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Gears of War - Cellar Environment

grand marshal polycounter
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Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
Sup guys,

My goal for my portfolio from now on is to tailor my projects towards the studios here in Vancouver. There's some pretty cool studios, and one of the games which I think is quite suited towards my desired art style is Gears of War, from The Coalition. One of the things I looked for in concept art was an environment which wasn't overly complex, as I don't want to spend 6 months creating clutter and junk to fill the scene. I stumbled upon this concept by Adam Baines and it stood out to me as a fun project.

In this scene I'm going to focus on and push my skills in;
- Creating poly count and texture size which is optimized.
- Creating collision for each mesh.
- Material blending (with masks) and projections.
- Matching the GoW art style.
- Indoor lighting.
- I would also like to learn how to create a water material from scratch and a simple dust particle system inside UE4.



As usual, I like to start off with something a bit easy. The colours don't match the concept, and I'm currently deciding on trying to match colours now, or in post processing. The barrel on the right is using one of the concept images as an environment in Substance Painter. I'm still working on the texturing but I think I'm going to get halfway through the texturing for several assets so I can find a groove/theme which I can get into.


Replies

  • MattN
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    MattN triangle
    Looks like a fun project. I know you are still working on the textures but I think a lot of water damage would look great on the barrel as its in water in the concept. Around the side thats gona be in the water anyway.
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    @MattN I'll take your advice and add a bunch of water damage!
  • tythomas063
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    tythomas063 greentooth
    Sure looks like a great project to works on! 

    I'm assuming you're working on Gears Of Wars Ultimate Edition which means the concept art's timeline was 14 years after Emergence Day. It's important to remember that because that means many props and buildings are worn out, destroyed, or very old during that time. Right now, your barrel looks pretty new which doesn't fit right into the timeline. So I will suggest you make the wood material looks pretty old and worn out. Water damage will help too as mentioned by MattN. 


    But if you're working on Gears of War 4 timeline, then it will make sense to make your barrel looks new plus water damage. 


    Looking forward to seeing more of your works on this project! 

    Good luck, man!
  • Auldbenkenobi
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    Auldbenkenobi polycounter lvl 11
    You've massively improved your asset production since your Dive Bar environment. Keep it up.
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    nice dude, I would start with all the large architectural forms first and blockout the whole scene before making any props. This is a big mistake a lot of jr environment artists make, creating random props first and then getting discouraged because they feel like there is so much more to do.

    I would block out the scene and then focus on getting the basic materials and models done that fill 80% of the screen vs spending time making barrels. you will see huge daily gains that will keep you motivated to keep working on the scene. get the entire environment laid out and to an "alpha" (75% complete) state before working on small details and props. it will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Thanks guys!
    @PixelMasher Roger roger, will execute.
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Main blockout for the scene.

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Spent a few weeks in Australia on vacation, so just getting around to continuing on this project now. Here's a brick wall material I made for the scene.

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Sculpted some pillars and retopo/baked. Yet to start on texturing.


  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Created a cement material for the pillars.


  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Created the archway. Everything is baked, has a rough texture thrown down, and has a good collision. So far I'm kind of taking the texturing of each asset half way and moving onto the next asset. Later down the line, I might add the majority of the grime by texture painting in UE, so each asset looks slightly different.


  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    This is your reminder to back up your data!

    My hard drive failed on Tuesday. I haven't backed up my art or music production files in over a year, and I was freaking out. Very luckily, the shop I brought my computer to was able to recover my files, thank god. I'll post up more work when I get everything running properly again.
  • JordanN
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    JordanN interpolator
    This is your reminder to back up your data!

    My hard drive failed on Tuesday. I haven't backed up my art or music production files in over a year, and I was freaking out. Very luckily, the shop I brought my computer to was able to recover my files, thank god. I'll post up more work when I get everything running properly again.

    I'd also add download a hard drive diagnostics tool that can monitor/keep track of your storage device health.

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Finally getting all my programs and projects up and running. Everything is going smooth. Here's some supports I made for the long hallway. This is actually 2 supports as I sculpted 2 for variation.


  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    A ledge for the area that the floor lowers.

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    I think I'm calling the pillars done.


  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Updated a bunch of the textures in the game file. Ceiling has a random starter content material applied for the moment.

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Here we've got some nice warehouse style stairs. Will probably make a rope to overhang the edge later.

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Oh geeze, where to start. After the computer broke down/repaired I had to move and finally am back at things. Became pretty upset with myself when I noticed how long I've been working on this project. I've booked 1 week off work next week and have the goal to be finished by the end of the month.

