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Jungle Scene

Hey everybody! Starting up a new piece, and here's what i have in mind:

scene_concept-1.jpg

This is the main insparation for the skull:
horned_skull.jpg

from on of these little guys:
HornedLizardCrouching.jpg

Some other stuff for the trees:
tree_concept.jpg
tree_concept_2_copy.jpg

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  • Ben Apuna
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    Cool idea!

    I like the sense of light and shadow you have in your pieces.

    I sort of prefer the second to last tree over the last one as it's trunk shape is a bit more natural looking rather than a super stylized "S" curve. Both are great though.

    Are these concepts for a real time 3d environment?
  • SarahFaber
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    Thanks!

    @Ben Apuna: Thanks! I plan on creating both trees, starting with the last one. These are concepts for a realtime environment.

    @SasoChicken: Thanks! I'm hoping to try preserve the hand-painted look in the textures. Everything I've done previously has been more photo-based textures, and I want to try break away from that with this one.

    Quick Update:

    Modeled one of the trees in 3Ds max. The leaves and vines are not finalized, they are more quick place holders, but I'm thinking of doing a mix of mesh and planes.

    tree_front.jpg

    tree_back.jpg

    tree_wire.jpg
  • SarahFaber
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  • tristamus
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    tristamus polycounter lvl 9
    I definitely like the style of your tree there, but without any decent lighting it's drastically taking away from it's quality / hard to tell what you're going for. Can't wait to see what's next!
  • Ben Apuna
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    Your tree's textures are looking good.

    The tree canopy could possibly use a little more variation in it's silhouette as it's looking a little flat topped right now from some angles.

    I'm in agreement with tristamus, the foliage could use some shading.

    Depending on what style you are going for and the engine you plan to show your work in you might be able to use edited vertex normals and/or vertex colors to help give volume to the foliage. In case you didn't already see or know about it check out the Tree making fast technique? thread or the relevant section on the wiki.

    I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of your scene turns out. Keep it up!
  • SarahFaber
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    Awesome, thanks for the links. I haven't tackled organic stuff quite this intensely yet and they'll definitely be a big help.
  • SarahFaber
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    The leaves are actually particles. I used the partical flow in max, and used the grey blobs as the source objects and hid them. The leaves are just an instanced cluster of textured planes stuck over the surface.
  • RexM
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    I think you could get a greater sense of scale if all the leaves in the canopy were at least four times smaller.

    Scale is incredibly important for vegetation.
  • SarahFaber
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    Some updates:

    Tree_4.jpg

    And on the skull:
    skull_1_1.jpg

    skull_1_2.jpg
  • SarahFaber
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    Good idea. Just tweaked it a touch in Max and it looks much better:

    skull_fix.jpg

    Here is the sculpt (done before the tweak):
    skull_sculpt.jpg
  • SarahFaber
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    Alrightie, its been a while since I've posted an update, so here goes.

    I've got some basic lighting in here. Still quite a few unfinished elements and missing textures.

    camera_2_render_2.jpg

    Let me know what you guys think. Go nuts!
  • letronrael
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    colors are not blending.. its kinf of ...not good.. background trees are brown and the other closer are orange.... the skull is lacking details and the texture isnt really good, we cant tell whats happening there. samething for the ground...

    good start tho, i guess
  • toxic_h2o
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    toxic_h2o polycounter lvl 8
    letronrael wrote: »
    colors are not blending.. its kinf of ...not good.. background trees are brown and the other closer are orange.... the skull is lacking details and the texture isnt really good, we cant tell whats happening there. samething for the ground...

    good start tho, i guess

    I agree, I like the painted textures but they defiantly need some refinement. I think the biggest issues for me are the crazy lines on the tree, the ground(white?) and the skull. Go play or look at wow images and see how they paint tree textures. The skull isn't in a good spot I cant tell what it is and it seems like that is the focus of the scene. Maybe rotate/move it so I can see some teeth? I don't know. I like the direction of this project it just needs a bit more love and care. :D
  • Mistry10
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    Mistry10 polycounter lvl 8
    looking good,
    i like your layout, and hand painted textures look pretty cool.
    try render out an AO pass for all the props would help :)
    also try adding more finer details into the skull/bones, check out this pic
    more colour variations, browns and yellows. Add some more dirt and scratches.
    4170bone.jpg

    i cant wait to see it finished !!
  • ayoub44
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    ayoub44 polycounter lvl 10
    great update dud , what are you using for render ? udk !!? , i'm looking forward to see more

    good luck
  • Sarankan
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    Sarankan polycounter lvl 6
    Keep up the work:)
  • SarahFaber
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    Thanks for the great crits guys!

