Terrain Practice

SnakeDoctor

Hey guys, wanted to practice larger scale environments. So I am using landscape and here are my results thus far. My original plan was to make a scene where a caravan was attacked by Indians or something but it could change with time.

As of right now I want to make additional foliage to break up the scene more.

Everything in the scene was made by me, except the sky which I plan on doing myself as well.

If anyone has advice or tips I would really like to hear them. Hopefully it will make the transition from props to larger scenes easier.


(Latest Screenshot)


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Seaseme

This looks really nice! I would like to see some smaller scale rocks at the base of your large cliffs to give some scale and context to your scene - Also, any reason this appears so washed out?

I like your rock textures a lot, one thing about the models themselves and their arrangement - You could REALLY push their silhouettes a bit more to give the illusion of complexity. By making your horizon line more complex with some shapes you can make this feel a lot less repetitive.

I talk about this a lot, but with scenes like this you really have an opportunity to play with forced perspective. By putting some TINY trees on top of the rocks you can really give the illusion that these are MONSTER cliffs, as opposed to like 100 foot walls as they appear now.

But keep going! You're definitely headed in a good direction! Keep us updated.

Paunescu.Daniel

Knowing form experience that rocks are pretty hard to get right i have to say good job, they look awesome

SnakeDoctor

Thanks for the tips Seaseme. I took your advice and made some trees to help with scale. I am going to also make some smaller chunks of rocks for the base of the cliff to help with the transition. Lastly, I am thinking about fixing the LOD falloff on my trees I think I will trade performance for making them look better at larger distances.

cupsster

i think that trees are too dense in crown

Shoy333

Looking great so far man any chance we could get a small breakdown of how you went about making the rocks or if you followed/used a tutorial as a reference any chance we could get the link? looks really great man :poly008:

SnakeDoctor

Thinned out the tree and I think I should desaturate them as well. Also added some post processing. This project is really helping me learn what all the little setting in UDK do.




Shoy thanks for the compliments at the end of this I will put together a small tutorial on how I achieved my rocks.

SHEPEIRO

add a blend texture between your grass and sand texture (sand with clumps of grass) this will help your blends look much more realistic

your scene currently looks under exposed... i would up both the sun light and the ambient/or expose higher (long time since i used unreal so cant remember the control you have) as your missing hotness from the sun and your shadows are being crunched

your rocks are looking a little bit manufactured at the moment i think you need some more assets to break up the repetition a bit more...also I would look into using a vertex blended shader to add small amount of greenery in cracks etc...or a different hue of rock to break the modularness

i would add more gradient to your skydome to give more atmosphere

i did a quick paintover as im hungover and cant be bothered to leave the house yet

Envelope

Of course I pick the one image to paintover and give some lighting and atmosphere feedback, and another lighting artist beats me to it Oh well, here is some supporting feedback to what SHEPEIRO said below.

Absolutely underexposed. Thats the first thing I noticed.

Did you play uncharted 3? Those canyons had some awesome lighting on them. Look how red they are! You should take advantage of the GI if you're using UDK and boost the influence from the rock diffuse texture and put a little more red into the shadowed side.

http://www.play3-live.com/screens/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/uncharted-3-drakes-deception-19249horse-approaching-canyon-1319555713.jpg

The other thing I think you need is some haze. It will help seperate foreground from background better. I overdid it a little below, just so you can really see the difference it can make on depth perception.
Paintover:


Definitely add the rocks or smaller objects to the right side like SHEPEIRO said below.

SnakeDoctor

I really appreciate you guys doing a paint over for me. I tried to incorporate your suggestions and I think they helped improve to overall look of my scene. I still plan on doing the smaller rocks, I have not forgotten :poly122:. Feel free to let me know what you think.

danpaz3d

Nice work on the rocks/cliffs. Look much better than the first shots u uploaded.

The main thing for me is that I can't tell the story behind it. Has the place been dry or wet for a long time. It seems like its between dry and wet and its a bit confusing.

Check this first shot of a cliff/canyon. Its wet and has much more grass/shrubs etc..
http://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/images/kings/kings_touring_1lg.jpg

Then check this second shot, it's much more dry, no trees and only dry grass and shrubs.
http://www.fosonline.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Canyon-San-Luis-Argentina.jpg

I'm not saying do this or that, but try to put a solid theme/story to your scene. Also the ground texture seems a bit flat, try upping the normal or put some smaller rocks.

Other than that it's looking good, the sky and rocks/cliffs you have so far are just about right. Keep it up!

Wonkey

Looking pretty cool, but, like danpaz3d, I am not really understanding the sand to rich green grass transition.

You might checkout this thread about that asked about plant placement. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98976

Any chance of a wire frame of the tree?

SnakeDoctor

Thanks for the input guys will try and think of some ways I can incorporate your advice in my scene. I have already made some new changes by adding smaller rocks and such around the base of the cliff and I really think it helps tie it all together. I will post a screenshot shortly.

Wonkey here is the screenshot of the tree's wireframe you asked for.

HakiMaterial

wow great scene

SnakeDoctor

Here are the updates I promised. I am thinking about calling it done and taking what I learned from this and apply it toward my future projects.