Suckerpunch Temple - Environment WIP

rockstar6

Hey Guys,

This is the first time I'm posting anything on Polycount, especially some stuff of my own.

Normally I make props but this environment seems to be a good exercise for me to be better with efficient texture re-use but also expending my skills from hardsurfaced metal (assets) to something more different.

About this environment I'm working on.. It's based on the Temple scene in the movie Sucker Punch, and yes I know someone else on the forum already did this but I decided to give it more my own twist and want to add more of a Japanese atmosphere too it. I had in mind to add some statues, windows, some pilars.

I'm posting on this forum because I'm kind of stuck with modelling, I have a few things still left on my to-do list but I'm unsure if the environment is going into the right direction and if it's interesting enough.

I hope you guys want to help me out not only for myself to improve as an artist but also to make the environment look better.

btw. I'm keeping texturing for last, so I can tweak everything in the end with color-use, overall look, etc. What do you guys thinks about this? Or should I texture a few assets at the time? Like the walls?

Thnks for you time and help!

rockstar6

hey all,

I was working on-and-off on this project the last few weeks and kind of adjusted the atmosphere in the environment and dropped the "Suckerpunch" theme. I'm doing some texturing for the modular pieces and looking for some ways to break up the tiling. Also I'm working on some pieces that might make the environment look more interesting.

Ofc, feedback is welcome.

Greetz,
Rockstar6

rockstar6

no replies? no one at all? Is it that bad looking? xD

garriola83

do you have any references?

matthewjvia

I'm not sure what you're rendering this in, but if it supports mesh painting, you might be able to get a better look by blending a good snow and brick texture rather than using overlapping models. That way you can focus your polycount on detailing other meshes rather than modeling out the bricks, plus it's a great way to break up tiling. 3D Motive has a good tutorial for mesh painting in UDK you could look at.

For the background, those mountains are far enough away you could probably get away with a a bunch of planes with mountain photos and get a better result than the terrain you have.

The biggest problem you have right now is that there isn't any real area of interest. The trees on the walls are nice, but they don't seem to be a focal point. I would think that the castle in the back is the most important part, but it lacks any detail and the environment fog obscures what is there.

rockstar6

matthewjvia wrote: »

I'm not sure what you're rendering this in, but if it supports mesh painting, you might be able to get a better look by blending a good snow and brick texture rather than using overlapping models. That way you can focus your polycount on detailing other meshes rather than modeling out the bricks, plus it's a great way to break up tiling. 3D Motive has a good tutorial for mesh painting in UDK you could look at.

For the background, those mountains are far enough away you could probably get away with a a bunch of planes with mountain photos and get a better result than the terrain you have.

The biggest problem you have right now is that there isn't any real area of interest. The trees on the walls are nice, but they don't seem to be a focal point. I would think that the castle in the back is the most important part, but it lacks any detail and the environment fog obscures what is there.

thanks for your replies! The scene is made in UDK but I kinda wanted to wait with the vertex painting. I tried to make the scene as complete as possible before I'd go in depth with the shaders. But I'll give it a shot with the vertex painting anyway see how it turns out. =]

Yeah the temple is indeed the focal point, I was kind of stuck at this point trying to make it more detailed. I'll improve the shader of the walls first and then try to detail out the temple a bit more. Thanks for the tips!

Also I've added the reference sheet, I took some inspiration from some of the Japanese themed environments in Unreal Tournament 3.

rockstar6

Quick update, I've added the vertex paint to the walls. I do want to keep some of the snow-meshes else it'll look very flat. I can't add in vertex-offset in the shader 'cause the roof has the cylindrical forms already modelled in. Resulting that it would end up looking very stange.

After that, I was experimenting with some "Ice" overlay in the shader-setup. I took a look at Crysis how they did some of the Ice stuff, see the weapon in the Reference. At the moment it looked very cheap so I took it out but I might add it in later when I have a bit more time to fix it.

Other then that, I'm tryin to detail out the Temple itself a bit more and I need to fix some of the lights. The contrast became a bit weaker after I scaled the Fog-intensity down.

Feedback is welcome, of course.

Crysis, Ice reference:


Update:

rockstar6

Hey all,

It has been a while since I've worked on this project, kinda need some time off to get a better idea wich art-direction I want to push it towards. I'm also not sure how I can improve the temple even more for visual interest.

I was thinking of adding some rocks/cliff to give the impression that the temple is on top of a mountain. Also i'd like to add a little path within the mountains (from the right side of the screenshot) going towards the temple entrance.