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[ UDK ] Shady Dealings.

EMC3D
polycounter lvl 7
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EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
Hey all, thought I'd post up one of my main environments for exterior eyes and feedback, to make the scene the best it can be

Shady Dealings is one of multiple environments I'm creating for my graduation portfolio come May 2011. You can catch me posting on WAWYO for the other ones now and then, but I figure this will be more of a main piece on my folio'

I have some WIP shots, the main concern at the moment is the Lighting, and adding contrast.


OLD LIGHTING

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Prop sheets [WIP]

a%3E


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Replies

  • roosterMAP
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    roosterMAP polycounter lvl 12
    The models are pretty good, but the architecture is way too simple and too consistent. What I mean is, not everything has to be out of brick. Also, some of your textures need more work (dumpster).

    Great start tho.
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    roosterMAP wrote: »
    The models are pretty good, but the architecture is way too simple and too consistent. What I mean is, not everything has to be out of brick. Also, some of your textures need more work (dumpster).

    Great start tho.

    Thanks Rooster, the Dumpster is a bit behind on the asset development at the moment but I'll be bringing it up to quality ASAP. The environment is modular hence why some of the pieces look a bit consistent. I'll be vertex painting the modular pieces but I'll also take a look at other possible features I can add to the buildings to break it up.


    Cheers.
  • brandoom
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    brandoom polycounter lvl 13
    Hey Bear, cool scene!

    I agree with what Rooster said about adding in some variety.

    Heres a couple images I found that might give you some ideas.

    DSC_9646.jpg
    istockphoto_8514321-warehouse-alley.jpg
    20040226.jpg

    As far as lighting goes. I think I prefer the first attempt. However, is both cases I think they are a bit extreme. try toning back the color a tad. In the second attempt, you would likely only get a blue color like that during night time hours, which contradicts the bright sky you have.

    Anyway, just some things to think about. Looks good though!
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    16htelc.png


    Added some piping from the references and the highpoly of the air vents for visualization and to help break up the modular pieces.

    Here is another lighting concept, sundown with orange lighting from light sources / lit windows. I think it reflects more of the "Shady Dealings" title with shady lighting and what not, and adds a bit more contrast, just need some outside eyes on it before I consider doing any light-meshes to emitt the light.
  • Artifice
    Wow, that's a serious improvement in the 'shady' department! I really like the overall feel better, but I think you'll have to rework some of the textures to fit. Maybe brighten up the posters to the left, and I'd definitely open your bay door to get some light on the truck. Even halfway might do. As is, it's getting swallowed by the shadow. Otherwise, looking good.
  • DrFlail
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    DrFlail polycounter lvl 8
    yeah that lighting made a huge difference. great work.
  • mrturtlepaste
    Hey this is really starting to come together. To be honest I didn't even notice the truck in the bg, not sure if I should be ashamed, but it will be interesting to see how it contrasts with the bg when it is textured.

    Also, the lighting has me a little confused. You are calling this sundown, but the bright light just peaking over the wall isn't giving that impression. Also, the sky looks quite overcast and cloudy so you might want to revisit how your shadows are casting in the scene. Usually with a cloudy sky the light will diffuse a lot more and cause very soft shadows.

    looking forward to seeing where you take this!
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    303a9mv.png


    Feedback changes


    - Brought van closer for focal point and composition.
    - Opened garage door further for more light
    - Taken out white sun bloom to show more of sky
    - Toned down brick highlights
  • wester
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    wester polycounter lvl 13
    I'm not sure if that trucks high poly is complete or not, but if it is i would really suggest putting more detail into it. The segments seem very primitive, even for a block out stage. It would make a great centerpiece for this environment and also help with contrasting elements. Making a more complex high poly would also pull the truck forward abit, as most people have been claiming to not even notice it.

    I would also suggest breaking up that tileable brick texture with some vertex painting of some plaster or cement. Anything to help break it up and make it not look so tiled.

