An idea by Sheogorath reminded me of the old (original) Weekly Terraining Exercises from Wc3Campaigns, where we once had "tree village" as a theme. The idea was an Elven village built around trees, like Lothlorièn from Lord of the Rings. Though I found the original thread, all pictures there are gone. Don't fret though, for this week's theme is going to be Tree of Life, and it's going to be a similar thing! I want you to create like Sheogorath put it, a 'largely detailed tree or forest'. This means that bandit hide-outs inside huge trees are welcome, but you could just create one tree out of a lot of smaller doodads too, if you'd so please.
Good luck guys, and do the original theme justice! :)
@F0xtail: Go
It's really just a big ass tree, if I would make a screen shot of it, there would only be a big ass tree, and other trees. and rocks, so no point really :/
Oh alright, I thought you meant it was your focal point but it was lost amongst the cliffs, my bad.
Beyond that, its one of the more impressive first entries I've seen, though I haven't been here too long. I like the amount of detail that you've put into the piece you've shown us. The rock formation in the top left is pretty well done minus some doodad color differences between the base of the crystals and the main rock face, but I'm glad you added the crystals as they add a contrasting flair. The fact that the shore is very near/overflowing onto the road is another cool point of interest.
There's a couple things that could be improved though. The first is one of my biggest problems which is matching texture to texture (especially with rocks), basically what I was referring to earlier with the crystal base vs. green rock face. Another thing I noticed is that although there is a bridge over the water, the road extends all the way under the bridge—if we were to expect that the bridge had been washed away, there shouldn't be any road texture below it extending up to where the bridge had started and ended. You could also add some kind of "bridge rubble" below the point that had washed away, if that was your intention.
As always these are just suggestions, so if you don't approve you may ignore me at your whim =P.
Xtreme, welcome! Good first shot buddy, I'd say get rid of the road entirely though. Seems out of place. Maybe replace with a dirt track or as F0xtail hints at, lowered temple bricks and the like to make a stone pathway? Aside from that, love the area around the statue, works well. and the angle of the shot is nice.
Yeah I was wondering the same :) was being quite lazy with the road, as I noticed it aswell. the red rock surface also bothered me but I'm not sure the crystals will extend far enough if I move the doodad further back, since the angle at which the crystals are pointed is quite high (I'd say about 70-80 degrees) so much of the crystal would disappear behind the waterfall :/
thanks for the positive feedback, I really appreciate it. will probably fix the map tomorrow after school
Ok, so, welcome here =D More people, more fun, more creations, more ideas, more to talk about...
As I often do with some creations, I'll comment the best I can your creation.
Let's start by saying that you know the basics for sure. You got different doodads, foliage, different trees, rocks, the water ( that you probably changed the heigh), you have some texture mix, etc.
So, I like your waterfall with the crystal in it. But, the waterfall itself looks to go in the ground... We can see the 3D of the water passing through the flat water on the ground. There could be some smoke effect, you know, small water droplet in the air near waterfalls, or at less just the basic waterfall, rezised so its effect is show and hide the 3D bug.
I also like the small temple area. It has something interesting, but something is missing as well. I feel like it is a bit empty. That if I was walking somewhere and I was seeing temple ruins, I would see more than that. Probably more rocks, a temple wall or things like that. Although, don't overload of everything you can find for temple ruins. Maybe "vines", "underbush", "bush", some resized LOS blocker for grass (that's what I sometimes use when it is only for terraining, if you want to make a real map and put grass, just duplicate something else and change it model so it doesn't have the vision blocker), at some places could be great.
I agree with madlibrarian about the road. You might want to modify it to something else more included in this place. Because at this moment, it looks weird, a kind of temple like place, with trees and even a temple bridge, but, with a human road. The idea of making the water pass over the road is good, but I think if water was passing over the road, it should be more damaged. Since we can't modify the road really, except if you change some setting while you place it so you can make it smaller and go bigger or vice versa, you should try to create your own road made of doodads.
But, if you remove the road, all the printscreen will become into a green tint except some small crystals. I think it will needs a better focal point. If you know the rule of thirds, you could try doing something interesting with the temple place or the waterfall somehow.
