UDK scene: Ancient temple - Sanctum (WHEN ENTERING THIS THREAD, CRITIC!)

Christian Nordgren

My work so far! I could call it finished, but If someone has any ideas to make the scene better, do tell please!







After started and (kind of) finishing a awesome mech-tank I am now starting on a new portfolio piece called: Sanctum.
(My old thread: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116199)

I will make my first UDK scene and my plan is not to aim to high so I can get a nice looking portfolio. But at the same time I want to push myself and make a really nice looking environment.

My professor has given us a deadline of two weeks. (so until morning 25th february)

I have a polycount of 50 000 TRIS and I can only use
4x2048 DIFFUSE TEXTURES
4x2048 SPEC TEXTURES
4x2048 NORMAL TEXTURES

or using the power of two to step down a la:
16x1024 or 64x512 and so on.

Here are my concept and planing of the whole work:



I want to create a atmospheric jungel world with a sensation of calmness and "beauty" (sounds kind of corny) but I want the same feelings as some of the demons souls holy places but look like the uncharted games. So that people will feel calm or when entering a empty cathedral.

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PLANING

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ASSETS
- FLOORTILE (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (TUTORIAL)
- STAIRS (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA - MUDBOX - 3DCOAT - MESHLAB)
- WALLTILE (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (TUTORIAL)
- ROCKS
-PILLAR (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA - MUDBOX - MESHLAB) TUTORIAL (OPTIONAL)
-MOSY ROCK (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA - ROADKILL - MUDBOX - MESHLAB)
-CLEANROCK (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA - ROADKILL- MUDBOX - MESHLAB)
VEGETATION
-PALMTREES (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA)
-BUSHES (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA)
-GRASS (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA)
-GRASSES (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA)
-ORMBUNKAR (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA)
CANDLES (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA)
BUDHA STATUE (DIFFUSE, SPEC, NORMALS) (MAYA - MUDBOX - 3DCOAT RETOPO)

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SCHEDULE

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MONDAY

-UDK BLOCKOUT AND REFERENCE SEARCHING
-PLANING
-GET A HAIRCUT

TUESDAY

-FLOORTILING AND WALL TILING TUTORIAL // OR VEGETATION

WEDNESDAY
-VEGETATION
(PALM TREE*1, BUSHES*2, GRASS*3, WALL VEGETATION*4, GRASSES)

THURSDAY
-VEGETATION // OR WALL AND FLOOR TILING
(PALM TREE, BUSHES, GRASS, GRASSES, WALL VEGETATION)
-CHECK IN DUK

FRIDAY
-REDO WALKTILES
-REDO WALLS
-MAKE CANDLES

-BUSY 17:30 (FLATLINE)

SATURDAY
- BUDHA STATUE

SUNDAY
-BUDHA STATUE

MONDAY
-BUDHA STATUE

TUESDAY
-FINETUENING VEGETATION

WEDNESDAY
-Add stones

THURSDAY
- FINE TUNING
- TEXTURE FINE TUNING

FRIDAY
-FINE TUNING

SATURDAY
-FINE TUNING

SUNDAY
-PORTFOLIOPIECE

(these are some of the tutorials I will check on later during the production

http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/modular_rocks/modular_rocks.html (WALL & FLOOR TILES)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb0ZRnly2RI (ROCK MODELLING (BLENDER & WORKFLOW))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeFqsfgIWzg (SUPREME ROCK MODELLING WORKFLOW)

Now I will start doing some plants! Will be sending blockout and vegetations at the end of the day!

Christian Nordgren

Not following the planing quite. I think I need to do more vegetation just to get more feeling around the environment. I have tried making som stone tiles but I never got happy with the results. But I have made staris and stone walk tiles. Tomorrow I will continue and possibly importing to UDK. The planing acts more like a guideline so I won't forget important parts

mikhga

Looking cool so far, however I think you should reconsider how much you might actually have time to make in two weeks, especially as it's your first time using the Unreal Development Kit. Aim for quality instead of quantity and try to learn the basics of the engine before you bring out the big guns.

I also think you should do a fairly detailed blockout of the environment you have in mind first and import that into UDK and get a nice composition going before you actually start producing content. Because that will give you a better understanding of where you might be able to "trim the fat" in order to meet your deadline.

Christian Nordgren

You have totally right, quality is better than quanitity. But I have gone through some basic UDK tutorials (2 hours in on the offical udk tutorial) So I have a simple understanding of how I want to put up stuff, hopefully I haven't taken enough work that I won't be able to chew

I will start importing stuff to UDK first thing, I just needed some simple vegetation and basic texturing so I will get a hang of the whole attaching texture-node-shaders to help myself understand how I want to put up everything! Then its back to polishing ground tiles, wall textures and make more vegetation.

