Medieval? Home Interior [contains images]

FavoredSoul

Hey guys!

This is a little game enviro i've been cooking up in my spare time over the last 4 weeks.

I have a placement coming up at the end of the year to work in games as a 3D artist, and the guy who offered me the spot hasn't seen any of my work yet, so i've been practicing my butt off for all the obvious reasons! (contacts ftw!)

By trade I'm a multimedia designer/2d artist, so i've never done any 3D work outside of modding for Fallout (lol). And with that said, i'm eager to bring my skills to the next level. So if some friendly people could have a gander, and perhaps offer some insight/feedback, that'd be awesome! don't know if there's much to comment on though. I'm a diehard Bethesda fan/modder, so stylistically my stuff may appear Elder Scrolls Style. It might also be because this scene was rendered in Fallout New Vegas >_>. Basically i'm practicing not just for my future job, but in preparation for one of my final year major projects; something I want to create as a high quality mod for Skyrim; I naturally want it looking like it fits very well.

For this scene:

• I used 3dsMax, Mudbox and Photoshop.
• Whole scene is 18000 triangles
  
  • Couch and bed are the largest objects @1000 triangles each.
  • 4000 triangles in books; 108 triangles each
• I did not create the window rays (Property of Obsidian Entertainment).
• The images inside the picture frames are 2D paintings by Jason Manley
• Im still getting the hang of making/baking normal maps, so there are imperfections and the odd seams here and there. Much hard work and practice ahead : )
• There are 13 1024 maps used in this scene. All pieces of furniture are composed of various parts that share the same texture space with the walls. Im curious to know if there is anything wrong with sharing textures among objects rather than each object having its own map?
  

Sorry if the images are too dark. They appear quite clear on my monitors but I believe I have monitor calibration issues. Some feedback on that front would be awesome too!

Thanks for looking

ZacD

Too dark, lighting needs a lot of work.

Think of the main sources of lighting, right now it should be just the windows with cooler almost white directional light causing most of the indirect lighting as well, and the candle and fire place with very warm but not very strong compared to the sunlight. And the table isn't casting a shadow from the candle light.

FavoredSoul

Obviously Fallout New Vegas is not a good choice for lighting and rendering. lol. I do notethe fact that there are no visible shadows.

I could give UDK a try, is that what most people use?

PatrickL

The second I saw your images, I knew it was Gamebyro. Definitely switch to the UDK if you want to get true beauty shots from your work. That said, no need to rely on engines to make your work look good. What you have now looks pretty solid. Looks like something straight from Oblivion.

Alberto Rdrgz

I second what patrick said, it reminds me of oblivion, but if you want to mess around with better lighting system UDK is the way to go.

Low

correct me if i'm wrong but 18000 triangles seems pretty old-gen for an interior especially if the map requires a loading.

I'm pretty sure you could go higher even if it's FONV, for the sake of the render who cares if it's nearly unplayable.


I agree with the "too dark" comment, even if the sun looks low, more light would bounces in since it hits directly (light rays)

FavoredSoul

Luke: Thanks for the tip about the normals! Although I don't use crazybump, guilty as charged for a map here and there (def for the books/fabrics at least; tend to use the whole diffuse). I got a sense that I might be doing something wrong, cause i'd load up an object or plane with the textures set to them in marmoset and spin a light source 360 over, and the surface would ripple and look really weird! Always good to hear it out loud from someone else, cause then 'll def do some research for my next project.
And Eliminate light on the diffuse? Why don't they teach me these things in class? Oh thats right, the guy who I was unfortunate enough to be taught by got fired...

Low: Yeah, I reckon 18k is low for something like FNV. I was just trying my hand being conservative. Won't happen next time


I think i'm guilty of having a general preference for darkness, and dimly lit things, even if it doesn't make sense. I'll have to a think about that.

Thanks guys!

Pixelz

looks great . looks very oblivionish to me

Shaper

I think it looks good, appart from the very obvious crazybumping. but i feel that you can make a better preview out of it.

I get the feeling that its something wrong; and i realized there was no lightmapping, or even the slightest AO mapping.

Try taking the scene in to the UDK and light it proper, it will look 40 times better!

NinthJake

How can light-rays be coming from every window in every direction? As far as I know they only had one sun in the medieval times

FavoredSoul

@NinthJake:Creative license? lol. I should stop doing things I know don't make sense

@Shaper: Yes, I've heard of these things you call 'Lightmapping' and 'Ambient Occlusion' before, but i know nothing about them. Looks like i've got some reading to do!

Thanks again for the feedback guys!

sybrix

This looks pretty solid. Others already mentioned the shadow/lighting issue.

Definitely give UDK a try for your beauty shots. It's free and the website has a ton of free tutorial videos for download as well: http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VideoTutorials.html

Keep it up!