Witches Room [Handpainted UE4]

JamesMeader

LATEST UPDATE:

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Been having a lot of fun on this one. 
I am at the point now where I plan to go through every asset and add a lot more detail. Some pieces do have that detail but I feel like I can push it more so.

The concept was done by Vanja Todoric



I really need as much feedback as possible. I'm currently unemployed and wanting to finally add a cool environment to my portfolio. I need to push myself and for next few months every waking hour will be on this project and every project after until I get a job (I will start applying again once I have something new on my portfolio...aka...this)

So any feedback is really encouraged, dont hold back. 

Thank you. 

hmm_rock

It would be a good idea to include the image or a direct link to the concept so we can compare and give you better feedback. I dug it up http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-za9s6GPzOZU/Ui8q9mOsHMI/AAAAAAAABlY/Xy12i0zrd6Y/s1600/witch's-room.jpg

It looks like you're off to a really good start, pretty accurate proportions. It's hard to tell because the scene is so dark, but the textures might be too contast-y. Brighten up the scene a bit. Some light fog and more of a blue tint overall would probably help as well. Look forward to seeing more!

JamesMeader

@hmm_rock - I usually do include an image, silly me. I've just added it

Thanks for the compliments and yeah you're totally right that its bit dark! Yeah i'll look into fog too.

Thanks again!

JamesMeader

The past few days I have been going through the bare bones of the room:- floor, walls, ceiling, posts and window frame. My main goal with the floor was to get depth as well as trying to get the same form and details in the concept. 
No light for now just trying to get the textures the way I want. 
Maybe I'll give it all an other once over, i'm still not 100% happy but maybe its just getting distracted comparing with other handpainted texture styles and approaches. The concept has very subtle painted detail so I think its a case of making my approach convincing and not 'un-finished' or 'under done'.

Any crit as always is strongly encouraged. 
Thank you. 

JamesMeader

Changed the lighting a little bit. 
Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, maybe move to an other asset but keep going back and adding more detail if I can without smothering the textures.

Again any crit would be appreciated .

Luxap

Hey man, off to a good start here, but yeah as @hmm_rock said, the thing that is going to sell this scene is the lighting in particular.
Also try to get that god ray in there, there is an example blueprint in Unreal Engine content examples (under blueprints) but that goes through quite a lot of code.
I would say just add a simple plane mesh with some strokes as a texture.

Also I think the light you got currently in your scene is going more to the green spectrum then the bright cyan color that's coming through the window.

As for any other feedback we need to see some more of your scene first I think, because the screenshot above does not give an accurate representation of your progress I think.

If you need any help let me know
But looking through your portfolio really quick got me thinking that you got it all handles.

Keep it up!

JamesMeader

@Luxap - Thanks for the kind words mate! I'm absolutely going to add that god ray, maybe its something i'll do today actually! 

Yeah I totally agree its going more green so i'll push it more to that cyan that you've mentioned.

I guess just looking at the first shot I posted gives you an idea but I'm going over all the textures now and I think its easier to maybe assess new without the old in the same scene. 

I will most probably post an update later but will only have some updated progress on the floor, the new lighting, and new candles

I have a slight handle on things, this is the most texturing I have ever done (wood texturing too!) and modelling I have done for just one project. I thought it was about time to 1) do an environment and 2) make a bigger and hopefully more impressive project than I have ever done. 

JamesMeader

Update of what I have at the minute.

Lets say every texture in the room is completely new compared to what has been shown before. I feel like I've gotten the floor at least a bit closer to what I hoped. Something are yet to be texture, either in black or just block colour. You may notice that there isn't all the candles and maybe a few other details (papers ect) and that will added soon.

Crit again would be appreciated.

Thank you. 

Cglewis

I like the stylized art style your going for, but i feel you lighting needs to be pushes its in a good "lit" but i feel the way it is now is taking away from the mood of the piece, i would pull out the colors and go for a darker vibe. I feel the light shaft coming from the window needs to be pitched up based on the light you have poring through the window.
But i like where it is going i am looking forward to see where you take this

JamesMeader

@Cglewis The lighting is slowly becoming an absolute pain  I keep tickering with it by either turning it down, turning it up, brighten the colour and darkening the colour. I guess I'll keep pushing at it until it clicks. Maybe doing some photoshop tests or even some variations could help. 
Thanks for the compliments and comments, muchly appreciated. 

Cglewis

How do you have your lighting set up now?

JamesMeader

@Cglewis So thats how I have my lights placed in the scene
I have been messing around in photoshop just getting an idea of how I can change the lighting. I've messed around with the setting for the past hour or so maybe later i'll post I've done or maybe just compare with the last update and see how it looks.

Cglewis

Nice, Try changing your spot light to a directional light and add in a skylight (this will give you bounce lighting) i would also add some spherical reflections again to help with bounce light.

JamesMeader

@Cglewis Ok so I changed the spot to a directional which has turned out nice. I dont think the spherical reflection would work seeing as I'm just using diffuse maps. I'll be plodding away...

Cglewis

you may know this already lol but unless you have a node plugged into the channel (metallic, spec, roughness) that turns it off you will have a value of .5. So to turn it off you need to add a constant and set it to 0. Also you can get some really cool light shafts by turning on that check box on in the directional light parameters. 

