"Altar Ruins" [UE4]

Tetranome

Hey Polycount, I've been working on an Unreal 4 scene based on this concept for the past couple months now. I've got one month left to reach the finish before summer hits so that I can use it in my next demo reel! I'm trying to hit a realistic style somewhat realistic style and include a variety of surfaces/props to test and show my material knowledge.

Concept:
The Sanctuary' by AlynSpiller

Final Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peYzhgcCa2Y

To-do:

• Create wall mounted torch
• Create standing torch
• Edit fire particle system to fit light fixtures
• Tweak door's wood textures (looks great in Quixel, not so great in Unreal)
• Texture main arch
• Tweak ceiling bricks textures
• Add roughness map to grates
• Texture step underneath grates
• Redo entrance-way (The general shape is a bit too chubby)
• Tweak marble tiles near entrance-way
• Texture ceiling rafters
• Tweak statue model (female cloth doesn't resemble males. male's beard isn't interesting enough)
• Texture statue
• Dirty/destroy marble & glyph
• Add more sand/rubble piles
• Edit fountain shape
• Texture fountain
• Fix mirror functionality
• Re-texture pillars and trim
• Texture dome
• Create curtain 
• Retexture floor tiles (currently stylized looking. oops)

Thanks for looking guys and if you have any suggestions/critiques they are much appreciated!

Nathan3D

Really like the door nice work thre is something about the small window that is a bit off though not sure what it is but

Tetranome

Thanks dude! I think I should add some sort of fasteners to it, so maybe have some little plates extend off the window guard pieces... because right now it's almost like the guard is just hammered in there. I guess that would also add some nice small details to that area for additional eye candy!

Does anybody have any suggestions for some material to research for the main walls/pillars material? Can't tell if it's slate or concrete, or something else entirely!

RasmusBagner

Hello there. The door looks nice but the normal dents are very strong and repeat a bit too much on larger sufaces that are flat. try going into the dynamask and edit it a bit. As for the difference from quixel to ue4, try using the Ue4 hdri. there is as far as i remember also a ue4 preset in the render tab.

Tetranome

Yeah that's some good advice Rasmus, thanks. Actually! - I'm flattered you think it was done with dDo haha. I textured it all in Photoshop and just used 3Do for easy live preview. I will look at editing my masks

Leinadien

I know it's a thing to combine blue and red because apparently they compliment each other, but personally I'm not a huge fan of it. I would tone down the blue light in the scene, seems a bit intense and to be coming from nowhere. But that is just my personal preference, keep up the good work. :pleased:

Tetranome

Leinadien I was actually playing with lights last week, trying out some more orange/purples. Might take a shot at that colour combo without making it too overwhelming. Thanks for pointing out the cliche!

Tetranome

Hey guys, been putting a lot of work into this project recently. Not tooooo much left to fit in. A few textures need reworking too.
Any thoughts?

I'm reworking a couple of textures, and I think this new slate material is coming across a lot better.

Tetranome

New shots! Adding a couple things and tweaking. Temporary hardware limitations only allowing me to get some low quality preview shots unfortunately
C&C welcome

FreneticPonies

Nice job modelling, but the red and blue lighting are going way too heavy on the saturation. Notice that the concept has a lot more subtlety to it.

Tetranome

Thanks man, you're right - I've pushed the saturation back now.
Any materials really sticking out as needing another pass? 

FreneticPonies

Just the stones/bricks on the column here:

Why are they so shiny?

Tetranome

Good question! Better?

Tetranome

Updated lighting and atmosphere, added a couple little particle FX too! Just a couple tweaks left

Tetranome

Flythrough! Any thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f26EANgRumI

Leinadien

Doesn't an object appear more saturated the more light that is shone upon it, it's the light that gives the object it's color so in a dim enviroment  like your ruins I think that even with torches there wouldn't be too much color. Unless you're going for a surreal look to your enviroment I also think the color of the flame would have to change. Here I made what I think is a more realistic color scheme, maybe you could adjust it to be a bit more realistic. Other than the colors I think it looks really cool.

wester

I would first off say that the biggest offender is probably the lighting.  Your choice of warm to cool comes off purple.  I feel like that hurts the mood.  Lighting is made creatively to lead the audiences eye.  What in this piece would you want to be the focal point?  My eye kind of jumps around alot on this piece with no real focal point.  Warm to cool doesn't always necessarily mean orange to blue.  

A good practice is to grab a shot from a movie, or a photograph from a cinematographer or photographer (even a video game) that you feel captured the mood you want, and try to imitate that, or atleast use that as a jumping off point. 

snoop

Leinadien said:

Doesn't an object appear more saturated the more light that is shone upon it, it's the light that gives the object it's color so in a dim enviroment  like your ruins I think that even with torches there wouldn't be too much color. Unless you're going for a surreal look to your enviroment I also think the color of the flame would have to change. Here I made what I think is a more realistic color scheme, maybe you could adjust it to be a bit more realistic. Other than the colors I think it looks really cool.

