Nature Environment [UDK]

vemadesign

FINISHED

Hi all,

Here is a flytrough (HD) of finished nature environment I've working on for the past 2 months. Check out my website (www.poligonz.com) for a ton of screenshots and stuff. Thanks to everyone for the kind words and help during the process. I, also, had a friend, Martin La Land Romero, do some FX (dust, god rays, butterflies, birds, and falling leaves).

Now on to the next project.

video:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kNPDY3snw"]NatureEnv Final 01 - YouTube[/ame]


UDK Screens:







Mudbox rock:



Thanks!

snake85027

keep it going, looking good.

vemadesign

Here is another update:

I made a tree and i'm pretty happy how it turned out. I will be making a few more smaller ones. I did some plants that i'm also happy with, but, the grass is not turning out the way i want it. If anyone has or knows about a good method on how to make good grass let me know, please Did a quick pass on the terrain textures and height here and there. Lighting and post is temporary.

My goal right now is to make as many different "nature" assets as i can so i have a lot to play with when i start blocking out the environment itself.

Here are a few screens of progress:





Thanks!

vemadesign

Another update:

Finally got a decent looking grass. Finished up some more plants and stuff. Now i'm about to star blocking out the paths and the main tree. I changed the terrain layout since the first one was way too large.

Pics:







Thanks!

JustinSlick

Really enjoying these updates... your rocks look pretty stellar in my opinion! Actually, those plants in the last image look awesome as well, but in the zoomed out view their distribution still feels a little too regular maybe? I dunno, maybe someone else will chime in.

vemadesign

Thanks Justin! So far none of these are final, i'm still playing around with foliage settings in udk to get a more natural distribution. A lot of plants are intersecting right now because i paint them on terrain all at the same time. More updates soon.

HumanAlien

Hey, first of all I want to say that this is my first post, or reply or whatever xD

I share Slicks opinion. The plants in the last image look awesome, so do your rocks and your trees.
About the regular looking distribution (is this correct? sry I am from Germany). I think Slick is right. It doesnt look like "normal or natural". But I know that these are not final.

So keep it going.

GragGunslinger

I really dig where this is going so far!

I think your rocks could use a little color variation to really make them look organic, I would imagine they'd probably have some stuff growing on them, or the minerals on the inside are starting to get pushed to the top, just adding some other colors in there to really sell it (but on a subtle, subtle level) I would recommend just a tiny bit of blue to push them in the right direction.

Also I'm sure you're not done with it, but the grass on the mountain seems to be tiling a little bit to harshly, but you might not have even touched that, and since it's so far out of the way I'm sure you didnt mean for us to look at it :P

Great work! can't wait to see more!

vemadesign

Thanks guys!

@HumanAlien: thanks! yes, i think thats what he was referring to.

@GragGunslinger: thanks! great suggestion. I did it before and makes everything too noisy, but, i will be adding more subtle variations to textures. Yea, the mountains haven't gotten any proper love yet.

vemadesign

Another update:

Some minor updates to plants, trees, rocks. Playing around with the layout of the forest. Little bit of lighting and mood experimentation. I'm working on a few more smaller trees and plants. Also, instead of a giant tree as my POI I decided to make a monolith type structure, possibly a building you can walk into.







C&C welcome.

Fozwroth

this is starting to look pretty neat. there is one thing that bothers me a little, you seems to have mixed nordic pinetrees with tropical foliage- referring to the under vegetation. I would look into making it feel more uniform and try to build vegetation that belongs with each other

You have some issues with the top of your trees, they are pretty messy - obvious planes and some branches poking out that are just basically a triangle, hide those with branches and it will look a lot better

keep it up!

silkroadgame

Attracting updates you have made,keep going this nice work!

KristaW

I agree with Fozworth about the ground cover clashing with the tree type. Which plants were you referencing? I think you can get away with it sparsely because I feel like I have seen similar plants tromping around but I might consider mixing in some ground cover like these too.



I really like the feel of this environment so far! Are you going to try and get some of those god rays coming through in the references?

punchface

Maybe the big frondy-leafy guys that you have now look a bit tropical somehow.

vemadesign

@Fozworth: Yes, looking at it now it seem big leaf and long leaf plants look tropical and are out of place now. I'm in a process of making more plants so i'll replace those. In back of my mind i knew they weren't meant for this env. but getting caught up in a project sometimes you overlook things like that. Thanks for the feedback.

