(UDK) Mirror's Edge Inspired Hallway
Decided to get back In to a bit of modeling and try and get myself reaquainted with UDK.
So yesterday I started with a small project I've been avoiding, a Mirror's Edge style hallway.
This time I've decided to stick with this perspective, to limit myself with the space I have, since I tend to get too carried away In trying to make the scene bigger and better.
So here It Is...
Feedback Is massively appreciated.
I'm thinking of adding a little bit of grunge and maybe a can of paint leaking next to the pipes, I really want to keep It as un-clutted as possible though.
OLD IMAGES
So yesterday I started with a small project I've been avoiding, a Mirror's Edge style hallway.
This time I've decided to stick with this perspective, to limit myself with the space I have, since I tend to get too carried away In trying to make the scene bigger and better.
So here It Is...
Feedback Is massively appreciated.
I'm thinking of adding a little bit of grunge and maybe a can of paint leaking next to the pipes, I really want to keep It as un-clutted as possible though.
OLD IMAGES
Replies
- Cut down on the bloom, and get rid of the depth of field/blur.
- The materials need some more work; Everything is reading as plastic.
- Maybe add some specular masks or gloss variation.
- Add some more detail and variation to your normal maps.
- Maybe do some cubemap reflections.
Here's a good example, showing what I mentioned above.
Why don't you want to build the lighting? The global illumination and and bounced lighting is what makes Mirrors Edge look so awesome. Here is a fantastic read on the lighting.
http://dice.se/publications/the-unique-lighting-in-mirrors-edge-experiences-with-illuminate-labs-lighting-tools/
I think your lighting could use some work. For example, you have a bright light reflecting on the exit sign, and once across from it, but I can't really figure out what is casting the light. I'd assume there's a light right on the ceiling that is just off camera, but I don't think it would cast a light reflection that far down that's that bright?
By the door, you have a green light on the wall. It seems out a place since, again, we don't know what is casting it.
I thinkyou have too much reflective glare going on in the scene overall.
I'm going to go with the pre-built lighting and hope that I don't run In to the problem I normally do that makes It break...
I've removed the bright bloom, depth of field and desaturated the scene a tiny bit.
I've also added a bit of AA and boosted the detail normal map.
Hopefully this gives It a less artificial/perfect look.
Just realised that I've completely forgotten to add a specular map to the floor to make the hilights less flat.
If anyone wants to see the changes, I'll be putting older images at the bottom of the first post.
Drew posted a great reference image, it offers some insight into some major things you're missing.
The image doesn't look very grounded and there's little to no directionality in the lighting. Two major things you can try to help you:
In the reference image there is a very clear light source and we can feel it splash light from top to bottom. In your scene, there's too much even ambience. Some of the elements look detached and almost feel like they're comped into the scene. I would introduce a clear and direct light source that you can use to push light through the scene. A nice place to focus might would be above the door. You can have your brighter values at the top of the stairs and have the light fall off as it works it's way toward the camera. Realistic directionality will help the scene feel more realized and lighting in this way might help bring a focal point and more interest to the space.
Finally, try to get some GI to bounce some of the red around the space. From what I can tell, Mirror's Edge uses a lot of soft white light and lets it push color through the space from the materials it comes in contact with. Look at the bottom of the reference image, there's some soft orange bounce being scattered back up the walls. See if you can accomplish this by making your indirect saturation a little higher and more intense.
Finally, while Mirror's Edge isn't particularly high-contrast, I'd see if you can bring a little bit more value into the scene. Pure black or something in the lower 25% is going to be too much, but most of your image is in the top 2/3's of value range and it's not super interesting. This is just a minor suggestion, but by having a light at the top of the stairs falling off to a moodier foreground might give you a more interesting image. Something subtle will work, just trying to alleviate the evenness in the scene.
Good luck to you, I'll check back in. If you'd like, post a detail lighting image so we can further look at what you're doing with you're lights.
