Need advice building a scene from concept art
polycounter lvl 8
Hey guys,
I am currently planning a scene I will create in CE3. I will replicate the mood/layout of the below concept art, but I plan to do a more stylised variation (sort of diablo 3 ish), so the goal here isn't full realism.
I've blocked out how I think I could best modularise the assets to create the scene. What I am most stuck on, is the general broken wall that takes up the majority of the ruins. (as pointed out in my plan) I would want the appearance along the lines of http://promotional-tours.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Sirya-palmyra1.jpg
Does anyone have any ideas how to approach this. JordanW made some lovely walls here, which is somewhat along the lines I'd like to go: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2332694/Tumblr/MedievalOutpost/MedievalOutpost02.jpg . I'm not sure on his technique, but that's what I'd like to somewhat produce (more stylised however). Looks almost as though he built his walls with individual bricks, as each wall is totally different, obviously not a really optimised approach, but are we technologically at a stage now where this wouldn't be a big deal, and I could build each wall individually with large slabs?
Any crits on my current plan would be much appreciated. It's a strong weakness of mine. I'd like to see what others recommend so I know once I begin this project I have a solid idea of how to go about it.
Thanks as always.
P.S the pillar/arch etc, will be concepted by myself seperately with a lot more stylised character, I don't intend for them to look identical to the concept, but the placement of them and the general shape is the most important thing i'm looking at.
plan (sorry if its a bit messy)
I am currently planning a scene I will create in CE3. I will replicate the mood/layout of the below concept art, but I plan to do a more stylised variation (sort of diablo 3 ish), so the goal here isn't full realism.
I've blocked out how I think I could best modularise the assets to create the scene. What I am most stuck on, is the general broken wall that takes up the majority of the ruins. (as pointed out in my plan) I would want the appearance along the lines of http://promotional-tours.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Sirya-palmyra1.jpg
Does anyone have any ideas how to approach this. JordanW made some lovely walls here, which is somewhat along the lines I'd like to go: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2332694/Tumblr/MedievalOutpost/MedievalOutpost02.jpg . I'm not sure on his technique, but that's what I'd like to somewhat produce (more stylised however). Looks almost as though he built his walls with individual bricks, as each wall is totally different, obviously not a really optimised approach, but are we technologically at a stage now where this wouldn't be a big deal, and I could build each wall individually with large slabs?
Any crits on my current plan would be much appreciated. It's a strong weakness of mine. I'd like to see what others recommend so I know once I begin this project I have a solid idea of how to go about it.
Thanks as always.
P.S the pillar/arch etc, will be concepted by myself seperately with a lot more stylised character, I don't intend for them to look identical to the concept, but the placement of them and the general shape is the most important thing i'm looking at.
plan (sorry if its a bit messy)
Replies
Take a look at this thread: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81800&highlight=castle&page=4
Paroxum posted even some really cool timelapses that show how he deals with cliffs modeled as one continuous mesh. You could easily use the same techniques for your scene.
I definitely see your point. I guess my only gripe with that, is I want to focus on creating a stylized zbrush look. For example take orb's cliff walls (slight exaggeration) http://orbart.free.fr/Gallery/Images/3.jpg.
Also as I sneaked in the top left of my planning image, I plan to have the walls made of individual bricks, which I don't think will look all that appealing with a tilable texture, however I'm not sure that's the case, that's why I'm asking I guess :S. And that's why I thought JordanW's method could be a slightly better approach.
Tiled textures will look pretty good, especially with vertex blending. On top of that you can make a few unique objects and stick them into the tiled mesh.