WIP: Tavern

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    A quick introduction about myself:
    I am Ola, 30, Norway. I've been working in the TV/video/movie business for 15 years, specifically in post-production and color grading, but I have now changed my course to doing 3D art full time. I currently work at an animation studio and do mostly modeling and texturing, among other things. Some day it would be fun to work with game development too!

    I've made a few mods for a couple of games, and really enjoy the process of making something from nothing, into a piece of visual appeal.

    Here's me at the old job in my studio
    color grading

    And this is the most recent picture I could find, from 2015
    this is me

    I've done 3D renders as a hobby since I was a teenager but I've hardly modeled anything on my own, not until I stopped working and went back to school to really dive into 3D, and the year after took a one-year course in game-design.

    Fast forward to today, it so happens I've been playing Sid Meier's Pirates! lately and felt inspired to model a tavern.

    So far I've only got the bare blocking of the model and have sculpted details on the stairs.

    blocking

    sculpt of stairs

    Then I found out about this game today and WOW! The music, the atmospheric sounds, the visuals.. I'm in awe!! It will be perfect to get even more inspiration!

    I hope the tavern will look like something that could fit within the world of Sea of Thieves at some point :)

    Now, I wish I had the Sea of Thieves soundtrack to get even more inspired!

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  • Bertogy
    Ship Mate
    Founder

    @TigerOla Nice progress! I loved playing Sid Meier's Pirates! too.

  • Rum Sam
    Master
    Founder

    Can't wait to see more! Great work

  • RmDirSlashF
    Commander

    Very nice details, what kind of material/shader is that on the 2nd image?

    In case you missed it, here is a presentation that Ryan Stevenson (Art Director) did a few months ago :

  • NateFrog1984
    Founder

    Nice work! Can't wait to see more.

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    Woah I didn't expect much traffic and replies even at an early stage like I am now. :) Thank you guys!

    Thanks for the link RmDirSlahsF! I'll have a look at it :)
    The first one is Modo, where I do all my modeling and UV's. The second is Zbrush, where I take things up a notch to add details and break things up to look worn and torn. I've never done wood work like this before, and frankly I'm pretty new to Zbrush even though I sculpted rocks, stones, reefs and mountains for a couple of months at work. Soft materials like wood is quite new to me. :)

    Thanks Clumsy George, I'll look for Aaron!

  • DHG IXxRMACxXI
    Marauder
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @TigerOla very nice work mate! I still have no artistic talent whatsoever so I get severely envious of people that can design.

  • GotGabriele
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Good luck with your model. I also use Zbrush from time to time, to add details, but 3ds max for the general shape. ^^

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    I added some more info and introduction about myself to the opening post. Thought it might give some more substance to this little 'showroom', who I am and in general the progress of this little tavern piece :)

  • KermitDFrog388
    Master
    Founder

    Ahoy! Very nice job! I cant tell you are extremely talented sir. I am sure RARE already saw this! The stairs look like they can easily be a part of the game design!

  • Crystigma
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @TigerOla I'm glad you can use your passion outside of work and I can agree with you the game is beautiful, nice progress so far decently let me know when your done

  • Crystigma
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @theaaronleigh @optimalmatrix @kattruewalker thought you guys might like this thread

  • noodlevampire
    Marauder
    Founder

    What an excellent start to a great build. Since you put so much effort into that (admittedly beautiful) woodwork, are you going for a high-poly design? Will you be doing atmospheric work?
    I love this. I can't afford ZBrush and I'm always to busy to learn Blender. Fantastic job. Keep us updated with progress shots. :)

  • Crystigma
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @katttruewalker

  • Crystigma
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @opticalmatrix @runic you guys might like this thread

  • Pikaaroon
    Master
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    Ahhhh so this is what you meant by being recommended to find me from the forum.

