A couple of quick things:

-window colors don't work well. Stick to the dark ones from the concept
-the window above the door needs a frame
-even out the brick sizes of the arches
-that stuff on the side of the tower makes no sense. I imagined it to be ivy or something, but it's some weird kind of brick?
-i'd suggest some moss in between bricks. Possibly even a strip along the bottom of the entire building, by thirding. You've already got a strip in place on the tower anyway
-in general, it all still feels a bit too clean.

Looking pretty good overall. I agree the water just isn't doing it. Way too 'realistic' for the scene. Maybe more of an opaque turquiose like you said.

Honestly I don't even know if reflections in the water are needed. That's almost too much detail for this type of style.

1) This is turning out lovely!

2) It reminds me of the movie What Dreams May Come, where Robin Williams wakes up dead in his own personal heaven and it's a beautiful tuscan countryside made of paint.

I know you've heard it a million time, but if you would allow me be the 1,000,001st!
this thread is so inspiring!

Your progress on this is amazing, can't wait to see what it looks like when it's finished.

Hey jessica,

[i know it's still a draft, but]

I think the depth of the whole scene and the composition are currently looking somewhat flat, but that may be because of the off scaled flowers, me thinks. but it also may be the way the hills in the background are intersecting each other?
Either way,
When you do fix those flowers toss those things across the scene it will dramatically affect the scale of the scene and make it look larger. I would think about adding small rocks to fill the edges of the water with could also add more to the scale. finally, more variety in the placing of the trees?

the textures, tho... look great!

Elith, cupsster, Tigerfeet, TK Cale, GabrielP - <3 Thanks for all the encouragement!!

Thanks Ronald, yes, I still have a lot of worto dok ;)

jeffro, Stromberg90 - I will definitely look into post process, that's cool effects like dust particles and stuff, right? x]

Baddcog - Yes, hmm, you may be right about the reflections. I will play a bit more with the realistic water and see if I can't get it closer to the concept though. If it's just too clashing I will go back to the simple turquoise plane from before, which was honestly working out pretty nicely for what it was haha.

Snader, thanks for the critique! The stuff I had on the side of the tower is going to be ivy, although I don't know what you're seeing right now since there's nothing there yet xD I agree with everything you are saying except what exactly is not working about the windows? I actually want to make them emissive, hehe, I thought that would be fun!

Alberto Rdrgz - Thank you much for the suggestions! Flowers, everywhere! Rocks! Place trees more carefully. Will do :]

I was thinking of the post process chain in udk, where you can apply many different effects from changing the colors to bloom and motion blur.
I did find two tutorials that can be useful.

Post Process Chain Basics UDK Tutorial

UDK Post Process Chain Material Example

"particles is cool too ;)"

You shouldn't jump into any particles or any post-process effects at this time. Save that for last. Cause you'll be taking time away from small details that need to be fixed.

Remember to always go back and look at your concept! Of course not everything will be exact but pay close attention to the silhouettes because you have nice shapes in the concept and your losing a bit of it with the landscape. I painted the silhouettes for each individual form in the concept and compared it to your scene in UDK. The concept has a stronger sense of form and shape. Keep an eye out for that when you continue fixing certain things.

Also your lighting is a bit more cool in the concept while the scene has a much more warmer feel which doesn't really fit much with the blue tinted fog for the background. Its also not that strong in intensity so maybe you should bring it down a tiny bit or keep it the same in case it works. Also the direction of the sun is a bit more on the front and too much shadow is overcasting the house. However, quality in textures is still superb, so keep at it! Hope this helps!

Ooo, thanks a bunch Stromberg, I will be sure to check those out!

AyalaN3D - Yes, I definitely agree I need to nail my silhouettes first before any fancy post-process stuff. Thanks for calling out those shapes, and also pointing out the lighting - I hadn't noticed that mine was considerable warmer and brighter. Update coming soon!

Ok, update!

Took my last screenshot and did some redline - made it a lot easier to see what I should fix as I was working today. Thanks again AyalaN3D -



So here's what I have right now:



Still got a buttload of work to do! Need to add rocks and pebbles, wheat/canola, long grass, some bushes. Worked on lighting a bit today, but it still needs a lot more love, and the bg needs to fade back some more so I think I need more fog or something. Among other things. Cows.

Critique and comments welcome!
Jessica

Originally Posted by Stromberg90

I was thinking of the post process chain in udk, where you can apply many different effects from changing the colors to bloom and motion blur.
I did find two tutorials that can be useful.


"particles is cool too ;)"

Was looking for something like this yesterday, Win!


Jessica this is fantastic love the composition you have going on now.

Awesome work Jessica, I love where this is going.

Might just be me but I think the water's color doesn't really fit with the foggy background, I see the water and I think of a very vibrant skybox.

Can't wait to see the Cows, heh.

I agree with JFletcher, the lake looks a bit nuclear imo.

The waves normal map is drawing in a lot of hard contrasting colors which is making it very hard on the eyes. I'd probably go with a subdivided plane and cut the edge flow in a way that when it's animated it'll look like it's flowing in certain directions. I'll see if I can post up an example later.

*Edit*

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8394196/WaterExample.rar

Basic Map and Package file that should help you with your water. It takes a little vert wrangling to get it nice and smooth. I found averaging or relaxing the verts helps speed up the process. You can blend in foam by adding in a second UV set as well.

Oh Jessica this is looking wonderful! The changes you made to the landscape have really changed it from something nice but meh to something really special. Now it looks like the landscape is actually formed out of rock formations as opposed to a child's blanket that has been smushed around to make terrain for toys.

