Howdy everyone,

Just thought id start a thread for a project I've been working on recently. I am feeling fairly committed to getting this project finished as I feel like I'm over the initial "hurdles" and am reasonably happy that its going in a direction that I am happy with. I'm not able to work on it constantly, as "work work" is my priority. So I guess ill post as often as I physically can, and work on the scene as much as possible.

As a bit of a Bioshock Fanatic, I wanted to create a homage to the game by creating my own environment in the Bioshock style, incorporating elements of the story/fiction into this. I will of course make everything from scratch, inspired by the original game however ill try and add my own personal touches/spin on as much of the fiction as possible.

Where I am currently at:




Some rough ideas of the parts of Bioshock that have inspired me (elements of each image are appropriate to the scene)


Elements of the "real" world that have inspired me:


The "ambient story"-
I would like to convey a sense of action already having happened, the protagonist has passed through the area and it lies somewhat desolate. The Big Daddies and the Little sisters still roam the area giving the sense that their existence is eternal. I think this is what really captured my imagination originally in Bioshock, the sense that regardless of whether the civil war had happened or not, the duties of the Big daddy and Little sisters is constant throughout. I'd like to show some symbols of this bond between the Big Daddies and the Little sisters, and mainly tell the story through the general ambience of the level.

Rapture is falling into disrepair and from here we can see rapture from a worms eye perspective. Buildings are collapsing into the ocean and the water is seeping into the environment by any possible means. The area is one of the many entrances to the Atlantic Express, an underwater train line that takes people from one area of Rapture to another. We can still see the trains operating, however it's clear that they are somewhat damaged and the all is not well.

What I would like to get out of? -
A 30 second video, full of ambient story. I hope (fingers crossed + with your help) that it will at least look "cool" to people that both have and haven't played Bioshock before.

Make more people that haven't played it, play it! It's awesome.

I also hope to learn as much as possible about Art Deco and try and at least feel like I have a good grasp of the style and am able to replicate it.

Some High-Poly stuff to look at (for all those that are bored of my waffling on)

Little sister "Hidey Hole"


Art Deco style glass ceiling high poly


Doorway to the Atlantic Express


Some more shots of the area (showing how much work is left to be done..gulp)




A really (I mean really) rough doodle of what I have yet to add to the scene. (I'm not even going to embed this, click here)



So yeah, there it is! Crit away, I want to hopefully showcase everything I have learned over the last year or so, but also would like to spot any areas that I am weak in (other than doodling!) and patch up those areas of my skill-set.

Thank you for looking & thank you to everyone that has helped me get this far

Oh man, great start so far.

Definitely looks like it fits in their style already...and the lighting creates a nice mood. Are you going to be putting a sign up on that empty area above the door? I would love to see some sharp flourescent lighting in here, similar to the Hephaestus Core sign in your image ref. That would help give a good focal point near the entrance there.

Looking forward to seeing this progress!

Looking great Scott! I'm glad you started a thread for this. The scene is coming along quite nicely. Maybe you can bump up the spec a bit on the door? The material is pretty flat at the moment.

One thing that stands out to me is the scissoring curved ceiling girder. It doesn't mesh very well and I feel like you could do something to "art deco-ify" a piece like that.

Mint!!

Subbed

Looking cool. Obviously will be able to follow this closer from work but it seems like you're off a good start on this one.

Keep the motivation meter up!

Crit: you should place an object in the light behind the door or human feet to better explain it's a door, look a bit like a neon light at the moment, very powerful that is.

Loking great man. The little sister cubby hole thing is really interesting cause it actually gives a sense of scale.

Cheers for the replies fellas! Ill try and answer everyone (if possible) so bare with me

@gsokol - Yeah, my initial idea was to have a sign like that above the door as I kinda started off backwards, I created the door first and designed the environment around it when I decided that I wanted to go further with it. The problem was that I wanted to make the half open door the focal point (and still do) and it just detracted your eye straight away. I also planned to have a gatherers garden where the Little Sister's Hole was, but because it was glowing pink it just pulled the eye away from everything else in the scene. Id like (LOVE) to get alot of the neon stuff into the vista (rapture) extending above the scene. Hopefully the depth fog and DOF will make it blur out into a mash of different interesting tones as the city dissapears into the ocean.

@darbeenbo - Yeah I see what you mean, ill fix that with my next update, its likely that its going to have to be an iterative process of constantly fine tuning the specular as the rest of the scene comes in. I think you're right tho, seeing as the door is the focal point I could really do with ensuring that it POPS. I initially based the gurder/metal work on , Ill leave it for the time being and if it becomes too noisy (which it may do, especially with a whole city in the background) and then ill go back and look at the design.

