Ancient Ruins Trim Sheet
I wanted to see how much pieces I could make out of one trim sheet. The pillars were a bit tricky. I cut the UV shells vertical, so the seams are much more noticeable, but I did like how they turned out. I would have intended for this room to be more for a top-down or third-person game anyways, so no close ups would have had helped I guess? the front wall has a crack, I intended to add plants to this scene, but I wanted the trim sheet to be more visible, to show if they were implemented well.
The center piece is not part of the trim sheet, I added it because the middle end was to just help support the project's story.
A bit of info regarding the project's story, this area used to be a portal terminal, somewhat like an airport terminal, The citizens and visitors would arrive from their destinations here. Once they've arrived, they would be greeted by a guard near the steps and be asked to check-in with an assistant at one of the counters in between the pillars.
I used Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine for this project.
I don't specialize in lighting, but I did try to add some lighting, to help with the mood.
Feedback is much appreciated. Thank you!
Some samples of how I did my UVs.
Fully intact pillar:
Side wall:
Replies
Hey @Blue_Pixel, this looks nice!
Feedback-wise, I'd say you could break the silouette of some of your props a bit to make them more natural. For instance you could add some edge loops on the pillars, where the brick seams are, bevel them, and push them inward a bit. The wall with the quadragular shape and the ground strips leading to the central asset also looks a bit flat, you could push some of these shapes with some extrusion/beveling (after all, since you're using the same material for the whole scene, you can sacrifice a bit of polygons).
I also think it could be interesting to break the monotony of your trim by adding some local variations: for instance moss or dirt that could be vertex painted. This will help breaking your patterns even more (even though adding plants like you're planning to will also break it a bit, but this way you won't have to "fight" the tiling with props)
Thank you for the feedback, Simon. There were things you noted that I did question while making this project that I second guessed myself on. I'm glad to know I was at least on the right track.
Vertex painting is on my list of things to learn. I'll be sure to learn it asap as I work on my next project.
Hey :) I think the trimsheet textures could be a bit improved:
- Some edges bit smooth/undefined
- Some edges/trims are missing bevel
- Very strong light up of edges in base colour. I would keep it more subtle.
- The green hue seems very saturated to me. Then here would be an option to have a more default stone colour and add mossy variation with either vertex color mask, world projected mask, mask based on second UV set, ...
Simon makes good points about breaking up the silhouettes. Generally, you could increase scene complexity to make it more interesting. I think creating interesting geometry that works by itself is crucial. Search for similar architecture references to get ideas, maybe do overpaints to try out ideas. In the end there are always ways one can cut the geometry and UV to make the trimsheet work. Having some smaller meshes for details and break up is also good.
Also make good use of hard edges. Seems you use support edges in some places to modify shading, where I think hard edges are more fitting.
In regards to the lighting, I would also look for references/ideas. I can imagine it coming through some cracks in the ceiling and breakthroughs in the walls supplemented by some torches, or some magic light sources?
Keep it up!
As always, I appreciate the comments. I agree, I have to experiment with the smoothing and beveling, especially with the rubble.
I was hoping just keeping it mostly to the trim sheet would help keep its focus for critiques, which is why I was avoiding other unique meshes. Lesson learned to always add variations.
I tend to lean a bit with stylized works so I thought giving the edges a bit of lighting would help with it. but if it's causing confusion, I'll definitely experiment with that one as well.
Yea it's surprising to see to see you thought the hue was saturated because I actually did tone it down before. I think not making every area mossy will help with that one, as you guys mentioned.
I'll be considering all these suggestions when I make improvements to this project on a later date.
Thanks!