Alleyway Crime Scene [UE4]
polycounter lvl 8
Hey guys!
I'm starting my new environment project based on an Alleyway Crime scene, showcased through UE4 and using a bunch of reference images and some concept art below to drive the direction.
There's a few things I'm really trying to focus on throughout this project:
1. Scene composition.
2. Telling the story of the scene/game through lighting and assets.
3. Use Substance designer to help me get to grips with the software.
4. Not over doing my textures. My main feedback from previous projects was pushing my texturing too far resulting in messy and noisy normal maps.
I've done a bit of work so far over the last couple of days such as block out and starting to work on a few wall sections. Im pretty new to Substance Designer so if anyone has any Crit's at all about any of my work please comment it and I'll try my best to push the scene further and fix issues
Maya Blockout:
UE4 Progress:
Substance Mats:
Tarmac:
Brick:
I'm starting my new environment project based on an Alleyway Crime scene, showcased through UE4 and using a bunch of reference images and some concept art below to drive the direction.
There's a few things I'm really trying to focus on throughout this project:
1. Scene composition.
2. Telling the story of the scene/game through lighting and assets.
3. Use Substance designer to help me get to grips with the software.
4. Not over doing my textures. My main feedback from previous projects was pushing my texturing too far resulting in messy and noisy normal maps.
I've done a bit of work so far over the last couple of days such as block out and starting to work on a few wall sections. Im pretty new to Substance Designer so if anyone has any Crit's at all about any of my work please comment it and I'll try my best to push the scene further and fix issues
Maya Blockout:
UE4 Progress:
Substance Mats:
Tarmac:
Brick:
Replies
For the materials, i think it is a good start. The brick wall is really good, the shape of the bricks and colors are very nice. As it is a dramatic scene it will probably be better to have more dirt on the tarmac and also on the cement part of the brick wall.
Maybe it is not the kind of wall you want but i found this ref:
http://bgfons.com/upload/brick_texture3334.jpg
Maybe just have your alley go straight through, and have the building in the back be across the street? An dead end alley like this typically wont have vehicles going through it, would be more of a pedestrian spot. You have vehicle doors and dumpsters, but no believable way for a vehicle to get through there.
On the right, is that a storefront? Why would there be a store front facing an alley. The facade would face customers street side.
@FreneticPonies Thanks dude!
@gsokol Thank you for the feedback as always bud
The Maya blockout does have a dead end which when I brought into UE, I also thought looks weird so the UE scene has the path turn a corner which hopefully this fixes that issue but im still not completely final on the layout so I may end up moving buildings and making it a dead end alleyway
Progress ! Brought my tarmac mat in and I've been playing with some roughness vertex painting.. still needs a lot more dirt and pot holes but its looking okay:) Also some more progress on my windows and doors but plenty more to do. Noticing a lot of repetition from my brick texture which will be less obvious once I start vertext painting, decal-ing and placing assets but if anyone has any suggestions on how I can vary my textures let me know, im open to suggestions
Progress - moving my way through the environment assets and materials. I felt like there was too much of the same brick texture going on so I created a cinder block texture to help break up the buildings. Pretty happy with it so far and I'll be able to push my wall textures further with some vertex painting down the line.
Also played around with a graffiti decal just to test how they'll look... looking forward to throwing a load of these on once I've created all my assets
As always let me know what you guys think and any crit is always appreciated!
Got through some more wall pieces such as shutters, closed down shops and went back to fix reflection/normal issues in other sections. Added a some more vextex painting to the walls.
Nearly finished with the modular environment sections, bar a few roof and wall trims, then I can crack on with dressing the scene with props and doing an initial lighting pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1WKQMRguY
Even in this alley here, you can see the building resting on a base that raises the first floor allowing windows to see down into the basement. It gives the perceived impression that the first floor is taller than the other floors but it helps building it like that too. Making your buildings have a concrete base as well allows you to build them on slight slants
But good work so far man ! looking forward to seeing more
I like your idea with an extra meter or so sections underneath the buildings. I've added some to see how it would look, but did you mean to have all the buildings raised up or just a couple to help add variation?
Hopefully you guys like the new lighting, for some reason there's a lot of compression on the images after uploading! As always, any suggestions or crits are welcome.
Added a few more props and played around with lighting a little. Still been pretty busy I've only been able to get a few props done but slowly getting there. I've also added a 'Work in Progress' post to my artstation since in about halfway through and thought its a good time to get it thrown up there. So you can see some more images of props and substances there
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gK94m
As always any critiques are welcome! On to the crime scene itself
EG, (make the "darkness" a somewhat desaturated blue to give the impression of mescopic vision, and thus the idea that's it's really darker than it is)
Maybe some night time photos of similar scene will help?
I think a crime scene will be lit up for investigation
for something like this its way too dark to see anything honestly.
As for the crime scene itself, it will have more lighting using some tri-pod stands like these, they'll help lift the lighting up for the scene as a whole and help create a focal point.
Will start working on the crime scene next!
Would be cool if there is also some blood caught in the light?
@jnascimento Yeh garbage assets / set dressing is next on my priority list, thanks for the suggestion