-Jon
I definitely wanted the door as a focus and It's begining to feel that way with the new lighting.
I've been having BSOD problems when building my lighting, but I've managed to push through and change It up a bit. Obviously still some work to be done, but I feel the direction It's headed Is a lot stronger.
The scene Is starting to look less flat now, so thanks for everyone's feedback, more Is always appreciated!
I did tinker with some down lighting on the walls, but I felt It really distracted the eye from the door, It just made It look messy.
I'd increase the AO a little and maybe make the pipes silver and reflective. A slight cubemap in the bricks, floor, and the bottom of the door will be good too. If the door is the focal point, I'd do something else with it. A sign, window, or maybe a different color or shade of red. Looking at the screenshot someone posted, the orange on the floor/ceiling is different from the railings and then you still have the white walls/doors, reflective pipe, and a darker railing on the floor. Overall it has more variation.
keep it up!
Had a little break over the weekend, but I'm back on it.
Increased the AO, darkened the red of the door and pipes and removed a mysterious source of light (helping to boost the contrast between foregound and background)
I really need to stop using steam for these screenshots, the quality Is horrible!
I tried to get the red to scatter, but I don't really know what I'm doing, so If anyone has a link to a nice lighting tutorial with any info on that It would be appreciated.
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Lightmass.html
You are looking for the 'Making lighting noticeable' section and the diffuse section is the first under this heading. Hope it helps!
I upped the diffuse boost In world settings to try and get the red to bounce. There's definitely more of a soft variation of colour in the lighting now.
The only problem I can see Is that the reds are mainly bouncing on reds (shown In the second image), maybe I'll up the number of bounces.
What grounds the mirrors edge stuff is the details. The primary colors are pushed to extremes but the lighting and details (door handles, pipes, vents, chairs, trash cans, etc.) are really realistic to ground it all and prevent it from looking cartoony. Currently your missing those elements to ground it. Your exit door needs to be the correct proportions and needs a little wear and tear. Same goes for your exit sign above it.
Good luck.
In the world properties, make sure Use Global Illumination is on/checked. Then, in the light properties you should find an indirect lighting scale and saturation setting. Scale should represent how intense the bounce will be and saturation should control how much the color of the light and materials will scatter. Might want to crank the saturation one a bit more as well as including another bounce if you feel like you'd want to see more of the lights influence in the scene. Finally, in the world properties there's the environment color which will illuminate your scene in areas where there is an absence of light. Keeping it black isn't very interesting so maybe try a bit of a deep contrasting color to bring more personality to the image.
I haven't worked in UDK in a year or so so I'm a little rusty but I'm pretty sure those are the basic settings for GI.
Keep going, scene is looking better with each iteration!
-Jon
EDIT - You can also cheat a really soft spotlight coming down the staircase a little more so that it's a bit easier to get the result you're looking for. One giant light isn't usually the answer and you'll find that using several lights with meaningful direction will give you a better result than one big bland point light.
the fov was at 90, making the pipes squisehed, I've bumped It down a little to 75 to try and eliminate as much of the 'squish' as I can, but still keep the depth In the scene.
About the sign, I think I've just realized what could be wrong with It, It almost looks as If It's been added In photoshop, I think a normal map could make It look more 'there' and hopefully fit In better.
Textures will be modified once I'm happy with the lighting I guess. Since the door/sign was so far In the background I didn't really consider putting a ton Of detail In, but If that's what you're picking up on then It had better be done.
@Endfinity Jon
Thanks for all of that, changed my environment color to a dark blue, 'cheated' with a spotlight to give some nice directional shadows and tweaked the light bounce saturation settings. Just from that one post I feel I've grasped much better control over my lighting, so thanks!
Thanks to the humble origin bundle, I'm downloading Mirror's Edge on steam, so I plan another playthrough of that which should help refresh my mind on the feel and look of the game as a whole.