Ancient Entrance

myles

"The dead air extorts itself from the clutches of the entrance. I call it an entrance, but it closer resembles a swallowing crack on the facade of the monolith structure. Its depths can not be measured, its stone stays timeless through the decades. Warriors talk of treasures, the witches of evil. Carelessly we step inside, to find whatever may await us."

So I've been working on this scene for what feels like long enough that it might actually get finished at some point this month. At first I had little or no direction, but now I know exactly what needs to be done to see it finished. I've posted this around a few different threads the past months but I feel like it deserves its own thread now. My reference is a Guild Wars 2 concept piece.

To be done :

• Fix seams on the rock formation.
• Create waterfall mesh/ material and particles.
• Create the stream floor textures + vertex colour into formation.
• Create the stream material.
• Create the backdrop material.
• Add smaller prop details (crystals/ skeletons/ hanging ivy).
• Add any story related props (Artificial lighting/ Excavation tools/
  Spirit like mist/figure.
• Touch up lighting.

Any crit is welcome at this point, my deadline for this is set as July 2nd.

brandoom

Coming along nicely Myles. Looking forward to seeing some more progress on this.

Zipfinator

Looking great so far. I was actually considering doing a scene based off of that concept as well. Looking forward to seeing how the waterfall/stream turns out.

Alberto Rdrgz

Finally you put this up...:)

been seeing it floating around. Loving it so far!

RexM

Looking quite good already!

I would suggest maybe adding a little more color variation on the diffuse for the vegetation maybe, and perhaps even more saturation too.

feanix

Ooooh, I really love the interplay of the shapes here. The circles really help to bring the pattern out and the occasional diagonals add a lovely bit of interest to the whole thing.

I'll be watching your waterfall progress closely to see if I can't pick up any new techniques (waterfalls make Feanixs cry).

Good luck! Any concept art / sketches?

Nekomata

Looking really awesome so far! Can't wait to see the end result.

myles

Thanks everyone Keeps me going!
RexM I added more colour variations like you suggested, though its a bit too subtle atm, I'll do something a bit more wild soon! Thanks feanix! If you look up at the top I have the reference picture I'm basing the scene off, and yeah man, waterfalls are a total bitch, I've got lots of practicing to do!

Also started sculpting the stream bed, probably going to redo this with smaller pebbles or something.

toxic_h2o

dude fucking epic, I like this very much!

uncle

It looks really, really good - but I have some critique. I think the little entrance should be a focal point in the scene and right now it isn't. It even isn't obvious that it is entrance - from a distance it can be overlooked and the scene as the whole looks like a crack in a wall. In the concept there is a little cracked arc, your version is missing it.

Or maybe it's just me and my derp.

uncle

:delete:

myles

uncle Very good point, I'm hoping to make the entrance more of a focal point through either some kind of specter in the doorway (as the concept shows) or by the use of artificial lighting/ crystals. I've attempted to create the archway through the use of some diagonal pieces, I think it sort of gives it a more appearance of an entrance. Thanks.

Added the small stream, I'm going to be working on it feel a bit more stream like soon, I also added the stream bed, which is something I'll return to at a later point. Anyway I can feel myself starting to bore of these pieces, I'll probably start work on some other pieces for this scene. Any suggestions with the water are welcome, but its far from done!

PatrickL

Every time I see this I fall in love with it. Keep up the good work.

Jet_Pilot

looking cool, I really like the colors and feeling.

One suggestion... when your redoing your sculpt for the stream bed texture. Set your wrap mode to 1. This will make sure your texture tiles perfectly. I think you might need to use a poly plane first and convert it to mesh3d.

Good luck

teaandcigarettes

You've just turned me into another follower. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

stoofoo

Ironically I have no idea where this concept came from or what region it's for. Hard to be able to say that after 4 years on a project. Where did you find this? It looks like thom's stuff, but I can't put my finger on it.

myles

Hello Everybody,

stoofoo: Ooh glad to have you looking at my work! I found it on CGHub whilst searching for environment concepts.
Thankyou for all the feedback everyone, I have a long way to still go with this, but im working on making it presentable at a job fair.

Alberto Rdrgz

this is looking really slick dood! Great work!

aajohnny

Glorious Myles... Keep it up!

keres

This is great! I'm really enjoying the riverbed sculpt. I can see some use of the clay tubes tool, but I can't even think of how I'd go about sculpting something that looks entirely organic from a plane. Did you model it before you brought it into zbrush or something?

Dismembered

The glowing gems as they are right now are very distracting to me. I have a hard time looking at the rest of your work. Maybe re-positioning them or making them less bright will help?

