[CE3] Bioshock Environment Homage

[scotthomer]

Howdy everyone,

Just thought id start a thread for a project I've been working on recently. I am feeling fairly committed to getting this project finished as I feel like I'm over the initial "hurdles" and am reasonably happy that its going in a direction that I am happy with. I'm not able to work on it constantly, as "work work" is my priority. So I guess ill post as often as I physically can, and work on the scene as much as possible.

As a bit of a Bioshock Fanatic, I wanted to create a homage to the game by creating my own environment in the Bioshock style, incorporating elements of the story/fiction into this. I will of course make everything from scratch, inspired by the original game however ill try and add my own personal touches/spin on as much of the fiction as possible.

Where I am currently at:

http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8579178/img/bioshock/26-06-2012.jpg
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8569582/1024/bioshock/25062012.jpg

Some rough ideas of the parts of Bioshock that have inspired me (elements of each image are appropriate to the scene)
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8013732/img/bioshock/bioshock-moodboard.jpg

Elements of the "real" world that have inspired me:
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8014789/img/bioshock/research-moodboard.jpg

The "ambient story"-
I would like to convey a sense of action already having happened, the protagonist has passed through the area and it lies somewhat desolate. The Big Daddies and the Little sisters still roam the area giving the sense that their existence is eternal. I think this is what really captured my imagination originally in Bioshock, the sense that regardless of whether the civil war had happened or not, the duties of the Big daddy and Little sisters is constant throughout. I'd like to show some symbols of this bond between the Big Daddies and the Little sisters, and mainly tell the story through the general ambience of the level.

Rapture is falling into disrepair and from here we can see rapture from a worms eye perspective. Buildings are collapsing into the ocean and the water is seeping into the environment by any possible means. The area is one of the many entrances to the Atlantic Express, an underwater train line that takes people from one area of Rapture to another. We can still see the trains operating, however it's clear that they are somewhat damaged and the all is not well.

What I would like to get out of? -
A 30 second video, full of ambient story. I hope (fingers crossed + with your help) that it will at least look "cool" to people that both have and haven't played Bioshock before.

Make more people that haven't played it, play it! It's awesome. :)

I also hope to learn as much as possible about Art Deco and try and at least feel like I have a good grasp of the style and am able to replicate it.

Some High-Poly stuff to look at (for all those that are bored of my waffling on)

Little sister "Hidey Hole"
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8013428/1024/bioshock/1104-wip-littlesister-hole.jpg

Art Deco style glass ceiling high poly
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8013423/1024/bioshock/1104-wip-glass.jpg

Doorway to the Atlantic Express
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8013422/1024/bioshock/1104-wip-doorway.jpg

Some more shots of the area (showing how much work is left to be done..gulp)

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8013432/img/bioshock/1104-wip2.jpg
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8013434/img/bioshock/1104-wip3.jpg

A really (I mean really) rough doodle of what I have yet to add to the scene. (I'm not even going to embed this, click here (http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8013430/img/bioshock/1104-wip-ROUGHPAINTOVER.jpg))



So yeah, there it is! Crit away, I want to hopefully showcase everything I have learned over the last year or so, but also would like to spot any areas that I am weak in (other than doodling!) and patch up those areas of my skill-set.

Thank you for looking & thank you to everyone that has helped me get this far :D

[gsokol]

Oh man, great start so far.

Definitely looks like it fits in their style already...and the lighting creates a nice mood. Are you going to be putting a sign up on that empty area above the door? I would love to see some sharp flourescent lighting in here, similar to the Hephaestus Core sign in your image ref. That would help give a good focal point near the entrance there.

Looking forward to seeing this progress!

[darbeenbo]

Looking great Scott! I'm glad you started a thread for this. The scene is coming along quite nicely. Maybe you can bump up the spec a bit on the door? The material is pretty flat at the moment.

One thing that stands out to me is the scissoring curved ceiling girder. It doesn't mesh very well and I feel like you could do something to "art deco-ify" a piece like that.

[[HP]]

Mint!!

Subbed

[ParoXum]

Looking cool. Obviously will be able to follow this closer from work but it seems like you're off a good start on this one.

Keep the motivation meter up!

Crit: you should place an object in the light behind the door or human feet to better explain it's a door, look a bit like a neon light at the moment, very powerful that is.

[Jeff Parrott]

Loking great man. The little sister cubby hole thing is really interesting cause it actually gives a sense of scale.

[scotthomer]

Cheers for the replies fellas! Ill try and answer everyone (if possible) so bare with me :D

@gsokol - Yeah, my initial idea was to have a sign like that above the door as I kinda started off backwards, I created the door first and designed the environment around it when I decided that I wanted to go further with it. The problem was that I wanted to make the half open door the focal point (and still do) and it just detracted your eye straight away. I also planned to have a gatherers garden where the Little Sister's Hole was, but because it was glowing pink it just pulled the eye away from everything else in the scene. Id like (LOVE) to get alot of the neon stuff into the vista (rapture) extending above the scene. Hopefully the depth fog and DOF will make it blur out into a mash of different interesting tones as the city dissapears into the ocean.

@darbeenbo - Yeah I see what you mean, ill fix that with my next update, its likely that its going to have to be an iterative process of constantly fine tuning the specular as the rest of the scene comes in. I think you're right tho, seeing as the door is the focal point I could really do with ensuring that it POPS. I initially based the gurder/metal work on http://walkoverstates.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/100422-louisville-to-greenville-008.jpg, Ill leave it for the time being and if it becomes too noisy (which it may do, especially with a whole city in the background) and then ill go back and look at the design.

@[HP] :santa: <3

@Parox..vince - Cheers dude! You'll have to swing by tomorrow, gimme your critical eye :D. Its never really been a case of motivation to do 3d, more motivation to finish projects I start :D Hence why I never put them on polycount! Hopefully ive gotten past the difficult part now and its just fun stuff from here on. :D

That was the plan, I was hoping to put the legs of the Big Daddy with the little sister next to him behind the door, just giving the silhoette of the characters, with the door opening in slow motion. Hopefully the scale difference between the big daddy and the little sister will mean that its really obvious who it is :D

@Jeffro, Thanks man! that leads me nicely onto tonight's "work"

Didnt really have time to do anything major tonight but stole half an hour or so to do some doodling with my girlfriend. I picked up some chalk today and though it would be cool to do some Little Sister style drawings to litter around the scene (particularly around the Hidey Hole).

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8021195/1024/bioshock/littlesister-drawings.jpg
Great fun! I think the more rough the better really, so ill scan some of them in and use them as decals. Quick and dirty (the way I like it!)


Ill make a note of the critique ive had so far and Ill make sure I take a look at each bit in order. :D

[KennyTies]

This is really awesome stuff and it really does convey that its set in the bioshock universe. How much of the Atlantic Express doorway is sculpted? Keep up the great work!

[scotthomer]

This is really awesome stuff and it really does convey that its set in the bioshock universe. How much of the Atlantic Express doorway is sculpted? Keep up the great work!

Cheers dude!

I made pretty much everything in 3dsmax first, making sure sure that it was evenly divided and then did alot of the damage/detailing using Zbrush using a mixture of the Trim Dynamic, Dam Standard and the Fast Mallet brushes. This was then baked out flat and extruded in 3dsmax to give the door some more volume.

I typically (actually, RELIGIOUSLY) always make my meshes in 3dsmax first, then use zbrush for the detailing afterwards. Although, I sometimes will "build" an object from multiple subtools in zbrush.

[TheGoozah]

Awesome models! They indeed match the style and mood! Keep it up!!!

[Donavonyoung]

It is looking really good.

[SaferDan]

This is beautiful! When I saw you post that door in waywo I have been waiting for the thread ever since! Really looking forward to this one!

[KennyTies]

Tbanks for the reply back! Thats really impressive that you did most of your work in 3ds max for the door. Follow up question how did you go about creating the text?

[ZeroBigSis]

Yay, Bioshock! Subbed
Loving the scribbles btw, great idea

[desktoppirate]

Working on a similar art deco inspired ocean liner scene ATM, this puts it to shame! Awesome work, can't wait to see it finished.

[PHaynes888]

Good stuff Scott, subbed :)

[scotthomer]

Thank you everyone for the replies! Ive got some tutorials to post up, but ill do that separately to this.

@PHaynes888 - Cheers dude! loving the progress on your Jurassic Park truck, cant wait to see it in the engine man!

@desktoppirate - Thanks dude, I cant wait to see your ocean liner, are you planning to use CE3 (the oceans in Cryengine kick so much ass). There are a few really good videos on youtube about Art Deco that might help you out, I know ive been really struggling at times to get the art style down.

ZeroBigSis - Thanks man! Bigsis? bioshock reference there maybe?

KennyTies - Ive made a tutorial just for you man, ill post it up after this post. KNOWLEDGE TIME! (or hacky shortcut time :D)

SaferDan - Thanks dude! Glad you like the progress man.

@Donavonyoung- Thank you :D

@TheGoozah - Cheers bro! its so hard to get the style right, plus how'd you compete with perfection?! Bioshock nailed it so well, doing as good of a job is going to be a hard one!

[scotthomer]

Double post time! I thought id post this separately so my replies and these quick tuts are on separate posts.

56K WARNING!

So KennyTies commented ^ up there, asking how I went about making the text, so Im going to show a controversial technique that I occasionally use for high poly text:
http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8033116/img/tutorials/texttutorial.jpg
^ I can feel that one is going to start a war. Booleans are dirty.

Also in the WAYWO thread a while ago, someone asked how I went about making the grate on the Atlantic Express door, so I put together a tutorial for you guys to show how I went about it.

I hope it all makes sense.
http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8033025/img/tutorials/modelagratetutorial.jpg

[theonebutcher]

This is looking awesome scott, its cool to see how you go about working on some of this stuff. Im looking forward to seeing more man! Good Luck with this!

[fearian]

Wow! That proboolean trick is hacky... and totally awesome! Cheers!

[KennyTies]

Dude thanks for the awesome tutorial, it really cleared up how to go about creating text for me and thank you for the grate tutorial as well. Cant wait to see more updates.

[Computron]

Probolean? Why not use dynamesh if your going into zbrush anyway?

Sir, this means war. I'mma go thermonuclear on yo' ass.

[WarrenM]

Wow! That proboolean trick is hacky... and totally awesome! Cheers!

Seriously, never would have thought of that. Thanks for kicking my brain in a new direction!

[Danielmn]

great tip
thanks

[chris1988green]

Great work Scott and thanls for the tut! Subscribed =)

[SanderDL]

You could also use the quadify mesh modifier in 3ds Max.

[Silix]

yea definately quadify mesh is excellent, also try the turn to poly modifier with keep polygons convex and limit to 4 sides.

oo and the generate topology tools under the graphite modeling tools -> polygon modeling -> generate topology has an option to create cross hatch topology and keep a square outline :)

fyi

[Alberto Rdrgz]

Cool way to make text, but i think now with Dynamesh you can just export the text itself and dynamesh will remesh for you! (saving you some time).

loving what you have on this scene so far man!

[[HP]]

That's an awesome way to do text, wow I can't believe I didn't figure that out before, ahah. Thanks.

[Fomori]

With all those techniques (except the purely Z Brush one) I still seem to get nasty artefacts on most fonts. I have to go in and manually edit the polys, which can take 1-5 minutes per letter, but gives you more control in the end anyway. But if you're only going to see the letters from quite far away then these methods can work.

Very nice detailed work scotthomer!

[scotthomer]

UPDATEZ!
Ive been pretty busy at work, as we've finally announced Crysis 3, so im upto my elbows in work which is great fun.
EA Crysis 3 | Official Announce Gameplay Trailer (HD) - YouTube

But yeah, I managed to steal some time to myself over the last couple of weekends to do some more work on the scene. Still kinda slow progress but Im really enjoying it (i just hope that none of you are holding your breath!).

http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8116976/img/bioshock/25042012.jpg

Still super wippy. My current change list (art a length discussion with the art director at work) looks something like this.
- work on the leaves (they suck "massive balls") :D
- the UV's on the planters are squashed on the corners (i never noticed before) which is making them look really noisy.
- Rework the gurders, they look pants.
- move the camera so the composition is more evenly spaced onto thirds
- Move the hanging lights (when they're done) away from the center of the composition and possible have 2 lots (either side) to frame the shot better.

Bare in mind that the lights, the glass walkway above the door and the stairs at the bottoma re completely un touched as of yet, so its just greybox :)

The lit areas the left and right over the door are going to feature some bioshock style adverts that ive been concepting up recently. Framed with something like this:
http://static2.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/3/1/2/large2/2137324.jpg

and Im currently working up the highpoly for the hanging lights in this kidna style:
http://th01.deviantart.net/fs24/PRE/i/2008/002/9/7/Art_Deco_light_by_LoricTheMad.jpg

+ Any critique you fellas have.

Now, to reply to everyone that I rudely didnt reply to before.
@theonebutcher - Cheers James!
@ Fearian - Hacky is the best, im like morpheus up in this shit! Hope it helps.
@Kenny Ties - You're welcome man! Always happy to help.
@ Computron - This is going to be war like the end of terminator 3. Well Dynamesh has only recently come into Zbrush (am-i-rite?) so this method would work with anyone that has 3dsmax 8 onwards (id hope most of the planet at this stage). But yeah, valid point man.
@ WarrenMarshall - Im hoping that ive started a trend and everyone is going to just use this method for everything.. some people just want to see the world burn.
@ Danielmn - You're welcome man!
@Chris - Keep checking back every full moon and you may see some updates :D
@ SanderDL - Checkmate my friend.. ahah thanks man, i actually used this method for something else today, I had no idea that the modifier existed.
@Silix - Thanks man!
@Alberto - Yeah, Ive not actually used Dynamesh yet, im still on 3.5 but ive heard its the best thing since sliced bread for this kinda thing. Loved the stuff you did in your 1984 style scene man, great work. :)
@ HP - <3 you're welcome homeboy!
@Fomori - :S ahh man, It seems like its pretty much foolproof for me but i think you have to be kinda selective/cautious of what fonts you use otherwise it does cause issues with letters dissapearing or getting wierd artifacts. I find that lowering the interpolations does help.

Thanks for checking this stuff out fellas, hit me up with some critique, im dying to hear what you guys think. :)

[fearian]

Looking good!

I'm not so sure the girders suck total massive balls. (I just saw you're blue edit so take this with a grain of salt) I think that they're just let down by a lack of surrounding geometry and support.

Obviously you need a mesh for the glass canopy, but also some more support brackets and beams would add a bit of visual interest and compliment the girders which at the moment is the only non-decorative metal in the scene.

eg: these iron cross bars
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Interior_view_of_Canal_Side_West,_Huddersfield_Uni versity_-_geograph.org.uk_-_361925.jpg

[scotthomer]

Looking good!

I'm not so sure the girders suck total massive balls. (I just saw you're blue edit so take this with a grain of salt) I think that they're just let down by a lack of surrounding geometry and support.

Obviously you need a mesh for the glass canopy, but also some more support brackets and beams would add a bit of visual interest and compliment the girders which at the moment is the only non-decorative metal in the scene.

eg: these iron cross bars
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Interior_view_of_Canal_Side_West,_Huddersfield_Uni versity_-_geograph.org.uk_-_361925.jpg

I think you're right, It does feel like it needs anchor points into the columns too. Im going to explore doing something like this over the weekend, hopefulyl I can find a way that is going to frame rapture as well as possible too. The scissoring of the gurders atm is really distracting (which isnt great). I might try and do something alittle less simplistic and alittle more ornate whilst still being functional. Thanks for the help man!

[SniperStealth]

Loving it, keep up the great work!

[Stromberg90]

Nice job!
I can't come up with anything that has not been touched on yet, just want to give my support :)

Know this is still a super wip, but one thing that caught me eye at the last second before posting this, is the lack of ao/shadows on this object that seems to touch the back.
http://i.imgur.com/mw63F.jpg

[Quickel]

Great work! I love Bioshock art. You hidey hole is really cool. And the boolean text trick is really a cool technique for an issue most of us have probably run into.

[Ex-Ray]

Looking good Scott! I'm glad somebody mentioned repositioning the central hanging lights to the side as that's what jumped out for me.

Since the room is so tall and grand have you thought about framing the scene portrait rather than landscape so you get that over bearing sense of scale across?

[scotthomer]

@sniper - Thanks dude! Glad you're liking it.
@Stromberg90 - Well usually I try and wait until the end of an interior before I start baking and AO into the v-colors. This is mainly because it doesn't give an accurate representation of your textures. I promise that once the architecture is finished ill bake the AO in. :)
@Quickel - Thanks man! Im glad you're digging it, i just hope I can live up to the original, I know bioshock is damn near perfect.
@Ex-Ray - Heya man! (I remember you from way back when on Games-artist!) It seems so obvious, im kinda kicking myself that i didnt notice the lights thing from the off. + the portfait format.. that's a great idea, im going to give it a try and see how it looks, Im imagining that the portrait format will look pretty epic! Ill get some screenshots up tomorrow night :)

Thanks for the help everyone.

[Computron]

All the surfaces look pretty diffuse. Are you going to keep it in the pre-flood stage? I think you could make a much more interesting scene if you add some puddles and dripping water and raise the glossiness on your surfaces, get some SSR going, use some more of the awesome shader goodness that only Cryengine offers. Do you have an environment probe set up in the scene?

[duncan]

WOW. This looks pretty killer. I would like to see a bit more blue/green colour throughout though. Perhaps in the foreground and stairs. I think that would really help bring in the focus on the middle ground.

AWESOME work :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

[michaelmilette]

Dude wicket stuff going on definitely following this cant wait for the next update XD

[Fomori]

Great stuff. Don't change the composition too much - I love it!

[JamieRIOT]

I love the scene already, even if it is in its wippy state. I have read everyone elses critique and that has covered most things I can see that need working on. I have seen your other works though, so I know this will turn out to be awesome too.

[scotthomer]

@Computron - Thanks for the critique man. I dont know If id agree with you there entirely, I think its more important to define the materials realistically then trying to use the features of the engine (and shoehorning them in) I think what makes believable art is economy of detail and part of that is subtle use of things like reflection. If everything is reflective, the puddles of water etc arent going to pop the way I want them to, if you see what Im saying.

I definately considered the idea of making the scene flooded, but it doesn't really work with the end goal of the environment (im hoping to make a short "story" out of the environment about 30 seconds long. :D Thanks for the input dude, im not saying you're wrong, (I actually tried it, and didnt like the idea of having lots of super reflective surfaces in the scene!)

@duncan - Yeah dude, definately, ive tried to push that alittle with this update, but I think i may need to get even more blue light in further down the line. Thanks for the critique dude!

@michaelmilette - Thanks man :D

@Fomori - Cheers dude!

@JamieRIOT - Glad you're liking the progress man.

UPDATEZ - Got a quick update for tonight, worked on the lights, floor and started on the railings this weekend. The railings are still greybox (just to test that I dont hate them) I feel like they push the composition towards the doorway and hopefully will exaggerate the focal point (when I make it! We're talking BIG things (hint hint) :D

Any critique is as always welcomed and I usually atleast try everything. Im about half way though my list of critique, so if something has already been mentioned and not fixed its likely that i havent gotten around to it yet.

Anyway, Pictures!
http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8152000/img/bioshock/30042012.jpg
And some WIP on the floor, still needs work to get it believable, and all of the wall-floor joins need work to make them look convincing. (ive got some ideas tucked away..)
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8152018/1024/bioshock/floor-tiles-wip.jpg

Anyway, work in the morning, must get some beauty sleep!

[radianceforge]

That floor is super sexy!

[fearian]

Even the bots have to stop and compliment this piece!

[whw]

Great piece you have here, Scott. The doodles are a nice touch.

I realise a lot of the elements are placeholder though the blue feels more like clouds and I find the slate grey walls doesn't match the opulance of the Bioshock universe - it's rather Gothic atm which could be your intention. It's somewhat like walking into the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern :)

Looking forward to more updates.

[myles]

Oh man I just want to eat this up. Great work man <3
The tiled floor material looks great, but the AO on the little chips are way too strong, and having them the same colour as the tile underneath makes them blend in a little too much.
I'd also say the concrete cracks need a little more depth/ angle information around them - but that's only really obvious around the areas close to the camera.

