UDK cave environment

Ryper

Hi Everyone!

I'm starting a new environment and decided to keep a work log on here to try and keep me motivated and get some critique . I haven't done any serious 3D work in around a year so I'm a little rusty, but the aim is to create my next portfolio piece.

Most recent







Not too sure where I want to take this yet, but im thinking some sort of pirate cave, treasure chests/campfires/hammocks etc.

So far I just have the cave modelled with a quick terrain and lighting set up.




Next point of call is to flesh out the cave a bit with some rubble/ more detail

EvilPixills

Hey, Ryper looks like a good start. I know this is early so not really much to say now. The scene is a little dark so it's a bit hard to get a good look at your rock material.

It would be cool to see some light creeping in from the outside maybe through some tiny crevices or holes in the cave to make the scene more interesting. Also would probably be a good idea to start fleshing out your campfire lighting just by placing a few point lights in the areas you want to have your campfire(s).

Also don't hesitate to get as much reference as you can of cave interiors and lighting. Maybe there is a game you really like that has this awesome pirate themed cave and that will give you even more motivation and ideas for the scene.

Keep it up! Looking forward to seeing some more updates.

Ryper

Hi EvilPixills,

Thanks for the reply , I agree about the lighting, I think what I may do is put a large gap in the top right of the cave for tree roots/moss etc to creep through and also have some lovely god rays coming through, may help add some depth to the scene. and ill try brighten up the next few images to make them easier to see .

Just another quick WiP though for now, added in some tree roots and some rocks, just to flesh it out a bit more.

Ryper

Not a huge update as I haven't had any serious time to dedicate to this yet, however been doing little things here and there. fixed some lighting problems I had and tried to get a better idea of the atmosphere I'm aiming for.

Still aiming to have a gap at the top of the cave to add a bit more light/depth into the scene



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Ryper

Still adding bits as I go , done a few little changes to inside the cave, changed the terrain about a bit, added a cobweb , and added/moved some rocks about. Have also started to get the basic idea for outside the cave.

Ryper

It's been a while since I updated this, but have recently had time to go back and revisit it.

A few things have been added, posters/maps on the walls, more clutter around the cave, some palm trees outside the entrance, and an entrance sign. Also a new terrain in the distance.

My main problem at the moment though is with the speedtree shadows. They dont cast them properly, and the only way I seem to be able to get them is to untick "use precomputed shadows", but if I do that the trees themselves dont recieve shadows properly. anyone any idea what the issue is with them?

Inside



Outside



Looking Inside



Terrain


Next few jobs are to fix the shadows with the trees/ make my own skydome, and make the campfire for the cave

Ryper

Quick update, made a new sky box which I'm much happier with. Have begun to flesh out the entire scene a bit more, with a path leading down out of the cave entrance, will post a pic when its closer to being finished.

Ryper

Started making a path leading up to the cave area. a couple more wip images

GragGunslinger

Looking pretty good!

I'd watch out for your shadows though, they're pretty harsh black, I'd make them purpleish or blueish so that it doesn't blot out your environment!

Ryper

GragGunslinger wrote: »

Looking pretty good!

I'd watch out for your shadows though, they're pretty harsh black, I'd make them purpleish or blueish so that it doesn't blot out your environment!

Thanks . I've changed the shadow colour of the dominant light to a deep purple/blue colour, and i've brightened up the whole scene a bit, so its much easier to see now

Ryper

So after realizing that I should probably get this scene finished, as I've been doing bits and bobs everywhere for the past few months, I now have a plan set out and it will be done in the next month (hopefully) lol.

Just a few update pics, I've done a fair chunk of work trying to get the lighting to a place that I'm happy with (for now). The inside of the cave could be a little bit too dark still, but I will tweak that once I get my own fire in there. for the moment its just the standard fire in udk.
I've also done some work on the rocks on the outside of the cave.








I'm currently working on foliage, I've done the grass so far, and am working on making my own trees/shrubs.

Thanks for looking and I promise it will be done soon.....

KristaW

Hey Ryper! I noticed some quick obvious things that you might want to think about. It's smart to put a fire in a cave, it can give you a reason to have lighting in an otherwise dark area, but the lighting emitting from the fire is green and it doesn't look right. I would warm up the light to something more orange. Also, it feels weird to have a fire inside a cave on a beautiful sunny day. In those conditions a fire would be obnoxious and smokey. It would feel more comforting if it was snowing or raining outside the cave. That is a project all in its self though...But having a story or a reason why things are where they are always helps make a piece more appealing. Something to chew on while you make this.

