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[UE4] Handpainted Diorama- Just Another Cute Handpainted Diorama

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AnyaElvidge interpolator
Current stage;


Hello! It's been a while.

I'm starting a new diorama as I'm teaching an online class, so I thought I'd share my process here! C&C encouraged.

Just at the concept stage so far.

Front;


Back;


Blockout I painted over and am using as my starting base for the scene in UE4;


Got it set up and ready for some blockout textures, so will be back when I'm done with that stage.

I think I might use Zbrush for this one. Been a while though, very rusty!!

-Anya

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  • HixaLupa
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    HixaLupa triangle
    Looks really nice!
  • AnyaElvidge
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Just started throwing blockout colours about in UE4. Now it's all set up I can test colours/ designs nice and quick. It's just a super messy unwrap and some targas but it does the job. Colours are becoming a bit more saturated, we'll see where that goes.

    I don't like what's happening in the two archways either side of the door so I'm going to do some experiments.




  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Beginning to block out for sculpting. I'm trying a workflow with Zbrush which is completely new to me and I have no idea if it's going to work out or not but I guess we'll see!








  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Started working on the sculpts proper now, and got the rocks baked just to test. Liking the more simplified sculpt feel, as I want to handpaint the albedo so don't want too much overwhelming detail in the normal map. I'm working with the entire scene loaded at once into Zbrush as separate subtools. Works nicely as I can swap between different elements of the scene and also make everything work more cohesively together. Feels quicker too. First time working like this with Zbrush, but I'm enjoying it. :)





    As always, feedback welcome at any time!
  • LouisPhilippe
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    LouisPhilippe greentooth
    Concept are looking very nice. Looking forward to see the final result! :smile:
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Concept are looking very nice. Looking forward to see the final result! :smile:
    Thanks!!
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator


    Made a start on the water. Still lots to do with the shader but going to step away from it for now. :)
  • analogous
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    analogous polycounter lvl 4
    Really loving the piece so far! 
    I also love the idea of the way you're using the workflow, it's something I've been trying to figure out with zbrush since I'd really love to push my modeling more.

    The scene looks so lovely I'm looking forward to seeing more progress, take my book mark!
  • Aydhe
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    Aydhe polycounter lvl 5
    really loving the water shader, you nailed art style for it. Great work so far :)
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    analogous said:
    Really loving the piece so far! 
    I also love the idea of the way you're using the workflow, it's something I've been trying to figure out with zbrush since I'd really love to push my modeling more.

    The scene looks so lovely I'm looking forward to seeing more progress, take my book mark!
    Thanks! Yeah Zbrush is such a funny beast and I usually avoid it so I've tried to grab the bull by the horns a bit here and it feels like I'm learning a lot!
    Aydhe said:
    really loving the water shader, you nailed art style for it. Great work so far :)
     Cheers! Really appreciate it :)
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator

    Baking some sculpts...
  • Aydhe
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    Aydhe polycounter lvl 5
    i have some concerns regarding your UVpacking, it's not inherently bad but you could probably squeeze quite e bit more out of this UV space without too much effort.
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Aydhe said:
    i have some concerns regarding your UVpacking, it's not inherently bad but you could probably squeeze quite e bit more out of this UV space without too much effort.
    Thanks for your advice! I know my packing is super bad haha... unfortunately I'm just a lazy unwrapper when it comes to personal work ;)
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator


    Water update! And I've started blocking out albedos.
  • jStins
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    jStins interpolator
    Love that water shader and the caustic reflections on the rock.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    looking  great so far!
  • wojtekfedunik
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    wojtekfedunik triangle
    The water shader is cool
  • Denzil_forde
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    Denzil_forde greentooth
    Awesome Stuff Anya! love the caustics and water effect
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    jStins said:
    Love that water shader and the caustic reflections on the rock.
    Thanks! Hopefully will make a tutorial in the future :)
    Ged said:
    looking  great so far!
    Thanks Ged!!
    The water shader is cool
    Thankyou so much :)
    Awesome Stuff Anya! love the caustics and water effect
    Hey Denzil! Thankyou! Your character stuff is looking great :D 
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator

    Blocked in the leaves for the palm trees, trunk next and then ivy. Starting to hand paint some textures in 3DCoat too.
  • Nuclear Angel
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    Nuclear Angel polycounter
    This is turning out really really well! I think it would be cool in the texturing if you add some color variations to your leaves, make some of them be a bit damaged and dryer, so yellow and brown tones. 
  • Mark Dygert
    Nice work! I love it!
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Hey Polycount!

