Jungle environment WIP

This time I was inspired by Star Wars battlefront 3 footage. Tried to remake something similar using CE3.7 SDK. And it all turned into something good lookin'. This time I was up for small, close range scene and concentrated on detail. Huge levels require a lot of passion (and time) to work on mid-range so that's why I was afraid of it.

 So I ended with forest scene which could be called "place were I could like to visit in real life" isn't it ? :) Adding some fog and rotating sun to the sunset map turns into a quite breathtaking place.

various lighting/fog variations:

This time I was requested to draw unique person and first thing which came to my mind was Maria Jose Cristerna, better known as "Vampire woman" and also has quite interesting biography. She looks sharp, evil and beautiful. That's my opinion. Pure inspiration ist it ? :)

I also needed some hard drawing practise, because last time I drawn about a year ago. Digital arts downgrade my hard drawing skill.

Real life comparison:

Recently I was working on pine forest. Got inspired by Dragon Age Inquisition and decided to make something similar. Polycount: near one million. This time I used CryEngine 3.7 so I needed to learn how to correctly use environment probe.

This time I was forced to manipulate very few rock models so I needed to improvise and rotate, scale them to make them looking "visually" different.

I feel very good if my work can inspire other people. Just never give up and never stop being creative. Never forget that there are a lot of ways to express yourself in one way or another :)

If I be lucky, this month I might be getting Witcher 3: Wild hunt and I'm already overhyped. I'm sure that game is going to inspire me a lot !

Seeking the inspiration

We often want to start working on something but don't know on what to start working ? That's why we all need some inspiration. Some need a little like small single picture, others need mind blowing experience by traveling to mountains or to nearby located lake. Same thing is about digital environment arts/design or how others like to call it. I could confirm from my experience that by playing games you can get quite thrilling visual inspiration. Graphic engines are getting updated almost every year so do the games. Every next gen brings us stunning visuals. Nowadays were are close to photoreal graphics games and there's no doubts about the future. Games, mods and modded games are great and endless inspiration origin !

It's also important to mention that if you see scene which you like or something thrills you, don't forget to take screenshot of it ! Our memory very likely to forget things so having a screenshot(s) from scene which you liked and by extremely useful when you decide to start working on something. I don't have copying on my mind, but in this way you can way easier understand how digital environments are designed, how static objects are placed, take a look on shadows and compare their color to sky color or you even can try to beat game scene visuals by recreating it in different way. Newer stop believing in yourself and you will reach something :)

What is more, there are a lot of things around us what can inspire, you just need to have sharp sight.
 I gain a lot of inspiration from places were I visit etc so newer forget to travel and expand your outlook.
That's all for this time. I will try to write more helpful tips for 3d environment design.

I also added some my favourite screenshots from various games what I have played in last 3 years. It may inspire someone hehe

By the way, suggestions, notes or random ideas are welcome in comments section :)

(Screenshots were taken from following games: Dead Space 3, Skyrim, Metro 2033, Crysis 3, Thief, Battlefield 4)