Prison Environment Scene for Portfolio
polycounter lvl 6
Hey guys just over the past few days i have been working on an prison environment scene for my portfolio. None of my current assets are textured to the art style i am aiming for as of yet.
Currently i have moved out of the blocking stage and started to add in modular asset pieces and collision. I have used UE4 materials to test the detail resolution of assets (test my uvw on detail in focal areas of the model). Iv come to a point where i want this environment piece to be playable and working.
So i have started to question the scale of the environment for play-ability. I have re-scaled the scene and wanted peoples opinion and thoughts. Critique is more then welcomed, and the more critique the better.
Ps.
I have gotten a few assets past the normal map stage and will be posting up the bakes after i adjust the scale. In my opinion i prefer the height of the second image but the width of the first.
Below are the two Images:
This is much more cramped up
or
An much open environment which gives the player maneuverability
Finally the color scheme which one does people like the most. my eyes are falling for the 2nd image.
Currently i have moved out of the blocking stage and started to add in modular asset pieces and collision. I have used UE4 materials to test the detail resolution of assets (test my uvw on detail in focal areas of the model). Iv come to a point where i want this environment piece to be playable and working.
So i have started to question the scale of the environment for play-ability. I have re-scaled the scene and wanted peoples opinion and thoughts. Critique is more then welcomed, and the more critique the better.
Ps.
I have gotten a few assets past the normal map stage and will be posting up the bakes after i adjust the scale. In my opinion i prefer the height of the second image but the width of the first.
Below are the two Images:
This is much more cramped up
or
An much open environment which gives the player maneuverability
Finally the color scheme which one does people like the most. my eyes are falling for the 2nd image.
Replies
Below is the image:
I have created a tillable wall texture which will fit between the cells. as shown the progress below
Soon as i get the Cell piece finished i will upload a picture of the design i'm trying to achieve. The design of the panels was inspired by the game tetris. It gives a cool effect when tiled
Yeahh at the start i kinda did just eye ball it, but immediately fell into scaling issues (Thank god i posted early in the project because i needed a second opinion). But now i have measured the door size to the first person camera view so i have gotten a better example/idea on how big things are meant to be. In the picture the table closes to the camera comes waist height to the player. So the actual cell is horribly small.
I agree i need to add allot of wear and tear, my thought process behind this is creating a fairly clean version of the prison block, than start dirtying things up. I'm going with this approach because i really wanna tackle the color palette and asset placement correctly and experiment as much as possible. Then hit a final pass of extras.
I got a door done today and fixed Major scaling issues. The level flows much better in comparison to the old build. The Metal Cell Base has been touched up and just added a little bit of colour (Red represents the Zone of this area) Finally i can move onto objects in the cell and some game boards which are gonna be fun
No texture is finalized as of yet. i am still working on a clean finish of the level before i dirty it up. Allot of udk textures are still present, they are just placeholders
Below are some screenshots (sorry about quality, don't know how to do screenshots in the game mode (UE4)
The idea of making the level playable was to learn a new engine and really excel my understanding of game design. My goal is to great a game but before i reach that goal i need to massively improve as an artist on a creative and technical stand point. Again their is the possibility of going back after completion and build upon the previous level, I guess something to think about
The direction of your wood on the door frame is wrong. The sideparts always go upwards because its cheaper to cut them in this direction. Otherwise you would need to cut a tree in half with a diagonal of 2.2m
The Frame hasn't been textured yet i just got the frame modeled and tested it with the door and placed a udk material on top, that picture was mainly showcasing the door. Thank you for the advice on the woodwork thou, i will take note when creating the texture for future and current work.
Deathray, i have to agree with you 100% after doing some research i have come to the same conclusion, it also don't fit with the overall theme. Maybe was laziness to get quick content in the level. However, I will be making new doors that are commonly identical to what is seen in a cell block or my own version of it hmm cant wait to start on it
I've been going back and forth with this project and keep slowing down, so i went back to the drawing board and made a better plan based off what's already setup. So i did a Prison plan as shown below.
I haven't included the missions start and end point yet but i know exactly what and where ect....
Currently I have blocked out the rest of the level and pretty much Sorted out the scaling issues. So I've created an asset which will be located at the security area. I did this so i could measure out the security area. As shown below,
Now i can get serious,
I will be devoted on getting all assets completed for the prison area. Then ill think about the other areas. Fingers crossed this project will soon be picking up pace.
good work so far! As for the mattress: I like most of the texture. However, the holes hook a bit "cut out". You might want to work on the fabric. I found some useful techniques in this sketchbook: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117436&page=3
Doing the vents and fan systems right now as i post. Anyhow below is the progress. I will be texturing Soon as this section is complete
If yes, you need to have some kind of sun light.
Later on today i should have the vents modeled and i don't like the roof shape, i wanna make it slightly more interesting.
But yh you spot on with near future-ish. Currently its really clean. because i haven't commit ed to the texture stage iv just got my assets passed the normal map stage thus far.
I still do feel the building structure needs to be slightly more interesting so i was thinking of adding in pillars and trims for the level. I will also finish of the stairs properly due to the side bars missing. I will start front this and texture it and move onto the next assets ect..
Thanks for the comments, yes absolutely i will be adding grime and dirt to the environment. Hopefully as i upload more work you will start to see that transition from clean to dirty/grime.