    Looks really cool so far. I love the lighting coming from the half opened garage door. Love where it's going.
  • Artifice
    I'm getting a real nighttime feel from it now, with the ambient light being more city glow than setting sun. Not a bad thing, mind you, just a different feel from what you had. Everything's certainly reading better, especially the truck. I think with the early evening look, you run the risk of 'twilight shadow wash', if you catch my meaning...you know, when everything is sort of evenly lit at dusk and nothing stands out. Personally, I'd stick with what you've got. I mean, who does shady dealings at 7pm? Nighttime, baby, nighttime!
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    Started adding more detail into the high, need to add the back interior then face the problem area which is the front, most likely going to keep it out of one piece and use it for the smoothing groups then do the work in the texture, you don't really see the front anyway.

    dnlmwj.png

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    And a quick air vent texture job, the normal map Isn't done, going to heightmap the fan borders into a normal map so they benefit from the lighting / spec. Also going to add water damage and tone down the metal.
  • jordan.kocon
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    jordan.kocon polycounter lvl 6
    I agree with Artifice that it's looking like night time now. Other than that though I have no crits, its looking awesome! Keep at it :)
  • Cheese_Shinobi
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    Cheese_Shinobi polycounter lvl 9
    I think a street light or a lamp above the door would light up the truck nice.
  • Jet_Pilot
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    Jet_Pilot polycounter lvl 10
    your ambient color is too blue. You should ink drop the sky color from what ever color is most prevalent in your sky box. Also your sky box looks like its a cloudy day, if thats what you plan on going with you should make the sun reflect that.
  • teaandcigarettes
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    teaandcigarettes polycounter lvl 12
    I feel that your lighting is the weakest point of the scene at the moment. The saturation is a bit too high in my opinion. Personally, I would tone it down a notch; play around not only with the saturation of your light but also with IndirectLightSaturation setting.

    I would also change the direction of your Directional Light to get rid of that overcast look; the godrays aren't doing your scene any favour anyway.

    Hope that helps :thumbup: Keep it up man.
  • P442
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    P442 polycounter lvl 8
    To me, you're lighting is too happy and peaceful. Darken your sky, FOR NOW turn off the light from the sky. Its a distraction and the large chunk of sky is becoming your focal point. I suggest you put a light in the bed of the truck and/or the cab with maybe the truck doors open to show that some activity is going on. As it is, the truck could be parked there and the whole scene looks sort of abandoned in general.
    Also, that barrel in the bottom right, while it looks nice, it doesn't make sense. If those barrels are valuable and what they're stealing/trading or whatever, why is there one just sitting there?
    I would also suggest putting some smoke stacks in the bg to make it feel more industrial.
    Personally, in my opinion, you should stop working on lighting for the moment and go back and finish your textures on the truck and I don't think you have a spec for the dumpster yet. Also add more props, like 1-3. Move things around, try to help the viewer by creating lines that point to your focal point.
    What is that thing above the roll up door, is that the air conditioner? Move that, it makes no sense there. Put some kind of light fixture there instead.
    You can also stack those pallets to take up space, and put the barrels on pallets and make a pallet jack.
  • dom
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    dom polycounter lvl 18
    Looking good!

    I would first figure out where you want the point of focus of this scene to be. Once you know what that is, you can light the scene based on that. I prefer to light from dark to bright, that way it's easy for me to gauge which areas are fighting for attention. It's great when you're open to feedback but sometimes it can also be very confusing. Looking at your wip shots I'd say you should already know what you're aiming for in this scene.
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    Cheers guys, I'm happy with the idea behind the lighting of the truck being lit up, so I will be trying my best to light it in that fashion with your feedback.

    I totally agree with the lighting feedbacks, It's hard to notice it yourself which is why this feedback is helping me along. The yellow dots is where the main light sources will be coming from, with light fixures.

    I currently have a directional light for the main fill light then a series of point and spotlights for the orange lighting.

    33w9zrt.png
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    9stet0.png

    Started on the highpoly of the Jack Pallet thingy, learning quite alot about the highpoly workflow even if It's on a basic level. Props to the gentlemen who suggested I do one as a prop, It'll add great composition.
  • P442
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    P442 polycounter lvl 8
    nice. I would just make the pallets larger in relation to the jack, and rotate the pallets 90 degrees, cause the forks of the jack go into the space between the three supports on the pallet.
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    P442 wrote: »
    nice. I would just make the pallets larger in relation to the jack, and rotate the pallets 90 degrees, cause the forks of the jack go into the space between the three supports on the pallet.


    Haha too right! My friend told me off about that since I never got my hands dirty in a warehouse job. I will be adding a handle to the Jack Pallet aswell to the top of the steering thing, I think It's a steering wheel? FML...


