I'm back from holiday and so is the WTE with a new theme! This week's subject will be: "The Expedition". As something I don't believe we've really done before, I want you guys to create terrains of any kind of expedition. Whether it's Terrans exploring a cave, a group of Protoss entering a jungle or Zerglings scouting a Desert planet, any sort of scouting expedition works. Simple and interesting - let's see what everyone comes up with.
Since I can't do this due to study, you'll just have to imagine:
an observer (edit: as in, protoss cloaked scouting unit) or two on an abandoned phaeton tileset planet. A few long destroyed terrain bases. Big sandstorm. That's it.
Here is a basic idea of what I was thinking, May expand on this idea and make it better if I have the time :) Also, annoying thing, decals on the ground wouldn't show in the distance at this angle so the lines are actually lots and lots of little cube doodads that I tinted yellow and white lol I could see this as the beginning of a custom campaign, in an old abandoned city that is starting the process of being overgrown. I also forgot the aspect of parking space between the side walk and the line but I didn't feel like moving all 560 doodads methodically lol... I also fear it would take away from the tight feel and the lines that lead your eye to the building in the distance.
Hi everybody! As it's my first post in a WTE, I hope that it will be not too bad :)
I saw this image like 2 weeks ago and I think that it fits perfectly to this subject. I've decided to put the least objects possible to recreate the same environment as the original picture.
A Hearty welcome to the WTE, I do hope that you have fun with this. Interesting choice to use the least amount of objects to re create the original image, I would personally fool around with the lighting to give that brighter hotter feel if your goal was to re create it. I am sure mozared will give you a better welcome than me and a few good tips as well :) .
Here is a typical Terran expedition throughout a Zerus jungle.
They have found a Xel' Naga site, but something lurks behind all this dense vegetation and it might have a great meal today ;}.
WargirlWargirl: Nice little ice cave ya go there Wargirl, main thing I would recommend is the skybox! I try not to let it get at me, but the black background distracts me personally from what ya got here. also, try to get out of the editor view when you take the pics so you don't end up with the weather points, or the start location in picture 5, or the rocks will fall here in picture 3, will make it look that little bit better :)
TheHolyArk: nice little Zerus jungle you got there, I personally love to do the vine effect on top of the camera myself, The fog makes it a little difficult to see what is going on in 1or 2 of the pics but I think that is the point lol :) Also the second and fourth picture almost gives the sense that you are in the eyes of whatever is hunting them.
And now mine, one picture, one camera angle, Gave yall a general idea of what I had in mind above, had no character, kinda bland, missing details, but now, ill just let it speak for itself :) Could not find anything else to do that contributed to the picture much. (Edit: other than breaking up the solid yellow line with some rocks now that I think of it, as well as 1 or 2 minor details) I will post the pic from above here as well to get a side by side comparison of how I developed it into something a bit better. Also on the left of the better picture, it wouldn't be a city without some graffiti.
The ice map exploring the cave and the protos SNAKE.
Thanks for you comments, i like the the grass on the road and the abandonment of the desolated city. I will like to see the final product.
Wow, this week's terrains are pretty nice. I could write alot of stuff about these to try to help. But in overall, just think like a checklist of this: fog (data), fog (doodads), main focus + second focus + background, ground heigh variation, texture variation, camera point of view (1/3 rule), camera field of view (if you focus on a close unit, you might want the background to be blurred; if you want a general view, you might dont want to have a field of view), lightning (doodads) (on crystals and light posts and stuff like that is great), general lightning (window) changes 50% of the feeling of what you've created, you must change it carefully depending of what you want, water (data) change heigh, reflection, etc., general terrain understanding (is it logic).
Once you went through all those, you're probably close to what is a good terrain.
This is quite well made. I like the water and reflection. I'll take this as an example of what I just said and go point by point.
Fog (data): I think your fog here is fine. It's just a little, and it's enough like that. It allows to see everything except the most far building, which in this case is what you might want.
