Sealed book project
FINAL VERSION:
Hello everyone,
Inspired by the art on the forum, I started an environment project. The whole scene is placed in a old cave where an ancient book was put under a magic seal.
Here are some screengrabs from Zbrush with the magic stone circle and the book holder which around the whole scene will be built up.
Let me know what you think of it.:)
Hello everyone,
Inspired by the art on the forum, I started an environment project. The whole scene is placed in a old cave where an ancient book was put under a magic seal.
Here are some screengrabs from Zbrush with the magic stone circle and the book holder which around the whole scene will be built up.
Let me know what you think of it.:)
Replies
Anyway I uploaded again. I hope you can see the images now.
When you upload, make sure resizing isn't on. And make sure you copy IMG's URL, not its thumbnail's
So after the hard start, I can finally show you what I'm working on.:)
Based on these I drew sketches which are not the final version but something to begin with (see attached file). During the sculpting process I figure it out most of the details.
Dragonar: Thx, more coming soon.:)
It is also kind of unclear what the four circles on the ground are. I'd guess they're braziers of some kind, but right now it's very unclear. I think they could probably do with a full redesign but if you want to keep them at least make some kind of bowl shape for them where you could place the coal, so that they'll look more functional. They could probably be scaled down a bit as well. In fact I think you should (if you haven't already) add a character into the scene as reference as the scale will be a lot easier to correct for then and spot obvious problems.
Aside from the scale it looks pretty solid, so keep on pushing it!
You could perhaps add a pool of lava/acid behind the altar where demons or something could be summoned from to give more of a purpose to the altar as I can't see any obvious purpose right now (feel free to correct me though).
Nosslak: You're absolutely right in terms of scale. After I checked with a character it became obvious that I overdid it...a little.:) It's true that I'm going for stylization - as my first try in this style is really interesting project - but yes...the scale needed to be fixed. I adjusted the stone-brick edges, the runes and so on.
The four circles would be candle-holders, so there would be candles on its center circle. I just put them to test it, but it needs further experimentation. For now I had to cut out them from the scene, cause I'm working on a laptop and it can not handle so many millions of polygons at the same time in Zbrush.
Purpose of the altar... your suggestion made me think. Originally I wanted an icy cave where the book is on a book-holder. I did not think of the rock stairs as an altar. But putting this way it might enhance the scene in a good way. I will look into it.
I also realized - checking other projects in this forum - that I need to provide some sort of block-out or concept of the scene. By showing individual pieces you can not figure out what this scene would look like as a whole, not to mention you can not give me a feedback for the whole scene. So I will work on this first before I move on (I know, I should have started with this, but the ideas came so fast for each pieces that I started with the modeling).
So here is the result of the scale adjustment. I added a plane to indicate where the floor is, and the good old demo soldier to help you guys to see the proportions.
I also thought that a braizer would be cool in the scene, so I made the first version of it:
So here is a big update.
Although I did not win in the contest, learnt a lot and realized couple of things. When I looked at the stuffs I've made for this environment so far, I could not really see the whole picture. I had my notes and sketches but I had the feeling that something was off with the whole thing. I asked myself the same questions: "What do I want to show with this?" or "What story do I want to tell with the environment?", I had asked at the beginning of this project.
I have to confess I could not really reply for these at this time and the answers I had last year seemed to be unconvincing.
So I started to make sketches, thumbnails of the scene while I was thinking what I really want to do and tell at all. I liked the book, the crystals and the head with the horns, so I had no intention to throw them away. The basic idea of a sealed book a bit cliche but still it moved my imagination. Finally I realized that the environment itself did not fit for my purpose. So the cave was not the right choice. I tried to put in a basement, or in a very small valley closed by big rocks but I was not pleased with the results.
I wanted a small space where you look around and every piece gives you a hint for the story behind them and the whole environment. One day I talked to a buddy of mine discussing old and upcoming movies from Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and all of the sudden I remembered that I should check the tower room from Rapunzel. That was it! That was the missing piece! I built the first version of the new scene set in a tower room (In the picture I hid the roof structure to give a better view to the interior).
To finish the project I decided to convert into a mini environment scene, a diorama-like piece.
I picked up where I started. Almost. I use elements what I've already created (the book and the sculpt of the funny demon head, etc.) and I'm currently building the pieces what I'm missing.
Here is a Zbrush screengrab about the design of the mini scene. Still WIP but any comments welcomed.
First render test in Unreal 4 after the retopo, uv and baking process. Still WIP, couple of things are missing. As always feedbacks are welcome.