Of course, right now the "turbulance" is being driven by a random value generated from a linear time value, all you'd need to do is replace that with a scalar value animated on a timeline or a curve, or whatever you want to use to drive the turbulance.
The main problem with the grass are the obvious linear clumps - especially on the lower right side. Smaller clumps and different textures would help. Crydev has a very nice grass tutorial at http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?f=315&t=100319
No sincere question is a silly question. What's silly is when people have questions and don't ask. I have a layer that is set to "Linear Dodge (Add)" in ps. Try it out. You can set it to the blend mode on brushes as well.
I wouldn't HAVE a "Game Art" degree, I'd have a traditional fine arts degree with an emphasis on painting and sculpture, and a double minor in applied mathematics (linear algebra and geometry) and computer science. The 3D specific instruction I'd get, well, here.
Just a quick note when dealing with calculating specular (difference between lit and cross polarized), this NEEDS to be done in linear space, otherwise, because of the increased range between light and dark values in sRGB space, you will get an incorrect end result.
About the recent concept art look - Maybe it is just because of an overall better understanding of light behavior and properties ? This change is also happening amongst CG artists gradually adopting linear workflows. Maybe it goes both ways, one influencing the other ...
Oh I see, Flow Connect only works with contiguous meshes, but your track curves are separate pieces. So, you just have to edit the new edges by hand. Make that middle loop curve a bit more, instead of being linear.
Haha true! Loving the art direction, really nice colours. Looks linear though, hope it's not a corridor shooter. Animations are also really nice and smooth, as already said. Didn't pay this any attention till now, now I'll be watching it's progress :)
wood like that doesnt kind of just stay linear, as it is cut in it begins to warp and things - youll see this on any wooden handle. Get rid of the obvious filter clouds for spec. make it more subtle and use some overlays/hand painted noise.
Do the textures need to tile both horizontally and vertically? If you can settle with just horizontal tiling you could get some nice blending but it will look a little linear. Also you could dedicate one texture to nontiling blend elements