Medieval Street scene-uni work

[TimMehmet]

Hey guys, this is one of my curent projects thats due in till after christmas thankfully! So a decent amount of time to work on it.
Assignment is to basicaly create a contemporary or historic street scene, we've completed some concept art for it and now its onto the 3d bit. We are being graded mostly on our texturing/lighting skills for this one, the models apparently only count for a small mark.
Anyway heres a somewhat rough start of my scene, I know the windows and the doors all suck :yuck: but Ill get around to replacing them.
This projects being done entirely in 3ds max too (has to be:()

some crappy concept art and my first WIP render

[Oscaron]

Anyway heres a somewhat rough start of my scene, I know the windows and the doors all suck :yuck: but Ill get around to replacing them.


That's okay...in some cases, windows and door were optional anyway :) And chimneys consisted of a square hole near the peak.

Fun stuff.

[Meurig]

Looks like a sound start to me Tim, and that concept picture is really cool, I can imagine you getting good marks in the prep fields for stuff like that :)

Is your final submission a series of renders or an animation? Flythrough or something?

[bmckain]

Hi Tim,

I think this looks like a fun project actually. I agree with e textures to date but I know you'll improve them as you work on the scene.

I like the composition on image 1 best of all and I think it has a lot of potential. Will you be adding carts, horses, people, food vendors, etc? I can imagine that scene with lots of neat stuff going on. Alternately it could just be an early morning or evening scene with only one or two people and perhaps someone on a horse or horse drawing a cart.

Just ideas, I'm intrigued.

[TimMehmet]

Thanks guys, and yes it is quite a fun project :)
I believe our final hand in is simply a printed final render, we are expected to do some post proccessing aswell (fog, bloom etc)
Bob, Yep I do intend to put a bunch of detail models in, crates barrels, wheelbarrow etc. Incorporating characters would be awesome but I dont plan to make any at this time, Iv got a few other assignments that need to be done over the holidays too but if time allows itd be fun.

[Meurig]

If you don't have to hand in a video, you can comp some characters in. It'd make the scene look so much more alive if you did.

[Rigel]

Nice start; and I too think the concept artwork is lovely.

[PuG]

Excellent concept, many years ago their was a good example of a medieval dark village done fully in CGI online somewhere - can't seem to find it at the moment.

Look forward to seeing it progress.

[Mikala]

I'm with Meurig with adding even "cutout" for characters.
This should get you some primo marks/grades!

[TimMehmet]

Thats quite a good idea actually, Ill have to think about that one.
Heres a small update on my texture progress.

[BillS]

snicker....

1663

come'on... I can't be the only one that thought this :)

[DorchaMéaróg]

Soooo... Does this mean I can visit your medieval town and get discounted rates on Travelocity?

[Xiti]

can't go wrong with the traveling Gnome ;)...Nice scene though! Has a really nice Sven Daennart feel to it...I really like the way it looks. Hope to see more of this project as it progresses!

[Mikala]

Am I going to die? Don't be redonkulus!

[bmckain]

LOL@Bill :)

[TimMehmet]

This some weird canadian joke im not picking up on :p?

[BillS]

Well I was going to say Lemmings would look at home on it but gnomes work better on that shot. It was just the first thing I thought of when I saw the image... so off I went to find the Travelocity Gnome.

[Mikala]

Travelocity is a travel company that has the "Travelling gnome" an irritating little garden gnome that is always in some sort of trouble.

[Oscaron]

For a quick intro to the "Roaming Gnome", see the following:

http://leisure.travelocity.com/Promotions/0,,TRAVELOCITY%7C1751%7Cmkt_main%7C,00.html
http://www.myspace.com/roaminggnome

[TimMehmet]

LOL I see, nice :D

[TimMehmet]

A small update, now that my essays out the way Iv got time to work on this now :D
Cheers

[bmckain]

I can see some the textures are starting to come together. I'm anxious to see the next update.

[TimMehmet]

Thanks Bob, I havent really begun proper texturing yet because I still need to go out and start taking photos for reference. As this is a uni project I have to document alot of it, and demonstrate alot of the techniques etc, so atm its a bit of a longwinded process of getting it all written down. If its any good and the final renders anything to go by I might upload it as a rough tutorial perhaps?

[BillS]

I think you should :)

[Meurig]

Taking it through from concept to realisation, and the possibility of a tutorial?

Sounds like front page material to me ;) Also because I really do love that concept image at the top. Nice one!

[Rigel]

snicker....

1663

come'on... I can't be the only one that thought this :)

Yes you are.

I didn't think of Travelocity (maybe because I don't watch television). However, I was reminded of the travelling garden Gnome in the film Amelie!

[TimMehmet]

Ahh nice one Rhys appreciate the plug :)
Heres a small update, I need to start making variants for this brick texture now. Im thinking to do it with decals, make some generic sludge/crap and arrange them on the bricks.

[Kataar]

just goes to show what a difference textures can make on anything, looks very well done :)

~Jon

[DELTA]

Looks very nice.... keep up the great work!

