UDK Alleyway Environment WIP- crits requested
Greetings.
Been working on an alleyway environment for a bit. I wanted to do something different from the standard, gritty urban scene and while shooting reference photos near where I live I stumbled across some alleys that were overgrown. I tried to incorporate some plants into what I was working on.
Not sure if it is successful or not, but I'm still working on it.
Crits would be welcome.
Thanks.
Been working on an alleyway environment for a bit. I wanted to do something different from the standard, gritty urban scene and while shooting reference photos near where I live I stumbled across some alleys that were overgrown. I tried to incorporate some plants into what I was working on.
Not sure if it is successful or not, but I'm still working on it.
Crits would be welcome.
Thanks.
Replies
The only other thing I can think of is maybe improve your orange brick texture a bit. It looks a little blurry, and the shadows are drawn on unless I miss my guess? As far as I'm aware it's better to leave shadows and highlights off the diffuse texture and allow normal and specular maps to generate the dark and light caused by different light angles.
Example of a good diffuse brick texture with no obvious shadows or highlights:
Overall it's coming along nicely though! reminds me of Half life 2.
Not sure if this is my place or not, but its so difficult to communicate with words that sometimes its just necessaary. And I dont like doing this bc I always think people take offense to it, but here it goes anyway!
Not bad work uohm, hope this helps. Overall I would incorporate decals and vert painting to differentiate the surfaces and areas.
AGarton- Yer right about the bricks. I had reached the same conclusion and am working on a new texture right now, but I have also noticed UDK really compresses the detail out of the textures when I save out the packages. I also started making some grunge decals, but am beginning to think they are too subtle at the moment. I'll pump them up fer the next round.
a3sthesia- That's a really nice image and it is giving me some ideas. Thanks!
shabba- That helps a lot, and doesn't piss me off at all! The lightmaps have been biting my ass on these models for some reason- I realize they need more work, but am really frustrated with them at the moment and decided we need some time apart. I'm going to start addressing as many of your crits as I can (there's a lot to sift through, but they are very helpful and welcomed!), starting with the textures.
Thanks again for your input guys- I really appreciate it!
Looks Like I'm gonna be up late tonight. . .
m.
As for the personality of the scene it could be cool to maybe come up with a loose idea of what the buildings are which may help your decoration. What I mean is maybe that door leads to an Italian restaurant, then around the door you would probably have some tin trashcans with food and trash, maybe some empty plastic crates and cardboard boxes. Maybe some of the wait staff brought those chairs out from inside the restaurant to have a quick bite to eat and a smoke. It doesn't need to be super nailed down but having a loose idea of what story you are trying to tell will help you decide what you need to create and give context and consistency to your scene. Keep up the good work, hope that helps!
I wanted to spend some time making it apparent that each door led to a different establishment and as such had a different character, but hadn't gotten that far yet. Thanks for the good ideas.
Replaced the brick textures and they still need some love (that's next on my to do list, AGarton) Also redid the light maps on the buildings- still some odd spots I need to address. there are now brackets on the drain pipes and roof edging has been added ( as per shabba's recommendations, I also tweaked the textures)
I've been staring at this scene too long, but the brick is an improvement.
back to work.
Another thing, while typing this out, maybe bend some of the alpha cards in your tree? Right now is reading pretty stiff. Maybe just throwing a single cut through the plane and slightly tweaking it would help remove that razor like appearance of the leaves.
Keep it up!
Tried vertex painting on the buildings and it helped a lot- thanks fer the tip Add3r! Will be looking into the lighting next as there are still some oddities going on and I am at a loss as to what is causing them. Especially that corner nathanbarrett noted. I noted that UDK is giving me an error message about not building the scene with project lighting, so I will be researching that too.
Added more geometry to the trees, still need to massage the textures. The shadows show the alpha on the leaves after I move the trees in the scene, but it disappears when I rebuild the lighting. Any ideas on that?
I wasn't trying for a resemblance to the Last of Us. I wanted the plants to contrast the generic urban scenery but not make it look abandoned or reclaimed. I need to add more signs of use and recent habitation to make it look like employees gather here on break and have just went back inside to work. Maybe make it look like there is some deliberate landscaping going on in the back.
anyhoo, input is requested. I am stepping away from my computer for a bit to walk my dogs and decompress.
uohm
Thanks for the link inwar- it made a difference in the textures!
I did some more texture work and upped the resolution on the lighting maps. Also added a picnic table. I want the space to communicate vacancy but not abandonment, people do spend time here just not right this minute.The table almost disappears in the shade. It still needs something in my eye.
Progress has reaallly stalled on this piece. I've been fixing lighting and smoothing group issues with the utility boxes, and every time I fix an error I create a new one! Frustrating as hell.
Crits are still welcome, but I don't know if I am gonna keep pushing on this or move on to something else.
thanks.
Keep it up