[UDK] The Foundry

aajohnny

Hey,
So for the past few days I have been working on a new environment in my spare time. I wanted to mix sci-fi and industrial together and create something that feels heavy. I will be posting progress when I have some!

Some things are placeholders, and there are a few glitches I have to take care of but here is the first WIP screenshot:



Suggestions and crits are totally welcome! thanks for looking :thumbup:

danpaz3d

Right now I dont get the whole foundry feel with the cool blue.
I would probably make the floor lights orange just to blend everything better.
Keep the blue room and corridor to the left.
Also, the panels on the back wall to the right are a bit distracting, they could be darker.
Other than that its good. Composition is good too (Im guessing you want the viewer to focus on the room top left)

mbischof

I'm digging this; I'll be interested to see where you take it from here!

Jeff Parrott

Have some value separation on the walls/floor. Right now it's all blending together. Otherwise things are looking really crisp.

aajohnny

@ danpaz3d: Yeah totally, that makes sense, i'll see what I can do about fixing that

@ mbischof: Thanks! glad you like it so far.

@ Jeff Parrott: Yeah, i'll try some things out and make sure it doesn't completely blend, but make sense, and thanks

purehilarity

Good constructive comments... that said I think you deserve a compliment, this looks awesome man!

whats_true

The bridge looking thing in the middle. I dont like it. It looks to plane and is smack dab in front of you. It leads your eyes in a wierd direction. Turn it around so that the angles are facing the other way, pointing in a way towards the office space. I dont think it looks like a very good cetner of interest either. Id consider swapping it out with something else. Maybe a smelting pot pouring molten metel into the ground or something.

clawhead

First off great work! It would be cool to see the office area in the top left side of the screen shot to be extended or bigger. Just to push the cool color feeling in that area. Just an extended overlook of the whole foundry would be pretty neat. Just a quick suggestion. Looks great though can't wait to see where this goes.

aajohnny

Thanks for the feedback guys, I tried to implement the above suggestions

New Update:
- Fixed the lighting to make the back wall darker.
- Lowered florescent lights intensity.
- Added large pillars .
- Lowered the bridge.
- Added Railings to the bridge.
- Added a drainage tube along the bridge.
- Extended the Control Room.

GarageBay9

To really capture a foundry you need to portray the - the dull red volumetric light from the raw heat spilling into the visible spectrum. Right now there might just be a well-lit hangar or something below those openings; there's no sense of the inferno of any kind of molten metal.

I was working on a giant blacksmith forge scene a while back in UDK and I found the most convincing way to capture the atmosphere of a foundry or metalworks was really careful use and blending of volumetric lights around any "molten" metals. You want to portray the air around them getting so hot that it's starting to emit light itself.



All you've got right now are a few areas with some minor emissive on them. That won't be near enough. Crank that shit up and try to capture the fact that the friggin' air surrounding that material is hot enough to luminesce, and things will start to pop.

aajohnny

Thanks for the feedback GarageBay9, I will see what I can do about that, I don't want to have the environment "overbearing" with light, but I will mess around with that later on. I think right now I'm leaving the lighting the way it is atm so I can focus on props, ect! I won't forget you though when I get to that part

Update:
- Added the much asked for boiling pots! (Not fully finished, I have to add a few more things to help them, but they are there for now, and I will add pouring lava soon)
- Added some Particle Effects.
- Added a large Banner.
- Added a Hook to the machine about the bridge.

I am not sure I like this camera angle, but this is not going to be a single shot environment.

I am probably going to start on the corridors very soon, after I finish some props for inside this room (many rooms for this environment

AimBiZ

Good progress! Even if it's not a single-shot enviro the composition is lacking mostly due to there being no particular focal point(s). I suggest instead of having those three small pouring things have a huge on in the middle or something. I'd like to see more height differences anyway, to break things up and simply make it much more interesting. You could also use that to steer the composition in the right direction.

SouthpawSid

I like the previous camera placement/ composition in the screens you put up, aajohnny. was more close in and personal. Make this room feel smaller rather than larger IMO. The bigger you make it feel, the more spacious and boring it can get. Game art = often, cramped and cluttered spaces, so hopefully that helps This scene is AWESOME btw!

Jessica Dinh

I love this scene! You chose a neat subject; I like the feeling of heat and depth and grunginess I get from all of this.

aajohnny

Big boiler asset for AimBiZ!










Thanks for the kind words and suggestions guys! keep them coming!