KristaW

You know, looking closer I can see some warm light coming from the fire, but the overall ambient green light makes it seem as thought the fire is emitting a green light. you might want to make the fire light stronger and tone down whatever is making the interior green...in my opinion...

Ryper

Thanks Krista, I've been thinking the same as well. I've yet to make my own fire particle emitter, but I may make it so the fire has burnt out and its just smoke coming from the fire.

Maybe I could make some oil lantern of some sort to give light to the inside of the cave.

I'll decide when I get there , but for now thanks for the feedback, makes a lot of sense

Ryper

not a huge update here, but I have got rid of the fire, and just changed it to a smoky, burnt out fire. And I have also made a few shrubs outside the cave entrance, and a pirate sword, yarr.

Currently making the trees, should hopefully have them done by the end of today

Mr Significant

The sword look bad: metal looks like a stone. Make less diffuse, more specular. (sorry for english ). This dark yellow thing have to get more spec, it's to dark.
Oh: and the blade it's to "jaggy" ? I don't know what was your reference, but the blades are almost straight.
The grass maybe it's too bright, and little to saturated. There is no transition between the ground and grass.

Keep it up!

Ryper

Thanks for the crit Mr Significant, I definitely agree that the sword looks bad , i need to do some more work on the textures for sure, especially the blade, I'm also not going for a realistic sword, I wanted it a little stylized, which is why its a bit "jaggy".

With the grass also good point, I'm just tweaking the material now a bit to try and get it blending with the ground a bit better. Will post another screen soon

Ryper

Changed the grass material to try and blend it in better with the terrain, also put more of the base grass texture on the terrain

Mr Significant

Now it's just too green hehe

but it's just my word, maybe some others can say something else.

Ryper

Maybe its a little too green, although the whole level is quite colourful, I could just desaturate the whole world once its all completed if it still looks too bright . Thanks for the crit though, much appreciated

Ryper

I've done a quick bit of work with the sword, still struggling to get the spec right with the blade, as it still looks a bit like stone/plastic

Mr Significant

Give there more light or take it to marmoset Can't see anything

Ryper

Heh sry

Ciril

Hey Ryper,

just a little tip for metallic surfaces. It´s not the diffuse that gives the "color". Try to use a very dark diffuse and a very bright specular to get a metallic look.
Here is a little example I made to explain this better:



As you can see, to get a gold like surface, I use a diffuse which is nearly black, but my specular is a bright yellow. With the glossiness or specular power like it´s called in UDK you can tweak what kind of reflection the surface should have. So if it´s glossy or matt.

Hope this helps

Ryper

Thanks for the help Ciril, was very useful to see .

Just a quick update here, have made a pirate flag in the distance/cave mushrooms/gold coins. Made my own smoke flipbook for the particle effect above the fire, and added a few dust particles floating about, although they are hard to see in the image.

The pole for the flag is a WiP as well as i need to change it.

Ryper

Small update, played around with the lighting a great deal inside the cave. Added a few props here and there.

Ryper

Turns out after having another look at the rocks, figured they are pretty rubbish, so I remade 3 different rocks and have started to recreate the outside of the cave.

Mr Significant

Have you got some sort of plan where did you go with this?

Rocks looks very smooth, there are no sharp edges. Maybe something like this? :

http://eat3d.com/files/imagecache/blog_content/blog_images/Polypainting.jpg

Ryper

I think my main aim with this environment is to learn as much as possible.

I want to have 3 areas, the inside of the cave, The outside of the cave, then a general overview of the whole area with a small forest/path leading up to the cave.

Here are a couple more WiP images.

Mr Significant

Well, I'll looking forward where it goes. For now it's almost good, but empty as hell Let's see on forward progress.

Ryper

Added some leafs/vine to the rocks, to try and break them up a bit, for now though im going to move on and nit pick about little things when the whole thing is a bit closer to completion.

Next job is trees and a treasure chest

Mr Significant

What leafs do on the rough rocks? If you want to break them, you need a specific terrain, like forest for maybe moss, or northern mountains, for snow. But if you accept that, leave it there.

Ryper

So been a small while since I've updated this, but I've been learning how to make trees properly, and I have come across a problem with my grass lighting. They don't seem to receive shadows properly, they either receive the light, or none at all, here are a few screens showing what I mean.





Anyone any idea what could be the cause of this?

TactMasterZero

i think that can be fixed if you adjust the normal direction on your cards so it's facing straight up ^ , but i'm no expert...

Ryper

already done , I'll go back and double check though

Ryper

Seems to be an issue with just my foliage, because if i place some grass as a static mesh the lighting is fine. Here are my foliage lighting settings.

