This is fantastic! Great texturing. I was wondering, how do you determine measurements for non prop pieces when thinking of modularity? Do you use a particular system of units?
Just finished the apartments section on that back building. Going to start up the building to the left. All of the bricks are starting to seem the same color so i'm going to make that next building quite red with a little convenient store at the bottom. Found some sweet reference for that and should look really cool.
I also put together some background buildings. I'm not sure i agree with the tallest white one. I'll try a couple more and see where it stands.
Excellent work. This scene will be stunning by June. I really do like the period setting. More elements to fill the street such as newspaper stands would look good or some streamliner cars
Thanks guys!
Yeah i am seriously just SO ready to do some props to populate this scene, make it look more lived in. I have a list of props i am anxiously waiting to put in! I'll hopefully start those soon.
Had to take a small break from this scene for a while, but I'm back at working on it in my freetime.
Added that last building, as well as the sky dome. I'm going to move onto the water towers.
From the reference i've gathered the water towers are made out of wood which goes against what i've always thought them to be made of (metal). I'm going to keep looking for reference but all the ref i can find so far shows them madeout of wood, especially during this time period.
I make watertower! I might rearrange the background buildings alittle to help with the composition. Maybe moving that white sky scraper alittle to the left to fill in that little hole.
Next up plants and hanging clothes and thinking about what i'm goign to do about that obvious tiling texture on that back alley wall.
Really like the scene!
The brick work on the main buildings has cement at the bottom. Is that just vertex blending or is it something else??? If it is vertex blending did you have to add more polys to get it to look nice?
And did you vertex paint the pavement in the end? Is it just around the doors?
To break up the wall on the barber shop in the background you could try a painted sign on brick, like this
Love it! Keep up the good work!!
Finished up some of the potted plants in the scene. I'll probably make one more viney potted plant to add more of an organic element to the scene. The foliage is already adding so much life to it, but i think some viney plants would be perfect.
salacious_Crumb : Yeah the cement on the bottom of the bricks are vertex blending. Yeah i added alittle more geometry so that it can support the vertex blending. The pavement is actually a dirt decal that i duplicated in front of the door and around the barrells to really ground everything. Thanks for the help! I'm going to take your suggestion on the painted sign on the brick. That would be perfect!
Liking it a lot! nice work so far. One thing I am noticing is the thin brick building next to the apartment building has some fairly noticeable repetition. Maybe thought something on that side and break it up a bit
CandyStripes05 I will not be doing a night time scene haha. I've been working on this scene for way too long and am ready to move on after i finish it.
aajohnny Yeah i'm goig to add a painted sign ontop of the bricks to break up that noticeable tileable texture. Marchwarden Yeah when i finish it up i'll surely post some texture flats.
Adding some hanging clothes. I'm not crazy about them right now. I think those two dresses are pretty distracting. But i also think it might just be because they're the only vibrantly colored objects in this scene. They might not pop so much once i start adding in more signage into the scene with reds and yellows.
photobucket's being a jackass today for some reason.
Added the last of the signs, trashcan, blockout for the billboard, and the blockout for the cars. Going to add some debris, finish that back billboard, manhole covers, stop light, cars then call it done.
Maybe getting alittle noisy so i'll probably stop with the prop population. Going to add man hole covers, paint lines in the road for the lanes, and then model up the car and call it done.
Looking great. Will you be considering a blend material on the road to reduce the tiling in the texture and to add interest ? With the road lines and man hole covers added it'll be a strong piece.
Nice scene! I'm no expert, but I'll put my two cents in.
The assets are looking great, but I think that the ground (road,sidewalk) stops this enviro to be amazing. Scatter that garbage near the bin, add some dirt and cracks to the sidewalk and the road, and add some paper decals, things that people usually throw on the ground, because at this stage it looks too "clean", like if nobody have walked on that street. Some small pebbles would work great also.
Anyways, you've done a good job so far, I'll follow this thread.
nathdevlin: Yeah i'll be relying on decals and manhole cover to hopefully break up the visible tiling in the texture. Going to add cracks, painted lines and what not using decals.
maverickhornet: Thanks!
riot: Yeah i'll definitely be adding some cracks on the sidewalk and road.
Awesome work man, I plan on working on a similar scene soon and this has been very inspiring for me, all saved to its own inspiration folder! I look forward to seeing it finished
Just playing with cracks and oil stains on the street. Also took some time to do a quick smoke effect for the manhole cover. Not sure if i like it or not. Since i've been staring at it for awhile tonight i'll take another look in tomorrow and see if i like the smoke or not.