Fog (doodads): I'm less sure about these though. I don't understand how there could be a fog like this one, static over the ground. If it was some wind effect passing between the buildings, it would make more sense to me. But even there, the buildings are so big that I don't know how there could be alot of wind. Also, I feel like the sunrays do not fit with the general lightning... It's kind of too much rays Haha. Maybe not if these were on the planet whatever with four suns...But I don't think this is the case. There are no shadows as well, making it even harder to see the logic behind the sunrays... Wherever there is Light, there is Darkness.
Main focus: It is the marines looking at the other groupe people. It's pretty fine, when you look at the picture your eyes folow what they look at and then you see the others. It's perfect.
Second focus: We've got here a bunch of repetitive buildings. I think there could be more work on diversity. I know it's not always easy to do though. We also have the stuff behind the second group. This is really good. It feels real. The bunch of stuff, the door, the stairs you made... looks really nice.
Background: Blue sky with some clouds, looks fine to me, nothing much to say. The general environment looks like if rained not long before this event.
Ground heigh variation: In this case it's "ok". It is possible that this city is pretty much flat. It could be also possible if you had made it with alot of heigh variation. In the case you want to make this terrain looks like an abandonned city where the roads are broken apart, using the random heigh tool on the road makes some nice effect.
Texture variation: In this case it's not really textures as there are doodads replacing it. But the idea is whatever covers the ground, is it too much repetitive? I think it's correct in your case. You've got the sidewalks, the roads, the lines as well that takes alot of space, the broken sprite on the ground for the road that kills any repetition, the water as well prevents repetition, all good.
Camera point of view: the 1/3 rule. I think this is well done. As your eyes will focus first on the big red marine in bottom left and then see the other group. The 1/3 folow the edge of the mid-left building from top to bottom and passes over the marine. The 2/3 folow the hole between the buildings right under the scafholder (i believe it is called). It creates a good frame for the printscreen, what you've done really well.
Camera field of view: This is something you could probably slightly optimise. In the camera's settings you can set the field of view. If you add a very little one, so that the sky and the far building is just slightly blurred, it would be great. It would make your eye even more focus on the main focus.
Lightning (doodads): I already talked about sunrays. But there is more than sunrays in a city. Where are the light posts? Any light next to doors? Does the marines' armors make some light? Are there any city board with or without light? I think you could add some more light effects in general.
General lightning (window): You should rework a little the lightning I feel. You really need the shadows. Maybe they are not appearing because of your camera's setting. But you need those shadows to fit with the sunrays if you want them.
Water (data): Your water is fine. It's heigh is perfect. Should maybe remove the shorelines. I think I would also add some refraction or distortion into the reflection so it's not a perfect reflect.
General terrain: In general your terrain is pretty good. There is alot of work in these buildings, plants and everything. But your circulation lights are kind of awkward to me. I don't think I would know where to drive if I'd go in that city...if you see what I mean. I think you could have more diversity into the signs...and maybe smaller perhaps. They looks big, aren't they? Look at the trash thing on the right and the sign next to it...if the sign is that big in real life, it would be huge, even a blind person could read. I like every little details here and there, the grass, the things over the doors, the stairs, even the kind of face on the left, I don't know if you really wanted that to look like a face... I feel like in general it lacks trees, rocks, and some stuff like that. Well, at this point I would give you 8/10.
First off wow that is some in depth detail analysis on an in depth detail terrain that deserves a response.
I agree with what you said with the shadows, I was having difficulty getting the shadows of the buildings to contrast with the sunlight effect that I created, for the fog, I removed all terrain fog and put some hybrid gas doodads were the sunlight was peeking through the buildings. I may get rid of the sunrays and the fog if I am unable to achieve the contrast of shadows, was more a last minute experiment.
I was attempting to have the building in the distance as the point of focus, but I forgot the human factor that human eye direction guides other humans looking at the picture, too many focal points, ill most likely do a little blur of the distance.
