Welcome to paradise!!! WIP

njackson4190

Hey everyone,

If you take a look at my website, you'll see that I have no outdoor env, so this is my first one. I have been working on this environment on and off for a few months now and I thought that now would be a good time to submit a post for some feedback on my current WIP.

I still have to add in a few coconut palms, grass, rocks, and some assets that have been modeled but not brought into UDK just yet. For the final piece I plan to have a day and night version with lit torches and a small fire pit. The lights will also really help to add some color to the scene. I also want to add in some wind, sounds, and more particles to really make the scene come to life. Hope you all like what I have so far and I really look forward to hearing your advice, critiques and feedback.

Thanks everyone!

spectre1130

Looks like a good start, though those bar patrons don't look too friendly.

Fingus

Good start. Looking at the concept art it's very bold and colorful, and so far the scene looks rather clean and realistic. I realize it's still early WIP but that's something to keep in mind.

James Ordner

It's all personal preference, but I'd turn down the Lightmass AO a bit. The inside of the hut is unrealistically dark for a midday outdoor scene.

njackson4190

Here is an update on the beach scene. Got the ocean shader made and did some terrain work. Still have to work on the textures for the terrain. If you have any advice on the ocean shader network and what can be done to improve it, I am all :poly115: (hehe since I'm reading). Anyways, this is my first ocean shader and I made what I could using UDK docs, tuts, and whatever I could find on the net. Thanks

njackson4190

More pics of shader network

njackson4190

Gotta an update on the Beach Scene. I added in the rest of the vegetation and did some work on the terrain. I am going to model out some rocks and eventually a cliff. I am a pretty big noob when it comes to Zbrush as I have never really had a need to use it till now.

I also posted a WIP of a rock that I started today. I have browsed some tuts and the wiki on rock sculpting and this is what I have so far from reading on the different techniques and tricks. I am using Dynamesh which this is my first time using. None of the assets in the scene have been textured yet and lighting is still WIP but getting closer to a final look. Thanks!!

njackson4190

Repost

njackson4190

Did some work today on my first rock asset. I removed the side that was jutting out of the original version. So far I am using Dynamesh to make the rocks but I have a feeling that I may have to split these off into separate subtools so I can detail each individually. IDK what do you all think? I also played with the silhouette a little bit and added in some detail. This is just the first pass so far.

How would I go about making sharp cuts and angles in the rocks like in the images? I am fairly new to zbrush and when it comes to the brushes I do not know what is good for certain effects. So far I have used the inflate, hpolish and dam standard brush. I would be super grateful for some input on what I have so far and my environment. Thanks

DarthBotto

I'd take some time fixing up the background; give the scene some scope.

Fwap

for the layered rock look i usually break the rock up into different flatter rocks and mash them all together using the mesh insert brush + dynamesh

There was a very good tutorial floating around here before, that would be useful to you.
Ill try find it.

found it. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110812

njackson4190

DarthBotto: Thanks for the feedback man. In the future I plan to add in some vegetation on that far back island but I need to make LOD's first. I also need to redo the skybox. It was rough and quick to get something in there instead of the black background I had before. Do you have any ideas?

Fwap: Thanks for the link man. I'm surprised I did not see this in the wiki. I will definitely watch this tonight.

Thanks for the feedback!!

njackson4190

After watching the above posted video and creating my own alpha's, this is what I came up with. Got in some detail and tomorrow I am going to sculpt in some cracks and do some final touches. If you have any advice on what I can do to push this further I am all ears. I think that once I bake NRM, AO, Cavity, and get the Diffuse texture made then it should look pretty good. I hope to finish sculpting by the end of this weekend. Thanks for the help everyone!!

njackson4190

Here is the final version of the rock sculpt and the low poly in game version. The texture is tiling right now just as a placeholder and to see how the rock holds up. I am going to work on textures tomorrow and remove those seams. You can hardly see the normal map detail on the rock though. Any suggestions on how to make it pop more? Once I get the textures finished it should look pretty decent. I also just bought Marmoset so I'll try to get some render's out of that once I finish. Thanks!

njackson4190

I think I am going to call this rock finished. I don't think I am going to make a spec map for it. It is going to be off in the distance from the main shot of the environment. I changed to color of it and added some sand and worn edges to the rock. I really want to add in some water that is on top of part of the rock but I think I am going to hold off on that till I make final renders of all the assets for my portfolio. Off to the next one .

Kridian

I knew I've seen this image before. PogoP's Beach Bar in the CryEngine.

RaPtoR_v9600

Good find Kridian, this will be interesting to see how it will look in UDK, but its not that strange at all concept from Tuomas Korpi is just great.

