• 🏆 Texturing Contest #33 is OPEN! Contestants must re-texture a SD unit model found in-game (Warcraft 3 Classic), recreating the unit into a peaceful NPC version. 🔗Click here to enter!

Terraining Contest #19 - Results

Status
Not open for further replies.
thread_hive_logo-png.311520

ct_terraining-png.311502
contest-png.311487
p_hash-png.311483
1-png.311474
9-png.311482

thread_results-png.311519


tc19signew-png.312397


Participants are to create a place where something violent happened in the past. A past warzone, or decisive action or something along the lines of D-Day landing. You should envision how that area would look after some time. You are free to draw inspiration from real life zones or fantasy ones but new things are encouraged to be portrayed.


other_prizes-png.311512


  • First Place: 45 reputation points, your entry on the award icon and a custom rank icon
  • Second Place: 30 reputation points and an award icon
  • Third Place: 15 reputation points and an award icon


other_judges-png.311510


  • Blood Raven
  • Naze

other_contest_judging-png.311506



_____________
Bernkastel
_____________
The theme was executed very well, the terrain has a certain unique vibe to it that reminds me both of Mass Effect and The Hunger Games. Even though the usage of lighting effect is excessive, they do add a lot to the atmosphere with that solar radiation-esque look and serve very well to separate foreground from background. There is just the right amound of detail without being too eye-piercing or too bland to look at. Composition-wise everything is balanced and in its place. Maybe you could have made the ship on the left bigger and closer to the camera to weigh all the foreground detail on the right, but that's really nitpicking. Overall, a really solid. beautiful and unique terrain with not much to nitpick at.

Creativity 13/15
Detail 12/15
Technique 15/15
Aesthetics 14/15
54/60

_____________
Kristopher
_____________
The idea of the terrain is pretty nice, but there are a couple of problems in the execution. While there are areas with a lot of detail like the bridge and to a lesser extent, the buildings, the snowy parts in-between them are very bland. It creates a vertical rhythm that I'm unsure whether or not it was intentional, but looks like a compositional mistake. Another thing are the rope bridges - they are way too thick and dark, obscuring a lot of the details on the bridge and contrasting too much with everything else, creating visual stress.
Composition-wise it looks alright, but it's unclear which is the focus of the composition - colors suggest it is the radiation glow in the background, because it's the only thing separated from the blue-ish overall color scheme, but detail suggests it's the bridge, which is again hurt by the contrasting ropes, instead of having the actually more interesting objects contrast and stand out (like the wrecks on the bridge). Overall a solid entry with a few issues with composition.

Creativity 13/15
Detail 9/15
Technique 11/15
Aesthetics 13/15
46/60

_____________
Mythic
_____________
The theme is a little... humble here. Nothing of epic proportions, but it does the job. There are not a lot of details, but then again, a terrain that has only silhouettes doesn't really need a lot of detail. One thing that stands out to me is that the human silhouette is really unreadable. If I didn't know what the sorceress model looked like, I would have never guessed that was supposed to be a human body. That being said, there are also some issues with the composition. First off, the color scheme. It is literally one color. While that is okay for something like a logo (which this terrain strangely resembles), not using more than one tone really takes away a lot of visual interest. Using even subtle tonal variations (via almost invisible glows or clouds) could add a lot to your terrain. The composition is also nothing special. The focal point is slapped straight in the center (like a logo), as is the horizon line. Using the rule of thirds (for example moving the horizon line to 1/3 or 2/3 of your "canvas") could also improve your composition. Also, the water seems way too transparent. I know that was your idea, to show to tentacles and the sinking ship and all, but it could be executed better. Water that is reflecting the moon with such brightness shouldn't show anything under its surface (you could have split the camera to be half above, and half below water level to achieve a similar effect). Also (really nitpicking at this point), why do the islands have reflections, but the ship does not? Overall, an interesting entry with room for improvement.