@Silkroadgames: Thanks! more to come.

@KristaW: Absolutely. I googled plants and made the first thing that i liked. lol. Thanks for the images, i started making a plant similar to the one in the upper left corner.

@Punchface: Agreed!

Thanks for the feedback! It narrows down what i'm actually going for. Will post another update as soon as these changes are made.

vemadesign

Update:

Made the suggested changes and it's looking much better. Thank you all. I'm happy with the foliage so far. I'm making two more smaller trees and rock piles so that will be in the next update. Also, i'll will be covering the terrain in the same fashion that i did this section of the forest in. And building will be the last thing.

Enjoy:

tonberry

Some of the little plants'... I don't think they would grow close to the tree trunk, at the base of the tree, because they will be constantly shaded by the tree, and won't grow well because they can't photosynthesize well.

KristaW

I'm loving the ferns and what looks like wild strawberry, cool I'm also a sucker for the depth of field and atmosphere you have going on. It makes it feel humid and foresty.
There is something bugging me about the small brown bushes in the top shot. I don't see anything like that in your reference so I went searching through Google images for a pine forest that would have something close to it and I couldn't find anything. There are green baby pine trees and green shrubbery but brown things in a pine forest environment seemed to usually be fallen pine trees or rounder tumble weed looking shrubs that were probably dead berry brambles. Also...it looks like your pine trees may have deciduous looking leaves on them? I would either quickly change the leaf cards to needle leaf (this could be easily achieved by not even touching the color but making the alpha more needle shaped) or changing the bark of the tree to something more like a birch or a beech which might be a little harder.
Another thing that you might want to consider doing and is slightly tipping some of the trees. I think I see that happening in the last shot and it helps sell the realism. Trees that are close to a cliff, on a cliff side, next to huge boulder, or skinnier trees are the type of trees more likely to do this. I look forward to updates

vemadesign

Thanks KristaW, awesome feedback. I'm still kind of deciding what kind of trees will be in here, i guess i'm just referencing few different images right now.

Here are some more updates:

-I started adding fog FX and some lightrays, playing around with the overall colors, fixing the foliage here and there, i'm almost up to the building with my forest so i think next step is going to be making the building it self.









Once i finish this i will make a flytrough video.

Taanushree

:)

KristaW

I love the light cookies on the forest floor coming from the trees! This makes me want to go hiking instead of working now, haha.

vemadesign

Haha, thanks KristaW, work while hiking...maybe?

So, here another small update:
-modified a trees and grass to make them a little better looking.
-added more variety of grass, small trees, and bushes.
-Updated terrain normal maps so they pop more.
-added "volumetric fog" and it isn't really working for me so if anyone know of a good method please let me know.
-still playing around with the mood and i'm liking where its going.

here's some screens:

Nuclear Angel

I really love the first shot on this, looks gorgeous. But those climbing plants on the last image, try to get some reference picks and look how they grow on cliffs. Because if those plants are growing there other plants should be growing on there too, like grass and small bushes. Because nothing is growing only on rock =P. Sorry if I explain poorly. The normals look much better and the mood is spot on. Keep up the good work!

Fozwroth

starting to look real nice, vegetation blends together a lot better now I would maybe add some patches of grass here and there, grass always finds a way to grow

maybe the vegetation is a little too blueish green compared to the ground? maybe tint it slightly towards a warmer yellow green.

minorthreat

wow this is looking amazing, subbed, I love seeing this progress, it's really inspirational.

vemadesign

Thanks guys!

@Nuclear Angel: Thank you! That ivy is there as a place holder for now, i will get to it eventually. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

@Fozwroth: Thanks! I will b adding more color variation to plants and you're right, it is a little to bluish right now. I will be adding more grass.

@minorthreat: Thanks for the kind words!

vemadesign

More updates:

Mostly fixing up the foliage and playing around with lighting and mood. I'm waiting for some falling leaves FX so i can make a fly trough video. I think i will keep this environment small, so no buildings or anything like that...for now.









Thanks!

Scizz

Wow, this is beautiful! Great work!

vemadesign

Thanks, Scizz!

I am in a process of wrapping this one up so final updates soon to come.

refriedspinach

i really love the depth and atmospshere in the 2 and 3 photos in the last post!
would love to see a flythrough of this!

Makkon

Some of your foliage could use some custom normals, but your colors are great. I'm liking the rocks too!