[scotthomer]

ChrisPerr - Thanks dude, its kinda getting there. Its the 3rd or 4th version of the same floor ive done now. Originally i made the tiles really deep and as such the floor kinda looked out of scale, and ive tried to add too much detail in a couple of the versions that ive made aswell. Finally I decided to go super low detail and try and match some reference perfectly) I was struggling to find the kinda thing that I wanted to try and achieve and then finally I managed to find this:
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3633/3685082807_e6ae4aa9a3_b.jpg

As you can see the tiles are pretty much flush with each other, so I tried to achieve this effect instead!

fearian - Thanks man! I noticed that, I was like "hmm, wise words...". Skynet are taking over.

whw - I do see what you mean, I dont know if I would say it doesnt fit within the bioshock universe (simply because it is so richly diverse, it pretty much encompasses everything!) I was trying to go for the same kind of feel as this area, http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/3/31/Bioshock_2009-01-09_04-43-59-78.jpg
But yeah, i do see what you mean. I think when I address the front area (the greybox part above the door) It would be good to focus on making something that pulls away from the gothic feel, just to try and balance the area out. Really good input dude, thanks man. (I honestly hadnt noticed before. Doh!)

myles - Yeah, you're right! Im not done with the floor, so ill go back and take a look at that (now you've mentioned it, I cant "not" notice it! Id ideally like to add alittle more noise into the cracks in the concrete, as they almost look alittle bit *too* zbrushy. Ill try and get that fixed for the next update. :D

Thanks for the critique fellas, lots of food for thought here.

[BertR]

Looking very nice! Good luck with Crysis 3 ^^

[whats_true]

I havent read through most of the criteques, but I belive your world needs more color. Even in the mostly monotone levels, their was a strong sence of mood with strong colors. Nothing completely very desaturated. Start by getting away from those white lights. Looks good man.

[IchII3D]

Do consoles still support colour?

[scotthomer]

I havent read through most of the criteques, but I belive your world needs more color. Even in the mostly monotone levels, their was a strong sence of mood with strong colors. Nothing completely very desaturated. Start by getting away from those white lights. Looks good man.

What do you know, Do you work on Bioshock?! Oh wait..

Its pretty trippy to have someone working on Bioshock commenting on a homage to bioshock..

I definitely see what you're saying, the image does have colour in it (obviously) but at present it is either blue or grey pretty much. From what I can tell from looking at the game It appears that the majority of the art is fairly de saturated and the lighting is super saturated with rich pools of colour created by the neon lights. (I wonder if that's why Neon lights are used so much...?).

http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/9/98/945380_20091204_790screen001.jpg

Looking at my scene I think I can maybe bring some of this into the composition by increasing the saturation of some of the key lights to create a similar effect. I keep feeling myself pulling towards realism which is why I keep going back to more neutral tones.

[scotthomer]

Do consoles still support colour?

BOOM, I see what you did there Rich.

[megalmn2000]

Looks very nice man! Can't wait to see more! :)

[nathdevlin]

Great scene developing here Scott. If you are intending on making the atlantic express train the real world reference was the Hudson 490 streamliner. Streamliners are a great source of reference for the art deco style.

I'm currently in the middle of producing a streamliner that's pretty much the Hudson 490 with a few minor tweaks.

http://cruiselinehistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/stream1.jpg

[benji]

Awesome work scott, I'm feeling inspired :) thanks for those mini-tuts on the previous page too. subbed!

[scotthomer]

@Megalmn2000 - Thanks man, will hopefully get some updates towards the end of the week! super busy all round atm.

@Nathdevlin - Cheers man, its wierd but I actually started work on one of the trains last night. I was struggling to get reference so I booted up the game and managed to find one and take some screens (ill upload them later) so I could make a high poly and use it for some posters im working on. Ill then bake it down for the vista/background too. Thanks for the link dude, they do look striking similar.. without you know, wheels or tracks. :D

@Benji - Thanks man, glad you like where its going! I hope you wont be too dissapointed. :D

[nathdevlin]

Even down to the logo they are very similar, indeed except the wheels. With the model I'm producing now the wheels and metal paneling were the most interesting bits.

There are a few trains on the atlantic express level in Bioshock 2. Took me a while to get back to the main one that you travel in.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110815063513/bioshock/images/9/9d/Ss_preview_bio216.jpg

[scotthomer]

Sooooooo, sorry for the lack of updates, ive been working furiously on the scene, but the progress is slow, especially with a full time job.

Enough excuses.. pictures!

So ive been fixing bits and bobs as they come up and ive got a list of things to address in the coming weeks. I took on board what whats_true said about colour variation and saturation and spent some time trying to introduce some more color into the scene. Hopefully its getting there, however I still think it might need to be pushed some more as we go on.

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8210754/img/bioshock/07052012.jpg

Close up wip details ive been putting together. I spent most of the week working on some Art Deco style advertising (which included making a high poly model of the Atlantic Express!) and also worked on an art deco frame that I can reuse around the scene.

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8210900/1024/bioshock/adverts-wip.jpg

I also worked on the balcony area, baking out the floor, supports and railings. They're not textured yet so they're just test fit at the moment. Going forward Im going to make some effort to make sure that wherever the metal areas meet the walls I have a build up of rust, but at the moment im just working to try and get everything in the scene and re-evaluating as I go.
Critique welcome, hope my ramblings make sense, its been a long weekend. :D

[Mathew O]

I love it Scott, you're really nailing the art deco feel. the extra saturated lights around the scene should really help too and I can't wait to see the Atlantic express in the scene :)

[scotthomer]

Cheers man :) Well hopefully you'll see the Atlantic express passing by the building occassionally, im going to set up a little train network around the roof so you'll get the impression of gentle movement and something going on outside the scene :D

[Adam L. Gray]

Looking good, perhaps some more art nouveau (I can never spell that one right, jeez) in there would look good. Also some indication of a thicker frame/glass for the ceiling would be nice.

Lastly, if you really want to push that BioShock feel, then lots of contrast and reflection! :)

[littleclaude]

Hi Scott

Martin emailed me this, he said he is doing a higher rez version and he wanted to get the caustics better before he posted but as I am evil I am posting it now.

Cheers, Neil

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8003/scottsmall.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/338/scottsmall.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

[scotthomer]

@Adam l gray - Thanks man! I don't know if its wise to incorporate Art Nouveau into the scene simply because the likelihood is that if it isn't done right, it will make me look as though I don't understand the differences between the styles and will probably end up looking like some kind of hybrid mongrel. :D I definitely see what you mean about the thickness of the window supports, Im hoping to do a roof structure pass of some kinda further down the line! Cheers for the critique man. :D

@Littleclaude (Neil!) - Thank Martin for me, this is super useful. I was discussing with my art director the same thing at work, (perhaps not this extreme) today and the gist of it was that the eye level stuff needs more saturation and the shadows from above need to be emphasized. ^ exactly as above really. Im not sure i want to incorporate caustics of this level into the scene, however a faint hint in the blue light would be good. This is mainly because at these kind of depths the light becomes alot more diffuse and the caustic effect stops.

I guess this is caustic depth (snorkel diving depth)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/images/ic/credit/640x395/b/be/benthic_zone/benthic_zone_1.jpg

And rapture is more
http://burdigalaproject.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/dsc_0004.jpg
or
http://www.titanicuniverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/titanic-ship-wreck.jpg

I will definately get that movement into the blue light though, I think that will help sell the underwater feel loads.

[littleclaude]

Maybe Andrew Ryan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Ryan_%28BioShock%29) built this part nearer the surface :)

I think Martin was doing anything to avoid marking.


See you on film day :) http://uhanimation.co.uk/uhanimation-expose-2012/

[PogoP]

That paintover is way too dark and not really like Bioshock. The red makes it look lava is about to spew from the door!

However, I do agree that the scene could do with a bit more of a focal point!

[chris1988green]

Great work Scott! This is really coming on well, keep up the great worl! :D

[scotthomer]

Sooooo! Things have been super busy recently and after a pretty severe virus was discovered on my pc I had to spend most of last week/+weekend cleaning my computer and salvaging all of my portfolio work. Lukily, its all sorted now and im back up and running.

I did however manage to get "some" work done, but progress is very slow at the moment unfortunately. Anyway, less talking more screenies. Still very WIP, but hit meh with yo thoughts! Got a big backlog of critique at the moment, so when appropriate ill be implementing each bit of crit as I work in passes.

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8274809/img/bioshock/17052012.jpg http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8274811/800/bioshock/17052012safewip.jpg

Thanks everyone, apologies for the lack of updates!

[Darkleopard]

Coming along well! Really love it

[scotthomer]

@Darkleopard - Thanks man :)

[Tidus]

This looks fantastic.

[RiotForQuiet]

DAYUMMMMM dude! Nice.. Totally feels like Bioshock! Your ZBrush sculpts were super rad! Well done.

[Fomori]

Loving the stone on the walls. Looks so great even very close up.

[scotthomer]

@Tidus - Thanks dude! (Its great fun!)
@RiotForQuiet - I hope so man! I'm hoping that I can properly capture the atmosphere through the Ambient Story telling around the scene and the vista work :D Ive got tonnes more zbrush sculpts from the scene and ill render them out at some point for you guys to poke fun at!
@Fomori - Thanks man! I think it might need some more work, the brush marks where Ive sculpted the damage is quite obvious on reflection so I may go back to it and clean it up later on :D

I haven't had much time to work on the Bioshock scene this weekend after being away from my PC on Friday night, so I cracked open 3dsmax tonight and started work on the focal point of the scene. No points for guessing what it is :P
http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8306456/img/bioshock/drill-wip.jpg

[dudealan2001]

OMG great work keep going

[teaandcigarettes]

Looks great Scott. I've been watching this thread for a while and I love how it had progressed :) The lighting is now gorgeous.

[Stromberg90]

Great work as always Scott :)
Looking forward to seeing the hero piece, to bad you got a virus, porn sites tend to be unreliable like that ;)

Get more on msn :poly136:

[urgaffel]

This is looking sweet, subd!

[KennyTies]

Havent watched this in a while, but awesome updates!

[Gheromo]

Looks great, although I think weld lines should be a bit bigger, otherwise you wont see them in actual bake I think :)

[scotthomer]

@dudealan - Thanks man! I fully intend to get the level finished off, very very busy with work at the moment so the project only gets a few hours a week and a day or so on the weekend, so progress is quite slow at the moment, but it will get there!

@Teaandcigarettes - Thanks man! Really enjoyed your Foliage tutorial btw, I actually paid for a 3dmotive subscription for a month to check it out. Glad you like the lighting, still think its going to be revised a few times as the level comes together.

@Stromberg90 - Thanks man! Can you guess what it is yet? :D Ahah, it was Battlefield 3's fault, I disabled my firewall thinking id get a better connection to the game and my pc became ravaged by the virus like a cheap hooker. :( It's all fixed now and luckily I've got backups of backups so I didnt lose any work.

