Hey all, I've been working on this on and off for about a month now, and I'm at the point where I'm kinda getting sick of it... therefore it is time to get this done.
![scene3light.jpg](http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4676/scene3light.jpg)
![scene3clean.jpg](http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/2834/scene3clean.jpg)
This is based off of the concept art from the team working on Natural Selection 2 -
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/21/refineryhallway.jpg
The scene so far is just quickly put together so I can get a feel for it, as I'm still working on textures / models. Right now its feeling very boring to me, but I think once I add some clutter with wires, maybe some crates or something, it may feel a bit more alive.
Replies
That, and your perspective is obstructing the focal point too much, I'd open that space up a bit more or change the focal length.
I have no doubts that it's going to be awesome, and you have a decent start. I've been slacking on environments recently, but you should go all out!
I agree, the lighting is really crap right now, but this lighting was quickly done up to get the ball rolling, definatly going to work it so its much more like the concept art (brighter), and work with spec much more once I get some sort of ok lighting setup.
I may have to increase the strength of the normals in the shader for unreal, because right now everything seems flat (also due to lighting). In 3d max it shows them pretty well. Right now I just need to get the rest of the assests in, work in the wires as well, which seems to break up the scene pretty nicely. And I'll also work with the camrea FOV later on...
Thanks for the crits so far.
I also think your diffuse / spec need more contrast to make the separate panels and elements pop out more. For example I barely noticed the wires running under the panel at the bottom because they're so flat and dark, just like the surrounding area.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=62681&highlight=industrial+underground+bunker
It's looking great, keep it up!
I would dimm the ambientlight down and pop the contrast with the existing lights.
Oh and while i was messing around one night I found this option that sets your textures to full on quality (usually when you bring in your texture, unreal compresses it way too much). If you doubl click on your texture file, and then scroll down to where you find LODBias, just put it to -1 or -2 (sometimes it doesn't catch -1) and it should work right away. Since I'm not really worried about LOD... there is no need to compress my textures.
have you tried to cut it into the wall geometry instead of floating?
Its not because it is... its because its flowing over a tiling texture that has details that push the geo on top of it visually out. don't try and fix it except it and work with it. Why not have it actually floating off the wall throw in some brackets that hold it up run some more wires to i or just under it. Take advantage of your "problem".
Trust me after the tenth time banging your head against the wall trying to figure out how to get something to stop looking like its doing something else, you will realize that it makes more sense to make it look more the the something else. Just so long as that something else is sexy.
Shep, when you say "better falloff" are you talking about increasing the falloff? And yuh, more contrast is definatly needed, I'll work on that much more, thanks. Do you think right now it is too bright? Or that by lowering the radius of the light (while increasing the brightness) it'll help pop the scene out more? I just don't want it to get too dark, the concept itself seems to be a pretty well lit area... but it is also pretty washed out.
Thanks all, more updates to come. Still a bit hesitant as to what to do with the ceiling... a lot of the pieces don't exactly "match" style wise (in my opinion anyways) so its hard to get a solid grasp... but I guess thats part of the fun :P
One thing that is really bugging me though, is: Why didn't you model those wires running along the floor?! I don't think it'd add too many poly's .. but I'm not sure what your budget is either.
Some of the silhouettes are still pretty blocky, like the extruded pillars on the right hand side especially. But, you're far enough that you can't change them now. Not a huge deal anyway.
Overall, this is a very satisfying style. I want to see more!
PS: did you sculpt or combine painted details in your normal map to get that look?
Meh meh, just adding more things in, messing around with the lighting some more, still not happy with it. After playing the Batman Arkham Asylum demo though... I would really like to hit the kind of lighting style they did, its almost as though they over-exaggerated the lighting to create some really great atmosphere, so I'll take a shot at that later.
Zack - I'll post some wires tomorrow. I think I may model the wire on the floor though. For the most part I haven't worried about polycount, but the reference seems pretty "blocky" in general... so I'm having a hard time seeing where else I could "add" polies for a "good" reason. Let me know any other areas you think I should add more too.
Now that you've posted some updated lighting I see that it's headed in a better direction. You've got some bright lights which look pretty good. I think you need a bit of the opposite as well, just as Shepeiro mentioned earlier you should get more contrast in there, a few well placed deep shadows will help out a lot.
