Flying Lighthouse Island :)

ladyknowles

EDIT: CURRENT! :





Hi! I've finally got the (hypothetical) balls to post in here and get some feedback drilled into me for what I'm doing!

I've got to make a 'diorama' for university, it has to be under 1500 polys and contain 2 seamless textures, not to be above 512x512.

I've attached the first concept art I did (it's changed a bit since then!) I've got quite a few sketches but no scanner! Anyway, enough blabber.



[IMG]http://i43.t inypic.com/311uw6h.jpg[/IMG]



[IMG][/img]

Ged

nice idea, you could spend a few less polys making the lighthouse rounded and instead make the island look more jagged and rocky like the concept? Then you could do some research about how rock would look when pulled out the ground as what you have as a rock texture now is more like paving slabs and Im not sure why the grass is squares?

ladyknowles

Thanks for the reply Ged! Yes that would probably be better, with the rock. And the grass is like that because I was really struggling to do anything different, I wanted something like this:



But many an hour was spent in vain yesterday trying to do it!

Kozak

Struggling to get something look just the way you want it is never time "spent in vain" :-) It's how we learn!

For the grass, I'd recommend looking at some photo reference (or going outside and staring at your lawn). See if you can break apart the texture into smaller pieces, and figure out what makes the grass look "grassy." Right now, your texture doesn't look like vegetation--it's too flat.

ladyknowles

Indeed! I think I've realised that now, I have a lot of practice ahead of me xD

I'm going to work on the grass again soon, thanks for the advice

Here's what I've done today;

Assassin0323

The original concept was very Gorillaz El Manana like, except with a lighthouse instead of a windmill. Really cool idea. Can't wait to see it finished.

Kino1428

It's good work so far, I love your concept but now that you added the fence (which looks pretty small) I'm not sure about the scale of the lighthouse anymore. Is it a cartoony lighthouse way too small for a man to climb into it or is the fence bigger than I think?

makecg

Reminds me of Castle in the sky... you need some low-poly clouds in there to make it look like its in the skys =P

ladyknowles

Updated the grass, and added some rocks!

@Assassin0323 Yeah I had Gorillaz in mind when I thought of the idea! I love that song

@Kino1428 Yes I definately need to sort out the scale of the lighthouse. I'm not happy with the light house at all right now! Thanks for the reply

@makecg That's a great idea I think i'll do that!

ladyknowles

With the help of the amazing Razorb!

ladyknowles

Been struggling with the lighthouse, it's a complete mess! Any help would be much appreciated!



And been experimenting with a bit of 'overhang' grass, this is a placeholder for now but you get the idea!



Sorry for the slow progress, I'm having to write a 50-70 page Games design document for my uni course. As you can imagine it's a TIME THIEF!

ObbieSkinner

Your stepping stones have massive seams in the UVW unwrap. Perhaps try Pelt unwrapping them, and hiding all the seams at the bottom of them. Pelt Unwrapping is great for beginners.

ladyknowles

Hi ObbieSkinner thanks for the reply, I know I need to sort that but I don't know what pelt mapping is? I'm using Maya btw, not 3DS max.

Oranghe

Gogogo! nice to see some stylizing going on

ladyknowles

Thanks ORAGNEGHGEHWG

Updates. Hand in on Friday, need to get my arse in check!



Updated lighthouse texture but that is still a hideous WIP



Finished the sign



Sorted grass and rocks (I think! :S)


512x512

MainManiac

Textures arent too bad at all.

Should definitely make this a night scene with lanterns down the path and the light on

ObbieSkinner

Slap a whole bunch of lights in there. Everything looks way better with cool lights and mental ray!

Snader

Biggest problem: it's not a floating island, it's a stone wall.
1: get the shape right -> your concept feels like an inverted pyramid, thick in the middle thin on the sides, that's good. Your model is the same thickness everywhere.
2: get the texture right -> flowing blobby chunks, possibly with horizontal layers. right now you have clearly defined creases, and no (faked, ofcourse) volumetric shadow. Get connected shapes in there, rather than individual rocks.


After that, paint in some AO for the tower, at least.

Is this supposed to be 100% flatshaded or are you allowed to use lights?

ladyknowles

@frell Thankyou very much. I really wanted to make some lamps but after working since 3 yesterday morning I couldn't

@ObbieSkinner I tried to add lights in UDK but failed massively, will have to go back after the hand in and fix!

@Snader Thanks so much for the advice, invaluable stuff. My hand in his tomorrow though, so I apologise for not implementing what you've said. I had to put it in UDK and ran into some problems! I will definately do this if my next project from uni isn't too heavy!

Also, it would be great if someone could explain ambient occlusion...I'm a 3d retard!

Here you go, everything together: