Home Contests & Challenges Archives

[STAGE] The Last Blade - Yuki-Machi Stage (Earthquake damaged) - MarkD (Vig)

I love the SNK games and this is probably the hardest I've had to dig up ref for anything, what a chore, wow. At first I was thinking Samuria Shodown, then I started hunting around and there wasn't much I could find of the stages that I loved so much when I would play it, SOOoo... I went with another favorite The Last Bade.

Here are my options:

1) The Last Blade: Fort Stage
The day before the battle, nicely lined up cannons, intact tower, maybe even a fruit or fish cart where the dogs are... and of course some happy little clouds in the distance.

2) The Last Blade: Graveyard Stage
This would be converted to a summer day time scene. Tree in full bloom, green grass, and hut/temple not trashed but in good shape.

3) The Last Blade: Yuki-Machi's Stage
I would earthquake the hell out of this... I know I know I'm horrible but screw ya and your Political Correctness.

3) The Last Blade: Zantetsu's Stage (Picking this one, yes that #3)
Not sure what I would do to this one yet, maybe transform it into a sunken ship... dunno yet... but I really like it.



4) The Last Blade: Village Stage
Winterize it, probably add a village off in the distance or some other kind of focal point.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Progress Images from oldest to newest. Check later pages for more info.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Knocked together ref


Block out in 3dsmax


Into Source


Into UDK


UDK Progress




Finals

Beauty 1



Beauty 2



Construction


Materials

Replies

  • aesir
    Offline / Send Message
    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    one two and four are all kinda boring (as far as your redesign ideas go). Both threes are much more interesting.
  • Geezus
    Offline / Send Message
    Geezus mod
    I like 3.
    ...both of them. :x
  • Mark Dygert
    I iz grud countar...

    Yea 3 and 3 are the ones I've been leaning toward. The Yuki-Machi Stage (village at night time) is the one I first thought about doing. It was just brought up that some people might have a severe reaction to earthquake damaged Japanese architecture...
  • PogoP
    Offline / Send Message
    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    I personally think number one would be the most interesting, to compare it with the original.
  • Geezus
    Offline / Send Message
    Geezus mod
    Meh, you do you, boo boo. :)

    Out of the two, the sunken ship seems more original. The earthquake could easily turn into yet another post apoc. scene, so the final product may come off contrived.
  • aesir
    Offline / Send Message
    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    I don't think people would be offended by the earthquake unless you purposely make it look racist somehow...
  • Mark Dygert
    PogoP, That's what drew me to that stage, it could be contrasted pretty easily. But I think its a big scene with a lot of work and that's starting put me off to the idea =/

    Ok, I'm starting to lean toward the sunken ship idea, but I'm not sure it would make much sense in a fighting game... but then again people fight on airplane wings all time so why not underwater? The fighting area might be inside a glass tank or the wreck is behind some ultra thick Plexiglas or something.

    It seems like there is a lot I can do with the lighting and ambiance of the ship wreck idea.

    3 it is... but I'll sleep on it and decide between the two. Thanks for the input guys!
  • fearian
    Offline / Send Message
    fearian greentooth
    Damn, I really wanna see 2 in a bright street fighter 4 style like that stage under the bridge. :(
  • Cyrael
    Offline / Send Message
    Cyrael polycounter lvl 10
    I think 3 and 1 are the strongest ideas, but you're absolutely right, I was thinking the same thing about them fighting underwater.. maybe they're fighting at an aquarium?
  • praetus
    Offline / Send Message
    praetus interpolator
    what about having the ship in the process of sinking? Water spilling into it through the cannon holes, ceiling half ripped off. Make it like they were being boarded and it all went to hell maybe. It would make since for having a battle there as well.
  • Mark Dygert
    fearian wrote: »
    Damn, I really wanna see 2 in a bright street fighter 4 style like that stage under the bridge. :(
    I like them all and might do a few of them just to flesh out and update my portfolio, after 4-5 years it needs a lot of lovin...

    I like pratus's idea of the ship half sunk, it does a good job of leaving it open to being a fighting stage without going super contrived to force it to make sense. But having it in the act of sinking means I miss out on things like barnacles and other encrusted bits of junk... It also stays a little too close to the source material (just add water?) so what if it ran aground a few years ago, partially submerged? I get to encrust things and it still works as a stage.

    Super quick and nasty mock up, hopefully you get the point, water, encrusted stuff, caustics, god rays and old wood with a few misc props...
    PCBConcept00.jpg
  • ParoXum
    Offline / Send Message
    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    I really like the idea of the half sunk ship, could work with the rules I guess. Looking forward to seeing some really cool water in your stage =)
  • vahl
    Offline / Send Message
    vahl polycounter lvl 18
    yeah sunken ship all the way dude !
  • fearian
    Offline / Send Message
    fearian greentooth
    could be in a tidal zone - they are fighting at low tide so theres only a little water about but the walls are still dripping with seaweed and barnacles.
  • AKAperly
    love the water coming in, nice twist.

    one of the best levels in any fighter, can't go wrong with this approach. maybe some of the crates and supplies can be floating?
  • Gannon
    Offline / Send Message
    Gannon interpolator
    Nice I really like the half sunken ship. Looks like we're thinking a lot a like, I planned on doing something similar with my stage
  • Mark Dygert
    Thanks guys.

