Thanks! How detailed do you want me to go with the breakdown? Wireframe shots, unlit, shaded, UV's, Texture? I will probably do that once I finish the whole thing. (I am hoping its going to be soon as my GTA addiction falls a bit.)
Awesome work, inspiring! I suggest to look how the scene feels without the grid in the big hole. I kinda liked how it looked in the beginning, i photoshoped it away on a newer pic to see how it looked but i cant really decide what i liked best. Not that its anything wrong with your design just thought i could mention it.
@S_ource: I could try and see what it looks like without it again. Its not a bad idea but I definitely want something in the middle of it to look at. Maybe I just need to get something cooler lookin. Thanks!
Yea I definitely do agree with that! I've been messing with stuff.. and nothing has really worked so far. It could be as simple as just broken pipes. Thanks!
I chose to get as close as I can to finished this weekend. Nothin but cave.. no messin around... gotta get this thing off of my mind but at the same time not rush it. I started getting the foliage in today. Messing with shaders... realizing how easy unreal has made it now to add wind to anything! Woot.
I'll be watching this post heavily over the next couple of days as I work on this exclusively so please gimme final thoughts.. concerns.. etc! Everything you all have said so far has been very motivating and helpful! Thanks!!
What's left.
1. Execute any neat ideas you guys have!
1-1. All of the non-modeled/textured lab stuff.
1-2. Any final deco pipe kits made from the tiling atlas textures I have made already to add some more variation.
2. Some sort of VFX.. smoke. little dust particles... etc
3. Final Touches on textures, go through and clean up assets a bit.
4. Finish making things move.. Right now I have the riveted cylindrical pieces moving and the center.. but I think i want to make the very middle have a bit more organic movement.. kinda like an iris. Idk.
the only thing thats bugging me, is in the first shot, that piece of metal on the right side between the two beams, looks so flat. it looks like there should be a door or something there to make it a bit more interesting, nothing too detailed, but just something to break it up. It looks fine without it though. although, that is if its a piece of metal at all lol. and i'm not going crazy.
@luge: Nah you are right.. that is part of the permalab. I want to get final models and textures in for that today. A door in that spot might not be bad though.. i'll definitely play around with that! Thanks!
Thanks Locater16, spectre1130, and AbKI! Much much appreciated! I'll have some more pictures up probably this weekend. (: Maybe I'll get far enough to call it done by then.. who knows?
I'm am just blown away by the quality of this piece. The only change I would try would to be to make the foliage a little more yellow and less green, that would help the color pallette I think. If it doesn't work, no worries.
Yea that is something I have definitely been battling with a bit. I think I am going to do a mix.. where there are little bits of yellow here and there. The issue I keep running in to is if its not super green... it blends in with the rocks a bit too much. I will definitely keep that in mind as I keep toying with it! Thanks much appreciated!!!
If it's blending in with the rocks too much, I think the issue is value and not so much color. I'd make it lighter than the rocks, but making it darker could also work too.
I brought it to my work machine that actually has a calibrated monitor.. hot damn it was different! Needed the colors to be pumped up a bit.. Added a couple of effects and putting final final final touches on everything. Its 99.9999% done. I will be making a video that shows it in action! Woot woot. Also got in alot of blue stuff trying to show how the machine is breathing life into the cave.
Makkon.. the yellow worked out perfectly imo. Thanks for the feebizzles!
I think i want to give the pipes on the outter ring of the machine texture a little bit of an orangish-red emissive that glows in and out.
Last round of critiques before I call it finished... hit me!
the only thing i would say, since it does look aged and such, i'd add in some broken and old machinery, just some small bits and pieces, maybe just some broken pipes or something of the sort, give it a little bit more character.
On a side note, looks like it could have been an eye to a robot like a transformer.
Firstly, Chris, great work man! This came together beautifully! The left half of image 3 blows my mind. Great color and variation - who would have thought rocks, foliage, and fog could come together for an experience that sensual?
I only have one, very minor critique. It concerns the right third in image 2. I feel there are some enhancements you could make to allow the space to read better. Right now, the fog is eating into a lot of the shape definition and the view is flattened a bit because of it.
Again, very minor, but I did a quick paintover:
One of the things I did was re-balance your darks and lights. There is some great stacking here so making sure your silhouetted edges were a bit darker and sat over a bit brighter BG makes some of the shapes pop more. I also tried to reduce the effects of fog by darkening the central pillar and adding a bit more color to it. You could try soft spot or point lights to bring some of that color if you're into it. Finally, I accented some of the surfaces more, the leading edges of rock work could use some minor value boosts so their shape reads a bit better, especially at high contrast points. I love having a dark sit over a light, or a light over a dark - you have the ability to push that here.