I COMPLETELY agree with the receptivity of the buildings, was attempting to break the receptivity up a bit but after 5 or 6 hours I got tired of it and wanted to show what I had lol
About the lighting, I personally love using lights, but I thought that it would not make much sense if an abandoned city still had power. Also I am constricted from doing the night shot I wanted to do due to the need to use tiny cube doodads for lines that light up when the multiplier is raised. (guess I could tint them dark yellow?) did that because ground decals don't show up at this angle :(
Was torn on if I should break apart the road too much, I wanted it to be more of a people had time to leave, it wasn't a all hell broke loose and cars crashed and buildings fell (had a monorail sideways in the side of a building at one point with the building collapsed all around) but I found myself surprisingly limited in attempting to keep the street clear in order to see the building in the distance.
Forget how to get rid of shorelines, mind reminding me how to do so?
Other than that, thank you very stupendously much for this in depth analysis, I will most likely work on some of the detail work over the time of this WTE, it is a refresher to see artistic terms used shamelessly as well such as the rule of thirds :) I was torn on the use of trees or not because I made the sidewalks a little too busy with light posts and traffic signals, a bit more logic in the streets would be nice I do admit. oh and the face was purposeful it was my attempt at graffiti on a city wall. Thanks again :)
You could probably break up repetiveness by simply changing scales, throwing in some random doodads/wall doodads, and adding some "high-rise buildings" using what you have now and copying it, and increasing their height. Maybe you could use a bunch of wrecked tall buildings (especially the new concrete HotS ones, those are so damn sexy) and add vines and such onto them, then shove them off in the distance.
Worked on it for an hour or two, getting the lighting right and adding in a few details. I will say it is already looking much better, took a bit to discover how to make the shadows more dramatic. I also made the fire hydrant a bit more believable on the right :)
Im fairly new also to the editor and discovering all the possibilities with it, I work a little bit on the terrain leading to the cave and found this protos SNAKE.
Worked on it for an hour or two, getting the lighting right and adding in a few details. I will say it is already looking much better, took a bit to discover how to make the shadows more dramatic. I also made the fire hydrant a bit more believable on the right :)
Pretty cool urban environment you've got there!
I really like the orange/yellow tint you gave to the lighting. It gives more warmth to the shot and it is definitely more dramatic with the shadows and all. However I feel the way the shadow looms over the 3 marines makes the shot feel rather odd? I find myself liking how the "Developed Idea" shot posted before had more clarity to the image because the marines (what i think is the emphasis and what everyone should be looking at first) were better defined in that picture.
Wow! Now your talking! Eh. At this point I would say the street lines are part of the problem and the texture on the buildings lacking clarity from scaling. But, well, you can't do that much about this. You got something really nice.
About the shorelines, I think it's in the Water tab of the Data. Find the water you used and look in the setting, somewhere is shorelines.
Very well done. Mozared will be proud of you. Mhuhahaha.
Thanks Thunderzak, I read over some of the comments and attempted to fix a few of the issues presented with the hour I had this morning. (oh and for those curious, this goes from corner to corner on a 200 x 200 map)
@ sgntnoobkilla
Personally cant wait to see what you come up with there, I love making snow terrains myself, very well done mountains in the distance, can be difficult to do.
So picturesque! The best! It's looking so good and less cartoony, I thought this was a real photo! Great job I love snow terrain and this is just awesome!! Do keep the map pls, I might need to have the exact same scenery of snowy mountains, maybe in the near future! Pls share if you are gonna delete it.
Weekly Terraining Exercise #135
Hey people!
I'm back from holiday and so is the WTE with a new theme! This week's subject will be: "The Expedition". As something I don't believe we've really done before, I want you guys to create terrains of any kind of expedition. Whether it's Terrans exploring a cave, a group of Protoss entering a jungle or Zerglings scouting a Desert planet, any sort of scouting expedition works. Simple and interesting - let's see what everyone comes up with.
Good luck, and have fun!
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/
Since I can't do this due to study, you'll just have to imagine: an observer (edit: as in, protoss cloaked scouting unit) or two on an abandoned phaeton tileset planet. A few long destroyed terrain bases. Big sandstorm. That's it.