    To everyone that tagged me, thanks! I'm flattered but it would appear @TigerOla's skills are on a whole other level to my own as I'm a newbie to almost every aspect of 3D modelling haha

    For clarification, I'm currently studying Game Design at a Diploma level and although the course does touch on things like modelling, animation etc. It's more specifically focused on the design process as a whole. Making sure all the pieces cohesively stick together to form a smooth gaming experience for the player. It involves a lot of group work and collaboration to make sure every discipline works towards a common goal.

    ... And I love it!

    Really impressed with the Tavern block out thus far, bud! Look forward to tracking your progress.

    Keep up the good work! 😁

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    True, @TheAaronLeigh :) The gamedesign process has little to do with the 'physical' modeling of things. I learned that the hard way the year I studied game design. Basically the brochure was a bit off, and I imagined I'd be learning how to make assets and make them come to life in games, but it was merely designing the games, what rules apply if this or that condition is met etc.

    Don't get me wrong - it was very interesting and it opened my eyes to game development, and I want to get even deeper involved in making games at some point!

    I'm not a designer. I can't draw for the life of me. But I love making 3D models and textures. :) I can show some other things I've made at a later time. I've mostly done realistic models, never done anything stylistic or cartoon looking stuff really. Not sure yet how this is gonna turn out.

    And thanks for the encouraging words you guys! I really want to make this tavern great!

    I'm making this as a high poly mesh first, and in the long run I may retopo the meshes to make it as a low poly game-ready project and set it up in Unreal Engine. That would be fun!

    Perhaps you guys want to help me find a good name for the tavern? To an extent that may also help inspire me on how to shape the exterior or some central piece in the tavern's deco!

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    A bit of a setback. I encountered some pieces that were hard to fit together. I'm going back to square 1 and will make it modular.

    I did game dev studies, and I didn't even consider making this modular from the beginning. Time to give me a real beating. (:

    I'll be back when I can show you some modules, all lining up to the grid! :)
    And I will for sure make it game-ready from the get go and bring it into Unreal!

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    Just letting you guys know I'm not dead, nor have I abandoned this little side project. I'm just super busy with work, packing and soon, moving to a new apartment. Barely have any free time.

    After the move I will hopefully have more time to do things like this after work hours. :)

    I have investigated a little, tested and made some thoughts on how to make this modular. Some pieces can be done modular, others not so much. A lot of thought goes into making things that seem simple!

  • DHG IXxRMACxXI
    Marauder
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @TigerOla well I'm glad to hear your not dead so that's a good start! Take your time, do what you need to do, the forums will be here for quite some time to come!

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @TigerOla Good luck with your move and looking forward to seeing more of your work!

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    A far too long wait for those of you who had hoped I'd be done with the tavern by now. But no, I've not had time to continue!

    After the move, we started crunch time at work, and there's been months of overtime to get the movie done on time. It's not pirates, but at least it's boats, water and digging for treasures.

    After seeing more videos and art from the game, I'd like to pursue this to fit more with the style of the game, and leave that 'hyper realism' I was aiming for in the beginning.

    Until then and for what it's worth, here's a trailer of the movie I was part of completing recently.

  • ShadoukenXTM

    @tigerola

    That's awesome! I'm a game development student, but I'm based more on design of the environment, writing of narratives and learning the 3D art. Really love doing these things as everything one imagines is possible to bring to life. Do you have more artwork to share? I'm curious! I'm still learning about the art, but design psychology, level-design and music production, are the things I'm most focused on at the moment. Btw, listening to fantasy orchestral music is one of the things I do to get inspired too xD

    Cheers mate!

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @tigerola

    Aww, loved that so much I went and watched the 2nd trailer!

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    @katttruewalker @shadoukenxtm

    Thank you so much! :)

    I have an ArtStation, but it's VERY outdated because I've been working on this animated movie since June last year. I hope I am allowed to update my portfolio when the movie is released, with all the stuff I did on the movie, ranging from modeling to textures, to shading, lighting and rendering. :)

    Here's my artstation profile.

    Ola Haldor Solvik Voll

    Ola Haldor Solvik Voll

    Interested in all things visual 🎨

  • SpecialAdvisor
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    Very impressive work!

