The Animal Shrine - 17 - Paper Lanterns

Foliage, Sky and Props

Camera angle showing the mossy path leading to the stone stairs. Left is the calligraphers hut, right are the other structures. The sky now has a proper texture in pink shades with lots of white clouds littered on top.

Started photo-bashing my own sky. Finally got into SpeedTree, and using the leaves that I created ages ago, plus a new bamboo texture, I produced a better looking result. My tree in the distance still needs replacing though. The mountains too.

The main camera angle that shows the shrine with the orange bamboo candles to the right. All of the lights are much more controlled now. The previously square hanging lanterns (from the sides of each building) are now replaced for an oval, paper lanterns.

I toned down nearly every light in the scene. Especially the bamboo candles (which still need texturing, so sad…). Also increased the area of lots of them, trying to achieve more clarity and go away from the small clusters of bright lights, that would be more appropriate for modern skyline, than a feudal village in the middle of the woods… Could they do with more work? Sure, but we will see what can be done with the tight deadline.

I felt like I wouldn’t have had a better opportunity to create spherical paper lanterns than this anytime soon. So that is what I did, an orange and a yellow version. I feel like they improved the mood and atmosphere quite a bit. They also made some of the random spotlights I had scattered around, feel like they actually have a source now.

A gif with 4 screenshots. First 2 are the paper lanterns seen in UE4 and in Substance Painter. Next is a bamboo foliage build up inside SpeedTree. The last part is an animated shot, visualizing the new lanterns spinning in a crazy way, an annotation on top reads “You spin me right round, baby right round”.

The empty space in the Calligraphers, I filled a bit more, trying to tell a story of some sorts. It’s hard though, as I don’t have time to produce more props.

Interior

Screenshot inside the calligraphers hut. Shows the writing desk. Behind it there are now 2 red sitting pillows. Next to them is a little tea set.

Cushions are looking kind of shy, but we will see if I have any free time to work on them more. Before that, I feel like the floor material and walls need my attention first.

Any comments are much appreciated. As always, thanks for reading.

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