Blockouts, bricks and scintillating skyboxes

In this update I tried my hand at texturing the wall in ZBrush.
But first, here;s my blockout:

As you can see, a lot more meshes have been added in this update, including the TV set, square table and window planks. Also, the Moroccan lantern in the center of the room.

I have also been working on the skybox this weekend; since the game is set in Chicago, I've drummed up some moodboards of Chicago buildings.

And then set to work on blocking out the skybox. I also added the translucent window frame with an emissive glow as a placeholder, but essentially the view will capture the Boston skyline, an adjacent building and some low-poly buildings in the back, including Sears Tower.

The room will be lit by the moonlight cast over the city, and I look forward to continuing this skybox to really fill the world beyond the apartment.

Now, the texture for the bricks. It was created entirely in ZBrush.

I began by appending a rectangle and sculpting/polypainting it into the shape of a brick:

I repeated the process, making seven variations.

I then arranged them over a 10x10 grid to form a tileable texture, and painted over the 2.5D merged layer to render normal maps and other materials.

Success, right? Unfortunately, I learned the ZBrush normal matcap is particularly strong, and therefore any slight difference in the brick surface would ruin the shading. I will have to take another look at a later date, keeping these lessons to heart:

• Bricks are still too organic, less to no initial sculpting required
• Texture applied to level BSP looks poor, mostly due to the sharp edges.
• Brick colour too bright and differing, consider toning down colour palette or even photosourcing

Now I know what I need to do, that concludes this update, I will redo the brick texture later on and add more blockouts.

Thanks for reading!