Awesome progress everyone. I'll have an update up sometime this week.
@RobertHedlund - I've just been using "render to texture" inside of 3ds max to bake the high poly mesh down to a low poly mesh, or down to a plane in some cases.
@Andre.Jonsson / @keosar - Very nice benches you two have there. I love your normals and texture keosar. The only thing that i would say is hurting it is your current in scene lighting.
the isolated view looks great though.
@Fizzly - awesome looking doors. normals on the right side door look different then the left side door though? Any reason why?
@Huw_Dawson - your hallway looks way to tight/narrow in my opinion. Other than that, looking good.
@Aerial_Knight - really liking your textures so far. Just a couple things that i think are bringing it down.
@serriffe - nitpicking : your support beams on the right side seam a little to plane and simple. everything else is looking awesome though.love the lighting.
*I hope the images worked in this post or else some of the crits wont make since d:
*Im not checking over this again, sorry if there's any errors or if im unclear on something.
@Aerial_Knight, I agree with passerby, Let your Spec/Gloss map do most of the work for the metal parts of the scene. Not sure what engine you're gonna throw it in but I've been using Image Based Reflections in UDK to help sell metallic surfaces.
@Aerial_Knight, Here is my current WIP of the floor texture, as you can see I'm letting the Spec/Gloss map do most of the work for this kind of surface. cheers
TazN - Thanks, and yes the textures and lighting should really bring the scene to life. For your scene I'd say definitely yes to doubling the length.
Fizzly - You think so? Thanks! I want to do a little more detail in the corner mesh before I move on. I'll post some more shots of it later to give people some ideas.
Huw_Dawson - Last month was my first time importing assets into UDK. Learning how to do it correctly hindered my progress a bit and I didn't complete the scene on time. However, now I know what to expect this time around, and I'm much more confident in my ability to complete this month's scene. We just gotta practice and we'll hit that high quality mark! Just for fun, this is what I used to learn the basics of UDK: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/cat_udk.php
@serriffe - Thanks! I would change the blue color to a color which is chosen in the concept image. I think it is a bit too much off the color scheme right now.
@keosar - I only used photoshop and xnormal (the photoshop plugin) to create the normalmap. No baking.
@Aerial_Knight - The main problem with your (diffuse) texture is that it looks a bit too much like stone rather than metal. A bit too much grunge/noise. Your spec looks pretty good, just needs some more contrast I think. Try making the scratches a bit more white so they pop a bit more ?
@Cheathem - Well spotted! Thanks. I think it has something to do with the vertex normals. I did mirror the object, but didn't reset xforms. I'll look into it tonight
Hey, this will be my first monthly environment challenge! I've been working in my free time (in college).
-I'm modeling in Maya
-Building everything modular on a UDK grid (using jbU3Grid.mel)
-I'd like to improve my skills with UV unwrapping, texturing, and UDK's material editor.
I will try to be as helpful as I can with my comments, and of course I appreciate any comments on my own work!
Just started yesterday evening..so a little late to the party(been studying textures/modeling methods etc) But this is what i have so far, trying to get my proportion/perspectives right. don't know how to go about modeling those smaller pipes attached , I'll figure it out though.
@Seriffe - Looking really great so far. The like the lighting and the glass windows. Since I'm completely new to UDK, how did set up the lights for it?
@InProgress - Your scale and colors looking pretty good so far!
@Keosar - Awesome work on the benches! I actually couldn't figure out the design from just the concept, but now that I look back on it after seeing yours, it's a lot more clear to me now.
@Aerial_Knight - Nice work on the textures so far. If anything, I would probably have to say that the scratches in the middle of the door look a little unnatural to me for some reason. The large stroke of scratches stand out a bit.
Here's my update for the week. I'm a little slow at this because I'm trying to model high poly detail and baking it to low poly. I normally use nDO2 for hard surface stuff, but I wanted to expand my skills and knowledge into something new. This shot is taken in cryEngine3. I had all my modular pieces exported out as one group.
Ultimately I would like to export it out to UDK though and learn it. I'll probably have to approach UDK exporting differently since I have to take lightmap UVs in consideration. I tried to export out my scene as one group and have the lightmap UVs generated by the "generate unique UVs" tool (which I know is not as good as manually doing it) just to test, and it came out pretty badly. Also does anyone know what fov the editor perspective is set to by default?
What should I do to make this not look like dog shit. I've downloaded the ndo2 trial for the normals but the floor normals look weird and the wall normals look non-existent. I've been converting my diffuse .bmp to make them, I don't know if there is a better way to to it beside baking within Maya. Also, is this what i should do for spec maps? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PbaqhjlLTA"]Maya tutorial: Painting a specular map | lynda.com - YouTube[/ame].
