GREAT! love where this is going.
About the rocks, what kind of shader do they have? Is there any tesselation or displacement going on? Or just a tiling texture with a normal map?
vanityassassin: I dont think I'll have the time to share a tree workflow for now.
fonfa: thanks, and yes, just tiling everything, normal map.
cupsster: yes there are, well if it was for production I'd have sewed the first branch to the trunk to avoid that but yeah, maybe later on depending on the visibility.
synergy11: here's wires from the bushes:
Blocking the village:
Houses are going to be mainly wood and wood. I realize it's far to be done :P
The technique you used to create that rock was awesome and you gave me a lot of inspiration to how I should do it next time I need to. Great job overall.
Thanks guys, village will wait a bit since I wanted to work a bit on the water flow in this valley. Maybe I will make it less Canyon-esque on the other side, we'll see.
I think the water falls need to be whiter. Because the droplets of water are a lot more broken up, you shouldn't get a solid reflection, You know some large scale mist would really help to sell those waterfalls better, too.
dpadam: yes. This is why it takes so long to build this scene.
ZacD: thanks man, I had a few refs like those already, so I decided to make a decent looking waterfall once and for all. I'm pretty happy with this result:
the bridge pillars are ofc too high. maybe a twisting rock bridge up and down to the hill would look better.
overall i think some parts of the world look too epic like the mult-tiered waterfall there. don't get me wrong it looks nice but it's just a bit over the top and each of the splash rocks where the water lands and then move down to the next splash rock they all look the same size, etc. Maybe a little oasis on the splash rocks here and there a mini-jungle to add some mystic look to it all.
the bridge pillars are ofc too high. maybe a twisting rock bridge up and down to the hill would look better.
overall i think some parts of the world look too epic like the mult-tiered waterfall there. don't get me wrong it looks nice but it's just a bit over the top and each of the splash rocks where the water lands and then move down to the next splash rock they all look the same size, etc. Maybe a little oasis on the splash rocks here and there a mini-jungle to add some mystic look to it all.
you are jelly because you cant make epic stuff like this. :P
He can go to any other forum and they'll slobber praise all over him.
He came here because he wants suggestions [I'm not implying mine specifically obviously] and critique and I gave both.
n88tr: You're 100% right, harsh crits are the best, even if it's not 100% relevant, it's always a good kick in the arse to make people improve their stuff.
The waterfall block is a bit big at the moment and I agree on the lack of vegetation around. I dont know when but I will come to it, there's simply a lot to do on the map, so keep the crits coming.
I can't offer things for you to change since I simply am no where near your ability in the composition department, but I figured I could offer up a couple of my thoughts. My biggest nit-pick about the scene is that I find it very hard to know exactly what you have going here. It seems like a desert-ish theme with sand and brown rock, but at the same time you have palm trees and bright green grass mixed in with regular trees and bushes. All of this together is just kind of confusing to me, be it lack of knowledge, or just an inability to understand your scene completely.
It all looks freaking awesome, but I'm just having a tough time visualizing the cohesiveness of the scene. I also realize that the scene also may be far from finished, so I'll watch this eagerly to see what it turns into.
@The Nasal Abyss I don't think he was going for the desert feel with it cause if you look at the pics there is definately alot of blues and greens. I think the desert you refer to is more just the dirt paths that are layed out for the civilians of the village, think of it as a newly constructed house with a brand new lawn not all the green has made its way back in. But then again I may be wrong, deserty tree/ bush 'oasis' maybe just what he's thinking of.
Wow, that fortress shot with trees look very alive to me.
Though, in the last shot, the shape of water borders' on the left looks too geometric/angular. I guess that's one of the areas you say that need the dressing.
take a look at the tower on the right hand side, on the cliff edge. do you feel that cliff would grant enough stability for that tower to be built there as it is?
take a look at the tower on the right hand side, on the cliff edge. do you feel that cliff would grant enough stability for that tower to be built there as it is?
