. It's starting to work much better. All the surfaces are textured now. Just need to add in background elements (tree-line or forest) and some small rocks up close along the path.

Pix I like the cart idea. I think I'll add that it as well. I'll probably adjust the grass color some when I polish the textures. I'm planning on going over each texture and rework some of the surfaces (bricks, etc) a bit once the scene is all in place.

Jeff Parrott

I'm calling this one done for now. Probably revisit it in a few weeks and tweak some things and maybe add a cart or something. Thanks for all the crits and advice everyone!

Bigjohn

Looks pretty awesome man. I love how the wood and grass came out especially.

You gonna do more of these?

Jeff Parrott

Thanks, yeah I think I'm going to do an interior, cave area. Probably look at WoW for some ideas for that.

Pix

I guess some bushes and pine tress would look great too

Wells

looks good!

I would add a window on the shadow side with a nice warm interior glow.

And maybe make the crates a little closer to the color of the wood on the windmill.

But overall, great progress!

Jeff Parrott

I added the windows and tweaked the crate color like you suggested Sectaurs.

The brick texture got reworked. It was reading a lot flatter than I wanted. I worked more depth into the texture.

And instead of UDK I lit it using vertex colors in Maya. It's not quite there yet lighting-wise. but it's a lot less clean that it was in UDK. Which I think for this piece works better.