Ryper

Fixed the lighting issues with the grass, turns out I didn't have a 2nd uv channel set up, so I generated a 2nd one inside UDK, set the lightmap coordinate index to the new uv channel, and ticked "precomputed shadows" in the foliage settings.

Mr Significant

I think zou have some problems with color understanding. All scene have soooooo much color in it. Too much green. This cannot be solved via color correction in UDK, its came from textures.


Trees lookin almost good. You can try to remove few planes to get some volume to it (Idk how to say that )

Ryper

Yeah I know about the colour, its a choice though, I want it to be colourful/vibrant, although the last screen you can see with the trees, the material is very wrong, they are far too green, it was just put into the scene as i was testing the shadows/if they imported correctly, I'll post an updated screenshot soon

Ryper

So an update to where everything is currently at, My main focus at the moment was getting the outside area filled out a bit, adding in trees/more foliage etc. Next jobs are to make a few more assets to help fill it out even more.

Hayden Zammit

Looking real sweet. I agree about color being a choice and I like all the strong greens. That said, I think it would be cool if you broke it up a bit with way more flowers and different colored things like that. Maybe give the Tree leaves a slight color variation as well.

Ryper

Thanks for the reply Hayden, good point about the flowers, so I made a mask that I use for the flowers that changes their colour depending on their world position, and I'm working on getting that added to the trees so they change colour ever so slightly.

I have mainly been fleshing out the outside area the past few days, closing off the area etc. I need to add a few more twigs/shrubs/flowers around the place to fill it out a bit more to break up the green as well.

I have also added wind to the foliage, and some ambient birds , but that will have to wait till i do a fly through to see them

Any crits on ways I could improve this are very welcome

sybrix

I'm a fan of vibrantly colored scenes, but this scene lacks color variation. If you look at nice colorful foliage you will notice it's not all just one shade, but they are made up of slightly different hues working together. For example grass can have tones ranging from green to yellow-green, maybe even some hints of blue. Regular trees can also have the same range, with maybe even hints of reds or orange.

A nice exercise I like to do is find a reference photo of what I'm trying to make that I find pleasing, then take it into Photoshop and crank up the saturation/levels. Then color pick some of the color ranges in the image. You'll notice that the tonal variation in things that look pleasing to us have a subtle wide range of colors, and you'd be surprised how colorful things really are! I think that some color variation will really bring this to the next level. Without the color variation things will tend to look flat. (Good lighting also really helps, but I still struggle with that ><)

Also with the tress, maybe try making at least 3 trees tinted slightly different colors because they look almost identical color wise.

Here's an example on grass:

Ryper

Thanks for the reply sybrix, and its a very good point.

Would you know of a good way to mix up the colours within the grass material itself?

I will have a go at just instancing the material and changing the colours on each for each of my 3 different trees. But it would be good if I could do it all within the material.

and as far as lighting goes, it needs some work , but I think that can wait till the end

sybrix

Sorry for the late reply, but yes, someone posted a small tutorial on a color variation shader for UDK that I wanted to try at one point. I don't remember the name of the poster or the post, but I saved it for later reference. If anyone knows who to credit for this I'd appreciate it.

Ryper

Thanks for the reference Sybrix, very cool little trick of changing colours, I've done a little bit of colour grading with a colour LUT and have added some smaller pebbles around the path. and i did change the colour of the foliage slightly, I'm unsure if I should change the variance much more though, its only slight at the moment, but let me know what you think.

I think I'm pretty much in the polishing stages now for the outside area, might make a few butterflies that fly around the area.

As always, any crits are welcome

Ryper

So I have now called this portfolio piece finished, I'm currently just working on showcasing the textures/assets then will make a fly through video and its done, time to start trying to find a job .

Thank you for all the crits and kind words along the way, they work wonders for motivation.

Here are the final presentation pics

Dave Jr

As previously said, I do think the scene is too vibrant. I'm a fan of colourful scenes too but this lacks no colour theory; maybe just try to change the tree leaves to red? Make it more of a maple look and you should have some nice contrast there... or atleast some complimentary colours to the green...

(if your not happy to do it in a game engine; perhaps just try it yourself in photoshop?)

ivanzu

Add convexity map on the rocks like i did here,it should add more details and color variation.

Mr Significant

Maybe you can take a screenshot, bring it to Photoshop, and then make a paitnover with color, to find the contrast and colors. This could help.

icanzu what is that convexity map?

ivanzu

Convexity map basically works like concavity map but just the other way around.