JamesMeader

@Cglewis Yes I am aware of plugging in a constant Only thing i have a problem with a directional is just how hard the shadows are, trying to figure out how to make the shadows a bit softer. As you can tell I am a bit of a noob in UE4, but this is the whole point of this project

Cglewis

no worries man, if you up the value on your skylight it will soften up your shadows
feel free to ask any questions man, no such thing as a dumb question

JamesMeader

ive been messing with the lighting and decided now to leave it for today and press on with all the missing textures and assets. I know CGLEWIS said if i use a skylight with a higher value I would get softer shadows that doesnt seem to be the case. I hate these hard and rather disgusting shadows. The object do have a rough 2nd uv channel that I am now trying to get rid of. Any help on 1) making these shadows nicer 2) removing a 2nd uv channel with 3ds max would be greatly appreciated 

*removed second uv channel, now to just get the shadows playing nice!

Cglewis

Sorry for the lack of clarification, in order for a skylight to work you need to either use it with atmospheric fog or link cube map to it.
On the left you see a skylight value of 2.7~ but with no cube map and on the right you see the same value with a cubemap.
There is only 1 direction light in this scene casting the really hard shadow that you see.
I hope this helps

JamesMeader

@Cglewis Thanks a lot for that clarification. I'll still playing around with lighting, its getting there. I will probably post something once I have all the texturing done and the missing assets added (at least the ones in the concept)

JamesMeader

So an update of what I have so far. I tried the lighting method that Cglewis suggested, but i decided to go back and use my old method but spending a bit more on the atmosphere and mood. Mostly everything is textured apart from the red chest. I will complete that texture and then start with the extra pieces that will be seen behind the camera (I am planning more than one shot for the final)

I feel like I'm getting close to the end but I don't think the piece is packing as much of a punch as I want so I plan to just keep digging away at the textures until they punch people in the face.

Any crit then please shout, don't be afraid of making me cry!

BARDLER

Starting to look really cool, and I think you are really close to the concept. The two biggest things you are missing at this point is the atmosphere and lighting from the concept. The concept has a very blue volumetric light coming in from the window, with a ton of blue bounce light filling the room, and a general blue haze over the entire room. Also the candles have that nice deep orange glow to them, and are accenting subtle areas of the environment around them. I think if you push the colors of the lighting like the concept has, you would start to see that punch you are looking for. Good luck!

JamesMeader

@BARDLER Thank you for the nice comments. I agree with the big blue light coming through and i have played with it but felt like the light was smothering and numbing the scene a bit. I did have the candles with a deep orange i think at the beginning and decided to go more yellow for some reason. I will go back to orange!
Do you have anything to say about the textures or was the lighting the only concern you have? 

BARDLER

There are somethings you could nit pick about the textures, but lighting is the most important thing in any scene. Getting the mood, atmosphere, and values of the lighting looking good will help with everything else. If you do that, I think it will be easier for you to see what you don't like about the textures.

JamesMeader

I took what BARDLER said and added the blue more filling the room as well as a fog. I also pushed the orange and areas around the candle light.

again like always just shout if you see something good, wrong or worth changing!
Thank you!

pixelb

Looking good with the new lighting. Here are a couple things you can do to match the concept more:

• Fog should be brighter, possibly less opaque. The pattern of the wallpaper should be readable.
• Better wood textures should be a priority. If you post flats I can do a paintover for you.
• Looks like the box in the corner is important so it should have a more detailed texture, too.
• Focal length of the camera should be shorter to match the concept. The back of the room is too far away.
• Push the color of the gingerbread man around so he stands out more against the floor.
• Same with the paper on the ground. It should be more purple against the wood.
• I know they're not in the concept, but it's weird that the candles don't have flames.

JamesMeader

@pixelb - Thank you for the feedback! I've been away from this for a few days and just started to get back into it. 

A lot of what you've mentioned it on my list, the red box for instance is lacking detail because I hadn't textured it yet but its all done now

I have pushed the wood textures a bit more, so maybe I'll wait till the next update I post and if you think they still need more then I'll post some flats.

Not sure how to change the focal length in UE4 with the perspective camera.

I will totally push the textures for Mr Ginger same goes with paper!

The plan was always to add flames on the candles and was apart of my last tweaks as well as some extra assets that will populate the scene a bit more behind the camera. 

Thanks again for the feedback!



 

pixelb

Not sure how to change the focal length in UE4 with the perspective camera.

It's in the drop down menu next to the perspective view button: "Field of VIew (H)". But in your case it probably makes more sense to add a camera actor to the scene and set it that way.

JamesMeader

My latest update!
I really don't think I'm that far away from finishing. I really would like to have this done by the Friday morning so I can go on holiday and come back with a clean slate and start the next project!

I need to really post an update of behind the camera so you can see the textures of the door and other goodies. Maybe in a bit. 

Feedback again is greatly appreciated, make me cry. 

JamesMeader

I feel like I'm ready to call this done.
I still would like some crit, like what I could have done better and what I can improve on for the next environment?
Thanks for all the crit that led to this outcome.