Its Finished!






Hey everyone, Nick here, I started working on the Blizzard student environment contest. I know its a bit early but it's going to get really busy around the holidays so I thought I start on it now. If you dont know about the contest check HERE. Also check out their example because something along that nature is my end goal.

Couple things, I have never worked in the blizzard "style" so if you guys have any suggestions I would love to here them. Feel free to ask questions too.

I have never done any sort of texture painting before, so this will be an experience needless to say. I spent over 2 hours scouring though more than 500 threads on polycount looking for any threads that related to texture painting. I found many bad and good examples so I have an idea of what do and what not to do. Anyways I exported my bookmarks and uploaded them so if you guys want a bunch of polycount links on texture painting you peeps can check them out.

Download Texture Painting Links

CONCEPT
I'm attempting to create a run down Botanist's shack. I decided to go with a tree growing out of the center to create a bit more story and personality. I was imagining some sort of accident maybe when using magic or something that caused this tree to grow so rapidly that it destroyed the shack in the process.

The main thing I am concerned with at the moment is the overall shape and silhouette of the building. I really want to nail the architecture before I continue. Also I need there to be an inside as well, so I have to take in account for that.

Here my current WIP of the BLOCKING.

This was one of the roof alternatives I was looking at.


Decided to go with this one. My friends liked it better and thought it still fit in with wow ok. What do you guys think? The building is pretty modular, it can be broken into 4 pieces like in the image above. I'm trying to be efficient as possible with this project. Also thinking about materials and how things fit together.


Starting to think about damage and how the tree is going to interact with the roof and shack. Im trying to keep it simple since it is in the wow style/big shapes, but breaking a roof made with 5ish pieces of geo is hard. It also feels really busy and messy. :/ It would probably help if there was some shadows.


Here 3 out of many ref photos i am using that were the main inspiration for the building thus far.


Again I am concerned with the shape and silhouette. The foundation is super important because without those things, the building will be boring to look at even with the shiny textures.

I Should be updating this often so check back every now and then.

Thanks for looking.

love the tree coming out of the building! the shape & design is also really cool. looks fun!

Nice start, that is a unique idea! Also, thanks for sharing your hand-painting links, that is really nice of you

thanks for the hand painting link list! i would suggest to let the house live WITH the tree - but that the tree destroyed the house is also interesting...

Looks like a cool idea, I also agree with SimonT, would it not be cool to have the tree growing through/around the house? Rather than destroying it completely.

Interesting...looks like this could have a lot of personality. GOOD LUCK!

Nice start. Great links too!

Loving the design of the second house, but i think you shouldn't make the inner part of the window stone? and also the main door, as well. but u probably just forgot to color it?

Good start, want to see more!

Also, (quick edit)

maybe like it has already been mentioned, have the tree crunching the house from outside, like it's leaning on it.

Comments:

@Moose: Thanks! It should be fun, I am really looking forward to texturing this, so when I get there, feel free and tell me I'm doing it wrong.

@Jessica: Hey no problem, I actually book marked your thread because your textures are coming out so nicely, I will definitively be using your work as inspiration. ;)

@SimonT & ANP: Thanks for the comments! After looking it over I'm going to go with what you guys suggested, I feel I cant really destroy the roof and have it look right unless I invest more polys. I feel it gets to intricate I am going to loose the wow feel.

@Sirdelita: Thanks man! Checked your portfolio, you have some nice concepts.

@Jeffro: Dude I really like your Medieval house scene, it was in my bookmarks, I will be using your awesome hand painted texture work as inspiration.

@Alberto: I am actually thinking about making the door frame and window sills out of decorative stone. I posted my ref for it below. let me know if you still think it will work. Also you will see more, the question is when will I see more of your work? haha

Update:

Well I'm am going to call the blocking done, unless someone else has any suggestions. I decided to go with SimonT & ANP idea because I could not get the damage to look right with the limited Geo. Is this cool? Does it take away from the interest if its just a tree growing out of the shack instead of destroying the shack?

Anyways I think I'm going to move on to the assets if there are no complaints.

--

To comment on what Alberto asked, this is the type of decorative stone look I'm going for around the doors and windows. I was thinking it could break up the wood and bricks a bit and maybe add some more visual interest?


Here is the base mesh for the tree, going to take it into zbrush next and try my hand at some stylized sculpting.


Quick shot of how the building currently stands with the tree. I thought it would be cool if the roots where pushing through the bricks.


Blocked out how the final presentation might look and the scene at large. Blizzard said they wanted trees, rocks and foliage in a little diorama. I made room for a little stream in front of the shack too. Ignore the shitty pathway I made really fast.


Thanks for looking.

Yeah i get you, maybe make a small stone frame inside the wooden frame? could add a nice element.

Update:

I "finished" hand painting the tree branch texture, next is to paint the branches and body of the tree. This is my first Hand painted texture so any input would be nice. I keep seeing Jessica's work and its just amazing, I really hope I can get something like her's in future updates.



Tiled Less


Tiled More


Thanks for Looking.

The light source on your bark should be coming in more from the top instead of the left. I'm liking how this is coming along. Keep it up.

Cool! I think I might get in on this after finals are over.

I love your idea, I'm glad you went with the tree sort of co-existing with the house instead of breaking it.

Like Shadowforce said you should go with top lighting on your tileable painted texture. Most of WoW's painted textures are top lit as well.

I kind of feel like your house should have more presence in the diorama; it looks kind of dwarfed and small... maybe scale it up a bit so it has more "hero prop" presence?

