SC2Mapster

Weekly Terraining Exercise #126

Hey hey!

I guess I'm a bit late, but here's the next WTE anyway! This exercise's theme will be simple again due to a tumultous week at school, more detailed stuff soon. The theme, "Lake", is relatively straightforward: I want you guys to terrain a lake. The challenge here is to make a lake that doesn't look boring; it's easy to make a big pit with water, but can you actually get it to radiate an ambience?

Good luck, and have fun while I slave on! :P

The Global Information/Idea thread for Terraining Exercises can be found here:
http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/terrain/14658-terraining-exercises-global-information-idea-thread/

@Cacho56: Go

Welcome to Mapster!

It's got flair, that's for sure. I like it overall, though I think the water could be improved. Maybe adding some rapid doodads (play with the scaling?) could improve the looks. Otherwise I think the settings will need lots of playing around to determine a setting that works well. Ideally you'd need to use a video anyway, since screenshots show the water while still which isn't very suitable to begin with.

Good effort though, nice work!

@Cacho56: Go

I think the first picture is the best by far. I'm not quite sure what you did for that image but it's just so much nicer.

Edit: I think I figured it out, it's the lighting isn't it?

In all seriousness though nice work here. I like how you have branches floating and the like. I agree with mozared though the water itself could be better. Maybe try adding something like water ripples around the lake.

@Scbroodsc2: Go

Very nice and original take Brood! I like how you've put several decrepit and broken structures inside the pit to make the water look less monotonous. Would love to see that finished.

Ahh, I forgot how much I loved these WTEs until I came back to the forums! :D This one went a lot different than I'd planned, since I accidentally turned on a REALLY bright fog in a REALLY darkly lit map... but I just went with it, and I think it turned out nice.

Don't let its ethereal looks fool you—this place is dangerous. Who knows what might be living in that water?

Now with extra fotoschopp.

@Sabulum: Go

That looks... Awesome. Go and make a company, and then a horror game with that WTE you made.

@Sabulum: Go

In full size those screenies are still fairly good, but in thumbnail shape they're just mind-blowing, man! I literally couldn't see whether they were SC2 terrains or CGI until I opened them up properly. You should use the right one as an avatar.

@ScrinKing: Go

I can't look at your pictures without seeing that 'falling' column in the background and noticing how much he resembles a little man falling who's sticking his arm out to catch himself. Overall not bad though, I think you got the water as good as you possibly can. I'm beginning to think that one needs doodads to cover some of the sides to make this team work properly though - a minimalistic approach like yours simply doesn't seem to do as well.

Edit: Actually, try adding some really small doodads. Small rocks, plants, that kind of jazz. That way you can still have a really minimalistic approach but break the 'flatness' of the area.

Thanks. :) Freak lighting accidents FTW, as it turns out. I think that post will be my crowning achievement, haha, it'll only go downhill from there!

@ScrinKing: Go

I love the water effect you've got going, and the simple fog in the background. I agree it could use some rocks or doodads though, to add to the "mountainous" feel. Also the grass seems awful vivid, is it meant to stand out?

But—wait. That third picture. Is that the sun peeking out from behind the mountains? That is AWESOME! Beautiful addition to the shot! :D I might play around with the lighting and try to accentuate that, maybe? Keep it really minimalist still, like Mozared said, but with more of a dramatic focal point? Just a thought.

@ScrinKing: Go

I think the water could use a fair bit of work. I'd recommend removing all (or most) of the texture roughness and substituting a small amount of mesh roughness. From my experience, it tends to look a bit better from a more horizontal angle.

@Sabulum: Go @Mozared: Go

I uh, did the sun using photoshop (although it wasn't much, I simply added a lens flare on a black layer and filtered out the black).

The grass was meant to stand out, but not in the way I've got it. It was meant to look more like thick curly foliage, or large amounts of moss. I need to back and fix that. Rocks - I'm thinking of adding 1 or 2 big ones in the middle, and some regular sized ones along the sides of the lake.

@Nebuli2: Go

I'll give it a shotgun

@ScrinKing: Go

However you did it, it's a very nice artistic touch. :) Hmm, makes me wonder how you'd go about adding a sun in the terrain editor... omni lights... circular doodad with the brightness turned way up? *ponders*

I see what you mean about the moss. You could try using a different texture in the same way? You know, edit the tileset in the data editor and add a mossy texture from Zerus or one of those other planets. Some of those terrains go together surprisingly well.

@Sabulum: Go

Great effects, excellent and unique look! Also very mystical

@ScrinKing: Go

Looks great but, remove the tree on the left, doesn't seem fitting or add many other Haven trees with small scale, to make it look like the mountains are huge compared to the trees.

Thought I might as well contribute to this weeks wte :) I wanted to do more but I will settle for this.

It looks more like a swamp than a lake but oh well...but here it is.

@sgtnoobkilla: Go

Ohhh, that's pretty. Nice thinking there, loving it!

@joecab: Go

Such a realistic lake with that water and reflection, nice job, the terrain would need to use some work, the ground to not be pure barrens but rather grass or dark (black-brown) soil