I think this is good advice. Before reading your post, I thought you were the OP showing two different color schemes, and was going to comment that the second one, where the lights are orange, looks significantly better. 

supersnakelx

Is that Skyrim's steel battleaxe? lol

Nice work!

Benvox2

I really like the small particle effects you have scattered around. If you are still looking for crits; The gold thing in the center looks too clean/perfect for something on the floor in a slightly beat up environment. I agree the lighting does not seem realistic, but it does give it a very stylized look. The axe and magical feeling makes me think maybe a realistic look is not what you are going for to start with?

mrgesy

Looks great but the problem is your lighting lacks color contrast and the mood is off. Comparing it to the concept, I prefer the blueish lighting. The reason the concept looks great is because there is a warm torchlight on the wall to contrast with the cool blues, and these blues have a relaxing, calm mood to them. While yours has orange lights fighting with a purple atmosphere. Otherwise nicely made assets!

Tetranome

@Leinadien Yeah, this project pushed on a lot longer than I had hoped, and so my initial aim for this realistic atmosphere/style was sort of warped over time. When I was trying out some new lighting settings I stumbled upon this purple, dreamy/ethereal feel and thought it worked - but there's been a pretty big response to the lighting setup aha, so I will certainly try and take all this advice into account and at least move towards something more realistic. Most of the purple is coming from my fog settings - as my lights are mostly cool blues and warmer oranges. I was reading another feedback thread where people were saying the artists fog settings were washing out the scene and removing contrast, and I think I may have made the same mistake. Thanks for the continued support dude!

@wester Yeah you're definitely right. I remember watching a Sycra video on Youtube and he said the same thing about warm & cool colours - that being that it doesn't just mean red/blue. However, I guess with the concept being blue/red I tried to stick to it somewhat, but then through trial and error found some other moods/atmospheres I wanted to explore. Your advice of picking an existing image to at least guide the atmosphere and lighting is something I will certainly use in the future. Overall my planning on this project was pretty lacking, so I've been making notes on questions to ask myself during the pre-production of my next piece.
The issue of the unclear focal point stems from my initial aim to use this scene as a sort of demo playground for my demo reel rather than a set art piece. I sort of wanted to show off different skills, materials and models which is why I try and draw the eye to a bunch of different places - which ends up in a muddled feel as you say. Thanks for the feedback, it's given me a lot to think about for my next project, and also some stuff to correct with this one.

@snoop Thanks for the input snoop! I'll be tweaking the lighting/mood.

@supersnakelx Haha yes it is! Really like the carvings and general style, so I decided to remake it - with a bit of a size upgrade! Thanks for the kind words.

@Benvox2 Thanks dude! Learning a couple particle fx tricks is super fun, and has a really nice payoff at the end of the day. I want to continue to look into cascade stuff as I think I'm only scraping the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, it's way too clean, you're right. I should go back and dirty it up a bit - it was one of the first things I made in the scene. 
I was sort of pushing the dreamy, ethereal mood, but the general feedback is pointing towards it not working out. I think I'm going to try and find a bit of a stylized/realistic balance!

@mrgesy Appreciate the comments and kind words. I'm going to give a shot at relighting and changing the mood to be closer to the concept - as you guys are totally right in that the purple is sort of drowning everything else out. Tweak time! 

I really appreciate the response guys, can't wait to wrap this up and start applying for some junior positions!

Benvox2

@Tetranome No problem man, I think the particles add a lot to the overall scene. Do you have or know of any good tutorials to get the look you have? I want to get into a few UE4 particles myself. Cheers

Tetranome

For the fog particle I just went and looked at what they were doing in the Unreal demo maps. The fountain fog itself is similar but uses a vector field generated in Maya.
For fire I followed the ImbueFX tutorial for UDK and then there's a little pupdate video for UE4.
The water coming from the fountain was just trial and error - same with the falling dust/glowing particles.
I'd say just search Youtube for what you want to achieve and you'll find something! Once you learn a couple of particle methods you start to use knowledge from each in new systems - and thats when the fun begins.

Oh! And for the atmospheric fog etc I just read this article and then messed with things. Definitely give this a read - it's pretty inspiring and helpful too!
https://80.lv/articles/joel-zakrisson-creating-contrasting-moods-in-ue4/
Good luck ^_^

Tetranome

Whipped up a couple breakdown shots of some assets. I'm away from my main desktop right now so I can't relight the scene just yet - but really keen to take all of this feedback and run with it.

Tetranome

Back after a longgg break. Here's the relit, final

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peYzhgcCa2Y