ya i think you should really stick with the concept and stay with brighter lighting.
i actually quite like the Sam's concepts i never did a scene based off one of this concepts but i have used elements from that concept and a few others in scenes of my own.
Finished baking the rest of my low poly and did a simple lighting test. Not all assets have been light mapped yet, so getting a few shadow issues. But overall I'm pretty happy with it so far
Textured the rest of the wall and ceiling. Changed lighting to be more lit and extended the hall. Left to texture is pillar and doorway. As usual, I'm open to feedback
The assets are well made, and I like your diffuse texturing (even if I think you could make the blue parts two times as saturated or more ).
I have some trouble with focusing. I think you'd gain a lot by just doing a wall variation that is very flat in the texture.. Just a couple of those bright metal plates, same for the ceiling. In fact... The one you have there now could be more used as a variation piece to break up the environment instead.
I also think the scene would gain a lot from some more shadows going on. You could probably easily remove every other light tbh, and try to make the light radius smaller. I thought it worked better as you had it earlier.
Made a one min tweak of a screen.. Not very good, but maybe some ideas.. I'd love to see some slight hint of orange/yellow in there, not much, just a tiny bit
I was going to say, that it feels washed out and too desaturated. It would look real nice with some pop of color (PhillipK has a nice little example there).
I was really digging the pristine and bright look that the first screencap in the thread had. Reminds me of the feel of the Portal games.
Cool piece, looking forward to seeing more of this.
Yeah, definitely go with PhilipK's suggestions! Also, you could add some cool animating overlays on the blue bits in the floor. And holographic floaters here and there to break up the monotone-ness.
You know, bring in some color and variation!
Very cool stuff so far. I'm not a super big fan of busy and clean scifi. I think you could simplify some lines and like PhilipK said push the saturation more. It might be really helpful to do some color paintovers in Phoshop and figured out a really strong, unified color palette for this piece.
Thanks for the quick paintover, PhilipK. I'll give all the suggestions a try and see if I can get something inbetween my first few screens and my darker one. I really want some shadows in. I also agree it needs more color and is a bit too desaturated right now
The texture diffuse looks very sweet but i'm having a hard time reading the image. There are so many lines that my eyes don't know what to focus. Oh and I'd also remove those pillars, they are adding nothing but visual noise!
I went ahead and did two quick paintovers over Philip's one:
I re-opened this scene for fun and one thing lead to another and this is my result. I think I'll make a crate or some sort of prop to fill up the scene a little more. Check it out
Your materials and textures are really really great! This scene has an incredible amount of potential.
So the lighting is washing the scene out alot. Everything in the scene seems to have an even amount of light from the ceiling to the floor. It's ok to have some dark spots in your scene. I know you fight the urge to light it all really brightly to show off the assets, but a scene like this will look much nicer with good lighting. With me I try to create pockets of light, especially with scenes like hallways or doorways. Lighting should also not have anymore than 3 colors (usually), and green is typically synonymous with alien technology. So right now your lighting seems very multicolored and alien.
You have these little coves that could house little pockets of blue light coming from above which would really help give depth to the hallway. They could also rim light the pillars that are sticking out. I would also add that accented yellow color along the path and touching on some of the pillars as well.
Now remember this is just an interpretation and not exact ha.
Hope this helps! WIll look awesome when you start to add props to populate the space!
Nice scene. I love the colors and lighting of the first versions, but I really think there is too much detail and the eye can't rest anywhere. Also, maybe you can work in your shaders and add specular work or even reflections because everything seems a little bit dull for sci-fy.
Oh, and focus in just one main hue would be great. In the last image there is sooo many different colors and lights, so be careful to not get a disco club instead of a sci-fy scene :P
PS: I'm working on a sci-fy scene too and I would love to know how's your pipeline. I wonder what program are you using for doing the highpoly/normal maps, for example. A quick tutorial could be a really good contribution to the community
PS: I'm working on a sci-fy scene too and I would love to know how's your pipeline. I wonder what program are you using for doing the highpoly/normal maps, for example. A quick tutorial could be a really good contribution to the community
Highpoly model in Max, bake out normal and AO maps, then use Photoshop for texturing. I also use Crazy Bump for minor things that I want to add later. Pretty simple and standard pipeline. Should be plenty tutorials online so I won't be making one Glad you like the scene!