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    I have been learning more about the highpoly topology and how important it is, I've also been attempting to improve my highpoly rendering in maya. I would love to go back to the truck and redo the front as the topology is horrid due to it being one of my first highpoly items, but for now I'll bake it down and if I have time between deadlines quickly fix it.
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    2exobj6.png


    Truck textures still WIP, pretty much baked most of it down. Depending on how much I push the textures over the next few hours I'm currently saying in a proper game this would be a foreground asset, even background. I'd throw alot more polys at it if it was for an FPS, It's currently sitting at 2600 triangles, which will probably go up to 2800 once I model the basic back interior.

    After that I'll start composing assets with the pump truck, once I bake that down.
  • P442
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    P442 polycounter lvl 8
    can we get a higher angle, like looking down on the truck a little. some of your stuff is getting lost at this camera angle.
  • Delerium
    Put a few more polys in your windows and move around the small glass tiles to get around the repetition.
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    hp_jacktruck.png

    shady_ss1.jpg

    shady_ss2.jpg



    Still working on some of the feedback changes but starting to see this shape up.

    Some of the major things to work on is the dirt variation for the walls and floor via basic vertex painting shader and breaking up the tiling on the windows.
  • Veko
    angle in the second shot is so much better
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    Hey all, sorry for the slow update. University and work is coming to the final month so I'm working on everything at once.


    168sj9v.png

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  • glottis8
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    glottis8 polycounter lvl 9
    You need more back light so that your shadows don't look as dark and you can see what is around.

    Look on the left of this building, the light from the moon is lighting that area. You have some nice backlight on the light blues. Maybe on your env you can have some of that light as a directional light that casts a shadow of the building on your left to the building on the right.

    41984930_WAREHOUSE__NIGHT_sklad__noch.jpg

    I had to do a paintover to illustrate what i had in mind. hope it helps.

    Paintover.png?t=1301501846

    3F33yMV3vx0roA7INsZoZw?feat=directlink
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    Looking really good! I know that last month feeling! Living hell :P

    I agree with glottis8, at the moment your lines of perspective and the angle of the truck draw the eye towards pitch black! A little fill light would go a long way.
  • DiegoTeran
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    DiegoTeran polycounter lvl 11
    i say redo the barrels and make then BP and it will be classic lol
  • Sean VanGorder
    This is coming along great man. I'm really digging the lighting (I'm a sucker for good high contrast), but you probably would benefit from a subtle fill light like the others suggested.
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    Cheers guys I've been working on the dark shadows with further away light and what not, will post up tommorow after I've fixed the rest of the stuff.
  • Daniel Doerksen
    id suggest making your environment color bluer and brighter
  • Snader
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    Snader polycounter lvl 15
    A bit of a tangent, but you'll want to refrain from using small grid patterns on presentation sheets. If you resize the image of the HP barrels you get some very distracting moir
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    fe4fa1.jpg

    Shady Dealings is about 98% done, a few texture errors from re-imports to sort out, crates and pumptruck are UV'd just need a texture on. Added back lighting and general ambience, tested it on a vary of monitors around University too.

    Cheers for all the feedback, anything I do now will be most likely placement changes, so any final feedback would be greatly appreciated, seeing as I couldnt of got this environment this far without you guys. :)
  • bunda4th
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    bunda4th polycounter lvl 6
    This is looking really good. Just a suggestion, maybe have that truck with its headlights on, just to give it some extra light in that area. Also the truck to the right feel like its not texture since it has a flat color to it with no details.

    Usually the platform is tread plated so it wont be slippery. Also the support on the side that brings the platform up and down on the truck can be a different color just to break it up, from a distance it will just all mesh together and it would be hard to tell if there is actually a lift mechanism.

    Overall its looking good.
  • ajr2764
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    ajr2764 polycounter lvl 10
    I haven't had a chance to comment on this, the environment has shaped up pretty well. Great modeling/texturing. You've made alot of changes with the lighting along the way, I kind of dig the lighting as it is now especially how you have the light pouring out from under the garage door at the back of the truck. It's sort of mysterious I suppose, I want to see what going on further inside. The puddle looks very odd/out of place I can't figure out the right words but I just keep staring at it. Overall very good stuff so far.
  • Cordell Felix
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    Cordell Felix polycounter lvl 9
    Dang, wish I had alot of these props for my scene >_<
    I'm doing a similar scene haha.
    your is coming out great man, keep it up!
  • Jungsik
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    Jungsik polycounter lvl 6
    hey i was gonna mention the texture stretchin but u seemed to have fixed it :) Although I like the lighting before - It seems a bit too dark now - cant see as much
    cheers!
  • nufftalon
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    nufftalon polycounter lvl 11
    I am really digging the elements and their placement keep it up.
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