Mini Environment - Tropical Island

NomadSoul2501

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I had time to work on any personal projects, so I'm very excited to be starting this new environment thread.

It's a small cast away scene made for UDK and Sandbox, and is loosely based on the entrance to the Disney water park Typhoon Lagoon.

I'm still playing around with placement, and most of the models are in an early stage. Let me know of any thoughts and comments.









Thank you for viewing this thread, I'll try to update it on a regular basis.

Cheers,

Snader

This doesn't look like UDK or Sandbox. It looks like Max scanline render with a viewport background. We would also be easier off helping you if we had more information in the form of polycounts, wireframes, texture flats.

With that said, onto the critique:
-You shouldn't use a white background for your leaf textures, it makes the texture was out at the borders.


-Your alpha map also seems to malfunction a bit.
-Leftmost tree is really blocky.
-Your models look to be using too much polies, while they have really little detail.
-Different era's (pirate chest and a modern buoy?)
-Everything is brand new, aside from the boat.
-Composition could use some work.

Mark Dygert

Off to a good start, you have some good lighting and the composition of the first image is great.

I agree about the alpha issue.

I'm also not that excited about the log boarder, it kind of ruins it for me.

I like what Paul did in his DW4 entry.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61796

Or what Waldemar did in his Greed scene.
http://mancubus.cgsociety.org/gallery/667352/

Or what as my my Dom War pedestal.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61565

Or what Randy Bowen does with is full size sculptures.
http://www.bowendesigns.com/images/sculptures/Grey%20Hulk%20St%20M2.jpg
http://www.bowendesigns.com/

NomadSoul2501

Hey,

Thanks for the comments.

Yes, the difference in era is a problem.
As I mentioned the scene is based on the Typhoon Lagoon water park entrance.
The original concept was just the buoy, the rocks, the anchor and the trees, but
I felt the scene was kind of empty so later I added the barrels, the chest and the boat.
That gave the scene a pirate theme, and now the buoy has to go.
The thing is, I feel that the buoy provides a welcome change in height,
so I want to replace it with something era appropriate, but am unsure with what.
A chipped off mast and a tattered sail maybe?

Thank you Vig for the references, I wasn't too happy with the log boarder either,
but was drawing blanks when trying to come up with a better solution.
I really like all four pieces, but have to say that the Greed scene is my favorite so far.

NomadSoul2501

Hi everyone,

Here's a quick update.

The big and obvious change is that the buoy has been replaced
by a more theme appropriate object.
I took snader's foliage tips to heart and reworked the trees.

All the textures are still place holder and some models such as
the barrels and treasure chest are still in an early stage.

Once the models are finalized I will move to UDK and Sandbox.





As always, c&c are most welcome.

Cheers

cholden

That is a much better solution than the logs around the scene, but...
Since this IS an island, why wouldn't you just let it BE an island? Water all around it, you know, the ocean. Then you'll have a nice, natural looking horizon instead of that wretched blurry gravel. And as far as my experience with Sandbox goes, that's pretty much automatic.

Target_Renegade

I agree with Cholden, it seems you're using the pedestal purely for presentation sakes. It looks very promising, nice if it was more believable as a whole environment and not restricted to a circle.

NomadSoul2501

Thanks for the comments.

The sandbox version will probably be an island.
For the UDK I have to see if I can set up a believable ocean shader, if not it'll be the turntable.
Don't worry about the admittedly horrible gravel, its just a generic HDR for lighting purposes in maya and will not make it over in any form to the realtime versions.

NomadSoul2501

Hi everyone,

It's time for another update.
So, the island finally is an island, the modeling is done for the most part
and I'm starting on the textures.

Below, you can find one update from mental ray and two new screens from sandbox.

As always, c&c appreciated.

Electro

Much nicer

Good tools go a long way.

NomadSoul2501

Hi,

Another daily update.
Got some changes done on the ocean shader and got a first pass on the treasure chest.