One final note - your bio-luminescent plants don't appear to be receiving light. This could be the desired effect, but I think having all the glowing vines look the same makes the scene feel less dynamic. I made the ones toward the cave entrance a touch brighter and made the ones that were deeper in the scene darker. I think this lends itself to the way light would travel through the space realistically.
Totally minor things, might not even be worth addressing.
@Endfinity Jon: Thanks for taking the time to help out with that! I definitely think you made some really great points and overall I like the types of blues that you got to pop out of the right image. I'll go ahead and take what you said and put it into play. Also .. yea the vines never got the same treatment as the grass did as far as the glowy bits. Everything is flickering slowly in the scene when it is animated but I definitely could lay out some brighter and darker vines to mix it up a bit.
Really strong and well executed work Chris. Part of me does wish the end result kept the softer lighting and colour palette from the initial image though. Either way the final piece is awesome.
The scene looks beautiful. How about put little bit more light on the scene?
I think it is too dark. I'm pretty sure more lights would show your high-quality textures.
@nathdevlin Which initial image are your referring too? And are you saying that the oranges and blues are punched out a bit too much and you prefer than musty look that I had going on before? I definitely do think that the colors are pushed pretty far, but that was definitely on purpose as I really wanted to make the beauty just pop instead of going the subtle musty look i had before. I appreciate your input though and many thanks for the kind words!
@foredea I am unsure as to what lights you are referring to? I don't want to add anymore pump in the lights where it is un-needed at the moment. It would be nice to show off every little piece of the scene, but I do need to cut my losses in some areas and get the overall contrast of the scene to balance with the brightness. If you have certain spots where you think lights would look good I would be interested in seeing them. I'll brainstorm on the idea a bit though and see if I can squeeze in a few more. Thanks!
Chris, I have been following this from the start, and I got to say that damn this turned out goood! ^^
One minor thing from me though (have to say it). I think that the right hand observation post thingy, is a little bit too dark, I cant read the shapes as well as I would like too. Its not that you need to bump it up with alot, just a tiny bit so you can read the shapes a little better, because as I said, I cant really see what is going on there. Just my opinion, or my computer screen isnt good (could be that).
I don't want to sound like a dick here nuclear angel, but it may be your monitor. We have a wide range of monitors here at work and even our darkest one I can still read the shape of the machine really well and the rest of the image. I really appreciate the feedback though. If I get a few more people telling me its too dark then maybe I'll bump up the whole image. Its being pumped pretty far right now. Thanks again!
Looks freakin amazing! I dont' know if its just me, but the some parts of the outer ring seems get lost with the wall in the back. Really close value with the rock wall.
Maybe some engine lights that leaks out from the back can help. Just an idea
Its probably my screen, will calibrate it soon and thanks ^^ You did not sound like a dick either, good to hear if the screen ain't working alright. And a damn well done piece you did, good job!
Thanksfor the nice comments everyone! I appreciated it very much!
@iciban I think I might go ahead and experiment with some emissive spots on the outer rim to give it a feeling of heat and get some light emitting from it.
Ok.. soo I took what everyone said so far about the lighting into consideration and really tried to solve the issues. Definitely quite a few complaints about it being too dark.. Which i think might have been.. the outer ring of the machine was dark and I just didn't get that until I re-read what you guys said. SO thennnn I opened it back up and saw what you all were saying and tried to fix it. (: I also added some really interesting emissive sections to show the machine getting hotter. Lastly, I added more moving things and will get a video up after the holidays of it.
So.. What do you guys think? too light now? Just right? Still too dark? Lemme know! Thanks!
Yay! Much appreciated! I am glad to be pretty much done. I can add a few little things here and there but.. i am just happy to finally have this wrapped up. Will get a video out soon of all of the little moving bits.
Thanks again for all of your help everyone! This community is amazing!
way better! the outer ring is readable now and the wall has some of that heat light. For the inner section of the engine. Maybe give it a bit more orange/ red fade of from the middle.
Just an idea. Not sure if it'll look better
blargh, ok I bacillary just wanted to say that this was pretty cool, then I started to edit the post and accidentally hit save right after deleted a lot of stuff, so just pretend I had this deep comment with lots of insightful smart things to say:)
Replies
@S_ource: I could try and see what it looks like without it again. Its not a bad idea but I definitely want something in the middle of it to look at. Maybe I just need to get something cooler lookin. Thanks!