It's starting to come together just keep at it
Update: Oh... and on the note of you getting sick of it (read your first post in your thread). It's probably smarter to build some assets when you've wrapped up the lighting portion. So that it feels more filled out, and will provide you with a better final image. It will also impress those that you're applying to for a job.
Looking at it more closely, I was probably wrong about the geometry. It seems like you're using good triangle counts but your bevels and extrusions are very thin and small which ends up flattening things. Like the mounting plates where the arms attach to the walls, they're so thin they almost look like alpha planes. The bolts and screws are much more petite in your version also, and don't have enough screen space to catch the kinds of highlights seen in the concepts.
Just did some switching between the newest update and the concept. I think one thing that can help make the scene a bit more dramatic is to play with the materials a bit more, with the following options to explore in order of probable usefulness:
-Increase spec power
-Brighten the specular (easiest done in the shaders rather than textures)
-Darken the diffuse (ditto)
When you do get back to the lighting, don't be afraid to set light intensities really high. The orange lights for the lava might work best at an intensity over 4.0 or even 6.0. For the modeled light sources, try doubling up their effect using one average intensity light with moderate range and a super high intensity light and short range.
Keep it up, you're making a lot of progress.
Zack - When you say "increase" spec power (this acts as a gloss type option right) where would you suggest. I've played with it around 16 (default) to anywhere from 30 - 40... and I like how the higher ones look, but in my scene, when I bake down the lightmaps, nothing really catches.
By any chance do you have an example of how you want the lights to read? If I can get a visual reference that will probably help me out a ton! The one thing I want to try and avoid is too much "bloom", do you think by increasing intensity will it blow out some of the spec?
KP - Ha ha, yup! The big reason why that is happening right now is when I finish up the mask for sratches in the diffuse, I take that mask and bring it over to my normal, convert that to a normal... then flatten that and run that through Xnormals Normal to Cavity (thanks racer for the great idea)... which I think gives it the illusion of "fattening" it up, I will work on that man, thanks.
I have been scrubbing through the NS2 trailer trying to get some more ideas (the ceiling came from that) so hopefully I can fill out the scene some more with other objects, I just don't want to busy it up too much. I think if I add the wires on the wall, and maybe get in some decals (I was thinking some blood streaks leading to the grate) that should be (hopefully) what this scene needs.
Napples napples napples!
I'd tone down the red a bit. And some reddish steam coming from the bottem might look cool too!
Really comin' together.
Its slowly coming together, I've spent way too long on this, but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel :P
More updates coming.
Right now as it sits in the 'wide open' it looks very flat and texture-like. Putting something like a grate plane over top would add more dimension to that section.
Also all those dips looks like tripping hazards as is.
Thanks
I have some freelance I'm working on right now which is taking sometime away, but I'm almost done this scene I think. I added the floor grates as was requested, and I put in some more wires here and there, as well as messed with the lava some more. I think I'm going to make a quick (loop-able) video that just shows everything moving. I put a fan in the back there so you can see the blades casting shadows (doesn't show in preview though... which sucks).
The bottom still feels kind of boring to me, but I don't know if thats a good thing or not cause of the ceiling being "busy". I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get the heat waves from the lava to work, seems like the normal needs to have some sort of emmisive map on it or something, because just normal and spec don't seem to be working. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear it.
Still need to add in some blood decals near the end there (i figure might as well get a bit gory in telling the story of this environment...).
will do paintover if thats nonsense
Either way I think that background light is a great idea, that never really crossed my mind either
If you want to take the time and do a quick paintover, It would be very very helpful. I think I know what you are saying, but any visual help is good help to me
Thanks Shep!
I have a question though. does anyone know if there is a way to have a light transparent, but still cast shadows? I don't need the colour information from the light... just the shadows it generates.
Weird question... I know.
If i'm reading correctly..i love the sign that says "danger, shit gets pretty hot." haha.
I've been messing so much with the lava lights on those walls, ha ha. I'll try and get it so the lights bleeds off into the top part a bit more
Another problem I am still having is my spec is not catching enough, I've tired putting down the falloff and increasing the strength of the light itself... but I'm getting mixed results. I'm defiantly going to play with it more.
Wester - Thanks man, and yes... this shit DOES get pretty hot, ha ha
I'll be making a new portfolio site in the coming months, I just need a couple more scenes in there that will hopefully do it justice.
Thanks again for all the help everyone, as always, I've learned a lot from you guys, and I'm looking forward to the next project (I'm getting a nice Heavy Rain type of scene vibe right now... ).