@urgaffel - Thanks man, check back every 6months to a year for updates :P! Hopefully will have some decent progress this weekend.

@Kennyties - Thanks for checking back in man, glad you like how its going.

@Gheromo - Hmm, its not easy to know this side of baking, ive kept them in proportion to the size of the Drill for now, and if they don't come out properly in the bakes then Ill pump them up and re-bake the drill. (Ill let you know how it goes!)

[Tidus]

Are you going to do more work on the windows? The flat colour of the frame catches all my attention lol

[scotthomer]

@tidus - Yeah definately, alot of the textures atm are first pass, ive generally been baking things out to make sure they work and then moving on to get everything in. Ill go back and polish and present each element as the project goes on. (2020 at this rate!). I agree they're super flat, ill add that to the list of critique. :D

- So yeah, updates. Another lonngg week with minimal progress. Ive managed to sneak a few hours in here and there in the last week and ive made a start on the Focal point of the scene. The Big Daddy. Im unsure if ill have him dead in the middle of the scene, or perhaps animated walking up the stairs. Either way, ive been throwing polies around to try and get something that works. Crit me up, im no Character artist! :D

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8352809/img/bioshock/28052012.jpg

Did a quick test bake today, alot of the edges are quite sharp at the moment, but ive been softening them up/damaging them in zbrush anyway, so they seem to bake out okay. (512 base texture + 256 normal)
http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8352820/1024/bioshock/testbake.jpg

[Alberto Rdrgz]

Hah, i came here from WAYWO, just to mention the thing about the edges... :P

looks great so far tho, i'm still thinking those normalmap edges will start jagging up from far.

[scotthomer]

You're welcome to post whenever dude :D (the spambots seem to!). Hmm, its a concern, I dont want to model the whole thing really "soft" but at the moment to ensure that the bakes come out the way I want them to, and to achieve the "Bioshock style" ive been taking as many of the tighter edges out in zbrush and adding general edge-wear. The normals baked from the tank "seem" to hold up at the moment, but time will tell (I dont wanna drop a huge 4k texture on the model!)

Im sure ill be proving you right in the next few weeks :D

[nathdevlin]

Looking very nice indeed. On the tank would it not be better to let the normal map do the heavy lifting and halfing the diffuse ?

So instead of 512 base texture + 256 normal do 256 base texture + 512 normal

[scotthomer]

@Nathdevlin - cheers man, well personally Im of the opinion that diffuse quality is much more important than normals, especially considering the fact that the Big Daddy has quite alot of detail and visual noise in the metals, lowering the quality of the diffuse is just going to give me a blurry mess. If it was a clean object with little detail I might consider it. (loving the train btw!)


http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8422623/1024/bioshock/05062012.jpg

Some more progress on the Big Daddy model, the whole thing is quite outside of my comfort zone (which is awesome!) so im still in a trial and error stage, particularly with the heavy rubber fabric areas and I could definitely use some guidance if anything is glaringly wrong.

Once its baked and in game, Im going to either pose him like this, http://www.wallpapers-free.co.uk/backgrounds/action_rpg_games/bioshock/dead-big-daddy-and-little-sister.jpg
or Rig and Animate him

[Zelenkov]

Dude! Nice! You are my hero! :) Watch out Ian Joyner!

[Alex Pointer]

If there is someone we all want to be compared to, it is probably Ian Joyner. This is great work. I look forward to more updates!

[raul]

Looking gooodd!!!!

[scotthomer]

@Zelenkov - You're too kind man, I think I got about another 10 years before I can even clean the pools of guys like Ian. :D Big fan of your stuff btw dude, been following you for some time!

@Alex Pointer - Ahaha yeah, im a big fan of his! Cheers man, I hope you arent holding your breath, seems I get less and less time to post these days....

@Raul - <3 thanks dude!

[chris1988green]

Love the updates mate! Like the polycount knee pads (nice touch). Can't wait to see more :)

[Brygelsmack]

Not your comfort zone and you do that... Man I feel like such a loser.

Looking forward seeing more. The scene looks fantastic.

[scotthomer]

@Chriss1988green - Thanks dude, gotta give a shout out to ma homiez here at PC. Bros fo lyf. cough..

@Brygelsmack - Thanks man, well by out of my comfort zone meaning I dont typically do "characters" so to speak. Ive managed to gather a tonne of awesome feedback at work today to crack on with. Mainly issues with the fabric, weighting of the character, general pose and the feasibility of getting a human into the suit. Going to address them over the course of the week.

Thanks for the comments fellas.

[D-Boy]

Thanks for the techniques you shared.
Your work give me confidence that CryEngine can also produce natural looking indoor scenes. I kind hesitate to use CryEngine for my next environment piece because we kind have to create bounce lights manually. For complex indoor lighting environments bad bounce lights simulation may ruin the sense of realism. If you can give me any advise on that subject I can't thanks you enough for it.

[Rapture117]

I'm a massive BioShock fanatic & I'm actually playing through the first game on PC for the 7th time, and I can confidently say you absolutely nailed Irrational's style in terms of "art deco." Absolutely incredible man & inspiring! :thumbup:

[MystiqueX]

My apologizes for being so late to the party, just wanted to say this environment looks great! I like your attention to details, especially for the big door. Nice job. Looking forward to more updates.

[scotthomer]

@D-boy - No worries dude!
I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject, but Cryengine has some great solutions to indoor light. Bare in mind that I only have a working knowledge of this stuff, so I may be VERY wrong.. :P

TECHNICAL STUFF THAT MAY BE WRONG -

http://narwhaler.com/img/w4/8/i-dont-even-know-what-im-doing-science-spiderman-W48PZ8.jpg

Firstly alot of the ambient lighting is done using "vis areas" a solid area that allow the artist to set the ambient colour of the scene and avoid light leaks from the sun. Portals are used to bridge the gaps between vis areas and the also the gap between inside and outside.

Cubemaps work to enhance the specular and also push the overall lighting in the scene, they generate a box map of the scene then project it as a light around a radius to great effect, they can be used to fake reflection and cryengine allows you to specify resolution of your cubemap and increase the quality/precision of your specular reflections.

Global illuminate comes out of the box too, Cryengine has a built in global illuminate render pass that works great. I have no idea what it does, or how it does it, but all I can say is that it look great!

Cryengine also allows you to see the bounce colour of each object. For example if you set the bounce colour of a red object to red, when light hits it, it will cast a red bounce light off the object, which will be received by objects around it, great for adding that extra realism to the scene.

All I can say is, Cryengine blows my mind (Im biased) but look at Crysis 2! :D

Glad your liking the scene dude! Drop me a PM if you need any help Cryengine-wise!

@Rapture - Thanks dude! Im a pretty big fan too (who'd have guessed!), Irrational really did an amazing Job, im very daunted trying to recreate it in my own way. Hopefully it looks like Bioshock with a hint of realism thrown in :D

@MystiqueX - Thanks man, Im glad you're liking the scene, those late nights haven't been for nothing after-all... I really love the street lamp in your portfolio man, amazing work!

[scotthomer]

UPDATEZ -
Had a few crazy weeks at work and been tied up with none-3d things (including people breaking into my car! and my landlord wanting to move back into my flat..)!

I treated myself to a 4 day weekend and pounded the scene like it owed me money. I managed to rework the Big Daddy (again!) and fixed alot of issues based on some really good feedback. He's all baked out now and waiting to be rigged/posed/animated further down the line.

The scene as it stands-
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8579178/img/bioshock/26-06-2012.jpg

Ive tweaked loads of the shaders and added alot of detail to some of the textures too. I've altered some of the lighting, and resolved a couple of the most unresolved areas. Obvious additions, Big Daddy model is in the scene, unposed and ive added some carpet to the stairs. Still got tonnes of work to left to do on the scene, but its getting there...

The Big Daddy high poly -
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8569582/1024/bioshock/25062012.jpg

- Had to redo the fabric numerous times due to just generally missing the mark with fabric. This time I tried (and possibly failed) get to as much weight into the rubber material as possible. I also altered his stance and general proportions to make it feel alittle more realistic.

Phew, an essay!

[Seaseme]

Wow. I am just completely in love with this thread. Real inspiring stuff, sir!

[NeoDement]

jesus christ the environment looks wonderful

big daddy should do too once he's got a more final texture on him

[scotthomer]

@seaseme- Thanks man! Glad it could be of some use, there are a couple of cool nuggets of information buried in here somewhere!

@Neodement - Thanks man! Just gotta finalise the fabric and texture the weapon and he'll be all set I recon.

[MaYdaY]

cool stuff keep up the good work!

[luke]

looking great dude :) dunno why but I really like the wall surfaces, good colour and structure to em :D everything looks consistent! had ago recently with ce3, its bawler as fuck, my next full enviro will definitely use it!

[Pookhan]

I've been stalking this thread for ages so thought I'd pitch in. This scene is the tits! Also, I used your mini-tutorial for making hard surface text for my Dare game. So cheers for that :)

[[HP]]

Some serious ass being kicked in this thread! Keep up Scott Homey!

[Stromberg90]

Sweet work on big daddy :) All has been said already so I'll just shut up ;)

[chris1988green]

Awesome work as always Scott :)

[D-Boy]

@D-boy - No worries dude!
I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject, but Cryengine has some great solutions to indoor light. Bare in mind that I only have a working knowledge of this stuff, so I may be VERY wrong.. :P

TECHNICAL STUFF THAT MAY BE WRONG -

http://narwhaler.com/img/w4/8/i-dont-even-know-what-im-doing-science-spiderman-W48PZ8.jpg

Firstly alot of the ambient lighting is done using "vis areas" a solid area that allow the artist to set the ambient colour of the scene and avoid light leaks from the sun. Portals are used to bridge the gaps between vis areas and the also the gap between inside and outside.

Cubemaps work to enhance the specular and also push the overall lighting in the scene, they generate a box map of the scene then project it as a light around a radius to great effect, they can be used to fake reflection and cryengine allows you to specify resolution of your cubemap and increase the quality/precision of your specular reflections.

Global illuminate comes out of the box too, Cryengine has a built in global illuminate render pass that works great. I have no idea what it does, or how it does it, but all I can say is that it look great!

Cryengine also allows you to see the bounce colour of each object. For example if you set the bounce colour of a red object to red, when light hits it, it will cast a red bounce light off the object, which will be received by objects around it, great for adding that extra realism to the scene.