Creativity 9/15
Detail 7/15
Technique 11/15
Aesthetics 10/15
37/60

_____________
Neruvatar
_____________
The thematic is unusual for sure, but I'm not sure it fits with the theme. There is nothing "aftermath-y", in fact, the terrain depicts something that's about to happen, not something that has happened. Even though there are areas with quite some detail (like the alien, which is, I assume, the main focal point), none of it really stands out because it's all in a very similar color scheme that blends with the background. Also, the foreground severely lacks any detail, those low-res cliffs are really an eyesore, while the background has a lot of detailed cliffs. It should be the other way around. The idea of making the units really small to add scale is nice, but it would have worked a lot better with a more detailed foreground and a wider camera angle. The color scheme, as I said, it really monotone, consisting only of reds and purples, with some oranges and yellows in the sky. Notice how all these colors are warm? An all-warm color scheme is never a good thing, it makes everything blend together, it's not pleasing to look at and you can't really make anything stand out without using cooler colors for your main objects (focal point). Composition is also lacking, the horizon line is dead in the center, and the main object is almost touching the canvas edge (which is never a good thing) Again, using a wider camera angle would have given you more space to work with and make the "towering" aspect more obvious. Has potential, but requires more work.

Creativity 6/15
Detail 6/15
Technique 7/15
Aesthetics 8/15
27/60

_____________
Nightstalker
_____________
I'm not a hundred percent sure what the "aftermath" here is, but it's a damn nice terrain of a (slightly ruined) futuristic city. The detail is quite abundant, even intrusively so, but compared to some of your earlier WiPs I saw, it's way better. Still, maybe you could have limited the details in the background a bit more, which is unfortunate, because your main focal point is in the background, which is a tricky thing to execute. Meanwhile, the foreground (the right-hand side) is pretty devoid of interesting things to look at, especially that low-res wall that takes up a quarter of the whole image and has zero detail, albeit being in the foreground, while that same wall in the background has more details and is way more visually interesting. Should be the other way around. The colors are well-chosen with predominant greys with green, orange and blue accents that complement each-other well. That solar flare should be between the sun and the camera's center (unless it's not a flare, but a solar eclipse, in which case the center should be darker) [/nitpick]
Overall a really nice terrain, although it needs a bit more balancing on the details.

Creativity 11/15
Detail 10/15
Technique 14/15
Aesthetics 12/15
47/60

_____________
Pailian
_____________
I know this is a WiP, so I will judge it like one (which is to say, I'll focus more on the idea and the potential instead of the execution)
The idea is nice, but I'm not sure using these vanilla models was so fitting for it, since the low-res textures ruin the scale of the whole thing. Scale as a whole is a central part of your idea, since you're showing something with a tremendous size, so you have to show it as such. Widening the camera angle drastically can do wonders here. Also don't use the fire doodads, since they ruin the scale as well, use glows instead to show the intense temperature, which will also help with the composition, having a warm focal point and a cool background. The waterfalls really fail to look like a tsunami, especially with these rocks pointing out on-top of it. Have you seen a tsunami? It's kinda taller than rocks. If you wanted to emphasize the impact moment, you could add some shock-waves with glows and stuff, along with flying rocks and debris, which will make things a lot more dynamic (they are kinda static right now for such an event), even though that would deduct from the "aftermath" theme. I'm not sure if that's intentional or if you were going to do that at one point, but the horizon line looks "bent", which can be used to great effect if you were to make it a perfect arc like we're looking at the planet from outer space and would help with the scale a lot as well. Adding stars to the sky and showing more of it would help you as well. The purple fog is a bit too saturated and intrusive, tone it down a bit and maybe change it to a more blue-ish hue.
The idea has potential, but requires a lot more work.

Creativity 9/15
Detail 3/15
Technique 4/15
Aesthetics 5/15
21/60

_____________
PrinceYaser
_____________
The terrain itself is top notch, however it doesn't really fit all that well with the theme. The skeletons suggest that whatever happened here was centuries ago, there is no visible aftermath other than a few withered corpses and ruined arches. It looks more like a Diablo 3 dungeon. That being said, everything else is really well done, the details are in the right places and right amounts, there is a clear separation between foreground and background, color scheme is kinda dead and desaturated, but I suppose that's what you were going for. Maybe these waterfalls could have been somewhat closer to the center of the composition, since they add a lot of visual interest and are a bit out of the way and too close to the corner, unbalancing the composition a little. Also, congrats on being the only participant to use anti-aliasing (this doesn't net you bonus points, since it's a 3rd party modification, but still :D)
Overall, an amazing terrain, that however doesn't fit so well with the theme.

