[WIP] Eagleland: Onett

[Skillmister]

Latest Image:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress13.JPG


One of my university modules this year is basically the brawl challenge brief and i've chosen to recreate the Onett stage from SSBM+SSBB.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/Onett%20%281%29.jpg
I'll be changing it into a raining late evening/night time stage, keeping the assets roughly the same but bringing some up to the right scale.


This will be my first environment so all crits and pointers are very much appreciated so this can end up being a solid portfolio piece. Especially advice when it comes to texturing processes for environments.

Where i am at currently is a scale Max blockout with a couple of high poly models done. Tried my hand at sculpting a few slabs for the pavement which i am working on baking now. The cracks could use some work i think. Added street lamps so the evening lighting will be more interesting.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/blockout.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/high%20poly%20assets.jpg

[Danger_Sideburns]

Oh wow, that's neat! Love Earthbound~ The slabs look a bit too clean, could use some more noise in the smooth areas I think. Everything else looks solid thus far though. Gonna have to keep an eye on this one!

[cdevens]

Very nice work. The oil drum and the trash can look brand new though. Unless that is the effect you are going for, you should rough them up a little. Also, is that the only concrete tile that you will be repeating? If so, the large details that you have sculpted in will form an obvious repeating pattern when this is tiled. You could model a larger group of tiles or take out some of the large damage so it won't be as obvious when it repeats.

[Skillmister]

I think once i add some high frequency detail in photoshop plus the diffuse it wont be as obvious. At least not with my tests so far.

Just checked out your cathedral tiles cdevens they are ace, it looks like the specular really makes the difference?

[cdevens]

Skillmister: Thanks for the compliment. The spec is still a little high on my tiles but it does add a lot of depth when light hits the edges. A cool trick is to add a stylize>find edges filter to a copy of your normal map in Photoshop. Then desaturate and adjust the contrast for whatever effect you are going for. It will take a little cleanup too, but it is a quick way to get nice highlights on your edges. You can just put that over your spec map with the opacity turned down so you get a nice mix. You may be right about adding the noise and the diffuse on your tiles, I am interested to see what they will look like. Keep up the good work.

[Skillmister]

Here's the 'finished' tiles. They could use some loving but i think i'll wait until i have them in UDK with a decent light setup before i start tweaking. The wasted space will be filled with another asset eventually.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/stonesfinal.JPG

[cdevens]

You were right, the repeating pattern isn't really noticeable. What are you using for this render? It is really hard to see the normal and the spec map without some lighting. The Xoliul shader for max is a real time shader and you can use lights with it pretty well (that is how I rendered my tiles). They look good, I would like to see them with some light. You could also slide the UVs for you side pieces down and save a little more UV space.

Also, since you have already put this much effort in, you should make a tileable texture out of this so that you can just apply to a plane or BSP with a repeat value. You have done all of the work already and it will give you a versatile texture that you can use with almost no mesh cost. It should only take about a minute to do in zbrush.

[Skillmister]

I'm actually using Xoliul for this. Was struggling to get a decent light setup that showed the normals without being too dark. This is a bit exaggerated but should let you see. Not so sure why the 2nd set of tiles is lighting so much better than the first.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/stonesxoliul.jpg

[cdevens]

Yeah the lighting with that shader can be a pain sometimes. One thing you might want to do is take a copy of your AO and put it on your spec map to tone down the spec in the areas that would be self shadowed. That way only the top edge catches the light with a strong highlight. Also, is the flip green box checked in the shader (it is by default but I don't normally need it)? The normal looks a little strange down the center line like it might be inverted, it could be exaggerated lighting though too. I like the look of the tiles, I am anxious to see things assembled in a scene. Looking forward to future updates.

[Skillmister]

Just a bump with where this is at so far. The lighting and most of the textures are very much WIP
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress2.JPG

[Skillmister]

Bump with some progress.

handing it in on friday for milestone marking then we have 6 weeks to improve so any crits are much appareciated.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress5.JPG

Things to finish off;
roof texture, balcony textures, paths to houses, street lamp lights+beams, bins

[Devarter]

Suggestions:
Nails for wood,
less gashes like somebody took a sword and some scaffolding to it,
if you could make light beams refracting off the rain like a haze that would be good

[Skillmister]

This was my final submission for last week, now have just over 5 weeks to improve it and really make it a solid portfolio piece so all crits and pointers are very much appreciated :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/scene%20lit.JPG

Currently on the list:
Shop interior
More foliage/small assets
A car
Paths to houses
Light beams/effects
Better colour variation

[burtonyang]

Looks good. You already have a list of what I was going to address. Only thing I would say is have one of those trash cans knocked over with trash on the ground so it isn't repeating and to make the scene more believable that it's in a rainy (windy?) environment.

