The Art of SketchUp - part 1: Fantasy

ken28875

Nice work Ken I really need to learn how to make some good materials for my models, the children's bedroom scene is amazing! ALways nice to see your work.

Hi Liam,

Glad to hear you like it. Thanks.

Yup, materials are very important to have a good render. What rendering engine do you use?

Hope you had a great Christmas and I wish you the best for New Year 2011.

_KN

Here are some more visual developments from the game Gods and Heroes.

Shipwrecks done with Sketchup/Maya - Environment with Vue - Photoshop for postwork.

Some atmospheric studies:

ken28875

Hi guys,

It's nice to be back. I apologize for the lack of updates the past half year. Things have been quite hectic.

My grandfather passed away a few months ago. I spent a few days in Los Angeles with my family to attend the funeral.

Back to San Francisco, I was really busy finishing the game Rift that was shipped on March. You can check out the website here if you're into MMO: http://www.riftgame.com/en/. So the NDA was lifted and I now can share some of my concepts/Sketchup models that I did the past 3.5 years.

I was also busy working on personal stuff that I will post later.

Anyway, here are some art works I did for Rift, mostly architecture, weapons and props.

As usual, modeling was done in Sketchup; texturing inside Sketchup and done in Photoshop; rendering with VRay for Sketchup; postworks in Photoshop.

I have hundreds of them and will post them when I have the chance.

Thanks for viewing and have a great day,

_KN

Raw renders/ WIP in Sketchup:

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Shadebane_raw_skp1.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Shadebane_raw_skp2.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Shadebane_raw_skp3.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Shadebane_raw_skp4.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Shadebane_raw_skp6.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Shadebane_raw_skp7.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Shadebane_raw_skp5.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/A_P_stonefield_chapel_01.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/A_D_temple_small_01e.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/porticulum.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/barrel_chest_crate.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/metal_chest.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Metal_Crate_barrel.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/Metal_Strongbox.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/1H_Maces_set_05.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/1H_Maces_set_05_skp.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/2H_Swords_set_07.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

[img:2x623wj1]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy 2/2H_swords_set_07_skp.jpg[/img:2x623wj1]

My interview with ASGVIS/V-Ray:
http://software.asgvis.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=886&Itemid=466&utm_source=Publicaster&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Winning%20Subject&utm_term=Read%20more%20about%20Ken%20Nguyen
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/
Sketchup for Fantasy Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27028
Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030

numbthumb

Nice to have you back, Ken. It's always a pleasure to see such a wonderful work!

Pherim

Incredible Stuff! I wish I was as good as you are. I also do fantasy modelling in Sketchup, but I am far from being as good as you are with it. Looking forward to more!

tnarch

Very impressive. Keep it up!

boofredlay

Very impressive work!

meak

hello,
as usual a great job!
I can not wait to see more.

ken28875

@ numbthumb, Pherim, Triet Nguyen, Eric Lay and Cador Mikael: Thanks guys for your kind words. I am glad you like my stuff.

Here are some more Sketchup models I did for the game Rift.

Sketchup + Vray or Podium + Photoshop

Have a wonderful day!

_KN

[img:2xn4gtbj]http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy/Art of Sketchup Fantasy group 02 a/Crossbows_03.jpg[/img:2xn4gtbj]

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/spotligh%20...%20-industry/

Pherim

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.

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

$http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy/Art of sketchup Fantasy group 03/A_C_tent_fractions_01.jpg$

$http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy/Art of sketchup Fantasy group 03/A_C_tent_fractions_01_skp.jpg$

$http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy/Art of sketchup Fantasy group 03/A_C_tent_fractions_02.jpg$

$http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/ken28875/Art of Sketchup - Fantasy/Art of sketchup Fantasy group 03/A_C_tent_fractions_02_skp.jpg$

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