What should I do to make this not look like dog shit. I've downloaded the ndo2 trial for the normals but the floor normals look weird and the wall normals look non-existent. I've been converting my diffuse .bmp to make them, I don't know if there is a better way to to it beside baking within Maya. Also, is this what i should do for spec maps? Maya tutorial: Painting a specular map | lynda.com - YouTube.
I don't feel like I deserve to give crits..
This video helped me when I was getting familiar with ndo2. Basically you want to block out your shapes with solids and convert them to normals. If you meant you were converting your diffuse textures to normal, I would probably recommend against that. The results usually don't come out that well compared to the workflow in the vid (at least for me).
Big update incoming, but first some crits & replies.
@JaySmitt: Good start, the only thing that sticks out to me are the proportions of the control room sign. @Xerafel: Very good blockout and lighting already. Curious to see what you can make of it in CE3. @ArtisticTiger: For the pipes I think it'd be best to build small modular parts of pipes and reuse them often. @Aerial_Knight: Nice progress there, though the floor is a bit too reflective for my tastes. @modsoft: I like your structured, technical approach. Looks like it's going to pay off.
Anyway, here are some new props and my scene as it is right now. Trying to go through everything at a good pace to get it together, then do a polish pass later.
Tips and crits welcome, of course.
After quickly lighting the low poly scene here with just two lights, I've decided to go with a more scary and dark feeling to this environment. I hope that's not against the rules or anything, but it will be much more fun for me that way.
I'm also feeling pretty inspired by the halo 3 flood and doom 3 environments right now. Not sure how that will incorporate into this scene exactly, as i'm still trying to stick pretty close to the original concept.
I still have looooots to do and to figure out, but heres what i have of the low poly scene with just normal maps, specular, shadows, and AO.
with wire:
Once i get the rest of the low polys modeled and normal mapped, ill begin texturing ( which i will need tons of critiques on..).
Also: Awesome progress everyone, I hope you all are having a lot of fun doing this.
JoachimC
Now why didn't i think of that, thanks for the pointer. Already scrapped the whole project yesterday though, redoing it over from scratch starting Sunday. (finally learned how to import in UDK as well lol (Unity was too clunky)..oh and i really can't give out any advice to you..since I'm practically just starting, but everything seems to be on point so far love the texture work.
@modsoft - geezus that looks dead on to the reference- man, I gotta try that sometime
@Cheathem - hey sure, I don't mind the knit pickin- I was actually just trying out the basic shapes first for the beam- actually for the whole texture in general for the other pieces as well. I was more curious first how it looks in the game engine before I go crazy on the detail- the shape and the colors to be exact and thank you
@Fizzly - done and done, changed the blue pipes to something more suitable color-- man I was getting use to that blue too :B
I'm seeing a lot of cool stuff- awesome work everyone! Well folks here's another update- not much yet on the details for the pieces in general. I have been doing a lot of light testing and pushing UDK's Lightmass settings-- I got carried away- so- kinda not showing not a lot progress on this update. I'm gotta stop rendering stuff UDK XD
implemented
- added props; cables ( no textures ), added on touch screen module ( I think I should change it to orange ), heads up sign, light fixtures
- added outside box for lightmass leaks or bleeds
- points lights ( over head lights )
things to do
- add two more props ( rain coat set and locker )
- start 2nd passes on diffuse, specs, normal, emission maps detail in general
- stop messing with lighting, keep focus on other important things ( time consuming **render times**)
- keep working!
modsoft - Nice start and welcome to the challenge! Your scale looks spot on.
Aerial_Knight - Is that in engine? If so, how did you do the reflections ?
I think that your gloss value is too high. It barely shows anything of the spec map now. Also as Xerafel suggested; Try putting scratches on places where they make sense, where they get "touched" the most. For example on edges of panels, corners, around bolts/holes and such.
JoachimC - You have been busy! Nice prop models. Maybe add some small details on the information board like you did on the lockers (could be some simple bolts). I always find 'small' things enhancing the subject, it gives sense of scale
Cheathem - Nice work on your low poly. It was probably quite a challenge to bake out all of those HP's, well done ! I think that making it more scary isn't against the rules, I like that too actually..
serriffe - Yellow pipe is much better ! Very nice progress! How do you create those glowy lights in UE 3.0?
@Anyone who uses ndo2 - I do have ndo2 but I barely use it. Most of the time I use the xnormal photoshop filter, since it is faster/easy to use. Might not be as good as ndo2, but for me it is good enough. If you are having trouble getting any desired normals out of ndo2 the way you want it. I suggest to try the xnormal photoshop filter first .
