Dragon attack on City

HornyRhino

Hi, i have decided to a try create this concept i found:

(cant remember were but i think it was Cghub, concept credit goes to who ever made it) and decided to give a try at some Environment and Sculpting (also cause my girlfriend would not stop pushing me to create this for her)
anyways here is what i have done so far:

I did not create a door because i am going to make a main door entrance.
C&C accepted this is my first building so let me know if scale and if there anything interesting i can do to it and make it better. thanks

Amadreaus

It seems like this will require some matte painting, or at least some sort of mimic to that in order to snag that background. Also, definitely calls for some character work. Great project idea, very ambitious!

jackalope

Google searched with the image. hope this helps you cite.

http://gosytale.cghub.com/images/page:2/

Alberto Rdrgz

the tower is taller in the concept.

Xelan101

I agree with Alberto the tower need to be up higher in comparison to the triangular roof on the wall. Otherwise it looks like a nice start.

HornyRhino

thanks for the comments guys! will keep you guys posted but what i think of doing bor the background of the city is actually make a few buildings and then place them at the back or what do you guys suggest? also how can i get the corner of the tower walls to be smoother so that i can make it look like it has rounded edges? i am using 3Ds max and i tried using Chamfer but it does not look right any ideas? thanks for the comments guys!

HornyRhino

hey guys i have been working a bit more on the Tower and im at the Unwrap stage. My question is should i go modular? or should i actually make the towers set? since they are all the same. Only think that might change slightly is the flag. Thanks for C&C

Amadreaus

I'd do as much as possible as modular pieces. Fill the scene out that way, then look at what may need to be done custom.

HornyRhino

hi guys a small update and some noob questions. I bought the Modular Building tutorial from 3D motive and it looks fairly simple, my question however is how will i texture this particular building/modular set? i havent found any good close ups on castles and such like on the tutorial. Please any help would be great. i have been reading up and after watching that tutorial i am more than confused right now because his model is a lot different from mine. here is the update:


Any help would be great. Thanks

I was thinking of actually making everything in UDK, i know it would take longer but im sorta stuck and in sure whats next. As i mentioned this is my first EVER environment piece so as much help as possible would be great

twigdamnyou

if your asking about were to get good textures http://www.cgtextures.com/ is a really good website for that.

HornyRhino

thanks twig, what i am mostly asking is how can i texture it to look good in a modular fashion. and is there an easy way to texture the models without unwrapping or must it have to be unwrapped just like every other model? seems like a dumb question but it makes sense to me lol. will post new screen shots now.

Amadreaus

If you're asking how to achieve variation from piece to piece, that's where you'll have to use either decals, or simply use instances of the same geom. You should also think about vertex blending in UDK in order to really get custom looking sections.

HornyRhino

Hey guys here is a small update of the scene, still need to add LightMaps (dont know how to :poly136:) but this is a quick one and still need to texture everything else. so here it is:


Any C&C is more than accepted, please if possible to help it would be great since this is my first environment ever so any pointers will be great thanks.

Kratilim

It looks good, but some textures don't seem to match scale wise. In the top of your image the b locks look too large and have far less resolution than the rest.

nathanbarrett

I agree with Kratilim; the blocks need to be UV'd better so they make more sense. How are you planning on modelling the dragon? This could be an incredibly impressive piece

HornyRhino

Thanks guys, I agree I still need to fix some Uvs and also add some black were the windows are and texture the window arches which i just added the brick material for now. I'm also planing on changing the scene from day to night and have it mostly lit by fire and have the moon shine a bit, i want to add a little town outside the castle walls and have a few buildings on fire or should i just keep those people trying to fight the dragon off?. i will be using Zbrush to sculpt the dragon hopefully this will come out better than i hope for. Thanks for the positive comments guys! hopefully will have something more to show in a bit

HornyRhino

Hey guys im having a few problems with my Normal maps in UDK the light seems to be wrong here are the 2 different models with one normal right way up and the other with the normals reversed:
Normal


Reversed Normals


As you can see the lighting is completely wrong instead of illuminating the right areas its adding light to were there is mean to be shadow.

HornyRhino

ok never mind found out that i just had to invert the Y channel. lol Noods fault :P

HornyRhino

ok here is the barel fixed and polished


Will be working on the textures now and will post something later on when i something interesting to show

HornyRhino

any comments guys?

HornyRhino

Sup gents, i was looking at my textures and realised just how BAD they actually look so i came across the Gears Of War 3 Modular building tutorial and im busy re-making all the textures and models and hopefully get a better result. in short im starting from scratch again. here is basically the bricks i will be using to make the modular texture from:



I am having some trouble getting detail inside the bricks i dont really know how to make them. The layer brush like mentioned on Philipk.net in the brick tutorial section does not really work as well for me as it did for him, any other suggestions on how i can get some grainy affect on the center parts of the brick? I would prefer something other than the noise brush and the noise feature in the surface pallet in Zbrush.

All C&C are welcome. Please people comment so i can make this look good with your help.
Thanks

cdevens

You can make a height map from an image of stone that has the look that you want and turn it into an alpha. Then put some radial fade on it so you can't see the edges. Then use the standard brush with that alpha and a low intensity and drag rectangle all over the brick until you have some stone texture. You can use a few different alphas if you want for a varied look. Hope this helps.

HornyRhino

@cdevens: Thanks it helped

Ok, so here is the final brick, any comments that can make it look better once in game engine? maybe stronger detail? Well here it is:



Changed Material to bring out the detail a bit more.
Please let me know what could be done to make it look better.

Macattackk

perhaps make the cracks deeper in some places to emphasize them and create variation.

HornyRhino

Hi guys here is a little update. Please comment and please help... this is my first environment ever so i am finding it a little hard to do.
Here it is:



Please C&C... i know process is a bit slow but hopefully will get there sometime this decade lol

Ken Benson

I'm seeing a lot of the same stone repeating in this normal. Especially at the base of the arches. It's the same stone all the way across.

These bricks look like they've lost the micro detail/noise that you have in your prior bricks. I think you should bring that back. Most of their surface appears very flat right now.

Arches have a single keystone at the top. Your arches currently have two. I like to make the keystone a little larger/wider than the others so it sticks out from the wall more. Another option is to have them meet at a point.