115 Madison Avenue in the Style of "The Division"
polycounter lvl 10
Final scene update:
Hi everyone, it's time to call this project done.
It's been a tremendous learning experience and a lot of fun.
I am quite happy with how it turned out.
There is a lot of things I would have done differently where I to start over but one must stop at some point.
Thank you all for your amazing and encouraging feedback
Edit 2016: Updated the video links
I am looking into packaging everything up and offering it for download but I don't know what I'd have to upload for a UE4 version. As soon as I figure it out I'll post it.
Thank you all and see you next project
Original Post:
Hi everyone, happy 4th of July
Last E3 was full of surprises, one of them was Ubisoft's new game 'The Division'. I love the art style and want to try and create a scene that evokes a similar mood.
I chose a real life setting as my jumping off point and will then make it match the setting of the game.
I was thinking of going for a snowy night setting.
From what we have seen so far, I believe the game is set in winter after christmas (the lights are still up).
I want to recreate the corner facing the convenience store.
There are still many questions that need answering and I'm far from finalizing the asset list.
Below, you can see a rough blockout with some notes:
Some ideas I'm still toying around with are:
> Should there be a damaged EMT tent, that the truck crashed into?
> Should the intersection be one of those cobbled raised intersections?
It's not there in real life but it would make for a more interesting pattern on the snow.
>Should I add a withered tree anywhere in there?
Anything goes and I would appreciate any feedback.
Cheers,
Hi everyone, it's time to call this project done.
It's been a tremendous learning experience and a lot of fun.
I am quite happy with how it turned out.
There is a lot of things I would have done differently where I to start over but one must stop at some point.
Thank you all for your amazing and encouraging feedback
Edit 2016: Updated the video links
I am looking into packaging everything up and offering it for download but I don't know what I'd have to upload for a UE4 version. As soon as I figure it out I'll post it.
Thank you all and see you next project
Original Post:
Hi everyone, happy 4th of July
Last E3 was full of surprises, one of them was Ubisoft's new game 'The Division'. I love the art style and want to try and create a scene that evokes a similar mood.
I chose a real life setting as my jumping off point and will then make it match the setting of the game.
I was thinking of going for a snowy night setting.
From what we have seen so far, I believe the game is set in winter after christmas (the lights are still up).
I want to recreate the corner facing the convenience store.
There are still many questions that need answering and I'm far from finalizing the asset list.
Below, you can see a rough blockout with some notes:
Some ideas I'm still toying around with are:
> Should there be a damaged EMT tent, that the truck crashed into?
> Should the intersection be one of those cobbled raised intersections?
It's not there in real life but it would make for a more interesting pattern on the snow.
>Should I add a withered tree anywhere in there?
Anything goes and I would appreciate any feedback.
Cheers,
Replies
Because I'm doing a Environment in UDK just like you, but only one building.
Sorry for the slow update turnaround.
Whatever time I have next to job-hunting I spend sculpting some new maps
Thank you for the well wishes Mathew O, I hope massive will have new openings soon. That would be so amazing
Hi PikabobAlex, I am building the scene around a single car wreck.
A pickup that crashed into the general store.
My hope is that after I fill the scene up with more debris I will not need more cars.
But the E3 gameplay footage from 'The Division' had cars all over the place so who knows I might have to make a couple more
Cheers
After a long drought, I can finally post a new update.
Being new to sculpting, a lot of my time got taken up by a 12x32 tile brick wall.
It was a very meditative experience and I'm certain I could have gone about it a lot smarter.
I generated a tile heightmap in Photoshop and used that to displace a plane in Mudbox, then I went over each brick individually and touched it up to make it look unique. I am certain there are better methods out there. If you know any, please share
So here are the results of my first two tiling wall sculpts:
And here are the latest scene renders.
To mark the season, I added a first draft on the Christmas decorations and further adjusted the lighting. The DOF is almost non existent replaced by a lot of 'nightly' atmospheric heightfog.
Please let me know what you think.
I also want to thank The Division Community Wrap-Up for taking interest in this project and keeping me on track
Cheers
the stop light texture is prlly a wip but it looks brand new add some sweet wear marks and weathering effects to it, but man i must say this looks really good!
lol i wanna see more of the destroyed scaffolding area lol!!
Good work man, cant wait to see more!
Yes, the stop light is still all blockout.
I took a break from sculpting to do some more UVs.
(Drum-roll) Building 'Filler_C' is back in the scene!!! (applause)
Though originally only a filler, it has turned into my favorite building in this intersection.
Next I will attempt a first crack at the road.
