The Twilight Sepulchrum
polycounter lvl 7
I felt it was about time I put this out there and got some feedback and fresh eyes on it. It's based on one of the concepts for Destiny that was released during GDC.
I've been mostly tweaking the lighting and materials as of late, but let me know what you guys think, what looks off and so on.
I've been mostly tweaking the lighting and materials as of late, but let me know what you guys think, what looks off and so on.
Replies
I've been away from this for a few weeks due to camping/vacation, but I've made some progress on the environment so I figured it was time for an update. In my initial post I didn't really go into my goals for the environment so I figure I should share those now. When I set out to make this environment I had 3 main goals in mind.
1. Convey a strong atmosphere and mood
2. Improve the way I tell or imply story within the environment.
3. Expand upon an existing concept to develop a complete and cohesive style.
Overall I feel like I've made a strong push in goals 1 and 3, but I've dropped the ball with 2. Initially my focus was on the large cube and the pedestal that it hovers over. I wanted to imply it was the source of power for the structure built around it. I spent a lot of time while camping thinking about how I could further push the narrative and came to the conclusion that I was focusing on the wrong element of the environment. Instead I'm going to take a stronger focus on the tomb-like qualities. I can go into more detail about that if you guys want but this is already becoming a lengthy post so I'll hold off on talking about that for now.
Anthony Vaccaro recently made a post in Wester's thread about using several tiling trim texture sets instead of one to help create a less repetitive more diverse environment and I feel like that applies to this scene as well. I've only used one so far, but I plan on creating at least 1 more. I'm also making a few more props and detail pieces to help with the story telling problem within the scene. After all that I'll take the decoration props like cobwebs, rubble and decals and start decorating the parts of the environment I've neglected (mostly the open area in the back).
That's it for now! Sorry for all the words!
The floor in screen 1 looks very flat and boring at the moment try and get more dust and subtle cracks like in the concept.
In general I would say the walls, statue etc could stand to be more dirty and dusty. Just read that you said you are going to do all that, so its all good
I will watch this with one interest I think its going to look really awesome.
I made a light fixture over the weekend so there is an obvious light source in areas that lacked one. Its designed in such a way that I can do a single or double version as well as ceiling mounted by chain so I might replace some of the double versions with those where it looks best. I'm moving onto working on those additional trim textures and creating a few more architectural modules to break up the large tiling brick surfaces. After that I'll either make the last few props or do the vertex painting and detailing.
Subbing. I look forward to seeing more!
Edit: Oh yeah, Moria from LoTR may be a good reference for materials too.
I've gone back and forth on the cubes a lot while working on this. After doing the light fixture and getting a pretty good foggy effect with a sense of depth using just emissive I'll probably go back and apply what I learned to the cubes.
I've actually been looking at a lot of ancient architecture for reference as well as other games but I'll check out some LoTR stuff too.
I also ran into a few problems, but nothing that has stopped me from moving forward. Running DX11 using the "Play on PC" option no longer works as it runs at a blistering 3fps instead of the usual 60
As far as work that still needs to be done goes I still need to handle the dirt and age for the floor textures. Once I do that and create the pedestal I'll start decorating the rest of the scene with the props I've made. I'm at the final stretch so my goal is go finish up by the end of the week. However I did start my VGRemix scene this weekend so that might change.
Now on to the screenshots
I also spent some time coming up with ideas for the Pedestal that the large cube hovers over as well as what goes around it to show more of it's purpose. I had envisioned a large telescope-like object that hangs above the cube. A beam either emits from the telescope or the cube. The design of the telescope is inspired by old brassy scientific instruments with dials and gears. If I go with the telescope idea I want to put a crank and some kind of lever or slider that could be used to rotate the cube and zoom in and out the telescope lens.
My plan is to have the pedestal done and the telescope started on by the end of this week. If anyone has any thoughts on the pedestal and telescope designs let me know.
That being said it has been made with very good quality, it just seems kinda sterile and boring at the moment, I can't exactly put my finger on it, maybe later I'll get on and see if I can see was it is with a fresh set of eyes.
I also started on the highpoly for the pedestal. Still some work to be done before I make the low poly but it's almost there. Those dials on the control panel will be the x, y and z rotation numbers and the crank is what you use to rotate. the slider on the bottom is the magnification control for the telescope above. I still need to add switches, label plaques, and the owl head.
That's it for know!
I think you could improve the damage shown in you last post... It looks odd at some places, espacially on that trim in the second image.. The edges are to straight, it doesn't feel like it's broken. In some parts it also feels more like water damage... To be honest I really don't know what it's supposed to be.
Nice scene through! Looks promising.
@leleuxart Yeah I'm currently using both a normal map and some bump offset. Without the bump offset it was even more flat looking. I also have something setup in the material that allows for light AO near the edges and deeper areas of the normal. I'll try toning that down to see if it helps. I was thinking about using tessellation for that part as well but I've run into performance issues when running the level using DX11 so if I can get that fixed I'll try it out.
Thanks for the feedback guys! I'll go back into the material once I wrap up the modeling on the pedestal. I'll see about getting screenshots of the material and posting that to get some thoughts about how I'm going about making it.
For now I'm moving on to the telescope beam object that sits above the cube.
Keep it up! Sweet work so far.
Here's the high poly for the telescope.
Did a lot of prop placement this past week and finished up the vert blend material so now most of the main area is done. Just need to take another stab at lighting so things stand out better like Add3r mentioned. For now I'll update with the beginning of the last part of the environment.
I'm thinking of putting a large archway on the back wall that opens up to a balcony overlooking the ocean. I'll make a few more custom assets (scroll shelf, large rocks and stuff) to flesh out this part. After that I'd like to try and setup a matinee fly through to make a video, but we'll see. I just keep wanting to add to this thing, but I need to wrap it up like I said I was a while ago.
Anywho here's the progress on the new room.
If you guys could tell me whether everything just appears drenched in pure black shadow or whether it's ok that would be a huge help. Once I get this figured out I can fine tune the light and have this finally wrapped up.
Thanks again to everyone who gave feedback!