    Got up a little early this morning and started blocking stuff in and doing some preliminary lighting, work and life have been kicking my ass.

    2D drawings don't always play by the same rules so the proportions are off, meh close enough I guess... Don't want to fall behind which I'm starting to do...
    PCBProgress00.jpg
  • oobersli
    Offline / Send Message
    oobersli polycounter lvl 17
    great idea. lighting this thing should be fun with all the reflections. Should have plenty of good ref from Dead mans chest.
  • Wahlgren
    Offline / Send Message
    Wahlgren polycounter lvl 17
    That's fancy. Plan on doing anything cool with the water?
    You should check out pirates of the caribbean some, might give you some ideas for the insides. I think there was a few "water" scenes in there. :)

    Out of your ideas this is the best one. Go go power maaarkyyyy

    PS: Are you planning on doing anything superawesome with the water? :)
  • engelmanna
    Offline / Send Message
    engelmanna polycounter lvl 16
    This is looking pretty cool. I am excited to see how you handle the lighting in here!
  • Jeff Parrott
    Offline / Send Message
    Jeff Parrott polycounter lvl 19
    Great composition so far.
  • Mark Dygert
    After spending a week learning/fighting with UDK I decided to go with Source since I know it better. I importing the blocked out chunks into source and its full of lighting errors and a quick compile but I should probably post some progress...

    I've been working:
    - Water (A LOT of water work left to do).
    - Some base lighting 3 lights plus some slight HDR from the skybox.
    - Some tile textures just so I can do some lighting, 1 wood and 1 plank wood are applied to everything.

    Probably good enough for now, need to jump back in and start modeling/detailing some of the final pieces.


    pcb_stage000001.jpg
  • d1ver
    Offline / Send Message
    d1ver polycounter lvl 14
    Hey, Mark. Nice to see you progress! The composition is nice but the tiling on the floor, though obviously wip, still messes with perception of scale for now.
    With a bunch of water effects and some more debris and props this would be awesome. Are you planing something for the foreground?
    And yeah, just an idea, some caustic reflections on the ceiling would look really cool.
    Good luck!

    edit:
    http://wn.com/water_caustics_in_source
    found this, just in case:)
  • Mark Dygert
    Hey d1ver those are some good ideas, the caustics in that scene are just animated textures, I was hoping that they had some kind of projector that could do the same effect, I'm still looking into tho there seems to be a few promising leads.

    I'm thinking of transforming it a bit, from a sunken ship to a sunken ship that was converted into a pirate base or at least a place they would stash supplies.

    The stage would travel left and right and include beach/dock to the left and to the right would lead into the pirate base.
    pcb_stage000003.jpg

    Whats left:
    Unwraping and materials
    Caustic effects on everything (still using just 3 place holder tiles)
    Model, crows nest on a small rocky out cropping out in the water.
    Model barrel (ooo thats a hard one heh)
    Model cargo netting/ropes/rigging
    Model light and other misc props to fill things out.
    Sun Rays.
    If time permits a foliage pass.
  • DLoud
    Offline / Send Message
    DLoud polycounter lvl 15
    I really like this direction much more than the old one. Definitely feels much more like a fighting stage and it'll allow you to push the details as much as you want.
  • Gannon
    Offline / Send Message
    Gannon interpolator
    Oh hey, I like what you've done with the place.
  • Mark Dygert
    DLoud, yea I had to define the fighting stage a little better.
    Gannon, heh thanks, hopefully I'll have time and talent to push it farther.

    pcb_stage000004.jpg
    Going back to UDK, just can't get Source to do what I needed, and with some time spent leaning some more about UDK materials I think I might be able to finish this off in time.

    I have some misc props I've modeled and textured but haven't placed yet and the crows net is all placeholder, the spec on the wood is a mess too.

    Also I think I'll push the lighting more to be like what I had in source, a bit more day time, not so much orange/purple and a lot more white/light yellow.
  • Mark Dygert
    Progress...
    I've learned a lot of UDK over the last few days, I'm starting to feel like I've got a better grasp on it, still so much to learn... But at least I don't have to eat up my tri budget sub-dividing meshes because the pretty lighting in Source, on imported meshes is vertex lit, only bsp brushes have lightmaps... Also I think I would rather throw myself in front of a bus than have to work with Source materials, custom water... forget it, caustics nearly impossible...

    I really hope they upgraded everything for Portal2 or Half Life3 and they release a new SDK. Valve I love ya guys and I really hope you have better tools than what you've released, if not you guys deserve a lot more credit...

    pcb_stage000005.jpg

    sculpted a quick rock in mudbox, then used object paint, to scatter one tiny 5 sided barnacle over the surface. If you saw it more up close I would probably re-unwrap and re-bake it.
    PCB_Rock.jpg
    Used cloth + gravity to drape the canvas over some boxes.
    PCB_Canvas.jpg

    Changes:
    - Replaced the placeholder rocks by creating a high poly rock, covering it in barnacles using object paint then baked it down.
    - Did the materials for the cannon, water, sand and wood/metal tiles.
    - Created the water material from scratch (still not happy with it...)
    - Re-did the lighting
    - Painted a new skybox (yea clouds brushes!)
    - Added caustic effect, this was probably one of the easiest things to do in UDK but nearly impossible in Source...

