[STAGE] King of Fighters XII, FRANCE, s2engine
polycounter lvl 10
MOST RECENT WIP SHOT:
Figured I'd take a stab at this one.
King of Fighters XII, haven't played it or many fighters really, but this image jumped out at me as I was searching.
Plans for re-imagining are focused on a dieselpunk aesthetic at present. I'm sure the inspirations will shift throughout the course of the project, and I'll update this first post to reflect that as time goes on.
Figured I'd take a stab at this one.
King of Fighters XII, haven't played it or many fighters really, but this image jumped out at me as I was searching.
Plans for re-imagining are focused on a dieselpunk aesthetic at present. I'm sure the inspirations will shift throughout the course of the project, and I'll update this first post to reflect that as time goes on.
Replies
Hahaha me too. Thanks for all the well-wishes guys! So today was a never ending slog through the internets and some books for reference collection. Amassing a pretty solid chunk of pixels, so that'll come in handy going forward. Unfortunately that also meant getting less work done today than I had planned, but hopefully I can play catchup tomorrow after work. Anyway, reference moodboard #1:
I'll probably make more of these as I continue to gather reference over the course of the project. Helps me really focus each time I re-analyze the direction, rather than just making one in the beginning and not updating it. I'm hoping to make a very cheerful, playful, and festive atmosphere in the midst of oppressive living conditions.
This is a really quick asset test in UDK, just checking out how some of the blockout primitives are working. It's really just a tease; it has little relation to the final composition I'm working out.
More developed/useful blockouts to come tomorrow.
Too long no update! Well now that I have successfully downloaded the internet as reference (no small feat at < 96kbps
1) Does anyone have any character models that are scaled properly to UDK, ideally something from Unreal, that I could steal? The 96-unit-tall box just isn't doing it for me anymore.
2) Is there any easy way to setup a camera for the play mode of UDK specifically for 16:9 resolution? I realize it captures based on screen res, but I'm looking also to get it set to a fixed viewpoint so that I can always be sure it'll render the same.
3) Lighting is very very rough obviously (not even baked), but the direction in general doesn't feel entirely dieselpunk to me yet. Maybe I'm just too used to the "moody overcast" look and need to find more varied inspirations there. I'd really like to keep the bright and colorful feeling of the original stage in the main arena area, while pushing the background areas to be more dreary. Any suggestions on how to go about that? I'm wondering if I'll be needing to mess with fog or post-process volumes/etc.
2. in editor, pressing ctrl+1 (or ctrl+2, or 3 etc.) saves that camera angle, and pressing 1 (or the appropriate number) returns you to it! Just like an RTS! There is a camera actor and a little bit of kismet love will set it up, but I have no idea how to off the top of my head right now! (let me know if you find a good link!)
3. fog is a good start but post processing is even better. I can't recommend a specific free tutorial as I've been using the eat 3d UDK lighting and post processing DVD all day, but it's not much of a stretch (and fairly well documented) to set up a post processing chain that would make brightly lit areas bright and light blue, whilst shadow areas are desaturated and orangey brown.
Haha, your actually asking all the questions I was asking myself earlier today! So I'm not a massive help, but hopefully that should get you started.
edit: to answer 3 a bit more, if you look at your references theres alot of light, bright, sunlight with warm reddish-brown diffuse colours. If you follow Tekkonkinkreet as an example it's a very run down city but created using a very warm and saturated palette.
1.) Yeah, I use the skeletal mesh in UDK, but I want to export something like that out as geometry to test against in Maya. I've tried a couple of export methods but whenever I import the file it always ends up empty. I did see JordanW's brush man, that made me LOL when I saw it. I agree about it not looking as out of place as some of the characters, but it's a little tough to imagine certain heights; things like proportions for a chair or a table, etc etc. Doors and walls aren't too bad, but it's those details where I feel like I can lose proper sense of proportion when working off of something like a block.
2.) I love the bookmarking system for the editor, it saves my life when I'm working there. I want something that's like the bookmarks but in the play mode where I can render out tiledshot. I was thinking of going the camera actor/kismet route, but since I've never done it I wasn't sure if it'd be exactly what I need. I'll give it a try though and let you know!
3.) Man, I actually have that DVD too, but haven't watched it in months. I completely forgot about it! Thanks for the reminder, I will check that one out again. It sounds like post-processing would be the way to go, so once I get my composition more worked out I'll spend some time to nail that. And good point on the reference color palettes. Gonna have a play with that as well, hopefully my next update will have some of that down better.
I'm a little worried about the composition, mainly as a result of the camera angle; the fact that I need to label these objects, and they're mostly kinda awkward to see makes me think it's not reading well. Maybe I need to push and exaggerate proportions based on the final view? I'd love any insight anyone has here!
I know its alot of extra work but it would be interesting to see into the right restaurant/store aswell. Kinda like the fight could spill over into it.
Worthy entry for sure!
I thought your avatar was a beer glass at first
I'm mostly satisfied with this as a blockout, and I'll probably adjust composition as I begin working up the assets. I think next on the agenda is texture and material tests.
Lots of new reference. Found some great winspiration in Cannabis Works by Tanaka especially.
If you're just asking how I'm going to manage to get it all done, I guess you're asking the wrong person :poly124: But really, although it might be hard to tell in the blockout, there are a lot of assets that are intended to be instances or variations of each other, so I'm counting on heavy, smart re-usage of objects and textures.
First highres models, started with the umbrella. Reused the base of the umbrella for the table as well.
