I want to make a town [Environment Portfolio piece]
interpolator
A little about myself: I'm serious about getting a job in the games industry. I'm not put off by the competition needed to get in. I just want to do a job I enjoy doing.
For the past few days though, I've kinda been slacking off. Mostly because I didn't feel motivated after relentlessly learning texture mapping. Today though, I came up with an idea I've wanted to do for a long time. To do little projects based on stories I have. That way, I'll always have a goal to fulfill and wont feel bored doing it.
My first project is a town from a story I came up with. I've created a prototype that is only to serve as a guide (this is not final! I will fix proportions in the final piece).
The brown boxes are suppose to be generic houses/buildings. The pink box is suppose to be a special building crucial to the story. I haven't decided on the final number of houses, they're just placeholders.
The yellow square is suppose to hold a plaza. I'm thinking of filling it with trees and maybe a water fountain.
There are two ships. One is parked next to a dock. Another is hiding on the side of the island.
I'm not going to be over ambitious with this so the final result will definitely be low poly with lots of repeating assets.
For the past few days though, I've kinda been slacking off. Mostly because I didn't feel motivated after relentlessly learning texture mapping. Today though, I came up with an idea I've wanted to do for a long time. To do little projects based on stories I have. That way, I'll always have a goal to fulfill and wont feel bored doing it.
My first project is a town from a story I came up with. I've created a prototype that is only to serve as a guide (this is not final! I will fix proportions in the final piece).
The brown boxes are suppose to be generic houses/buildings. The pink box is suppose to be a special building crucial to the story. I haven't decided on the final number of houses, they're just placeholders.
The yellow square is suppose to hold a plaza. I'm thinking of filling it with trees and maybe a water fountain.
There are two ships. One is parked next to a dock. Another is hiding on the side of the island.
I'm not going to be over ambitious with this so the final result will definitely be low poly with lots of repeating assets.
Replies
The style is suppose to be cartoony mixed with realism.
There aren't any roads per se. The idea is it's a tiny island with less than 500 people located in the middle of nowhere so transportation is not a big issue. There's going to be a beach and some rocky pavement though.
As for references, I'm still gathering some but you should expect something very close to this.
http://wiki.polycount.com/ModularMountAndBlade
Hope that helps, good luck with the project!
Here are the two ship concepts. One is a paddle steamer, the other will be an ironclad.
I think you are underestimating just how much work it would be to build a full little town here. If I were you, I'd consider making picking a single, small location within that city to focus on...and *maybe* add some low res buildings in the background to sell the idea of being in a larger city...but with all the focus in a smaller area.
If this is intended to be a portfolio piece to help you get a studio job, a smaller, well polished environment will show much better than a ginormous, empty one.
For example, I don't think I'll need that many houses where the beach is. I rather replace them with just 2 or 3 shacks to sell the idea that's where "fishermen" live. Or it's for boat rental services.
The island also isn't going to look like a big "block". I'm going to change it to make it look more "octagonal" with more natural land formations.
The final result will definitely be more tightly knit. I never intended for the town to be too grossly populated. The pictures posted was just to capture the overall aesthetics.
Done right you can easily populate this size, the size of my latest project is probably bigger than this scope :P However, proper planning and groundwork is needed.
But yes, if you're not used to making bigger things it's better off to start off small and focused on nice detail, it's hard enough to make one good-looking building. Making a town of them is trickier and usually a real time-sink.
I'm in complete awe with St Pierre and Miquelon. The buildings are EXACTLY how I imagined my island's own to look like. I'm also going to take pointers from the rock of Gibraltar.
im not a fan of giving negative feedback but i have to say you may be stretching yourself way to thin, if you think you can do it please prove us all wrong but as others have said you would be much better polishing off a small section of the town to a high standard.
Doing a small section will still be a tonne of work especially if you are going for that clustered tier look, my other thing i would say is you dont have that much reference you need aloooooooot more and then even more as your planning to do an entire island.
Dont want to dispirit you but just a heads up to just how much work your setting yourself if your planning to go to the level of detail of say a Gears of War environment.
And lastly if you do go ahead with this i wish you all the best and keep it as modular as possible
Again, the island is far from massive and I said in the beginning it was going to be "low poly" so going to the details of Gears would be insane.
By keeping this thread alive and constantly posting updates, I am hoping to prove I know what I'm doing.
As for references, there's actually more but I cut them out to keep the file size small (1.5mb). But I don't feel I need more as it's not the production of a whole video game.
I've been using this opportunity as a "I learn as a go" to better complete the island (as I want to give it bump maps and spec maps).
-I've switched to real world units. The island is around 700 meters squared.
-The town has less buildings than the prototype.
-Still playing around with the object placement.
-Will be adding a small forest along with some rocks for the beach.
I'm going to draw up fully coloured concepts of what each area will look like next.