I have been putting it off for what seems ages as the complexity of it seems overwhelming.
There's at least two different states of asphalt (relatively intact, patched up and damaged) there's pre-construction markings on the asphalt and on top of that there's slushy snow with tire marks and footprints...
But for now, the current scene updates, I added a cubemap to the glass and fake interiors using bump offset. The cubemap is stock udk and is only temporary as are the images used for the interiors.
Also, I have been running into this issue when building my lights.
The lightmap LODs appear to be jumpy.
Below, I'm adding an image to illustrate.
Has anyone run into this issue before?
Any pointers towards a solution would be appreciated.
Cheers
How did you do that rippling glass effect? It looks really interesting.
Of course once I get to material definition that exaggerated effect will get the ax, but if you wan't to do something like that, that's how you do it.
My first attempt at an asphalt texture failed miserably.
I don't even dare to post a shot here, lol
Even with a 4096 the texture res was abysmal
I am very intrigued how Massive handles their procedural shader.
How would the road shader know what direction to lay down tire treads?
Right now I'm considering a layered approach with several tiled base textures, lots of masks and decals/projectors. I'll try some tests and post them once I have something.
Do you think maybe I should do the road as a Landscape?
Cheers
All textures involved are still early blockout but at least I figured out a way how to layer everything together
Now I need to think about how to get all the snow in there.
Originally I was thinking of vert-painting it but I want to experiment with some depth effects and see if I cant get it to procedurally appear where there's geometry intersecting.
Urgaffel, you are definitely right.
The features video looked very impressive where they showcased the weather effects.
I've been trying to get a rough snow placement using destdepth but that only works on translucent objects.
The plan now is to vertpaint different types of snow and then use projectors to mask any seams. Right now the roads are on hold and I spent some time texturing and doing some sculpts on my new tablet
Here is the latest progress:
This has been the first time I have packed so many different materials onto one texture. I definitely underestimated how much time it would take to do it.
Also, the Assassins purchased 112 Madison Avenue and moved in over the Art Gallery that's on the ground floor. I'd have expected those boys to be more covert but there you have it...
Cheers
Got the UVd sidewalks in
Of course the final texture will have a dirt layer and snow piling up.
Right now I need to work on the dirt between the individual stones and add some 'construction graffiti' to them.
Next I'll get to the props, such as the news stand, the riot blocks and the traffic light.
Cheers
Good job man
Good catch on the corner, I got a tad overzealous trying to save polys.
Cheers
Fully embrace the next-gen polycounts!
Got another couple of objects textured.
They're both on the same map so here they are together.
I played around with dDO for these, what a terrific tool!
Is there a way to get it to respect UV seams?
I had to do quite some creative painting and turn off the drop shadow on most of effects.
Cheers
That was almost everyone's first model in college but somehow I never made one until now. This needs to be good, so please don't hold back with critiques for this or anything else you see on this project:)
Cheers
i would say this might be a tad over the top but maybe a good place to start to blend the what you have now with what is shown in the image
but the model looks very solid!!! i cant wait to see more keep it up!!
and its interesting the white stuff on only one of the sides....or is that just light reflection of the render?
Some of your buildings do seem to be saving a bit much on the polys. I'd say screw it-if it's at camera level add some detail.
Cglewis: The areas you mention are scratches along the edges. Since the paint there has peeled, the specular values are higher.
Rurouni Strife: I have made the comparison to GTA as well, lol
What type of detail would you add to the buildings?
Right now I can only think of roughing them up.
However this is not so far into the future like, lets say, the last of us.
This is present day NY after a couple of riots, that's also why the dumpster is in fairly good condition.
Presently I'm redoing the garbage piles and will be posting those soon
Cheers
The garbage piles are in the scene and I feel they are already adding a lot to address the emptiness of the scene.
I also made a tree to help break-up the emptiness of Madison Avenue North.
As always I would love to hear all of your thoughts.
Cheers
I would leave some leaves (lol) on the tree, because there is no indication with the story why there should be no organic life and I think it could add some nice color, that normally is not that present in this urban environment.
I agree, it would definitely benefit from some leaves.
Since it's winter it wont be many but in my next round on the tree I will be adding some smaller branches and leaves
Of course I remember, I hope you had some use for that advice
Your project sounds great, I've been to Schönbrunn when I was in school.
The track you describe will look great!
Will you post progress to polycount?
This is just an idea, but you could maybe add elements that subtly tie the various props together.
