[UDK] When Nature Reclaims the City

rockstar6

Hey all,

I was working on this environment the last couple of weeks. The scene is inspired/based on The Last of Us. It's set in a post apocalyptical city e.g. New York.
Because the city has been abandoned, dust will appear on assets and the city will become more overgrown. Buildings will have broken windows and foliage will also appear in these spots. At the moment I have a few placeholders in the scene, like the trees. The reason for this is that I'd like to fill up the bar with art first so it's sort of a new portfolio piece. From there I can expand the scene with more assets as I go. Because of the scale of the project, with at least the bar completed I'll keep myself motivated to keep working on the scene.

Latest screengrabs:

rockstar6

Worked on the interior a bit more and experimented with the light setup some more. I think I'll leave the bar interior for what it is at the moment. The exterior needs a lot of work too so spending my time on the buildings is next on the to do list. Feedback is welcome ofc!



cheers

AlexCatMasterSupreme

the part where the building is breaking is looking awkward.

rockstar6

I've worked on the foliage a bit, trying to place it nicely on one of the buildings that I was working on. I'm looking for a few ways that might the most efficient to texture/model the climbing ivy.

JamesWild

It's this building from the front cover right? (never heard of it before now)

rockstar6

@james

yes indeed, it's based on the cover art and other concept art from the Last of Us that has been published by Naughty Dog.

jjsuperspy

nice, one thing on the floor could there be grass growing between the wood maybe also The Last of Us

aajohnny

I am liking the interior so far... I'm not sure about the ivy on the brick building. Think about how long the earth has been left unkempt for your environment because it will definitely help your environment in the long run and have everything come together and make sense. If your environment was somewhat recently abandoned it wouldn't be that overgrown... in the the Last of Us case it's probably been 10-15 years? (reason I'm assuming that is because Elly grew up with the world gone to hell, and I'm guessing her age )

Take a look at this image:


Look at how tightly knit together the ivy is. It is climbing up and around things, also notice how the Ivy leaves at the bottom are larger then the ones at the top, where they are starting to end , or wrap around the window sill.

Do some research on how Ivy grows and how nature would take the earth back. I wouldn't necessarily use a video game as a reference, even though they probably used real-life reference it would really help yourself and environment to follow real-life reference.

I hope this helps.

rockstar6

aajohnny Thanks for the tip! I'll rework the ivy right away

rockstar6

Here's another update for the environment, atm I'm working on some small props for the street. I'm not very satisfied with the look and feel in the environment and I'm sort of trying to figure out how I can make the scene more appealing.

rockstar6

I made a paintover on one of the main screenshots last night. I think this helps me a lot to find a direction I want to push the environment towards and it's a quick way to try out new ideas. I also tilted the camera a little bit so it makes the screenshot feel more dynamic.

I'm looking forward to hear from you guys what you think of this, for me the composition feels way more defined now.

rockstar6

I picked up one of the environments I was working on a few months ago. There are still a few placeholders for buildings and cars.

I want to thank Bryan Cavett who gave me some awesome tips to improve the scene and did a magnificent paintover. Thanks man!

Anyways, feedback is welcome!

Vanillie

Looks great! The only thing bothering me are the chunks of ceiling. They look way to big/round for a real-life chunk.

Vanillie

Looks awesome!The only thing looking a bit off in my opinion are the ceiling chunks. They are way to roundish/big. Though its a personal opinion^^

rockstar6

Thanks I'll keep it in mind!

rockstar6

Another update on the environment, re-adjusted the roof and the broken concrete. Besides that I also tried to adjust the composition a bit, and the shaders have been modified/optimized.