Another Rough 3D Darksiders Scene Skewed Style.

[Cluey]

I want to know before I texture this if there's anything else you'd add to this scene?  It's a remake of the Fireview background I did along time ago, except this time it's going to be atop a hill as opposed to by some lava.  (The games set in a fiery afterlife).  I'll change the flat plain that its on to a more sloping affair.  Apart from that I'm happy with it mostly.  I just know the people here love to suggest things to add in.

Its a kinda club where the elite of the underworld hang out and get up to no good etc.  The lighting is all done, though I've yet to add in the lamps and torches etc.

[Dig]

Hmmm...how about an old tree trunk in the yard?
And a round window in the roof would look nice too

But those are just options, I think that you did great work :3

[fred]

It looks good, though it's hard to tell without texturing - some of the edges may be a bit too sharp. I guess you want the cartoony skewed proportions, and they add greatly to the atmosphere, only thing is the door looks a bit small compared to the barrels and the windows above it. Also, the lower spotlight could fade more gradually into darkness, depending on the light source, of course. But good job, I'm looking forward to seeing this textured.

[Cluey]

Textured and backgrounded now





-Added some stuff (Graves, tree trunks etc)
-Made it look as though it was on a hill
-Gave the railings a base
-Added steps leading up.

[Penguinx]

I don't know jack about 3D, but I really like the shapes you've got going here. Adequately cartoony without dipping into the realm of the ridiculous.

[fred]

I think the top one looks very good, but in the other ones the geometry has too sharp edges for the realistic textures. Either more cartoony textures or more realistic edges would fix it.Ã,  A little bit of glow from the already bright windows would also fit nicely with the glow from the outside lamp - right now it's a very flat light from the windows in comparison. Hm, maybe the lamp should be dimmed somwhat - it is very bright. I really like the roof texture and the background, btw

[Ali]

I think you have a really nice scene here, but it's spoiled by the texturing and lighting. I find your colours to be overly saturated and there are too many conflicting light sources that damage the composition of the images.

Don't get me wrong, I really like what you're doing and I know how difficult it can be to texture scenes like this. I'd suggest you consider the following:

1. Make use of wide, skewed angles with your camera as well as with the scene. The dead-on shot of the house is striking, but the closer shots lack focus. Also, tilt up to cut off grass rather than the roof.

2. Create a new, more intricate scene for the close-up of the door. The beams look a little too wide when we're that near to them. It would allow you to add interesting details and textures.

3. Instead of using lots of little spot-lights, try using just one or two. Don't worry about where the light should come from in the scene - it isn't important with this style. Angle them to pick out the details you're interested in and to model the shape of the scene. The bright stars are also a little distracting, you neededn't get rid of them (as below) but I'd suggest making them fainter and fewer.

4. Use vignettes where necessary to guide the viewer's ayes to the points of interest. Include some shadowing in the textures. Make objects darker towards their edges.

6. Choose a limited number of colours that suit the mood of the location, and be creative with them.

Here's an image to give you an idea of what I mean. You probably wouldn't want it to look so monochrome, choose a pallete that fits with your idea of fireview.

[Gregjazz]

A whole lot of 3D is the lighting. What I like to do is start out with pitch black, and then start adding lighting where it's necessary. Sort of the 3D version of how Full Throttle backgrounds were approached.

Also, experiment with the shadow casting of lights. Some lights cast shadows that are very defined and others (usually from farther away lights) cast amorphous shadows. Also, figure out which lights should be actual ray-casting (visually ray-casting) and which shouldn't. For example, the windows look like you have a shape with 100% intensity (or whatever that's called, I forget ). What if you had real rooms inside, with lights shining outwards to create this effect instead? Figure out when lights should be very mild and others should be intense. If it's spotlights, should the edges of the light be smooth or very defined?

Think about where you want the player's attention to be drawn to, and put your lights and detail there.

Ground is difficult to do in 3D, but with a combination of good materials, a good bump map, and good land-shaping, it can be done. I haven't used 3Dsmax in a while, but I remember I used to create a big, detailed patch grid (again, I forgot what they're called) and then create hills, etc. For the texture I would have multiple subtextures in a "blend" material. Then I would visually "paint" these textures onto the landscape mesh. The subtextures blended smoothly between each other.

