[UE4] Alien inspired hallway

CarlCraft

I'm redoing my portfolio pretty much, and decided to make a sci-fi scene as the first piece. 

Here is where I am at:

I have a few references I'm looking at. Sometimes for individual parts, some for composition/lighting etc. Mostly it's from the Alien universe, which is the vibe I'm going for.

I should have posted here earlier in the process, as now it's pretty close to being finished, but better late than never. Hopefully some last minute criticism can drop in.

To do list:

• Finish crate (you might see the placeholders at the end of the hallway)
• Finish lighting
• Add more detail (maybe? If yes, what?)
• Add more light sources for (possibility of) more color variation i.e. warning light

Some more shots and individual meshes (taken directly from Substance Painter)







(First time using Substance. It's amazing )

So, any pointers? Anything lacking? Anything seems off? Is it all perfect?

Thanks

Eric Chadwick

This looks great.

My only crit is to get this into a game engine proper, instead of only in SP. Besides the portfolio kudos of using a game engine, you would be able to take advantage of additional fx like rising steam, subtle fogging, etc.

Would be nice to see some wireframes, and texture flats.

Oh and your thread has been added to the banner rotation. We had to attach an image in your first post to get it to work (banners rely on the images being hosted locally). Hope that's OK.

FreneticPonies

Looks very "Aliens" or etc, neat! Definitely agree with @Eric Chadwick just add some particle effects and etc. it it would be done.

CarlCraft

Update:






And here are some wireframes and flats as requested:
Crate -




Wall -




What little I've changed for the scene;

• Figured out how to take high res screenshots
• Added slight fog
• Added final crate
• Added subtle overall light to bright up entire scene

Had some issues with the fog, as it's not working properly with reflective areas. Screenshot below to demonstrate what I'm talking about:

The fog doesn't cover materials that are translucent it seems. Looked it up and doesn't seem like there's a fix (unless someone here would know?)

I will be doing some final final touches before calling this finished. Thanks a lot for the banner and front page feature, awesome stuff

Edit: It seems the entire scene actually got darker looking back at my first post... Might have to do with compression of the screenshot somehow..? I changed how the materials in the scene is set up, might be that... I don't know really. Goes to show it's good to document your work.

Eric Chadwick

Did your latest shot make it into this thread? Or only into WAYWO?

CarlCraft

Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about this thread haha. Posting the full gallery here:






I never figured out the fog problem, but it wasn't a big deal. I'm thinking of turning this into an asset pack for the unity store/unreal marketplace. I'm gonna fiddle around with tileable textures in substance designer now though, so it will have to wait.

Overall I'm happy with how the scene turned out! Long time ago I used UE4, I'm really impressed how fancy it makes everything look.

peanut™

Good work mate, this tells a story  (for small critic: the 3 hoses in the last picture is a bit misplaced)

CarlCraft

Thanks for the feedback. Not sure what you mean by the hoses being misplaced though 

peanut™

CarlCraft said:

Thanks for the feedback. Not sure what you mean by the hoses being misplaced though 

Personal preference but i would have them serpentine along the wall and put tech crates there instead. This would make it more appropriate for walk through.

CarlCraft

Alright I think I know what you mean and it bugs me a bit now aswell, hehe. I think they're fine though, probably would've shoved them close to the wall if anything. Thanks again!

Nuclear Angel

I agree with the hoses, but the scene is just so damn good it really does not matter. Great execution on the texturing, is it all done in substance designer?  

Enderay

looks cool : )

CarlCraft

Thanks guys. I hade never used Substance Painter before so wanted to try it out, ended up using it for all of the objects in the scene. The crate in the last pic was made with painter+designer.

peanut™

Nuclear Angel said:

I agree with the hoses, but the scene is just so damn good it really does not matter. Great execution on the texturing, is it all done in substance designer?  

Yes true, the scene is well executed with good atmosphere and gloomy enough to spike interest.

LuizHD

The composition looks great. I really like it. My only critique is that maybe you should tone down the amount of dirt and damage in it. It`s always better to try telling a story by choosing where to put those kinds of details rather than making them busy with them. But it`s looking amazing.