Creativity 9/15
Detail 14/15
Technique 14/15
Aesthetics 13/15
50/60

_____________
Ragnaros17
_____________
The thematic is kinda hit-and-miss. It looks more like an active battlefield , which is not what the theme implies.
The terrain looks more like a playable map than anything. That is to say, too much detail, everywhere, no matter if it's foreground, background, focal point or near the edge of the picture, you just crammed it full of stuff and it's really visually stressing. It seems you were so focused on "building" the scene that you forgot to compose it first. All those doodads you constructed from smaller ones like the wooden contraptions and especially the mossy wall just blend with themselves. The horizon line is almost touching the upper edge, not a lot of sky is visible, to the point of questioning whether you really need it there, since the horizon looks "cut", like the world ends there and you could fall through to the abyss, and the out-of-place sun doesn't help.

Creativity 6/15
Detail 4/15
Technique 7/15
Aesthetics 5/15
22/60

_____________
RedLord
_____________
You're certainly on the same page with the theme, there is clearly an aftermath, but an aftermath of what, exactly? Usually I disregard names and descriptions on the entries, but a "Bandit raid" doesn't really describe what is in the picture in my opinion. What kind of bandits chop the trees (at 3+ meters height at that) and throw random crates and barrels in a lake? It's more like a hurricane went through the village, not bandits. All I'm trying to say it that maybe you didn't achieve the look you were going for, but I'm not going to deduct points based on the name, since it's not a part of the terrain anyway.
It's nice that you used those mists to separate the middle ground from the background to some extent, but the composition overall is very cluttered with objects and details, creating visual tension in a scene where there is supposed to be no movement. The color scheme is pretty generic with earthy tones and blues. The character on the right doesn't really add much to the composition, being too close to the edge and too out of the way to be the focal point or the foreground for the matter. Making him bigger more central could have added some visual interest and scale.
Overall, a nicely done terrain, even if it's a bit too cluttered and has some issues with the composition.
P.S. Don't think I didn't notice that selection circle. :D

Creativity 11/15
Detail 9/15
Technique 10/15
Aesthetics 11/15
42/60


Bern's Bipedal Babies by Bernkastel
Creativity: 12/15
Detail: 14/15
Technique: 12/15
Aesthetics: 14/15

Out of a regular, classic aftermath scene, Bernkastel managed to pull out a truly amazing piece. Details are great, and he managed to push the low-poly stuff far from camera while still having a decently populated foreground. It lacks a little bit of detail in between the midground and the background. Now that we're at this, a few points were subtracted from technique for this very reason: the midground suddenly turns into the background instead of presenting the viewer with objects that gradually blends with the fog as they get distant. This makes me get the impression of expecting the end of the map right there, instead of being immersed in the scene. On top of that, a huge blob of light appears from behind the Bipedal Baby, such an intense light that it stands somewhere in between being a nuke explosion or just an overly-dramatic twilight, but it's not clear or realistic. However none of this is enough to downplay the joyful experience that is looking at this scene. The mech is wonderfully built and shows a very clever use of in-game models, making you look at it for quite some time while observing the details. The purple-ish orange of the sky makes a pleasant contrasts with the green overgrown scenery. Good job!

Final: 52/60

Nuclear Winter by Kristopher
Creativity: 12/15
Detail: 12/15
Technique: 11/15
Aesthetic: 14/15

The Nuclear Winter isn't necessarily a new concept regarding the aftermath concept but it certainly fits the theme. Details are not off or lacking, but Kristopher surely was economic about placing smaller props around hehe. You placed everything in a way that none of it feels empty: the bridge has good details because of the occasional litter on the floor and the masts, the buildings are nice and detailed, the background city is kinda ok (could've used more stuff, lamp posts, etc). However the snow on the foreground looks too plain and clean, which makes it uninteresting: you could've used some stuff like dead bushes occasionally poking out of the snow, or some tall posts raising above the ice, or a truck, etc. About the lighting: the circle of light on the sky and the end of the bridge isn't much of a convincing sun (because the light overlaps the bridge's cables, looks like it's just a light 1 kilometer away from camera), or it can be understood as an explosion. Making a convincing sun in World Editor is tricky, so I recommend taking a look at some references for that! Despite this, your terrain is cool and immersive, the models you've chosen are nice and the composition (the cabled bridge distancing itself from the camera and connecting the background with the foreground) make a good pleasant scenery for the viewer. I certainly could imagine for a second the world buried in snow in an apocalyptic ever-winter.

