UDK WIP - Space Station Dock - Need advice!
polycounter lvl 6
Hello!
Long-time lurker, first time poster here. I'm hoping to use this thread for advice and critique on this scene.
This production has a deadline 12th January, so over the next 9 days I'll be updating this thread with developments.
This image was created within 3dsmax, with some minor post work done in Ps. I'm in the process of translating this scene into UDK. As a quick note: I didn't create the background plate, I found it on the internet.
Brief goals:
All assets within UDK, detailed to an acceptable level.
Physical planet w/ atmosphere & clouds
Star field in background with nebula and twinkling stars
post processing to include DOF, vignette, colour correction
Here's a couple pics of the scene:
I'm still importing the models for the scene, I can handle that okay. What I really need is advice on how to light the level. As you can see from the 3dsmax image, the star behind the planet is the dominant light source, with smaller lights within the space dock illuminating the details. How best should I represent the sun?
Should I create a sphere mesh and use a texture that lights the level?
Should I be using point, spotlight, or dominant directional?
Also I'm thinking about how best to represent the planet. My current mode of thinking is using tiled mix maps and vertex painting to paint in the oceans, perhaps I can vary the land by adding another mix map to paint in mountains or forest?
Any help is greatly appreciated
Long-time lurker, first time poster here. I'm hoping to use this thread for advice and critique on this scene.
This production has a deadline 12th January, so over the next 9 days I'll be updating this thread with developments.
This image was created within 3dsmax, with some minor post work done in Ps. I'm in the process of translating this scene into UDK. As a quick note: I didn't create the background plate, I found it on the internet.
Brief goals:
All assets within UDK, detailed to an acceptable level.
Physical planet w/ atmosphere & clouds
Star field in background with nebula and twinkling stars
post processing to include DOF, vignette, colour correction
Here's a couple pics of the scene:
I'm still importing the models for the scene, I can handle that okay. What I really need is advice on how to light the level. As you can see from the 3dsmax image, the star behind the planet is the dominant light source, with smaller lights within the space dock illuminating the details. How best should I represent the sun?
Should I create a sphere mesh and use a texture that lights the level?
Should I be using point, spotlight, or dominant directional?
Also I'm thinking about how best to represent the planet. My current mode of thinking is using tiled mix maps and vertex painting to paint in the oceans, perhaps I can vary the land by adding another mix map to paint in mountains or forest?
Any help is greatly appreciated
Replies
All assets within UDK, minus one or two perhaps.
If anyone could help me with the questions in my first post, regarding lighting settings, or if anyone has any general crits or comments, please feel free get involved.
otherwise you could play around with a sphere mesh that has emmisive, and turn the bloom up.
EDIT:
and to critique your first image: you draw the viewers eye away from your work. Its all the same color and texture (or close) so the eye is lead outside to something someone else did.
I think you should try emphasizing what is inside, what you spent the most time on.
The spacecraft also looks to big/From the first photo you also cant really tell that its on a crane and it looks offscale to the landing ramp below which seems out of scale compared to the ship.
Theres alot of work in here but you just cnt see it its to dark and uncolorful.
Builder_Anthony: the landing pad is supposed to be for smaller craft, while the larger one is repaired from the crane. I know this looks a bit confused right now, so I might model a smaller ship if I get time. I don't really want to alter the scale of the ship, because it's already been UV'd and the texel resolution has been normalised with the scene.
I'm getting this weird shadow atrifact on some of my meshes. Any ideas what this is? It has a set of unique UVs for lightmaps.
Large update tomorrow!
This is the star field / skybox, the stars twinkle in game
Not sure how much further I should take this, think it looks pretty much fine for my purposes, plus I have around *gulp* 50 meshes to texture in about a week.
I hope this image isn't stupidly large and breaks some tables and offends some folks! let me know if there's a problem mods please.
great work so far. the station looks so much better than when you had it in 3dsmax. the texture quality is more crisp, the lighting feels more natural, and it just plain looks cool. nice job
nice work though keep it up
I'm going to echo that the stars seem overdone - maybe also reduce the texture scale (in addition to removing some)?
Here's a paintover of some prospective changes.
Not sure of the realism level you're going for, but stars shouldn't twinkle in outer space.
But hey if it looks cool and you're going for that sci-fantasy look then keep it.
I've tried to open this up with more lights, which will hopefully allow you to see the forms better. Bloom, DOF and colour correction have been tweaked too. I've added a character whose form you can see on the ship wing. strangely though, he's not casting a shadow on the wing, though a dynamic spotlight is focused on him. If you have any crits or comments, I sincerely welcome them.
Thanks
Also I am assuming the back of the shuttle should be in shadow? The flat orange is feels odd to me.
Also I added a force field thing to the bay opening. you know to keep the space out when needed haha. Keep it up.
Why don't you define key light first, decide it's characteristics (warm, cool, diffused, sharp) and use it as unifying element that ties everything together and gives nice light/shadow separation. Then add those sharp spotlights selectively to fill ambient or add accents here and there.
I'll look into modifying the lighting this week. Here's a modular section bonus shot to keep things a bit more interesting. Thanks very much for the crits and comments.
There is a lot of tiling in the scene as a whole, but that's one of the sci fi aspects done so well here. At the same time, I do feel is was broken up a bit more. Worst offender easily being the second image where composition is poor with no focal point and tiling everywhere making you go crazy.
Love the lighting.
You need to get clearer images or change your lighting and remove post processing. It's hard to tell which is the real culprit though.
I second third and fourth this, one thing that is crucial is details and how they lead the eye, it's obvious that from this camera angle that the scenes focal point is in fact the light coming over the planet, that forcefeild obscures that and makes it just look damn cluttered, the level of detail and distractions is too great.
Remember, less is more. For example,you have lights all over the place, they just clutter the scene, the high frequency of detail in the textures is distracting, you need to pick and choose what does and doest, just like a photo, there need to be focal points.
The materials seem very similar, and lacking interest, for example the ship holder thing, looks exactly like the ship, I didn't even see it, make the ship out of smoother metals, make it more reflective and brighten up the scene a bit. The same goes for object placement, think hard about composition, unless it's for playing, the feel of this image and scene is important.
The planet is awesome, but rememeber, those stars are SO dense and distracting, it detracts from the focal point that is the planet.
Overall I'd say just work on the textures some more and spend more time on them.