Process of Modular Kit: Elven Wine Cellar

Modular Kit

I set out to design a modular kit in the style of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" series.

The goal was to make a kit that could make two different constructs. 

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Above are all the reference I first gathered. This was for my first construct. I wanted to to a Banquet Hall with a win cellar that branches off. 

I love the look of the Tolkien wine cellar. I like the contrast of the wood and worn materials, against the pristine, and large environments of the rest of the castle. Furthermore I love the yellow light and dark shadows. The whole environment has a very appealing sense of light, and this is something I want the capture in my environment.

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Color Scheme-- Style

I am aiming for a blue/orange color scheme. With all hand painted textures. I don't want to go as far as the image directly above, I will keep the painted-in lighting to a minimum. As mentioned earlier the lighting will be high contrast, with large dark shadows.

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Additional Reference

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Possible Props

Props I want to include--

Crystal Light, Barrels (Big and Small), Wine Bottles, Table/chairs, Crates (empty and full)

Textures I want to have--

Hay, Dirt, Rock, Wood, Glass

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Process

Start of Cellar

Start of Banquet Hall

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I was advised to scale my scope down from the two very different construct to just two different constructs of a cellar.

Admittedly over scoping has been my downfall for almost every project I have taken on. For once I took their advice and deleted of all my grey box for the banquet hall. Instead I would focus on the details of my cellar.

Cellar Grey Box

Again I was told to down scope my assignment from the seven room construct to a two room construct (we only had three weeks on the assignment).

After a lot of pain, I did just that, leaving the large room, the hall and the small room. The room off the hall was deleted, the open doors were sealed off, and the room the the far right was deleted...

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Texturing

My Wood and Rock were hand painted

My Rock wall Displacement and Normal were made in Z-brush

Rock Wall Normal and Displacement map made in Z-brush

Dirt Normal and Dirt/Rock Diffuse made in Photoshop and Crazy Bump

Hay Diffuse and Mix Map made in Photoshop

Wood Diffuse and Wood Normal made in Photoshop and Crazy Bump

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Glass Bottle

My glass bottle material was made in reference to the UE4 examples.

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3-Texture Blend Vertex paint with Mix Maps

Biome

Final Image

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As I mentioned, this is my first time doing alphas and organic modeling. These are more like first passes since I will go back and rework the whole environment...

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Baobab Biome

In the project described below, I attempted to build a biome to look like one from real life. This forced me to learn things I have never tried before such as making Alpha cards, subsurface lighting, organic modeling, and containing a world with using structural objects. 

Inspiration---

At first, my inspiration came from the African Safari. What drew me was the challenge of open space. I typically rely on the idea that compositional success in environments comes from a sense of fullness... meaning I clutter up the place. This would make me make compositional choices relying on vast open space...

Another thing that drew me to this biome is the color pallet. I love the intense reds and yellows with desaturated browns. 

But somewhere down the line, I found this image. It is a Baobab Tree. I love them.

I made some thumbnails, but all of them were a bit over-scoped...

Started with this!

I want to make the environment look like a watercolor, so here is an attempt at stylization... with some painted textures... (I later realized they were bad) 

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Built Lighting

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After crit I reached a point where I just didn't want to look at this anymore... So later... much much later... I will fix this up... 

Character Flash Designs

INSPIRATION --------------------------------------------------------

SEEING DESIGNS FROM ABSTRACTION ---------------------

LINE ART -----------------------------------------------------------------

RENDERING -------------------------------------------------------------

BRAINSTORM-- Game Mechanics

Game Mechanics that are fun 'Toys' -- Instead of a game with a defined set of rules and end, I am brainstorming a mechanic for a toy, something that can be played with in any way, for how ever long the payer wishes.

Ideas

1.  Cat Meow/Player Makes sound-- The sound can be used to volly incoming objects away, attract attention from NPC, cause environment evens (Break Glass). Could possibly collect objects to alter the mechanic- eat fish to get rancid breath, eat cat nip for high pitch, sonic meows. 
2. Gravity Resistance (When everything else is affected)-- Gives the player the ability to move in any way including upside-down. Enables them to dodge  objects/enemies, and get to objects. 
3. Sneezing-- Something like this would only work if you were in an environment of neat freaks... you're sneezing power could come from animals that you have to maintain a safe distance from. Some can be social, others antisocial (Run at you verses run away). And you could collect hair and dandruff from them. And with certain charged sneezes (depending on how high your allergy bar is) you can sneeze yourself to higher platforms, but if you have to much you die in a sneezing fit of hives and pain. 
4. A ball is a good example of a toy that can be used in many was since you can kick it, roll it, bounce it, hit people in the face with it... So what happens when you change the physical properties of a ball? Maybe a ball of slime, and exceptionally dense ball that is alive, a ball cover with tentacles that can crawl.... new attributes to them would be the ability to absorb/grab things
5. Chalk that creates what you draw on any surface- draw a party me member? Watch them come to life, draw a hole in the wall, and exit? It will oven up!
6. Instrument that causes events based on your tune
7. A sward you can shape shift depending on what is has slain (can open doors, pick locks, turn to wood, metal, bone, ect.)
8. A slingshot-the power comes from the stones you collect and use with it
9. A Cauldron/Pot that reacts and can solve problems you are being faced with when you put different ingredients in it!
10. The Ability to summon animals (maybe you have a staff or something that allows this) 

Multiplayer Level

 Multiplayer Level!

When I play games like Call of Duty, where the main objective is to just shoot people up, I feel like I should quit and just go play laser tag. Laser tag is the best thing ever! 

Why is laser tag great? Its dark as hell which makes hiding an easy thing. The environment pops, the space is crawling with people. And the fact that its physical.

So for this assignment I'm tipping my hat to laser tag, a game we should all play more often

Welcome to Emissive Dive the best laser tag in town! 

Birthday parties,  winning baseball games, and Friday nights, the kids gather here all the time to celebrate and relax! The kids all love the maze like environment with towering glowing lights on the wall and floor and little over head light making it hard to spot your opponent. They also like how the second floor is only accessible to the most athletic as it has no stairs to reach it. Ha, no kindergardeners up here!

The layout it standard, with a maze like environment on the bottom floor, and open upper floor.

The architecture is made of a few different sized walls fitted together into a maze. 

Props that will be present are the different signs, mirrors, barrels, movable physics objects, and decorative hanging things.

The overall theme of the arena is deep sea. There will be fake animals hanging, painted walls illuminated with black light and plants.