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Stylized rock modeling, need help!

(Posted this up in the Technical Thread and not sure if it was the right place so i'll post this here...hope i'm not breaking any forum rule!)

Greetings, Polycount! Currently i've been very intrigued in the wonderful world of stylized and handmade art. I'm choosing to start of with rocks since it helps learn the modeling and software basics but feel at a very big loss.

The aim is to learn modeling/sculpting rock assets,structures, and surfaces in the style of Journey and The Witness in order to achieve a workflow for this type of asset creation. This styles offer a comfortable level of difficulty, helps focus on shapes, and offers a fresh, minimalistic aesthetic.
Journey:
journey-game-screenshot-8-b.jpg

Journey-Screenshot-Wallpaper-Scenery.jpg

The Witness:
rocksImg-05.jpg

rocksImg-06.jpg





Now, i'm tackling the task on blender since i'm a bit frightful of them zbrush/sculptris type programs. Here is my attempt at grasping the idea, seems like a pretty good base but not sure if the approach is efficient. The issue is that it looks like simple low poly landscape rather than a stylized concept. I feel i do not have much control over the malleability of things either.

lprocks.png

I'm messing with shapes by stretching and shifting them a bit to then place decimate and bevel modifiers. It seems like a nice direction but i'm pretty sure there are better ways to go about which i'm not very knowledgeable on that can bring more life and freshness into this. I have found quite a nice amount of tutorials but all of them sculpt oriented, is that the best route when it comes to create this type of surfaces?

This tutorial nails the type of workflow i would like to achieve in terms of producing this but i don't understand it completely.
http://adaptivesamples.com/2013/09/20/procedural-stylized-rock-modeling/

Any and all help would be very appreciated, Polycount!

Replies

  • fizz
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    For stylised rocks I think you could get away with how you're attempting it, but it would likely be alot easier to be able to sculpt. Zbrush's polish/trim tools are great for this and thats exactly whats been done in the 'witness'.

    There is alot of organic feel you get for free when sculpting vs box modeling.. zBrush is frustrating to get into but worth the effort - for now give sculptris a go, anyone can learn to use it in 5 minutes. Mudbox is easy too. Otherwise keep at it, find reference and bring in image planes if you're having difficulty freestyling it.
  • loki1991
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    i don't understand how he did the cliffs in that tutorial :(
  • kraed
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    Stunning, right, loki?

    I might just have to attempt sculpting then, will explore a bit and see what comes out!
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