    @letronrael: totally agree on the colors... I'll tighten it up. I'll bring out the skull some more too.. I think the lighting is killing the textures as well, so I'll attack it from both ends. Ground hasn't been touched at all yet, so I should have that updated next post.

    @toxic: Should I tone down the crazy lines? Maybe bring the color tones a little closer together? Yeah, the skull's not really creating the effect I was looking for... like you said, I'll try rotating it around and maybe thinning out that grass.

    @Mistry: Thanks for the ref! I'll give that a shot and include an AO.

    @ayoub44: Actually, I'm rendering out of max for the time being. I'd like to export it as a whole once I get the layout set in stone. When its all said and done I'd like a nice render still out of max as well as a real-time shot out of UDK.

    Sarankan: thanks for the encouragement.
  • SarahFaber
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    Update on the skull textures re-visited:

    skull_texture.jpg
  • Sharvo
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    Sharvo keyframe
    Really like the scene, but in my opinion that skull is too wide or not long enough, needs some scaling i feel!

    Love the texturing and style you got going though!

    Some exotic insects and bugs would look nice just hovering around doing there business!
  • SarahFaber
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    Ok, so I'm still workin on getting things to fix together nicely, but the issue I'm having is that some of the assets are done in the painterly style I was aiming for, while others are done in my usual texturing style... since the whole point of this was to try a DIFFERENT tetxuring style than my usual, some of my assets are going to need re-working. I'm in the process of adding elements one at a time to get them to conform.

    In the meantime, I took the assets that are kinda out of sync and threw them together:

    Dragon_Skull_Lighting_1.jpg

    Dragon_Skull_Lighting_2.jpg

    I liked the idea of the bugs, so I added some fireflies...
  • Mistry10
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    Mistry10 polycounter lvl 8
    looking great Sarah !
    i love the lighting setup you have in the second render, love it.
    i hope you use the same setup in your final render, with the flyer flies and rim lights :)
    the only thing i would suggest about the rendering is to increase the radius of the orange light. so that its picks up more of the edges :)
    Also i'm not 100% if you've done this already, but add a colour spec map.
    Also if you can post you normals and diffuse texture maps i wanna make a few tweaks :)
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    Your skull textures look a bit too blurry and blobby on the skull for how sharp they are around the horns, can we see your texture map?

    Either you need to work more detail into the texture, or spend more time maximizing your uv layout.

    Good work so far, bring that into the scene!
  • SarahFaber
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    Thanks for the feedback, guys! Here are the texture maps I am using...

    diffuse_display.jpg

    normal_display.jpg

    other_display.jpg

    rib_texture_display.jpg

    The ground is tileable:

    grass_tileable.jpg
  • feanix
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    feanix polycounter lvl 7
    Is that a photoshop filter you're using?
  • SarahFaber
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    For the grass? Yes, with some painting overtop. The rest, no.
  • Mistry10
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    Mistry10 polycounter lvl 8
    hey Sarah i wanted to comment on a few things. Firstly i really like the fact your going w/ stylized textures. if think you could improve on the diff/normals. for the diff for the skull head, you dont need to put in the extreme white highlights like you've done, it can be toned down alot more. Let your spec map make the highlights :) check out this PDF its made by Kevin Johnstone, look at pages 29 and 39 both have texture sheets. ( and the rest of the pdf ) . i know the style of textures are very different from your but just look at where the details/highlights are placed :) they are much more minimal. Same goes for your normals. Avoid macro details the only reason why is because its much harder to read when a player is looking at it, it becomes noisy. i hope this helps ! cant wait to see a new render of the whole scene :) btw hows the post grad going ? i hope all is well.

    http://www.kevinjohnstone.com/Help/Modular%20Environment%20Design.rar
  • SarahFaber
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    Thanks for the input! I've actually been looking at a lot of Kevin Johnstone's stuff lately (and drooling)... I've also been watching a bunch of tutorials from 3D Motive as well, and they are saying the same thing.

    Here is a quick test render... the skull and ribs are in the process of being redone to fix the scene.
    camera_2_render_5.jpg

    Postgrad is going really well. I've really been looking forward to this current semester since there is more time to work on your own stuff and less unrelated assigned projects.
  • SarahFaber
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    Its because the newest one is a much, much tinier render...:). Don't worry... the final will have its size and settings increased. Hoping to have a nicer WIP up soon though...
  • jowalker
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    Loving your scene so far! I like the improvement of the skull. I'm anxious to see what your lighting is going to look like once its render. other than that keep up the good work.
  • SarahFaber
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    Quick update focusing on one of the trees:
    Tree_Prop_Backcopy.jpg
  • SarahFaber
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    And from the other side:

    Tree_Prop_3copy.jpg
  • Mistry10
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    Mistry10 polycounter lvl 8
    looking great ! i really like your texturing style !
    is this a style that you always wanted to do or something you found in like a concept art ?
    btw i notice a small problem w/ your leafs, they need to by bent/ folded alot more. right now there very flat poly panels. check out my tree i did ( its a naughty dog art test), the leafs have much more of a curved full. just add a few geo/lines in ur mesh and start bending !
    HitenMistryTextureFlats.jpg
  • SarahFaber
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    Nice! Haven't seen that one before... when did you do it?

