ESCAPE - Fallen museum - JSargent

jsargent

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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZLFPDXDqQY"]Jody Sargent- Natural History Museum - UDK - YouTube[/ame]






I want to do something quite architectural so I'm going to do a fallen version of the natural history museum. I've been there to get some reference and I'm blocking it out now I want it to seem like the knowledge that is there has escaped and been lost over time and it has all been destroyed. I'm going to do the central hall and try to give it an atmosphere of a kind of shrine. Also, a group of people have taken refuge there from the blizzard and have created a small stronghold. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Here is a mood board for the lighting and atmosphere I want to go for....

jsargent

Ok so I've been working on this a little bit when I'm not at work and I have been really lazy updating on here so, here is my first post finally! I have been working on getting the main architectural elements in and have started to work on some of the vertex paint shaders for the snow. All of the materials are still blockout atm. I have decided to set the level is a blizzard so that the snow has settled inside and trees and such are crashing through the side of the building where it has crumbled away to really push the desolate cold look. Here is a shot of the progress sofar.

Oh and its all unlit in UDK Seem to be having massive issues with Swarm on my PC, going to keep looking in to it this week to try to fix it.

pity

Intresting idea! Good luck!)

jsargent

Modules modules.......



and still no lightmass aaargh

jsargent

Update time!! Almost done with my basic architecture and now have my snow ground vertex paint shader in. Almost time to start making all the damage and fun stuff!! Just the staircase and pillar bases to go and the architecture is all there Ive also done a bit of work to the materials although most are still WIP.

Also, I have some super basic lighting in now, my lightmass wont work so I have to transfer everything to another PC in order to light it huff.

jsargent

little bit of a lighting update....

Erigo

Cool envs!

TorQue[MoD]

Looks cool so far. But how did the snow get on the ground if the ceiling is intact?

jsargent

my next step is the damage passes for the architecture I'm gonna cave the ceiling in. I wanted to make all of the intact modules first and then work off of them.

jsargent

Worked on a few more lighting tweaks and a placeholder snow effect...

TorQue[MoD]

Personally I preferred the lighting of the previous screenshot. This one looks oversaturated with red. The last one had a lot of contrast in the brighter and darker areas as well as that nice moonlight coming through. Although now it looks like its set during sunrise rather than at night? It looked moodier before. I also liked the fire under than archway in the previous version but maybe it could be a pile of antiquities or books or other stuff you might be able to scavenge in a run down museum.

ziikutv

as do i

jsargent

Gonna be away all weekend so I'm adding one more update...

jsargent

final update until next week!

jsargent

managed to do some updates on this last night and will be working on it this evening hopefully. I have re added the fire and added some old bones and banners which are still WIP. I still have to do the damaged roof sections too. I'm just trying to get the lighting to feel colder again..

Lilith

Awesome.
Looks really soft and balanced

jsargent

thanks

Final little update for the evening

Xeroll

Latest image looks great, everything's a lot sharper and the fire is very effective.

The only aspect which doesn't sit right with me is the hole in the roof... what caused the collapse? why aren't the adjoining parts of the roof affected and where is the rubble from the roof collapsing? If it was some kind of attack from the outside I would imagine some of the glass in the windows would be affected too...

Everything else is sweet! Keep it up guys.

jsargent

thanks Its just me working on this one, just a solo entry. The roof is the last big element to do at the moment. The missing part is going to be filled in with broken panels and some of the windows will also be smashed in. I agree it looks pretty weird at the moment so I cant wait to get that made I also need to do a big pass on materials so weather them more, some materials are just ao and a block colour atm Thanks for your comments! I will have the roof done soon

Xeroll

Keep it up man!

Looking forward to seeing further development on this one!

ziikutv

Interested to see how you pull off the snow if you are doing a visual. Keep it up. Fire doesn't look that good.

jsargent

Thanks, Ziikutv the fire is a UDK stock effect atm, need to replace it with my own one.

ziikutv

Initially I thought that too, but just wanted to point that out.

jsargent

just started to do a little bit more work on the roof, just blocking out how I want the damage to look, also worked on some other modules a little bit and done some other small tweaks.