I believe that a city that has been abandoned, leaves a trail of hundreds of little stories. I'm talking about objects, like a battered, torn open suitcase on the floor in the corner somewhere, or a ripped piece of clothing, caught in the branches of the tree. A dirty, stepped on, crumpled-up missing person's flier. Smeared footsteps on the pavement next to the garbage. Stuff like that would make the viewer wonder "What happened there?".
It's probably still too early for things like that, but i don't know, maybe it's something worth considering.
Anyway, great job again. Keep it up, can't wait to see more!
You are absolutely right, the scene needs tons of these little stories and no worries, I intent to deliver. You added a lot of great new ideas to the list, so if you don't mind I will incorporate some of them
Cheers
It looks like you already got a start with adding detail at eye level in you latest update. Beveled some edges and added some geo-perfect! The blue brick texture looks a bit low res though. Any way you can scale that up by a factor of two in the UVs?
Looking good, I'll make sure I keep checkin' up on it!
Also what caught my eyes are the staircases which are empty. In the trailer they were full of trash & trash bags and definitely adds depth to the scene.
Anyway that's my 2 cents. Can't wait to see a fly-through of this. Amazing work. I'm jealous.
@Rurouni Strife. I can definitely take another look at that texture.
Just to make sure,which one do you mean? Is it this one?
@Bladers, I've been struggling with the car idea as well since I started the project.
On one hand it would add quite a bit of time to everything, on the other it has already been months and without some cars the streets will be hard to fill up.
I think I will make a generic sedan near the end of the project and add it in with a bunch of color variations. Good catch on the trash bags, as per your request, MORE GARBAGE!!!
I made some bigger piles and placed them around. They are quite obviously repeating now but I will break them up further down the line.
For todays update, as I already mentioned there is a lot more garbage in the streets.
Also, I took another pass at the streets and brought them all to the level that 34th South has been for the last couple of weeks.
Let me know if anything jumps out at you.
For the next update, I will create more large piles of garbage and debris and start adding those flares that were in the concept.
Cheers
Tried to put down some snow, let me know what you think
Cheers
Besides from it being a little bit too clean I like the shader a lot (!) Looks very believable
The source reference had tire tracks all over the place and in the final version the truck that crashed into the convenience store will still be blinking.
I need to refine my brush and actually work some tread profile and maybe some footprints in there.
I will definitely dirty up the snow. I was thinking I could use an SSS approach and use the thickness as a mask to where the snow will be dirty/runny. If that doesn't work I'll try a hand painted approach
Edit: it will be a hand painted solution, SSS proved to be too heavy handed a result and looked wrong for this case.
Cheers
The debris is still untextured, it's been on my todo pile for ages but then something flashier grabs my attention. I will tend to it soon though.
I was thinking that for the debris and the garbage piles I'd look into some angle based procedural snow layering.
I spread the snow across the rest of the roads and introduced some dirt.
It needs more but that will come.
I spent a lot of time refining the textures on the store and the construction site.
The area still needs some more work and the truck needs some more attention.
I also toned down the light from the trafic light.
What do you think?
I like that it doesn't blow the area up anymore but now I feel everything is too dark.
The ambient light feels very strong now, I miss something like a hotspot where you are supposed to look first; my eyes are kinda wandering around without getting rest; you should, in my opinion, look for some more focus in the scene
Part of why I loved the concept that served as a jumping off point was the flares that where placed in the foreground.
So the idea is to have the car alarm still going off and the lights on the truck blinking, then crank the traffic light back up and place flares in the mid-ground.
I shuffled some objects around to hopefully help direct the eye better and reworked the lighting a bit to focus more on the areas I want to show off. Also the first part of the riot debris related assets made it in and I think they add a much needed level of chaos and break up the scene nicely.
Please drop a comment or critique and tell me what you think.
Cheers
I get what you're saying but I want to move the piece closer to the concept.
For now I'll move it further off to the left.
This debris is the tail end of a massive pile that will come in from the right and end where the smaller pile is now.
I'll place it and see how it looks; If it still looks wrong I can always move it
The yellow light on the traffic light will be blinking.
The car alarm may still be going (that may prove to be too much motion)
The Christmas deco is winking in and out of power and the flares are going too.
The flares will also emit smoke and I've been working on a snow particle
There's also the flag and some banners that will be waving.
So all in all there will be quite a lot of motion going on, I hope it wont be too much.
I'll work on getting the particles done and getting some cameras in there.
In the meantime, here's the update with the aftermath of the big riot.
The truck blew through it, scattering debris across the intersection.
@Rurouni Strife
Do you think this could work now or should I still clear the area left of the barriers?