Final: 49/60

Lost at Sea by Mythic
Creativity: 13/15
Detail: 12/15
Technique: 10/15
Aesthetic: 14/15

I like the concept a lot. It stood out a little more for me, considering that I expected mostly ruined towns or battlefields. Details are good, though kind of a minimalist piece, you managed to pull out a good water surface, along with the starry sky and the palm trees on the 2 islands. All that keeps my eye occupied and interested in the image for a good time. Except for looking at the horizon, doesn't quite fade away or melds with the background. It instead reminds me of the end of map, which should be avoided. The low poly models (boat and tentacles) shouldn't be too evidently close to the camera, this and the blurry stars at the sky. Noticing that breaks the immersion, which is a shame because I really liked the overall atmosphere of your piece. Though simple, it's a pleasure to look at the subtle water surface convincingly getting more horizontal with the distance, the gradient of dark blue to black and the water reflections. Speaking of which, why does the ship has no reflection? Specially considering the other tall objects do have reflections haha.

Final: 49/60

Bubolic Incident by Neruvatar
Creativity: 12/15
Detail: 10/15
Technique: 9/15
Aesthetic: 11/15

The think that the concept of a plant-like alien infestation is nice, though not 100% new (but it doesn't have to be 100% new, so no worries). It's refreshing to see such a theme anyway. You should've been more generous when placing details around the scene (smaller rocks, fallen pillars or whatever). I mean, I know the vegetation is dead because it drains resources, but what about spreading some dead shrubs around or the rest of some fallen trees? If it doesn't fit the concept perhaps you can try something else, but as it is now to avoid making it look bland. Regarding the technique, you built an interesting monster as the center piece, congrats for that. Now here comes the problem: after we're done admiring the towering monster, we start to take a look around the image, and the foreground isn't good! On your next terrains, try to avoid using big doodads close to the camera (like we see with those red rocks making a cliff in the foreground). We should not be able to take a close look at a regular Blizzard rock model, they'd be better far off camera (or at smaller sizes, so they give the impression of being "higher poly" - though they aren't). The Blizzard cliff and the pixelated ground texture should've been less evident too (keep it far from camera, dude!). Horizon could be a little bit more distant, with smaller rocks and hills shrouded by fog (this way you would make it look even farther away). For all of the advice I gave before, take a look at this terrain made inside world editor: image (see how he kept things small so they don't look stretched and low-poly). All in all, execution could be better, but the image brings a lot of action for our eyes to see, and the alien creature with melding colors of low-contrast-reds gives us plenty to observe (which is nice!), the low-hanging fog and sky makes a good composition.

Final: 42/60

Discovery Osiria by NightStalker
Creativity: 13/15
Detail: 13/15
Technique: 14/15
Aesthetics: 14/15

Cool concept and interesting lore. Got carried away by it, in a good way. Details are great, the ugly low poly and stretched textures are located far from camera - exactly where they should be. However, the main wall (right in front of the camera) bears an ugly texture, and it's kinda stretched, enabling us to see the it being blurry and pixelated, which isn't good. You could have: 1. added more details with doodads placed flatly of the wall (like columns and arches or whatever); and 2. made the wall doodad smaller (not sure if it'll look good this way - a bit more of experimentation and trial & error would be welcome). The city is full of little objects and interesting places to look at, which is awesome. Technique is pretty much on point, thus 14/15. I deducted a point because of the flaw on the wall texture and because the sky is really average (so it didn't give an extra point). Everything else is really cool, aesthetic and brilliant, while the sky is kinda generic to terraining standards and the sun flare in the middle isn't the most convincing one =P However the scene is awesome, and keeps me as a viewer in an interested and imaginative state. Aesthetics regarding structure building and atmosphere are fitting, alien-y and pleasant: the orange-afternoon mood is convincing for me and immersive. Good job!

