[UDK] Who don't like Zelda?

hollywood-north

Alright so this is my first thread showing some work here! Looking for a bunch of critiques so I can make this a lot better. Looking forward to all the help. Thanks everyone!

Concept:



And the environment so far:

gsokol

The fog and lighting are really killing your scene right now.

Mainly, I'm going off of the top image since its the closest to your ref.

The fog makes everything look really muddy, and the general color of your scene just doesn't look good. Youve lost the bright, saturated look of the ref.

I'm guessing your mainly using a dominant directional? You got the right shadow direction almost, but it needs to be coming straight down more. There is little shadow in the ref, as if its about noonish so they aren't cast very far. Also, is your light orange? if so, tone that down.

Your transitions from rocky cliffs to flat dirt/grass is pretty rough as well.

I will say that I think the vegitation reads pretty well, especially from the top view.

RexM

I'd say lower the fog a bit, and make greens more green. Like gsokol suggested, try to get your scene closer to the vibrancy and saturation the reference shot has.

The dirt road texture doesn't seem to read too well at a distance, I would suggest adding more mid-details like pebbles in that texture.


House seems too wide as well.

You should also push the trees a lot more as well. Match the roots and the overall shape of the tree to help aid the fantasy feel a Zelda scene should convey.

MystiqueX

Nice job with the building and the fence! I agree that the transition from grass to the rock wall needs more work, but I'd say leave the fog since you'd be playing from a first person perspective and not the eagle eye one anyway. Most of the games nowadays have day/night cycles so I'd say the noon light isn't really a must. But do polish the vegetation and rock wall.
Looking forward for the next update!

HitmonInfinity

Cool idea. I've got a handful of zelda ideas floating in my brain too. Glad to see you're acting on yours!

Wex

Edit for color and contrast. Hope it helps.

mutatedjellyfish

I think, design-wise, you're going to be battling the simplified shapes and layout of the SNES game if you decide to go for a literal remake of the scene in a photorealistic style. It will never look good because the simplicity of the original will sabotage any kind of realistic texture work you do. They clash.

You could go 2 directions to make the design more congruous: You could either recreate the layout and shapes of the original exactly and go for a stylized texturing style, or you could go for a photorealistic but instead of copying the original exactly, instead try to interpret Link's house as if it existed in the real world. What would the hill look like if it was a real hill? The opposing cliff? The forest's edge? How can they all be designed to not only look like they could really exist, but also be appealing and interesting? This would of course take more design work, but it could be a really cool interpretation of an iconic scene that we all know.

As it stands now, it just looks wrong.

stubs3d

I really like what you're doing here, but that roof isn't working for me. It reads kinda sharp with the edges and corners the way they are. I love pretty much everything else.

ParoXum

I wouldn't go for realistic textures if it was me. I think for that kind of level, the reading's gonna be a ton easier and nicer with exaggerated shapes and hand painted diffuse textures.

Also, you should sort, fog, lighting, SSAO, like most said.

Alberto Rdrgz

Stylize this, i agree with paroxum the realism is working against the readability of the scene. Something more true to the concept would do some good to this!

yodude87

[+1]

chrisradsby

Kinda reminds me of this:

hollywood-north

Woo! Thanks gals and guys this is exactly what I wanted.

For the lighting I was going for a sunset instead of just a normal sunny day like in the game as I thought it would look more interesting.

I actually started out this scene hand painting the textures but it was my first time trying that out and it looked terrible. Maybe I will practice that more and try it out on this scene once I get better at it.