  • ShadoukenXTM

    @tigerola

    That's okay mate, don't worry about it. I actually like the work in your art station. I especially like the cartoony or low-poly and stylized stuff such as the on on this link from your art station.

    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lZbda

    I simply love old-looking things such as in Skyrim. I'm actually starting off this week by making a slow beginning on making an entire world design based on the looks of Skyrim. I'm having lots of trouble though with texturing and understanding it. I'm not an artist myself, so I can't really sketch anything before I model it - but I guess I can always use other references.

    Here are a few examples, which are not my own work, of what type of modeling I'd love to learn:

    As you can see, at the moment I'm very much into learning low-poly and stylized modeling with an ancient/medieval look. Any good tips where to learn them? Here's what I've started with a long time ago. These were the first works I've ever made actually, last year.

    If you have any tips whatsoever, let me know! I mainly use 3ds Max when it comes to modeling though!

    Cheers! And keep up the good work!

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    @shadoukenxtm For low poly work it's REALLY important to have a strong silhouette. The shapes must read well and mostly be unique so it's easier to see "that's the windmill", or "that's the bakery" etc.

    I'm not much of a low poly modeler myself though, as all my work goes into render engines instead of game engines.

    I really want to be good at low poly too though. :)

    The pieces you show in your post is really charming! Most of the stones and roof tiles can be done as textures, so save those polygons!

    It's funny you picked that house in my artstation, it was modeled by a classmate, but textured by me. At work I've been texturing a single building for almost a month now. Iterating a lot, adding tiny adjustments and details. It takes time to handle 50+ texture sets, which is why it takes so much time. But I love it. I wish I could show off the result right away, but I'd have to ask my employer for that. Hopefully I can share in about a year after the movie has premiered. :D

  • ShadoukenXTM

    @tigerola

    Hey thanks for the advise! I don't really know what you mean by silhouette though, I mean a model is a model, meaning it will be read as whatever it was meant to be. A silhouette is just a backdrop, a dark shade, which is able to represent an object for what it is. But I don't know how that applies to modeling to be honest, because a model is a model with or without a silhouette. I mean, as long as it is 3D, I have the idea that a silhouette doesn't really matter as you'll be filling the model up with details through textures anyway if I'm correct. However, it does come to me now, that if you make a drastically low-poly model, you're gonna have a hard time reading what it really is if its silhouette-shape isn't great. Even textures won't save you then. Pardon my witlessness here hahaha, but is that what you mean?

    Yes those pieces I've linked you are not exactly low-poly, but I love the art style. Of course most of the brick-like objects on the wall and the roof can be done with texturing bump maps and so on, but still - I also love modeling that stuff out. Like making lots of environmental models and simply add them to the scene, but that easily becomes poly-intensive. What I never understood really well is how designers build levels and environments which look amazing in games - how's it possible to make something like that really poly-efficient? =O

    Here's an example from "Star Citizen" which makes me feel like the necessity for poly-efficient modeling no longer exists. Everything in this scene looks pretty much high-poly, and extreme at that too.

    By the way, 50+ textures is a hell of a number, but I can understand if it involves objects having many different textures and detail parts. I'd love to see it whenever you have the permission to show it off.

    To you have any tips on where to learn the modeling process from easy to advanced? I mean I use 3Ds Max and am familiar with its interface and functions and so on, but if you know any sort of course which guides you from a simple modeling tutorial to an advanced one, I'd like to know about it ^_^ Thnx in advance!

    Cheers mate!

  • Andrew Valiant
    Founder

    @tigerola Hey!
    Really love this, and I'll wait anxiously as you model that tavern!

    I cannot help with much, but I can provide you with a playlist of pirate music (I put it together, I know much more could be added to it, still..), including Sea of Thieve's: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCQpPK8DpSwNycTfPixRhO_sIEV67os-h&disable_polymer=true

    Also, I can provide you your own pirate flag, if you want to: https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/15496/personalized-wallpaper-with-your-flag

    Keep up the work!

