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My [CE3] Indiana Jones Environment Demo Reel! (Critiques Please!)

Hello Polycount!

So I just finished putting together my student demo reel after spending the last year learning in Vancouver. Six of those months were dedicated to building this demo reel.

My first scene is an Egyptian meets Tomb Kings meets Indiana Jones temple set in the early 1930's.

The final scene was a quick 3 week project where I decided I wanted to do something underwater. After discussing it with my mentor, we decided to do a Uboat. I am not 100% sure about my triangle counts to be honest. Do you guys/gals think they could/should go lower? Are the wire frames that I show good? What do you think is my worst thing?

I am looking forward to your critiques! Rip this apart! :)

-Shawn

[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VVVc1-Pa9c[/ame]

Replies

  • MichaelElphick
    wow very impressive! i'm a sucker for Tomb Kings , i'd love to see some individual breakdowns of the assets.
  • Logithx
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    Logithx polycounter lvl 5
    Good job, the Indiana Jones piece is fantastic. It has a great atmosphere to it. I just want to jump into the monitor and take a walk through there. The U-boat is nice too, but I personally prefer larger and more complex scenes, they have a grand feel about them that just makes you wow (gives off a more memorable and lasting impression).

    Keep on going :)

    edit:

    Any crisp screenshots of the Indiana Jones environment?
  • BARDLER
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    BARDLER polycounter lvl 12
    I think your triangle counts are fine. The U-Boat is a massive piece so its needs a lot more triangles then a truck for example. Plus you have some of the structural body showing underneath which costs triangles, but totally worth the effect.

    I would like to see some high res composed screens as well. Fly-threws are nice, but I like screens better personally.
  • therogen
    BARDLER wrote: »
    I think your triangle counts are fine. The U-Boat is a massive piece so its needs a lot more triangles then a truck for example. Plus you have some of the structural body showing underneath which costs triangles, but totally worth the effect.

    I would like to see some high res composed screens as well. Fly-threws are nice, but I like screens better personally.

    Thanks! I will post some still shots here in a few minutes!
  • therogen
  • wester
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    wester polycounter lvl 13
    Ok wow that indiana jones inspired space is gorgeous! You've put so much detail and love into every piece! Great work!
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    Wow, fantastic work!
    Lighting and atmosphere look great on the desert temple scene!
    Only critic I would have is that the sands texture in the exterior shots don't color match, the larger one seems greenish.
  • Autocon
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    Autocon polycounter lvl 15
    Really great work Shawn. The Indiana Jones environment turned out fantastic. A lot of nice details and some great atmosphere. And the underwater scene is also nice.

    For the exterior of the temple I would suggest lightening up the stones that are carved just a tad to help them pop from the cliff walls. You still want them to look like there from the same stone, but generally when you look at Egyptian stone it appears slightly lighter once it has been carved and the exterior of the rock has been removed which has been battered on by the elements for so long. Again not a lot, but a little will help make things pop and separate a bit more.

    Here is an example. Its clear its the same as the rocks its carved from but its slightly lighter giving it some nice separation.
    hatshepsuttemple5.jpg


    Also for the exterior it can be a bit noisy and cluttered. You have props from trucks, boxes, barrels and stones from the temple evenly scattered about the scene. Try grouping things up and using the sand to give more areas for the eyes to rest. You dont need to fill every inch of a scene with detail, you want to have some big spaces of nothing so things dont look like a noisy mess.

    That being said its a great environment :)
  • mospheric
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    mospheric polycounter lvl 11
    These are amazing! Great work on the details, textures, and lighting.

    The only thing that stood out to me was the water distortion on the sunken boat. It's a nice effect initially, but a bit annoying when I want to focus on the boat. Perhaps lessen it over time or something?
  • therogen
    @Autocon: Thanks you so much for taking the time to write that up for me. I kept going back and forth with the stones when it came to the overall tone. I ended up with three different variations of the texture. The white limestone color felt like it stood out a little too much when I tried it but it was an extreme white, not a slight variation like you have suggested. So I will have to go back and touch that up! Also, I feel so silly about the area's of rest when it comes to the entrance scene. It wasn't until I started working on the Uboat coral that I ever even heard about creating area's of rest and never thought to apply it to my first scene. So I will have to keep that in mind for the future.

    @Mospheric: Yeah I was waiting for someone to mention the annoying water "wavyness". I wish I had some way of controlling it however with the free version of Cryengine 3, there doesn't appear to be a way of changing any of its settings. There may be a way of removing it but if there is, I am not sure of how. :(
  • underfox
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    underfox polycounter lvl 7
    That indiana john enviro kicks ass, how much time did it took you to complete it? Really nice works there.
  • rogelio
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    rogelio greentooth
    Yep agreed great envio. I agree with Autocon about the clutter I would compose it more to push the story of what is going on in the scene. But for a student demo reel! awesome job! Keep up the hardwork I am sure you will get a gig soon.
  • Rokugan
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    Rokugan polycounter lvl 7
    You did an awesome job! Love the Egyptian piece, it's really amazing
  • thebamboobear
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    thebamboobear polycounter lvl 9
    Beautiful environment reel ^^ the temple is amazing! Love the textures and lighting, very impressive. I agree with mospheric about the water waves, but still it's a great piece :)
  • therogen
    @All of you awesome people: Thank you a lot everyone. To answer how long it took to complete:

    The Entrance section (Canyon + First room with statues) Was two and a half months.
    The Inner section with all the scafolding/gold was two months (I did this first)
    The Uboat was two weeks. This includes any sculpting, texturing and particle work.

