Cyber Punk Venice-type City - UDK
polycounter lvl 11
This is a scene I've been working on for a few weeks now. I'd love some feedback on it.
First off, the main inspirations for it have been a lot of the awesome cyber-punk environments I've seen being posted here. Additionally, I've used the city of Venice and Kowloon Walled City as real life inspirations.
It took me awhile to get the theme somewhat close to what I wanted so that's why one of the scenes is far more done than most of the others.
Also there are a few places with repeated meshes. When I get more swappable meshes done I'm gonna go ahead and just plug those in.
Anyway, picture time!
One thing I'm struggling with is deciding on how to handle the colors. I don't want to have lots of lights everywhere so I've been relying on emissive materials on the farther away bright lights to lend a sense of glaring light and using it's lack of area lighting to create the sense of light leaking out of an aperture.
As for the background of the scene, I've started laying down the tiles for that so I can swap them out later with more interesting geometry. I'm thinking of having the level in the bottom of a massive pit with water pouring in from giant pipes. Sort of like the city is in a giant water waste center in the middle of a city.
First off, the main inspirations for it have been a lot of the awesome cyber-punk environments I've seen being posted here. Additionally, I've used the city of Venice and Kowloon Walled City as real life inspirations.
It took me awhile to get the theme somewhat close to what I wanted so that's why one of the scenes is far more done than most of the others.
Also there are a few places with repeated meshes. When I get more swappable meshes done I'm gonna go ahead and just plug those in.
Anyway, picture time!
One thing I'm struggling with is deciding on how to handle the colors. I don't want to have lots of lights everywhere so I've been relying on emissive materials on the farther away bright lights to lend a sense of glaring light and using it's lack of area lighting to create the sense of light leaking out of an aperture.
As for the background of the scene, I've started laying down the tiles for that so I can swap them out later with more interesting geometry. I'm thinking of having the level in the bottom of a massive pit with water pouring in from giant pipes. Sort of like the city is in a giant water waste center in the middle of a city.
Replies
This is a very large scene, quite an undertaking for one person! Lots of cool layering and depth. I have a few comments that might could help you with your lighting. I'll only generalize and am mainly focused on creating a solution for your first screen shot that you can work across your scene.
The first thing I'd do is to remove the emissive materials (and the bloom) and start with your natural night lighting. Work the biggest broad stroke first and start to refine toward your fine details. What you have isn't bad, a touch bright for my tastes, especially if you want some higher contrast of rich shadows and bright signage.
Next, think about your color palette. As it stands now, my eyeballs are playing pinball all over your composition because of the mix of color and value. I'm seeing pink, blue, green, yellow, white, and I'm drawn to the bright sources. These sources aren't supporting a focal point, therefore the composition isn't as effective. I honestly like your lighting only shot because it's easier for me to work my eye from the yellow light on the ride to down the front facade of that building and back into the depth of the buildings in the background. Think of ways to enhance your focal point with your value and the amount of emissive going on. Right now, there's just a lot of competitive noise and your hard work on all the assets is getting lost. I'd encourage you to find a focal point, and if you don't necessarily have one, at least create a color and lighting scheme that will lead my eye across the image nicely. Right now, it feels more like a free for all. I'd suggest using your lighting as a visual crescendo from the front to the back of your image - ramp up your values in a gradient fashion. Start dark up front and bring more intensity to the back of your image and my eye will follow the buildings appropriately, or, start bright and fade to dark to really sell some cool signage.
I also think your bloom setting is too much - it's very soft and almost vaseline like, taking up a lot of screen space. I'd try tightening it up as to not muddy up the scene.
Other things to consider - if you're going to use emissive for your windows, make sure to add in some supporting light bounces near them. The lighting only shot is not reflecting the fact that there are bright windows in that building. Those windows should be creating a source of light that enhances your geometry, whereas now, it's mainly a flat, barely lit surface. Punch it up, let us see some of those cool shapes.
Again, start simple and ramp up. Create something appealing with your moonlight, then practical sources, then throw in your emissive elements and post process.
Best of luck on this monstrous project!
-Jon
Again, thanks.
By the way that last pic is of another "island" in the city. Gonna add walkways connecting it to the main part.
I've also done some work on the areas shown in the earlier posts but nothing as substantial as what I've done in the new screens as I'd been out of town all last week.
Maybe just place some relatively simple omnis in places you want the viewers eye to go. It might just help a little bit
I'll keep toying with it. I've got some ideas that'll hopefully work. Accentuate the geometry, reduce the noise, create a focal point for each main area, etc.
@DWalker: That was actually supposed to be some sort of cartoony/stylized cat. Obviously I failed in delivering that message so I'll either scrap it or go back to the drawing board. Not particularly married to it anyway, just there to add to the atmosphere of a Cyber-Punk Neon-infested city.
@Josh: Haha, you could say that. I've always really liked modelling and am hoping to continue to improve. That tends to involve making copious amounts of geometry which was one of my goals for this project. Try different things and see what development workflow fit my needs and habits the best. Also I've used all these different models to test out different methods of laying out UV's and painting/texturing models.
Once again, thanks for the feedback guys. I'll try and get some new pics out as soon as possible!
Now it has a more polluted feel to it which I think suits the deep inner city theme more. I'll have to make a few more meshes of pollution-creating things but I think as a whole it'll help sell the scene better. Additionally, the new lighting will bathe the central areas in light so the neons won't pull your eyes to the walls(hopefully).
What're your guys' thoughts on the new lighting direction?
@Herr-Maestro: I don't imagine I'll be doing the Metro area. Would be interesting but this scene already has given me more than enough to chew on. Aside from what I've shown there are some side streets that I'm working on that I'm going to be showing off later on. Once I get those done I'll try and get a walk-through of the level done.
There are still some instances of bad emissive materials that I need to fix and the water particles need some more love. I'm also gonna be adding some more particle effects in various places. Sparks, etc. since it is a futuristic cyber-punk/industrial city.
I'm also gonna attach a video walkthrough in a little bit so ya'll can see it in action.
As promised, here's the video walkthrough!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhPYLTASjsI&feature=youtu.be
Here's a few new ones:
And here's a lighting shot. Just wanted to show it since you can see a lot of the details that went into some of these meshes:
Some things I'm gonna continue to work on are the water and the waterfall effects. Mostly the water though since it's one of the Epic-made ones. Actually it's the only thing in the scene that isn't mine. Once I get one of my own done the way I like it I'll be finally satisfied.
Also, I'm gonna upload another walkthrough of the finished product so you can see the world come alive. There's a tram that goes down that track in the air with sparks shooting out of its wheel-thingy's; cars that fly around on the giant circles in the sky in the background; and some cars that criss cross occasionally over the map.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased and can't wait to work on the next scene.
Thanks for all of your feedback guys.