@[HP] <3

@Parox..vince - Cheers dude! You'll have to swing by tomorrow, gimme your critical eye . Its never really been a case of motivation to do 3d, more motivation to finish projects I start Hence why I never put them on polycount! Hopefully ive gotten past the difficult part now and its just fun stuff from here on.

That was the plan, I was hoping to put the legs of the Big Daddy with the little sister next to him behind the door, just giving the silhoette of the characters, with the door opening in slow motion. Hopefully the scale difference between the big daddy and the little sister will mean that its really obvious who it is

@Jeffro, Thanks man! that leads me nicely onto tonight's "work"

Didnt really have time to do anything major tonight but stole half an hour or so to do some doodling with my girlfriend. I picked up some chalk today and though it would be cool to do some Little Sister style drawings to litter around the scene (particularly around the Hidey Hole).


Great fun! I think the more rough the better really, so ill scan some of them in and use them as decals. Quick and dirty (the way I like it!)


Ill make a note of the critique ive had so far and Ill make sure I take a look at each bit in order.

This is really awesome stuff and it really does convey that its set in the bioshock universe. How much of the Atlantic Express doorway is sculpted? Keep up the great work!

Originally Posted by KennyTies

This is really awesome stuff and it really does convey that its set in the bioshock universe. How much of the Atlantic Express doorway is sculpted? Keep up the great work!

Cheers dude!

I made pretty much everything in 3dsmax first, making sure sure that it was evenly divided and then did alot of the damage/detailing using Zbrush using a mixture of the Trim Dynamic, Dam Standard and the Fast Mallet brushes. This was then baked out flat and extruded in 3dsmax to give the door some more volume.

I typically (actually, RELIGIOUSLY) always make my meshes in 3dsmax first, then use zbrush for the detailing afterwards. Although, I sometimes will "build" an object from multiple subtools in zbrush.

Awesome models! They indeed match the style and mood! Keep it up!!!

It is looking really good.

This is beautiful! When I saw you post that door in waywo I have been waiting for the thread ever since! Really looking forward to this one!

Tbanks for the reply back! Thats really impressive that you did most of your work in 3ds max for the door. Follow up question how did you go about creating the text?

Yay, Bioshock! Subbed
Loving the scribbles btw, great idea

Working on a similar art deco inspired ocean liner scene ATM, this puts it to shame! Awesome work, can't wait to see it finished.

Good stuff Scott, subbed

Thank you everyone for the replies! Ive got some tutorials to post up, but ill do that separately to this.

@PHaynes888 - Cheers dude! loving the progress on your Jurassic Park truck, cant wait to see it in the engine man!

@desktoppirate - Thanks dude, I cant wait to see your ocean liner, are you planning to use CE3 (the oceans in Cryengine kick so much ass). There are a few really good videos on youtube about Art Deco that might help you out, I know ive been really struggling at times to get the art style down.

ZeroBigSis - Thanks man! Bigsis? bioshock reference there maybe?

KennyTies - Ive made a tutorial just for you man, ill post it up after this post. KNOWLEDGE TIME! (or hacky shortcut time )

SaferDan - Thanks dude! Glad you like the progress man.

@Donavonyoung- Thank you

@TheGoozah - Cheers bro! its so hard to get the style right, plus how'd you compete with perfection?! Bioshock nailed it so well, doing as good of a job is going to be a hard one!

Double post time! I thought id post this separately so my replies and these quick tuts are on separate posts.

56K WARNING!

So KennyTies commented ^ up there, asking how I went about making the text, so Im going to show a controversial technique that I occasionally use for high poly text:

^ I can feel that one is going to start a war. Booleans are dirty.

Also in the WAYWO thread a while ago, someone asked how I went about making the grate on the Atlantic Express door, so I put together a tutorial for you guys to show how I went about it.

I hope it all makes sense.

This is looking awesome scott, its cool to see how you go about working on some of this stuff. Im looking forward to seeing more man! Good Luck with this!

Wow! That proboolean trick is hacky... and totally awesome! Cheers!

Dude thanks for the awesome tutorial, it really cleared up how to go about creating text for me and thank you for the grate tutorial as well. Cant wait to see more updates.

Probolean? Why not use dynamesh if your going into zbrush anyway?

Sir, this means war. I'mma go thermonuclear on yo' ass.

Originally Posted by fearian

Wow! That proboolean trick is hacky... and totally awesome! Cheers!

Seriously, never would have thought of that. Thanks for kicking my brain in a new direction!

great tip
thanks

Great work Scott and thanls for the tut! Subscribed =)