Creepy Log Cabin
polycounter lvl 5
So, I wanted this to be done by monday so i could submit it to the MIGS game art expo but I doubt I'll be able to manage it...
Anyhow, I'm still gonna finish it for my portfolio, so might as well create a WIP thread to have some feedback.
Basically, I want to make a few mock-up game screenshots of a fake horror game. It would be set during the French Colonization of North America, involve native americain horror myths, etc, etc.
It's obviously not going to be made, but I might as well try to make a few screenshots of how I'd imagine it to be.
Anyway, this is a scene in a log cabin in the middle of the woods, the character stumbles across what's left of some sort of satanic ritual.
It's sadly at an early stage, but here's a low-quality screengrab from UDK:
Yes. I do know that the blood's specular is waaaaaay off. It looks really silly now. I'm gonna go catch a few hours of sleep before going back to it.
Thanks!
Anyhow, I'm still gonna finish it for my portfolio, so might as well create a WIP thread to have some feedback.
Basically, I want to make a few mock-up game screenshots of a fake horror game. It would be set during the French Colonization of North America, involve native americain horror myths, etc, etc.
It's obviously not going to be made, but I might as well try to make a few screenshots of how I'd imagine it to be.
Anyway, this is a scene in a log cabin in the middle of the woods, the character stumbles across what's left of some sort of satanic ritual.
It's sadly at an early stage, but here's a low-quality screengrab from UDK:
Yes. I do know that the blood's specular is waaaaaay off. It looks really silly now. I'm gonna go catch a few hours of sleep before going back to it.
Thanks!
Replies
Gotta tweak a lot of textures and do a better lighting job too.
Still a lot of work left, but hey, I managed some semi-convincing candle flames! (which you can barely see in the picture). Hurray.
It looks as though the character is discovering the aftermath of whatever went on in this cabin, so leave clues as to what might've unfolded where you can and that will help to breathe life into the world you're trying to create.
Good luck.
I'll be sculpting a skull and some bones today.
A book is a good idea too.
I was also thinking about some indian artifacts, since the mythos would be mostly based on early colonial myths and native american folklore.
I particularly like the Legend of The Wendigo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo
This thing would be so great as a kind of recurring ennemy (think Nemesis, Pyramid Head, Dr. Salvadore):
Almost makes me want to model it. I probably would if I wasn't transitioning into a more environment-centric portfolio x)
Still, I made a deer skull.
Okay, any hunter could probably tell it's quite stylized and a tad loosely interpreted, but as a small background prop I think it's going to do the job.
Not the final placement, I just put it randomly somewhere for now.
I'll do my best to manage that
Still got a couple of props to do, mainly some counter to cook on(surprisingly having a hard time finding a suitable reference. I keep finding fancy antique french furniture for the time period, but it's definitely not good for this scene), a metallic basine (for washing stuff), a barrel and some ustensils. M'aybe other stuff I haven,t thought of. Probably more gorey/creepy things. Guts? Organs or something?
It's definitely doable, but I'm keeping myself a great deal of time to light the scene way better, mess around with the post-process, tweak textures, etc. Gotta work on a few lightmaps too, made some errors here and there, and some objects are not lighting properly. Still unsure what I'm gonna do with the windows though. Anyway, I'll keep working until I get one or two good-looking renders for my portfolio!
Pictures time
Thanks!
I was also thinking about adding inverted crosses on the walls, a bit like the religious nut's apartment in Heavy Rain. I'm still unsure it could work.I did a test with a basic mesh, but I dont know what to think...
I made a quick paintover with a lighting suggestion - mostly just removing the blue tint and making the scene mostly red since the only light sources are candle flames. Also I made the flames a little more prominent and darkened the stuff outside of the windows (unless there was another light source outside, you wouldn't be able to see anything through the window except maybe some branches or something being illuminated by the candle on the table).
Additionally, I feel like most log cabins I've seen had this caulk stuff in between the logs on the interior (not sure what it is, clay or something?) and it's in most of the pics I found in my 6 seconds of Google Image-ing. Anyway, I think it would look neat and help visually break up the walls even more. Also if you're gonna do the cross thing, I think it would look cool to enlarge the crosses a little (at least a few of them) to make them more prominent.
I think you could also throw a bunch of dirt on the floor, especially in corners/around furniture, and particularly near the wood piles and stove. Some rugs might look nice on the floor too.
One final thing I noticed in some of the log cabin pics I looked at was that their floors didn't seem to be as uniform as the one you've got here. A lot of them looked kind of cobbled together from whatever bits of wood they could find, all mismatched and different lengths and colors. It seemed like they didn't even necessarily form a very flat surface; there could be some height variations between floorboards. I discolored some of the floorboards in this paintover as a nod to that concept, but you could take it pretty far and maybe get some interesting results with the floor.
Hope some of this is helpful. It's looking good so far!
This is very helpful, I'll definitely get on that. I'm still unsure about how to do the walls properly, but I'll check this out.
I also had a weird feeling about the floor, thanks for pointing that out, I'll try seeing what I can do.
Um... The crosses still aren't done, haven't made up my mind if I do that or not (I should hurry though). I changed the floor texture completely, opting for a blend of pictures instead of the sculpting/pictures blend I tried and wasn't so good. I think it looks better.
I'm having a little trouble getting proper shadows since the light bounces make them too pale, I still have to tweak that somehow.
Mmh, does anyone have an idea of how I should setup my broom mesh/material/affecting lights? The shading on the hay is quite funky, some planes are darker for some unknown reason.
Thanks for the feedback, I'm making progress!
I'm not saying that the building must be smaller - I'm saying that you should try to contextualize the size. Was this the canteen of the lumberjacks? Storage room? Was it filled with more furniture before, and has that been shoved aside to make room for the ritual?
I'll probably revisit it soon to fix some things (lighting and the props placement as Snader mentionned), I'll do a wire shot then. In the meantime, there's a wire of some of the props on my website: www.pioldes.com
Thanks for the comments!