(UDK) Cliff side town

refriedspinach

update!
more screens at bottom







hey folks!

ive been meaning to post this earlier but couldnt find the time to do so.

basically my concept is that this is a kinda of a happy easygoing town that kind of acts as a coastal town, except for one thing. the ships float in the sky due to heavy use of oils and diesels to power there ships.

i kinda based the ship idea off of one of my favourite artists Ian Mcque.

my plan is to make this town as detailed as i can. (without killing it of course)

this is where im at right now.

pixelpatron

Couple things that would improve this.

Do not use pure white for your lights, especially your flood lights that have the visible cones. (maybe you didn't but they look white to me.)

Do not place your moon as part of your skydome, (it's being squashed currently and looks wrong) it's better to make it a seperate piece and use it's own custom glow/emmissive shader. Just float it up in the sky (preferably aligned with your global directional light.)

Your environment lacks a focal point, (landmark) Ex. Windmill, electrical tower, generator, well, water tower.

Too much wood, I understand that is the look your going for but you need to vary up your materials more. I'd also tweak the wood color to not match your ground or vice/versa.

The blue and red tarps are nice for a splash of color but would be better suited in aiding your player and almost making the map zoned (red vs blue) this would read better and aid any player on getting oriented since so much of the map looks similar. (Although your main landmark should be providing that to the player anyway.)

Skydome texture is too low-res and doesn't reflect the mood or aid the lighting.

The wires don't look like wires, and your flags are not helping this scene, if it's a run down almost abandoned piecemeal constructed environment, why are there used parking lot flags hanging around? Not saying someone wouldn't decorate their treehouse with this kinda stuff but when adding anything to an environment think of it's place, it's wear, and if it would make sense to live there.

Stuff I'd consider adding: tires, wooden barrels, chain link, swap some boards for logs, or a car bumper, whatever......think more junkyard, google "junkyard" get some ideas and make some new props, this thing is too vanilla, and needs sprinkles.Basic standard barrels and crates are a no no these days. Which is why you see milk crates in uncharted, or if it is a crate, it better tell a story.

I really hope your push this as this could be really cool, but as it stands now it's somewhat lacking a story or a soul. Reminds me a bit of the new tomb raider environments, you should take a look for inspiration, as well as what to avoid so your environment can stand out.

Good luck.

Cheathem

Hey refriedspinach,Your off to a great start.Really feels like something in crysis.
but i agree with pixelpatron on a couple things.The skydome isnt helping out much at all.maybe even scrap it and get a different one.And it looks as if the moon isnt casting any shadows in your scene,is that intentional? and there needs to be more dark areas in your scene.the ambient light you have going on kinda makes everything blend together at a distance.So yeah, i would say that the two things holding your scene back is the lighting and skydome.Goodluck with the rest of your scene!

refriedspinach

first id just like to thank pixelpatron and cheathem for there very helpful critique. i had the thought of it being to generic in my head( all the same, just slightly different).
i couldnt figure out the reason behind it being to graywashed out. after some poking around i eventually found out that global illumination was set fairly high for some reason, so now i can actually collect some nice dark areas.
the skydome was more of a place holder, which now i have changed into the final version.

i havent brought in any new static meshes, as i was just focusing on the mood and lighting of the level then ill worry about the smaller stuff.
though i do have a couple different tires, chainlink fence, tables, chairs, garbage modelled, i just havent brought them into the level yet.

ive been playing with materials and particles and now have introduced a rain element into my scene along with my rain sounds.

its getting alot closer to how i want the level to look/feel, its amazing what lighting can do to an environment!

heres some screen shots of my level so far, though they dot really do the rain justice, hopefully i can get up a quick video of what it looks like.

zymn

Oooooh pretty rain. However I think the drops running off of the roof could use a bit more alpha. From the distance you're showing it looks very white.

refriedspinach

thanks zymn, ya my gf noticed it too so i played around with it and looks muchbetter now. i also removed the wooden floor on the first picture to break up the scane a bit more. hopefully i can post pictures before i head home for the weekend

refriedspinach

hey guys, long time no update!

finally got some extra time away from heavy school load to put some more effort into this scene.

i have changed the main area quite a bit
adjusted materials, post processing, added some more props.... just filled it up with more unique pieces

heres a quick vid of what ive done (had pics up but image sahck killed them gonna reupload and share asap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OluY5HfEz_g&feature=youtu.be


edit:
heres the pics

refriedspinach

so i got some extra time and decided to make an evening version of the scene. i wanted to keep the same scene but try and completely change the mood of it to more of a nice softy and cozy feel

what do you guys think?

KartoonHead

The shapes in your scene are all a bit bland. Everything's very square and rectangular. Your generic wood is boring to look at and looks a little too dark and saturated. Use your coloured panels more sparingly, use them to draw attention to one particular area of the image, don't just plaster them all over. Think about composition. More unique props. Decals. Different densities of foliage, not just thick green grass then no grass. Give the scene a 'hero', something to look at. I don't know where I'm meant to be looking. Think about the story you're telling, at the moment there doesn't appear to be one. A single plume of smoke is enough, make it more interesting to look at. Your trees don't look very much like trees. Look at the structure of a tree, branch placement, in particular branch angle. Tiled detail normals are a wonderful thing. Compose your shots. Shot #9 above is your best shot, expand on it. The first things that come to mind anyway. Hope that's helpful!