Final: 54/60

The first impact by Paillan
Creativity: 12/15
Detail: 2/15
Technique: 2/15
Aesthetic: 2/15

Well even though this one is obviously a WIP, I'll give some criticism anyway, it might be useful for future reference (on terrains or paintings or whatever visual art regarding scenery). So, you were gonna make an impact crater, right? Idk what you were going to do with those big-ass Blizzard rocks there, but be sure that, if they were gonna be kept that way, they won't look good. They're so big that we can see their textures stretched and blurred, and that's not what we want here. Considering we terrainers (and other artists too) create such images for others to find pleasure to look at, we should keep in mind that we must entertain them with something. An image like yours (an impact crater from a meteor) has a big potential of entertaining them with the composition: deciding where to put contrasts, where to place the camera, where to make the light comes through, etc. So you can avoid 100% of close objects to the camera and still make a great piece. This is for terraining and other arts too. Look at this picture, it has a composition that's interesting enough to keep us looking at it and finding it cool, while the artist didn't even try to render a detailed texture of the floor and trees, keeping them far away. Quite the contrary of this portrait, in which the artist relied on the highly-detailed textures. So as general advice, in wc3 I recommend throwing everything far from camera unless you made a clever construct out of smaller doodads; or you have an appealing HQ model. Nor regarding composition, you could've made a really juicy scene for us to see: red light illuminating from below the crater contrasting with hazy dark shadows caused from "nuclear winter" (sic) + a dim light in the sky piercing through dark clouds (high-contrast lights and shadows are an easy way to make a wc3 scenery look satisfyingly good/realistic). Also horizon slowly fading away and melding with the fog is generally a must in wc3 terraining. You can see both techniques (light contrasts & horizon) here. Better luck finishing the WIP next time!

Final: 18/60

Perseachara by PrinceYaser
Creativity: 12/15
Detail: 14/15
Technique: 13/15
Aesthetics: 14/15

A classic aftermath concept. Details are on point. Everything is placed in a good way, every prop is both aesthetic and meaningful to the scene, I can't complain about a single thing - on the foreground. Regarding the middle ground, however, I feel it had a little less love than the foreground. Example: we have bushes and small other elements (helmets, shields, rubble, whatever) every few meters in the foreground. Why is the midground so clean? I can see some big ruined structures there, but it seems like a janitor has come by and cleaned the floor, swiping away the mess that the battle should've left behind. I would recommend keeping the "messy battle aftermath" feeling more consistent next time, adding some props in the midground (and sizing them down, so the viewer has the feeling that it's further away). Doing this is actually good to emphasize distances. The second thing I can complain is on the technique side: it's the sky. I don't love the way it melds into the horizon. It kinda looks like a very foggy morning, so to justify the heavy grey fog, but still I can see random hills on the horizon peaking up in some places. Those peaks enable us to see the pointy geometry of WE's raise terrain tool, and they feel close to the camera, thus breaking immersion. Look at how the hills feel far away in this terrain, and the gentle slopes of their silhouettes help making they feel realistic and far. I know you might've wanted to get a hazy morning feel, but that's where the magic is: trying to get enough fog to make it look like a hazy morning and still being able to feel like the horizon is actually distant. Anyway, the rest of the terrain looks stunningly good, it's a pleasure to look at, there are details like the brighter water lining at the parapets that really make the terrain stand out, and the color variations are shy but enough to feel good, and the sky is very well made. Good job!

Final: 53/60

Grol'dom Juggernaut by Ragnaros17
Creativity: 12/15
Detail: 10/15
Technique: 8/15
Aesthetic: 5/15

