Ibbo - Medieval Set Extension

[Ibbo]

My first time in a Matte painting challenge, and in all honesty my first time matte painting anything! I'm at the point where im looking at options for making the scene more medieval. I want to keep the organic elements, such as the trees, so i'm thinking of eventually adding in some more grass, trees, ivy, etc... Clean up is done, and i've got a placeholder sky!

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/ibbo86/3.jpg

With the sky...

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/ibbo86/4.jpg

All comments are very welcome, and great job to everyone so far!

[Ibbo]

Quick update - Just adding some more organic features and playing around with content. Its all quite messy, but at this stage i just want to lay down some visuals to work into!

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/ibbo86/8.jpg

[Suirebit-3DT]

looks like the entrance to the main Gothic 2 city (it's a game). Brings back old memories, nice!

[Ibbo]

Thanks Suirebit! Heres another update, still working in shapes rather than focusing on texture, but it's coming along!

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/ibbo86/10.jpg

-ibbo

[Suirebit-3DT]

speaking of shapes - too much corona for trees, I think the old version trees worked better

Also the paved road worked better at least IMO :)

[Ibbo]

Thanks for the feedback Suitebit. I agree with the paved road, what i think i'm going to do is add the cobblestones back in, but keep dirt patches on the edge to make it blend into the forest floor a bit more. The tree's foliage definitly need some more work too!

-ibbo

[Ibbo]

Another quick update. I think i've got the shapes more or less down, but now i need to shift my focus into getting the lighting looking good, playing with shadows, and adding in the lost detail.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/ibbo86/6-1.jpg

-ibbo

[jfmgraphics]

Need to move your light source back some to match the building shadows. :)

[Ibbo]

Thanks jfmgraphics! I agree with your point there, i think im going to increase the distance between the walls and the foliage to do this (to make room for the shadows). I've also taken a look with a fresh pair of eyes, and i think the building has become a little too washed out. I'll try and fix these things later today!

-ibbo

[Ibbo]

The sketches have really helped me get an idea in my head, but i've decided to keep the theme and direction but use some better ref's! Sorta back to the start here, just bringing some images together, but i think by making the scene bigger theres more scope for working in some more intersting themes!

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/ibbo86/3-1.jpg

-ibbo

[jfmgraphics]

Doesn't do it for me. Seems like a gate to nowhere now, with a path never trodden. ;)

[Ibbo]

Haha, thanks JMF. Actually i took a look at this recently and just decided it had moved too far away from what i wanted, so I'll be going back to my origional design once more! Every time i made progress on the above image, it just seemed to either look booring, or too fantastic (and un-real). I'll be sure to post my updated origional once I really flesh things out!

-ibbo