Tristram Cathedral WIP

Hamish Bode

Hey guys,

So I've taken a bit of time to get back into 3D art (I've been more involved with producing and things recently and have gotten super rusty!). I've always been a huge Diablo fan so I'm going to take a leaf out of Darkrusader's book and have a crack at some of the D3 concept art.





I've been blocking everything out in Max and the biggest learning experience so far has been matching the concept but also having to take some liberty with the position of assets so the scene works in 3D. Keep in mind, I'm pretty noob and I've taken this on as a way to force myself to learn.





There is a whole lot more detail to go into this but I just wanted to block out the larger objects. One thing I haven't figured out how to tackle yet is the ornate windows. Is it best to have them as a plane and use an alpha channel to define the detail? I'll model out the high poly windows anyway, I'm just not sure what the final in-engine model will look like.

I plan to take this into the UDK since I know the absolute basics of that package.

Thanks in advance for your help!

seth.

solid looking blockout Hamish, I think that the pillars could do with a little hacking back on the tri count, but this is blockout so I guess that you already know that. Ace concepts that you have chosen btw, if you can nail the atmosphere then this will look stunning.

I'm afraid I cant help with the window thing, environments aren't my speciality, but hopefully the bump will get the attention of folks in the know

Hamish Bode

@seth: Thanks for the response mate. I've been losing a little steam and getting sidetracked by a million other things I'm doing at the moment! Good observations about the tri count. These assets are still going to get taken into ZBrush individually so I'll actually bump the tri count up to make the quads even before sculpting and then optimise them after that.

Tackling the windows at the back is the next thing for me. After that I'll probably start texturing the assets I've got in here so I can get a feel for how many small props to bring in to bump up the detail; spiderwebs, old tomes, candlesticks, rubble etc.

Thanks again for the post.

VictorSantos

I love the atmosphere of the scene, reminds me of the last fight in "End of days" heheh

Keep it up buddy!

Samfisher84

looking great so far, gonna be some really cool lighting in this one.

RobertJamesPorter

lookin good so far, nice detail in the pillars especially!
Don't think I'd bother with alphas though, maybe a plane with normal map details and a subtle emmissive on the glass? I'm thinking in a lower polly sense though as usual XD

rkymtnman30

Great blockout!

Hamish Bode

@Samfisher84 - Thanks, I'm really looking forward to lighting this scene! The candles will be a challenge for me but I'm pretty sure it'll really make the scene.

@RobertJamesPorter - The emmissive idea is really nice! I'm probably going to build a high poly for my bake anyways. I was thinking I might create the splines from some reference photography of gothic churches I took when I was in Europe and then extrude/bevel those for some depth and get me a sharp normal map.