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Blizzard Student Project - The Dreamer's Archway [WIP]

polycounter lvl 8
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Andy H polycounter lvl 8
*Update 2*
AndyHTreeFinal.jpg

*Update*
ArchwayFinal2.jpg
(See post 13)

Hello Polycount! Very long time lurker here that has finally decided to post something! Currently I'm a student in college working towards my Game Design degree, leaning towards the art side of things. I'll be finishing summer 2012 and hopefully have some kind of job opportunity lined up by then (hopefully... :poly121:).

One of my teachers informed me of the student contest that Blizzard is doing at the moment, so I said I'd go ahead and work on a piece. I'm a huge fan of World of Warcraft and its style. I have some favorite artists right here from Polycount that are apart of the Blizzard team, and it's my absolute dream to work there!

Anyways, let's get down to business shall we? For my piece, it kind of gradually came to me as I did some concept drawings. I knew I wanted to do something Nagrand like (if you're familiar with some of the zones in WoW). I also wanted to make something that also had some Emerald Dream influences.

The concept drawings:

BlizzProj01.jpg
This tree helped me kind of figure out what I wanted to do with everything else in the scene. Nagrand has really awesome almost surreal like trees, and if you have the World of Warcraft Art Book for The Burning Crusade, you can see some of the tree ideas that they played with for that expansion. I want the tree to be a large centerpiece that will go behind the archway.

BlizzProj02.jpg
Nagrand also has floating pieces of earth that look like they were sort of ripped from the ground as they gradually flew up to the sky. I wanted to have this look as well for the surface that the archway and all the other props would go on. I also have some ideas for adding some more Warcraft elements to the surface, such as smaller floating islands that are attached to the main center piece by chains.

BlizzProj03.jpg
The archway! Was really trying to channel kind of the look of the dragon aspects with the main center piece. I also tried to add some more Warcraft elements to the decor, such as gems and of course plenty of spikes. I want the portal to look like it's out of control and is starting to suck everything up around it, so I added some chains to the side of it to look like it's on its edge.

BlizzProj04.jpg
Just a little crystal study that I'll probably incorporate with the piece. As the portal is sucking things up around it, I want to make pieces of earth that are shooting towards the portal.

BlizzProj06.jpg
Playing with some ideas for props that can be in the scene. I know the contest requires some rocks, which I'll add with the same kind of look as in that crystal study above. I'd also like to add some interesting plants such as this one that is kind of caressing a power stone of some sort.

So here's what I've got for a models right now. I was really excited to model the archway so I went ahead with that piece first.

Preview1.jpg
The swirly decor will be painted onto the model but the stuff like the emerald in the middle and the spikes, I modeled out because they're crucial to the silhouette (even if it's from a front view).

Preview3.jpg
Side view, I think my concern right now is that it doesn't have too much going on for it, as just looking at the side angle kind of puts me off a bit. I'm not sure how I could exaggerate the shape more, or if it's even necessary since the contest is asking for one picture. Although going the extra mile always adds something.

Preview2.jpg
Wireframe!

Right now I'm working on the surface piece. I'm absolutely in love with soft selection in 3DS Max as it's being a lifesaver for something this organic. Maybe I'm a bit crazy modeling a really organic rock piece in max instead of doing it in Zbrush... but it's what I know!

Looking forward to critiques from everyone, I'll be checking this constantly and giving tons of updates!

Replies

  • Pixelatedkiwi
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    Pixelatedkiwi polycounter
    I love your sketches, looking forward to seeing how this turns out :) Remember wow tends to push things proportionally more than real life, so depending on how big the overall scale of your arch is, you may want to look at making the base part more chunky.
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    Hey Pixelatedkiwi, thanks! I'll definitely keep that in mind. I'm working on the base and will be posting the progress soon hopefully. I got the top part blocked out, just finishing fleshing out the bottom half.
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    Aaaaand I'm back with an update! Been working on really getting a nice jagged/rocky look to the platform and I think I'm pretty much done with it and need to move on.

