Other cities than Athkatla and BG...

[Valiant]

the layout is nice.

Thanks.

 

what i don't like is the adherence to "historical" accuracy with the palette. it's all variations of brown and is quite visually uninteresting.

And what I don´t like is colorful Athkatla, with color range through the whole color spectrum. The original art is great, no doubt about it, but I´ve seen many medieval city pictures, and I assure you, they are almost all dirty in brown variance. Not in red, green, blue or any color that "shine" through the mud. After all, this is my vision of medieval city part, as I wrote it in the very beginning.

 

maybe ash trees and granite were the inspirations for Obsidian

Don´t know what are you talking about. Never played Oblivion, although I own it. Only using it as a source

 

but that doesn't keep you from using oak and blue limestone

Yes, you´re totally right, but problem is that if you want to have trees with some quality, you need to use very complex models. And oak is on the top of it. I can´t even think about rendering time for the scene with simple oak. But who knows, perhaps I will use it in some other districts. These used trees have rendering time below one hour - I mean one of them. So I have to render area in parts and combine it in PS.

 

But I like your constructive criticism. It is something that force me to improve my skills and moving me forward. Thanks a lot Will try to be better with the next district.

 

to RavenSW: yes, it is whole area, not just sample.

[Lava]

So which one is next? Government? Maybe it's a strange question, but maybe there should be included something like "red street" - the smallest district where you could find some...pleasures. You know what I mean... it would be an idea to actually make it street - a street-long district. However, that's only an idea... another strange one, probably.

[RavenSW]

Red light district? Hmm interesting idea on that, could be doable, though it would certainly raise the rating.

 

Oaks would probably do well with the Government District as they tend to be a bit more plush

[phordicus]

And what I don´t like is colorful Athkatla, with color range through the whole color spectrum. The original art is great, no doubt about it, but I´ve seen many medieval city pictures, and I assure you, they are almost all dirty in brown variance. Not in red, green, blue or any color that "shine" through the mud. After all, this is my vision of medieval city part, as I wrote it in the very beginning.

your preferences should definitely trump mine, but i wasn't advocating going to the other extreme and making it look like Cirque du Soleil either. like i said, historical "accuracy" is fine but it's also ugly. depending on the wealth of the district, you could give some livelier color variations underneath and then splatter mud and stains on top. (contemporaneous art may have another agenda besides realism.)

 

Yes, you´re totally right, but problem is that if you want to have trees with some quality, you need to use very complex models. And oak is on the top of it. I can´t even think about rendering time for the scene with simple oak. But who knows, perhaps I will use it in some other districts. These used trees have rendering time below one hour - I mean one of them. So I have to render area in parts and combine it in PS

haha i didn't mean change the trees. i meant the color of the lumber in the buildings looks like it came from ash trees, whereas wood from oak would produce a different color. trees are fine, i'm still on about the palette.

[Valiant]

haha i didn't mean change the trees. i meant the color of the lumber in the buildings

Ok, but if you meant the color of the lumber, you should have mention it somewhere in the text. It´s not very clear what you meant and I can´t read other´s minds . I thought you were speaking about the trees.

 

Either way, I won´t change it, because I´m in the last phase - rendering. If you have some criticism, you have had plenty of time to before, when I was posting pre-renders. Now it´s too late.

 

I will think about it, when I will modeling the next district... Thanks anyway

 

...btw, resized night render...

[RavenSW]

Like this a lot, looks really sharp with the lighting, has the "flame light" feel to it. Very good work

[Kulyok]

Very pretty. Looks like a great place to be.

[Valiant]

Thank you

[begolf00]

Would you mind if I linked this topic to spellhold studios in their fourm. It would go under the art section. I think alot of members in the community dont even realize the great work your doing. Everything to me looks amazing.

 

How long does it take you to render?

 

What render do you use?

 

Just to let you know blender should support ngons soon and is getting a new rendering engine called cycles, its sort of like octane render. The developer is also using the osl shading language so eventually different styles will be possible. I assume your using max will you ever switch to blender eventually. Just curious as to what a professional artist thinks about the program? Could you use octane or is the memory limitation come in to play when your modeling your scenes?

 

 

Love your work

[Valiant]

First of all, my art is not so perfect as you describe here, it is far from it. Many flaws - e.g. color transitions, global ilumination etc, etc... But thanks anyway.

 

To the point - I´m not a professional artist, so I can´t tell you which program is better for 3d modeling. I´ve simply started to work in 3dsMax a decade ago and I got used to it. Never work in something else. This is the only reason I won´t switch to something else and will stick with Max. And I can´t tell what other artists think about blender, because I never speak to any other. I´m not a member of any artist community. Perhaps you should find some to get the answers you seek - I´m not qualified to answer.

 

And I´m using default scanline render engine, shipped with Max. If you want exact settings, just ask for them in PM. Also have Vray installed, which is faster with ray traced shadows sometimes, but it depends on complexicity of the scene, too... Whole area took about 7 hours clear time to render. I have rendered it in parts, not as one scene - to be more precise, the scene was complete, but rendering was divided into regions for faster render counting.

 

About memory - I have 4GB RAM, and have no problems with rendering. After all, memory is only for storing textures and polygon - vertex position. I would say that the processor speed and the number of cores is more important for the render time. Time is also increased as the number of lights used in the scene is growing... If even more of them have switched shadows on, then it adds another additional time to render. Globally, anything that can affect mathematical counting is adding some time to render process.

 

Btw, here are the final parameters for Market District - Scene Totals:

 

Objects: 919

Shapes: 7

Cameras: 1

Lights: 39

Helpers: 132

Total: 1098

 

Mesh Totals:

 

Verts: 1223378

Faces: 1804496

 

Yes, you can link it to shsforums. I do not mind that. Just write me back the link where it is posted so I can visit it sometimes.

 

Thanks.

[RavenSW]

Hmm, don't sell yourself short. Your work is very well done, and having known some textile artists(i.e. paintings) a normal trait for any artist is an overly critical eye to their own work. Not sure a true artist is ever "satisfied". Keep up the tremendous work, and I for one am going to be anxiously looking forward to the final product

[begolf00]

Hey Valiant this is the link to the spell hold studios forum I put your link to your work in.

 

http://www.shsforums.net/topic/48911-new-a...-being-created/

[Valiant]

Ok, I just finished closed door renders for both day and night version (won´t post it because it´s practically the same stuff that is already here...). From now on I won´t post here any new art material, until I create a fully functioning and playable IE area. It means all needed IE files (both .TIS and .WED files, main .ARE, MOS, and all auxilliary maps) with corresponding music and area script .BCS file. Of course, it will take some time - have to do day and night version, which means 14 doors. At least wall polygons can be saved and reused - thanks, Avenger

 

To RavenSW: please, pass all following communication between us via PM, or via IM, when I´ll install it. Not through public forum. Thanks.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Nice areas. You should add them to a mod of your own or those who seek area creators.

[Valiant]

Nice areas. You should add them to a mod of your own or those who seek area creators.

Already done.