Asian Apothecary Shop [WIP/Maya/UDK]

Spikings

Hi everyone, here is a development thread on my first ever modular environment that I'm making for one of my briefs at uni. Just a heads up, I'm quite new at 3d modelling and was introduced to it only back in January, so I'm not great with technical talk yet and a bit nervous, although I'm learning as fast as I can.

Down to business - I chose to make an asian apothecary shop as a modenv, mostly because I felt comfortable doing something interior for my first environment. Had to sketch out a couple of concepts first before diving into modelling, will put them up here for all to see (developing the bottom one now):



I want to create a dim and musty, old atmosphere, and I need at least 50% of my assets to be reused, so I'm clogging up the room with medicine bottles, boxes and the like. I have 15,000 tris to play with and 1024 x 1024 textures. I've never done normal maps before, but I want to give them a try if I have the time. I have another two weeks to complete this environment.

Any feedback or critique will be much appreciated, but please bare with me if I don't understand all the Maya/UDK terms yet, I'm still learning and I'm trying to be a huge sponge and take it all in. ^_^

Will post some screenshots of the modelled environment in the next 5-10 mins, so stick around!

Spikings

Here's some quick wireframe screenshots of the environment, because it's got four walls it's a bit difficult to get a proper angle, hope it's ok. The chequer texture is up as I've only just started UV mapping it, probably about 15% mapped now, must have the majority mapped for this friday.

Fnitrox

concepts are looking quite promising but it doesn't really give me an "asian" impression, judging mostly from the design of the desk it looks more like '800s english

Spikings

Fnitrox - Ahh yes, I forgot to concept in the panels on the desk - past few days have been quite hectic. I'm wanting to do furniture that is similar to this - http://folkartcn.en.ecplaza.net/1.jpg not traditionally asian, but in a time period where they're beginning to take on Western influences that are merging with their own. I think I need to update that concept a little, sorry ^_^;

Edit: There will also be a couple of carpets on the floor, some asian posters on the wall and some eastern style curtains and cloth. The door will be 1800's style, dark with carvings and again with panels on the inside. This is the theory anyway, hopefully as I model it will slowly become more oriental.

Spikings

Finished up the lantern, first time using normal and specular. Had to split it into two objects so the paper section could become translucent, then stick a light in the middle. The screenshot is in maya, but I've spent the day toying around with it in UDK since I'm still pretty new to the program. I can't get a shot from there however since I'm using a windows partition and the whole process is twice as pernickety as it needs to be because of that
But yeah, just tried to get one asset all the way through the process today, just so I know what I'm getting myself into.

Lily

lovely scene, but would you remove the words from the lantern?
It just looks so awkward imagine you wear a coat and there's a word "coat" on it...
Besides, is that an ink bottle with a goose quill on the desk? Chinese never ever used that!

Spikings

Lily - Thanks for the feedback! Today I've been chatting my amazing chinese friend (who might be watching this thread... ) and asked her advice on a few of these things, including the lantern. Writing is common on a lot of lanterns, and the writing translates into various positive phrases and such. I redesigned the lantern a little anyways after getting a critique, and will also be getting rid of the goose quill and inkpot too. I'll end up modelling some chinese calligraphy objects next week to replace these, but for the coming few days I'm concentrating on getting the bare basics of the environment into UDK.

Which leads me onto what I've done today; textured the walls, ceiling, beams, skirting boards, floor and put them all into UDK. The positioning is all off atm as I've only just got past the "maya objects imported into UDK are tiny" phase - since the screenshot I've corrected a few things.


This is from inside UDK. There's some sort of messup with the lightmapping maybe on the vertical plank, but I haven't figured out why it's there or where it's coming from yet. Changed the lantern design to cherry blossom with gold paint and metal.


A bigger view of the room...


And lantern again.

Spikings

Quick update here. All the repositioning along with other uni work has made it pretty slow to texture this past week, but I've got the majority of the big pieces done now, only the smaller props to texture which won't take as long. Here's a screenshot from inside maya of what I've got done up to now. Starting to mess around with duplicating my assets now to get a feel for it all.

