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[STAGE] The Last Blade, Kaede's Stage, Ezmeow

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polycounter lvl 10
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EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
Ok let's try to do something with that.
My favorite stage in Last Blade. I'm really not sure about what I'm going to change but I love the scenery......


Lbkaedebg.gif

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  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    Yeah pretty level that one. Maybe the autumn scenery changes to summer, and the gate has a path leading out, and in the distance a huge japanese temple on the left side of the screen. Just a brainstorm idea for you.

    Looking forward to how this turns out!
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    quick paint over for the mood, trying to get a kind of ghost feeling :

    Ref_Concept_2.jpg

    I think I'll probably add some lantern or statue but I'm gonna get the door first.
    I was thinking to switch it to winter too but I'm not sure about it.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    I love it :) Additionnal lighting if the scene gets darker will be cool.
  • Sebeuroc
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    Sebeuroc polycounter lvl 13
    I really like the abandon ghosty feeling that you have going. Keep going that direction!
  • Ben Apuna
    Yeah I like those changes. Ghost/horror theme ftw!
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks everyone for the answers~
    I'm planning to change a bit the door to make it more impressive; quick blocking to see how the new silhouette is gonna impact the composition.

    blocking_base.jpg
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    Ohh nice spin, looking forward to this!
  • iansmithartist
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    iansmithartist polycounter lvl 13
    The foggy abandoned feel really works, I think if you made it snowy you would loose that somewhat. You mentioned some lanterns however, some lit lanterns might add a nice bit of colour to it, contrasting the de-saturated areas to direct the eye.

    Either way I like where its going!
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    Little more advanced blocking, playing with the light and studying Japanese architecture ~ I'm probably going to add more "chaos" to the final structure, too much straight line in there.

    blocking_base2.jpg
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    This is really kicking off in a gdood way! subscribed! :)
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    update with some more blocking/light test/paint over~
    Not really satisfied yet with the mood but so I need to do some paint over/light test before starting the proper build of the scene.

    blocking_base3.jpg
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    I've rebuild the scene in the February version of the UDK as the SSAO wasn't working in the latest one and still playing with the light and blocks with an overlay of post process.

    and no it's not an army of penguin overlooking the scene.
    blocking_base4.jpg
  • Matroskin
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    Matroskin polycounter lvl 11
    looks sweet :)
    U do like nature scenery eh ;)
  • Bbox85
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    Bbox85 polycounter lvl 9
    Great start dude! Interesting post effect. Can't wait to see your progress, love your work. Keep up the pace!!
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    Slooow update on the ground and fog test ~
    Basic workflow, hi-poly sculpt of 1 slab > export > compose > bake.
    Right now the central part of the path is the same mesh as the steps, I'll see if I change it for a more specific placement or not.

    wip001.jpg

    I still have to work on the light to relight the gate structure a bit more


    @ Matroskin & Bbox85 : thanks~ So when are you guys going to enter :D ?
  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    nice mood so far :)
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    Small update~
    I've been working on the main structure, transformed it into a bell tower to fill this blank space.
    Otherwise I've started to properly model the tiles on it and played a little with the image composition/fog/light.

    wip002.jpg
  • Makkon
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    Makkon polycounter
    Perfect composition! Your setup really sells this piece, brilliant!
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    I soiled my pants.
  • Bal
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    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    Looking good!
    I think you need to make the fighting area a bit more apparent (probably with lighting), and more diversity in the graves (usually Japanese graveyards have lots of funky stuff, and even little characters).
    Looking forward to seeing what color variation you'll be bringing it as well, very monochromatic at the moment.


    Love the penguins!
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    Wow, that lighting is just... Wow.
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks everyone for comments :).

    @Bal : the graves are still placeholders, I plan to add more diversity as well as more graves, but thanks for the link nice refs here :D.

    Small iteration on the door ornaments and replaced the tiles on the walls (I'll re add the deformation later).

    wip003.jpg

    By the way, I don't manage to export my mesh with the correct "material ID" applied on the right faces, every time it get scrambled...
    Did anyone have this problem with fbx export in maya 2011?
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    What's giving that nice glow around the lamps, by the way?
  • Shogun3d
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    Shogun3d polycounter lvl 12
    Excellent, its looking great, love the composition.