Oh and, last thing, I said you used foliage, but I think you used instead just doodads like plants. You could try to use the automatic foliage in the Terrain panel. Also, I don't know if something on the bottom or in the water, could be interesting... Like the plants on the left, could there be more of this kind but for the bottom?
I hope it will gives you ideas. I just want to make sure, this is what I think, somebody else could think your creation is just absolutly perfect. Well, "perfection" is not in my vocabulary, haha. Good luck in your continuation.
Well, I pretty like it, I would not remove fog. I think it just needs a kind of reference to know how big is that tree. At the moment, we know it's big, but, it's still unsure. I don't exacly know how you could modify that. Maybe a Banshee somewhere? haha It will looks like Avatar.
Also, I like your canyon or whatever on the left side. The hole. I think you should make it a little bit bigger. But ya, nice job. Sunrays somewhere? Trees in the tree?
I dislike auto foliage, lets say its my personal mark to keep that out of my map I personally prefer poor spreading of the plants.
furthermore, thanks. will add it to the list x)
I personally prefer to keep my terrains very open, less doodads and more focussed on the ground textures :/
EDIT: changed some of the stuff you guys suggested, looks (even more) awesome now :D thanks
crystals now emit light (cyan)
appearently the ruins have been discovered
increased the altitude of the waterfalls
added fog
removed red rocks (from sight anyway)
also added some rubble, but its mostly blocked from sight by the trees :<
It's better ya. I like some more the waterfall; you changed the heigh and added a fog which fit pretty well, I like the rock you changed on the bottom left; I prefer this grey one instead of the brown one, I like the light you added for the crystals; always cool some illuminating crystals.
On the other side, I don't know what you want to do, but why you added these human lights around the temple place? If you really want the temple to be illuminated, you could place a crystal in the middle and add a huge light, it could be interesting. But if you want to create an archaeological site, then I will understand. Why smalling some rocks as well? They were nice, haha. I agree with you for removing the plants in the water next to the waterfall, but I think you could have replace them somewhere else.
Edit: Here is a fast try. It is not as good as I wanted. That's only a kind of forest with some houses in the trees. Nothing much. No lightning modification, low usage of doodads. I might do another try later this week. The printscreen are not that good as well, there was too many leaves.
@Xtremedesyr: Go
On the other side, I don't know what you want to do, but why you added these human lights around the temple place? If you really want the temple to be illuminated, you could place a crystal in the middle and add a huge light, it could be interesting. But if you want to create an archaeological site, then I will understand. Why smalling some rocks as well? They were nice, haha. I agree with you for removing the plants in the water next to the waterfall, but I think you could have replace them somewhere else.
because of "But, if you remove the road, all the printscreen will become into a green tint except some small crystals."
also I didn't remove the plants I just moved them to the foot of the bridge, but they disappear behind the palm tree : (
I like your screenshots aswell but on scrn #3, what are those planks behind the trees?
Hey guys, I have my try-hard submission for this week.
I started off by making a gigantic tree in the middle and had the original intention of creating a massive forest with houses incorporated onto the branches, but I decided to go a different direction. Not sure where the idea sprouted from but I had a vision of a dragon curled around the "tree of life" guarding its eggs (currently under her left claw), so that's what I attempted to make. The story is supposed to be that the dragon eggs were stolen, so she swooped down and burninated all the peoples.
I think the terrain surrounding the focal could definitely be improved, but after finishing the dragon I got tired of working on it to be honest >.< .
Hey guys, I have my try-hard submission for this week.
I started off by making a gigantic tree in the middle and had the original intention of creating a massive forest with houses incorporated onto the branches, but I decided to go a different direction. Not sure where the idea sprouted from but I had a vision of a dragon curled around the "tree of life" guarding its eggs (currently under her left claw), so that's what I attempted to make. The story is supposed to be that the dragon eggs were stolen, so she swooped down and burninated all the peoples.
I think the terrain surrounding the focal could definitely be improved, but after finishing the dragon I got tired of working on it to be honest >.< .
that is overkill!
howd you get the dragon to look so dragon-like =O. im assuming those are all sc2 doodads am i right? any chance u might upload the actual map? :D I wonder what doodads did you mix-matched there. incredible!