Any feedback on the brick wall would be great. Its my first attempt at a zbrush sculpt of a brick wall.
vertex painting hmmmm, its something i have never looked into. Since iv to some extent got my head around PBR. I could go ahead and start looking into it. Thanks for the movie references i shall look into them for further inspiration.
I just had a quick glance on how vertex painting work.
I would like to say, its funny because i was gonna use this method on certain areas of the environment piece. But i didn't know what it was called thanks for that
I have hopefully managed to take your advice and apply it onto the mesh, i have made some bricks farther in and out as requested. I have also toned down the strength of the larger damaged and gave it a different variation. Due to this texture will be tiled, i figured the larger damage would tile badly.
Below is the progress on it, What do you think and any more feedback?
Question:
What is the best method of getting this out of Zbrush into Photoshop as a tillable texture.
Also would it be ideal to texture in zbrush?
My pc aint that powerful to create a normal map projection in 3dsmax. the poly count is at 9.7 Million.
I know theirs a couple of methods used in zbrush, but i need a little advice on how the community generally approach this.
I have only managed to get the wall to normal map and albedo Map stage, the glossiness comes from values from 0 -1 on the specular and roughness. Once i have finalized the albedo Map i will work on getting an ambient occlusion and roughness map going.
Still debating on adding a height map but will see, if yall convince me enough i will do it.
Cheathem, Great idea soon as the trims are finished of this projects and the little texturing left off the assets i will attempt to try give more life to the environment.
Nickcineau, I have lightened the darker bricks, i think it should have a less patterned effect. I also added colour variation to the bricks, Hardly noticeable until up-close.
Latest update is showing the new pillers and finally got around to doing my first pass of lighting.
I googled sci-fi prison and found this, and this is already 100 times more interesting in terms of composition, layout, and lighting.
Working from a solid concept like this also demonstrates your ability to match said concept, the set pieces (the door/trolly) really add visual interest and opportunity to demonstrate hard surface modeling. If your serious about a strong portfolio piece, these are the things art directors are looking for. You have to have the basic fundamentals and strong foundations in prop and asset creation, materials and color composition. Having a roadmap and target to shoot for will help you from missing the target.
I don't understand peeps that are willing to spend the hours on a portfolio piece, yet skip over a solid foundation or setting a direction before they start. (you can't skip that step, when you do you end up with a generic piece, that has no cohesive elements.) Your Tetris wall tiles....while cute destroy any type of mood your trying to establish with this scene.
I'd hit the reset on this, get a better composition, some interesting elements/focal points, decide what material make sense to apply from the old scene and decide on your theme/sci-fi old grimy, and re-execute.
This is a learning curve for me as this project is my second environment piece ever created. I have learnt allot over the course of this project and hopefully expand my knowledge.
I'm gonna call this project doen but half finished, and will take my time out and look at professional concepts and have a go and become better. Any recommended pieces please post, any more critique please say now. So i can take those critique and take that info into the next project.
Also do you have any links to website in which i could find good compelling concepts.
Artstation
Pintrest
conceptartworld.com
I highly suggest starting a Pintrest account, you should be gathering everything and anything you come across and saving for later use/reference/inspiration. I've already amounted a huge library of stuff and I've only been doing this for the last year and a half.
Basics and foundation:
Props and models, make a ton of em.....ideally in a theme. The lessons and mistakes you'll run into during that process will inform you on things you'll need to have figured out when you scale up to a larger scene/level.
Here are two scenes every aspiring environment artist should tackle at some point, and why it's a good idea.
Basement (image just an example, find something that inspires/challenges you and go for it)
interior lots of props, interior lighting understanding, mixture of cement, wood, metal materials to understand and implement. Not overly complex lighting model, yet still informative and tricky to get right because it's mostly ambient light.
Alley (image just an example, find something that inspires/challenges you and go for it)
Exterior, yet scale isn't overwhelming, you can get away with building facades. Building a alley scene will force you to solve an exterior lighting setup. You'll also tackle architecture and building heights and composition. This will also be a lesson in tiling textures and exterior lighting.
If you decide to work from different/better reference, make sure the take aways are the same, and the scene isn't so complex and intimidating you won't finish it. Ideally all these assets/scenes being compiled/completed in a gaming engine (Unity 5, Unreal, Cryengine) PBR workflow seems to be industry standard now....
From there I'd spend time generating terrain and skyboxes and working on completely natural environments (think Bob Ross). Once you get all that down, bring it all together in a full scene more along the lines of the prison, or a small village. You have to crawl before you can walk mentality.
Good luck!
As of now, if there was a riot on the main floor and I was a prisoner trying to escape, I'd get a buddy to lift me up onto the vents and shatter through the window.
My other two cents is when you're making a scene, try to think of it in terms of balancing busyness/noise versus clarity. Having tiles or high-frequency of roughly the same scale or patterns in 80% of the area tends to be too distracting and interrupts how you perceive a room, although that might be part of someone's taste as to how much noise a particular area has.
I would also try to think more about how the materials relate to each other when working on a given project and how they would be put together in real life. IE would metal frames be connected right against an older brick wall, would the metal frames have to be bolted in to work with such a material or havin cement running down the sides, would there be some sort of material inbetween the two that functions as a connector, etc. Don't get me wrong, various elements of different styles can work together, such as how the combine technology looked vastly out off place in Half-life 2, yet still felt like the parts were connected to the existing architecture in a logical manner.
Best of luck!