@ AimBiZ: I agree with you which is why I made the BIG boiling pot for you

@ SouthpawSid: Ah gotcha, yeah totally, i'll show closer shots from now on, and thanks

@ Jessica Dinh: Awesome glad you like it glad my style and mood is showing!

a3sthesia

those boiling pots definitely bring huge chunks of life to that scene. Absolutely awesome. I certainly cannot wait to get as good as you aajohnny. can-not-wait.

Jessica Dinh

The new asset is awesome! Definitely brings more focus to the scene

EmAr

I like the scene a lot. It reminds me of my time at a steel factory lol I hated that place.

You could add some warning signs here and there, maybe some blast doors(which are used to avoid the excessive amounts of heat radiated by molten metal) and ventilation equipment like huge fans etc.

Also, good placement of Greentooth

clawhead

Wow looks great dood! Just another suggestion, it might benefit to play with the foreground a bit and add something that will help push the eye towards the focal point. Keep up the good work. Looks sick!

Seaseme

Hell yeah Johnny! Kicking ass again! I cannot wait to see how this beast scene turns out. Loving the boiling pot asset. That thing is sex!

SouthpawSid

aw, the big boiler was GREAT addition!

AimBiZ

That's a very nice boiler indeed.

Things still feel a bit scattered though, but it would be easier to crit if you show different views of the enviro since it'll not be just one shot, and I'm also most curious to see since there's hints of stuff going on, or passages leading to places.

aajohnny

Thanks everybody! I really appreciate the feedback and kind words so far.

@ a3sthesia : Thanks! just work hard, and never stop ha !

@ Jessica Dinh : I agree with you, the other boiling pot wasn't cutting it, thanks to suggestions I made a bigger pot!

@ EmAr: Thanks a lot, and Ooh, keep the suggestions coming! especially since you've worked at a steel factory, even though you hated that, I hope you don't start hating me for reminding you! awesome, and thanks for those suggestions, those will be coming up in the next update I have to include Polycount in all my work haha.

@ clawhead: Thanks! yeah totally, I am working on some things that should hopefully push people eyes towards to focal point.

@ Seasame: 8) Thanks! I em enjoying working on this environment,

@ SouthpawSid: Glad you like it, thanks

@ AimBiZ: Thanks, and yeah of course, I'll try and get another angle or so in there to get what's going on, I always plan on adding more props, but I get distracted making something else I'll make sure to get everything to fit together and not feel so scattered.

@ ChillyDog12345: Haha thanks I really appreciate it!

EmAr

No problem, it was just an internship One more small detail then, they had this kind of portable fans at multiple locations:



The workers would clip their sweaty tank tops onto the fan grill so they would dry quicker.

Ok, I'm not sure you'd like to add this one into your scene but you see why I didn't like the place, right?

In case you haven't seen it, this video has some nice images too:

[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5dk2SFCApU[/ame]

Mr Whippy

Looking great so far.

But as GarageBay9 said you need to get that deep red spilling of light from the infra-red down into visible light working for you.
It just looks mildly warm in there, not metal meltingly hot.

I guess this is where the HDR/tone mapping becomes important as the value of the light coming off the molten metal will be pretty high!

Dave

aajohnny

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I haven't had too much time to do anything, but I did try and add in more red. Hopefully this is better:

EmAr

Getting better and better. Would it be too expensive to add a smoke effect over the lights? The air looks pretty clean right now which is not the case for foundries in general. Something like this:

sprunghunt

looking good

but - all the boilers are tilted yet the molten metal is not sitting parallel to the ground.

whats_true

You need to start working on the autmosphere. what you have is way to lo key. If you got some of these clasic "factory" effects in their, it would certainly sell the scene way more.

aajohnny

Thanks again guys, I'll get working on that Paul, thanks for the feedback.

Here is a BIG update (before I saw your suggestion ha)

Quick Real-Time Video I put together just to show how it looks in the Engine....moving....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h-LFzPjudQ&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Here is a update along with just a few quick props (going to complex assets next)

EmAr

Just paste the "youtube.com" url into your message and it automatically embeds.

One problem with the smoke: your smoke seems to be flowing downward. It's a very hot smoke, so it should go upwards.

Blaisoid

i think the atmosphere would improve if you reduced the bold typical SF glow on floor lights. currently they take away attention from the coolest stuff.

aajohnny

Yeah, I never really dealt much with particles before so I have to get used to it and fix that. I really need to get lava pouring down as well. I'll reduce the floor light glow for sure.

aajohnny

Okay I reduced the glow on the floor, added faster and more particles (hoping to get sparks soon) and added flowing lava. Hopefully its better now!

