Final Major Project, Chinese Island City [CRY]

Semeru · Apr 2014

Hey everyone, finally decided to set up a Polycount thread to post progress of my Final Major Project at De Montfort University. I've chosen to do a Chinese City set in an alternate reality where the seas have risen and the remaining society lives on mountain tops or buildings built on top of skyscrapers.
The feel I'm trying to get across is similar to the works of Hayao Miyazaki, FeiGiap and Imperial Boy, which is that of a concentrated and fairly claustrophobic environment, but not grimy like Kowloon Walled City and with open areas for contrast.
Anyhow, heres my progress so far, Comments and Crit greatly appreciated! I'm working on general population assets at the moment and getting the tram done so I can animate it and put it in engine. You can see more in depth progress and stuff on my blog: semerudesign.blogspot.co.uk

Kimon · Apr 2014

First thing that catches my eye is that everything looks extremely low poly.
There's really no need for anything to be that low poly if PC is the target platform.

And this is your final project, right?
Then I would really try to get some proper hero props in there.
Make high polys, bake, give them unique textures. Show that you know currect gen workflow.

Also, don't use pre-made water shaders and stuff like that, it comes off as lazy, escpecially in a final project / portfolio. Make stuff like that yourself, it's not that hard anyways, a couple of panning normals and you're set.

Best of luck!

Semeru · Apr 2014

Thanks for the crit, the target platform is PC, PS3 and 360 so I've purposely modeled things around mid-poly with LODs purely because I've said in my technical specification (which we get marked on how well we stick to) that I planned to create a large engine-efficient environment that uses interchangeable textures and optimization and such to keep draw-calls as low as possible.
Hopefully the tram (which will carry the player to the top area) will be a strong selling point for the level. Also the water is CryEngines default, but I have edited it to suit my environment; as far as I can tell CryEngines water is all done in-engine, if I select the material to edit it, there isn't even any textures plugged into it.

InvertedVantage · Apr 2014

You're missing a lot of micro detail - even if your model is low poly, some piping, dirt and water splashes, etc, would really push this a lot further. Like for instance, the base of your buildings should be darker and more reflective due to the fact that they're partially submerged. Trash, plants, etc., all will help.

Semeru · May 2014

Finished this now, heres a flythrough and finished shots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFOW8GaCL_E&feature=youtu.be

ExcessiveZero · May 2014

I personally would be interested in seeing a closeup/ breakdown/wireframe of your chinese pagoda style roof, I tried modeling one of them two years ago and got rather frustrated lol so have always been interested in seeing how people have done them since.

Semeru · May 2014

I think I actually found the plastic chairs hardest to model as the arms/legs/back are pretty much one smooth curving bit of plastic! The roofs are part modular, part unique pieces; I struggled quite a lot at first at getting them to snap together modularly.
Hope this image suffices, the pieces are relatively high poly, with LoDs that are almost entirely planes.

Final Major Project, Chinese Island City [CRY]

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