Okay, it's been a while. Here's a new project of mine.

I'm using a Squaresoft concept painting as a springboard to experiment with simple, clean textures and parallax mapping! (but not overboard ).



Pretty cool. Now, I just started learning Sandbox 2 this last weekend, since UT3 just wasn't cutting it. So, here's a couple test props in Sandbox:


Lamp ~ 1600 tri -- 256X512
Barrel ~ 320 tri -- 256X256
Statue ~ 1600 tri -- 256X512
Sign ~ 900 tri -- 256X256
Enviro Sheets -- 512X512


Tell me what you think needs improving. Otherwise I'm just going to use this as a WIP thread as things come along. Also, I have two monitors now, and for the first time color/contrast accuracy is hazy. Anyone use a colorimeter ? (the difference between my two monitors is pretty crazy)

Are you handpainting it all of it or you are mixing photo source? I recommend having diff variations on the lamp post- one bent and other straight, just like the concept. This indeed is an awesome concept. I might do it in the future :P hoping to see more!

Originally Posted by Mazvix

Are you handpainting it all of it or you are mixing photo source? I recommend having diff variations on the lamp post- one bent and other straight, just like the concept. This indeed is an awesome concept. I might do it in the future :P hoping to see more!

Thanks for the advice, the multiple lamp instances is a great idea.

I'm using a mix between high poly modeling and sculpting on top of some hand-painting. It'll be tricky to get clean. There are still some crisp seams I wish I could remove, but such is the state of current normal mapping technology.

I'd try and stick with a basic color palette for your assets as a lot of the colors can be unified with the lighting. Colors/Brightness/Contrast look fine on my screen right now.

This piece should be awesome, given you pull it off

Wow good start cycloverid! I really like the cobble stone texture you made, and the wood sign is starting to look pretty pimp!

Lookin really nice, the pavers could use a bit more color variation like you have in the walls. Out of curiosity, do you know what the concept was for?

Edit: Looks like from the name of the file it was a chocobo's dungeon game.

sweet
i would keep the diffuse clean and as simple as poss for now, get the environment worked up with shaders then see how much you need to add

Originally Posted by cycloverid

Thanks for the advice, the multiple lamp instances is a great idea.

I'm using a mix between high poly modeling and sculpting on top of some hand-painting. It'll be tricky to get clean. There are still some crisp seams I wish I could remove, but such is the state of current normal mapping technology.

Why exactly do you habe those seams, got any closeups for us? maybe it can be solved :3

Looking good so far, cant wait to see more!

I'm loving this stuff, can't wait to see some progress!

I'm just going to post up a in-editor paintover. As I'm fleshing out details, it'd be nice to get a little feedback.



The terrain editor in Crysis is giving me problems, so that isn't showing up for now. The final cropping will be different, as I haven't figured out how to adjust a camera while looking through it. The red lines indicate some composition changes.

This is a big ass scene, so I've got my work cut out for me! I'll probably post up some props, as soon as I get a few more done.

Edit: I need to figure out something in terms of getting a higher res shot. Perhaps adjusting my monitor to portrait instead of landscape for the screen-cap. The perspective in the concept art is crazy, and I'm going to try to get some of that nice curvature in the models.

Looking good.

-Buddikaman

Great work, keep it up.

I love the sort of pastel colour palette going on in the concept art. If you can manage to get this vibe going in your editor it'd be nice!

Can't wait to see some more textures.

Looking cool
I'm feeling nostalgic, lol

woooowww.... this is awesome, keeping an eye on this one for sure!

Here's a question for you. On the face of the buildings are those floaters? (the windows doors molding etc)

And 2nd.....
not to thread jack, but what are the pros and cons of having floaters in the game engine vs a continuous mesh?

Originally Posted by PhattyEwok

Here's a question for you. On the face of the buildings are those floaters? (the windows doors molding etc)

And 2nd.....
not to thread jack, but what are the pros and cons of having floaters in the game engine vs a continuous mesh?

Quite a bit of the geo is floating atm. Some of the struts running up the buildings aren't. There aren't many downsides to using floating geo, it just saves time modeling. Your UV's will be cleaner if you keep it manifold, but for tileable stuff like this it isn't a problem.

Funny that you should ask this though. These particular props, if given a deformer to get some of that nice curvature going, might not deform correctly with the floating geo I have. It will have to be done carefully.

You are owning this dude!

Well this is a pretty pathetic update, but I'm thinking about opening up the scene a bit horizontally, so it isn't so vertical. I spent a good number of days figuring out the terrain editor (which I probably won't need) and playing with the clouds (can only edit by hand with xml?). There is so little documentation on sandbox2!



Too much empty space? It'll be a good day when I can stop blobbing paint on my update images!

Things are going to be a lot smoother now though.

Edit: Oh, and have a good laugh at the tri-count. Incidentally, my scene is only about 60k right now. That's sandbox for you.

Really great stuff. Super inspiring and I can't wait to see the end result.

Very nice! Inspiring.

This looks something out of Flyff, sweet work. Keep it up!

Shots for review are useless without seeing some wires. Let's see how you're making these assets as well as the scene itself.

I would try and nail your composition early before you dress the scene. Right now you're running with a pretty standard (read: safe) composition. This scene could get a lot of attitude from something a bit more dynamic (tilted camera, higher FOV, closer to the ground, etc. etc. All things you could try.) I wouldn't mimic the concepts view of this town, but instead use it as a basis for your building designs (which you have) then give us a whole new perspective on this area of town.

As for multiple streetlamps/variance in props: You could easily make 1 lamp that has a bend in it, and rotate it with each new instance that is placed. This way you'll end up with some straight, some bent, and all looking different - all while using one asset.

Are you going to fill out the left side (our left) of the building farthest to the left or keep it opened like that? If you rotate the camera to our right a bit, you could skip making new art for that and have that building (or tree) be what blocks the view past the little town here.

looks great.
really interested in individual asset shots

yea this is lookin lovely : )