    It's been a long long time since my last update as I've been working and also just generally busy doing some travel and other shenanigans. I did do some work on this project a few months ago but never posted it, and then I lost enthusiasm some.

    The main thing blocking me from continuing work was that the main building needed sculpting and I wasn't really feeling it. I decided to just go for it the other day though and finally got that done. It's a very basic sculpt as I want to keep stuff quite clean. Once the sculpt was done I could get in and do the fun bit which for me is playing about with colours and testing them in UE4.

    So, the colours on the building (and in mosy places really) are tbd. Once I'm happy with the colours I'll get in and do some hand painting on the building. But I thought I'd share a shot of where it's at anyway.


    And here's a crappy gif;


    I've had some good fun playing with the colours on the building and around the scene, but they're not quite done yet. For instance the tile colours aren't working for me yet.

    The other big things I need to do are;
    -The tree (leaves re-do)
    -Fountain
    -Fish
    -Water VFX
    -General VFX
    -Ferns
    -Additional foliage

    Then it's general tweaking like texture work, fixing placeholders like rubble, adding moss and vines to the underground section... whatever springs to mind that I can be bothered with. 

    Hope you like! :) I'm going to make a breakdown of the water at some point which I'll share here later.
  • Thomas_Smith
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    Thomas_Smith polycounter lvl 3
    Such bright and vibrant colors! Looking forward to seeing the VFX.
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator

    Hello, time for an update :)

    I've been having more time recently to work on this, so I'm really hoping to get it done this month. I've been on it on and off since March and I'm very ready for a new project, or to focus on some smaller projects and painting.

    The main things I've done recently are to re-do the palm trees, finalise the texture under the water, and start adding small things like rubble falling down and more ivy. Just lots of little tweaks really. I'm trying to make a start on texturing the building properly too, but it's hard to motivate myself on such a large object!

    The other big thing is the water, specifically around the back of the diorama where I wasn't really liking how it looked... it felt a bit empty and boring. So since last time I've added some more rocks into the water to balance it some, and then I've added some tiles like around the front of the scene. It just adds a bit of consistency and interest. The waterfalls are made using a modified version of the shader I was initially using for the waterfall at the front of the diorama. I've made it so that it has more 'foam' which is generated based on the normal map of the water, and the proximity of the water to other meshes. It's not perfect but if I compare it to water on other projects I've done, I've definitely improved!

    There are some ambient particles floating around now too- one set is just slow moving small orbs with lights on to give a magical feel. The other is more like a falling leaf, but currently it just has an orb texture like the floating lights. I kind of like how understated it is, so I may just make some small modifications to that for the final thing.

    The big things that really need doing now are the building texture and fountain. I'd also like to work on the shader that moves the foliage to look more natural- it currently uses SimpleGrassWind which has a weird back-and-forth rotation thing going on. Then it'll just be polish (mostly to textures) other optional bits to add to the scene... vines, maybe some moving fish... props if I want, though I tend to leave those out. I will see.

    Feels good to look at my list of stuff to do and feel like the end is somewhat in sight. Sometimes projects feel like that will go on forever. The solution I suppose is to make smaller personal projects... but that presents its own problems- I find it easier to abandon projects if they're small, and then I'd never get anything done!
      

    Feedback welcome!