Yeah, that's annoying. I'm going to change the shape of the rock out there and hopefully make the tower look strongly grounded into it.
sorry man i just re-read my post, i came across as such a twat!
i'll try to spend more time writing my posts instead of doing it quickly while i'm SUPPOSED to be finding a hairbrush for my daughter
in any case, it looks spectacular already, i just have this thing about structural integrity, there was something similar in dragon age: origins, that just made me want to punch someone haha.
Very well done. The towers feel too "perfect" for me though. Too much like each other, and too uniform in general. I'd maybe damage them a bit or vary the textures a little, to give them a feeling like each brick was custom made and individually placed, instead of the industrial feeling it has right now. It feels like those buildings in modern-day Jerusalem, where they try to mimic the ancient Jerusalem-stone, but they do it by mass-producing the same blocks of stone which gives it a similar texture, but it's much too uniform, when compared to the old buildings where each stone was SLIGHTLY different. A bit bigger, some cracks, a faintly different hue, etc.
sorry man i just re-read my post, i came across as such a twat!
i'll try to spend more time writing my posts instead of doing it quickly while i'm SUPPOSED to be finding a hairbrush for my daughter
in any case, it looks spectacular already, i just have this thing about structural integrity, there was something similar in dragon age: origins, that just made me want to punch someone haha.
I also love this scene, that's why i'm being a dick about it. I think that you should look at it from a STRATEGIC stand point. the level looks great but makes no sense strategically, give it some history and this thing will shine thru!
If only you knew I just slapped a non tiling texture on it haha. The map is gonna need a lot of polish to be enjoyable from closer.
Alberto Rdrgz and Blaken: you're being impatient guys :poly124: All the decals and "history" to the buildings will come in one of the last pass like I did on Helms Deep. Everyone was saying it was looking too new until that pass.
almighty_gir: No problem man, you made a good point, and I made a quick fix for it, the tower looks more grounded now. Or is it?
I created a tiling stair texture for that place, it should be reusable in the city as well. I made it in different color than the rest intentionally.
Well as you can see, I show everything, and most of the time assets are not yet polished because I come and go from one object to another. And on close up the texel ratio is not always equal across all the screen as a result.
Excellent stuff. This is kind of nit-picky, but the large structures' vertical elements seem a little too perfectly CG straight to me. The large arches are the most noticeable, but the towers too to a lesser extent. A little quick FFD'ing or paint push/pull in a few spots might ease those straight lines a little.
The castle is blending in to the hills just a little bit too much for my tastes as well. Just desaturating a hint, and shifting the color range quite slightly might make it pop a little more.
But like I said, this is very minor stuff. Outstanding work.
for the stairs did you sculpt the terrain around the mesh? or did you kinda just place it in and it naturally worked together? reason for my asking is im just wondering if you did sculpt the terrain around it, how dense the terrain is?
Oniram: It's not terrain anymore in all that area, but yeah I worked stairs and mesh together, keeping the stairs second priority.
Ryno: Good point. I can do that quite easily since I already have a broken stone detail tiling texture, some hits and smashed stones around those arches using that tex should make the silhouette more interesting.
I'll go over a quick update, castle almost done on the big things, outside doors remain. Polish will come later, polish included extruded bricks here and there, small hanging props and silhouette enhancements, meurtieres.
I changed my main acer monitor for a nice iiyama last week and have been redoing lighting since. It might be a bit darker on contrasts, let me know if it shows extremely dark.
It doesn't show up that dark but it's much less vibrant than the previous pictures. I guess that could be because the lights brightness was reduced. It also looks like the post processing was changed? The previous lighting looked a lot better to me. The castle is looking nice though.
