Back Alley Building [WIP]
polycounter lvl 12
Been working on this lately, any C&C welcome. 3045 tri's. Most everything is 512 textures, except for the brick which is 1024 and some 1:2 ratio textures. The building is BSP with some cut out holes for the windows. Lighting hasn't been built, just UE3 editor screencaps
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Some crits:
1) you definitely need some dirt under windows and under the roof edge.
2) the topmost row of bricks is cut in half by concrete. That is pretty visible so some UV tweak could be good there.
3) Concrete section in front of the gate looks almost like plain gray color. It needs more grunge and maybe some marks (like yellow/black warning lines for example)
4) The scale of metal on the roof above the gate looks a bit off. I think u need to increase tiling.
And just a subjective crit
Your second angle is awesome. Do a diorama type scene from that angle!
Crank up the light pools a bit. They aren't real defined. I'd just clean them up more.
I'd maybe add in a No Parking type sign with red lettering. Just something to work in more color.
Smaller stuff (lights, concrete floor, posts, etc) seem a bit flat and lacking contrast.
Nice start with it though!
- textured the concrete platform
- messed around with lights (seems kinda too dark now)
- did a 2nd pass on some of the textures
- added a concrete road texture
- added a manhole cover decal
still want to do:
- revisit the corrogated metal roof
- add some litter
- model a dumpster
- explore adding grunge decals on building
here are screens from different angles...
some randome prop shots, taken in UE3's mesh editor viewer
The ground where it meets the building needs some details. Maybe a grime layer or something. Also some painted chevron line things on the ground would be super swell too.
I still think the darker brick at the bottom should be a different type/size of brick. It'll just help weigh the building down a bit.
Lighting is better but still needs more contrast. Make the darker areas more dark.
Maybe break some windows to. Make some have a newspaper covering inside or something to vary them up. They all look a bit too uniform.
It's continuing to look really great though.
work a bit on the lighting, perhaps baking it will get you some nice defined shadows.
Looks very nice though. As far as props go, I have an issue about showcasing them via UE3's mesh viewer, purely for lighting purposes. Could serve you better to make a display scene with a nice 3 point light set up for objects which you can use per model. It can just show off your forms/ sillhouetting nicer as well as lighting bake abilitys
- added garbage decals
- added garbage bags
- added some wood boards
- modeled a garbage dumpster (current texture is temporary only)
to do next:
- still want to revisit the corroguted roof
- add more general junk on ground
- texture garbage dumpster
also, lighting has not been built, just a screencap from editor view
The concrete platform looks wieredly smooth. I think there's something to do with smoothing groups.
Second, u need some ambient light. Black spots don't look good.
And the last one, probably just picking, the garbage patch in the middle looks too artificial because it is very concentrated on a small area of concrete. U could spread those papers more.
- textured dumpster
- added a rusty shopping cart
- added cans
- messed around with the lighting
next to do:
- most likely going over the minor things that need to be fixed
Not sure I'm diggin the total metal tops. Though I've seen dumpsters like this, the traditional plastic tops add nice contrast (both in color and material definition) and help build structure. Right now, because the tops are textured the same as the body, it looks as if the entire dumpster was cast out of one metal piece.
I'd also do a bit of leveling on your trash textures. The cans are dark and desaturated, the paper and smashed cup however are much brighter and far too clean / white.
Your earlier prop shots looks good. The light fixture though could really use some edge control in your normal map. The edges look razor sharp and aren't catching any light. In scene, the emissive is far too saturated and 'clean'. Consider some dark spots and gunk on the light and maybe darken the edges on your emmisive mask.
I dig the rollup door. Its got some spec going on which is nice. In the scene I'd concider adding some trim around the door though (over the bricks).
Alright, thats enough for now. Keep at it man.
Cheers,
Tyler
@gamedev: thanks for pointing those things out and you're totally dead on. In particular, I'm having the most trouble with the dumpster spec. In my mind, I really wanted the metal top style, but now that it's modelled and in the scene, it seems a bit odd.
- messed around with lighting
- built lights
- still have some probs with certain textures, will continue working on them
Anyways, it would be nice to add more buildings or keep hammering away at this but I want to move on and take what I learned from this and apply it to a new scene. I know I can do better on my next scene right from the start. I'm also happy to add this as my first finished scene to my portfolio