    Preview5.jpg
    I tried to stay as close to the concept art as possible. There's some bits that I could probably still push around and get the *exact* shape of the drawing but time's running out.

    Preview4.jpg
    Just a side by side comparison.

    I'd still love to improve on it and any critiques are totally welcome. I'm kind of happy with where both models are right now. I do think I still need to push the archway a little more and it needs to have something else that's really showing that it's out of control. Got some ideas like putting a small base underneath the archway that it could be kind of tipping off of.

    Also, not that it matters too much in this competition (or does it?), but the platform is sitting at 313 polys, 460 tris. Blizzard would probably do even less though, erg!
  • Snader
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    Snader polycounter lvl 15
    You're spending a LOT of polies on the chains, disproportionally many it seems. I'd look in to ways to make them cheaper.

    Here's some tests I made long ago, maybe they're of use:
    chainsrotation.gif
    chainscheap.png

    And also, old threads:
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87750
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74502
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    Thank you for this, Snader. I wasn't sure which route I'd take with the chains, but the threads you posted also have a thread in itself that I found useful, when to model and when to make alphas for chains. Totally makes more sense, especially with an engine like WoW's, to use alphas instead of planes seeing as how the chains in the scene are not going to be the size of the player. (In other words, one chain link isn't going to be the size of the player character.) I'm sure Blizzard is looking for how efficient people can be with this contest and your way of making the chains is super useful! :)

    I'll be going back and revising the archway using this technique, thanks again.
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    Ok guys, been a couple of days since I've posted some progress, but I think I'm just about done with the tree. School just started, but I'm going to have quite a bit of time in the next couple of days to really steer this to a finished product.

    Preview7.jpg
    A preview of the tree with and without the alpha planes. I plan on painting in the curvature of the tree near the base, would be a lot of wasted polys for something so subtle.

    Preview6.jpg
    Right now as you can see, the roots of the tree are separated from the tree itself. My question is, do you think I can get away with this or should I go ahead and attach them? The tree is sitting at 880 polys at the moment, and the guidelines were a tree with something less than 1500.

    I need to go back and add maybe some sort of base to the archway, and redo the chains so they're alphas as well. I'll be posting my progress hopefully later on today. Still needs some rocks and some sort of props but I'm not exactly sure where I'll go with those yet. I feel like if I can flesh out these three things, I can start imagining the rest of the scene. Comments and critiques totally welcome here. :)
  • ladyknowles
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    ladyknowles polycounter lvl 7
    Can't wait to see this finished. Your sketches are gorgeous!
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    ladyknowles, thank you! I hope I can do the sketches justice.

    Quick update, starting to unwrap the archway. I added a base to it and decided to just go with simple alpha planes for the chains. Shaved off tons of polys switching to alphas of course. I figured I can get away with it seeing how the scene will most likely be zoomed out a bit to fit the base rock platform thingy.

    Preview8.jpg
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    UVs unwrapped for the archway. Pretty sure everyone's anticipating this to suddenly be textured, so I'm going to lay low until this is near a finished state. More to come!

    ArchwayUVPreview.jpg
  • Oliver_Farrell
    Hay man! Thanks so much for the advice, I remember seeing this thread a while ago, wheres the rest???? Need to see this come to life! Love what you have got so far!
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    Thanks Oliver, glad I could help you out! Procrastination bit me really bad (accompanied with school starting) and I slowed down on finishing this. Unfortunately I also missed the deadline because of it. I actually have the archway open in Max and Photoshop at the moment. I guess I should have prioritized my time and I should have started back in November when the contest was first announced. I didn't realize how inexperienced I was painting (thus why it's taking me forever just to paint one piece), but I've been reading polycount every night for quite awhile and I've been trying to soak up anything I can. The archway piece is almost done, but I want to post it when it's ready! When I say it's almost done, I really do mean it. I'm just painting the base right now, and then I'll unveil it for polycount to pick it apart. ;)

    I promise an update very very soon!!!
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    Ok, so I know I completely missed the competition deadline, but I'm still game for the internship application deadline. :)

    Here's the Archway finished (for now...). I'd love to go back and add a little portal in the center and make it look active. I just want to move on at this point to another piece. I learned so much painting this thing, and I'm sure there's still loads more that I need to practice on. I'll probably go in and add the portal itself when everything else is done.