All I can say is, Cryengine blows my mind (Im biased) but look at Crysis 2! :D

Glad your liking the scene dude! Drop me a PM if you need any help Cryengine-wise!

@Rapture - Thanks dude! Im a pretty big fan too (who'd have guessed!), Irrational really did an amazing Job, im very daunted trying to recreate it in my own way. Hopefully it looks like Bioshock with a hint of realism thrown in :D

@MystiqueX - Thanks man, Im glad you're liking the scene, those late nights haven't been for nothing after-all... I really love the street lamp in your portfolio man, amazing work!

Your explanation is clear and helpful. I salute to you.

Now, I feel confident to use CryEngine for my next project after seeing your new updated shot. The cube-map reflection in CryEngine is so attractive and easy to use which make material creation so much more organic and natural. So I have to give it a try.

There is one thing I am not sure of. I think only the sun in CryEngine has to ability to create real-time global illumination. I haven't found a way to enable it on normal lights. I don't know if I am right on the issue.

[[HP]]

There is one thing I am not sure of. I think only the sun in CryEngine has to ability to create real-time global illumination.

That's correct.

On interiors, you have to fake it with deferred lights, they're cheap anyway.

[D-Boy]

;1617202']That's correct.

On interiors, you have to fake it with deferred lights, they're cheap anyway.

Thanks for the confirmation. :)

[MystiqueX]

Great idea with the mailbox, it fits very nice in the scene, but you have to do something about the flicking particle animation, don't kill it, just fix the flicking.

Oh, and I appreciate you checking out my stuff. Thanks, man!

[Moonshank]

Dayum really like this I love the atmosphere you have now. Thanks again btw (Liam's mate)

[rockstar6]

Looking great man, very inspiring work. Keep up the good work!

[scotthomer]

@d-boy - You're welcome man, as I said, give me a shout if you need any help. :)

@MystiqueX - Thanks dude! I didnt want to follow the original completely as I had some ideas for the Pneumo tube and wanted to put them into the scene. Its a modular set, so the rest of the environment will have these pipes running around walls. Its a looping .GIF at the moment, it doesnt have that horrible flickering seam in the engine dont worry!

@Moonshank - Thanks man! was great meeting you the other week. You're welcome man, give me a shout if you need anything :)

@Rockstar6 - Thanks dude :)

Updatez -

Slow weekend, but I managed to make the Pneumo tube-esk mailbox device next to the door. Its a take on the original from the game and I really wanted to try and put a little of myself into the concept as I have tried to with the rest of the scene.

It was a great opportunity to get some movement into the scene with letters flying around in the tube.
I also added some shader fx to the exterior of the glass ceiling to give the impression of moving water (in a similar way to the water in Bioshock). Hopefully subtle movement in the scene will make it all come alive (I cant wait to get the Big Daddy moving!)

Updatez -
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8625957/img/bioshock/01072012.jpg

Moving -
http://scotthomer.co.uk/gif2.gif

[Fomori]

Very cool! like the added motion. The flicker from the water does seem a bit too fast though.

[maverickhornet]

This is very atmospheric and amazing, loving it... Looking forward to seeing it all done! :D

[Minos]

Very cool, love the attention to material definition on this!

Would be cool to see a more elaborate design on the big curved window, it looks pretty boring now compared to the rest of the environment.

[scotthomer]

@Fomori - Thanks man! Ill get a video of the movement in the scene up asap the flicker is from some of the lights. Ive also managed to flowgraph some moving refraction in the glass ceiling to fake water movement and also added some flowgraphed faked caustics, hopefully the culmination of the effects will sell the idea well.

@MaverickHornet - Thanks man! Its slowly coming together :D

@Minos - Heya man! Thanks dude, Im a big fan of your work :)
Its funny you say that because alot of people have noticed that the ceiling area needs work, Im quite happy with the actual glass, but the trussing needs to be reworked, I started blocking this stuff out last night:
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8635608/1024/bioshock/blockout-trussing.jpg
To hopefully make the roof feel alittle more structurally solid. I also want to make the glass look alot thicker.

or.. If you meant the curved window above the door, Ive had some ideas about extending that area backwards and adding an entire environment behind that window, hopefully to make it much more interesting! :D

[Sharvo]

Love coming to see these updates dude. Especially like the mail idea with the letters would be nice to see a proper close up at some point :)

For the trussing looks good so far, i guess we will never get real close to it, but might be nice to have some symbol or design like the rest of it. Nothing major :)

But as i said, have learnt a lot from this so thank you :)

[Minos]

oh yeah I mean the curved window above the door, the ceiling looks great :)

[fightpunch]

This is looking great.

[wasabi]

That's it. I QUIT !!!! This is amazing... Great job!!

[scotthomer]

@sharvo - Thanks for stopping by dude! Ill get some close up shots further down the line, im hoping to put together a short animation (still to be blocked out so dont hold me to that :P) Im just trying to make the supports feel alittle more realistic and alittle less like Mechano :D

@Minos - Ahh gotcha! Well this weekend im planning to focus on that area, ive got plans to extend the environment backwards beyond that area into a large Atlantic Express depot/train station (ambitious I know.. :D) so Ill resolve all of that as I go. The plan is to have that room as a small office that serves as a corridor through the balcony section and either side will have tunnels extending off to other areas of Rapture.

@fightpunch - Thanks man!

@Wasabi - :D Cheers man, really like the wheelchair in your portfolio, cool stuff!

MORE UPDATEZ - 56k WARNING

I spent some time after work this week replacing the roof structure as alot of people had said that it lacked detail, and also didnt look sturdy enough to support the building. I also worked on the glass textures to give them the effect of having condensation on the inside faces.

http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8650758/1024/bioshock/oldnew.gif

Im not too sure about the crossbeams and they break up the lines of the composition to the point where they ruin the cavity that the ceiling creates. Im gunna let the dust settle on them for the time being and remove them If they dont look right further down the line.

I also spent some time over the weekend faking some effects that would give the illusion of movement within the scene. These effects included,
-Vertex deformation on the cloth
- Dripping water from ceiling
- Flickering lights
-Mail floating around in the pneumo tube
-Faked caustics on the top of the scene
-Moving water outside
-Faked moving refraction on the glass (ala Bioshock).

45223550

Alot of the effects are VERY subtle, but hopefully you'll be able to see from this video the kind of thing im trying to achieve. Ill post up some break downs of how I managed to get the caustics and the refraction working when Im done :)

As always, crit me up!

[maverickhornet]

You're work is just so amazing, everytime I come back its evolved in to something more awesome! Teach me your ways! No wonder you work at Crytek...

Have you any pointers or good places to start for leaning the CryEngine 3? Its something I've been meaning to learn for a while and some help choosing the right learning method would be great! :)

[Jason Young]

This is looking pretty dang awesome. Bioshock is one of my all-time favs and you've definitely done it justice.

Have you thought about adding a trim piece where the floor tile meets the foreground staircase wall? That area in general looks like it could use something to tie it in.

[scotthomer]

@Maverickhornet - Thanks man! Glad you're following the project. :D Drop me a PM and ill get back to you after work with a bunch of stuff that will help you find out what you need!

@JMYound - Thanks man! I love Bioshock too, Its a tough act to follow because they pretty much nailed the art style, so im just trying to match upto it (which isnt going to be easy!)

Definately, I think the everywhere that the tiles meet the wall needs a trim like this:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IBebgQkv2mQ/SmfKSjtyxvI/AAAAAAAAAX4/SeKH_Lp2RlM/s400/HGTV+-+My+House+Is+Worth+What+-+Episode+SNAP++Home+%26+Garden+Television+-+Mozilla+Firefox+7222009+40440+PM.jpg

I havent gotten around to it yet, but yeah good spot (I might do it tonight actually, now you've mentioned it!) Im pretty sure that something that simple will tie the whole scene together.

[maverickhornet]

Cheers Scott, I'll fire you over a PM. I don't finish till 5 anyhow so works for me! ^_^. Lunch break ftw :D

[Havoc89]

Wow, this is fantastic. Nicely done.

[PogoP]

I'm kinda finding the post tube thing a little odd. Why would there be so many letters floating down towards that little post box? Also, those letters would get soaked! Great effect though man.

Love it so far. I'm trying to think what else you can do to make it more epic. It'd be nice to see this expanded into other rooms perhaps, if you feel motivated to carry on.

Great work mate, your environment work has come on leaps and bounds. I remember us talking about how you used to feel more comfortable with individual props, but now you can really see that's no longer a problem. :)

[Brygelsmack]

Have you any pointers or good places to start for leaning the CryEngine 3? Its something I've been meaning to learn for a while and some help choosing the right learning method would be great! :)
Off to CryDev with ya!

[maverickhornet]

Off to CryDev with ya!

Sometimes it so obvious... It's embarrasing... *Hangs head in shame... and makes way to CryDev*

[scotthomer]

Sorry for not replying to everyone, things have been really hectic lately and Ive been putting off posting for last couple of days.

@MaverickHornet - Crydev is definitely the best place to go, I lurk quite there quite alot, lots of really great indepth stuff.

(Just to share my PM to MavHorn if anyone was wondering where to start)

Crydev (http://www.crydev.net/) is your best bet, closely followed by watching the Eat3D videos that Helder Pinto and Simon Fuchs created, these will both be really helpful

Must watch free tutorials:
http://eat3d.com/free

The Helder Pinto ones in particular will help you greatly with the pipeline of 3dsmax to cryengine. Such a useful guide.

http://eat3d.com/cry3_intro_vol1
http://eat3d.com/training_videos/dvds (there are about 5 or 6 cryengine tutorial videos in here.)


@Havoc - Thanks man! Its getting there slowlym I've got so much left to do.

@Liam (Pogop)- The Pneumo tubes are based on a concept frequently used at the time to transport mail from one part of a building to another. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_pneumatic_post) they push the mail through the tube to their destination. The idea between the post in the tubes is that the system is malfunctioning as Rapture collapses into disrepair and thus the system is full of mail. :D

Ill definitely be expanding the environment further (ALOT further) as time goes on, just trying to find the time at the moment! Ahaha, well the work I do at Crytek focusses on large scale environment stuff, so I got pushed right out of my comfort zone and ended up enjoying it much more :D. Great to hear from you man, dont be a stranger!

Anyway! UPDATEZ -
Subtle changes really.
- Changed stairs and added a hand rail.
- added black border around the edge of the tiles,
- started to damage the environment and move towards the level of destruction I hope to achieve.
- Altered water effects.

