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Hey what's up, guys. Sorry, I'm kinda late to the party.) I've be thinking about the scene from the tournament announcement but had to do some tests and a presentable picture in order to start a thread. But nevertheless, here I am

Sooooooo,
I'll be doing a scene from SC 3, me and my bud used to hang out at my place every Saturday after the C++ class played the living crap out of it.) so yeah, nice to do reimagine something familiar. Here's the concept of the original location:



It doesn't really show the arena layout, but what the hell. So how am I going to reimagine it? Well at first I was going for the arrogant "make it prettier", but browsing through stuff for ideas I remembered about this movie:

and was immediately sold.

So I'll be trying to reimagine the thing as it could be done by Zhang Yimou. Which means, asian architecture,

strong colors,

and hopfully a bunch of particles in the air


I've got the whole things pretty much blocked out and the first concept is coming soon.)

cheers!

Okay so here's the first concept(fullsize please):



A lot of stuff going on. It's going to be a challenge to squeeze into the specs, but judging by the blockout so far, it is possible.
My main concern is meeting the deadline, but that's why I'm planning to work incrementally, building up visual value in a way that I could pass it as a complete piece even with a couple of things still unfinished.

The rough plan for now is:
2nd shot concept
terrain in engine/terrain materials,
skydome,
background buildings,
the arena itself,
water wheels,
water effects,
ship mills,
misc effects(cloth, rainbows, birds, smoke etc.)

Anyway, I hope you like what you see. Comments and crits are much appreciated!

Nighty-night.

That is sexy! I look forward to seeing your progress.

MasteroftheFork, thanks, man. Love your nickname.

Whoa.


Just......



Whoa.

That billowing cloth is awesome!

^What he said. Great concept, totally looking forward to seeing this unfold!

Great ref. keep truckin'

Thank you so much,Makkon! Yeah I like that cloth too
I'll try UDK cloth simulation, but I'm not sure if my old pc can handle it so I might just as well simulate it in Max, anyway should be interesting to make.

Thanks you very much, Madison! I'm looking forward to it too, though it is pretty intimidating

Thanks,stfu_donny, I sure will!

Gorgeous idea man! The cloth is particulary awesome.
Can't wait to see the blockout of this!

Hey ya there, Maph. Thank you very much for the kind words!

Believe it or not, but this is the blockout. Everything you see here(except for the cloth and effects) is already modeled. It's just been given a proper texture and lighting pass in photoshop. If you look closer you can actually see tiling pattern from placeholder textures on background islands.

cheers! thanks again.

this concept/blockout is dope, sir

thank you very much, vahl!
it's your portfolio that's dope, sir.

Saw your link to your brawl page in your reply to mine , hella impressive concept man, only thing I'm having trouble reading is the scale of the top platform since the fence like thing on the right mixes up with the litle details on the platform itself, at first I tought it was huge but now I noticed the stone floor and the fence I'm not sure.

Again, awesome concept can't wait to see what you come up with

One thing to consider which I forgot about also when I started concepting for my idea is that you only get two beauty shots and one has to be from the screen persepctive of a 2d fighter. A level this huge might not get shown off that well in this contest.

I love the concept but I just thought I might save you some pain I started imagining this grandiose level also then read through the restrictions and realized it would be a waste under these parameters.

your work always surprises me when I see it...crank this sucker out I wanna see the 3d!

wow, big scope here ;)

Looking forward to see a 3d going on!
The idea definitely feels very cool for the fighting arena. But u will need to consider the in-game angle with camera on human height, so bunch of buildings and other stuff below the level of arena might not be seen. I guess u will re-consider the composition in 3d tho.
Awesome start anyways ;)

liking the colours and the scope!

Hey there, guys! thank you all for all your comments and I'll get back to each and every one of you individually a tiny bit later but now I'm just going to post and go to sleeeeeeeeeeep. zzZZZzzz


an interesting point I've discovered is that it's much harder to paint landscapes when
a) you don't have the sun in the frame(mine is in the opposite direction)
b) you horizon is obstructed
totally f-s up how I'd go about aerial perspective.
not too happy right now, but gotta keep it conceptish. I hope I'll be able to make some fixes as I go.



now please pour on me all the vicious rhetoric you might have

and I'm going to get some sleepy.) cheers

Okay, so I've had some sleep and ready to roll.)

Daniël.C, thank you, man, and you're absolutely right. The stone floor is too big and yeah the main platform is supposed to be pretty huge. If you look close at the first pic you might see a subtle silhouette on the platform - that's the size. On the second pic it's not so readable 'cause it's almost horizontal. thanks again!

Thank you very much, NoChance. Yeah those camera angles are a pickle. It's funny how I got things confused with the metric system(since we don't have feet here), I was pretty sure that one shot should be pretty high - 4-5 meters. Turns out those were feet.%) ohcrap. Nevertheless the piece still goes to my portfolio so I might as well give it all I've got. The second shot kinda fits the requirements better, though. *exhales with a bit of relief* Thank for your concern, buddy.