I was really liking this scene- but some recent additions I think have taken it down a bad path. (bad might be too strong of a word, but I`m keeping with it for dramatic effect) :P
I understand that your going for a heavy feeling of it being lived in, thus all the clothes lines, and trash- but I feel like the building facades are begining to look over worked, and busy. I much prefer what you have going on back at this point. I think its mostly the clothes that add a bit too much noise, mucking up the already complex silhouette information of the fire escapes and their shadows.
The trash bits seem a bit much too. I think its awesome they have so much volume, but I think some fineness towards more varied distribution would go along way. everything is so clean, then gets really trashy in these little concentrated pockets.
The street needs a gutter of some sort. Also some decal work that speaks to how the street is used in the middle, and more grimey toward the curb would be ace.
Lastly, but most importantly- the composition isnt sitting too well imo. Its SO heavy on the right, with nothing to counter balance on the left. Maybe you turn the camera a bit to show some facades on the other side of the street? Maybe you could put that car more in the street like its driving? I just think attention towards this would be good as its a pretty large frequency adjustment.
Fantastic work otherwise! Your at that fun tweaking stage. Tweak away!!
I actually agree with konstruct on a few of the points he made. The clothes are making the already fairly busy building facades too noisy without leaving much area for your eyes to rest on them. The buildings are already made fairly complex with the fire escapes and the shadows they cast, the clothes just make things too busy. I would scrap them from the scene.
I also agree with the image begin too heavy on the right side. Maybe expanding the shot too slightly include the buildings on the left to balance things out?
For your signage, nothing reads 1940's. Everything from that time period have a very distinct style which I dont see in your Coca Cola sign in the back or whatever that graffiti is suppose to be. A big thing of the 40's was the style of there signage as well as brands being big and simple. Your Coca Cola is way too small, and it has smaller font above it. For big signs like that, they generally would be limited to big font of the brand and then a stylized picture of a person.
Your graffiti dosnt read, I can tell its graffiti but I cant tell what it is, or from what time period its from.
The McLaren sign seems to not pop out enough. Blends to much with the background of the sign.
The white "The Law" sign is extremely bright white and draws my eye too. I would tone down how white it is/how bloomy it is.
Vertical signage. I added on here on the right, but if you add the left side of the street I would place a sign like this over there. These types of signs are quite iconic for that time period and would fit well as well as ground the time period a bit better.
Thanks for the feedback! That coca cola sign i have has a stylized illustrated woman on the far right, but you can't see her. I'm going to flip the image so that she shows and adjust it so that the reds are alittle more vivid.
I love your suggestions and will absolutely address most of them once the car is finished. I love the idea of creating the other side to the street, however i feel like the street will need to be much wider than what you have. But i will definitely do something to add some weight to the left side.....not sure what just yet.
Look awesome, definitely agree that the left side of the image needs something.....maybe instead of the car being on the already pretty heavy right side, you have a parked fire truck on the left side parked in front of a fire house? Seeing a 1940's fire truck in your style would be awesome. You could have water running out from the station/truck into a sewer drain or something too.
Also, some more ideas for stuff to populate the area: Some newspapers pages scattered around, laying over the curb, and maybe a box for the newspaper boy to stand on and sell papers and his bike laying next to it? Honestly it's already pretty incredible. Like everyone has already said, really inspiring stuff.
wait, wheres this graffiti?> I looked and looked. cant seem to find what autocon was talking about. If it is there- historically, the notion of graffiti being something that people did, didn't come about until the early 70`s. People have always written and scrawled on walls- but modern graffiti where an individual attempts to become prolific via repetition is a fairly new concept.
Beautiful work but i feel it lacks the small details that say 1940's, if by some chance its before Dec 7 1941 it doesnt matter,but if its during the war perhaps some sort of small details that imply there is a war on, American flag,recruitment posters at a distance,etc,etc...
Replies
I also put together some background buildings. I'm not sure i agree with the tallest white one. I'll try a couple more and see where it stands.
I dont know if its the camera angle but in the top shot the streetlights look out of scale? could just be me though!
cant wait to see more!
http://www.newyorkshitty.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/blauners.jpg
Yeah i am seriously just SO ready to do some props to populate this scene, make it look more lived in. I have a list of props i am anxiously waiting to put in! I'll hopefully start those soon.
And yeah vehicles are definitely happening!
Nerf Bat Ninja: I will teach you anything you want to learn sweetheart!
Added that last building, as well as the sky dome. I'm going to move onto the water towers.
From the reference i've gathered the water towers are made out of wood which goes against what i've always thought them to be made of (metal). I'm going to keep looking for reference but all the ref i can find so far shows them madeout of wood, especially during this time period.