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8689584/img/bioshock/10072012b.jpg
http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8689585/img/bioshock/10072012c.jpg
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8696924/1024/bioshock/10072012d.jpg

[Brygelsmack]

Looks really great! I'm curious what the overall tris count of the scene is?

[PHaynes888]

This is looking awesome Scott, can I ask how you achieved the broken tiles/dust effect on the floor (2nd and 3rd pics highlight this)? It's a neat effect :)

[scotthomer]

@Brygelsmack - Thanks dude! I cant remember off the top of my head, its not very poly heavy if I remember rightly, pretty much everything is as optimised as possible. Ill let you know when I get back tonight :D

@phaynes888 - The broken tiles are actually just a flat plane decal, I did a high poly of broken tiles and then used physics to drop them onto a plane in max. I then made the hole that the broken tiles would have occupied, and some dirt and gunk ontop of them. I then just baked that onto a flat polygon and cut around the edges of the broken tiles to give the effect seen above. Its all pommed which is why it looked so convincing, although without POM it is still passable.. (just :D) Ill get a breakdown for that up and show the high poly in the next few days!

[Disting]

Better than the original! Great work! :)

[Gheromo]

Hey Scott, texture you are using for hand rails is it just a tiling texture for main geo with additional texture with alpha for the middle bit?

[MaYdaY]

love the details with the plants. You are planing to use some dry leaves decals?

[IchII3D]

Its getting there, nice quality of art work all-round just feels like it needs those little extra bits which are surprisingly the quickest things to make and do.

Generally speaking it feels like it was recently abandoned yet some of your damage and cracks suggest something more prolonged... Here is some feedback that might help.

One major thing that could help is breaking up those lines you have on the walls. Introduce some chaos into the structure you get from the art deco styling. I.e. the curves and cross over of dangling wires and the long curves of wild grass/leaf.

http://www.ichii3d.com/random/bioshock_scene.jpg

[scotthomer]

@disting - Hardly! such a tough act to follow, that game is so well thought out.

@Gheromo - Yeah pretty much, I baked out the railing and the middle part was so poly-intensive that I baked it flat and alpha'd out the middle sections, cheap as chips!

@Martin - Hells yeah I will man! I hadnt even thought of that, would be so great to possibly even get some falling leaf particles subtly dropping around the planters. Great idea.. (why didnt I think of that)

@Rich - YES! that's awesome, you're so right. As I started messing the floor up over the weekend I started to realise that I need to push the destruction significantly throughout to sell the idea of abandonment. Aidan mentioned the other day that some bracing holding the walls up would be really cool (especially if there was water trickling in through the cracks). Im loving the idea of making the planters really overgrown, and generally everything much more wet and dirty. Sigh, great stuff man. (Busy weekend ahead)

Thanks for the critique everyone!

[Darkillusionist]

Massive Bioshock fan you done the game justice, very inspiring.

[Add3r]

Saying you have done the game justice is a complete understatement... Lol. Completely. This is some very solid work, awesome job. I cant even critique this at all, I really like just about every single aspect of this scene, so much so that the latest full view of the scene has become my wallpaper on my desktop. Keep them updates coming! This is awesome work as a "side" project lol

[PogoP]

Lookin' nice man. I feel like the balcony bit with the glass could do with a bit of art deco'ing up. It's a bit flat and boring looking atm, could have some really cool kind of design up there as it's pretty much the focal point!

[MystiqueX]

This just keeps getting better and better. Awesome work!
I love the glass texture for the new walkway. Could you share how you achieved it please?

[RiotForQuiet]

following this thread has been a blast, keep it up dude! SO GOOD

[scotthomer]

@Darkillusionist - I hope so man, ive been having nightmares of Ken Lavine somehow finding out about this and turning up at my door with a Monkey Wrench for soiling Bioshock's good name :)

@Add3r - Ahh thanks man! Glad you like it.. Yeah unfortunately Crysis 3 comes first so ive been devoting most of my time to work and spendng a few hours here and there on this at home. Really great fun, so inspiring to play the game for a couple of hours here. I think my girlfriend and I are on our 10th play through this year pretty much. :P

@PogoP - You're right dude! The balcony isnt really resolved yet, I havent decided what I want to do with that area, Ive got big plans for the whole project, so dont you worry, there will be an environment back there for sure :D

@MystiqueX - Thanks man! ill post up the picture so people dont think you're insane :D. Ive had a few people ask me about that so ill get a full breakdown up at some point soon. Its mainly just a good texture really, good specular map and a normal map generated for the beads of condensation. :D

@RiotForQuiet - Thanks man! Im really enjoying it atm.

[scotthomer]

- UPDATE!

So ive started working on some of the ajoining areas of the city to give myself a break from working on the same area for too long. Ive began to create a modular set of walkways that will link areas and trail off into the distance. The textures are just base textures at the moment, and the city is just a screenshot from the game. Eventually ill be modelling out a full sprawling Rapture environment, set in a deep trench.

http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8737721/img/bioshock/16072012.jpg

[Brygelsmack]

Nomnomnom! Your scenes are great, would love to see some high polys, flats and wires and all that stuff though. Even if it's still WIP. Really interested in seeing how the welds are made, looks like a really nice detail.

As for the scene, maybe some cracks on the windows would look cool?

[Pookhan]

The condensation on the windows looks really good. Is that all in the diffuse?

[scotthomer]

@Brygelsmack - Thanks man! I was thinking of doing a full breakdown of everything of interest (so nothing!) after I finish it all off, would maybe be cool to spend a few weeks disecting how i did stuff and seeing where im wasting time or missing a trick. :D

I got plans to have localized damage in some areas of the tunnels, perhaps an unmaintained area of rapture with leaking from the joints.. :D More to come!

@Pookhan - Thanks man, its just a decent diffuse (took a long time to source a decent water texture) and then lots of fiddling with the specular and normal map to get it to look right. Ill post a breakdown of it at some point soon! :D

[Stromberg90]

Looks great :)
Looking forward to that breakdown when the scene is done ;)

[scotthomer]

Update -

Apologies for the lack of updates! Its not that I havent been working on it, but ive actually redone a large portion of this section as I really wasnt happy with it. It didnt feel right, so I redid it with a more industrial art deco style in mind. Ive added strengthening supports to the glass, a hand rail, opened some stuff up and generally made alittle more sense of the structure. Ive also made an outside to the tunnel too, as I plan to create an underwater, exterior environment around the entire scene. (yeah, I know.)

Anyway,

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8864492/1024/bioshock/30072012.jpg

Moving forward I plan to do a detail pass of the tunnel sections, adding puddles of water, cracked glass, general leaking and decay.

[|MM|]

Great work obviously, I wasn't getting a lot of the Bioshock feel at the beginning but now it's definitely there.

The only thing that could be improved is color balance IMO.
As I remembered and now as I look at the screens there's a lot of greens in the water in Bioshock.

Generally in Bioshock there's a lot of greens and your images are a bit cold compared to that.
Sorry if I'm missing something and it was your plan:)

[theonebutcher]

Looking really awesome man, id love to see some texture flats and wires as well! Good luck with the rest of the scene!

[Grimmstrom]

This is looking really good, the pipes have added a lot too the scene and its defiantly a step forward.

Can't wait to see more progress, keep up the good work man

[Quickel]

Who else wants to run through this space when it's finished? :D

[scotthomer]

@|MM| - I agree, you're not the first to say it either. I think that part of the issue is that its so tempting to make the blues really cold to help the oranges punch (BLORAGE!). I definitely think im going to go back through the scene and bring the greens back in, I think that will take the cleanliness out of the entire scene and make it feel much more Grungy (ala Bioshock). Also, the greens "should" help to ensure that the scene does look underwater, as a few people have noted that the blue makes it feel like its outside (on land) good crit :D

@theonebutcher - Thanks dude! I cant really show wires and textures atm as currently they are all work in progress, ill show them at the end when I do a mini "making off" (hopefully!). Still alot of work to do between now and then though :D.

@Grimmstrom - Thanks man! Hopefully will get a fair bit of work done on the scene this week and have some progress to show over the weekend. :D

@Quickel - Well it will all be optimized, lodded with physics so I may be able to arrange something after its done.. maybe! :D

[OtrickP]

Just wanted to stop by and say great grilling as always Scott, you've always been an inspiritor of mine. Keep haulin' ass you crazy genius.

[snow]

lovely work! are the cracks on the walls decals or are you blending between a cracked variant? will you be posting flats?

keep at it.

[KennyTies]

Really awesome work on the hallway scott. Could you possible so some breakdowns for it. Also how do you achieve your glass textures. Im always at a loss when it comes to glass. Thanks and keep up the awesome work!

[Jessica Dinh]

Oh wow - nice!! :D

[scotthomer]

@Otrick - Grilling...? like a Lean Mean fat reducing 3D machine. :D Thanks man, just messing around and having fun!

@Snow - Ill definately be posting flats (once ive polished up the textures and gone through and tweaked everything!) Basically I just sculpted a clean concrete slab, and then a broken concrete slab and then worked out a decent height map to allow me to blend between the 2 textures. I then rotated the slabs and mirrored them so that the tiling wouldn't be really obvious! Sneaky

@Kenny - Ill definately do breakdowns, im going to do a full breakdown once im done with the level, hopefully will be able to release it for people to run around if it actually holds up under that amount of scrutiny!

@Jessica - Thank you! :D

Updatez!

I decided to work on the Vista for a while before going back and polishing up the actual tunnel (mainly because there is a bunch of stuff outside of the tunnel that I need to make before I can finalise the design). Super low res, low poly buildings. Currently using 1x 256x512 for the building and 1x512 for the Neon signs. Very early stages.

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8907689/img/bioshock/06082012.jpg

Crit me up, im kinda worried about things getting noisy, however I'm hoping that once I get some darker silhouettes in things will look a little less flat.

[Ex-Ray]

You're on eurogamer!

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-09-how-would-bioshock-look-running-in-cryengine-3

[gsokol]

and Kotaku.

http://kotaku.com/5933151/what-bioshock-looks-like-running-with-crysis-engine

[l.croxton]

I was going to say that it would be awesome if the city had lights and thats what you added ;). Have to say I prefer the latest update alot more. Its crisper and the details pop, the other one was in my opinion, to blurry. A suggestion for the noiseyness is to maybe have a mild DOF, just to fake AA the jaggies?

[Texelion]

Looks sweet, nice colors.

"Fonataine" on the neon, it's intentional ? Shouldn't be "Fontaine" instead ?