Great work njackson4190 on rocks i already seen them on eat3d forums but still great project

njackson4190

I have been working on this for the past two weeks now. Been on the back burner for to long and it is time to get this done. I still have some work to do on the terrain and assets to texture. I also want to make a night scene and get some nice particles in, like tiki torches and a fire pit. Plus there is a nice opportunity to get some sexy party lighting in the scene. As always crits and comments are welcome . Thanks!!

njackson4190

Finally got the chance these past few weeks to really crack down and make some more progress on this piece. Got some more texture work finished, added decals to the terrain and also added some more variation. Lighting has been tweaked a bit since last post.

njackson4190

Pushing this scene more and more everyday. Got the boombox, bar stools, hanging bead curtain, and tiki masks textured. Also made a few minor tweaks and started the fan on the bar. Tomorrow I'll finish texturing the fan then I'll move to some small vegetation on the ground and if I have time, I'll move some assets around to better match the concept.

Critiques and comments welcome!!

RogelioD

Your wood seems crazy saturated right now, almost like it's soaked in some sort of liquid. The wood in the concept is a lot lighter in tone, and not just from the sunshine. In the concept it looks almost bleached, which actually makes sense. Overall it's pretty strong right now though, I'd say just keep at it and keep tweaking

Quack!

Looks great! The tree's trunk textures seem very flat and are just jumping out at me and creating a very jarring effect.

Getting some more props around the bar area are going to sell it, can't wait to see the progress.

DWalker

The surfboard on the rear wall of the bar is very blocky, especially near the nose.

The seams between the planks of the bar top are quite dark and wide. Also, the planks should meet at the corner; instead, you have 2 planks meeting 3.

Gazu

Dude i like it!
The Harmony is really good!

Sebvhe

This is a really good start already

However, your des wood texture is really low-res comparing to the other assets.

And about the palm trunk, I'd go for something like this
It fits the concept a lot more than your current overtiled bark texture

Keep up the good work !

njackson4190

Thanks for all the feedback!!:) It seems that my lightmass settings were causing the funky lighting on the building. Did a little researching on the settings today and played with the lighting some.

@Sebvhe: The texel density of the wood is much lower than the other assets. I have been meaning to get around to re-texturing it at a higher resolution but I have not got around to fixing it yet. That palm tree trunk looks perfect. I am going to make that instead of my current one.

I am not sure about the best way to go about sculpting it in zbrush. I was thinking that I could make a tiling texture in and apply that to the palm tree with a displacement map. I have three different palm tree trunks and sculpting each one independently would take a lot of time.

Any suggestions on a workflow for this piece?

http://7layerstudio.typepad.com/7_layer_studio/images/2008/06/30/palm_tree_trunk_blog.jpg

I have played around a bit in zbrush but have not quite got the look I'm going for. I'll post up some screenshots tomorrow evening.

Sebvhe

For the Palm trunk, creating a tiling texture seems to be the best way to go.

So I'd go that way :

Either you find good photographs on the net or you do them yourself if you can. Then you create a tiling texture out of it. With this texture you should sculpt the big shapes quickly in ZBrush, just to have good general shape, without focusing on the cracks and little detail. Then you make the little details out of your texture using Crazybump or similar and then you merge your picture and ZBrush normals together.

Or, You sculpt the big shapes from scratch in ZBrush, make the texture tile and then add little details such as cracks in photoshop/crazybump out of various pictures.

But there must be other (better?) ways to do that kind of texture

njackson4190

Alright, here is my final-ish version of the new palm tree. Gonna sculpt in some scratches into the trunk and fix a section of the texture that is looking a little funky. I am pretty happy with the result. It took the whole day but totally worth it . Sculpted base forms in Zbrush and added in the smaller details with NDO.

Sebvhe

I totally agree, the palm trees are way better than before !
Keep up the good job !

njackson4190

Just got the different lighting setups finished for different times of the day. Going to post some more shots of the rest of the environment soon, along with more hi-rez shots. How do I render images out of UDK and keep my post process effects? I have looked around but have not found a solution yet.

KazeoHin

This is awesome UDK work.

fabio brasilien

I have a feeling that the sand is hard rocks instead.
Researching for beach sand you will see that normally it hasn´t a cool shadow nor such hard transition between bright and dark areas.
I would say it is caused by the light scattering between the tiny grains.
Also normally some falloff happens on the sand.
My suggestion is get some of this effect somehow on your sand shader once it is one of the strongest features on a beach scene.
Just research a bit more and try to improve this sand if you want to spend some more time on this scene.
That by the way looks pretty cool!
I would love to see some short video with some bouncing leafs, ocean sounds and everything else that would happen there

PogoP

Heh I did a scene based on this exact same concept a couple years ago, when I was learning Cryengine. It's uncanny seeing someone else making the same assets! Looks nice so far though.

http://liamtart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/level_beach_1.jpg

njackson4190

Gonna call this finished for now. May go back and do a fly through in the future. I'll post some more asset screenshots later this evening after my appointment today.

@PogoP Oh yeah, I remember seeing this a while back when I started this environment. This looks really good. Did you model anything on the interior?

njackson4190

Here are some shots of some of the assets and vegetation in the scene.

mr_ace

this is really nice, good job

Quack!

Fantastic job and a worthy portfolio piece!