What's up, you, guys. Long time no post. How've you all been around here?)

So yeah I just thought I drop here something I've been working on for a little while.



NOW YOU MAKE SURE TO HD OR I'LL FOLLOW YOU HOME AND POOP ON YOUR PORCH

The Desert - YouTube

Please make sure to watch the video until the very end, because that's where all the project is! All the following images are merely a bunch of working materials. Thank you very much

Unfortunately youtube blocks the video in some countries so here it is on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/43720484

I won't be posting much screenshots for now because this work is not about static images at all and I really want everyone to check the video out.
Now you've probably guessed by the thread title that this environment has some kind of shader trickery in it.) And you're totally right!

I figured I'd dump all the diffuse maps and do an environment without them for a change.(And a whole lot of other shader magic)

I thought I saw an opportunity to improve the way we make our games technically, production-wise and hopefully not make them worse visually.
I've written a little paper on "procedural" materials and if you have any ideas on the subject I'm always up for chatting.) Now for those of you who ain't gonna read it I thought I'd post a couple images from it here to give you the gist of it:

Some sculpts, or Normal Map renders to be precise:

yay goats!

Sorry had to break it down into 2 post - since the 16 images pre post restriction.

Yeah my stuff rarely comes without reading material:P

And the crappiest part that I'm actually most proud of Now I know I suck at concept art, but anyway:

Once again I don't post much stills because that's not what this project was about and hopefully all this production materials will convince you to check out the video(in HD with sound On).

Now if you're interested in all of the shader trickery and technical details that are aplenty in this environment, or concepting and ideation of a project of such scale feel free to check out my making of videos.

It's a bit on the long side, but hopefully you'll get compensated with interesting info for your time.

Technical:

Making of "The Desert": Technical ...

Conceptual:

Making of "The Desert": Conception and...

Thank you very much in advance guys and gals, I love you all. ;)



EDIT: Moved here from page 3, so you guys could find it more easily.

And finally, there one thing I wanted to share with you guys...but I can't seem to remember what it is....
...oh yeah, THE MATERIALS!
Click the image to grab them!


There are all kinds of "procedural" materials for you to check out as well as a couple of example textures and meshes. Also there's a .PSD that makes for very smooth gradient map production as it allows you to preview your gradient mapping, normal, specular, damage and diffuse pattern influence right in photoshop! It's like you're painting your gradient map directly in UDK and can immediately see the end result! I've made a little video that will hopefully make things more visual for you:

Procedural Materials Tutorial And Giveaway -...

I hope this will help you guys to do your stuff faster, prettier and more efficient! Though it does take a little getting used to, I can't wait so see what great stuff you awesome people will come up with. Arrrgh

Oh, and just in case, if there's something wrong or I forgot to plug something somewhere - report it here and I'll get it fixed.

Have fun!

Heck yes you sexy beast I watched the whole thing! Checked most of your stuff as well really nice work! <3

The canyon was a little bit too long I'd say but the rest was amazing, really cool and nice story-telling. I don't really have any crits actually I'm just enjoying your art. I'll take some time now and have a look at your *making-of* videos.

Again

Great Work!

Simply. Awesome.

Will watch it all when I get home.

Ho you ! o_o

It's gorgeous !

:Q___________ _

what... kind of... sorcery... :P

really gorgeous. nice work there, congratulations

That is breathtakingly amazing work!

wow congrats on the desert. excellent piece of work. thank you for the break downs and videos. I'll have to have another look sometime, lots of juicy info here

Amazing work man. Reaaaaly dig it.

Maybe camera is a bit wonky, but it doesn't spoil the experience.

Hey there, Chris! Thank you very much man. Love your work;)
I hope those additional videos will prove useful.
Yeah, I was afraid that canyon might turn out a tad too long. I started to get this feeling closer to the end but I've already composed the music to fit the editing, so hopefully it's not a dealbraker.(fingers crossed)

Huge thanks, ambershee. Have a nice watch )

Froyok, thank you buddy. I appreciate the kind words!

yodude8, thanks man! I just had to use some art buffing spells and a potion of no diffuseness. It's quite easy to brew at home actually, you just need some fresh water, tomato juice, sand, ashes of a red cow and a handful armpit hair

Thank you very Miladyknowles. ;)

coots7, thanks buddy, I hope you dig!

Huge thanks, uncle! Yeah I wish I got to do more camera work. It's really interesting . I hope to get better ;-)

This is awesome!!!

That kicked ass! Very well done!

- BoBo

wow that was pretty crazy. how did you do all those relief sculpts? Like the big circular one for example?

Great work

amazing piece man, both technically and artistically well done. it might make my head blown watching the technical making of, but i'll try to watch it later

Great stuff, going to dig through the breakdowns later.

Awesome read so far! Can't wait to finish it all. Very well documented and great presentation!

Speechless, that was some crazyyyyyyyyyyyyy nice stuff I saw =D Inspiring

WOW ! I'm impressed ! I really dig the ambiance !
Do you plan on making a game or something from this ? Even without gameplay like Dear Esther. It really makes me want to walk in there. It can't just be for you portfolio

Wowwy!! Keep going precious.... *subscribed*

Impressive, most impressive.

TEXAS


Wow dude. That's all I can say really. Probably one of the most impressive thing's I've seen on here for awhile.

amazing work!

WoW! top notch work! 0 diffuse textures eh?! That's intense. I love the style and feel of everything.

Visceral, dude, thank you very much!

Mr.BoBo thank you very much, sir! I'm really glad you like it.

Hey, mr_ace, thank you, man.
Well I sculpted all of those. Most in zbrush. For those that seem to be on a flat surface I did a little blockout in max so I'd have a a separate tool that I could clone later in 2.5d and not mess up my flat background. And the circular is probably the least impressive, because wikipedia has a vector image of it It's an aztec calendar. So I just fiddled with it in photoshop to create a more interesting mask. And then just heightmap based deformed a flat plane(in Mudbox it would be Model from Heightmap, I belivie, and in Zbrush you can just use it as a mask and then use offset in the deformation scroll). And then some layers of damage on top. Most of the rest were just hand sculpted. It's not that long actually. Around 4 hours per piece.

aobond, thank you very much, buddy. Much appreciated. I really hope your head would be ok, but I'll keep my fingers crossed just in case

jal, thank you man. I hope it'll be useful.

Hey, thank you, Rik. It's really nice of you to say that. If you have any ideas on the tech feel free to share. Thanks again!

Much appreciated, Jungsik. Comments like these mean the world to me actually

Huge thanks,Guedin. It makes me amazingly happy to hear that this world turned out alluring and inviting. I wish I could say it's for a game, but it most honestly is just a personal project. But who knows, maybe someday;-)

TheGoozah, thank you friend. I'm glad you enjoy it.

Much appreciated, JoshC.

BlvdNights, hellyeah, Texas, man! It just a had really cool shape for an easter egg. ;) On a serious note, though thank you very much for the comment. It's probably one of the best things I could ever hope to hear.

Thank you very much, Alberto!

Huge thanks, artquest, I'm glad you like it.
Yeah, who need those diffuse textures. They are so 2011

And just in case if someone around here would like to know anything regarding the tech or pipelines or anything at all - feel free to ask - I'll do my best.