Weekly Terraining Exercise #59
An idea by Sheogorath reminded me of the old (original) Weekly Terraining Exercises from Wc3Campaigns, where we once had "tree village" as a theme. The idea was an Elven village built around trees, like Lothlorièn from Lord of the Rings. Though I found the original thread, all pictures there are gone. Don't fret though, for this week's theme is going to be Tree of Life, and it's going to be a similar thing! I want you to create like Sheogorath put it, a 'largely detailed tree or forest'. This means that bandit hide-outs inside huge trees are welcome, but you could just create one tree out of a lot of smaller doodads too, if you'd so please.
Good luck guys, and do the original theme justice! :)
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/
My first entry in WTE. hope you guys can give me some feedback x)
if not then I suppose that'd be even better.
oh and I put a big ass tree on top of the cliffs but it was TOO DAMN HIGH for my screenshot
@Xtremedesyr: Go
Can I get a differently angled screenshot to see your big ass tree? =P
@F0xtail: Go It's really just a big ass tree, if I would make a screen shot of it, there would only be a big ass tree, and other trees. and rocks, so no point really :/
@Xtremedesyr: Go
Oh alright, I thought you meant it was your focal point but it was lost amongst the cliffs, my bad.
Beyond that, its one of the more impressive first entries I've seen, though I haven't been here too long. I like the amount of detail that you've put into the piece you've shown us. The rock formation in the top left is pretty well done minus some doodad color differences between the base of the crystals and the main rock face, but I'm glad you added the crystals as they add a contrasting flair. The fact that the shore is very near/overflowing onto the road is another cool point of interest.
There's a couple things that could be improved though. The first is one of my biggest problems which is matching texture to texture (especially with rocks), basically what I was referring to earlier with the crystal base vs. green rock face. Another thing I noticed is that although there is a bridge over the water, the road extends all the way under the bridge—if we were to expect that the bridge had been washed away, there shouldn't be any road texture below it extending up to where the bridge had started and ended. You could also add some kind of "bridge rubble" below the point that had washed away, if that was your intention.
As always these are just suggestions, so if you don't approve you may ignore me at your whim =P.
Xtreme, welcome! Good first shot buddy, I'd say get rid of the road entirely though. Seems out of place. Maybe replace with a dirt track or as F0xtail hints at, lowered temple bricks and the like to make a stone pathway? Aside from that, love the area around the statue, works well. and the angle of the shot is nice.
@madlibrarian: Go
Yeah I was wondering the same :) was being quite lazy with the road, as I noticed it aswell. the red rock surface also bothered me but I'm not sure the crystals will extend far enough if I move the doodad further back, since the angle at which the crystals are pointed is quite high (I'd say about 70-80 degrees) so much of the crystal would disappear behind the waterfall :/
thanks for the positive feedback, I really appreciate it. will probably fix the map tomorrow after school
@Xtremedesyr: Go
Ok, so, welcome here =D More people, more fun, more creations, more ideas, more to talk about...
As I often do with some creations, I'll comment the best I can your creation.
Let's start by saying that you know the basics for sure. You got different doodads, foliage, different trees, rocks, the water ( that you probably changed the heigh), you have some texture mix, etc.
So, I like your waterfall with the crystal in it. But, the waterfall itself looks to go in the ground... We can see the 3D of the water passing through the flat water on the ground. There could be some smoke effect, you know, small water droplet in the air near waterfalls, or at less just the basic waterfall, rezised so its effect is show and hide the 3D bug.
I also like the small temple area. It has something interesting, but something is missing as well. I feel like it is a bit empty. That if I was walking somewhere and I was seeing temple ruins, I would see more than that. Probably more rocks, a temple wall or things like that. Although, don't overload of everything you can find for temple ruins. Maybe "vines", "underbush", "bush", some resized LOS blocker for grass (that's what I sometimes use when it is only for terraining, if you want to make a real map and put grass, just duplicate something else and change it model so it doesn't have the vision blocker), at some places could be great.
I agree with madlibrarian about the road. You might want to modify it to something else more included in this place. Because at this moment, it looks weird, a kind of temple like place, with trees and even a temple bridge, but, with a human road. The idea of making the water pass over the road is good, but I think if water was passing over the road, it should be more damaged. Since we can't modify the road really, except if you change some setting while you place it so you can make it smaller and go bigger or vice versa, you should try to create your own road made of doodads.