Outside of that I am liking this more and more as you update!

nordahl154

How did you make the pebble sculpt tileable?

Zipfinator

stoofoo wrote: »

Ironically I have no idea where this concept came from or what region it's for. Hard to be able to say that after 4 years on a project. Where did you find this? It looks like thom's stuff, but I can't put my finger on it.

I was thinking of doing a scene based off of this concept before and did some research on it. It's a concept for an Asura cave entrance done by Thomas Scholes.

myles

Thanks for the feedback
Keres: I started by projecting a manipulated image of some course rocks. I think took out the clay tool and 'pulled' some of the large features out, I then when over with the hPolish tool to sharpen some edges up. It was enough to bake some quick normals for something that isnt going to be seen much.

nordahl154: I ended up just making them tile in photoshop.

I've tried to reduce the importance of the crystals by toning down the brightness and moving them to just one side, I've also introduced my main focues point which is the ghostly figure in the entrance, not too sure if it really works. Would people mind telling me which they prefer? I'm more inclined to go with the second one.

dom

Your DOF is screwing up the sense of scale in this scene.

konstruct

not sure if I`m into the gems ta all really.. they just come off as a little cheesy, for an otherwise serious business scene. I get that you need some sort of light source. maybe some odd little post lanterns that cast a blue light would be more fitting.

shotgun

the problem is simply that the crystals are drawing all the attention and the entrance... just doesn't look like one. Adjusting the values and introducing a light there (or ghostly figure, whatever) is a good start, but u need to push the details there. Ur eye would want to go there, ur mind venture inside, ur curiosity drawn...

Throw more things inside there, between the rocks, and have a light reflected off them and bouncing inside, reflecting the inner edges of the rocks. Make a bend or a gateway of sorts that would create a sharp contrast around which the light would appear. Keep ur DOF focused on the gateway, u wonna show the crystals so bad that it negates the idea of the scene. Sometimes u gotta learn when to drop ur beloved detail and focus on the big picture...

Also add waterfalls on the right side too and maybe toss some blue glows inside some of the tubes, that might be interesting. Maybe the water 'grow' crystals and they would appear anywhere water accumulates

myles

Thanks dom, looking at it now it looks almost like its a macro scene from dambusters ;D
Anyway I removed the far DOF, I've kept the closer depth of field. I apologize for the small image size.

EDIT:
Thanks konstruct & shotgun, unfortunately I really need to get this piece wrapped up tonight due to getting my portfolio ready. I will however come back to this piece when I have time again, as It does indeed not feel as much as an entrance as I'd like it to. What really worried me about adding detail to the entrance was that the scene is already quite busy, I found the darkness of the entrance to be a resting point for the eyes. I feel it would be silly for me to try and make changes tonight - that'd probably end in something that looks more half baked than now.

Thanks again.

Dismembered

Since you have to have this done tonight I say just scrap the crystals, at least until you have something that you are happy with. While it looks better this way I still find them kind of distracting.

Perhaps you can come back later and try smaller chunks lying around? Sort of like debris. (Referring to the glowing crystal of course)

One thing I would address is the rock faces in the top left/right of the image. They just seem bland and forgotten about.

I really do like this piece though, it's looking good.

Butthair

This is very auspicious. I just started doing a scene off this concept piece too! It's a little bit strange seeing this. I just finished sculpting and now moving to the lo/hi poly stages.

Your piece looks very nice. I'm happy to see someone else has done a guild wars piece, their concept art is breathtaking, one of a kind really. Aside from the big picture, you took the detailing in a different direction than myself. But that's what's awesome about it.

Jungsik

DUDE SIR MAN GOD BUDDY whatever you are. Good Job..this is ACE

TomScholes

*Highfive*

Flattered really. A friend sent this my way

No need to be shy by the way, Concept Artists don't bite. I could have sent a high-res your way if it would have been of use.

Oddly enough, and let me know if I should just keep my mouth shut- I prefer the simplicity and hierarchy in your previous version compared to the final: http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1364/screenshot2011061521270.jpg
But I suppose in-game style depends on numerous factors

myles

Thanks Tom, great to see you posting!
So I've got some spare time so I'm coming back to this piece, on my list to do -

- Remove ass crystal.
- Add proper background cliff mesh
- Make the entrance more like an entrance (in terms of composition and form)
- Add some other light sources with different colours (FIRE!)

So hitting point 2, heres a baked sculpt for the cliff mesh, I just did a cleaned up decimated mesh, guess I'm lazy.

stubs3d

Very nice!