Blizzard Student Art Contest - Environment Crit
polycounter lvl 3
Hi all! I am participating in Blizzard's challenge for the environment section. This is what I have so far.
Its set near the village of Pyrewood. The story behind it is that a huntsman/mercenary killed the residing orc and now lives within the skull. It would be a sort of a boss fight. Im not certain if it has a world of warcraft feel, maybe that will come in with the hand painted textures. I'm also trying to get bounce light from the volumetric fog to come out of the cracks in the eye sockets but I'm getting weird lighting so I might make the shafts using polygons.
Anyhow, I'm all ears to any suggestions/crits.
Its set near the village of Pyrewood. The story behind it is that a huntsman/mercenary killed the residing orc and now lives within the skull. It would be a sort of a boss fight. Im not certain if it has a world of warcraft feel, maybe that will come in with the hand painted textures. I'm also trying to get bounce light from the volumetric fog to come out of the cracks in the eye sockets but I'm getting weird lighting so I might make the shafts using polygons.
Anyhow, I'm all ears to any suggestions/crits.
Replies
Skull ccave could use more asymmetrical design and dutch angles for more interest.
I'll look into the symmetrical design aspect but I'm not sure what you mean about the dutch angles? like rotate the skull a bit?
Dutch angles as in, yes, your skull shouldn't be so even looking. It's v arved out of rock; give it a little more chaos.
What's the story behind this? What tone are you going for?
The story is that a mercenary killed a rogue orc that lived within the skull structure and now resides in it. He has become sort of a legendary huntsman and now players go to this site to challenge him.
As far as tone, I'm not sure. I need to study that more in environmental design. I want the player to feel a small sense of dread but also feel like there is an adventure waiting within the skull.
Night scenes work better when you're not crunching ALL the values down to black
How are you planning to communicate some reclusive huntsman lives here when you can't write a description of what is going on?
Also your cave head looks surprisingly similar . . .
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BGq5k
I increased the scene lighting and I might add a dimmer secondary light so I can light up the dark areas to be visible. Textures are still a work in progress.
As far as env storytelling, I'm thinking of adding a bounty poster and maybe some dead creature bones that the huntsman has killed.
And yes that is the main source of reference I've been using for the cave section. Thanks for linking me to the artist!
I added a secondary scene light which is dimmer than the main one and it helps the lighting a ton. I'm still shifting things around a bit so I will play with the lighting even more after that. Most of the textures are nearing completion. I also feel like the terrain needs more variation in height. It all feels flat at the moment.
Any constructive feedback is welcome!
I wanna thank Brian Choi for his helpful feedback!