I hope to see more of this project !

modsoft

Hey man, your environment is looking great! Here's my 2c.
I think your execution is really good but the scene composition could be improved (adding that last 15% or so). You have the big and medium shapes in, but lacking some smaller shapes and some lighting/specular contrast. My other overall comment is that it's OK to put things in shadow, and not see everything at once. It helps to make a focal and suggest space/detail. (I actually like the lighting in some of your earlier shots for this reason) Especially considering that you mentioned Alien as an inspiration, that does this effect really well. More dramatic lighting and shadowing to emphasize the bigger shapes. Put detail in important places and suggest it in others.


In this shot, the red areas I think have repeating elements that could be broken up with small shapes. Think one or two hanging hoses, or small valves/greebles coming out of the ground. Maybe one panel is a hatch to access a crawlspace, etc. The blue area is fighting the focal point of the hallway IMO, having less lights with more important impact could be more interesting. It all looks lit up light a TV show set. Think movie scene instead.


This shot is cool however feels a bit empty. adding some small shapes like i said above, various things on the ground or hanging low, pipes, etc. Look at these two screenshots from Alien (1, 2). There smaller details complete the composition and add realism, but also there's just a little bit and it serves the composition by catching highlights. The roughness of the floor could be higher (a little artistic liberty
) Not sure why the crates are placed where they are? maybe you could setup a small scene where they are clumped next to the shelving like someone was unloading the crates or it they were being brought up from below with some mechanism. Also a few grunge cards/debris meshes placed around could go a long way. More signage wouldn't hurt. Same comments apply to the other shots.
Again just my 2c, I think this is well executed and could benefit from a bit more! Thanks for sharing.

CarlCraft

Thanks for the feedback everyone, and thanks modsoft for short novel I'll keep working on the scene to see what I can improvie

Today I got some work done on it, have a look:


Quite a bit of work went in to the lighting. Darker areas are darker and there are less lights overall. I tried to break up the repetitiveness in the corridor leading to the blue-lit door by adding a different floor (same as the "platform" in the red area). I also made a smaller prop to catch the highlights. Will make a few more of these smaller props for variations sake. One set of hoses are broken, but it's not reallyt noticable. If i choose hoses closer to the cameras they block the blue door at the end of the hallway which sucks. I also broke a lamp for more darkness.

I also tried something different in the "red area". Since I took away the lamp the place got quite dark, so I figured adding glowsticks would make for some interesting lighting sources. I'm not sure if it works out though, can you even tell they're glow sticks? Does it just look weird?

I still need to break up the repetitiveness on the platform in the shot above as well. But overall, is this going in the right direction?

samifira

I can't really tell that they're glowsticks but I think it's a great idea that just needs a little tweaking. If I was to place glowsticks I would place them on the path leading to the door, remove some of the red lighting that lights the path to the door and keep the door that eerie shade of red. It suggets to me that something has gone wrong. The red lights being emergency lights for when the power goes out, the glowsticks being someone trying to find their way in the dark. It would really add to the "story" of the scene and tie well with the Alien theme. Just my thoughts!

modsoft

Your shadowing and low tones are at a good point but you could get the high-end back up in the hallway area (you seemed to have darkened too much globally) raise the intensity just at the focal points for more contrast overall. It's easier to control with spotlights than point lights. I'd be interested to see the lighting setup if you want to share.  There's opportunity for shadowing with the glowsticks or something like these scenes in the Alien game.  Also I meant to say increase the response on the ground in the red area (and the hallway), as in MORE shiny  so you can read the material details from that angle a bit better. Same thing for some of the smaller detail elements (pipes, etc) so they get a nice highlight even though they are in shadow.

I overlayed some lighting and highlight/detail things i might do for this shot:

If you are still looking for suggestions aside from lighting, at this point just think about your three main shots. Add some details in what is close to the camera. In your first shot its the tubes on the ground, you could add more detail or variation. The red hallway could use some details on the floor and fiction elements as to why things are broken/emergency lighting. Overall looking really good. People will look for where you've decided to put detail and how you're drawing attention to it, not that it has to be everywhere

MKAH

Looking great dude! the susbstance work here i awesome!