Environment Update

So I have been working on the environment, but I was having a hard time of it. The concept art that was drawn up only showed me the cliff face, and I really didn't have much idea with regard to the rest of the scene. I tried a lot of stuff out, and soon decided that I would like it to be in a mountain valley type scene, with lush grass, and a larger waterfall in the background. I started to make this, but my knowledge of this type of environment was leaving me feeling unhappy. I was using reference, but for some reason I just couldn't make things work. Here is a screen shot of the Environment where I took it too.


I have been feeling frustrated this past week or so. I've not made an environment of this scale before, and even more than that, I have no knowledge of these places beyond any Google reference I can find. I said to Pol that I wasn't feeling this landscape, we had no concept art beyond the cliff face, and we hadn't really discussed it much. I felt overwhelmed by it, and Pol mentioned he had a few ideas. So I asked him if he would like to put those ideas in there, anything would help me out. Pol wasn't sure on why I couldn't get things done faster in this scene, it's simple really, he had travelled a lot when he was young, he knew how a lot of this would work, where as I havn't had such pleasures. Everything I added was a problem, I added deadish trees to the cliff face, and it turned out that wouldn't work because of salt water... how the hell would I know that? I didn't.

So as Pol had explained in his post, because he had experienced this stuff, he could plot the stuff easier and faster than I.

Here is a screenshot of the landscape from Pol.
So a lot has changed, it looks good and i'm glad it's progressed like that.

My aim now is to finalise the building, and texture it. I am also working on some detailed trees for the closer shots, and I need to produce some card grass. Hopefully I will have some updates with that soon.

3 comments:

Ath31as said...

Don't get disheartened John, life experiences do change the way we look at things but so does working out what DOESN'T work to leave behind what does, perservere and I have faith you will get there.

Jon Stewart said...

Hey Alison!
I certainly will keep on trying, it's not an option to give up and stop ^^ It's just really tough sometimes, and really can bring you down. Never mind, how are you?

Jon Stewart said...
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About Me

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I am a video game artist at Dovetail games, working on Train Simulator 2014, 2015 and an unannounced title. I also graduated from the CG Arts course at UCA in 2010 with a First Class. www.jonstewart.co.uk