Hey,seforin, thank you very much. That's one thing I'll be proud to know.
And yeah, it is 3d. Everything but cloth and fx is already modeled. Just a little overpaint in photoshop.)

Wassup, Vlad! Yeah, go big or go home I kid, just trying new stuff.
I've bumped my head into the camera issue already, yeah. Will have to figure this out as I go. And yeah, it's pretty much 3d already. Just an overpainted blockout.
Thanks again, dude, I'm glad you like.

Mert, ha-ha, thank you very much man!



And just a little more about the pic. I know it definitely lacks the punch of the first one. Just couldn't do giant vistas from both sides but, I tried to do the best with what I've got. The lesson to learn here is that for the sake of presentation it's better to start with something with least punch.
oh, well. thanks again, fellas(and ladies).

c ya

I love it, honestly this camera angle feels more comfortable to me. It definitely reads here as a fighting stage, although maybe a little more pulled-back than is typical for that type of game. Still works for me though. I like that there are a lot of structures which should be pretty easy to instance about, should make for smooth work pace.

I feel like there might be too much yellow-ish going on, between the rooftops and the hues of the grass hills. It could just be me, since I've never been partial to yellow, but maybe tuning the grass to a cooler tone would help to contrast. Waterfalls are looking nice in that respect

You're runnin out of time!!!! GO GO GO!

Thank you, Madison. I wish I could say I love it, but it merely feels "ok" for now. At least I got the angle right this time heh

Originally Posted by S2Engine

I feel like there might be too much yellow-ish going on

Yeah, so do I. In fact I think the colors, 'scuse me french, suck big fat huge major ass. So that's why I thought I'd do another take:



I could really use some opinions and advices right now, cause the ones I've got so far were pretty confusing and controversial. Which one do you, fellas, like more and why? Something bothering you? I'd appreciate if you'd tear me apart please.

Gannon, roger that, buddy! Starting in UDK tomorrow.

I really like the composition. The colors are kind of garish but that might be just the illustration at this point. You might need more horizontal space for the fighting arena? Most stages extend fully to the bounds of the image and often look like they could keep going.

What about adding some terraced farming ledges and path ways to the village in the background?

Hey there! Long time no post. I've got a bit distracted with an annoying hardware issue last weekend and ehm.... a f-ing terorist attack on monday! 13 people dead 160 injured. Luckily no one I know got hurt. And unsurprisingly I don't know a single person who doesn't believe that the explosion was set up by the govеrnment itself to justify the repressiоns that are rolling through the ranks of оpposition and distract people from a major cost of living rise and shortage of imported goods. In a small country with absolutely no enemies, territorial disputes or natural resources there's just no point for anyone else to blоw people up
Btw, me writing this is illegal too. It was officially stated that anyone spreading this disgraceful notions should be arrested and interrogated on the subject of their connections with terrorists.) but that's nothing new in a country where you get a 2 year jail sentence for insulting the dignity and honor of the "prеsident", so ftw.
Damn, do I hate this poor excuse of a country I was born in. Just in case you're curious feel free to read my older write up

But don't let me sidetrack you too much. I'm sorry about that. In spite of all things happening I've managed to do some work this week. Mostly material test, not so much in the way of final compositions though.
Here goes:



I love making materials in UDK, it's like middle ground between programming and art.) This water here took a while and it's very parametrized. There are 3 levels of waves(small, middle, large) with adjustable scale and intensity. Toggleable flow speed and direction. Fast river or a still lake - it's your call. Adjustable diffuse color and amount of reflection blend in. Vertex painted foam that also procedurally appears along big waves and at intersections with objects. Adjustable opacity falloff along the shoreline and some more stuff that I don't remember right now.) And yeah even though, for the sake of convenience, it's done with 3 different textures now, if needed this could easily be done with only one.



I also did rock and grass materials and a bunch of stones in various arrangements, but didn't populate them much yet, since the layout is no way final. The grass supposed to be more background oriented while the rocks will be up close.



Buildings are just diffuse for now so don't be to harsh on me. I'll get to them pretty soon. You can also see the brick mat a bit. It's a blend betwwen brick, moss and old decaying bricks.

Once again a lot of stuff is very-very wip.

For the final composition I'll be expanding a bit on the last concept. I'm half way there with the terrain sculpt and after it's done I'll be just left with water effects, water wheels and the "dancefloor" itself. I'll do my best to make it on time.

Hey thanks for your advices, Vig! Yeah the colors were poop. I'm a pretty lame concept artist so I'll try to get it right in-engine.
I'll also rework composition a bit to make the stage take up more space! And those terraced fields will hopefully end up in the final terrain sculpt. Thank again!)

Gannon, yeah, sry, won't happen again.)