    Wine cupboard created, pipes have been blocked out, though I need to make hangers for them. Been having issues with light coming through the corners and learned that walls, floors, etc should actually be a cube, not a plane, so I'll have to readjust some things. I've set up basic lighting to get a feel, but on the side I'm watching some UE4 lighting courses to prepare myself for actually creating lights. Currently working on some stairs for the exit, and I might make the end of the large room either a vault door or a rolling warehouse door, though I feel the previous would fit the style and challenge me a bit more. Everything has efficient collision which I'm pretty proud of. So, to summarize;

    - Vault door (?)
    - Stairs (almost finished)
    - Fix corner lighting issue (edit: fixed)
    - Lamps, pipe hanging things
    - Bottles
    - Broken glass
    - Spiderwebs

    After I've got those down pat, will move onto grunge painting/material blending in engine, lighting, and post.



    edit: Fixed the corner lights. Somehow I forgot I had a skylight in the scene and it was causing all kinds of corner light leakage. Is kinda weird because the corners are actually one solid piece.
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    In the concept, the ceiling is made of rocks. I tried looking up other references, but couldn't find anything like the concept (probably because it would be dangerous af). However, after working on everything else, I keep looking at what the concept artist did and decided it best to just recreate it as much as possible. Here's the material I made for the ceiling. I added some wiring to hold the rocks back.

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Took this week off to try finishing this sucker off!

    Stairs 
    Water material ✔ (will still fool around with to get perfect)
    Lamp 
    Ceiling ✔ (Material looks as good as I'll get it, ceiling plane is no longer flat)

  • 8th_Scepter
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    8th_Scepter polycounter lvl 6
    It's looking nice, keep it up!
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    @8th_Scepter Thanks!

    Created a spider web generator inside of Substance Designer!


  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Had to switch some of the lights to static lights. Because of this, some areas of my map are pretty grainy (see first picture, to the right of the gun).

    I've also placed broken glass, texture painted puddles, mold, and dirt, and added the spider webs. The webs aren't exactly how I want them yet, so will have to play around. They're either too opaque or not opaque enough!



    The frame rate is only now dropping a little, which for my computer, is pretty good. I'm thinking I've done good with the frame rate because of making almost every single mesh have a custom collision, packed texture maps, and efficient poly counts.



    Aside from a few fittings for the piping, working on the spider webs some more and correcting a few mesh issues, the layout is pretty much finished. Tonight or tomorrow I'll be reworking the lighting and post processing!

  • Tetranome
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    Tetranome polycounter lvl 6
    The water damage at the base of your wine shelves is really nice. Keep this attention to detail in mind whilst you read below -
    One thing that I notice is missing from your assets is how they don't hold up against the real thing. I'll use your cobwebs as an example:

    Real cobwebs either have the typical radiating "spider web pattern" or they have deteriorated to the point of the more bubbly strands seen below.

    Your cobwebs are very rigid, not just in their silhouette but in their details. They are mostly just overlapping wavy straight lines. From a distance they may seem okay, but from your chosen angles I can make out what they are meant to be and also make out that they feel unnatural. In Designer, you'd probably be better off using a cells noise and doing some warping.

    What I'm trying to get to here is that attention to detail (across all levels) is what is going to bring your assets from *2007 gamey* to the sort of work the studios you wish to apply to are going to want to see. Their style is realism, and so you need to look at real materials and nail them. I think the best thing to do in your case is get a megascans membership and really look into each map and asset and see what is being done. I'd also consider looking at the free Paragon assets recently released by Epic. Those are awesome learning resources.
    From there, try a few real world studies and see how close you can hit.

    Your work is good but there's a journey ahead of you if you want to break in! Definitely finish this piece up and stick it on your website.
    You've already got some work under your belt and some good traction so play smart, absorb and learn as much as you can, and keep working hard.
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    @Tetranome Thanks for the great advice! I agree on the spiderwebs totally. I'm still reworking and tweaking them, taking into account your suggestions. It's incredibly difficult for me to get the opacity right, as from close up, they're visible, but from a few steps back, they're almost invisible. Can you give any insight to the textures such as the bricks, tile floor, cement pillars and the like?

    I'm still trying to fix the rock ceiling as it doesn't sit right with me. I've vertex painted some areas darker so as to break up the tiling pattern.


  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    So I worked on the lighting all morning and then switched to post processing, where I feel I was able to make everything come together really nicely. I matched the concept's colours and mood as best as I could.

    I also added water drops coming from the pipes in several locations. Aside from working on the spider webs a bit more, I think I'm going to call this project done. If anybody has any suggestions before I post this onto my portfolio, now would be the time!

  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Calling the project complete.  Pulled a few changes, updated the spiderweb (I think it looks alright now!). Finished lighting and post! For my next project I'd like to do something a little more well lit, because so many of my projects are in dark interiors or at night! Thanks for everyone's critique, it always helps me to realize how much I need to keep pushing.

    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/bQqxa

  • Tetranome
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    Tetranome polycounter lvl 6
    Hmm, I haven't tackled such a material before, but I would look at having the opacity level react to camera distance. There are some good tutorials out there.

