I've been dropping these concepts in the WAYWO thread long enough that I might as well get my own thread going.

I've wanted to do something like this for awhile now, but never wanted to pull the trigger on the idea because I didn't want to get myself in to something I'd just stress over at home. Since this is a personal project, the least amount of stress there is the better.

The goal is to end up with a fun environment piece that was planned, discussed and executed on openly from the very beginning. Hopefully by doing this I or others will have learned something along the way.

Let's begin!
-----



An evil genius' hidden forest base

Summary

An evil mastermind's base, hidden deep within a North American forest.
Inspiration, purpose

• Interest in learning advanced blending methods
• Create environment as a whole, final result shown in a video.
  • Forced to think of the environment as a whole, rather than a couple choice framed shots
• UDK
• Show how a strong atmosphere ties an environment together
• Fun environment idea
• Breaking down the planning of the scene, to be posted on Polycount
• Release UDK + Package files
• Bram's forest environment LINK
• James Bond
• Austin Powers
• Hank Scorpio

Techniques, Plans, Goals

• Using UDK
• Utilize lightmass
• advance texture blending techniques

Useful links

• Video tutorials for UDK, posted on their forums. Polycount link.
• Painting directly on to meshes. UDN link.
• Advanced vertex painting within Unreal. Link.
• Advanced texture blending (modulated blends). Polycount link.
• More texture related information. Hourence's link.

Assets (2D)


Vegetation

• Ground textures, horizontal
  • grass
  • rock face
  • dirt
• Ground textures, vertical
  • grass
  • rock face
  • dirt
• moved terrain/dirt
• water

Assets (3D)


Landscape (ref collected)

• rock set
• tree set
• fallen tree set
• bush
• grass
• weeds
• leaves
• flowers

Perimeter defence

• fence set (ref collected)
  • concept
• cameras (ref collected)
• hidden turret (disguised owl)
• warhead
• warhead silo
• trip wire
• wire for electronics
• wire grounding unit
• communication box (telephone/walkie-talkie). (ref collected)
  • perhaps view screen/keyboard
• Signage
  • Warning / caution signs
  • Company signage
• 'Look-out' nest
• Speakers (TF2 style)

Base/headquarters

• entrances
  • vehicle & persons, side-by-side
  • concept
• Communication arrays
• Possible power source
  • Waterfall
  • Hidden solar panels

Critters

• Birds
• butterflies
• squirrels?

Background elements

• Mountains?
• Thick forest line

================================================== ======



Important Scenes/Visuals

For the 'beauty' video most (if not all) of these shots will be still shots with not much camera movement. Perhaps some slight panning or rotating, but the point is to show the environment as being a live, without distraction of more organic camera movement.

The 'commentary' video can include more organic camera movement.

• Landscape shots
  • 3 or 4 "filler" shots of the landscape and environment
    • Leaves blowing/swaying
    • Birds flying
  • Any story aspects (read: security or hidden base) should not be the focus of these shots. It is ok if they are noticeable in the shots.
• Camera connected to tree, over looking area
  • Possibly a break in the security fence, near a river bed
  • Scene needs significance. Cannot be JUST a camera in a tree.
• Fence perimeter
  • Running through a group of trees, up a hill
  • Slight curve/bend in the lay of the fence
• Trip wire along a beaten path
  • If possible, show the wire using strong dof from closest to the screen to furthest
    • Possibly a trap its linked too?
• Strong tree line, cliff side
  • Birds flying off
• Riverside
  • Running river water
  • splashes off rocks (small)
  • Floating branch making its way down the river?
• Fallen tree
  • Crossing a river
  • A camera can be seen overlooking, but is not the focus point.
• The base of a look-out nest
  • Camouflaged with foliage
  • Signage visible
  • Possibly have the camera rotate upwards to show the top of the nest
• HQ entrances
  • low shot, showing the vehicle and persons entrance
  • side of a cliff
  • doors visible, not very hidden
  • some signage
• communications relay/antenna positioning
  • on top of cliff where entrance is
  • perhaps shown via camera panning from the entrance shot to this shot

REFERENCES - ALL THAT I'VE COLLECTED, SO FAR.

