[WIP] The Northman interior Environment - Cult
polycounter lvl 6
Hello again fellow Polycounters!
I have started up another Environment project, this time a runestone interior!
So I haven't done much hard surface interior environment work before and I saw this concept from Ioan Dumitrescu that was made for The Northman. (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LeXBKR) The scene is set under a longhouse where the local ruler worships an underground Odinic cult. The mood is dark, mysterious and brutal, which I think that captures our popular concept of the viking age very well.
My goal with this one is to base the environment off the main concept then make tweaks where I see fit, for example in terms of set dressing and storytelling in the scene as I think that is more up to interpretation in the concept.
I have set up a reference board with style, material and detail references that I think will be useful. This is a living board that I'll keep up to date throughout the project of course
For stylization, I am mainly following God of War Ragnarök and AC Valhalla. Valhalla more for the realistic proportions and level of set dressing then God of War for the very mythological-feeling lighting setup and materials/clear shape language.
The runestone is the biggest challenge for me as I am mixing a tileable organic rock workflow with the painted iconography workflow. It will be an interesting challenge! For now my idea is to have the rock tileables as seperate in a tileable UV sheet on the runestone mesh, perhaps with some masking for edge wear and AO/color variation. Then for the iconography I have decided to have a straightforward RGB mask, splitting each element of the paintings into R G and B. This way I can control color for each element and tweak things like wear and damage.
This will be my priority as I start this project!
Here is the composition I have in my Unreal scene right now. Put some characters in for blockout reasons and will decide if they stay in the final shot later, but I like having the scale reference whilst I work and I can follow the reference easier this way.
Excited and motivated for this project now as it's something new and challenging for me!
Feedback and thoughts are super appreciated
I have started up another Environment project, this time a runestone interior!
So I haven't done much hard surface interior environment work before and I saw this concept from Ioan Dumitrescu that was made for The Northman. (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LeXBKR) The scene is set under a longhouse where the local ruler worships an underground Odinic cult. The mood is dark, mysterious and brutal, which I think that captures our popular concept of the viking age very well.
My goal with this one is to base the environment off the main concept then make tweaks where I see fit, for example in terms of set dressing and storytelling in the scene as I think that is more up to interpretation in the concept.
I have set up a reference board with style, material and detail references that I think will be useful. This is a living board that I'll keep up to date throughout the project of course
For stylization, I am mainly following God of War Ragnarök and AC Valhalla. Valhalla more for the realistic proportions and level of set dressing then God of War for the very mythological-feeling lighting setup and materials/clear shape language.
The runestone is the biggest challenge for me as I am mixing a tileable organic rock workflow with the painted iconography workflow. It will be an interesting challenge! For now my idea is to have the rock tileables as seperate in a tileable UV sheet on the runestone mesh, perhaps with some masking for edge wear and AO/color variation. Then for the iconography I have decided to have a straightforward RGB mask, splitting each element of the paintings into R G and B. This way I can control color for each element and tweak things like wear and damage.
This will be my priority as I start this project!
Here is the composition I have in my Unreal scene right now. Put some characters in for blockout reasons and will decide if they stay in the final shot later, but I like having the scale reference whilst I work and I can follow the reference easier this way.
Excited and motivated for this project now as it's something new and challenging for me!
Feedback and thoughts are super appreciated
Replies
This time I've:
- Pushed the lighting. I liked the godray shining onto the runestone to attract the eye a bit more and thought I could get some storytelling going there with the ravens having flown in to sit menacingly on our little runestone.
- Moved around some pillars and ceiling/wall pieces to give more space in the scene. I think the concept does a great job of creating a cramped feeling, but it felt a bit too messy in my scene. Especially for thoughts to a walkthrough/player space, we would want more room.
Also realized I need an object to sacrifice as well as a good 'ol sacrificial bowl. That will be worked on more soon!
- Worked more on the runestone! This time got a base Master Material for the runestone allowing me to tweak mask colors, individual intensity and tweak the level of grunge.
- Worked a little more on my materials. These are still a WIP but feedback on them would be nice as I want to push the wood and stone as much as possible and make some variations for the other assets.
The RGB mask for the runic imagery.
Combined mask for the rock tileable - combining dirt, edge wear and AO
Thinking to have a 'Rough' rock and some Stone slab variants of rock materials for variation and for use on eventual slabs.
Similarly with the wood, the plan is to have a trim sheet with viking age patterns on to have around the pillars and decor and to use this as a base.
I'm mainly looking for critique and feedback in any of the elements I have been working on so far - Lighting, Materials, composition are all very changeable right now
Thanks for reading!