Hi every people,

Im currently creating a Japanese garden for my portfolio,
most of the assets arent really textured yet, im just figuring out what needs to be done.
Im hoping to create two versions, a summer and autumn:

Summer mainly green colours with subtle variations.

Autumn red, orange contrasting with the green.

Please crit away so I can push this !

Hahaha! Guess what, my friend - you are not alone in this project!

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79836

I look forward to talking and making critiques on each others work!

It looks like you are further along than me with your composition and setting. I am yet to have all that set in stone, but I'm very happy to see someone else engaging in a setting like this as well!

Tristamus: Hey! Aha a challenger! ^^ Seems like your going for a full level, good luck, Im just going for a scene a this point. Ill get over to your thread in a bit :p

Ive just finished the normals (just the baked normals here, have to add the detail from diffuse) and diffuse (still needs some tweeks) on the wall.
The inspiration is from saihoji temple in kyoto, ive yet to put start the spec.

That roof looks lovely, any chance of wires?
Good work, i have a huge tattoo on my leg that reminds me of this.

Looks good so far

One little thing : from this point of view the tile is pretty obvious and I can see a little seam.

Good job, looking forward to see more

Scotthomer : thanks no problem heres the wires (bit messy but im in a hurry)

Cremuss Yeah the seams are visible, Ill work on getting rid of them.

Ahh its not as high poly as i thought it was, youve done a smashing job of that mate.
Good work!

The pic of the roof with the wires, is that your low poly mesh? It seems really high to me, but I'm not that knowledgeable on the subject I guess.

I'm working on a modular wall piece for an MMO at the moment, and yours is way more high poly than mine.

Originally Posted by Hayden Zammit

The pic of the roof with the wires, is that your low poly mesh? It seems really high to me, but I'm not that knowledgeable on the subject I guess.

I'm working on a modular wall piece for an MMO at the moment, and yours is way more high poly than mine.

In the recent past, a lot of MMO's are lower poly, but nowadays they're way higher.

I think that poly's really aren't of too much concern anymore nowadays, as long as it's not completely ridiculous. Even for modular pieces.

^^

Agreed. I don't think I've run into excessive poly count being a performance offender for quite some time. Typically I've seen shader complexity and draw calls being the main culprit.

Agreed. I don't think I've run into excessive poly count being a performance offender for quite some time. Typically I've seen shader complexity and draw calls being the main culprit.

Awesome! I feel safe to up the poly count on my own japanese wall piece thing now lol

Kharn, my man, that is some of the most vivid and beautiful foliage I have ever seen. I want to know how you did it. May I see your texture set up and some wireframe? Maybe even a workflow if you're up to it.

Looking good so far. Loving the roof. Don't forget to add some cherry blossom trees in there

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Good so far, but get a sky in there seriously. There's nothing like looking at a nice level starting to take shape with no sky in to show the depth and atmosphere.

scotthomer: Thanks mate

Hayden Zammit: yes its true that if this were for an MMO the polys would be high, but for a classic next gen game I think its ok (plus for a portfolio scene its a bit diffrent again :p). Good luck with your work

popngear yeah like stupid amounts of opacity maped objects, thats going to be the killer performance wise here, I think.

Makkon Hey there, sorry to disappoint but its just speedtree, the textures are my own though. Speedtree comes free with UDK its simple to use, and you can add your own textures and models if you want. It seems to me lots of companys are using it so I wanted to try it out

JarlanPerez Thanks, cherry blossom has to be in here, its coming :p

Mr Bear Yeah, I know black skys xD Ive actually made it at this point Ill post some new screens laters.

Just a quick update on some assets, the bridge this time. I had the high poly model so I just baked it out. Now I need to texture it, its going to take ages :s
I though of having it painted red but it might stand out a bit to much, plus Id rather have the colours coming from the trees not the bridge. What do you guys think?

Quick update, sky, DOF and water added.
Next up more shades of green, replacing that stupid moss and adding some cherry blossom.

that could be really cool go on!

Another small update, changed the moss, tweeked the water and started adding other shades to the trees:

This is looking really good . The tree folliage seems to match the shrubbery foliage too exactly, seems a little odd. Also looks a little too foggy for a bright blue day, hard to put my finger on it but the scene just looks very realistic up to a certain distance, could be that the sky could use a little more saturation as well, though that could be a result of the fog too. The clouds on the right side could certainly use some definition, right now the white just looks odd. And if you're using bloom i would tone that down a bit.

Other than that the actual grass is probably the other big weak link. Everything looks rock solid but i think some actual foliage would look good on the grass, its just too flat and plasticy. Better still if you could put large grass in patches near the shoreline, though i hate to suggest that as this is a japanese garden and supposedly very well kept.

The bridge seems a little dark and oversatured as well. Draws your eye too much and i wouldn't call it the best asset in your scene.

Excited to see where you take this. A window or two on the walls would look nice and break them up a bit. I do like the empty surrean feal you get from the long stretches of blank wall but it just seems a bit too barren right now.

Edit: Those multicolored fish with the orange and white would look awesome swimming around.

But for all i know there aren't fish in japanese gardens, haha. So be careful with that suggestion.

NM i take that back!

Yes. Koi fish are a must. Koi are AWESOME and super cute. Yes. Cute.

awesome work mate,

this will be so zen !

im feeling this like where its going

Hi everyone!
Ive been busy lately but finaly got round to uploading some progress Ive made on this scene.

@crazyfingers Thanks for the comments mate! Yeah it was the DOF creating that foggy feel, I ditched that pretty fast xD
Ive changed the sky so that the clouds are at a better size, as for the grass, tbh it was suposed to be moss, but Im having trouble nailling the look of it. Also it will be cut up with paths soon, that should help with the massive green blob look ^^

The white wall will be getting hanging flags with the clan Mon to break it up.

Koi? you want Koi? you get Koi! =P

@Robbyh Thanks mate yeah I hope I can keep that zen feel

@Ack MasterThanks

I'm with Crazyfingers on the tree leaves and the shrubs matching too much. Some color variation between the greens would look nice.

Other than that it's looking sweet, nice work!

Rotate the directional light so that the bridge is lit. It could bring the much needed color variation to the scene.