    How do you get that subtle outline going with all your objects??
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    @ dustinbrown : yeah I though about it, first I want to add some blue "spirit flames" as on 1 of my paintover, then I have some idea in mind to try to bring some more red but I have to see if it doesn't ruin the mood of the scene.

    @fearian : those "glow" are just some spherical volume fog actors.

    @kaburan : the outline is from my material post fx shader, basically it's the usual edge detection post fx but adjusted to fit my needs.
  • S2Engine
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    S2Engine polycounter lvl 10
    EzMeow wrote: »
    By the way, I don't manage to export my mesh with the correct "material ID" applied on the right faces, every time it get scrambled...
    Did anyone have this problem with fbx export in maya 2011?

    I always get that issue when I haven't triangulated my meshes before export. Not sure if that's what's going on with yours though?
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    @S2Engine : I don't know if it will solve my problem but thanks for the input.

    I've work on the color adjustment of my scene to make it feel less monochromatic.
    I'm not sure about the sky color, I think I'm gonna try something in between, let alone the moon which feel a bit cheesy~
    Opinions are welcome :D

    wip004.jpg
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    I've started to work on the bell.
    Bell.jpg

    I was planning to do a detail sculpt of the dragon but according its size on the screen....I even wonder if the base i got now isn't too much u.u;;;;;

    On the meantime I turned the moon blue and scaled it a bit but I was lazy to screen~
  • stfu_donny
    nice progression, keep up the good work!
  • Bal
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    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    I think the moon is throwing off the composition quite a bit, you probably don't want it central like that, you've already got a strong central element with the bell.
  • d1ver
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    d1ver polycounter lvl 14
    I second the moon thing, but the whole thing is looking really great.
    Something in the foreground maybe?
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    Granted on the moon~
    For the foreground part I'll see that when I will properly build the graveyards zone so I'll see how I'll balance the space.
    I've integrated the bell with just the AO and normal map (as most mesh in the scene for now anyway), and did a different light test (I like to play with the light during all the construction process of the map so when it will come to the real lighting process I have some reference screenshot to see what's working or not).

    wip005.jpg

    Thanks guys for the feedback.
  • Chandler
    The bell's looking good in this newest screenshot, but on my monitor the rest of the scene is looking too dark. I can barely make out the silhouettes of the trees, and I'm only seeing a hint of the roof of the perimeter wall. I think the reddish color is an improvement, but as far as lighting is concerned, I liked the previous better. The assets themselves are looking great though, and you've got a really nice composition.
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    I've sculpted/baked some ornaments so I'm almost done one the bell structure (apart from the the texturing).
    What's left to properly do as a reminder to myself is :
    - so more ornaments for the bell structure
    - the graveyard(3 graves variation should do it I think)
    - a decent stone path
    - a stone lantern
    - a tree(and some LODs of it~)
    - walls
    - spirit flame (sprites I guess)
    - ground/fog setup
    - background

    wip006.jpg

    and just to break the boredom another angle of the bell structure ~

    Closeup.jpg
  • jarrede
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    jarrede polycounter lvl 7
    thats starting to look pretty awesome dude :)
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    Update mostly on the block out of the graveyard part and some detail part.
    I'm not really sure of how it did turn out, crits are welcome.

    wip007.jpg
  • crazyfingers
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    crazyfingers polycounter lvl 10
    This is mind blowingly good. If this is 100% 3D the hand painted quality you were able to get is game changing. Don't think i've ever seen anything quite like this.

    Especially love the painterly quality the low level fog adds, must be a fairly involved shader.

    Minor crits:
    detailing from the bell structure clashes a bit with the graveyard, i think if you added more details to the lamps it would help create more of a "flow" from the highly detailed woodwork to less detailed graveyard.

    Dragon doesn't read very well on the bell from this distance, could be a bit bigger or have its forms more defined

    Detailing on the bell is a little loose compared to the clean style of the rest of the piece. (you may also want to put a striker next to it, would be more obvious it's a bell).