    What's left:
    - Figure out why bloom/fog isn't showing up in game (only in editor right now?)
    - Figure out post processing and final tri count
    - Crows nest final model/mats mostly silhouette work.
    - Rough up more of the broken open edges in the hull.
    - String thick heavy rope along the stage between the pilings.
    - Ladder & other misc props.
    - Maybe a few plants ...
  • crazyfingers
    Offline / Send Message
    crazyfingers polycounter lvl 10
    Kick ass caustics. The light beams look a little overblown, I think the fact that they're yellow might be throwing things off a bit.

    Looks like you're going for low poly, but if you threw a few of that higher poly version of the rock on the left foreground it would look pretty sweet.
  • d1ver
    Offline / Send Message
    d1ver polycounter lvl 14
    Heya, Vig! Cool stuff you've got here! Those are some tasty caustics:)

    Just a couple ideas for you, if I may:

    - You could introduce more color and color contrast. Right now it looks like your light is close to white and your shadows to black.
    Just in case in the view->world properties->light mass there's the environment color parameter that controls the non-direct light color tint - could be useful.

    - Light contrast - for a half interior scene your environment strangely has no stark shadows, just ambient ones, which seems kind of unrealistic. If you would allows yourself some shadows and maybe place some torches around(no pirate hideout can live without 'em) it could make the scene even more interesting. Maybe even change the time of day to dusk or dawn to do play with this light/contrast and justify some strong colors.

    Anyway, it's your call, buddy, looking forward to what you've got cooking!
  • Mark Dygert
    @crazyfingers, Thats a good idea about the rock.

    @Hboybowen, I agree it looks like ass close up and its just barely holding up at a distance, there are a few easy tweaks I can make that will really help it along, especially if I use it up close.

    @d1ver, great pointers about the lighting. It is very monochromatic right now.
    I'm not sure about open torches, maybe enclosed oil lamps.

    I did a quick paint over based on the feedback and I'll probably shoot for something a bit like this...
    pcb_stage000005_po.jpg

    - Add a yellow/orange light for dominant sun, (so far its just ambient blue sky for the ambient light).
    - Close things off a bit on the right create rock bridge from foreground over the stage, to background/crows nest.
    - Add separate lighting for the inside.
  • Mark Dygert
    pcb_stage000006.jpg

    Changes:
    - The water was emitting light which was flooding the scene so I tweaked it and changed it but now it looks like ass and it's not catching shadows like it should.
    - I added some more blocked out props (will be fleshing these out more this week).

    I'm going to focus on modeling and materials for the next few days then come back to UDK and lighting. Can't do much else until I get the torches/oil lamps in place so I think those are up next.
  • seforin
    Offline / Send Message
    seforin polycounter lvl 17
    the udk progress you made is quite nice! I suggest maybe doing a mesh painter for "barnikles" on the boxes + side walls that have ben sitting there for a while. It will really sell the whole feeling of beeing there for a while with water well!

    Overall I think your foreground could stand a bit more lighting, but looking good so far!
  • Dan!
    Offline / Send Message
    Dan! polycounter lvl 6
    GO GO GO!- looking good- something about that saturated blue in the fog(center of the pic around the cannon) is off putting- maybe give it a more yellow tint?- good luck on the finish.
  • Mark Dygert
    Just checked the deadline and looks like its tomorrow... crap. I thought we had another week. So this is as close as its getting. I'll keep working on it before I stuff it in my portfolio. I'll be addressing all the little things you guys have mentioned along with all the things I still want to add. If I had the weekend I could probably slam through most of it... damn.

    For my first UDK scene that I did on my own, from scratch it's not too bad, for an animator... I've never really stopped loving environment art and now having a better handle on UDK I'll be doing a lot more with it.

    pcb_stage000007.jpg

    pcb_stage000008.jpg
  • d1ver
    Offline / Send Message
    d1ver polycounter lvl 14
    Congratulations on the job well done, Vig.
    Yeah, your knowledge is your ultimate prize.
    And I'm really happy that you're gonna do more enviro stuff now.:) Looking forward to it!
  • Mark Dygert
    Oh hey look we can post in our WIP threads again... I should get the final images up and if these threads stay open I'll keep it updated with the progress I make after this is over. Something tells me Adam will want "that progress moved to P&P" but I'll have to check.

    d1ver thanks and I totally agree.

    Since this is open again I'll post the submitted final images.

    Finals

    Beauty 1

    PCB_StageBeauty01.jpg

    Beauty 2

    PCB_StageBeauty02.jpg

    Construction
    PCB_StageConstruction00.jpg

    Materials

    PCB_StageTextures00.jpg
Sign In or Register to comment.