jonas: no speedtree I made them and thanks for the compliments.
alberto: yeah I'm in the process of smoothing it out a bit, it's on a hill so not perfectly even but I'll get it looking more like a well walked path before I'm done
After going through this environment and looking at the overall tone, I felt that it was ok but I could improve on the mood drastically. The scene feels like it lacks drama even though it is a fairly simple environment. So I've tried to add a bit of underlying tone and storytelling to the scene. I made the scene overall darker making the forest darker and more imposing. I still want it to be a beautiful place but with added mystery and loneliness. Please let me know if this is a step in the right direction.
Cool, I think it could be a nice direction to add some atmosphere. Not sure how heavy you want to go with it, but I think you can deepen the fog a bit to help create a separation into the background more. Maybe something like these?
I'm going to keep working on the lighting and play with the fog as well. I do like the lighting in that first shot but I'll play some. In the meantime I did some changes to trees and foliage before bed.
It looks lush.
The area definitely looks as if it is a small part of a much larger world.
As you mentioned before though, the piece does need to tell a story in my opinion.
What is the building's purpose? What happens here daily? Who comes here?
SirCalalot: Thank you, I'll definately be keeping that in mind as I continue with this.
Oniram: Will do, I want to make the road feel more used. I recently updated to a dx11 card so this could be a good opportunity to test out the tesselation feature in udk.
Digital: Thank you!
Here's some shots of the lake and other areas around the inn. I also did a short video test of the water shader. I'll try to get a higher quality video up soon but in the meantime here. Link
So I was able to get a bit more work done on this project. I added the door, changed the lighting to something that I feel works better, worked on the ground, sky, trees, foliage overall, made some ivy and scrapped it for a later version. The main thing I tried to convey with the lighting is the feeling of a hot summers day. I also wanted it to feel like there was something deeper happening at this place. I pushed my shadows to make it feel more mysterious but overall the lighting is brighter casting golden light.
I still have a lot to work on and it shall get done so I can go on to my next project which I think will be more interesting.
Thanks jonas, is there anything in particular that you would change on it? I know there is still sculpting around the road that needs working on still so that will help sell it. And great work btw, very inspiring.
looking sweet! id say make the grass vary in tone more. they are all one shade which makes the ground composition less dynamic.
the house looks great. maybe add some really subtle dripping details coming from the studs and roof. would really add character to the place if you added a couple props to the front porch.
Long time no progress so I should change that. I have reworked nearly everything because I have found the awesomely powerful and sweet foliage tool. Why did it take me so long to find this tool I dunno but I'm in love with it. All of the foliage was redone with the foliage tool. I also changed a lot of the foliage itself, adding color and changing the grasses to make them more wild. My goals are the same, I want to give it a natural realistic feel while making it visually interesting and being able to convey some aspect of storytelling and mood.
I'm getting my ass kicked by creating grass and tree leaves in my own project, the volume seems to look off with the grass and my leaves just are way far from full.
Have you any tips from creating your own grass and making your trees look really full?
Interrogator_chaplain I find that having a good alpha definately helps for creating grass. Once you have a good texture you just cross them a few times over. In my case I have 12 polys crossing each other some larger and some smaller. This way you have some variation and it isn't all the same. My grass is probably too high for what is used in most games but since this scene is primarily foliage I think it's necessary to make it look decent.
For foliage volume it's the same, crossing polys with a good texture that has some decent negative space is the way to go.
BlvdNights: Thank you!
Strkl: I think it has to do with my spec and post processing. I have to fix the bloom so it doesn't effect it as much.
yubbie: Thank you, I was definately inspired by both Oblivion and Skyrim when creating this.
Great work so far, i got a question. I'm working on similar assets and get mipmapping issues in udk. All is fine in max but in udk i have to disable mipmaps to maintain sharp detail on my alpha maps (softmasked). I tried a negative lodbias in the texture but it doesn't seem to do anything. How do you maintain the sharp detail on your leaves/needles without disabling mipmapping?
Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it. Here's a small update. I've built a new fence and added some contrast back in as well. The grass is also greener in this one, I wasn't liking the yellow orange it had.
RankF I don't know if it helps but I set my alpha materials to be masked and have an opacity mask clip value of .3 . It may also be the texture size, most of mine are 512s or 1024s. I also ended up following the 3Dmotive tutorial a bit which helps a ton. I definitely recommend it.
Pretty fancy scene so far. As others have said though, the dirt paths could use a lot of work. Either give the texture some more love and do some blend masking or use decals instead. Do you plan on working on the mountains more too? Right now they're pretty ugly compared to the great foliage you have. I would probably just ditch the mountains and keep it all forest/lakeside.
Also here's a quick color grading I did to make the scene not quite so washed out. You could do something like this pretty easily using that link Brandon posted a few posts up.
My only critique is that I think that the dirt-path looks a tad plain compared to the grassy areas. Maybe have it with a more pronounced height-map or some more detail. It also seems to be repeating, or having a grain which goes against the direction of the actual path.
Thank you all for all of the crits and feedback. It really helps when doing something like this to have a good amount of feedback to feed off of. I took all of the crits into account and made a lot of changes to the scene. First, I got rid of the mountainous hills. They don't make sense as far as real terrain and mountains work and we're really a weak point. So the entire terrain is now cleaner sculpted and I worked on the paths more as well adding detail and depth. I also added a second texture giving more sense of depth.
I also edited how the water blends and transitions to land. I kept a hard edge and made a smoother transition from deep water to shallow. I changed the scene to have deeper more solid colors and still have to work on the color grading that brandoom suggested. I toned down the lighting bringing it back into a more realistic tone.I added new smaller trees to give more sense of scale and add some more details. I changed the grasses and added new variety as well.
