[WIP] Farmhouse Environment

    Hey guys!

    I've posted this up at Polycount, but thought I'd post it here as I know you guys give awesome feedback.

    Having worked on that modular building environment, I really wanted to work on another building type, but I didn't want to restrict myself to the exterior of a building.

    So, I took on the challenge of doing the interior and exterior of a building, and decided on making a traditional, American farmhouse scene. I blocked out the scene in its entirety first, and I've just started texturing/detailing things a little more.

    The porch is done in terms of basic texturing, as is the exterior of the main house and roof tiles. I have a lot more trims and other little details to add to the exterior, but it's getting there.

    Anyway, I'm looking for really harsh feedback. Seriously, even if you think it's something ridiculous and not worth mentioning; mention it! Something about the scene just isn't popping at the minute. I think a great deal of that is due to the lack of detail, but I want to iron out any big issues before I get into the nitty gritty detail.

    Let me know what you think guys.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/wip_5.jpg]

    Here's a couple of shots of the interior layout.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/floorplan_finished_1F.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/floorplan_finished_GF.jpg]

    Cool work !

    I don't have references on this type of house, but you can maybe add some ornaments/stuffs on the borders of the roof.

    The same on the inside corner of the house (juster behind the roof, in the middle) and the external corner of the porch's roof, and so on.

    I can already see the rocking chair and oil lamp!

    (What did you use for making the base modeling of the house ? Sketch up ?)

    Quote from PogoP

    modular building environment

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    I think getting the windows and doors in there will pull it together, excluding the small details you can add later. Have you tried making the roof more concaved? They're convexed at the moment, which is fine, but giving the silhouette a slightly concaved look may be a better choice.

    You mainly using tileable textures for this?

    i've done massive constructions of interrior to exterior buildings in unreal engine 3 before using CSG... it makes me cringe but at the same time it can be really fun... i can tell you are using CSG in your first pic then modleing it in the next ones...are you doing a complete remodel or are you trying to convert the CSG into a mesh?

    i'm also inclined to agree witht he go concave rather than convex on your roof shapes

    Nice start. Some of the rooms don't make much sense though. Some have two doors leading inside and others are as wide as a fat man. I have never seen a house like that

    I would recommend making all the doors leading into the house the same size. Double-wide doors are pretty rare in these kind of houses, and generally only exist as an exit onto a decadent patio or balcony with a view (i.e. opulent houses, not a farm house).

    Also, I would recommend widening the doorway leading from what I presume is the kitchen to the dining room, as those tend to either be a standard door size, or have no wall at all, and just some columns to support the sides. Again, unless your goal is a decadent plantation-style house (doesn't appear to be the case from the first screenshot), then all features of the house should be more functional than stylistic from an architecture perspective.

    What's with the hallway leading to a long narrow room from the master bedroom upstairs (bottom left)? I'd recommend making that into a large walk-in closet, and shift the closet from the lower-right bedroom to occupy that space.

    Only other thing is that there don't appear to be any full-sized bathrooms, only bedrooms? Master bedrooms in American houses almost always have an attached bathroom, with another one located near the other bedrooms that is shared.

    These are my floor plans. I've taken liberties with some elements of it though.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/Untitled-1.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/Untitled-2.jpg]

    I think that hallway coming off the main bedroom is a sort of dressing room with attached bathroom. Not really sure, I need to plan that out a little more when I come to the interiors. The beauty of keeping the exterior and interior separate is that I can easily change the layout of the house. My only worry is that some of the hallways are a little small.. I need to keep tweaking.

    Quote from Froyok

    Cool work !I don't have references on this type of house, but you can maybe add some ornaments/stuffs on the borders of the roof.

    The same on the inside corner of the house (juster behind the roof, in the middle) and the external corner of the porch's roof, and so on.

    I can already see the rocking chair and oil lamp!

    (What did you use for making the base modeling of the house ? Sketch up ?)

    Yeah I plan on adding a lot more detail to the exterior of the scene.

    For the base modelling I just used 3ds Max, keeping everything on the grid to make sure everything fits together nicely.

    Quote from Bunglo

    I think getting the windows and doors in there will pull it together, excluding the small details you can add later. Have you tried making the roof more concaved? They're convexed at the moment, which is fine, but giving the silhouette a slightly concaved look may be a better choice.You mainly using tileable textures for this?

    Yeah I'm using just tiling textures for everything atm. It's fun, but I really want to work on something with a unique texture... It gets boring working so modular all the time.

    Quote from Kedhrin

    i've done massive constructions of interrior to exterior buildings in unreal engine 3 before using CSG... it makes me cringe but at the same time it can be really fun... i can tell you are using CSG in your first pic then modleing it in the next ones...are you doing a complete remodel or are you trying to convert the CSG into a mesh?i'm also inclined to agree witht he go concave rather than convex on your roof shapes

    I'm not using any BSP/CSG.. It's all static meshes. I wanted to avoid BSP as much as possible!

    Here's an update to the scene. Tried adding a bit more colour, and I've worked on a few more textures/models. I want to work on some props next, this is driving me insane

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/wip_6.jpg]

    Progress has been a bit slow recently, been sorting out my last bit of uni work and doing various other things.

    I've worked a little more on the exterior. I want to block all basic textures in all the rooms first, and get things like the stairs and door frames in inside. Then I can detail each room, and work on the exterior.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/wip_8.jpg]

    Here's a closer shot of the porch area as it is at the moment.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/wip_porch_1.jpg]

    And here's the beginnings of a wallpaper texture I've started making for the living room.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7557268/Farmhouse/Shots/wip_livingroom_1.jpg]

    This is looking very attractive, digging the soft warm colours. Are you'r shutter large enough to actually cover the windows when closed though? Or are they folding ones ones, maybe you could spare a few triangles to model the slats on.

    Great work!

    i'm not sure what direction you are going, but the window frame texture is a lot worn out, while the wallpaper and wood trim are very neat and clean. It's the only thing that really caught mu attention at this point really.

    Keep it up!

    Yeah unless it is a mirrored model just change the inside of the window frame. Although I might tone it down a little on the outside.

    Quote from Jenn0_Bing

    This is looking very attractive, digging the soft warm colours. Are you'r shutter large enough to actually cover the windows when closed though? Or are they folding ones ones, maybe you could spare a few triangles to model the slats on.

    They're actually just fixed shutters that are made to just enhance the look of the building. When I was researching window shutters, I found that some shutters aren't wide enough to close over the window they are fixed on... But you can get fixed or operable shutters.

    I think I need to decide whether this is a broken down building, or a nice, well kept farmhouse. I'm hoping to go more towards the latter actually, I think it's too easy to just make a building look all grimy and worn down. I might take some of the paint chips off and make this a nice, well kept house instead

    I'll tone down the exterior damage a little, and change the texture of the interior model.

    Personally I would go for a well used look. The outside would obviously have some damage done to it but the inside would be up to scratch and clean (well within reason).

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