Here is a basic idea of what I was thinking, May expand on this idea and make it better if I have the time :) Also, annoying thing, decals on the ground wouldn't show in the distance at this angle so the lines are actually lots and lots of little cube doodads that I tinted yellow and white lol I could see this as the beginning of a custom campaign, in an old abandoned city that is starting the process of being overgrown. I also forgot the aspect of parking space between the side walk and the line but I didn't feel like moving all 560 doodads methodically lol... I also fear it would take away from the tight feel and the lines that lead your eye to the building in the distance.
Hi everybody! As it's my first post in a WTE, I hope that it will be not too bad :)
I saw this image like 2 weeks ago and I think that it fits perfectly to this subject. I've decided to put the least objects possible to recreate the same environment as the original picture.
A Hearty welcome to the WTE, I do hope that you have fun with this. Interesting choice to use the least amount of objects to re create the original image, I would personally fool around with the lighting to give that brighter hotter feel if your goal was to re create it. I am sure mozared will give you a better welcome than me and a few good tips as well :) .
Hello!
Here is a typical Terran expedition throughout a Zerus jungle. They have found a Xel' Naga site, but something lurks behind all this dense vegetation and it might have a great meal today ;}.
+Ark+
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Curse PremiumThis is my map The Ice, exploring a cave with a few dead bodys.
Marie T. Freeman If you're too busy to give your neighbor a helping hand, then you're just too darned busy. https://www.facebook.com/wargirlmaps.maps
Spread the love join DISCORD
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WargirlWargirl: Nice little ice cave ya go there Wargirl, main thing I would recommend is the skybox! I try not to let it get at me, but the black background distracts me personally from what ya got here. also, try to get out of the editor view when you take the pics so you don't end up with the weather points, or the start location in picture 5, or the rocks will fall here in picture 3, will make it look that little bit better :)
TheHolyArk: nice little Zerus jungle you got there, I personally love to do the vine effect on top of the camera myself, The fog makes it a little difficult to see what is going on in 1or 2 of the pics but I think that is the point lol :) Also the second and fourth picture almost gives the sense that you are in the eyes of whatever is hunting them.
And now mine, one picture, one camera angle, Gave yall a general idea of what I had in mind above, had no character, kinda bland, missing details, but now, ill just let it speak for itself :) Could not find anything else to do that contributed to the picture much. (Edit: other than breaking up the solid yellow line with some rocks now that I think of it, as well as 1 or 2 minor details) I will post the pic from above here as well to get a side by side comparison of how I developed it into something a bit better. Also on the left of the better picture, it wouldn't be a city without some graffiti.
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Curse PremiumThe ice map exploring the cave and the protos SNAKE.
Thanks for you comments, i like the the grass on the road and the abandonment of the desolated city. I will like to see the final product.
Marie T. Freeman If you're too busy to give your neighbor a helping hand, then you're just too darned busy. https://www.facebook.com/wargirlmaps.maps
Spread the love join DISCORD
https://discord.gg/Jtzt8Su
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Curse PremiumWow, this week's terrains are pretty nice. I could write alot of stuff about these to try to help. But in overall, just think like a checklist of this: fog (data), fog (doodads), main focus + second focus + background, ground heigh variation, texture variation, camera point of view (1/3 rule), camera field of view (if you focus on a close unit, you might want the background to be blurred; if you want a general view, you might dont want to have a field of view), lightning (doodads) (on crystals and light posts and stuff like that is great), general lightning (window) changes 50% of the feeling of what you've created, you must change it carefully depending of what you want, water (data) change heigh, reflection, etc., general terrain understanding (is it logic).
Once you went through all those, you're probably close to what is a good terrain.
@joecab: Go
This is quite well made. I like the water and reflection. I'll take this as an example of what I just said and go point by point.
Working on projects:
First off wow that is some in depth detail analysis on an in depth detail terrain that deserves a response.
I agree with what you said with the shadows, I was having difficulty getting the shadows of the buildings to contrast with the sunlight effect that I created, for the fog, I removed all terrain fog and put some hybrid gas doodads were the sunlight was peeking through the buildings. I may get rid of the sunrays and the fog if I am unable to achieve the contrast of shadows, was more a last minute experiment.
I was attempting to have the building in the distance as the point of focus, but I forgot the human factor that human eye direction guides other humans looking at the picture, too many focal points, ill most likely do a little blur of the distance.