[Skillmister]

Update

Working on shop interior, background cliffs etc

CRITS PLEASE, literally anything, shout it out! :) :poly136:
I really want this to be as good as possible, 3 weeks to spend on it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress6.JPG

some of my windows disappeared, i'll put them back in at some point...... :\

[Jessica Dinh]

I love this map! This is such a cool project! :D The only thing that stands out to me is the lighting, right now everything seems a tad dull. Would you consider lighting up all the windows, or even the drug store sign? Even the light coming from the first floor is a bit dull and desaturated.

[Skillmister]

Thanks for the comments! You are completely right, lighting is really hard to get looking good. I'm thinking of changing the top drug store sign to a digital one to give another key light source and match it up with the sort of modern vibe i was planning on. And light up the houses a little somehow.

I'm just struggling to pin point what lets this scene down from having the same 'wow' factor as, for example, the top brawl stages.

Anyways some more stuff

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress7.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress8.JPG

[SirCalalot]

It's looking good, I love the idea of remaking a Smash Bros. stage :)

Some critiques:
Maybe you could try changing the 'Colour Grading' found under the 'Post Process' tab in 'World Properties' to be a little bit blue (settings of "0.9,0.9,1.0[RGB]" perhaps?). This should put across the night-time look a bit better.

Perhaps you could make the fog a bit more low-lying so we can see the sky a bit nicer too?

I also think that the scene would really benefit from some nice volumetric lights on the streetlights. The UDN has a good tutorial on this. (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VolumetricLightbeamTutorial.html)

As well as this, you could create a small localised particle effect with the current rain material on, but really cranking up the brightness/opacity on the drops to make it look like they are lit by an intense light. Then you could put this effect under each lamp.
I got the idea from Uncharted 3 as I was nosing around on one of the levels, looking at the pretty and not paying attention to the people shooting at me...

Edit: You might also try to tone down the 'DominantDirectionalLight' ever so slightly to make the whole scene a bit darker and rely a bit more on the man-made lights in the scene.

[Skillmister]

Hey thanks a lot for the crits, good stuff.
I couldn't find colour grading as such but used scene colourize which seemed to do the job. (august '11 build if that matters)

There is no sky at the moment :p It's on the list! As are volumetric lights but thanks for the link.

The rain idea is a really nice one, i'll see about that. Perhaps it would work as a duplicate of the light beam mesh with the rain mat on but bumped up in brightness, will have a go.

Made some progress this week, quite a few little things. Vertex painting on the main building which is only rough for now but gives some much needed variation, swapped the billboard out for a less cartoony one although it's blurring a bit for some reason, changed the pavement slabs a little, working on paths for the houses and some extra assets like flower beds etc.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress9.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress9b.JPG

[SirCalalot]

Lookin' good, although I've got to admit that I really preferred the old sign.

Are you planning on having the tree arching over the roof of the left-hand house, like in the game?

[Jackablade]

The shading you've got under each of the weatherboards seems way too dark. Lightening that up considerably would make your wooden houses look quite a bit nicer.

[Skillmister]

Latest:

Had a crack at sorting the lighting out a bit, i'm liking it a lot more now but still not quite right. Having trouble getting the balance right between too much ambient light making it not seem like dusk/night and too little to see the detail.

Made a mesh with an orangey rain material on for under the street lamps which works ok, it does look better in motion though.

Something I can't work out is how to get the kind of bloom effect from the street lamps/traffic lights like in this image http://letsgorideabike.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/R1-01577-022A.jpg Would it be done with a mesh or post effects or a mixture of both? Any tips?

Sky is currently a UDK skybox.

As usual crits appreciated.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress10.JPG

@Sir, yes absolutely. The current trees are something i just bashed up quickly, looking to make new ones and fit the original a bit more. The sign i'm still torn, may change it back.

@Jack, i lightened up the board gaps a bit but it's not very apparent due to the change in lighting.

[SirCalalot]

Lookin' good @Skillmister :)

You could try upping the 'Bloom Scale' in 'WorldPoperties' to get that fuzz from the lights that you are looking for.
You may need to tighten the Threshold too, so that you don't get a super blurry effect.

[Skillmister]

Thanks for that, looks much better i think.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress11.JPG

[burtonyang]

I don't know if you thought about this already, but your scene needs some foreground elements too. I can't wait to see all the little extra details you planned to add. Overall I'm loving the progress, keep it up!

[Jessica Dinh]

Looking great!! Although I liked the old sign better because this one doesn't say anything, which kinda defeats its purpose as a sign xD

[SirCalalot]

I too prefer the old sign as it's something that really gives the stage the essence of the original.

[Sakunia]

Looks awesome, but i agree with Jessica Dinh the new sign doesn't say anything.

[Skillmister]

Agreed :) Built with production lighting to see how the bloom looks..
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress12.JPG
Working on some stuff for the foreground, like a hydrant
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/hydranthighpoly.JPG

[paradise.engineering]

awesome, awesome, awesome, 3 times awesome!

[Skillmister]

Pretty much finished for now, got another environment to work on. Will probably come back to this in a week or 2 for portfolio polishing though.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25976783/udkprogress13.JPG