[UDK] [Environment] - Lord of the rings inspired - Zirak-Zigil

Paunescu.Daniel · Nov 2012

Zirak Zigil, or Durin's tower, is the highest peak of Moria, where Gandalf defeated the Balrog.

Any crits and comments are welcome
here are some quite early WIP shots:

ParoXum · Nov 2012

Okay. It's good for the very begining but there's already something you're going to have to work on.

There's no focal point(s) at all in the images at the moment. You need to find one or a few good camera angles and have something interesting in the picture to look at. The fact the tower on the peak is a shape like this /\ it would make sense to have something for the eye to rest at the top of that tower maybe.

And also another thing, the sky is gonna represent a lot of empty space so you'll want to have some nice mountain chain in the background and true volumetric clouds. Otherwise it'll feel way to empty.

Also you mountain stone needs to feature a lot more details and small scale variations, otherwise the tower nexto it looks like a toy craft.

Paunescu.Daniel · Nov 2012

Thanks for the reply!
Obviously, everything you said is valid, and i already have all that in mind
The tower is a placeholder right now, the final model will be ruined and all that, and the focal point should be somewhere around the top of the tower.

I will change the skydome.I want to make multiple layers of clouds much closer to the tower and also add particle effects like snow.

The one thing i still have no good idea how to achieve would be the lightning bolts from the storm, any clues with that?

here's the scene from the movie @ 5:40:
[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywZ5uo_3Y_A"]Lord of the RIngs - Gandalf vs Balrog (Crisp 480p) - YouTube[/ame]

E_Hollaway · Nov 2012

Pretty cool so far, I do like the idea of it but I also agree that it needs a focal point. The first thing I noticed was that your rock forms are a little too soft, I would sharpen up the edges and add a bit more depth to them. You have some big shapes but really getting in there and adding small shapes and medium shapes will help even out the composition and tie it together as a whole. Give your edges more of a cliff type of feeling to them. Hope this helps in some sort of way!

ParoXum · Nov 2012

You can achieve the lightning in particles using the trail feature of the unreal particles, I only used it years ago now so there might be better nowadays tho. If you want the lightning bolt to be different in all directions and static in every shot you could simply go for a uniquely or tiling textured strip of polygons with an emissive shader.

Paunescu.Daniel · Nov 2012

Thanks guys !

[UDK] [Environment] - Lord of the rings inspired - Zirak-Zigil

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