And there is more to come as well. I'll be working on finishing the inn finally adding signs, barrels, tools, chairs, and other signs of life. I'm also thinking of adding a dock to the lake as well. Thanks for all of the strong crits everyone!
i kinda like the lighting from post #130 more than the current one. it looked like fairly normal sunrise and stronger light gave the scene more depth.
now the environment (especially the building) just looks more bland.
Wow, I really like this scene. Like most other people have mentioned, the main thing I can see that could do with improving, is the dirt pathways. Maybe breaking it up a bit with smaller and larger chunks of dirt/stones would make it a little more visually interesting.
-Your dirt path texture feels to be of a lesser density than everything else around it.
-Try and not be as liberal with your grass and foliage placement. Use it to pull the eye around to areas of the world rather than giving it an even scattering of grass. Clump them together near important places then open the terrain up to show just the ground in less important spaces. By doing so you should find that the piece becomes even more interesting to look at when you're leading our eye around more so than what is happening now.
Ok, I fixed the path and the lighting. I did a mix of the lighting of the past and I think it works better. I also got rid of most of the desaturation. Also texture tweaks in a lot of areas. Now I need to get back to work on the inn and add more detail and props around it to give it some life.
Adam: I focused on putting grass primarily where my main shots are then everywhere else it is more sparse and further back none at all. I want to create the illusion of extensive open fields as well as pockets of trees and the transitions of fields and forested area.
I love how this has come along.
But one thing I would mention is the path again in your first image (sorry!). The larger stones in the middle of the path would be more trodden into the ground or pushed to the sides.
At the moment, it still looks a bit fake.
I only pick on small points as the piece as a whole looks stunning
Some more work done on the lighting as well as some better placement of props. Expect more final updates and new props soon as I get back online on my pc.
Now that is what a NEXT gen game is supposed to be looking like! At least from the perspective of showing what you can do with great artwork without as much geometry constraints. I like the composition as well (at least from this static shot!)
Replies
alberto: yeah I'm in the process of smoothing it out a bit, it's on a hill so not perfectly even but I'll get it looking more like a well walked path before I'm done
I'm a fan of the warm lighting by the way, as it's picking up the building against the foliage quite well.
The area definitely looks as if it is a small part of a much larger world.
As you mentioned before though, the piece does need to tell a story in my opinion.
What is the building's purpose? What happens here daily? Who comes here?
Oniram: Will do, I want to make the road feel more used. I recently updated to a dx11 card so this could be a good opportunity to test out the tesselation feature in udk.
Digital: Thank you!
Here's some shots of the lake and other areas around the inn. I also did a short video test of the water shader. I'll try to get a higher quality video up soon but in the meantime here. Link
I still have a lot to work on and it shall get done so I can go on to my next project which I think will be more interesting.
the house looks great. maybe add some really subtle dripping details coming from the studs and roof. would really add character to the place if you added a couple props to the front porch.
I'm getting my ass kicked by creating grass and tree leaves in my own project, the volume seems to look off with the grass and my leaves just are way far from full.
Have you any tips from creating your own grass and making your trees look really full?
For foliage volume it's the same, crossing polys with a good texture that has some decent negative space is the way to go.
BlvdNights: Thank you!
Strkl: I think it has to do with my spec and post processing. I have to fix the bloom so it doesn't effect it as much.
yubbie: Thank you, I was definately inspired by both Oblivion and Skyrim when creating this.
RankF I don't know if it helps but I set my alpha materials to be masked and have an opacity mask clip value of .3 . It may also be the texture size, most of mine are 512s or 1024s. I also ended up following the 3Dmotive tutorial a bit which helps a ton. I definitely recommend it.
I don't really have any critiques for you, but a co-worker just shared this with me, and I wanted to pass it on to you - http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorGrading.html
I think it may help tie your scene together a little more with regards to color. And if your already using it then just ignore me, lol.
love the water edge but the water itself seams too transparent, but then i haven't rad the whole thread so i don't know what stage its at.
keep the updates coming!
Also here's a quick color grading I did to make the scene not quite so washed out. You could do something like this pretty easily using that link Brandon posted a few posts up.
I also edited how the water blends and transitions to land. I kept a hard edge and made a smoother transition from deep water to shallow. I changed the scene to have deeper more solid colors and still have to work on the color grading that brandoom suggested. I toned down the lighting bringing it back into a more realistic tone.I added new smaller trees to give more sense of scale and add some more details. I changed the grasses and added new variety as well.
And there is more to come as well. I'll be working on finishing the inn finally adding signs, barrels, tools, chairs, and other signs of life. I'm also thinking of adding a dock to the lake as well. Thanks for all of the strong crits everyone!
now the environment (especially the building) just looks more bland.
-Your dirt path texture feels to be of a lesser density than everything else around it.
-Try and not be as liberal with your grass and foliage placement. Use it to pull the eye around to areas of the world rather than giving it an even scattering of grass. Clump them together near important places then open the terrain up to show just the ground in less important spaces. By doing so you should find that the piece becomes even more interesting to look at when you're leading our eye around more so than what is happening now.
Adam: I focused on putting grass primarily where my main shots are then everywhere else it is more sparse and further back none at all. I want to create the illusion of extensive open fields as well as pockets of trees and the transitions of fields and forested area.
But one thing I would mention is the path again in your first image (sorry!). The larger stones in the middle of the path would be more trodden into the ground or pushed to the sides.
At the moment, it still looks a bit fake.
I only pick on small points as the piece as a whole looks stunning
Some more work done on the lighting as well as some better placement of props. Expect more final updates and new props soon as I get back online on my pc.
Great work.
any plan on doing some breakdowns of it?