    Crazy ideas that probably aren't any good:
    Would love to see fog rolling in from behind the bell on the ground (like thick ground hugging fog from a smoke generator with a hand painted quality). Maybe just out of the edges of the open area so you can still see the base of the trees.

    Fireflies! (make up for the lack of falling leaves)

    Favorite entry so far.
  • Bbox85
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    Bbox85 polycounter lvl 9
    Hey man, I feel like you've got something pretty awesome going here. Really strong shapes and the composition feels nice. But i feel like you can play up on the spooky aspect of this scene much more. Maybe not as bright near the bell, and stronger shadows. I feel like the trees up front are making it feel a bit claustrophobic at the moment. Maybe an undefined silohuette of a tree up front would allow the viewer's eye to explore the scene more without having to constantly go back to the tree that's up front. Some subtle mountain ranges in the back would be really awesome too and add alot of depth. I could explain all this stuff but I just did a paint over to illustrate my thoughts :) It's rough, but i think it does alright explaining. And I really apologize if all this is just redundant info that you already know. I don't want to give the impression that I'm telling you what to do, these are just suggestions. Your scene is looking great so far though!

    Ez_PaintOver.jpg
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks for your feed back guys :)

    @ crazyfingers :
    Everything is 3D but the udk post process helps :p.

    The detail difference between the bell structure and the graveyard is mainly due to the fact that I didn't work on the graves model yet and I have to tune down the normal map of my wood texture.

    Same goes for the bell (but I agree for the dragon, it wasn't supposed to be a main eye focus but I need to see what I can do to make it more readable).

    I had the rolling fog in mind but to be I need to run some test as I'm not sure about the way to do it efficiently.

    I was planning to add some leaves (really not much) on the trees and some on the ground (leaves don't magically disappear :p), but I keep your fireflies idea in mind (I have to see if it doesn't overcharge the scene in addition of the spirit flame i plan to add).


    @Bbox85 :
    Thanks for the paint over, I believe it's the first time someone did a paint over on one of my image, I'm deeply touched :p.

    The claustrophobic feeling was done on purpose but it's always nice to have other perspective to explore.

    Thanks for underlining the composition problem with the branch up front, I always try to keep the eye flow smooth in the composition but after spending time focusing on some part I didn't notice it.
    I was planning to try to add some ribbon hanging down on some branch but without this issue in mind :p.

    I was still thinking about what to add for my background but I like your mountain idea.
    Anyway no need to apologize for anything all critics or feelings are welcome, you could even tell me that you hate the scene it would be fine as far as you tell me why :).
  • d1ver
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    d1ver polycounter lvl 14
    This is seriously fantastic. No crit from me, keep it up. Just wanted to say that I admire artists who can do more with less.

    good luck
  • Bal
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    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    Looking good, can't wait to see the penguin sculpts.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    I second this for great justice.

    2199%20-%20animals%20army%20bear%20cavalry%20penguin.jpg
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    update!!!! or not....

    Crow.jpg

    made him a sad penguin ! u.u
  • Bal
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    Bal polycounter lvl 17
    About time you started working on the important stuff!
  • fei-rukawa
    looking good, i like the mood. Last Blade FTW btw.
  • ENODMI
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    ENODMI polycounter lvl 14
    Awesome work, looks and feels like a drawing!
  • Dani
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    Dani polycounter lvl 9
    Love the bell, keep it going looks like you've got alot of room left to make this even more epic!
  • EzMeow
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    EzMeow polycounter lvl 10
    I did a proper lantern asset but mostly I played with the light to see where Bbox85's idea would lead me, so here is what I got at the moment.

    wip008.jpg

    The overall is too much bright right now
    There are some stuff I like in this composition, but I miss some element from the previous composition, so I think I need to step back a little to watch both with fresh eyes. Comments are welcome~
  • lonelysquare
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    lonelysquare polycounter lvl 7
    Really, really love this.

    Is this "hand painted" magic in your diffuse / normal maps? Or is there a lot of UDK shader work involved?

    Either way, It's amazing.
  • Liquid-Grievous
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