[WIP] Hand Painted - WoW Style - Human Village
Hi. It's been a while since I posted something and I figured it's about time to show what I'm working on. I've been really inspired by some of the amazing hand painted work I've seen posted around here and wanted to try out for myself especially considering that all I've done recently revolved around realistic rusty metals...
Thanks for comments in advance, and a special thanks to Jessica Dinh, who I don't know (if you're reading this, THANK YOU!), but through whose thread of self improvement I've learned so, so much. Also, thanks to all you other folks who made short image tutorials that just give that much needed edge on how to start something.
What I definitely need to do soon is put all of this in UDK to test the overall composition...
So, here's what I have so far:
A small portion of the references I collected from WOW and similar art styles:
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
My overall layout with most of the modeling complete (only like 15% is unique)
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
Some progress shots:
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
Some texture flats:
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
And 2 of the unique armory assets:
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
Thanks again, and fire away, please
Thanks for comments in advance, and a special thanks to Jessica Dinh, who I don't know (if you're reading this, THANK YOU!), but through whose thread of self improvement I've learned so, so much. Also, thanks to all you other folks who made short image tutorials that just give that much needed edge on how to start something.
What I definitely need to do soon is put all of this in UDK to test the overall composition...
So, here's what I have so far:
A small portion of the references I collected from WOW and similar art styles:
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
My overall layout with most of the modeling complete (only like 15% is unique)
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
Some progress shots:
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
Some texture flats:
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
And 2 of the unique armory assets:
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
By razvanimation at 2011-12-13
Thanks again, and fire away, please
Replies
I think that the textures lack lighting information. They all look really flat. that might be your personal preference, if you intend to light this in any game engine or just straight in maya. but if you emulate wow style exactly alot of the lighting seems painted in the texture.
Im not an expert at this, but i wish you the best of luck, ill be following this.
I'm no expert, but agree with Visceral, you could add more lighting to the textures. And possibly try using Multiply in PS. It brings out the colours more. I guess you are going to smooth some of those normals too? Get it in UDk as soon as possible. It always looks surprisingly better in UDK.
Can't wait to see how this continues.
Your textures in general read as very monotone. You need to work in other colors and balance the colors of the textures.
The wood textures in general lack a lot of depth that should be present. With this art style one of the main goals is faking depth that is not present on the model. Try to push the planes of the texture more to read like there is depth between the wood planks.
The wood barrels and wood crates have a more contrast wood texture. Whereas the other wood is a bit more subtle. Together they don't match up.
The scene doesn't read that well together. Try to have a focal point. Read:
http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/phil_straub_composition_tutorial
I'm not trying to beat you down here. Really digging what you're doing with the axe deal (design is a bit odd) and the shield. I would love to see you develop some more of those. Try watching Tyler Murphy's 3d Motive video on doing this. He's got some awesome workflow tips.
http://www.3dmotive.com/training/photoshop/hand-painted-weapon-texturing/
@Jeffro The Axe is a design from Blizzard itself so taking WoW ref is a bit litteraly taken.
@salacious_Crumb: Thank you! I think the size is a bit decieving, because a large part consists of duplicates. But yeah, I'll fix facing normals as I go and I'm thinking the next step is UDK and then some more texture work.
@itismario: Working on it as much as I can, I'm really enjoying this
@jeffro: Thank you so much for an in depth analysis. I really appreciate constructive criticism, especially from someone with so much experience. I'll get on to reading that article on Compostion and since you brought up Tyler Murphy, I actually just got the 1 month pass probably at the same time you posted this without knowing! Coincidence? I think not! But, yeah, I was thinking of doing a set of like 10 weapons and shield (I need them for the armory building anyway) and learn some stuff on the way to apply to the rest afterwards. I think what I mostly need to do I treat everything with the same level of dedication, which I honestly haven't...
@Hexidine: Thanks for the comments, I will do a second pass at most of them and hopefully improve in some areas. I actually just reworked / refinished one of the roofs.
@linkov: I actually spent quite a few "research" hours in game taking 5-7 screenshots of the buildings I thought interesting and tried to basicly remodel as close as I could to the original. Especially regarding the sylhouette and the polycount. Do you think that's a bad idea?
@Haiasi: I really apreciate the comments, and now that you mention the dark blacks, it's all I can see. That's not what I want, so I will go back and repaint some areas. I'm kind of learning tips as I go, so I will go back and fix with the acquired knowledge.. It's an endless looooop
Hey guys, linkov here is bringing up a very interesting point. It is a bad idea for me to model and texture everything really close to the look of WoW?
As I told him, I did in depth research on the forms and mostly modeled everything to as close as I could to the original asset in WoW. So they do look very much alike. I guess what I am trying to say is that I'm building everything to look like WoW assets, is that something I shouldn't do and actually make my own designs in that style? The reason why I am not doing that is because I want to get exactly that art style, not my interpretation of it? Is that a "bad idea"? I hope some of you can answer that.
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From what I've been told, if you are looking for a job at blizzard they like to see work in their style. If that is your goal then I don't see anything wrong with it. In fact I don't see anything wrong with it general. Trying to emulate something is not bad, it's practice. I've seen some artists on here (forgot names) who have done near perfect copies of Dues Ex 3 concepts and screenshots and have them in their portfolio which I also think is perfectly fine.
As long as you don't take credit for the idea/concept go for it.
It's fine to emulate styles and it's cool remaking elements from games, it shows you can replicate a style. What would be better though is to make a scene with assets that you've concepted yourself in that style. For example, imagine you're working on a scene from a future WoW expansion:D Good work though dude, keep at it looking forward to updates.
Too many chips, cut about 60% of them imo
Agreed. The chips are also very dark, almost black. Try sampling the color from the shadows under the tiles themselves. With that said, they are looking fantastic.
Overall I think you could push the textures a little more. Currently they are very flat looking. Like jeffro said, add some lighting information to the textures would help immensely.
The models could have a few more polys thrown at them as well. The roofs are very faceted and the crates and barrels you have every where would benefit silhouette-wise. I live by the mantra "Model until it looks good", especially for a portfolio piece. I would rather cut the polys down later, it's easier for me to delete polys after i hit the silhouette.
Good work so far, duder! keep it up and i hope this helps.