Yeah I have to agree with Shogun. I honestly can't stand when people title their work "yet another, just another, or another crappy sci fi blank blank".
Give it some identity, call it something cool or cheesy. It really does add to the quality of work if you title it.
STOP titling your work "yet another sci-fi hallway"
Have some pride in your work. It looks great and you're taking constructive criticism very well with your updates. Great stuff man.
I will from now on, lol!
More lighting adjustments. Added a little more contrast to the lighting and unified my light colors to a blueish hue instead of my previous greenish. I think it's time to make some props
Dont forget not to bow down to every critic or road apple you encounter. With the inner talent you have, your perfectly capable of doing it the way you like it.
Added a light importance volume around my scene which somehow made me lose some of my contrast from my last screenshot. Will have to correct that later on.
Next, I'm going to add some stray wires along the floor and perhaps the ceiling if I can find a good way to fit them.
I agree with ZacD I would add some geo to the floor to make it look less flat.
I also might increase the reflections on the metal bits of the floor a bit more and if you have time maybe some vents with some....gah whats it called. Not smoke but you can see the water vapor coming out like when its cold outside.
I agree with Zac and bio. It's looking great, I like the lighting but the bloom/glares from the upper lights are too distracting to me. Not bad but just a little nitpicky. Keep it up.
Tweaked lighting and bloom. Cut up some more geo the floor, wall and ceiling peices. Adjusted some of my specular maps and just overall sheen of the meterials. I think a few more lighting tweaks and it'll be time to call it done.
This is looking really good! I love how you're willing to iterate and address the critiques. The lighting looks better!
I would still introduce some of the yellow you have on the door, in other parts of the space. For example that texture strip on the ground along the edge of the walkways.
This is looking really good! I love how you're willing to iterate and address the critiques. The lighting looks better!
I would still introduce some of the yellow you have on the door, in other parts of the space. For example that texture strip on the ground along the edge of the walkways.
Thanks a great idea, would give the illusion of it leading you to the door.
Thanks wester. I'm always open to hearing critiques and read every one, even if I don't end up using all of them The yellow strip sounds like a good idea, I'll give it a shot. I think once I'm done with this scene, I'll write up a quick post mortem. It's been interesting coming back to this scene after 2 years
Ta da! Here are my beauty shots and, barring any huge errors, I'm calling it done. Actually, there is one huge error that I couldn't fix... can you notice it? I have a small post-mortem at the bottom
Post-Mortem
Opening this up again after 2 years was quite an experience. Back then, I was very big on "letting the normal map do all the work" so my low-poly was terribly, well, low poly. And at times, it's like I painted myself into a corner when it came time to adding set dress. There just wasn't any where to put them! My choice in concept art 2 years ago, also led to a few frustrating moments when it came to lighting and trying to add colour. When I picked the concept, I liked the repetitive shapes, but once modeled, it didn't translate too well. Luckily, a few of the suggestions in this thread as well as suggestions from friends helped to bring the scene together. But ultimately, the modeled environment stayed close to the concept and I just decided to stick with it.
The difference between when I left off and now is quite large, so what did I learn in 2 years? I think the two big ones were: Lighting and post processing. Lighting in UDK is something I struggle with all the time. I had many iterations and many lightmap issues to solve. On the other hand, messing around with the post-process chain was really fun. Also adjusting the specular power and redoing my specular maps helped improve my material definition
So what is the error that I couldn't fix? The canister/barrel thing has a very messed up light map. Check out my post in the Technical Forum, UDK for pics and if you know how to fix it, please tell me!
Replies
Why is the orc grounded over there, though? Did he do something bad?
Funny you should say that because I was thinking of making it dimly lit, lol
i actually quite like the Sam's concepts i never did a scene based off one of this concepts but i have used elements from that concept and a few others in scenes of my own.
Here are two textures, I'm always open to feedback to help me improve
I also like the fact that, in his image, the hallway is deeper. It probably wouldn't be much work to try this out, as it's all modular.
I have some trouble with focusing. I think you'd gain a lot by just doing a wall variation that is very flat in the texture.. Just a couple of those bright metal plates, same for the ceiling. In fact... The one you have there now could be more used as a variation piece to break up the environment instead.