TorQue[MoD]

Looks great man, you've got a lot of talent. I love the Trex skull and spine, that was an awesome addition.
I made a quick paint over to show you what I would suggest... just some changes to the roof destruction and the fire. As I said before, the barrel just seems out of place.


I also really like the idea you mentioned in the second post of a tree having crashed through the roof. You should definitely still add that as the reason why the roof is missing. Would look awesome seeing all the gnarled branches jutting into the building.

jsargent

Thanks I will try to work all that stuff in, I agree about the fire, I still have to add my own one. The fire and big trees are UDK placeholders at the moment. I think I'm going to add some smashed glass cabinets to make it look like things have been looted, maybe for the fire.

Xeroll

Looks great man! Roof is a vast improvement! Looking forward to more updates!

Fire also looks MUCH better, and as mentioned by (#25)
TorQue[MoD] that Trex skull does look awesome.

Keep it up!

jsargent

small updates, added some props, lights and speakers....making some signage now..

ziikutv

I feel like a tree inside there would be a cliche, an excuse for having destroyed look. I am tired of seeing that but it is your vision.

jsargent

I never had the intention of putting a tree inside

jiina

Looking good

ziikutv

jsargent wrote: »

I never had the intention of putting a tree inside

YEY!

I would also like to say that not all structures have to seem "busy" there does not need to be too much "entities" to make it look good. What you have so far would work fine in a scene. I dont like when artists have big structures like this, they put so much fillers in it. It takes away from the beauty of the structure itself. If I were them, I'd rather spend my time in adding details in the structure :P

JShroades

Your geo looks a lot like the downloadable geo of the British Natural History Museum:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=185&t=691344

RogelioD

I KNEW that looked familiar! ^ We used that exact same geo in school at Full Sail University. It's be nice if you could post breakdowns (which are required, btw) of you actually creating the geo, step by step. You seemed to have skipped that part.

EarthQuake

Yeah, if you could post some construction shots that would be great.

This is a very iconic building, so its not really surprising if it shows similarities to that CGTalk model.

jsargent

LOL I WILL POST MY BREAKDOWNS. I USED NOTHING FROM THIS AND DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT UNTIL RECENTLY. I WENT TO THE MUSEUM AND TOOK BUCKETLOADS OF REFERENCE PHOTOS AND HAVE BEEN WORKING ON FROM THOSE. I WOULD PREFER IF NO ONE ELSE ADDED COMMENTS ABOUT THIS AT LEAST UNTIL I'M AT HOME FROM WORK AND HAVE THE CHANCE TO SHOW MY ASSETS BUT OF COURSE I WILL BE POSTING ALL OF MY MODULAR PIECES AS MY TECHNICAL BREAKDOWN ANYWAY.

Lilith

Great job, keep working, never mind comments

jsargent

hey guys another update. I have decided to make much more of the people who have escaped from the blizzard in to the ruins. Instead of just having a small fire I have decided to expand it to a kind of group turf. So the idea is that a group have moved in and have claimed the ruins as theirs and wont let anyone else take shelter in there. Its early on at the moment but I want to make makeshift scaffolding as if they are making a stronghold and vantage points as well as ways to climb to the top easy and quickly when they need to. I'm going to be adding shoes on the wires and more graffiti, signs and barbed wire etc... There will also be props of things they have scavenged like boxes and food. I think this has really helped with the narrative and focal point and also the sense of scale. Oh and don't mind the little UDK bots, they are just for my reference of human scale

ziikutv

Thats a nice change to your idea. You know what I would do to protect a place? Booby trap the shit out of the area! Those might be a good edition to your scene.

http://gallicka.com/gallery/albums/tvshows/walking%20dead/Walking%20Dead%20S03/WD312HD/01/WD312HD_0404.jpg
http://media.salon.com/2012/04/booby-traps-hiking-trail.jpeg3.jpg

Scaffoliding to the roof would be nice, so that I can scout the area and perhaps snipe the intruders.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bK55Vm5cvJA/SbXhfwkLx0I/AAAAAAAAAa4/GziiUaljxb4/s400/paintball+(8).jpg

TorQue[MoD]

That is a great idea. Now you've got two themes of Escape... knowledge has escaped from the museum like you originally said and now the refugees are Escaping the blizzard and taking refuge here.