    The thing that took me the longest to do overall was changes to objects because I was not looking at reference close enough. When I first made the canyons, they looked very "western" because my reference wasn't specific enough.
  • serriffe
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    serriffe polycounter lvl 9
    My god awesome reel! and for a student, nice man! I got nothing to say - well the only small thing I notice is the glass shading on the truck', looks a bit odd? I'm thinking it could be the game engine's lighting? That's small stuff- though, don't sweat on it. Congrats on a great reel!
  • chrisradsby
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    chrisradsby polycounter lvl 14
    Yes! This is awesome! Beautiful work , I don't really have any crits or anything. You'll get hired in no time buddy :)
  • Money
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    Money polycounter lvl 8
    Fantastic stuff man. :)
  • 87roach
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    87roach polycounter lvl 5
    Absolutely FANTASTIC work man!

    That is a huge amount of work and it rocks, keep it up!
  • Clark Coots
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    Clark Coots polycounter lvl 12
    might fine work! Where about in Vancouver did you study? Everything looks awesome, love the lighting in the Tomb. Only crit is I thought the water distortion lens effect was a little heavy
  • The Mad Artist
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    The Mad Artist polycounter lvl 13
    You certainly won't be without work for long, that is some fantastic work! No crits at all from me.
  • therogen
    coots7 wrote: »
    might fine work! Where about in Vancouver did you study? Everything looks awesome, love the lighting in the Tomb. Only crit is I thought the water distortion lens effect was a little heavy

    I studied at Think Tank Training Center. It is a one year program that is 100% focused on 3D. I would recommend it for anyone who is very serious about getting into film/game industry and is willing to spend 12 plus hours a day there. Out of all my friends who have gone there/are currently at school, the ones who spend 6 days a week and 9am to 12 pm everyday are the ones who really benefit from it.
  • silver_hoodlum
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    silver_hoodlum polycounter lvl 4
    Really well done mate, the egyptian tomb level looks great plus the atmosphere is really convinvcing and realistic, theres thousands of props,i bet that took a while to do. did u use tileable textures for most of them?

    also do u work with any specific tod settings?

    well done
  • Slave_zero
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    Slave_zero polycounter lvl 8
    awesome work. I can imagine me walking arround in your environment and jsut spend one hour sucking in all your fine details and materials.

    One tiny thing if you don't mind: The piles of gold-coins look very smooth and don't work so well in my opinion. I only saw that it were coin piles when the camera got very close.

    But anyway. You did a magnificent job there. Awesome!
  • Mangled Poly
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    Mangled Poly polycounter lvl 18
    just wanted to hop on and say stellar work.. so many awesome little details in this scene that really make it shine!
  • DougClayton4231
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    DougClayton4231 polycounter lvl 3
    Fantastic work! :P
  • Clark Coots
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    Clark Coots polycounter lvl 12
    therogen wrote: »
    I studied at Think Tank Training Center. It is a one year program that is 100% focused on 3D. I would recommend it for anyone who is very serious about getting into film/game industry and is willing to spend 12 plus hours a day there. Out of all my friends who have gone there/are currently at school, the ones who spend 6 days a week and 9am to 12 pm everyday are the ones who really benefit from it.


    Cool, your hard work really shows. I was curious cause I'm at Vancouver Film School right now. Justin Holt is one of the Mentors at Think Tank no?
  • therogen
    coots7 wrote: »
    Cool, your hard work really shows. I was curious cause I'm at Vancouver Film School right now. Justin Holt is one of the Mentors at Think Tank no?

    Yeah Justin was for the last Semester. He was mentoring three students who were are going into texturing for film. I don't think he will be there next semester because no one in the class behind me is going into texturing. We have a couple mentors who are global who see everyone and individual mentors who only work with us on a 1 to 1 basis depending on the specialization.

    Mine was Kevin Meek, Environment lead at Piranha games.
  • Rhoutermans
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    Rhoutermans polycounter lvl 12
    This is amazing stuff ! Really inspirational~
  • ThaSlimShady
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    ThaSlimShady polycounter lvl 4
    Wow! I'd post this to CryDev if i were you! Damn!
  • e-freak
    great portfolio pieces and nice to see graduates actually putting together scenes in engine rather than just individual pieces!
  • Demokk
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    Demokk polycounter lvl 3
    As I've said before, very nice work Shawn! I hope my demo reel pieces end up half as good as yours!
  • duke
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    duke polycounter lvl 13
    5 years later ... can I ask how you did the god rays underwater?
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