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/17188/1/refs?h=138b19

CONCEPTS

(NOTE: These concepts may or may not drive the final art style of the environment. This will be determined once I start doing tests in side of UDK, and have some fun with rendering techniques.)

my favourite is the sneaking stick figure. golden!

This is an amazing idea, i will be watching this very closely. I can already see one of my major faults in preplanning, i hardly ever plan anything out and it makes it hard to finish anything and anything i do finish takes 10x to long. This will be a great learning experience for not only you but a lot of others as well. I am very appreciative of this. Thank you.

Geat project I will be watching this one

This sounds great. I'll be sure to follow your progress. I'm busy getting stuck into some decent environment modelling myself. So this should be informative.

Oh and the game Evil Genius was actually a guilty pleasure of mine!

I'll be watching with interest!

owl Turret haha that made me rofl nice one :P
nice concept

This looks VERY interesting. Will definitely be following this.

However I think you should aim to release it as a walkable scene instead of just a video. This would force you even more to look at it as an entire environment instead of framed screenshots.

As an aspiring environment artist, this should be a gold mine of information. Really looking forward to it.

And that look out tower with super-secret camo is priceless

This should be amazing O.O cant wait to learn from it!

Very cool Adam! It is really awesome that you are putting so much effort into making this a learning exercise not only for you but the community as well. I cant wait to see how this progresses.

Awesome man I'm excited.

this idea reminds me of Evil Genius for the pc. if you haven't played it you should check it out. fun little rts game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Genius_(video_game)

might be some of use for reference perhaps?

I really like the way you've planned all this out. I've been making a lot of environments lately and they are all just spewed out of my head as i do it, occasionally writing a few notes down. I know thats the wrong way of doing things, but luckily i think this has inspired me to put more time into the planning process of my environments.

Keep it up!

On my 2 cents:

Sir Adam;

If you are DIY modeling artist, there is indeed no telling how long will it take. However; do not stress over it. Environment may take a day if you are completely bored and modeling is just the key of the moment to kill your boredom, or it may take a month.

these type of threads really inspires me though, and it is a good learning process for others too. I really like that you have planned out the environment on the papers (blue prints). It is what I did to figure out my set. Anyways. Thanks for sharing so far.

I will book mark this thread.

WHOA nice breakdown man. This type of stuff is super helpful to me. The only thing I would throw at you, -is if you plan to be working on this for a long time, (cause its quite a work load). you should do something with a little more flavor! The owl turret it awesome, but that's a pretty small frequency detail. Although, its a pretty good starting point you could develop into something pretty off the wall. I suppose if your learning, It`s good to start simple.

texture blending is an interesting thing and I plan to keep watch on this

Rad!
/subscribed

I think we might have to call Adam out too, if he doesn't do this.

Great organization and statement there, maybe we'll see more of this style of posting?

looking forward to this,
good luck!

Right on guys If you have any questions feel free to post them up!

The plan right now is to finish these little concepts up (the path, the relay, a close-up of the hidden window) then move on to in-engine tests. (How will I do foliage?? Whats the style of the objects and texturing? Etc)

I quite like the style and presentation of your thumbnail/concepts.

Originally Posted by adam

Right on guys If you have any questions feel free to post them up!

The plan right now is to finish these little concepts up (the path, the relay, a close-up of the hidden window) then move on to in-engine tests. (How will I do foliage?? Whats the style of the objects and texturing? Etc)

Sweet! Will definately look forward to it. Awsome concept by the way I think I forgot to say that in my previous post.

Good luck.

looking forward to this man

totally looking forward to this and learning what I can from it. always happy that you help out the community on these projects

also love the super secrete camo on the trees