[Brygelsmack]

(Posted at CryDev as well):

Hey Scott, the Editor of Swedish magazine Gamereactor blogged about your work!

http://www.gamereactor.se/blog/petter/383881/?sid=ad40efd02dc5a9c8b43bbe7a9afd4f7d&sid=ad40efd02dc5a9c8b43bbe7a9afd4f7d

Imagine Irrational's wonderful action adventure rendered in Crytek (Crysis, Far Cry) latest engine. Bioshock in Cryengine 3, in other words. An artist at Crytek have done exactly this and uploaded a couple of wonderful pictures on his portfolio. It looks absolutely... fantastic.

[KennyTies]

Well now I cant wait to see the breakdowns, and the addition of the buildings outside is great. It adds alot of depth to it. Keep up the great work!

[scotthomer]

@Ex-Ray and gsokol - Thanks for the heads up! I noticed yesturday morning, and had a really fun day of checking out critique, laughing at trolls and generally enjoying see how far and wide the news got! It was a really great experience definately something ill remember for some time. I just cant wait to get it finished!

- for those that cant go on Kotaku (why I dont know..? :D)

http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8941486/1024/bioshock/fe6d1dfa3bdf0059190db36499426817%5B1%5D.png

l.croxton - Yeah I think you're right, im toying with all the DOF stuff at the moment, just trying to get a decent balance of tasteful usage and gratuitous dof!

@Texelion - That was a mistake on my part, I honestly didnt notice it until someone pointed it out. I guess working full time in the day and then then working full time on this at night has impaired my ability to spell! When I saw it, I felt like punching myself in the face, those signs are placeholder at the moment anyway, so it will definately be fixed.

@Brygelsmack - ahh thank you for translating that for me, holy shit! Thats awesome, so great to hear such positivity from the community at large, really inspiring. Im hoping to get some progress online this sunday, ive done a fair bit more work, but not all of it is screen-shot worthy!

@Kennyties - Ahah Thanks man, im just working out the logistics of how to break it down without just brushing over the "good" stuff.


Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the critique and general support, was great to see my work all over the net, but also great to know that a whole load of the guys here at Polycount had a hand in making it what it is now!

<3 Polycount

[whats_true]

Awesome job man. Was psyched to see that on kotaku!

[rockstar6]

good job man, you deserved the article(s), the scene is looking stunning!

cheers

[alexk]

And Joystiq!

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/09/bioshock-environments-look-gorgeous-powered-by-cryengine-3/

You're famous, omg!

[SeveredSon]

I'm really digging this thread. Good work man!

[Mark Dygert]

One of my favorite threads.

Thanks for being such an awesome member of polycount and congrats on the press, well deserved!

[Sean VanGorder]

Dibs on having Scott's babies.

[scotthomer]

@whats_true- Thanks dude! I was so psyched to see it up there too, I wish in retrospect id put a huge watermark across it all saying "WIP" ahaha, still the best thing has been getting some great critique when the project isnt finished so I can atleast make the changes they've suggested (and pretend I noticed the errors myself :D)

@Rockstar6 - Thanks dude, its been a really crazy couple of days, just need to get the project finished and prove to all the trolls that ill deliver on my promises!

@AlexK - paparazzi just wont leave me alone.... I JUST WANT TO LIVE A NORMAL LIFE GODDAMNIT. (Noone, and I mean noone has stopped me on the street and taken a photo. A guy can dream though right?)

@severedson - Thanks man! Hopefully ill have an update coming at-ya tomorrow, with some updated vista work and more high poly goodness. No promises though!

@ Mark Dygert - Its definitely great that I had the opportunity to give a head sup to the polycount community in the only way I knew how, god knows that its only because of you guys that the project is where its at! Keep checking back, hopefully the updates will be a little more substantial as get more time to work on it.

@Gordo - You already planted the seed, im just growing you a baby as we speak. Hmm. Not sure how I feel about that one.


CRITIQUEZ -

Sooo, the best thing about all this "Media Coverage" has been getting a shit load of fresh eyes on my work, critting it all up. Here are some of the best that ill address in the coming weeks.
(my comments in blue)


- KOTAKU

- "Textures look very plastic"
- Especially the leaves - The leaves have been flagged a few times, definately need to do a nature pass asap!
- "Lacks particle effects (General lack of atmosphere maybe?) - There will be a particle pass further down the line, that is a polish task really.
- "Spelling Mistakes - "Fonatain industries" -How Embarrassing ahhaa
- " Water Effects needed to make the scene feel like Bioshock"
- Lighting tweaks

- EUROGAMER

- "Abit flat - Hmm, possible because some of the shots lack depth of field and are possibly made flat due to the even distribution of colour?
- "Less colourful that the original"
- "Needs more detail"

- ESCAPIST

- Doesnt look much better than the original

- JOYSTIQ

- "Needs to be grungier"
- "Needs splicers"

- NEOGAF
- "Plants dont look great"
- "THE GRAPHICS ARE TOO ANGULAR"
- "Feels too sterile" -I think ambient story will solve this problem.
- "Needs more water in the scene"
- "Lighting looks flat and doesnt feel moody"
- "Soul-less"

[Pix]

Crits are always good, but some of them are hard to replicate, to be honest most of these people don't realize how much skill it takes to do something like this by yourself, just my two cents.

[mats effect]

"Less colourful that the original"


Maybe i need to play it again to really compair but honestly i quite like the colours at the moment. Maybe its just a little tiny bit too dark over all or something.

[leleuxart]

Crits are always good, but some of them are hard to replicate, to be honest most of these people don't realize how much skill it takes to do something like this by yourself, just my two cents.

I agree with you. While they can be refreshing and give you a new approach on finalizing the level, I bet most of the people commenting are regular gamers and believe higher graphics means drag the slider over one more notch and upsize the textures :)

I also agree with some of the comments too, in regards to the atmospheric effects, water, etc. But you already plan on doing them at a later time, sooo...Keep it up! Congrats on all of the features too

[JamieRIOT]

Once again, congrats on the coverage.
I think the main thing that needs addressing is the lighting. I think it would be better to have more of an overall darkness which would make the lights stand out more; Big Daddy doesn't seem very menacing in a scene that is fairly light.

[DuPz0r]

Congrats Scott. Brilliant work. You've come a long way since University already ;)

[Kirkreng]

I really like it. Though the big daddy seems off. Something about him makes him a look a bit like a toy.

I think it is the legs and arms. In your version the parts of the arms and legs that are covered in(what I believe to be) cloth are very big. They should be a bit thinner to contrast the metal parts and make them look bigger. It makes him look it bit less chubby and better, in my opinion.

That and the shoes are to big(again, in my opinion).

[scotthomer]

Sorry for the delay getting back to everyone, we've been super busy at work and im struggling to find the time to post :D. At least on that front, Gamescom is this week and we've been able to show off the multiplayer for Crysis 3. Check it out!
Crysis 3 @ gamescom - YouTube

-Pix - Yeah I gotta agree, I think there alot of people that seemed to think that creating an environment involves basically turning up a few knobs and takes around 10-15 minites. That being said, I was happy to see how people recieved it, and as you said, any critique is good critique! Ive tried to take on board as much as possible and make the changes as and when I can.

-mats effect - Thanks man, Ive been looking at the game as often as possible and trying to replicate the atmosphere, the guys at Irrational did an incredible job of bringing the world to life, its definately been a great learning experience.

-leleuxart - Yeah, defiantely. Tightening up the graphics on Level 3 requried a mear dose of blood, sweat and the occasional tear.

-JamieRIOT - Thanks man. Ive tried to bring back alittle of the contrast in the image below, its diffcult to do so often without making the image hard to read. I often desaturate my image to ensure that the focus point is clear, so ive upped the intensity of the Big Daddy's lights to make him stand out alittle more.

-DuPz0r - Ahah Thanks man, seems like a long time ago, its only been a 15-16 months. I miss working all through the night..not. :D

-Kirkreng - Hmm, Its a tough one, this is something that alot of people have been quarrelling over and believe me ive tried every combination of thick folds, loose folds and everything inbetween. Im no character artist, but im reasonably happy with the results atm, (hell noone wants the Big Daddy to look better than the Environments :D!). He is very rigid at the moment because I modelled him an relaxed pose so he can be rigged and animated further down the line.

Updates!

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8984562/img/bioshock/16082012.jpg
Ive done a fair bit of work to the entire level but none of it is really worth showing at this stage besides this environment. Ive build a few more vista buildings and placed them in a composition im reasonably happy with. It needs work still. Added:
- Plant life
- Jellyfish (then removed them because they looked horrible!)
- 4th Vista building
- Puddles
- Dirt decals
- Dripping water
- Rising Bubbles
- shader tweaks
- lighting tweaks

Vegetation highpoly:
http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8986906/1024/bioshock/883746001344811103%5B1%5D.png

Apologies for the lack of updates and for the essay ive just unloaded on you all. Crits would be awesome!

[polyly]

just... beautiful

[ZacD]

I feel the far away building lights need bigger but duller/less intense bloom, due to the water distorting the light.

[Brygelsmack]

Fresh eyes, as in... casual gamers who have no idea how much work it goes into making this? People seem to think a studio is behind this, which just goes to show how awesome it is.

Latest shot looks brilliant. Would be cool with some water spray particles shooting out of those pipes, but like you said, particles comes later. Keep it up!

[Zelenkov]

Dude... people are just nit picking. Really fantastic work, I like how far you've pushed it and how far you've come along in one short year....didn't you just finish that shotgun? lol Congrats on all the press! You def learned something at work ;)

[scotthomer]

Heya people!

Long time no post, ive been working lots (both on the Bioshock environment and at work) I didn't want to post anything unless I had something worth showing.

@polyly - Cheers dude! Im glad you like how its turning out, im starting to pull each element together now, so its great to see it all falling into place. :D

@ZacD - Yep you're right! Ive fixed it now, darkened down the silhouettes, decreased the intensity of the lights and reduced the bloom overall. Would appear that day I wasnt thinking "subtle" :D Cheers for the critique dude.


@Brygelsmack - Yeah, you're right I know, I do often think that the casual gamer think that making games involves simply pushing a few sliders and pressing a few buttons. Thank you dude, im glad you like how its turning out! Ive been working on a full particle pass, so hopefully spraying particles will be on the cards further down the line.

@Zelenkov - Heya dude! Its definitely been a "long" year to me, lots of late night trying to recreate cool shit ive seen people at work do. Ive had the pleasure of learning from some of the most talented artists in the biz and they've definitely had a hand in guiding me in the right direction! Crumbs, that work seems so long ago right now, sigh how much id change if I could go back and redo it!