    As for the other assets, I think your brick wall is probably the weakest:
    - You've got a lot of grime on there but it's very localised to the cracks. I would have this fade into your bricks to add some depth.
    - The bricks themselves look like they're coated in a fresh layer of really plastic paint or something, so I would roughen them up and make them more porous as a high level detail.
    - I can only make out two colour variations. I'd either add more, or remove it and have them all be the same - getting colour variation from grunge/dirt instead.
    - Some edge highlights would add some more depth. They feel pretty flat.
    - You could also add some dripping details on the albedo & roughness maps. It looks pretty humid down there.
    - Some vertex painting along the top and bottom could also help to root the wall in the scene.
    (I mention grunge a lot here but I don't mean to say make it filthy. Tasteful grunge placement is definitely a skill.)

    Your other assets look like they had more thought go into these departments. I see you're done now, but if you wanted to do another pass that would be the best approach to bring it up to the level of the other assets. If you pick good reference and stick to it, you can't go wrong.

    Good job on this one @Ashervisalis, keep up the hard work. Keen to see your next piece.
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    the modelling and lighting is coming along well but I think your materials and textures could do with quite a bit more work, colour variation, weathering, grime etc check out these materials for gears and then compare your bricks, flooring or pillars etc to the style they have, youre not miles off but it should be possible to get there. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/yRNY3   https://www.artstation.com/artwork/e9BBG
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    @Ged I see what you guys mean about the materials/textures. I'm going to devote some time trying to get mine up to par with those. Thanks :)
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    I spent a bit of time this last weekend going into this project and fooling around. I actually got the spiderwebs to look better by switching the material type (at work right now, can't remember the setting). Now they're clearly visible from far distances, as well as looking great close up.

  • polygons
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    polygons polycounter lvl 4
    Its coming along nicely.  As Ged mentioned you're going to have to spend a lot of time working on color variation to take this to the gears of war level. Decals can help a lot with that sort of thing when you have things being duplicated but you want variation in them like your pillars. The lighting could use some work. Also make sure to look at real world examples as reference as well it helps a lot. Good luck I look forward to seeing more 
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Thanks @polygons
    Do you think the lighting is too dark?
  • polygons
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    polygons polycounter lvl 4
    Thanks @polygons
    Do you think the lighting is too dark?

    Its about getting more light in the right places. ( i put red on them) I'm still learning lighting in unreal myself and I have not done a scene that isn't lit mainly by the sun yet so I can't really help you much on that front. I will say though that with a darker scene like this it helps to balance darkness with some reflections. Like you see on the floor in the concept.  you have it a little bit but it should be spread out more in a more natural way.  I hope this makes sense
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    @polygons I see what you mean. I'll goof around with it and see about brightening up those areas. Thanks for pointing that out :)
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    Right now the scale of your tiles on the floor is off, it is making the scene feel weird. Look at the concept, there are about 4 tiles for every 1 of yours, and the scale looks more believable in the concept.

    they are also slightly different colors, which helps break up the floor. You could also cut some geo in and raise some edges of a few tiles here and there to add some depth via geo. 

    for the ceiling lights, its weird that the bulb is so bright but it is not effecting the light fixture/hood at all, the concept has larger sources of light and that would help sell the amount of light that should be in the scene. I would boost your light intensity and crank the indirect amount of the lights to 2 or higher to get more bounce light filling in the darker areas slightly. it should start bouncing up to the ceiling and giving your pipes some form, right now they look pure black and shapeless, some indirect bounce light hitting the bottoms should help show the shapes better.

    if you open your screenshot in photoshop and open up the levels or histogram, you can see 2/3rds of the range is not being used, and part of the reason its looking a bit flat. highlights should pop, and midtones need to be more readable.

    quick photshop adjustment to help show what I mean


  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    @PixelMasher Really appreciate it. I've increased the tile frequency, but only by a few as I don't want the tiles really small. I've also added a little tile variation, but looking back now I'm not sure if it was really enough :s Looking back, I think I should have made the floor mesh 4 meters, as I made them 5 meters, and I feel the size of this upper floor is a bit too wide.

    As for the lighting, did everything you suggested and it's actually looking a lot better now. I was having issues figuring out if it was too dark but now I think I hit it on the nail.




  • ixrob
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    ixrob polycounter lvl 10
    looking good, keep going
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    yeah much nicer level of light in there now, still not quite as much bright spots as the concept but textures are improved too, the floor looks very black in those last 2 shots? is that water with reflections or oil or what?
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    Thanks guys.

    @Ged Yeah thats meant to be murky water; the place flooded. I might be able to make it a bit clearer, eh?
  • piotr47
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    piotr47 polycounter lvl 4
    Good work!

    I want some more now!!! :D
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
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