EmAr

It definitely looks better

TorQue[MoD]

Looking really nice, though as someone else pointed out the slag (back right pot) should be level with the ground in a tilted pot... http://cloud.graphicleftovers.com/19191/285371/blue-paint-pouring-from-bucket.jpg

Anything around the inside edge of the smelting pot should just be glowing hot metal not the actual slag. Also the pots themselves look too clean like they've never been used. Smelting pots typically have a lot of glowing hot crusty metal on them due to being constantly overheated. http://www.saltspringphotographers.ca/images2009/ab1.jpg
And some sparks would look awesome too... http://www.sciencephoto.com/image/356602/530wm/T8100177-Sparks_fly_in_a_foundry_during_copper_smelting-SPL.jpg

My only other comment would be that the foreground could use some more detail. Where's the conveyor that rolls everything out of there? And what about some catwalks? Otherwise everything is looking really nice just way too clean.

superdenny707

I really like the textures you used, they really work well. Would you mind posting the flats/material shaders you used?

TorQue[MoD]

Just noticed the video that I somehow missed last time... steam drifting down off of the right side smelting pots implies that its cold not hot. It looks like a perfect effect for a cryo-chamber but not for a smelting pot. I think you're gonna need a lot more smoke and a huge fog volume to make things look really hot.

aajohnny

Thanks for the feedback again, I added a new prop, and also changed some of the smoke (I hope it made a difference) Not a very good FX guy here

ZacD

My personal suggestions, the metal liquid needs more heat, and its a little dark.

http://i.imgur.com/rK3aG.jpg

The green and polycount splashes are not working for me, I like the flag because it makes the detail on the hooks pop, keep that. Also I'd expect the light from the actual lights be less powerful and cooler and color than the metal liquid.

Also the fan is too gray, but I didn't fix it in the paint over.

Ged

you might want to colour the smoke over time so its yellow/orange hot when it starts to a subtle yellowy white when it fades out?

aajohnny

Thanks for the awesome crits guys! thanks for the great paintover ZacD , and I'll try Ged I really appreciate it. I did a really quick update on the "hotness" of the lava (might have overdone it) Any better?

AimBiZ

Once again you're showing it off from the same angle, or have you changed plans about it not being single frame. Either way you should show an overview of the place as it's something with the layout that bothers me but I don't know what exactly, except for the floor area being flat. You'd get some nice areas of interest by varying the height of some of the floor section, and of course have it make sense somehow.
Well actually, you do have the lowered areas at the front to the left but I can't make out what they do or what they bring to the composition.

Individual props are nice.

aajohnny

Thanks for the feedback, well the reason I am showing only one view atm, is because the other parts are not complete and bare, and I haven't felt comfortable showing them yet, but I got to get over that!

Other angles:







Few glitches here and there but yeah

Ged

wow now that looks hot! hehe

AimBiZ

Now by seeing the new shots it feels like a different scene altogether, in a good way.

You should show how the main structure looks as well as wires. Doesn't matter if it looks good or not. What's important for this thread is to show how how you go about creating this.
The more raw stuff you show the easier it is to give feedback imo as polished stuff may make some people reluctant(guilty of that sometimes) to point out what needs improvement since it's usually harder to go back from that stage.

TorQue[MoD]

Ok, so from your main perspective, that fan is the first thing you look at. Its way to big in the scene and isn't interesting enough to be a major foreground piece. You should move it over to the front end of that middle walkway between the two smelting pots at the closest. And yeah those other shots are gorgeous! You definitely need to set up a camera that pans across/cuts to different areas. In the last screenshot, you just need some more details on that back wall. Maybe some Vents hanging down from the ceiling and then one of them running vertically down the wall into some sort of stove or boiler type structure?

I also just realized that your smoke is way too white. It should be a lot darker.
Looking a lot better overall though!

Blaisoid

not sure if that's what you were going for, but the scene has some retro vibe about it. it makes me think of old arena shooters for example.
that's probably because your textures look like they're diffuse only. normal maps seem pretty subtle, it's hard to notice them. same goes for specular maps, maybe that's lighting's fault but everything on the scene seems to have similar properties.

and also lots of props seem to have been made as low poly only so their edges have that sharpness like props from older games.

aajohnny

Thanks guys,
I'll see what I can do I did aim this to be a environment that would fit in a deathmatch level of a game.

RitualSynergY

This is great so far man! I love the colors you have! Is there going to be any spillage on the floors or anything with what you have planned?

AimBiZ

I also got some DM vibe from it from the start. That's why I prompted having more variation in heights as it usually tends for better gameplay. If that's what you're going for you should actually intergrate level design into the whole thing as that's what the style is based from.