Replies
About the rocks, what kind of shader do they have? Is there any tesselation or displacement going on? Or just a tiling texture with a normal map?
fonfa: thanks, and yes, just tiling everything, normal map.
cupsster: yes there are, well if it was for production I'd have sewed the first branch to the trunk to avoid that but yeah, maybe later on depending on the visibility.
synergy11: here's wires from the bushes:
Blocking the village:
Houses are going to be mainly wood and wood. I realize it's far to be done :P
See the scale of the thing with the dockhouse.
Here's some water falls with similar scales.
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ZacD: thanks man, I had a few refs like those already, so I decided to make a decent looking waterfall once and for all. I'm pretty happy with this result:
The whole place needs more dressing still, wippy.
overall i think some parts of the world look too epic like the mult-tiered waterfall there. don't get me wrong it looks nice but it's just a bit over the top and each of the splash rocks where the water lands and then move down to the next splash rock they all look the same size, etc. Maybe a little oasis on the splash rocks here and there a mini-jungle to add some mystic look to it all.
you are jelly because you cant make epic stuff like this. :P
He can go to any other forum and they'll slobber praise all over him.
He came here because he wants suggestions [I'm not implying mine specifically obviously] and critique and I gave both.
n88tr: You're 100% right, harsh crits are the best, even if it's not 100% relevant, it's always a good kick in the arse to make people improve their stuff.
The waterfall block is a bit big at the moment and I agree on the lack of vegetation around. I dont know when but I will come to it, there's simply a lot to do on the map, so keep the crits coming.
It all looks freaking awesome, but I'm just having a tough time visualizing the cohesiveness of the scene. I also realize that the scene also may be far from finished, so I'll watch this eagerly to see what it turns into.
Not a perfect example.
Anyway. I just treat is a cool fantasy scene, with mages living in castle, that like to show their magic ;p.
Though, in the last shot, the shape of water borders' on the left looks too geometric/angular. I guess that's one of the areas you say that need the dressing.
Good luck
Small wip update on a playable cliff area, some edges need a bit of smoothing at some places:
I wont show close up of the stairs atm, since the texture's not yet done.
http://patrickthomas3d.blogspot.com/2010/04/for-your-environment-work.html
hope this helps, and I'm sorry if its too late too help.
Yeah, that's annoying. I'm going to change the shape of the rock out there and hopefully make the tower look strongly grounded into it.
i'll try to spend more time writing my posts instead of doing it quickly while i'm SUPPOSED to be finding a hairbrush for my daughter
in any case, it looks spectacular already, i just have this thing about structural integrity, there was something similar in dragon age: origins, that just made me want to punch someone haha.
Hope you get what I'm getting at :P
I also love this scene, that's why i'm being a dick about it. I think that you should look at it from a STRATEGIC stand point. the level looks great but makes no sense strategically, give it some history and this thing will shine thru!
If only you knew I just slapped a non tiling texture on it haha. The map is gonna need a lot of polish to be enjoyable from closer.
Alberto Rdrgz and Blaken: you're being impatient guys :poly124: All the decals and "history" to the buildings will come in one of the last pass like I did on Helms Deep. Everyone was saying it was looking too new until that pass.
almighty_gir: No problem man, you made a good point, and I made a quick fix for it, the tower looks more grounded now. Or is it?
I created a tiling stair texture for that place, it should be reusable in the city as well. I made it in different color than the rest intentionally.
Well as you can see, I show everything, and most of the time assets are not yet polished because I come and go from one object to another. And on close up the texel ratio is not always equal across all the screen as a result.
O_O
The castle is blending in to the hills just a little bit too much for my tastes as well. Just desaturating a hint, and shifting the color range quite slightly might make it pop a little more.
But like I said, this is very minor stuff. Outstanding work.
Ryno: Good point. I can do that quite easily since I already have a broken stone detail tiling texture, some hits and smashed stones around those arches using that tex should make the silhouette more interesting.
I changed my main acer monitor for a nice iiyama last week and have been redoing lighting since. It might be a bit darker on contrasts, let me know if it shows extremely dark.