After my first post, polycounts where requested and now that the models are final I'm happy to oblige. So here goes, in tris:
Anchor 1654
Rock Group 1905
Rock 768
Wall 990
Treasure Chest 1728
Island 2380
Palm A 2448
Palm B 2412
Palm C 2070
Baby Palm A 1890
Baby Palm B 1842
Barrel 2140
Skiff 3062
Mast 6384

And here are the latest updates, including some close-ups.









As always, c&c welcome.

Cheers

chrisradsby

Really nice progress mate, though I feel like something is missing, from what I can see you create some really nice looking stuff. However I feel like there is something missing right now to me the scene feels like a simple gathering of assets/props on a beautiful island.

Something feels off, might be composition or something else I don't really know for sure. Good work though and I'm looking forward to more

mkandersson

I like what you've done and the palm trees are very nice. The texture on the barrel is a bit too noisy though imo and I agree with the above post. If I may suggest, adding a really skinny bearded pirate sitting in the sand with his back against those wooden poles holding a bottle of rum or something and maybe a hammock tied between the trees.

Shogun3d

Scale feels a bit off, footprints feel large compared to surrounding palm, as well as the chest and anchor. Try trying in a reference for some uniformity. Looking much better in the CryEngine!

hawken

Nice scene, I must say I did like the cutout effect on the sea, I would offer the alternative opinion that I liked that cut out better, but must say, the blurry gravel was looking quite bad.

The mast looks like it's from a huge galleon just scaled down. It's out of place.

3D-209

Hey man, looking good. I think everything's a bit too glossy though, most of it looks a bit like wet plastic. I'm sure you'll touch that up as you go along, but it's just the first thing that caught my attention at this stage.

And I agree with the scale of the footprints being a bit funky.

edit: I didn't see the previous post with cryengine shots, it does look better there and less spec-y, so disregard that comment!

NomadSoul2501

Thank you all, for the comments.

I like the idea of the pirate and the hammock. I'll probably add the hammock, but am unsure about the pirate. I haven't done a character in ages, and apart from the technical aspect, it poses a lot of stylistic questions which I was trying to avoid.
The plan now is, to finish this environment and then re-texture it with hand painted textures to get a different feel.
After that I want to use it for light studies, as I feel weak in that department.
I'm planning clear midday sunlight, twilight, and night for maya, UDK and sandbox.

About the materials in maya, so far they are default blinn shaders.
Once all the models and maps are done I will tweak everything and maybe even go to the more expensive mia materials.

Thank you for bringing the baby palms to my attention, SasoChicken.
I will definitely correct that as soon as possible.

Cheers

NomadSoul2501

Hi everyone!

It's been a long time since I found time to work on this piece.
Finally everything has its proper textures and I'm working on lighting in Maya as well as Cryengine. Also I'm putting the scene together in UDK and trying some things there as well.

But for now the latest renders:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

NomadSoul2501

And here are some early shots from UDK.
After a lot of headache and help I got the shader to reflect but I can't add texture information back, the Fresnel node burns the reflection at certain angles and I would like to add more bump to the distortion.

Acumen

I'd still suggest the lighting situation of this picture:
http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/3251/typhoonlagoon005.jpg

It kinda harmonized all the different assets in an at least favorable way.
Also is it just the screenshot or do certain materials have a sharper appearance (the wooden logs) then others (treasure chest and barrels) ?
Moreover the barrel wooden endings have lots and lots of modeled detail that make it look forced randomly in a way. It looks like you tried to hard to make it look natural.
Looks like a huge squirrel had a bite of the barrel, yet the wooden logs are chopped off extremely sharp and straight --> these could have 1-2 visible cracks on the top.

Compositionwise I don't know if the scene developed in the right direction. The very first image had a nice viewpoint and captured a nice amount of different props (take away the buoy )
But now you're on a much bigger scale, with repeating objects in one shot and the assembling of the different objects is just not convincing as an actual island, imo.
I thought it was very clever what you did with the first viewpoint choice. You kinda made me believe it was an actual island with some cool stuff on it, yet I wanted to know what else could be there - it was me wanting to explore more, so to speak.
Whereas now that I can see the entire piece of land, the mysterious part is gone and it's more of a museum/pirate recycling place. It's not a pedestal, neither a full piece of environment and it takes away from the assets you created.

tda

I think sticking with cryengine to show this piece is obviously the way forward, that engine was practically designed to do what you are doing with it. UDK - not so much, personally i think it's a waste of time trying to get this scene working in both editors.