Just a suggestion,
I noticed that you do pipeline passes for the whole scene consecutively. Which could be more comfortable at times, but in the long run could end up not so productive. I suggest you make one finalized asset as a sort of benchmark. Because some ideas down the pipeline might require you to go back and tweak the model or the highpoly. If you goo all the way with a single asset you'll be aware of this stuff and won't have to redo all the assets in case something down the pipeline requires you to.
And yeah, love those windows:)
keep it up!
EDIT: Was going to wait for moar, but d1ver convinced me otherwise. Here's the first "finished" asset, a cardboard box:
Yeah not the most exciting object I know, but it was a nice simple mesh I could really play around with in texturing.
@Karl Stjernberg - Thank you muchly! I'm planning on referencing a few people in the scene, more through propping than actual character models. I may yet keep one though...I guess it'll depend on what remains from the polybudget.
@fearian - Coming little by little! Next update should be much more fleshed out I hope, got a ton of little prop models just waiting to be painted on.
@blot12345 - Thanks, yeah I'm trying to make it fresh while still retaining the spirit. It's a tough balance given the stylistic choices I made in the beginning, but I'm just going to keep at it until it works out!
@r4ptur3 - Can't beat the box!
The texturing style is nice, my only suggestion would be "highlight the edges". No matter how painterly you get, make sure that things read the best they can. Not much stuff with hard edges here, but the floor is mainly what I'm talking about. You have blurry shadows in between the tiles and that's it. You can make them pop a lot more if you add contrasting highlights.
Also the painted shadows on the tablecloth might be a tad too much. At least it's very noticeable with the foreground table - the shadows depth doesn't match the volume. You can brighten it up a bit or you could spare a hundred tris and make the foreground tablecloth fold properly.(at least along the edge).:)
Anyway I'm loving this.)
Oh, and just another quick idea: I think it would look cool if you'd have some steam blowing out of a broken pipe somewhere.(I could be wrong though)
One more angle to make up for my slacking.
@Keen - Thanks man, that means a lot! Loved your Beat Em Up.
@Andrew - You're very right about the highlights. Sad thing is, I had a highlight layer I'd hidden and forgot to turn on before exporting, haha. Hopefully it's looking better now. Tried to tone down the shadows on the table as well, I think I'll add geometry though. And yep, tons of broken stuff will be coming in shortly. Good call on the steam, that might look really awesome if I can paint it properly. EDIT - Where're your Brawl updates, by the way? I was looking forward to that one!
Damn, those are nice colors! Loving the mess also:)
I'm pretty sure that your smoke will be finre and just incase there's always the polycount wiki and google with links to good tutorials.)
Not much to crit so far - keep it up. Just don't go overboard with color variety and go all double rainbow like some dumbasses do.)
[size=-1]Oh, one thing that I'm sorry I didn't mention earlier, is that stylized scenes are cool and stand out, but if you're gonna use this piece to look for a job you might considering adding a touch of realism there, since that's what people are looking for mostly. I mean, it's completely your call here but it's just something worth considering.[/size]
cheers!
Hope you finish it
+1 :thumbup:
And yeah, I fully agree with you about realism for portfolio, and it was something I wrestled with quite a bit as I was initially deciding on the style. I'd like to get the materials looking realistic, and that's something I'll be working on in the next few days. But if it doesn't turn out that way, I'm not going to be too upset if it's not a prime portfolio piece. It was really difficult to make that decision for sure.
@mkandersson - Wow, thanks man! But have you been looking at the same scenes I have? :poly124: I kid I kid. But now that you say that, I have to finish! (there are some other great ones I didn't get to link there too obviously!)
@Kokoff - Thanks! I'm not much of a fine artist so it's been a steep learning curve, but exciting and fun new workflow!
@Hristo Rusanov - Thanks as well! Your scene is going to be killer, so stoked for that one!
Ignore the floating pipe, need to add the hanging clamps next :poly124:
Keep it up!:)
here my proposal:
- a big large shadow from the ceiling (avoid the line on the same angle as your tiling would be great)
-or do a differente pattern just for the middle
i did a paint over, for show my vision, i hope you dont mind
The variety of color and balance of the scene is great. Are the two screenshots shown above the ones you plan on submitting?
Let me just point out a couple things I've noticed, some of which has already been mentioned above.
-The main tiled floor seems a bit plain at the moment. I think it could use some variety and maybe push the normal map a bit.
-The table clothes each have some grey/black tones to it. It seems a bit out of place. I'm thinking darker or more rich versions of the base color (blue or red) would add to it.
-Pipe and clutter placement is great, loving it.
-The leaves/vines seem to have a lot more detail than the rest of the assets. It would look a touch more cohesive with the same painterly look as the rest of the scene.
@Kokoff - I don't mind the paintover at all, in fact I greatly appreciate it! I'm going to try to get some breakup in there definitely, and the shadow approach is a good one. Hopefully should have something with that also this weekend.
@DLoud - Yes I agree about the tile floor, I've had in my head an idea for some vertex painting to break it up for awhile now. I started trying to build the material last night and I ran into a lot of snafus, so I think I'm going to simplify it quite a bit, but in the end it should provide some much-needed visual breakup. Good point on the tables, I'll try that out. And yeah, those leaves are totally placeholder, just a really quick and rough job from some photosourcing so I can get an idea of the overall composition. They are tweaked to about the color values I want, but will be completely replaced by some handpainted stuff shortly.
@JordanW - Thanks man, loving your scene as well. Not totally sure what you mean about aliasing, is it pixellation you're seeing? That might be due to heavily over-sharpening my textures to bring out the brush strokes. Here's a part of the floor tile texture, is this the aliasing you mean?
Thanks for all of the crits folks, sorry my replies come late, but it's really helping out a ton!