But, if you remove the road, all the printscreen will become into a green tint except some small crystals. I think it will needs a better focal point. If you know the rule of thirds, you could try doing something interesting with the temple place or the waterfall somehow.
Oh and, last thing, I said you used foliage, but I think you used instead just doodads like plants. You could try to use the automatic foliage in the Terrain panel. Also, I don't know if something on the bottom or in the water, could be interesting... Like the plants on the left, could there be more of this kind but for the bottom?
I hope it will gives you ideas. I just want to make sure, this is what I think, somebody else could think your creation is just absolutly perfect. Well, "perfection" is not in my vocabulary, haha. Good luck in your continuation.
Working on projects:
Made this in a couple of hours. Might of gone a bit overboard with the fog :P
@Bob27s2: Go
Well, I pretty like it, I would not remove fog. I think it just needs a kind of reference to know how big is that tree. At the moment, we know it's big, but, it's still unsure. I don't exacly know how you could modify that. Maybe a Banshee somewhere? haha It will looks like Avatar.
Also, I like your canyon or whatever on the left side. The hole. I think you should make it a little bit bigger. But ya, nice job. Sunrays somewhere? Trees in the tree?
Working on projects:
@Scbroodsc2: Go
I dislike auto foliage, lets say its my personal mark to keep that out of my map I personally prefer poor spreading of the plants.
furthermore, thanks. will add it to the list x)
I personally prefer to keep my terrains very open, less doodads and more focussed on the ground textures :/
EDIT: changed some of the stuff you guys suggested, looks (even more) awesome now :D thanks
crystals now emit light (cyan) appearently the ruins have been discovered increased the altitude of the waterfalls added fog removed red rocks (from sight anyway) also added some rubble, but its mostly blocked from sight by the trees :<
Looks fantastic buddy! Given me an idea for a mini map ;)
@Xtremedesyr: Go
Very interesting, we can see the evolution with those two printscreen at the exact same place.
It's better ya. I like some more the waterfall; you changed the heigh and added a fog which fit pretty well, I like the rock you changed on the bottom left; I prefer this grey one instead of the brown one, I like the light you added for the crystals; always cool some illuminating crystals.
On the other side, I don't know what you want to do, but why you added these human lights around the temple place? If you really want the temple to be illuminated, you could place a crystal in the middle and add a huge light, it could be interesting. But if you want to create an archaeological site, then I will understand. Why smalling some rocks as well? They were nice, haha. I agree with you for removing the plants in the water next to the waterfall, but I think you could have replace them somewhere else.
Edit: Here is a fast try. It is not as good as I wanted. That's only a kind of forest with some houses in the trees. Nothing much. No lightning modification, low usage of doodads. I might do another try later this week. The printscreen are not that good as well, there was too many leaves.
Working on projects:
because of "But, if you remove the road, all the printscreen will become into a green tint except some small crystals." also I didn't remove the plants I just moved them to the foot of the bridge, but they disappear behind the palm tree : (
I like your screenshots aswell but on scrn #3, what are those planks behind the trees?
Cmaaawn Brood, you can do better son!
I feel awfully uninspired this week...
Hey guys, I have my try-hard submission for this week.
I started off by making a gigantic tree in the middle and had the original intention of creating a massive forest with houses incorporated onto the branches, but I decided to go a different direction. Not sure where the idea sprouted from but I had a vision of a dragon curled around the "tree of life" guarding its eggs (currently under her left claw), so that's what I attempted to make. The story is supposed to be that the dragon eggs were stolen, so she swooped down and burninated all the peoples.
I think the terrain surrounding the focal could definitely be improved, but after finishing the dragon I got tired of working on it to be honest >.< .
that is just plain awesome Sheogorath, :)
And foxtail, that dragon is...wow not sure were to start in how awesome it is i just might have to take a stab at making my own doodad dragon lol
@F0xtail: Go
that is overkill!
howd you get the dragon to look so dragon-like =O. im assuming those are all sc2 doodads am i right? any chance u might upload the actual map? :D I wonder what doodads did you mix-matched there. incredible!