Hi, JustLuke I think I know who you really are ;-) Thanks for the praise. Right back atcha.
Red Oktober - well its years of working for games software companies as an artist that helps ;-) I've only had after work time to do this so in some respects its a bit rough in places. But its generally of a decent quality. As for techniques, I dunno. I just do what I feel looks right. I did do several pencil concepts just to get what I wanted down and visible. Then I began, first with the landscape ground and then the house. All other parts filled in afterwards. Then it went into Gile[s] for lighting and I also began on the particle effects in Pyro Editor. I do work very much off the cuff. Just sit down just do it. Apart from the concepts I drew first thats all I did. As I progressed I thought of possible puzzles that could be in the game and that in turn led to the objects themselves making it into the scene. :) One thing I would say, and I've noticed it alot throughout alot of projects in Blitz, people often make objects out of scale. For instance bridges with huge planks almost as thick as a character is tall etc etc. If you make sure scale is right not only to the player characters but also to other objects in the scene, then it all hangs together much better. :) As for say lighting. I personally in exterior scenes like to have a main source like a moon or sun but also a fill light, usually pointing back up at the source light from exactly the opposite direction and obviously much weaker without shadows switched on. Off of this other lights are then added like lamps and fires etc. Sometimes I may add an ambient just to pick up ALL the lighting in the scene but without having to tweak every light in the scene (start off with a very weak dark colour and tweak it up as needed).
Hujiklo - I'm pretty close to finishing the enviroment, although it is clocking it at around 12-13 thousand polys. I'll then knock up a collision mesh and then the basic engine. So a demo (in which all you can do is run around) should be ready hopefully very soon.
Red Oktober - well its years of working for games software companies as an artist that helps ;-) I've only had after work time to do this so in some respects its a bit rough in places. But its generally of a decent quality. As for techniques, I dunno. I just do what I feel looks right. I did do several pencil concepts just to get what I wanted down and visible. Then I began, first with the landscape ground and then the house. All other parts filled in afterwards. Then it went into Gile[s] for lighting and I also began on the particle effects in Pyro Editor. I do work very much off the cuff. Just sit down just do it. Apart from the concepts I drew first thats all I did. As I progressed I thought of possible puzzles that could be in the game and that in turn led to the objects themselves making it into the scene. :) One thing I would say, and I've noticed it alot throughout alot of projects in Blitz, people often make objects out of scale. For instance bridges with huge planks almost as thick as a character is tall etc etc. If you make sure scale is right not only to the player characters but also to other objects in the scene, then it all hangs together much better. :) As for say lighting. I personally in exterior scenes like to have a main source like a moon or sun but also a fill light, usually pointing back up at the source light from exactly the opposite direction and obviously much weaker without shadows switched on. Off of this other lights are then added like lamps and fires etc. Sometimes I may add an ambient just to pick up ALL the lighting in the scene but without having to tweak every light in the scene (start off with a very weak dark colour and tweak it up as needed).
Hujiklo - I'm pretty close to finishing the enviroment, although it is clocking it at around 12-13 thousand polys. I'll then knock up a collision mesh and then the basic engine. So a demo (in which all you can do is run around) should be ready hopefully very soon.