If you really want something nice in UDK for your 'folio, go with something sci-fi?

RustySpannerz

I think you should try and duplicate what you have in CryEngine in the UDK. The UDK image, in my opinion just looks better, but the lighting and other effects that could easily be tweaked in UDK look better in, so far, CryEngine.

Snader

Agreed with rusty, the UDK shots have a lot nicer composition.

NomadSoul2501

Thank you for the extensive critique Acumen.
Good call on the barrels, I'll look into that.

SasoChicken, do you mean the lighting in the MentalRay renders or the UDK ones?
I guess the water is too bright in the MR ones, I'll see what I can do.
Unfortunately I wouldn't have a clue on how to do foam around the island
Any suggestions?

I really like how the materials look in UDK and the new lightmass lighting looks promising as well. If I can figure out how to get a sweet looking ocean shader I'll keep going in UDK but I think I'll put it aside until then and focus more on the time of day settings within the cryengine.

However, as suggested I will use another project for UDK (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79271) The renders are still mental ray as I want to lock down modeling until I take it into UDK

polygunz

First think I noticed was the nice lightning, really tough to get lightning looking this good.


If it wasn't mentioned earlier, the wood on the barrels, chest look too saturated also too dark which conflicts with the mellow soft environment.

Jeff Parrott

Are you plugging a normal map into distortion for your ocean in the UDK version? That will improve the water a ton.

Also increase the contrast in the lighting. It's very flat now.

NomadSoul2501

I'm using two normal maps with paners on them and them adding them together to get the normal and the distort information. Unfortunately they don't seem to be doing much.

I kinda followed this set up for the water:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70509
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=733910

Unfortunately I'm new to UT and cant really follow the logic behind this set-up
Maybe I'll have to start simpler and gradually tie the reflection back in the end.

Thanks for the lighting comment, where do I do that?
Is that a global setting, lightmass or in the light?

NomadSoul2501

Hi,

Can't believe it's been 3 years, but I finally wanted to revisit this.
The scene is still the same but I wanted to work on the in-engine presentation, trying to set it at sunset and work on my water.

I am ready to post some progress but this weird error keeps happening where, when I hit G to hide the actors, the screen will freeze.
Has anyone ever come across this?

Thank you for any help

NomadSoul2501

Nevermind, it was my post processing chain
Now I need to tweak some meshes that are throwing errors when lightmapped and I'll post progress early tomorrow

NomadSoul2501

So, here it is

I tried to get the sunset look that the original cryengine project had, but without it being so overcast. For the water I followed Hamad Al-Hasan's Ocean Shader tutorial and added depth based opacity. You can find part one of four here: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2sl4nxSeqI"]UDK Ocean Shader Tutorial - Part 1: Setup and Foundation - YouTube[/ame]








Please don't hesitate to hit me with c&c

Cheers

Parth

Looking good!
In your third screen it looks like the land ends abruptly. Maybe you can increase the opacity of the water a bit.

NomadSoul2501

Ah, thanks for pointing that out.
The water there gets abruptly deeper, so that it looks cut off.
I'll change the geometry to have a more gradual fall off

SpeedyB

I would consider adding a pirate skeleton sitting/leaning against the treasure chest. I think it would add a neat little story to it.

WadeWT

Really like how the water looks in the third and fourth shots. This improved so much since your first pictures. Really nice work.

Also I'm going to second the skeleton, would make it look perfect. At the very least a bottle of rum somewhere.

NomadSoul2501

Haha, I yield, lol
The next update will have a dead pirate with a rum bottle

Should he maybe have made a small tent between the palm trees?

Unfortunately it might be a while, I'm full steam into my other project again:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1929998#post1929998


Cheers