I COMPLETELY agree with the receptivity of the buildings, was attempting to break the receptivity up a bit but after 5 or 6 hours I got tired of it and wanted to show what I had lol
About the lighting, I personally love using lights, but I thought that it would not make much sense if an abandoned city still had power. Also I am constricted from doing the night shot I wanted to do due to the need to use tiny cube doodads for lines that light up when the multiplier is raised. (guess I could tint them dark yellow?) did that because ground decals don't show up at this angle :(
Was torn on if I should break apart the road too much, I wanted it to be more of a people had time to leave, it wasn't a all hell broke loose and cars crashed and buildings fell (had a monorail sideways in the side of a building at one point with the building collapsed all around) but I found myself surprisingly limited in attempting to keep the street clear in order to see the building in the distance.
Forget how to get rid of shorelines, mind reminding me how to do so?
Other than that, thank you very stupendously much for this in depth analysis, I will most likely work on some of the detail work over the time of this WTE, it is a refresher to see artistic terms used shamelessly as well such as the rule of thirds :) I was torn on the use of trees or not because I made the sidewalks a little too busy with light posts and traffic signals, a bit more logic in the streets would be nice I do admit. oh and the face was purposeful it was my attempt at graffiti on a city wall. Thanks again :)
You could probably break up repetiveness by simply changing scales, throwing in some random doodads/wall doodads, and adding some "high-rise buildings" using what you have now and copying it, and increasing their height. Maybe you could use a bunch of wrecked tall buildings (especially the new concrete HotS ones, those are so damn sexy) and add vines and such onto them, then shove them off in the distance.
Worked on it for an hour or two, getting the lighting right and adding in a few details. I will say it is already looking much better, took a bit to discover how to make the shadows more dramatic. I also made the fire hydrant a bit more believable on the right :)
@joecab: Go
Looking good, but I'd probably turn down the specular settings a tad bit. It's making the units look like they're made out of plastic.
Anyways, not quite done yet, but I thought I'd post a small sneak peek.
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Curse PremiumIm fairly new also to the editor and discovering all the possibilities with it, I work a little bit on the terrain leading to the cave and found this protos SNAKE.
Marie T. Freeman If you're too busy to give your neighbor a helping hand, then you're just too darned busy. https://www.facebook.com/wargirlmaps.maps
Spread the love join DISCORD
https://discord.gg/Jtzt8Su
Pretty cool urban environment you've got there!
I really like the orange/yellow tint you gave to the lighting. It gives more warmth to the shot and it is definitely more dramatic with the shadows and all. However I feel the way the shadow looms over the 3 marines makes the shot feel rather odd? I find myself liking how the "Developed Idea" shot posted before had more clarity to the image because the marines (what i think is the emphasis and what everyone should be looking at first) were better defined in that picture.
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Curse Premium@joecab: Go
Wow! Now your talking! Eh. At this point I would say the street lines are part of the problem and the texture on the buildings lacking clarity from scaling. But, well, you can't do that much about this. You got something really nice.
About the shorelines, I think it's in the Water tab of the Data. Find the water you used and look in the setting, somewhere is shorelines.
Very well done. Mozared will be proud of you. Mhuhahaha.
Working on projects:
@joecab: Go
Awesome. Wish I had time to create something this week too :O
Thanks Thunderzak, I read over some of the comments and attempted to fix a few of the issues presented with the hour I had this morning. (oh and for those curious, this goes from corner to corner on a 200 x 200 map)
@ sgntnoobkilla
Personally cant wait to see what you come up with there, I love making snow terrains myself, very well done mountains in the distance, can be difficult to do.
@TheHolyArk: Go
The lighting seems a little strange to me but the terrain you've made is awesome.
@joecab: Go
Looks quite good, well done with the road and buildings, realistically made.
@sgtnoobkilla: Go
So picturesque! The best! It's looking so good and less cartoony, I thought this was a real photo! Great job I love snow terrain and this is just awesome!! Do keep the map pls, I might need to have the exact same scenery of snowy mountains, maybe in the near future! Pls share if you are gonna delete it.