I'll be watching this post heavily over the next couple of days as I work on this exclusively so please gimme final thoughts.. concerns.. etc! Everything you all have said so far has been very motivating and helpful! Thanks!!
What's left.
1. Execute any neat ideas you guys have!
1-1. All of the non-modeled/textured lab stuff.
1-2. Any final deco pipe kits made from the tiling atlas textures I have made already to add some more variation.
2. Some sort of VFX.. smoke. little dust particles... etc
3. Final Touches on textures, go through and clean up assets a bit.
4. Finish making things move.. Right now I have the riveted cylindrical pieces moving and the center.. but I think i want to make the very middle have a bit more organic movement.. kinda like an iris. Idk.
On a more serious note though, lovin' this piece so much. Incredible work.
@luge: Nah you are right.. that is part of the permalab. I want to get final models and textures in for that today. A door in that spot might not be bad though.. i'll definitely play around with that! Thanks!
Awwwwwwesome!
I'm am just blown away by the quality of this piece. The only change I would try would to be to make the foliage a little more yellow and less green, that would help the color pallette I think. If it doesn't work, no worries.
Makkon.. the yellow worked out perfectly imo. Thanks for the feebizzles!
I think i want to give the pipes on the outter ring of the machine texture a little bit of an orangish-red emissive that glows in and out.
Last round of critiques before I call it finished... hit me!
On a side note, looks like it could have been an eye to a robot like a transformer.
I only have one, very minor critique. It concerns the right third in image 2. I feel there are some enhancements you could make to allow the space to read better. Right now, the fog is eating into a lot of the shape definition and the view is flattened a bit because of it.
Again, very minor, but I did a quick paintover:
One of the things I did was re-balance your darks and lights. There is some great stacking here so making sure your silhouetted edges were a bit darker and sat over a bit brighter BG makes some of the shapes pop more. I also tried to reduce the effects of fog by darkening the central pillar and adding a bit more color to it. You could try soft spot or point lights to bring some of that color if you're into it. Finally, I accented some of the surfaces more, the leading edges of rock work could use some minor value boosts so their shape reads a bit better, especially at high contrast points. I love having a dark sit over a light, or a light over a dark - you have the ability to push that here.
One final note - your bio-luminescent plants don't appear to be receiving light. This could be the desired effect, but I think having all the glowing vines look the same makes the scene feel less dynamic. I made the ones toward the cave entrance a touch brighter and made the ones that were deeper in the scene darker. I think this lends itself to the way light would travel through the space realistically.
Totally minor things, might not even be worth addressing.
Love,
-Jon
@rambooze: Thanks! much appreciated!
@Endfinity Jon: Thanks for taking the time to help out with that! I definitely think you made some really great points and overall I like the types of blues that you got to pop out of the right image. I'll go ahead and take what you said and put it into play. Also .. yea the vines never got the same treatment as the grass did as far as the glowy bits. Everything is flickering slowly in the scene when it is animated but I definitely could lay out some brighter and darker vines to mix it up a bit.
Thanks Again!
Also.. you crack me up with the love -Jon! (:
I think it is too dark. I'm pretty sure more lights would show your high-quality textures.
@Armangelo Many Thanks!
@foredea I am unsure as to what lights you are referring to? I don't want to add anymore pump in the lights where it is un-needed at the moment. It would be nice to show off every little piece of the scene, but I do need to cut my losses in some areas and get the overall contrast of the scene to balance with the brightness. If you have certain spots where you think lights would look good I would be interested in seeing them. I'll brainstorm on the idea a bit though and see if I can squeeze in a few more. Thanks!
One minor thing from me though (have to say it). I think that the right hand observation post thingy, is a little bit too dark, I cant read the shapes as well as I would like too. Its not that you need to bump it up with alot, just a tiny bit so you can read the shapes a little better, because as I said, I cant really see what is going on there. Just my opinion, or my computer screen isnt good (could be that).
Otherwise lovely work!
Nuke
Maybe some engine lights that leaks out from the back can help. Just an idea
@iciban I think I might go ahead and experiment with some emissive spots on the outer rim to give it a feeling of heat and get some light emitting from it.
Thanks again!
So.. What do you guys think? too light now? Just right? Still too dark? Lemme know! Thanks!
New!!
Old!!
Thanks again for all of your help everyone! This community is amazing!
Just an idea. Not sure if it'll look better