Embassy Gardens
http://cremuss.net/3d/shardbound/EmbassyGardens_Dolly.gif
This is “Embassy Gardens”, the tutorial map, the second map I did for Shardbound. We went through quite a lot of iterations with that one. The initial concept art, although giving very cool ideas and strong overall guidelines, wasn’t as precise as for some other maps. Just like with Sinners Mire, once we had an overall idea of the map in 3d, concept artists stepped in to do paint-overs and give Josh and I more ideas to toy with.
Readability is a constant challenge and our main focus when we work on these maps because, in the end, all the player’s focus should and will be on the tiles and on his units. The surrounding environment is here to tell a story and beautify the picture, but shouldn’t never affect his ability to read the tiles. In the other hand, both the tiles and environment should look like they belong together so it’s a constant battle between making the tiles blend with and stand out from the environment. Trial & Error was the key to success.
We did not have to bother with player 2’s view since the map is for now only used for solo tutorials. That was good news hehe. Just like Sinners Mire, for the sake of getting the map in-game asap, background was left temporary empty until a matte-painting or 3d background is added later on.
The Ivy and foliage were quite interesting to do. Since most of the scene was quite basic regarding tricount and material complexity, I took the liberty to spend quite a bit of geometry on the foliage. I love how much that green pops!
Some sculpts: you can see the king-sized balcony that was replaced for a miniature one for the sake of readability and playfield clearance.
It was the first time I toyed with Epic’s Pivots Painter nodes/script but the life it brings to the scene is definitely worth the trouble looking into it. Also added some falling leaves with a simple particle system.
http://cremuss.net/3d/shardbound/EmbassyGardens_Tech_1.gif
http://cremuss.net/3d/shardbound/EmbassyGardens_Tech_2.gif
http://cremuss.net/3d/shardbound/EmbassyGardens_Tech_3.gif
Again, thanks Josh for the immense support and help. I couldn’t be more happy with the result!