Thanks for your comment, It feels like stuff was more clear than ever!

mikhga

I understand. However, I strongly recommend you make at least a rough blockout and import that, to see how much work you actually need to do in order to create a nice atmosphere. You could even create a few basic materials in UDK like rock, grass and tree, with just a flat colour and assign that to your blockout meshes in order to get an overview of what you actually want to create.

I know it's hard to keep yourself from producing content right away, but trust me, pre-production pays of.

Christian Nordgren

I made a rough blockout now! It has been very intressting working in UDK and I am mostly impressed! But it feels like the scene overall feels a little boring how it looks like a square, I might want to change directon, make it sphere looking?

Oh,and my polycount atm is skyhigh, I might want to do something about that

Christian Nordgren

Todays WIP! I will make new wall textures and start making extra props and candles tomorrow!





I will consider maybe to make the whole level a sphere, I think the environment turned out way better now with some vegetation on the level.

I am gonna reschedule the statue and make it during the weekend

GrimFiction

I think the ground stone was is too over scaled and a little uneven, if you're going for the overgrown look have some vines and the roots of trees interweaving through those huge stones. You also need a background blocker 2 or 3 layers at incremental distances to create ambiance. Some texture variation in the walls would be nice too some moss or plant growth.

Overall its coming along nicely, oh! I'd also have the light source slight to the left or right because the light bleaches out most of the scene. Hope that helps!

chrisradsby

I'd say, don't rely on god-rays to make something look good. Just bring the sun to the side and focus on the more important things like the scale, composition and colors. Right now everything is coming off as overly saturated and a little bit cartoony, it all depends on what you're aiming for ofcourse. The most important thing is to gather reference for places like this and good looking/interesting angles you can use to show off your work.

Other than that good & quick work so far!

Fenyce

I don't know if it's just me, but I think the stones on the ground are far to big... they make the scene feel off. Somehow I have the feeling that the propotions are wrong, the tunnel seems to be not high enough to walk through it without problems. If you want the statue to be big, than you'll need to rescale the ground and grass. The stones on the wall could be that giant, I think, that's possible...

PixelSuit

I would agree with the above comments, one of the most important things we need to get right in our art is scale, without it everything begins to look wrong. It's best to block out scenes first using a block which is the size of a standard character in your engine of choice. You can have the most beautiful artwork anyone has ever seen but without a sense of scale it will always fall apart. I would recommend addressing this before you do anything else, you might not want to break your tight schedule but it will be worth it in the end.

As other people have said, good job on the speed at which you are going, you seem to have a good schedule you are sticking to which is important especially when you come to be in the industry. Good luck with the work!

David Wakelin

Can you share your workflow on the vegetation? Maybe where you got the textures; those palms look fantastic

Christian Nordgren

Sorry for the late response! I have been fixing the all the stuff and this weekend I haven't been as productive as I use to be

Grimfiction: backgrounds and vertex color variation on textures in UDK. I will add it into the planing! I will try to make the best to add it!

Chrisradsby: I have been checking out scales and more references. I aim to do some kind of realistic environment

Feynce & PixelSuit:: Hm, I think I need smaller stones on the wall thou, everything should be smaller and I should have massive vegetations all around. Thats at least my plan!

David Wakelin: The palms and the environment is not finished! But I have used two seperate textures on all the vegetation, one of all the leaves that will have alpha and the rest which are non alpha. I have taken all my textures from http://cgtextures.com/ and masked out the parts I want visiable!

And heres a new update!





I have also a problem, Somehow my normals and spec dosen't show as clearly as mudbox or maya. See that this?



I want it! My udk scene seems more plastic while mudbox makes it look really like rock. Any ideas?

Eliteabix

You can change specular intensity/fresnel via material editor in UDK

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_m-C29HY90"]Unreal Development Kit UDK Tutorial - 28 - Specular Control - YouTube[/ame]

Christian Nordgren

Thanks Eliteabix for the advice! But I changed the contrasts on the spec and more intensity on the normalmap, that would do. If I am going to put stuff on marmoset later, I don't want to make to many configurations

Here for some sweet updates. I could say that I am just polishing right now the next 4 days for deadline. So I am gonna some sweet backgrounds and more vegetation on the horizon. My original beauty shot is not intressting enough and seems kind of boring, any tips of making it better? (Its the first picture)







otherwise I'm turning quite happy with the results

Christian Nordgren

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My deadline final product! Anyone has some critcs? I am eager to hear to hear feedback I will do under the weekend!