The concept is interesting, specially the custom-built siege contraptions used by the orcs. For me your submission is clearly not intended to be an artistic terrain, like the regular "unplayable" artistic terrains we have here and in the Terrain Board forum, instead your entry is much more invested towards showing a scene that could very well be possible in a campaign or an in-game cinematic. So, let's talk about details: you have plenty of them, which is good. It makes the scene feel alive with a lot of doodads lying around. But they aren't very aesthetic: the colors of those doodads and units are all very bright (probably the default colors), and this colorful contrast is usually not very beautiful, so avoid that. When adding details, what most artists do is creating having some things being less colorful (for example, making the bodies on the floor have a less bright color) and make some other things remain colorful (like blood with a strong red, or flowers with a strong pink, to make the scene more interesting). Look at this terrain and see how he made the columns darker, so it doesn't look like everything is a bright, like plastic toys. Another hint I have: use World Editor's fog! Fog is the friend of every terrainer, and I see no fog in your scene. For example, your terrain is supposed to portray a bright sunny day, right? A thin, yellow fog in the horizon would be really good to create the atmosphere you want. If you're making a dark night terrain, then a dark blue fog would be good. The last criticism I have for now is the cubes you used to build the wall: I like the wall idea, but the cubes have an evidently repetitive texture which makes us see a pattern - this is not aesthetic. Next time you can try to rotate the cubes to try to break this pattern, or to use different doodads, etc. Step by step you can improve a lot!

Final: 35/60

Bandit Raid by RedLord
Creativity: 12/15
Detail: 13/15
Technique: 10/15
Aesthetic: 12/15

Cool, classic aftermath concept. Details are good in terms of positioning: the scenery is well populated with small doodads that give life to the scene. I have one complaint regarding details though: you seem to have used the default tinting of the doodads. The rocks are well placed, but they're so bright! Everything is very bright and not-dirty. If only you had the wooden stuff tinted a little darker, and the rocks tinted like R:170 G:170 B:170, it could feel a little bit more realistic and a little less like a lot fo shiny wc3 doodads thrown together in the same scene (I'm not sure about these numbers, this has a lot of trial and error until it looks good). For example, look at this terrain and see how he kept everything in a slightly darker tone, so the eyes of the viewer wouldn't be overwhelmed by bright green vegetation and bright grey rocks. It technique also gives the opportunity to guide the viewer to pay attention where you'd like him to: a bright light source in the middle of a low-contrast scenery will attract the eyes of the viewer, just like in that terrain I gave the link. Aside from that, a little bit of fog in the background and a dense forest makes the rest of the terrain, which is kinda claustrophobic - but I guess that was your intention. Next time try to position doodads getting smaller with the distance, it makes your scene feels bigger and which gives more "relaxing" feeling when looking at it. Good eye creating the reflections on the lake, it's always an interesting point to the viewer, so nice work on that.

Final: 47/60



Score S = 25v/TOTv + 75( j1 + j2 )/TOTp

where v = votes entry received, TOTv = total poll vote count, j1 and j2 = score from judges, and TOTp = total judge score possible.



Killcide's maths.png


TC19win.png

Also a big THANK YOU for KILLCIDE with helping debunk the maths and all that mumbo jumbo thing :]

Contest | Poll (click here to view the entries)
 
Level 5
Joined
Nov 10, 2014
Messages
128
E-e, the results!
Congratulations to the winners, works is really gorgeous. :)
Thanks to the judges for the reviews.
I somehow blundered with my work. I wanted to make a nuclear winter (i.e., it snows continuously for several years), but not to close everything with snow. In the end, it turned out neither one nor the other.
 
Level 29
Joined
May 21, 2013
Messages
1,635
Last edited by a moderator:
Level 29
Joined
May 21, 2013
Messages
1,635
Almost forgot about this.

On a side note, even the prizes haven't been yet spread out.. well, except the rep! xD Which I suppose is not a common thing for Hive contests.
So I'm not sure if everyone is ready to go for another contest, especially Heinvers who's very inactive!



melee mapping 4 contest is over
concept art 11 contest is over
texturing 30 contest is near to be over
no other mapping contest ( like minigame, have been proposed).

so there will be a gap for a mapping contest wich I am trying to exploit now, the terraining contest is a clasic of the Hive since 2007.

IMO it would be ideal to do the 20, because so it can end in a nice number 20, probably it may be the last
and better do it before the launch of reforged, because probably reforged will change the Hive as we know it now. Or simply people will be all playing reforged, and no more hive things.

it doesnt have to launch now, it may be in june, but unless users show some interest in do it, this contest may not happen.

there are like 6 users interested in this, and probably some more will be,
some already asking for a launch
Terraining Contest #20 - Theme Poll
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top