  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Added fish! Just a spline animation exported as a .abc but I think it serves the purpose :)


  • Bostvic
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    Bostvic polycounter lvl 5
    I know it's a small thing: but I love the way the lilies move with the water!
  • likesyrup
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    likesyrup polycounter lvl 10
    beautiful work
  • onionhead_o
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    onionhead_o polycounter lvl 16
    Those fishies look lovely
  • JayHoward
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    JayHoward polycounter lvl 3
    Absolutely Stunning !!!
  • conflig
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    conflig polycounter lvl 5
    Beautiful work!
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Hello everyone! So, this project is finished (hooraaay) and I haven't got round to sharing it here because I literally just started a new job at Rare, so I've been super busy, living out of hotels, etc. In the future I'm looking to release this project for free download like my last personal project on Gumroad, and will share the link here. I also hope to do some 'making of' Youtube videos when I have my own place again.

    Anyway, the project! I hope you like. Feel free to critique, or let me know what you'd like to see me talk about in videos :) Sorry for all the delays! Doesn't life just run away with us...


    (adding this image retroactively so we actually have a portrait shot in here)













    Youtube turnaround (no music or sound effects yet, but maybe another time!).

    Overall I'm happy with the project, but it definitely felt like it dragged. It was really nice to work on a project using Zbrush again, as it had been a long while and I was beginning to feel like I'd forgotten hot to use it! As usual, there are definitely things I would like to change in the future, but the biggest thing I will look into how I handle materials. The biggest thing I enjoy about personal projects is playing with colours and materials, so I want to look into a workflow that plays into that more so I don't waste days doing minor detail and sculpt work that I don't feel so excited about. I think next project will be about creating a large series of dioramas/environments from a world, but they will be more simplistic and about the overall read and the story/emotions they convey. Also more foliage, I love making foliage stuff. And fish. And water. I love making water shaders!! Ultimately personal projects are a chance for me to experiment, and I don't place so much focus now on creating portfolio worthy work, so I'm excited to have some more fun!

    Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Take care :)

    Anya

  • jStins
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    jStins interpolator
    I think this piece really came out nice, good work! A couple thoughts on the presentation...

    For the stills, is there any particular reason you're using a landscape image ratio? There's a lot of negative space and I feel you've compromised composition in a few shots to 'fit' the horizontal aspect ratio. Seems to me a portrait orientation on the images would fit the overall design and layout of the diorama a bit better. (Just noticed you've done this on some of your other dioramas, so maybe you're already planning on it.)

    For the video, I'm not sure it's entirely necessary. Obviously you have some nice ambient animation, shaders, caustics and FX to show off, but I think the GIFs you posted earlier do a nice job of that. If you decide to keep the video, I'd recommend a more cinematic approach. Pick 3 or 4 camera angles that you really like and use simple camera moves that are based on common film shots (pan, dolly, tilt, etc...). Cut between those with pacing that matches the relaxed feel of the piece and I think you'd have a nice video presentation here. In my opinion, turntables feel a bit redundant and boring these days.

    Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for your next project. Cheers!
  • AnyaElvidge
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    AnyaElvidge interpolator
    Hey @jStins thanks for the feedback!

    Regarding portrait shots, yeah, I should probably do that again (in fact I'm going to do it right now haha). I tend to choose landscape with the negative space partially out of habit and also because I like them all having the same aspect ratio. I just feel like landscape sits better on a PC screen too, though I understand that many people use mobile devices now anyway.

    Video was purely because I was trying to make gifs but they would end up too big to share anywhere, so the video was a desperation thing to share it before I get chance to make a 'proper' video with music/sound effects which I like making. Not sure why my gifs were ending up so impossibly unsharable... I've made them before... I'll probably end up deleting the videos in the future to replace with one more thought out video later, because yes the silent turnaround is not only lame but a little bit weird and uncomfortable haha!

    Edit, just remembered why I don't have a nice portrait shot... temporal AA and reflections stuff is disabled in high res screenshots so the water looks awful :(
  • pixelpatron
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    pixelpatron polycounter
    Stunning! Great job!!! Jelly.
  • AnyaElvidge
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