I also think the scene would gain a lot from some more shadows going on. You could probably easily remove every other light tbh, and try to make the light radius smaller. I thought it worked better as you had it earlier.
Made a one min tweak of a screen.. Not very good, but maybe some ideas.. I'd love to see some slight hint of orange/yellow in there, not much, just a tiny bit
I was really digging the pristine and bright look that the first screencap in the thread had. Reminds me of the feel of the Portal games.
Cool piece, looking forward to seeing more of this.
You know, bring in some color and variation!
I went ahead and did two quick paintovers over Philip's one:
I re-opened this scene for fun and one thing lead to another and this is my result. I think I'll make a crate or some sort of prop to fill up the scene a little more. Check it out
So the lighting is washing the scene out alot. Everything in the scene seems to have an even amount of light from the ceiling to the floor. It's ok to have some dark spots in your scene. I know you fight the urge to light it all really brightly to show off the assets, but a scene like this will look much nicer with good lighting. With me I try to create pockets of light, especially with scenes like hallways or doorways. Lighting should also not have anymore than 3 colors (usually), and green is typically synonymous with alien technology. So right now your lighting seems very multicolored and alien.
You have these little coves that could house little pockets of blue light coming from above which would really help give depth to the hallway. They could also rim light the pillars that are sticking out. I would also add that accented yellow color along the path and touching on some of the pillars as well.
Now remember this is just an interpretation and not exact ha.
Hope this helps! WIll look awesome when you start to add props to populate the space!
Oh, and focus in just one main hue would be great. In the last image there is sooo many different colors and lights, so be careful to not get a disco club instead of a sci-fy scene :P
PS: I'm working on a sci-fy scene too and I would love to know how's your pipeline. I wonder what program are you using for doing the highpoly/normal maps, for example. A quick tutorial could be a really good contribution to the community
Highpoly model in Max, bake out normal and AO maps, then use Photoshop for texturing. I also use Crazy Bump for minor things that I want to add later. Pretty simple and standard pipeline. Should be plenty tutorials online so I won't be making one
Have some pride in your work. It looks great and you're taking constructive criticism very well with your updates. Great stuff man.
Give it some identity, call it something cool or cheesy. It really does add to the quality of work if you title it.
I will from now on, lol!
More lighting adjustments. Added a little more contrast to the lighting and unified my light colors to a blueish hue instead of my previous greenish. I think it's time to make some props
Added a light importance volume around my scene which somehow made me lose some of my contrast from my last screenshot. Will have to correct that later on.
Next, I'm going to add some stray wires along the floor and perhaps the ceiling if I can find a good way to fit them.
I also might increase the reflections on the metal bits of the floor a bit more and if you have time maybe some vents with some....gah whats it called. Not smoke but you can see the water vapor coming out like when its cold outside.
Either way can't wait to see it finished man!
I would still introduce some of the yellow you have on the door, in other parts of the space. For example that texture strip on the ground along the edge of the walkways.
Thanks a great idea, would give the illusion of it leading you to the door.
Post-Mortem
Opening this up again after 2 years was quite an experience. Back then, I was very big on "letting the normal map do all the work" so my low-poly was terribly, well, low poly. And at times, it's like I painted myself into a corner when it came time to adding set dress. There just wasn't any where to put them! My choice in concept art 2 years ago, also led to a few frustrating moments when it came to lighting and trying to add colour. When I picked the concept, I liked the repetitive shapes, but once modeled, it didn't translate too well. Luckily, a few of the suggestions in this thread as well as suggestions from friends helped to bring the scene together. But ultimately, the modeled environment stayed close to the concept and I just decided to stick with it.
The difference between when I left off and now is quite large, so what did I learn in 2 years? I think the two big ones were: Lighting and post processing. Lighting in UDK is something I struggle with all the time. I had many iterations and many lightmap issues to solve. On the other hand, messing around with the post-process chain was really fun. Also adjusting the specular power and redoing my specular maps helped improve my material definition
So what is the error that I couldn't fix? The canister/barrel thing has a very messed up light map. Check out my post in the Technical Forum, UDK for pics and if you know how to fix it, please tell me!
LOL.
This is looking sweet man!