World of Torquecraft: The Beta Crusade
by Travis Vroman · 09/01/2009 (9:42 pm) · 24 comments
I have wanted to work for a game company for many years now. One of the companies I've been wanting to work for is Blizzard, specifically as an Environment Artist for World of Warcraft. So, I figured: what better way to make an impression than build a real-time environment, then create a portfolio specifically tailored to the company and position I'm shooting for?
What I've done is create a WoW-like environment using all original content - including all hand-painted texture maps and low poly models. Everything shown in the video and in the Screenshots section of the portfolio is in real time.
Why post about it here? Because this entire demo is made in TORQUE. The Vanguard Harbour in 6 days, and Sweltering Sanctum was made in 4 (I worked faster the more I got used to the new tools). Before this, I conceptualized for 3 days. The web site was built in a single day. So, to recap, this entire project was completed in about 2 weeks.
I chose Torque because of its great sets of tools and high levels of customization. I also wanted to post here to show that Torque works well with many styles of assets, and also to show what one can do with it, even while in BETA.
So, without further ado, I present my Blizzard Environment Portfolio Micro-site:
www.travisvroman.com/blizzard
I would love some feedback on this from the community :)
What I've done is create a WoW-like environment using all original content - including all hand-painted texture maps and low poly models. Everything shown in the video and in the Screenshots section of the portfolio is in real time.
Why post about it here? Because this entire demo is made in TORQUE. The Vanguard Harbour in 6 days, and Sweltering Sanctum was made in 4 (I worked faster the more I got used to the new tools). Before this, I conceptualized for 3 days. The web site was built in a single day. So, to recap, this entire project was completed in about 2 weeks.
I chose Torque because of its great sets of tools and high levels of customization. I also wanted to post here to show that Torque works well with many styles of assets, and also to show what one can do with it, even while in BETA.
So, without further ado, I present my Blizzard Environment Portfolio Micro-site:
www.travisvroman.com/blizzard
I would love some feedback on this from the community :)
About the author
Attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale for Video Game Art and Design. Strong background in traditional visual arts. Strong programming skills, particularly in real-time solutions.
#22
There's a few things I'd suggest that others already have.. like texture size and fog. The fog colour should be the same as the sky, and imho it gets too much towards the back of the scene. Imagine if it'd be totally foggy in the back, the sky should be totally covered in fog too and very little detail shown in it.
Raising the gamma point/midpoint in the fog curve so that it fades quicker towards the middle of the fog range (mm.. makes sense? :) could work well but I'm guessing you can't control the fog curve in Torque? It'd make the scene look slightly more atmospheric I think. Right now the fog levels kinda shoot up towards the horizon and not much of it is seen at midrange.
I take it there's nothing to do against the smearing on the walls.. hmm. I was going to suggest modelling some rocky walls and stick them on top in an effort to cover it up. It's a bit of work though.. it looks nice as it is though.
It'd be quite cool if Torque would come up with something against this.. can one slap decals on those areas that won't smear for instance?
I hope you could get some ideas from this, lovely work anyway, I wish you the best of luck out there!
09/05/2009 (4:22 pm)
Really nice work there!There's a few things I'd suggest that others already have.. like texture size and fog. The fog colour should be the same as the sky, and imho it gets too much towards the back of the scene. Imagine if it'd be totally foggy in the back, the sky should be totally covered in fog too and very little detail shown in it.
Raising the gamma point/midpoint in the fog curve so that it fades quicker towards the middle of the fog range (mm.. makes sense? :) could work well but I'm guessing you can't control the fog curve in Torque? It'd make the scene look slightly more atmospheric I think. Right now the fog levels kinda shoot up towards the horizon and not much of it is seen at midrange.
I take it there's nothing to do against the smearing on the walls.. hmm. I was going to suggest modelling some rocky walls and stick them on top in an effort to cover it up. It's a bit of work though.. it looks nice as it is though.
It'd be quite cool if Torque would come up with something against this.. can one slap decals on those areas that won't smear for instance?
I hope you could get some ideas from this, lovely work anyway, I wish you the best of luck out there!
#23
Torque 3D does this using "side projection" of detail textures. IIRC, it's broken in Beta 5, but slated for the final release.
09/05/2009 (6:53 pm)
@PacManiac: Quote:I take it there's nothing to do against the smearing on the walls.. hmm. I was going to suggest modelling some rocky walls and stick them on top in an effort to cover it up. It's a bit of work though.. it looks nice as it is though.
It'd be quite cool if Torque would come up with something against this.. can one slap decals on those areas that won't smear for instance?
Torque 3D does this using "side projection" of detail textures. IIRC, it's broken in Beta 5, but slated for the final release.
#24
09/05/2009 (8:18 pm)
I saw the side projections in action at GDC. It looks VERY nice. :) 
Torque Owner Florian
Nice work you got there. I hope you get the job.
You have really diverse environments with a good eye for detail.
But I've got to give you some critique's. ;)
First there is something I miss in the "Sweltering Sanctum". The ambient color looks like its been set to a grayish color, while the level screams reddish at ya :p. So maybe you should place some reddish lights somewhere (for example, make the lava glow more) or change the ambient color. Also like Joel said, the fog color needs to change too.
The second thing is that the fundaments(which I love) still seem a bit bright, while burned stone should look a lot darker and the same with the burned flagpoles.
Lasty I would saturate your textures of this level a bit more. Because as I recall, WoW uses a pretty saturated color palette. I did a quick paintover to show what I mean.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4762/quikpaintover.jpg
I have no critique for the harbor level other than the absence of red colors. But that might be intentional.
But other than these minor critique's your environments are totally awesome breathing a lot of life.
Good luck!