    This is a texturing style that I am experamenting with... its been a lot of fun and I've been wanting to try something different to break away from my norm.

    Thank you; I will definately try bending out the leaves.
  • Mistry10
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    Mistry10 polycounter lvl 8
    i made it back in December ... if i remember correctly
    its cool ur trying a different texturing style, i wish i did that in college :(
    btw when do u plan on finishing this scene ? i hope by the end of the month ! :D
  • SarahFaber
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    Better? yes? no?
    Tree_back_2copy.jpg

    Tree_Beauty_4copy.jpg
  • Mistry10
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    Mistry10 polycounter lvl 8
    yes, much better :)
  • SarahFaber
  • Razgriz
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    Razgriz keyframe
    Hi Sarah,

    I think your scene is coming along really well (really like the composition), but even given a stylized look, I think your textures are way too saturated, and it comes off as making up for a lack of subtlety and detail. The green is so overpowering, that it's hard to see that you actually have a lot of different shades. Everything is so bright and lit up that it's going to make it really hard to successfully light the scene - so I would tone it down just a tad.

    My second nitpick would be the lighting itself - I'm sure it isn't done, but in your latest lighting update (with the green floating light-sparkles) there is a hint of yellow coming from the right, and I think using more of this would make the scene far stronger; perhaps a fire inside the skull, or little torches around giving an extra level of detail, color, and interest. I really feel like you're very close to making this a vibrant and interesting scene, but it needs to be desaturated a bit, with a stronger focus on lighting sources to bring the saturation back in.

    Just my two cents, hope it helps - keep it up!
  • Mistry10
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    Mistry10 polycounter lvl 8
    you're doing a great job stylizing those trees !
    about what Razgriz mentioned about the over saturation...
    if you do find that your over all rendered scene is too saturation, since your rendering this in max you can just use a Zdepth pass to lower the over all saturation. Also render out objectIDs and desaturation on the diffuse pass :)
    i think it was one of Paul Neale's saying " Fix it in POST ! " haha
  • SarahFaber
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    Ah, yes, "fix it in post!" If I had a dime every time he said that... well... I wouldn't need to look for a job.

    Thank you both. I will be focusing on the the scene rather than the elements this week. I think I'm going to try follow the original concept more closely since the scene as a whole hasn't been working out the way it is currently heading.
  • SarahFaber
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    Update on the scene:

    dragon_scene_compositecopy-1.jpg

    Anyone with suggestions?
  • SarahFaber
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    Still picking at it a little, but here is an update:

    dragon_scene_composite_copy_2.jpg
  • Mistry10
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    Mistry10 polycounter lvl 8
    much better w/ the god rays :)
    are you rendering an AO pass on this ?
    also in your z depth pass boost the saturation levels in the foreground, you'll get more contrast in the foreground.
    also w/ your object Ids add some colour variation to the green plants on the ground, close the tree add some yellows .
  • Mark Dygert
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    Looking really cool, are you doing this in UDK? Sorry if you already mentioned it...
  • Darkrusader
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    I really like this scene. Great progress! 2 things I think can really help this out though.

    1 - The god rays are cool, but I dont think that is the best spot for them. I think you are lost a nice frame in your midground (the dark foliage of the trees)that bordered your background (the lit/hazy area). I would add those rays to the background instead. You kind of muddied up the values of the scene by putting them in the mid-ground.

    2 - A nice foreground object that you allow to run off the screen. Maybe it could be your skull (which feels a tad bit squeezed into the shot) or you could make a cool rock with some growth on it. Just watch your values. Make it darker then your midground so it doesnt mess with the sense of scale.

    Nice job overall though! Keep up the good work!
  • SarahFaber
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    Thanks for the awesome suggestions guys. I will give those a try and post an update soon.

    Also, I do plan to take this into UDK... hopefully sooner than later.
  • SarahFaber
  • SarahFaber
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    If it looks like it was painted and not necessarily 3D, I'm ok with that. It was kind of my goal from the start.

    Here is my final image:
    Dragon_jungle_scene.jpg
  • SarahFaber
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    Thanks! Might as well add some break-downs:

    Set pieces:
    modular_pieces.jpg

    Tree breadowns:

    2_tree_Breakdown.jpg

    Tree_breakdown.jpg
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