[Taranis]

Vera Vera nicely done ....

[Matt]

Ya know seeing stuff like this always makes me wish that I had and knew half the stuff I do now, so that I could use LW and such in school and uni projects... Nice work! :)

[John Marchant]

Its coming along nicely. Those bricks though are not. If its medieval they did not have bricks like that then. They were alot rougher made back then and certainly not that color. The mortar between the bricks was alot less even as well. The stucco and wood looks good though, have you considered using normal maps with the textures as well.

Sorry i do not know max that well but i assume you can make and use normal maps.

Look forward to some more updates.

Regards, John

[BillS]

This might help some. Whipped it up in Genetica. A tiling 1k for some oddly shaped bricks.
http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/studio/2007/12/8-15-774408_tn.jpg (http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/studio/2007/12/8-15-774408.jpg)

Normal map is in there to.
OddBricks.zip (http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/studio/2007/12/8-15-774638.zip) ~10 meg

[Oscaron]

Yah...like the timber frame / wattle-and-daub. Jettying good too, tho I'd love to see more them project more on 3rd floors, etc and maybe a few bayed windows.

Check the following image, lower left for good rough masonry.

2393

The white-washed,even bricking, just to the right of it, didn't come until more modern times.

The protruding building in the first pic, at the top of the article, has brown, rough-hewn field stones in its foundation.

[TimMehmet]

Thanks guys, for reference I've been using some of these pictures, and the local town in Hertfordshire which has a good few medieaval buildings around.
http://flickr.com/photos/bexandrob/2050511468/
http://flickr.com/photos/sharpeimages/532133171/
http://flickr.com/photos/grytr/286292935/

[Elowan]

This might help some. Whipped it up in Genetica. A tiling 1k for some oddly shaped bricks.


Nice. Thnx. I can sure use this.

[TimMehmet]

Heres another update, gonna get this finished within the next day or so.

[Rigel]

Looks better and better all of the time.

[TimMehmet]

Finaly masterd decals in max! oh hurrah

[bmckain]

Well now, there be signs. :D I wondered how this was coming along. :)

[BillS]

Now this is really coming together!!

[TimMehmet]

Well worked like mad to try and finish this
Any crits before I call it final?
cheers

[DELTA]

Well, I just don't know were to begin... Because it looks Awsome!

[Meurig]

Very nice Tim! The crow is a great touch :D I would add more scattered pieces of crap around about I think. Bits of wood leaning up against walls, carts broken and/or with a few boxes on them. Buckets, and perhaps some trees in the background and the suggestion of plants growing up the buildings. These last could all be done in 2d if you just need it to be a still, and very effectively :)

Great progress.

[Alec Trevelyan]

Coming along quite nicely there! :)

[Woody]

Random thoughts...

- Need foreground lighting to bring out the barrels
- Pools of water in the street reflecting the buildings and/or sky
- Flocking crows around the tower top
- A flag flying from the top of the tower
- Open at least four windows on the houses by varying degrees-something tells me these folks don't have central air...
- More turbulence to the chimney smoke, it's very languid as is
- No iron bands on the barrels? They seem to lack detail without them.
- Vary the heights of the chimneys a bit, and lean them in differing direction by a degree or two
- Roofline silhouette on the foreground building is glaringly obvious that the roof shingles are just mapped on. Consider modeling a shingle and duplicating it down the edge to break up the silhouette.
- Debris in the road. Metaballs of various sizes that could be cloned about to represent
gravel patches or stone would be a nice touch, maybe even a cobblestone paver or two sticking up at angles from the center of the road.
- There is nothing green in the scene - quick ivy texture on some of the buildings wouldn't be amiss....

OK, that's alot of stuff, but it's a great job, and most of what I suggest are either quick fixes or 'icing' on the image. The atmosphere seems just about right, the slight ground fog is spot-on if you ask me, and the whole mood is just great. Good luck on the grade! Right now I'd give this piece an 85% You just need to push it past it's current state of 'good' to get 'great'! Push yourself!

[Pete Paterson]

I think your image has a great sense of atmosphere...and with Woody's thoughts, wow.

...oh, what about a rat?

[TimMehmet]

Thankyou all for the comments, and thanks Charles those are very good points. Time is really against me but Im going to try and implement at least some of those suggestions.

[BillS]

The biggest things that jumped out at me was all centered around the wood. On the houses it seems really flat. It makes the spec look wrong with no bump to break it up.

The barrel.. Woody got.
Wood on the closest door on the left again seems really flat and almost blurred
The shingle texture is stretching over the edge of the roof.

And what Woody said. :)

[Rigel]

Nice piece of work Tim. Good luck with your grade.

[voices]

Now i want to go back to the swedish Visby medieval week. :). One word... wet and muddy. Since they threw out their garbage, latrine and ALL kinds of stuff right out the window.... and dont forget a rat or two :). Definatly a good job. Looking forward to se more. :)