RaPtoR_v9600

great scene like it very much good job bud
those rocks looks very good, and everything fits just nicely

Psychotic_Mike

very nice work! I have a question are u using some kind of post process chain in your scene? I can see distance fog and DOF but did u use anyhing else?

vemadesign

Thanks, guys!

@Psychotic_Mike: I am using post process chain AmbientOcclusion-chromatic aberration-DOF, and i'm tweaking the feel of the scene using tonemapper. Hope that helps.

So, i decided to add a building to the environment and i settled for a small church/cathedral type of building. I am making interior and exterior for it and it will end up looking destroyed by time. Not a lot, tough.

Psychotic_Mike

wow thanks it looks so amazing!!! how did u do the chromatic aberration? I tried to find tutorials on it but failed... can u send me a link to any documentation plz? I'd love to create the same atmosphere in my scenes!
Very nice Work!!!

Psychotic_Mike

actually I did find a tutorial after all... hehe
Keep up the good work

vemadesign

Thanks Mike, can't wait to see what you come up with.

TheRealFroman

Dude this is looking crazy at this point! I love the post-processing you have done, along with everything else. ^^ Personally, if I was the one doing this, I would love to add flying nature-particles in the sunlight to help add to the atmosphere. Like these for instance: http://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/3266113/preview/stock-footage-flying-golden-particles-in-light-beams.jpg

But you know, you can do what you want haha. Looks awesome!

ZASkaggs

Looks great! I wish more games looked this nice.

vemadesign

Thank you!

@TheRealFroman: I have a friend of mine Martin making some FX (he was one of the FX artist on new Tomb Raider game). So, he is making dust particles, falling leaves, etc. I made the fog FX and it came out ok, it works for now. Thanks for the suggestion!

@ZASkaggs: Thanks! i am truly flattered.

vemadesign

Hi all,

Here is another update:

-i started texturing the building and testing the vertex mesh painting and so far it's looking good. The building is not UV'd properly yet so there are seams and stuff. Once i have the textures looking good i'll re-uv the whole thing.
-for the interior i will add holes and broken ceiling so the light comes in and brightens it up a little.
-i am also playing around with broken off edge decals...they are ok for now.

Next update will be finished building and more FX: falling leaves, birds, and light dust.









Thanks!

JoshVanZuylen

You have a lot of small and large plants. But hardly any medium plants, are you planing on Adding any say, medium sized bushes, ferns or?

vemadesign

@JoshVanZuyle: There are ferns and some bushes but ill try and balance them out a little more.

vemadesign

Hello

I've been away for a bit but i got some time to make some updates.
Mainly i've been working on the building. I have a few more small things to polish up and i should be finishing with a flytrough video.











C&C welcome

Rhoutermans

looks great lovely building

Mr Significant

amazing!

J0NNYquid

This is really coming along nicely. Only crit I have is maybe have one large beam of light coming in somewhere, just to brighten up the inside of the church, create some contrasting lighting, as right now it's pretty dark all over in there, not to mention it would look really awesome with some dust particles falling through it. Keep up the good work though, looks great.

MGE_PM

Love it, add some spider webs to interior maybe?

Bobby J Rice 3rd

Rocks are very difficult. I struggle with it all the time. I think your rocks need alot of love. Right now they just feel blobby. I would grab a rock photo on one screen, a box in zbrush in the other, and try to sculpt the forms as close as possible.

Also, the color is too richly brown. Think desaturated greys and browns mixed. think about using blend layers and detail normal maps for main form with sub tiling surfaces underneath. Rock has a variation and leaching quality to it.

vemadesign

Thanks a lot, guys!

@JONNYquid: Interior lighting is still WIP at this point, but, i agree that adding a brighter spot where the wall is broken would add contrast.

@MGE_PM: Spider webs are coming. Great suggestion!

@Crazyeyes: Yes, they do look blobby. I had them sharper and more defined before, but, i added a detail normal map and it all went bad. Maybe its the way i'm setting up the material in UDK? i'm not sure. I think i may just make a tillable cliff texture and model a cliff to fit the current set up. Your rocks look incredible, btw. Well, all your work looks awesome. Thanks!

Bobby J Rice 3rd

oh maybe, i don't use UDK much. not since early 3. Here's a great example of rocks done right i think.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122359

Just regular modeled forms, blended tiling textures and tasteful mesh cuts into textures. Maybe there is a detail normal map for the shape, i dunno. The forms do have a bit of beveled edges though, so probably not necessary.