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Sketchu
Jun '16

Wasn't sure where to put this but I guess it is like a world building / behind the scene related post?
Wanted to share something I was working on to do with the creation of a setting / location!
I've never been too confident in drawing buildings or being consistent with colours SO when it comes to achieving clarity of an entire town I decided to do the next best thing I could . . .

6

That is to start full on creating and texturing modular sections, then piece them together in a game engine.
Pure insanity, I know.
That screenshot right is only an afternoon worth and I'm roughly 25% done.
I'm really surprised with how well the pieces look put together.

The process has helped me realize some important details of the setting that were not clear to me at the Beginning. For example I knew the town was built on or around ruins and drawing / modelling out a map helped me figure what kind of ruins and how the town was built around it!
So that's my method of dealing with an entire town setting. I'm curious as to how other's deal with locations in their stories, if drawing out a map / plan was necessary or maybe even helped you realize something to do with that place or the world it is set in!~

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Spitfire
Jun '16

Great job even if it's not a 3D program but a game engine! Well thought and I'm sure it's a great too especially if there's a lot of scenes happening in this particular town within the comic. Though maybe a bit too much pain if the characters would be just passing through ^^

ANY well done background effort shows in the comic's overall quality so I salute you for the effort!

60SixAn Actual Shark
Jun '16

A game engine is just something you put models and assets created from other 3d programs into! I think @Sketchu is implying they built everything and just constructing it in the game engine. If it's something like Unity (I'm gonna guess it's that because that doesn't look like UDK?), they most likely built all the models in a program like Maya, 3DS Max or Blender and is now just building the level in engine, where it's much more efficient to have reused assets and build textures and materials.
Sorry, as someone who did a lot of game environment art in school and knows several professional environment artists, I just like seeing artists get the proper credit for how much work they put into it their level! Those buildings didn't model and texture themselves!

UNLESS this is just assets that already come with whichever game engine they're using. Which is possible and you can disregard most of what I just said. :'D I don't recognize this engine myself so I can't be sure. But if so, that's definitely fine too and I can see a ton of work is still being put into this! I really like the flow of the town and how it isn't just a bunch of buildings fitting into squares. Props to all the verity kept in mind too!

Elm
Jun '16

Agree with Riko here. c: I'm a Games Art Student, but I find this so interesting because I hadn't considered planning out the world this way.

Spitfire
Jun '16
60Six

I didn't mean it as something bad. I don't think my meaning came through very well. I meant that Sketchu shouldn't feel that it's any less worth of anything no matter what the tool is that is used to create it.

60SixAn Actual Shark
Jun '16

Sorry! I wasn't meaning to like chew you out or anything! I just wanted to give them their credit! : D
That makes sense though, sorry for any misunderstanding!

glennsong
Jun '16

@Sketchu That's really cool and it can help you frame your comic as you go making your life somewhat easier. I did the same thing with my comic. I made 3D models of various shrines that I knew would reappear again and again. I also created the main house for the characters in the story so I could reuse that. It does really help you keep consistent with your settings. I have one building in my story where I don't use 3D, and I think it's spatial layout ended up being a bit of a mess. Most people will probably never know that, but I will. smile

If you want more pure insanity, I built and rigged a 3D mannequin so I could pre-visualize various compositions/shots and use them to sketch over. I think that's an interesting idea to drop it into a game engine. I still want to try something similar with Unity 5 so I can play with shaders.

Spitfire
Jun '16
60Six

It's okay, it's reasonable that my messages won't come through very well always, English is so hard X)

Wandercreature
Jun '16

Holy cow, dude. You really took this to an all-new level. Personally, I tend to research a lot of worldbuilding questionnaires and techniques, and adopt things that I've seen in real life too - getting a basic feel for where everything is, but allowing for smaller details to be added in later depending on the need for them. Making maps in 3D instead of on paper is just awesome, though. Keep up the great work!

Michelle
Jun '16

This is super cool! It will really go a long way when it comes to plotting out your scenes and keeping a consistent layout of the town.

I use sketchup to plan some of my comic shots, but I haven't gone as far as to plan the specific layout of the city. But since my story takes place in a huge setting it's a little easier to fudge it. With a smaller village, I can see how carefully planning the entire layout would be really useful.

Sketchu
Jun '16

Thanks sorry for the late responses I literally went to sleep after making this post haha.
I use blender and Unity 5. Just explaining my process a tiny bit more~

A screenshot of some of the pieces. (not all of them ohgod)
I took and edited some random rpg tileset textures where I couldn't be bothered like with doors and windows and have it all packed into a small 512x512 texture. It's my first time creating a modular set too.
I plan to use it for my comic too, it's one of the main locations and I'm pretty excited to see how the end product looks, I'll keep yous updated on it!

Sketchu
Jun '16
1

Finished assembling wow, just wanting to share the complete thing...

heres some shots from the ground level



and a drawing I did using one

trivialtales
Jun '16

That's really smart. I just have a general idea of where major stuff is in my world.