Biocorp Industries - Sci-Fi

chrisradsby

Hey guys, first you have to excuse me for my lack of imagination when it comes to a cool name for this scene. :P

I have my vacation from work now, and it's just a week left before I start again. So I thought I'd share some shots with you of what I've been doing the last couple of weeks. I have never done any proper sci-fi or the like so I wanted to do something to ease into genre.

I wanted to create a darker more industrial sci-fi scene, but I also extended the scene with a Lab inside the building. I've been working on it for about 2-3 weeks now on and off during my vacation days but I'm at a point where I need a bit more feedback and just bounce a couple of ideas around.


Viewport Shots




Feedback is appreciated, I'll consider all crits. I know it's not perfect, I have some placeholders in there and just quick ugly models without proper UVs and stuff.

What I'm planning to do:

- Polish props
- Add more lab props, such as lab-stations, holograms and cables etc etc
- Fix the foreground to the right of the outside shot (Planning to have a Drone or something like it there, smaller detail props as well)
- Currently creating the high-poly of a drone/plane type vehicle to be parked outside.
- Proper Cubemaps from the environment (they'll go in at the end)

I just want to know if I'm heading in a good direction or if I need to slam the brakes and think about it a bit more.

ivanzu

The Glass balls should have some dirt on them as everything around is dirty and looks like it was used for long time.
The red light in the first image really stands out so I think that you should make it more subtitle cause it really draws attention from other cool stuff.

Alberto Rdrgz

oh man, too much lens flare!... looks cool tho.

walkonsky

that scene doesn't really fit together (yet?) in some aspects to my eye:
inside and outside are very different in terms of their scifi feel. whereas the inside is almost completely high tech with polished surfaces and tubes and whatnot, the outside looks very much like a contemporary industrial area (with the exemption of those fences, of course).
(btw: what function exactly are those fences supposed to have?)

that logo of "biocorp" doesn't fit the scifi theme. although i like it, it looks more like 1970's (no offense )...

speaking of function. its a question i ask myself quite often, looking at other people's projects. in your scene here, the fences are not the only thing that i dont understand. what are those glass balls supposed to do? maybe you could make them a bit more probable to us. if they are some kind of reactor, any factory would likely need more of them, wouldn't it? if its some kind of experiment, why do you have one right underneath the ceiling where no one can really see anything to check the experiment, let alone manipulate it.

a similar thing: the big broken windows on the outside do not appear inside, although you see one of those fans directly above.

and some random things that came to my mind looking at your images:

lights directly on seams between wall panels seem a bit weird. (but maybe the one on the right in your indoor shot is simply moved a bit by accident?)

do the stairs get some kind of support, they look as if they would crash as soon as anyone uses them...

you have quite a lot of different light colors in that scene. not only do you have those blue and yellow lights plus green lights inside, but also the bright red one that ivanzu already commented on and the blue light on yellow paint on the door for example which lets them appear green. maybe you can reduce that a bit...

overall, however, despite all that critique, i think the scene is very nice. that huge structure on top of that building looks great and the inside scene is promising if you give it more meaning.

Zack Fowler

I feel like you've done the environment artist equivalent of "subdividing too early". The postprocess and lighting effects are nice (and fun to mess around with, I know), but it feels like they're layered on something that wouldn't hold up very well without them because you started adding and tweaking effects before the underlying scene was solid enough.

I would recommend putting on the brakes and maybe backing up a bit. Save out a new copy of your scene, turn off all the effects, and try working with a much more basic lighting setup. No volumetrics (other than basic fog), no DOF, no color correction, no lens flares. Think about what your visual focal points are, and make sure the scene is compelling spatially without all the bells and whistles. The top shot, for example, has nothing of sufficient interest on the ground level to balance out the raised platform. It may be enough to just really cut back on the lights in that area and have it mostly dark, with the only lights illuminating those... yellow doors? Are those doors? I'm having difficulty making them out.

The illuminated fences in particular are very distracting, visually and in terms of the idea of the space. If this was a real world space, what would their purpose be? Their current layout doesn't seem to be for keeping anything out or in. I'd recommend having them not glow, and playing with their scale and layout. If they're meant for security they should go a good deal higher than the height of a person, but if they're just for marking out an area they should be easy to hop over.

Hope this helps!

Snefer

Slam the brakes! Needs more bio, and more corp. ^^ Main crits: this really looks like a game level, in the sense that it looks very blocky. If I were you I would take a step back, specially indoors, and see if you could play with the large shapes a bit more. The floor is completely flat, its basically a box with a walkway and a curved ceiling : )

Blaisoid

the problem with lab idea is that labs usually contain big amounts of delicate and very expensive equipment, and allowing it to get dirty or moist seems like a good way to make sure that lab's gonna lose funds and get shut down soon. especially if it has "bio" in name.

chrisradsby

Yes! Thanks for the critique

I've been worried a bit as well about the continuity of the scene. Having more of an industrial feel outside with a clean lab-like interior feels a bit weird. I have had Resident Evil in mind for the interior stuff, but I totally get what you come from.

You guys are definitely right! I should take a step back and take a look at things before moving on. I'm in a position where I could easily move things around to make it more interesting. So I've decided to divide the scenes and focus on each one to make them stronger. It's easier that way for me right now.

So I'll focus on the exterior right now, and what I'm looking for is pretty much a contemporary sci-fi vision.

"The new has been built over the old"-type feeling


Thanks guys, I owe you! I wasn't really happy with what I got so far after all I just needed someone to tell me that something felt off!
I'll plan some things out more and try to get together a stronger design overall.

chrisradsby

Actually...looking at the new Total Recall trailer...it's exactly what I'm going for really for the exterior. Now I just need to implement it better. Expect more updates in a week or so

ladyknowles

God I love your stuff Chris, and I agree with other people about Post-Processing, I know how easy it is to fall into that trap.
Have you thought about having some foliage encroaching on the area? I think if the lab was this dirty and grimy and forgotten, stubborn plant life would begin to take over. Maybe it could even be plant life affected by the experiements going on it the lab, like plant life you see deep in the ocean, or like this shot from rage:

chrisradsby

Thanks LadyKnowles , but that's also the problem I'm soo used working with mostly organic stuff that I wanted to get away from it a little bit and it's showing now that I'm in an area where you need stronger design-skills to make things work or it'll end up looking awkward.

So I'll continue and we'll see where I end up next, hopefully it'll be stronger and better than my previous try

nathdevlin

I'm sure round two will be rocking. All good feedback on here I won't go repeating stuff.