Tree-Lighthouse - Hand-painted Environment
Happy 14th birthday Polycount. My first post in the Pimping section, yay.
Here's a small environment project that I started to try and learn UDK. I started with this concept but made changes along the way.
Yesterday, I made some more progress. I'm still working on the background but progress is rather slow as I'm working on this only on saturdays and a little bit more on sundays.
I've learned a lot so far but next time, I'll try to make a larger, functional and more modular environment.:nerd:
Here's a small environment project that I started to try and learn UDK. I started with this concept but made changes along the way.
Yesterday, I made some more progress. I'm still working on the background but progress is rather slow as I'm working on this only on saturdays and a little bit more on sundays.
I've learned a lot so far but next time, I'll try to make a larger, functional and more modular environment.:nerd:
Replies
It's a mix between high poly modeling in Zbrush and hand-painting in Photoshop. It depends on the assets. Sometimes I find it quicker to paint in Photoshop but more often than not, I use Zbrush to polypaint. For instance, for the rocks,
1) after some crappy sculpting, I use polypaint to put a first layer of color.
2) then, I use 2 or more textures that I made in Photoshop and stamp them across the model using DragRect and a round alpha.
3) when done, I generate the textures in XNormal and put some more Photoshop work in the baked textures and try some filters.
Here's 2 of the texture stamps I used for the rocks
and the alpha
The polypainted rock in Zbrush
Sorry, going to sleep..Will post some textures tomorrow...and yep, that's a firefly particles effect I tried to learn( kinda).
I think you're doing great work, and I'm enjoying watching your process. I have one overall crit that I can't help but address. It's more about overall composition than your skill though, because you're doing great.
I feel like the original concept has a very straight dynamic that lends itself to the painterly feel. And since you're capturing that 'feel' so well, I think the composition of the concept would help your scene. The way you constructed your, the image has a more rounded, sloping sense, than a straight edged sense ... if that makes ... sense.
@ysalex
Thxs for the critiques. Very much appreciated. I'm still having second thoughts about the composition change differing from the concept. I've been thinking that the 2D composition might not work as fine in 3D when I start to put a background in there. I may be wrong...will see how it turns out as I continue to work.
@Donavonyoung
Some of the materials have spec but it's toned down. I tried to create a half toon shader by following Neox's tutorial and mix the specular with a spec texture...It's not working as good as I was hoping but I kinda prefer its look to udk default shader.
As for the light at the top, I still haven't figured out how to achieve it. Putting a light there just overblows the tree. I'm considering using particle systems and flares but I'ven't properly learn these yet.