FMP (Week 3) - Concepting & Style Tests

The majority of this week has been spent struggling with concepting. After the photobash I created last week wasn't up to the standard I wanted, I decided to do some more simple line illustrations of the main building in my scene, which I feel worked a lot better. As a 3D artist I struggle quite a bit with concepts but this approach to concepting I found easier as it was more technical and precise.

I concepted the outside of the main building and also the inside to show the intended layouts. These are the assets I am going to be making a start on first in my project and I will do a few more environment concepts later on as I branch out more towards the scenery.

During my meeting with my tutor, his main feedback was in regards to the shape and layout of my environment in the whitebox. He felt it was too boxy and not organic enough, so I spent quite a while re-arranging the landscape, adding more variation to the pools and ensuring all of the water levels were correct. It was important to make sure I did this now before building on the landscape more, as the more I add the harder it will become to change.

Later on in the week, I decided to carry on with the style test I had created previously. I wanted to experiment with substance designer and painter, so spent quite a while watching videos and tutorials to try and teach myself the correct workflow.

Although I am still quite confused by the programs, I am starting to get a better idea of how to use them, and using the default materials I quickly textured my test shrine to see the results I could achieve quickly. I was quite surprised by the results as I textured this very quickly; there are a lot of areas that need fixing but overall it is not too bad for the time I spent on it.

I have decided that I will be using substance painter to texture the Onsen, but I am going to be creating all of the materials myself and trying to give them as much of a hand-painted feeling as I can to create the desired stylised outcome.

Next week I plan to experiment with adding snow on my style test, both with vertex painting and by modelling snow.