I think the water still needs a lot of work. I have to admit though I have no idea what you can do with it (I've never worked with effects) but if you can try to re-create the painterly style of your concept it'll stop looking so jarring.

Also, I think some overhang on the small cliffs in front of the house (bordering the river) would be very nice. It's like that in your concept, remember the rising and falling river will under cut the bank.

So this is rather epic. If I was a cartoon character I would totally live there. It's also funny to think about a bunch of hulking sci-fi rifle toting bad asses having a team deathmatch in the dewey meadows.

Really nice composition, strong foreground, midground, background. Maybe tweak the atmosphere a bit. I agree with the masses that the water isn't up to the level of the rest of the epicness that's all around. Do fancy UDk things, with shaders, and pie graphs, and uhhh tech-gravy?

You had better not be joking about the cows. You can't promise cows and then not deliver.

Ah, looking so cool!

A few crits/ideas:

Are the whites and greys on the flowers and leaves what you're going for? It makes them look very washed out and papery... Kindof a storybook vibe, but I'd go for much more saturated palettes to imply translucency.

Is the water going to stay this barren? I feel like the whole riverbank/water feature is dragging the scene down quite a bit, some free-floating rock assets and maybe some signs of an old bridge could help quite a bit.

Get some kind of a grass or trim that can hide the transitions between the building and the ground!

Skillmister - Thanks!

JFletcher - I'm going to make a better skybox for my scene, right now it's this really dull and cloudy UDK one and I definitely agree it's not working haha.

Gannon - Wow, thanks a lot for the file :] I will play around with it and see what I can learn. The water reflections are really bothering me tooo

Tigerfeet - Glad my landscape is not looking like smushed blanket anymore! And yes, I will work more on the front cliffs to make them look more affected by the water. I'm gonna add crumbling rock and stuff too. Workin' on that now actually! ROCKS 8D

Nerf Bat Ninja - Ah, if there's anyone on these forums that can make me LOL, it's you . . . but anyway, thank you for the crit! Still playing with atmosphere and lighting, and also I am not joking about the cows.

SupRore - You are absolutely right about the grasses and leaves - I was definitely not planning on leaving them like that. When I painted them I was not referencing the other pieces, I just kinda went at it and it turned out dull haha. The water now has a makeshift free-floating rock bridge as in the concept, and yes, I still need to add more grass in places, especially like at the bases of things like building and trees. Thank you

Will update soon! Invaluable crits so far, everyone, thank you much.

Looks great so far. Reminds me of a saturday morning cartoon. The trees are bugging me a bit though. Are they all the same size? Maybe some scaling could help them look a little more varied.

Haha yeah, the trees are all the same size right now. I will be creating some variations.

Hey guys, took a break from my scene to work with some props. Critique and comments welcome! Next step, export to scene!



And a chaotic wireframe shot. It's bad, I know xD I plan to have another sheet where I pick some props to show with their wires next to them:



Textures - there's a big gaping 256 that I don't know what to do with yet, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it before the end:



These rocks will be rearranged into a 512, not sure why I thought I needed a 1024 for them haha:



Here's the scene again, with some minor changes. Basically I added some rocks and dirt stairs, the second villa, and some subtle point lighting for coloring certain areas like the underside of the stream cliffs. With finals ending on Saturday, I can go full blast on this scene and bring it to a finish within the next month My personal deadline is January 14th, let's see if I can do it!



Thanks,
Jessica

Very nice! I love the grass, lot's of detail yet it isn't noisy.

I think maybe the sunflowers could be a bit brighter/saturated and have less dark edges, but that's just me.

The orange hue in the middle of the hay seems a little extreme, maybe tone that down a bit? Either way, cool stuff. This is coming along very nicely.

Looks really nice as always :P

The red around the straps on the hay is a bit to much I think one other think that bothers me a bit is that the barrels seams to have much greater contrast than other parts, makes them seem a bit out of place in my opinion.

The scene is really coming together

generally, i think a lot of your textures lack interesting hsv changes. they're reminiscent of textures started in black and white with color overlays.

your crate, for example, is very monotonous. every board is the same color, has the same values. in the scene, this makes it very uninteresting. and that, along with the barrels, is what i see immediately and draws my eye.

the barrels have a bit more color going on, but it doesn't look painted, deliberate. it looks like you added an overlay layer with some green and orange on it. that's a fine way to start, but i think you always need to collapse that and go in and paint them into the canvas.

not sure what the orange gradient is supposed to be on the hay bale, but it is coming off like a strange shading.

personally, i'd love to see the sunflowers pop a bit more. they're an awesome opportunity for some bright bright color, but they're the same hue and value as the tall grasses and the hay bale.

i think your grass looks good, but i would like to see it pushed a bit further. it also suffers from a bit of the boring value range. everything is the same greyish green - the highlights and shadows are just lighter/darker versions. get some color in there!

tall grass looks good! i like that you're trying to get color into the shadows. unfortunately, when you mix purple and yellow you get a really unattractive brown color, which in the scene ends up making the bottom look dead. more importantly, why isn't this shadow anywhere else in the scene?! colored shadows ftw!

same basic complaints with the rocks. if you removed the fine detail overlay, what would it look like?

Sectuars nailed it in his critique, you're very good at putting forms in place and have very strong confident strokes. That's really hard to do for a lot of artists. Working with more color variation is really going to help add that extra level of depth and push your work.

For your larger scene when you get back into it, Try tossing in more saturation into the shadows. Nice rich purples and some nice warm orange into the light.