The house should maybe have different colors for different types of wood, you wouldn't expect the wooden beams to have the same wood as the wooden walls. Blockout looks pretty cool

Top-lit textures also rely on the artist not twisting stuff and always have the texture be oriented the right way as well and on trees it could be difficult though! But yes do it if you can!

Nice work ! Keep going

Comments:
@Alberto: I agree dude. that actually sounds cool.

@SHad0wForce: Thanks, I'm going to try and remember that when painting. I was actually just looking at your sword thread, it turned out great!

@Sybrix: Yes I agree with you on the size of the building. it is kinda small, I will definitely be making the building larger. I hope you get a chance to work on this contest, I am anxious to see other peoples entries, but so far I haven't seen any.

@Chrisradsby: Thank you, I check your site and that motor storm work is really cool, I especially like those large signs you did. I wasnt planning on changing the color wood but I like that idea, well see what happens.

Concerns:
The contest rules are quite vague, and I was wondering what would be appropriate texture sizes for assets that are made in the "wow" style? Should I go for higher texture resolutions(1024) to make it look nicer since the only thing I'm turning in is an image? Also I'm assuming they are not looking for no other maps besides diffuse, yet these can also be used to improve the final image. o_o

(small)Update:
Just a quick note, I was staring at my bark texture trying to figure out why it look so weird. Staring didn't help, so i decided I ought to do some more research and I came across a post by Mcejn and looked at his tree texture because I feel its successful.

Turns out his texture had a soft spec unlike my super harsh spec. So I softened it up and in my opinion it looks a lot better.

*note UVs are bad I haven't worked on them yet.


less contrast, more contrast, high spec and contrast (original texture)


256x


Thanks for Looking.

The new wood is looking a lot better! I agree the super sharp highlights you had before is not typical of wood spec, wood spec is rather diffuse. As for size of textures, I wouldn't worry too much about it, just make it as big as you need to to make your scene look good since they are not going to be asking for maps I think. However, the largest I would go for a tileable texture is 512, 1024 is really huge for a texture that is going to be tiling, not necessary at all, and would take a really long time to paint haha.

Now one thing (and I am not the best with color variation, so here I'm only echoing what others have been telling me xD) is that you could probably add more color into your wood to make it more interesting. Like instead of dark brown for shadows you could put bluish or purplish browns, and for highlight color you could use a slightly orangey-yellow or something. Or add greens in places, you could experiment with what colors work best.

I like the knots, they are cute xD Maybe consider also adding alpha planes of dripping moss or something. Keep it up, looking good so far :]

Comments:
@Jessica: Thanks, since blizzard didn't give many restrictions I'm just going to make it look good as possible within reason of course. I also added some green in the shadows of the bark which could read as moss or something. Thanks for the suggestions I really appreciate it.

Update:
I managed to get the tree to a point where I feel like I can move on to something else. So painting has really been a struggle its definitively something I need more practice with.

So lets see we have some Soul Cactus growing out of the pots. yes soul cactus, it captures souls in the little white spore things which are used to further the growth of the plant. But! they can also be harvested and BAM you got some souls to enchant or do whatever you want with. I may have been playing to much Skyrim lately. ._.

Anywho I'm really itching to move onto the building so that's what I'm going to do. Only 33 days left o__o.









Textures, empty spaces will be filled with other things.


Thanks for looking.

looks cool - the leafs are really ace

Originally Posted by toxic_h2o

Comments:

don't tile in your textures like that bark! It's terrible - any time you're tiling in a texture like this you should just be doing that with your UVs/material instead - memory is expensive, wasting 4x the amount of memory without any new detail like that is bad.

Comments:
@SimonT: Thanks

@Ghostscape: Hey im not really sure I understand what you mean. Currently the bark texture is at 256x and is being tiled by the MAT editor in udk.

Concerns:
I was messing around with decals to break up the tiling on my textures but for some reason the decal turns the meshes black when I move the camera away from the object. If anyone has a solution I'd appreciate it.



Update:
I finished painting the brick textures. One is for the wall which tiles at 256 and the other is for the floor inside the building, that one tiles at 512. Also the plants on the wall are still WIP, just threw them in there quick.






Thanks for looking.

Update:
Painted some wood today… so exciting. The old moldy/mossy boards tile at 256x256. I also laid out the uvs for the other wood elements and started to texture the large beams.




Thanks for looking.

The moss bothers me from close up- looks too regular. Like, it's just a beveled circle, or blob, when mosses aren't so obviously shaded or shaped in real life. I understand it's stylized, and it looks awesome from far away, so I won't nitpick. Good job! Loving watching the progress.

We can't see your images anymore your to popular ;)
So there is only one thing to say www.imgur.com, great image hosting site used it ever since photobucket compressed my images.

Hay man I love the work, I am also going to submit work for the contest. I was also thinking of incorperating nature within my structure. Love what you have done, you definately have a head start on me!

Comments:
@Joopson: Hey thanks for the comment, I was actually trying to go more towards mold than moss, but I see what your are saying, I might go back a play with it some more.

@Stromberg90: Yeah I guess so, I'm kinda sad Photobucket died on me. :^( I'm going to try out Dropbox for now.

@Oliver_Farrell: Thank you! Glad you are entering, I cant wait to see what you come up with. :^)

Update:
Getting close to finishing the actually building, I have to texture the door and windows yet. I also need to go back and refine the mesh and a few textures.



Both textures are still wip, I need to go back a mess with the metal more, it looks like poop atm. The roof tiles are only blocked out, im going to go in tomorrow and add the detail to make them hopefully read like wood. *cross fingers*


Thanks for looking. :^)