The Art of SketchUp - part 1: Fantasy

[ken28875]

@pherim said:

Very cool stuff again. I find it fascinating how you are using quite uncommon shapes. I find it difficult to use such shapes, but then again I am still experimenting with some of the plugins.
Your model of the dwarven temple reminds me of one of my own models which is also some kind of temple or shrine.

Hi Pherim,

Thank you for your comments. I would love to see your models. Feel free to email them to me (to my personal email: ken28875@yahoo.com), as well as any questions you may have if I could help improve your Sketchup modeling skills. I am quite busy but I will do my best to reply.

Anyway, here are some tents that I did for the different NPC (bandits, goblins, etc.) and some market stalls for the game Rift.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

_KN

Some weapons here.

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/

[Gaieus]

This is fantastic.

When I look at the wireframes, I am saying "what an awfully sloppy way of modelling" but then when I look at the final result, I have to admit I simply do not have fantasy. Probably this is why my models are always mediocre and so "artificially looking" - and well, I may know the techniques but then the true artist can also discard the rules in order to achieve something great.

Thanks for sharing these - they are great inspiration!

[boofredlay]

Great work as usual Ken.

[ken28875]

@ Csaba Pozsárkó and Eric Lay: I appreciate your comments. Some of these tents are low polygon models so that we can put them in the game engine. I usually do a higher polygon models for final rendering like the ones I posted earlier or some of my personal stuff for the Sci-fi thread. Thank you.

So here's my first project when I started working on Trion's MMO game Rift back in January 2008. I had to design a keep in Gloamwood that is a dark forest in the world of Rift. By the way, Rift is kind of like World of Warcraft for those who play online games.

All the pieces are modular meaning you can rotate them and combine them to create different castles.

Thanks for viewing. Comments and questions are welcome.

Best,

_KN

I started with these 3 conceptual models:

The Art Director chose option number 3.

Here are the final pieces:

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/

[pilou]

So with modular composants (or not) maybe this new plug can interest you
Random replacement of components by Sdmitch
No limit of Sources and targets

[liam887]

Bravo Sir

[holmes1977]

Flippin BRILLIANT

[fabrice de lyon]

Great job!
Could you explain what tool you use to model cloth ?

[liam887]

@fabrice de lyon said:

Great job!
Could you explain what tool you use to model cloth ?

Whatts, SDS or Artisan perhaps? http://artisan4sketchup.com/

[ken28875]

@unknownuser said:

So with modular composants (or not) maybe this new plug can interest you
Random replacement of components by Sdmitch
No limit of Sources and targets

@ Pilou: Thanks for the plugin. However, this won't be useful as the layout of the castle has to be done manually by placing the pieces together. It's like an architect designing a building. All the walls have to be connected. You cannot place them randomly. But if my castle is destroyed and the pieces are all over the place, then maybe the plugin could be useful.

@ holmes1977: thank you for your kind words, Jonathan.

@liam887 said:

@fabrice de lyon said:

Great job!
Could you explain what tool you use to model cloth ?

Whatts, SDS or Artisan perhaps? http://artisan4sketchup.com/

@ Fabrice and Liam: Thanks for your comments. The answer to the question is d)none of the above. I do have SDS and Artisan, alghough I don't use them a lot in my Sketchup modeling workflow yet. I use basic "Box Modeling" or "Polygon Modeling" for most of my hard surface models and architecture stuff. For the cloths and most of my organic shapes (and sometimes for hard surface modeling too), I use a technique similar to "Nurbs Modeling" or "Spline and Patches". TIG's Extrude Edges tools and TGI3D work wonderfully to create faces/mesh and for moving vertices.

@ Liam: check your email and let me know if you have more questions. I answered your question about getting a job in the game industry.

Here are some more tents.

Have a great day!

_KN

a few concepts for Axes:

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/

[ken28875]

More conceptual models.

Have a nice day!

_KN

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/

[ken28875]

Hey guys,

I've been busy and did not have time to post anything the past month.

So here are some more concepts of tents as well as weapons from the game Rift.

Have a great one!

_KN

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/

[Ghalko]

Awesome! I played the 7 day free trial and wanted to explore more, see more of the world, but there were a lot of weird quests (kill 7 of these, bring back their hides) that I had to do in order to advance and not just get smooshed if I went to the next area. It really looks like quite a bit of fun that you are having, I need to get back into sketchup and such but I have a ton of things I need to do before I have any time again.

I look forward to seeing more!

[ken28875]

@ghalko said:

Awesome! I played the 7 day free trial and wanted to explore more, see more of the world, but there were a lot of weird quests (kill 7 of these, bring back their hides) that I had to do in order to advance and not just get smooshed if I went to the next area. It really looks like quite a bit of fun that you are having, I need to get back into sketchup and such but I have a ton of things I need to do before I have any time again.

I look forward to seeing more!

Thanks, Bryan. I am glad you had fun playing the game Rift. Yes, some quests are weird like you said (e.g. kill 7 of these, bring back their hides). But this is how all MMOs are. You will have some similar quests in games like World of Warcraft, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Guild Wars, etc.

Here are some more Sketchup models for tents and weapons. I know, you all are probably tired of my tents. I'll post something else next time.

Take care,

_KN

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/

[artysmedia]

I like the Iron pine forge!

Great job as ever!

[ken28875]

@artysmedia said:

I like the Iron pine forge!

Great job as ever!

@ artysmedia: Thanks, Roberto. I hope all is well.

Here's a tree I modeled in Sketchup and brought into Vue for the 3D Environment 2011 competition I entered a couple of months ago. Unfortunately my render was not selected. But it was fun to do. The image below is actually a postwork in PS adding the foreground, waterfalls and some birds that could not be done for the original entry as the rule forbid any kind of postwork.

More stuff form the game Rift. I still have tons of them and will post them whenever I have time.

Thanks for stopping and have a wonderful week!

Best,

_KN

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/

[artysmedia]

Yours Avatar's image is great, but i think the man has his left leg a little misplaced...

[hellnbak]

What can I say, your work is amazing! I especially like the tree, I attempted to make a gnarled old tree several time, failed miserably. Any tips or secrets you'd like to reveal??

[pilou]

Your gallery is truelly amazing!

[mesadesign]

Awesome Work!