Spikings

Here's an update of my environment, completed all textures in maya, I still need to add normal maps to a lot of objects and export the majority of them to UDK, but this should hopefully give you a rough idea of how it should look in UDK. I really hope to push the lighting and general atmosphere more in the engine itself. If you've got any feedback or critique, go for it! I would really like to improve






Let me know what you think!
P.S. The ceiling is there, but I took it off for the first pic so you can see the whole scene.

m1neh

Looks really nice, especially from the top down view. From first person (if that would be its purpose in game, which is something you should always consider with any environment, regardless of whether it will be in a game or not) everything looks a tad blocky and low poly, but not to a a particularly bad degree, just not really next gen. I would definately get this into UDK, and really try to push the materials (Spec map will be the most important here, as the diffuses look good) and lighting/athmosphere.

To push it further, you could add more detail into the blocky shelving units, and maybe a few more edges in the curved parts.

The shop is extremely small, but I guess that's what you're going for, and the intimacy does fit nicely. Some neat modelling so far, well done.

Broadway

Looks cool! That top down shot reminds me of the prerendered backgrounds you used to see in games back in the day.

I think you have some scale issues going on here, mostly with the door. Here are some typical door dimensions based on some random Googling I did:



And here's a guy in your shop, assuming your door is standard height:



He looks pretty giant! Try picking a height for the counter, like say 3'6", and scaling the door based on that so it's around 80". Also, I think your doorknob is a little low on the door; maybe try moving it so it's just a little under halfway up the height of the door.

Speaking of the door, doors are generally flush with the wall. The trim around the edge of the door probably shouldn't be so thick, you seldom see door trims that protrude more than an inch or two. Also, if the door opens inward, you'd be able to see some hinges from the inside.

The shelves in the bookcase-looking pieces of furniture standing against the wall feel a little thick.

How does the shopkeeper get behind the counter? If it's the section without shelves underneath, it will need a break and some hinges. Also, they probably wouldn't set anything large on top of the hinged section since they'll likely be moving through it often.

Most shops generally have a 'back' area, so you might think about extending the shop laterally to make a doorway leading to the 'back'. Of course, it would probably be plausible to say that this shop doesn't have a 'back'. But if not, I'd add some administrative clutter and supplies somewhere in the main room... whatever would be the 1800's equivalent of extra pens, cash register paper rolls, cleaning supplies, etc.

Also think about, where does the shopkeeper put their coat? Where do they leave food they bring to eat during the day? What do they do when a customer isn't in the shop? This could help you decide what kind of clutter to place. (If you had a back room, you could get away without a lot of this stuff, because we can assume it's all kept 'in the back'.)

Not to mention, you can't go wrong with a rug and some wall decorations/paper notices.

I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this, it already has a neat atmosphere!

Spikings

Small update, I've added some detail to a few objects, thinned out the bookshelf shelves, shortened the door, made the desk a little taller, added hinges to the desk section where the shopkeeper can get out as well as the door (an extra asset! ), pushed the door and doorframe back into the wall a little more to make it less blocky, shifted a few items round on the desk, added a carpet (cg textures now, desperately running out of time), also made a 'backdoor' but I couldn't edit the wall asset to make it look like it runs through a corridor. So I added a huge curtain to put over the threshhold, asked my friend if they used that often which they did, so at least it's kinda historically accurate.

If I had another week I would have added some more knicky-knacks around the shop like what you suggested Broadway, but now I'm really running out of time, and still need to put all this into UDK and toy around with lighting and particles (niether of which I've never had experience with before in UDK, so gonna need some time to practice before Friday's deadline). I might end up making this a portfolio piece after the deadline though, it's definitely my strongest piece of 3d yet, although I have a lot to improve.

So enough text, sorry! Here are a couple of top-down pics:





All normals, specs and lightmaps are ready, now it's time to import into UDK!

Pluisje

Nice scene! May I ask how you did the lighting from that lamp? I'm currently working on a udk scene were I also use those chinese lamps and I just can't get the lighting and the glow right that it looks like a paper shine