Next up plants and hanging clothes and thinking about what i'm goign to do about that obvious tiling texture on that back alley wall.
The brick work on the main buildings has cement at the bottom. Is that just vertex blending or is it something else??? If it is vertex blending did you have to add more polys to get it to look nice?
And did you vertex paint the pavement in the end? Is it just around the doors?
To break up the wall on the barber shop in the background you could try a painted sign on brick, like this
Love it! Keep up the good work!!
salacious_Crumb : Yeah the cement on the bottom of the bricks are vertex blending. Yeah i added alittle more geometry so that it can support the vertex blending. The pavement is actually a dirt decal that i duplicated in front of the door and around the barrells to really ground everything. Thanks for the help! I'm going to take your suggestion on the painted sign on the brick. That would be perfect!
CandyStripes05 I will not be doing a night time scene haha. I've been working on this scene for way too long and am ready to move on after i finish it.
aajohnny Yeah i'm goig to add a painted sign ontop of the bricks to break up that noticeable tileable texture.
Marchwarden Yeah when i finish it up i'll surely post some texture flats.
Added the last of the signs, trashcan, blockout for the billboard, and the blockout for the cars. Going to add some debris, finish that back billboard, manhole covers, stop light, cars then call it done.
Just missing people now
The assets are looking great, but I think that the ground (road,sidewalk) stops this enviro to be amazing. Scatter that garbage near the bin, add some dirt and cracks to the sidewalk and the road, and add some paper decals, things that people usually throw on the ground, because at this stage it looks too "clean", like if nobody have walked on that street. Some small pebbles would work great also.
Anyways, you've done a good job so far, I'll follow this thread.
maverickhornet: Thanks!
riot: Yeah i'll definitely be adding some cracks on the sidewalk and road.
I understand that your going for a heavy feeling of it being lived in, thus all the clothes lines, and trash- but I feel like the building facades are begining to look over worked, and busy. I much prefer what you have going on back at this point. I think its mostly the clothes that add a bit too much noise, mucking up the already complex silhouette information of the fire escapes and their shadows.
The trash bits seem a bit much too. I think its awesome they have so much volume, but I think some fineness towards more varied distribution would go along way. everything is so clean, then gets really trashy in these little concentrated pockets.
The street needs a gutter of some sort. Also some decal work that speaks to how the street is used in the middle, and more grimey toward the curb would be ace.
Lastly, but most importantly- the composition isnt sitting too well imo. Its SO heavy on the right, with nothing to counter balance on the left. Maybe you turn the camera a bit to show some facades on the other side of the street? Maybe you could put that car more in the street like its driving? I just think attention towards this would be good as its a pretty large frequency adjustment.
Fantastic work otherwise! Your at that fun tweaking stage. Tweak away!!
I also agree with the image begin too heavy on the right side. Maybe expanding the shot too slightly include the buildings on the left to balance things out?
For your signage, nothing reads 1940's. Everything from that time period have a very distinct style which I dont see in your Coca Cola sign in the back or whatever that graffiti is suppose to be. A big thing of the 40's was the style of there signage as well as brands being big and simple. Your Coca Cola is way too small, and it has smaller font above it. For big signs like that, they generally would be limited to big font of the brand and then a stylized picture of a person.
Your graffiti dosnt read, I can tell its graffiti but I cant tell what it is, or from what time period its from.
The McLaren sign seems to not pop out enough. Blends to much with the background of the sign.
The white "The Law" sign is extremely bright white and draws my eye too. I would tone down how white it is/how bloomy it is.
Vertical signage. I added on here on the right, but if you add the left side of the street I would place a sign like this over there. These types of signs are quite iconic for that time period and would fit well as well as ground the time period a bit better.
Anyway, just some thoughts buddy
I love your suggestions and will absolutely address most of them once the car is finished. I love the idea of creating the other side to the street, however i feel like the street will need to be much wider than what you have. But i will definitely do something to add some weight to the left side.....not sure what just yet.
thanks for the suggestions!
Respect and looking forward to seeing the rest of this awesome project unfold.
Also, some more ideas for stuff to populate the area: Some newspapers pages scattered around, laying over the curb, and maybe a box for the newspaper boy to stand on and sell papers and his bike laying next to it? Honestly it's already pretty incredible. Like everyone has already said, really inspiring stuff.
Also is that a HIMYM inside joke with the bar name, you may have mentioned this in a previous post so i am sorry if you have.
Spamming you with updates! A couple more hours on the car model.
Not the best high poly render as you can see my floaters. HA.