    ArchwayFinal1.jpg

    When I look at the color scheme that I picked now, It almost reminds me of Beauty and the Beast, haha! Pink crystals, like the rose, and then the cement floor in the castle if I remember correctly, with the carpet.

    ArchwayFinal2.jpg
    I tried to paint in some cracks around the bottom of the archway so it looked like it gradually ruined the base from the portal having too much energy running through it.

    ArchwayFinal3.jpg

    Any comments or critiques are certainly welcome, thanks! I'm super excited to get the tree unwrapped and start painting it!

    Edit: Oops, first time using drop box. Links fixed.
  • Orangeknight
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    Orangeknight polycounter lvl 5
    Looks nice, one critique for the rug/carpet it looks like it is kinda part of the stone. Maybe make that part of the normal a little bit stronger to make the rug look thicker.
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    Orangeknight, I can see what you're saying, it does appear pretty flat especially in the last shot's angle. The only maps that I used for the model were diffuse and an alpha map (for the chains). I don't believe WoW uses any normal maps, thus why I didn't make one. I could go back in and actually model the carpet out and make it look like it has its own surface.
  • Orangeknight
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    Orangeknight polycounter lvl 5
    Yes just a small extrude would be nice also maybe just add some more shading in the diffuse to give it a bigger shadow.
  • toxic_h2o
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    toxic_h2o polycounter lvl 8
    This is coming out well, I hope you see it through to the end. :)
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    toxic_h2o, I will definitely finish this! It was great watching your thread and seeing the amount of work you did in a short span of time.
  • Andy H
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    Andy H polycounter lvl 8
    Hello folks, I bring probably the last update to this project as well... The contest deadline was long ago and I want to try some sculpting for now.

    AndyHTreeFinal.jpg
    I managed to keep the tree down to 1,022 tris. It's 1x512 diffuse map with alpha for the body and branches and then 1x256 diffuse with alpha for the canopy.

    AndyHTreeFinal2.jpg
    When I had finished putting the base color down with the bark on the body, I went ahead and did the canopy afterwards. All I had at that point was just a huge body of bark and then super saturated colors on top. It was pretty off to me, so I incorporated the colors on the body by bringing the canopy's colors down to the little vines growing near the base.

    I also put some runes on the tree with that really saturated blue. Painted in the cracks of the bark too so the pattern would make more sense (cracked surfaces always look cool~). But anyways, like I said, probably going to put the project on hold for awhile because I'd like to try some sculpting now. :)
  • njc6425
    cool texture work, the leaves on the tree look a little flat but i like the overall texturing
  • Donavonyoung
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    Donavonyoung polycounter lvl 6
    This is very cool looking. I really dig the look of the tree.
  • Dysengaged
    Really like this tree
    I agree the leaves do look a little flat, but its really coming along

    I also like the overall design and texturing of the Archway
    (the cracks do work really well)
    The Archway texture it self seem to light compared to the base
    but thats just my opinion.

    Really looking good :) Cant wait to see more from you
  • l.croxton
    Opened this up and instantly thought of WoW when I saw it. So in terms of getting the right look I would say you nailed it for me and I am not even a fan of WoW lol. The tree looks pretty awesome, however like the others have said, maybe add some texture to the leaves, they look like they are a half finished texture with the base down. Also I am not sure about the branches at the top having the swirly stuff, kind of looks like a UV mistake to me. However I am not an expert on WoW so I am probably wrong lol

    Overall looks great :).
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