I found that you have to use really interesting textures in order to make basic shapes less apparent. For example, I can see the edges of elongated cubes, etc., within the background because some of the textures don't have enough contrast. Also, make your textures specific to objects, not just a wallpaper--because otherwise they really do look like wallpapers. Nothing wrong with tiling, but take the tiled texture and edit it in a paint program to make it fit an object specifically--make variation, change the edges, make "decals", etc.

Start out simple and then as the shapes are how you want them, add detail, and don't get lazy about adding detail. Where the gravestones connect to the ground, put a pile of dirt up to them and around them. If the camera view is closer to the ground, you might have to create actual short grass as objects rather than a texture. There's a scatter command in 3Ds I used a lot for that.

Try to think of the 2D output as much as possible in the final stages of composition. In fact, think of it like you're painting the background in a 2D graphics program.

[Cluey]

Wow, I love Ali's edit.  In fact the concept art for another game (I was planning a Darksiders sequel a while back) was very similar, though not as welly executed >_<.  Vignettes are something I'll have to add in in PS after.  I assume you used a graphics application similar to PS for that paintover, any chance of a tut?

And thanks for all the comments and suggestions guys, I'll take it onboard.  I dont intend to use the last shot but I see what you mean about the edges.

Unfortunately I know little about texturing and all the textures are from an artist called Dave Gurrea.  Though I've always wanted to know how to do a blend material, meaning I could draw my own decals with alpha etc and then add them on for variety.  There was always a danger with having the textures too real for the cartoony style of the background.  I will have a go at drawing my own.  But I have a question.

How the heck do I export UV maps in 3DS Max?

[fred]

I never got really good at UV unwrapping, it's a large topic and it brings the process of texturing to a whole new level of complexity. Of course, there's no real way around it if you want the best results. I found these tutes that you might find helpful
UV tute 1
UV tute 2
UV tute 3
I find the last one particularly helpful. There are also tutes for a lot of this inside max. To export the UV map, can't you just save it to a file??

[Ali]

Vignettes are something I'll have to add in in PS after.Ã,  I assume you used a graphics application similar to PS for that paintover, any chance of a tut?

I'm afraid I deleted the files after I posted, so I can't show you the sequence I followed, but I'll describe it. You can add vignettes afterwards, but I'd suggest you always bear them in mind while lighting, then you've got a double-vignette pincer movement that can look super-nifty.

1. Desatutated the colours by about 70%.
2. Crudely atempted to get rid of the halo around the lights (you wouldn't need to do that of course).
3. Masked off the walls of the house (not the beams).
4. Used a light brown with a multiply blending mode to darken and weather the edges, and to simulate soft shadowing.
5. Used the mask again to do the same to the beams, then the door, the tombstones and the grass.
6. Tinted the midtones towards sepia and the shadows to browny-green. Instead of doing this you could just change the original colours in your scene.
7. Blended a number of (blasphemy!) gradients for the sky including a light circular halo behind the building. You'd want to take more care over this than I did - a few whispy clouds would look great.
8. Copied and pasted the (now dim) window-glass, blurred it and used the screen filter to create a glow.
9. Got a big ol' soft brush and used the a light grey with a multiply filter to darken the corners of the screen.

Im afraid I can't help you with UV unwrapping in max, I use Blender. What Geoffkhan said about lighting from pitch black sounds like very good advice though.

Hope that's helpful.

[buloght]

Hey, this looks awesome cluey, excellent. But you have to (you must for all of my kingdomÃ,  ) make the hill round and let the house stand on the top, . And make the graves extend in the direction almost-parpendicular (not entirely, it's too cartoony) to the hill where it meets

Great background.

[edit] Oh, i saw you said you will in your first post, well let this be a reminder then  .

[GarageGothic]

I must admit that I prefer the untextured version of the scene. The moment you slap on those textures (and the signs in particular, at least the writing should be as distorted as the architecture) it suddenly starts looking very fake and cheap. I haven't seen other art for this project and don't know how much you've completed, so it may be too late to change the texturing style for consistency reasons. Ali's take on the background improved it immensely, but I think handdrawn, more organic textures would also add much to the atmosphere.
It doesn't have to be very detailed, just take a piece of paper and some pastel crayons (I'm thinking bluish/grayish colors), do a quick crosshatching with some random suggestion of bricks here and there for the walls. Get another paper and draw a stylized roof tile pattern. Oh, and please whatever you choose to do, try to draw those signs by hand and scan them.