    Soon-to-be Captain Andrew Valiant

  • TigerOla
    Captain
    Founder

    @shadoukenxtm

    Haha, yes, 50 texture sets is a lot. All of them will be at least 4K or some up to 8K to get all the details from wood grain to detail in metals and glass. I started on the interior of another building today, we're up to about 120 texture sets on that one. :D Brace yourself!

    Silhouette: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/yB0vR
    Look at how the iterations become the result. There are plenty more like this on Artstation. Say, a fishermans house can look like an upside down boat, a bakers house can have two chimneys, and a residence can have a flatter roof to make use of the second floor. All of them would have different silhouettes, and believe it or not, making black/white doodles like that can help shape and inspire a lot :) And it's way faster to iterate and figure out the 'ground rules' of a single, or multiple buildings, weapons, characters, vehicles, props..

    I don't know where look, to go from 'easy' to 'advanced'. It comes with practice. There's no recipe except practice and patience. :) Look at tutorials, not only for Max, but also for other 3D apps. Perhaps a concept you're struggling with in Max but is covered in a different tutorial gives you an idea of how to solve in Max?
    Or perhaps Max isn't your thing after all? I spent 15 years learning LightWave, then had a year of Maya during my year at a 3D school, and in the end I purchased myself a license of Modo - it was cheaper, and it sort of just clicked with me. The best of LightWave and Maya in one app. Yet I still watch tutorials for Blender, Maya, Max, and Modo of course, because different artists have different styles or ways to solve the grand puzzle which 3D modeling really is. You can learn so much from it! :)

    Star Citizen, and other games like it, rely heavily on normal maps carefully textured to give it all those details. Here's an example. This is only a normal map on a simple plane: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WvY5y

    Powerful! :)

    Thank you @Andrew-Valiant ! I'll check the playlist and your flags! Perhaps I could add one to the tavern!

  • HazyBeef
    Marauder
    Founder

    @tigerola Looks brilliant so far! I love doing 3D modelling as well, trying to make some SOT stuff but struggling with the hyper stylised look.... realistic is easier!

  • ShadoukenXTM

    @tigerola

    Well yea, for film and animations I can understand high-quality detail is a demand, as therefore it doesn't surprise me that you've got as many textures to work with as you do. But I don't think that making custom textures, which is often done by artists, can be done by the same person who models if they have no art/drawing skills. I for example, can only make plain models without custom textures because my drawing skills are way too bad.

    Thanks for the explanation on the silhouettes. I guess I understood what you meant the first time, however, when I look at the silhouettes I honestly don't get a much broader idea of an object - maybe I'm autistic or something, but I simply see if for what it is as long as the lines of the outline are correct.

    Well I'm not really struggling with Max to be honest, I find it rather nice to work with. I've been working with it for the past 2 years, but never really put much time in it as I have little of it. A matter of practice it is. The only thing I notice is simply when I don't do it for a long time, I tend to forget. Which is why I've made myself a custom-keybind list of all the things I use to model and so on. It really speeds up the workflow. I do however watch theoretical tutorials of other software to understand the techniques I can use in Max. There is this guy on youtube, who's pretty amazing when it comes to Max, and he has lots of tutorials from beginner to advanced - literally explains every technique possible. Here's the link, you might already know him though.

    3D Modeling and Design

    3D Modeling and Design

    I offer tutorials for various 3D programs, like 3DS Max, Plasticity, Blender, and Zbrush.

    Yes, I just gave it a better look. Star Citizen may use lots of high-poly models, but only where needed. It's often done with vehicles and objects that are heavily animation-dependent. However for the rest, it's just normal, depth and bump-maps I think. Looks amazing nevertheless.

    Keep up the good work, and stay good friend! I'll post you a model for SoT that I'm making. Maybe you could texture it whenever you have time, because I doubt I'll succeed in making custom detailed textures, as my eye for art isn't at its greatest - never has been.

    Cheers!

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