Updates!
I have been putting together the Rapture mail room, eventually id like to have alot of movement in the scene, with the Pneumo tubes pumping out letters into the air, which will be floating around and settling on the ground. In the window at the far end, there will be a desk and a doorway either side for access to the balcony. To the rear of the room im hoping to work up a doorway with a neon sign above it, giving access to another corridor behind this room. :D

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/9173635/img/bioshock/02092012-B.jpg
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/9173629/img/bioshock/02092012-C.jpg
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/9159088/img/bioshock/pigeonhole.jpg

Any critique would be awesome, ive been working on this fairly intensively this last couple of days so there may be something ive really obviously missed.

[Marchwarden]

Simply amazing. It's crazy that you're being so comprehensive and making multiple sets and with such detail. This new set looks great, no crits from me.

[MaYdaY]

awesome stuff as usual scott! The room feels a little bit to narrow on the second shot maybe keep up the good work!

[l.croxton]

Just a question about the extra drawer that you made, does that go over the other drawers? or all they all interchangeable drawers?

I was just wondering because I would have thought that having a drawer floating in/over another drawer would be wrong, or is that not a problem in this case?

Everything looks pretty sweet so far, you have a few zero gravity envelopes but thats cool :P.

[teaandcigarettes]

Awesome progress Scott :thumbup: The last few updates were sweet. Grats on getting featured on gaming sites :)

[scotthomer]

@Marchwarden - Thanks man! Its just such a great style to follow, ive been having tonnes of fun putting together bits and bobs when ive got time to kill, theme-ing everyday objects has been great fun.

@MArtin - Yeah, (By narrow you mean short right?) I see what you mean, im not sure if thats going to be a good thing when the camera pans reveal the main hall area, the contrast between a low confined area and the huge hall might actaully add to its impact. If not its an easy fix! Good crit

@L.croxton - Yeah, I literally cut out the draws i wanted to replace with open draws, vertex coloured that area black, then stuck the draw on top. Dirty? yes, cheap? yes. :D. If it looks okay from a distance and largely passable upclose its usually fine. Video games are made of bubblegum and duct tape, smoke and mirrors! :D

Yeah, I need to fix those blighters, seems a great way to waste an hour ahaha :) I used physics in max to scatter the letters but it seems it wasnt as accurate as id have liked. Good spot!

@TeaandCIgarettes - Thanks man! Glad you like it. Was great to meet you the other day.

Cheers for the Critiques fellas!

[Gheromo]

Hey Scott, is it just texture blending where wood showing up behind the plaster? or did you made plaster edges with geometry and another geo behind it for wood?
Thanks

[urgaffel]

That's weird... Picturepush is blocked at work due to "adult content"

[walklikethis]

Looking good scott!

and the work looks good :p

Crit: The papers on the left hand side of the room are a bit too built up. considering there is nowhere where papers could have fallen from on that side. Maybe lessen the effect. as if some had drifted over from the right, i just think the equal quantity looks a bit odd. i dunno my 2 cents.

[scotthomer]

@Gheromo - Yeah, thats exactly right. I have a blend between clean plaster and broken plaster, and then I just cut around the normal map of the blend. Behind that ive put a simple wooden "lath" texture (Lath is what was used before plasterboard to hold plaster onto a verticle surface. I then "shelled" that area that is subtracted to give it some volume and make it look alittle more realistic.

@Urgaffel - Ahah thats because my work is clearly not for the faint hearted, your ISP is protecting you from the mass amounts of bloom. :D

@Walklikethis - Thanks man, :P

Yeah, i see what you mean, I havent added the particles, or the letters falling out of the pigeonholes yet so it does look kinda random just to have the letters piled up the way they are. Im hoping to make it so that the Pneumo tubes are literally spraying letters out of them onto the floor. Kinda like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZ2aM8VtL4 (excuse the douches!). Once ive got this in, I think ill definately have to balance out the letters, maybe breaking up that symettry would be a good idea.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZ2aM8VtL4

[urgaffel]

Nah, it's the overzealous Barracuda filter the IT department uses here at work... They block Dropbox too. Not at all annoying when you're browsing the WAYWO thread ¬_¬

[Gheromo]

@scotthomer - exactly as I thought. Amount of geo you have on the edges of the plaster is really good, as it is quite hard to tell what you have made there, hence why I asked. :)

[scotthomer]

@Gheromo, no worries dude! Glad to help, ill show it all in the breakdown at the end :)

Updates!
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/9417962/img/bioshock/11092012.jpg

Super rough in places at the moment, im just trying to finalize the ceiling and get some of the ambient story in. Ive done a pass on the particles, the area now features letters flying out of the pneumo tubes which im fairly happy with so ill hopefully do a video at some point. The ceiling is still greybox, im struggling to lock down a design im happy with that wont be too distracting, any thoughts would be great appreciated!

In other news, Ive been working on a new website design to replace my student one, any critique would be great, its not live yet, and all the images are placeholder. Its a highly modified Wordpress site so I would have full control on the move.
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/9431244/1024/bioshock/Scott-Homer-Portfolio-2012---Just-another-WordPres.png

Cheers everyone,

[Grimmstrom]

Nice one Scott, I always get excited when I get a message to say you've updated your thread :)

As always this is looking great, I'm loving how the motion is captured even in the still image. The main thing standing out for me though is the letters in the pigeon holes look very repeated and could just do with some variation

Keep up the awesome work mate

[Brygelsmack]

Awesome, mate! Two quick things I noticed (gonna be an ass and point it out even if it's early D: ), but anyway:
1) The letters all look the same. Maybe make one more variation or simply rotate them around randomly. I just think it looks a little repeated atm.
2) I think the detail bump on the pipes is a bit too strong. But it does give it a bit of a rough look so idk, might work after all!

Rest is brilliant. Like the wooden floor and the glowing syringe. Keep it up man. :D

[Jason Young]

Lookin' badass! Have you thought about changing"Rapture Mail"? I imagine some enterprising resident of Rapture would have taken over and named it differently(perhaps after themselves?). Bioshock has some interesting area names. :)

[walklikethis]

looking swish scott.

for the ceiling can i suggest something like this http://www.charlieroe.com/art-deco/art-deco-furniture/art-deco-book-stand/art-deco-ceiling-rose-ART08.jpg

I think it could go well with the stepped effect you have going already, and that fan style also fits with the style thus far. just throwing it out there.

[scotthomer]

@Grimmstrom - Heya dude! Thank you very much, I do get equal excitment when I see people comment on it, so I hope I can do your replies justice. You (and everyone else that has spotted it) are so right, the letters hanging out of the pigeonholes are shonky as hell, I made some quick bundles and stuck them in and never really went back to fix them up. That is currently top of my list of fixes. Thank dude, I do often frequent your thread, great to see how your environment is going.

@Brygelsmack -
Yeah you're right about the letters and the pipe does look alittle course in that shot (mostly because its the same pipes from the tunnel) so its getting a balance that works in both areas. Its all WIP at the moment anyway so id rather you point out obviously janky stuff now then when im done! Ill get those things looked at too! Cheers dude. :D


@JMYoung - You're so right, I was trying to sell the idea of the pidgeon holes and I maybe simplified it abit much, im going to try and get some inspiration tonight and think and of good ideas for alternate names. The type face could also do with some work. Thanks man!

@walklikethis - Cheers dude. I like that design, it doesnt really fit with the actual style of the room, this is a more plush, professional interior environment whereas that masonry would be more suited to a more architectural, stone area. Im trying to give each environment a different theme and look to try and get all the "flavours" of art deco covered in the level. Ill save the image and use it elsewhere though for sure! Thanks for the input dude.

[scotthomer]

So...I am finally calling this thing done! I actually finished the scene over xmas, however I spent the months that followed putting together a comprehensive breakdown for the upcoming Vertex mag. Weighing in at around 30 pages long, hopefully it will go some way to say "thank you" for all your support and input during the project.

Anyhow, these are the final shots:
http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/12362551/img/bioshock/final-shot-facebook-hall.jpg

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/12362555/img/bioshock/final-shot-facebook-tunnel.jpg

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/12362552/img/bioshock/final-shot-facebook-mailroom.jpg

Thank you everyone! I cant stand to look at this any longer, so im happy its all said and done. Vertex should be coming soon, so thanks to Ryan for giving me the opportunity to take part.

[mats effect]

Sweet can't wait to read the breakdown! Very nice work indeed, this has been one of the most awesome and inspiring projects on polycount for me (and I lot of others I would say).

[Mathew O]

Ah these massive screenshots are great, you can really appreciate how much work has gone into things. Amazing work Scott :D

[lucashug]

man!!! you really get the style of bioshock! Love it!

[PogoP]

Looks nice. The chromatic abberation is a bit too much though, and it's obscuring the images quite a lot.

[Rurouni Strife]

This is going to be in the next Vertex??!!! Can't wait I've loved watching this thread and scene evolve.

[MM]

great work! looking forward to the next Vertex!

can you tell what topics you will cover specifically for cryengine3 ?

[IxenonI]

nice work Scott!

[KennyTies]

Great work man! The last image of the Rapture Mall is great. I look forward to seeing your breakdown in the next Vertex.

[radianceforge]

this is awesome.

[PhoenixWolf]

congratz

[scotthomer]

Heya people, so ive spent the weekend working on the Drift car scene, and I haven't had a chance to reply to you guys.

PhoenixWolf, ChrisPerr, KennyTies & IxenonI - Thank you so much guys, It was definitely no mean feat getting everything finished, but im glad I did, i couldnt have done it without your help :)

MM + Rurouni Strife - Thanks guys! I cant wait for Vertex either, I don't envy Ryan's task of putting together the book.:D I have been asked not to be specific about the article (so it is a surprise for y'all when it finally does come out) but yeah.. no clues im afraid, all I can say is that there is alot in there :)

PogoP - Yeah point taken, I have turned that down about 50% across each of the images and will update the screens on this page asap. Thanks for the input man :)

Mathew O - Ahaha the bigger the screenshots, the more obvious the mistakes are!

mats effect - Thank you so much dude. There is so much I would change if i could go back and redo it, but I had to draw a line under it and move on!

So yeah, once again. Thank you guys, wont be long now and you can see some more in-depth info on how the project came together.

You can check out the first Vertex over at http://www.artbypapercut.com/!

[Ben716]

Really looking forward to reading through this! and it looks incredible, nice work man!