hello everyone
i am currently working on another project. My first intention was to make a haunted manor, so we'll see where this is going. As main inspiration sources i choosed old victorian houses, movies like "the woman in black"... For the lighting i've been impressed by the work of barbara canepa on her last comic "End", i would really like to catch the same mood for my scene. (
samples)
First screenshots :
Textures are 512x512 or 512x1024
For my textures i choosed to work with photo sources, and normal maps done with maya.
I tried to optimize my scene by reducing drawcalls. For this i merged some elements by materials, the biggest lightmap size is 512x512 for the floors.
This is still very wip, i made all of this in one week and i don't intend to spend too much time on this project (not like pirate castle ^^).
Next step will be for other rooms, the front of the manor, a little garden for the entrance and, at the end, some props to give a bit of life. I would like to make a child room, a library and a dining room.
as usual, feel free to comment and give suggestions!:)
Replies
The railing posts also seem like they're spaced a little too far apart.
Texelion->plus it moves when you walk in it
dii->thanks, it's noted i'll try something about it !
haba_haba-> okay, but yes outside is not done yet, and lighting is not definitive at all, i'm just experimenting at this state of the production
aajohnny-> thank you, yep it's in my plans
wesley-> the same =D
fractal-> now that you mention it...
I was wondering if you used max at all. I've been waiting to ask a highly skilled maya user on these forums if its just as easy to learn to model with maya as it is to do so with max. My friend and I are trying to learn Maya, but I only know max. I'm not gonna ask you about the differences/pros/cons, but I want to know your personal opinion on the matter!
jeff and mbischof : thanks !
fractal -> i don't use max because i'm not really used to it. But i must recognize some of his advantages and i started to work with it those last days. Anyway, being able to use both of them isn't going to penalize you
Anyway, i managed to make an update :
i added a library and a dining room. It's not over, i will add a few props like mural lamps, paints, vases, dishes etc...
Also, i started to work on the skydome, it's just here to help me find the mood of my scene
i'll post a few flats tomorrow
anyway give me your advices and comments !
A few questions if you don't mind,
Could we see some flats of the floorboards? You have some real interesting colour variation along the boards (grain direction) and I'm intrigued if this is done with a gradient or just with a big texture that allows for two boards width.
Also you seem to build quite a lot of the scene in maya itself, how much of this is split up into smaller pieces? Also how do you decide what is gonna be unique in maya and what to place in UDK? The walls/ flooring make a lot of sense, but the smaller pillars less so.
Hope you get in some cobwebs along the desk and dust patches on the floor!
aajohnny -> you are right, some chaos would help, i'll fix that
rednaz-> ok, it's from the godray shader i've made witch modulate its intensity from camera distance, i'll fix that too
quickel-> okey noted, thanks
Myles ->about the roofboard, for optimization purpose i decided not to use any mesh painting, as we do on PS3. So, i simply made a mask applied through the UV lightmap of my floor, and darkened the texture with a simple multiply. The mask map is about 512x512, and is stocked with other maps, for various elements of my scene, in each channels of the texture. If you need more precisions i could post some shots
for your second question, what you can see in my second shot are the elements i exported, already placed in maya. I make one export by material, also for optimization purpose. I also exported elements by their vertex count and their materials. For example the floor is really low definition so even if it enters into player's frustrum, the cost for udk to load it is really nothing. On the contrary, the shelves that support books, merged in one big besh could be pretty heavy, so i prefer to have one instancied static mesh. Hope i answered clearly, if you have any questions don't hesitate