Viking Village: Dragon Shield - Dagmawi Tsegaye

dagm_tsegaye

Name: Dagmawi Tsegaye
Country: Ethiopia
I have read the terms and conditions and I'm just having fun.

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Dragon Shield Viking Village

A village located at the highest mountain, is on an outlook to defend the islands settlers. This will be in the context of a fantasy world, so expect some mythological and realistic looks merging.
Here is what the scene will include

Town Hall

This town hall is located against a mountain wall.
The building will feel more angular and bigger in scale to distinguish it from other buildings.
Healing Hut

This is their hospital. It'll be surrounded by some herbs and gems used in the recovery process of injured settlers and soldiers.

Settler and Soldier Huts

These will be used as fillers, and they share a similar look.

Black Smith

These will be shorter and some even dig into hills to preserve expensive weaponary from being damaged during dragon raid. Since it's a look out village, it makes sense they treasure their weapons.

Training Area

Located close to the black smith zones.

Tavern

This will share a similar look to healing huts, but they're smaller and they're decorated with the bones and furs of the dragons they've slayed. It's a way of showing bravery and since it's being used on a tavern it's suppose to show their pride in it.

Mart

These are small building selling different goods such as fish, meat, bread, pottery etc... ofcourse not all will look exactly the same, they'll look a little different based on what they're selling.

Worship hall

Similar to the townhall, the shapes feel very strict and uniform, but smaller. It'll be surrounded by small tombs with symbols and sculptures of high gods.

Village general equipment and mechanics

Bridge, watchtowers, Large gears connected to shields with controls centered at the townhall, pullies, alarm horn, spikes, bait poles.

Dragon Skeleton

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Village Layout Blockout

I've laid out a rough estimate of how the village's layout would look.

I'm still not sure how I can fit the gears in the village. Their purpose is to raise shields and to control water flow from the mountain. This is for sure will be subject to change in the coming few days of the week.
Next, I'll be blocking out each building type I'd want in the village. Then I'll proceed to roughly blocking them out, to estimate how my trim sheets and mod-kits will be created and to check if I've missed anything.

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Update on Blockout

Since I don't have a concept of my own, I had to photo/concept bash props of my own. This will help me see scale, noting down parts that can guide where details will be, choosing between unique textures, trim sheets (which I'll depend on for the most part) and tiling. I know I'm stating the obvious, but since I don't have a specific concept to recreate I think it'll justify the steps I'll be taking later.
The next step will be taking a little time to see where trims work best than unique textures, decals, etc...this will not only affect my texture count or the shader complexity etc..., but it'll also affect my scheduling. I'll also dive into gathering more specific references for foliage, ground and micro props to really ground and give life to the environment.
For now, this is what I have planned as a concept for the shape and block out for the shield village. There is also a compiled final references of concepts I used. God of war concept arts are frequently used as reference, since I'm going for a fictional, fantasy based environment....they did an amazing job.
So tag me inspired and ready to embarrass him self.

dagm_tsegaye

Update on Blocking out

The shapes are reading well in engine and the block-outs now have a clearer direction for the details they'll have. There are a lot of mod-kits that could be shared through out the whole environment. But I've reached the sad realization that I won't be able to finish this, in time. I really like the idea. I'll see if I can cutout some items and compress the project a bit better so I can make it to the submission date. It might be a huge cut since the estimation is the BEST time possible and I'm not too enthused about that either.
Nevertheless, here is breakdown I've done to reach this conclusion.

I'm in for fun, I might commit to it.
I'm not sure.
I definitely got too ambitious.

dagm_tsegaye

Update

After beating down my ego (it was hard, didn't know it worked out!) I've decided to reduce the amount of props I'll have to create. I've re-arranged the environment so it can focus a bit more on few themes. The tavern, the healing hall, mountain cliff wall and some smaller props will not be included anymore. Here is a shot of the new orientation and list of props I'll be working on.
Right now, I think it's much easier to digest the environment.

dagm_tsegaye

Update- 3rd pivot on the scene and asset creation of the weekend

I've decided to focus on main parts of this village. This is considering if the deadline is close and I won't be able to be done with the scene. So far I've identified the Townhall and skeleton are important and the diorama focuses on them. I'll keep adding assets as I go. Such as carts, axe stacks, shields, torch etc...
I've also done a first pass for some assets, such as the roof tiles, the horn and wall material. And here is how they look.

I coulnd't decide on the material of the roof (I'm probably going to choose the metal) shingles. And I also decided to create one of my favorite and fun asset in the scene; the siren horn.
Next up: I'll move to working on the modular kits for the wall, they're already blocked out but it's a matter of detailing them.

Needless to say, the weekend was great!

dagm_tsegaye

Update-Some hero props

While still planning mod kits and assessing time, I've started working on some of the hero props that will for sure be in the scene.
This is first pass look to test out if they have proper texel density and decide if I need to change my workflow.

The Stairs will have another pass for a more detailed looking stone.

I have used adobe illustrator to recreate some patterns and symbols I found on good.

I've also proceeded to creating a damage variation that I can vertex paint into the main hall exterior floor.

Speaking of vertex paint, I've also created a wood base for the roof tile shingle material.

Here is how the scene is looking at the moment.

I'm planning on mode-kits next, such as the walls and roof shingles.

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Modular Townhall walls:
Just created half of the modular props for the exterior. Tested out what the look can be in UE:

I'll continue working on the roof and the rest of the modular parts for the townhall next and wrap it up as soon as possible to create filler props such as foliage, props around the townhall, decals and landscape variations etc...

dagm_tsegaye

Update:
Wrapping up first pass of the hall. Created more modular kits to build up the side tower.
For the stone wall, I used blender displacement and decimation modifiers for a detailed looking wall for the tower base.

I've also created a super material for the mossy ground. Took a whole day but totally worth it since I can make a flat dirt floor up to a fully mossy floor while still playing around with exposure for both ground and pebble count.

The floor got very flat so I had to make floor level variations. Therefore, I've made these curvy rock masses for a highland and unique looking scene.

I've also applied some vertex paint to the hall roof.
Since I've used parallax occlusion shading, height map helped make the meshes high poly. There are some large parts still requiring dressing or maybe modeling, but the trim sheets are coming in SUPER handy.

Next tasks will be creating story telling props while wrapping up the black smith sheds.