Looks really cool.

As for the comments about it looking like the CGTalk model, you can tell by looking at his portfolio that he didn't download models to put this together.

jsargent

Thanks for your comments! I really like the idea of having traps set up, if I get the time I might try to get that in there:) and thanks for the comment about the tgtalk model, I think its quite clear by looking at it but when I post my tech stuff it will be easier to see. Also I'm a girl, hehe, it doesn't really help to have my name in my profile because its Jody so its a guys name aswell.

jsargent

bit of an update on the scaffolding and other props. Playing about with adding some other light sources but I will work on this more tomorrow...

Endfinity Jon

Saw this on the weekly recap and loved it! Reminded me a lot of a scene I lit, a Jeremy Birn lighting challenge taking place in the same building.

The only minor thing I could say is to try to not let your atmosphere wash over the entire scene so that you can still have that full range of tones. I think it's gotten much better, but earlier it was a drying out some of the shot. I'd aim to have the foreground a little crisper/darker with a gradient that sweeps into the richer atmosphere and lighter values under the crashed window. If you could just get a little bit more darks into the first arch area (and less of the fog) you're going to end up with a really awesome range of values. But, that's terribly nit-picky because honestly, it's looking fantastic. I also wonder how those oranges would bounce up onto that second story, especially over those awnings. Is that happening naturally, or did you accentuate the bounce by adding additional lights?

Either way, great work!
-Jon

jsargent

thanks for your feedback! Really helps to get critique on lighting as its the part that I've found the most challenging. Here is an update, I've darkened the archway and knocked the fog back a bit and also brightened the end section, I think its really helped so thanks . I've also added some more props. Any critiques or comments would be awesome as I hope to get this finished off this wknd so I have a little time left for presentation shots and things.

Thanks

TorQue[MoD]

My apologies for assuming you were a guy. Its sad the stereotypes that you default to in this industry isn't it?

I think I actually preferred everything in the last screen. The T-rex placement was much better, the banner hanging from the arch was a nice touch and the lighting at the end was more attractive too. The only thing I like better about this one is that you can see the moonlight coming through the window and the colors on the banners at the bottom left look much better. Oh and removing the flaming barrel on the steps was a good idea too.

jsargent

I didnt see that the dinosaur had moved, must have grabbed it by accident, hes back in place now Also tweaked the lighting a bit more last night and worked on the vertex paint for the snowy rocks a little bit. There are a few more small lighting tweaks and some texture polish too. The crits and comments are helping please keep them coming!

Ooh and I added the new sky and added some blustery wind particles to the snow effects

TorQue[MoD]

yeah the lighting looks much better. The shadows on the closest archway are the ones that look the most interesting and when you blacked out the whole area it lost a lot of the mood. Keep it up.

jsargent

some more updates Made some thicket and dirtied up some of the materials more. Also made some lighting and post tweaks. I think I'm nearly there so any last minute critique would be awesome for a final push




Here is a little closep too...

jsargent

more lighting tweaks, vertex painting and some work on the stairs modules....

TorQue[MoD]

Only that there still doesn't appear to be enough rubble from the roof on the inside of the building and it seems to be lacking a focal point. The entire scene is almost too empty.

StanHibbert

TorQue[MoD] wrote: »

Only that there still doesn't appear to be enough rubble from the roof on the inside of the building and it seems to be lacking a focal point. The entire scene is almost too empty.

Agreed!