Seb's ArenaNet Art Test - Environment
polycounter lvl 13
So I figured I'd give the ArenaNet art test a whirl. At this point I'm just about done blocking things out (sitting at about 2250 tris) and will start sculpting in the details tonight.
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Can't wait to see this finished; Better hurry though, not long until the dealine.
Another update before I go to bed:
Here's a small update to prove that I'm still working. I'm almost done sculpting and I hope to get everything baked and base diffuse textures painted by tomorrow.
Here's where it's currently sitting:
Bell is to big imo. Even for cartoonish style, it just doesn't fit. And you stone base texture is distorted on top. It's overall distorted and it's clearly visible, you should ix UV mapping for it.
@Aigik - Yeah, I have to do some cleaning up on the normals.
@chrisradsby - Absolutely! I totally forgot to turn that on when I was rendering out of Marmoset.
@iniside, Illusive & GOBEE - You guys are right I'm going to be revisiting the bell for sure.
@Jernej - I'll see what I can do!
@Grimmstrom & Alberto Rdrgz - I did bake my normals from a high poly. I haven't started spec maps yet, but I am planning on it! I need to clean up a few things in my Normals and finish painting my diffuse as well. Right now I'd say textures are at about 40% (ish).
I also agree with the non-fittyness of the bell. Aside from that, the text is very hard to read. And personally, I don't think there's a lot of room for guests in this 'broken bell lodge'. There seem to be 2, maybe 3 rooms in the entire building. If it were my prop, I'd swap out the bell for a more generic (red painted, like the door?) wooden sign. This would (ingame) be more versatile as well: just swap the texture/decal to change shop names for every village.
Loving the curly ends, very cheap yet adding a lot of detail and flair. I'm probably gonna steal this at some point.
I've still got to finish painting my all my diffuse maps and I haven't even started spec maps yet (I know, I know...) I should be nailing those out shortly.
I ended up removing the bell because I felt like it was overkill and detracting from the rest of the building. I am at somewhat of a loss as to what to do with the texture space I had designated for the bell, any suggestions would be great. I may add some sort of sign back in, but I'm not sure yet.
On the topic of sprucing up, the entry way is a big focal and the neatness of the stones is an issue for me. Maybe scaling the shape or rotating them might give them a more natural, settled in feeling?
Other than anything major, some extra textures might be good to use on add dirt and grunge to areas of the house, as well as some green (like algae or moss in a way) to the stone base. The setting is most likely in a grassland (pre-searing was set in a rural farmland style, which would entail dirt and grass rubbing against most of the house, especially the base).
It's an interesting style you've got going, I like the variation you have from the base stone and the house's stone. Cracks look too clean for my taste, if it's a plaster or similar material, it may be more partial to crumbling around the cracks a little. A touch of dirt in corners might help merge it to the wood as well as pop the wood more as it reaches it. The roof like has a nice richness in color, very different from many others I've see; I enjoy the roof. Those twists in the wood, too, are a nice accent and pop the shape.
There is a lot of interesting intersecting shapes that are going on; they hold well, structurally, to real tudor houses.