I've worked on all of my modular pieces; The floors, walls and ceiling. Modelled, unwrapped, created a basic texture for them and imported everything into unreal. Which was quite a challenge since I don't have that much experience with UE 3.0. I also decided to redo my diffuse texture, as it wasn't looking good in unreal.
This is what I got so far:
I only use a diffuse and normalmap currently. The diffuse is a flat grey with (fake) AO and a cavity map on top set to 'Overlay'.
I still need some unique pieces to fill up some of the corners.
Keep it up all, looking good! Now.. Back to work.. *Puts UT99 soundtrack back on*
Wow- nice work Fizzly, the details on your Normals looks great! Oh and for the glowing effect- you connect a map to the Emission node from the material. The map you connect to it is pretty much the same way you treat an Alpha ( black and white ) well here's a shot I found off the net- I think that's about it.
@JoachimC - Nice work on the textures so far. I especially like the Information wall panel. The only thing I can say about that is bloody hand print looks too much like just a stamp. I think it could use a bit more of a smear to show the weight of the person struggling through to get by the area, trying to use the info panel as body weight support, or just simply collapsing down, etc. Small stuff like that can tell a lot of story.
@Seriffe - Lol . Your scene looks great so far. The addition of the cables on the ground tells an interesting story. I hope we can see where they lead to or know what they're used for!
@Fizzly - I like the way the normals turned out. The modeling, shapes, and scale also turned out really nice, like in that corner piece. I like the details there.
Here's my quick update, which is blocking out solid colors. Also created and added in benches, which will need some foliage/plants on the end of the square block. TONS of work need to be done in general still.
@serriffe - Looking really good. I like the cables on the floor, I do however feel like they are abit thick. @JoachimC - Nice textures! As someone said you should add some screws etc. I also don't know how I feel about the ceilingarch being that damaged.
I don't have any updates myself. Quite stressed out with school and work so I don't know if I'll be mange to complete this scene by the month. But I'll try.
@Xerafel - Thank you! Your scene is coming together nicely. Also nice colors. I like your yellow especially (hard color to choose, for me atleast). Good luck with the texture, looking forward to it !
@Andre.Jonsson - ! That's a shame.. You were going into the right direction.
This morning I worked on the ceiling and wall textures. This is where I'm at now (Still using the old floor texture):
I also tried a quick specular map on the wall, but I think that it makes it look too grunged now. Will redo that.
@ArtisticTiger: Too bad, but there's always a next challenge
@Serriffe: Don't have much to comment on, your progress looks great, I especially like the feel the ceiling lights give the scene.
@Fizzly: You're absolutely right, going to add more detail there. Good point about the scale. Also very nice progress with the normals, and I actually like the grungy feel you have now that there's specular on it.
@Xerafel: Thanks, you're right about the hand, I'm gonna change it to tell more of a story. Your scene looks like it's coming together nicely. All I can say is the bench looks like it should have a more rounded corner.
@Andre.Johnson: Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out just how worn/grungy I want everything to look. I may have overdone it a bit, but I do at least want to keep some of the damage.
As for myself, no update yet, but later today I'm continuing to fill out the scene and make some more props. Good luck all. It's my first time participating here and I must say I like seeing how everyone is tackling the challenge.
@Andre.Jonsson - thanks man! The cables, was just playing around with the shapes, initially- was thinking of doing something thin but my curiosity got the best of me and hey, just rest a bit man- then come back when u r good and ready, ok
@Xerafel - thanks man- the cables u say, just felt like the floor looks empty
@Fizzly - u r welcome love the details of your latest -
@ssjtroll, Supposable Lion, Shuaws: The scale of your scene is way too big. By my calculations, it's at it's peak, 2.5 characters tall. Other than that, great start!
This is my start. It's 2 days of work so far. For this challenge, I'm going to take a page out of Snefer's book and going to push as much as I can out of as few textures as possible. All assets currently are mapped to one normal map with the AO in the alpha channel.
Hey man!
Nice blockout thus far... If you could do me a favor? Please explain what you mean exactly by storing that AO into the Alpha of the Normal Map? I mean, i understand generally what you're saying, but not quite sure on the process of doing this, and how it works in the engine?
Once you have your AO, how are you storing it into your Normal map? I assume its done in Photoshop - but, how are you telling the engine to read that?
Once you have your AO, how are you storing it into your Normal map? I assume its done in Photoshop - but, how are you telling the engine to read that?
Thanks in advance
In the material editor, you tell the engine to only use a specific channel of an image file for things. In this case, I imagine he's multiplying his diffuse map by the alpha channel of his normal map.
I'm multiplying my diffuse texture by the alpha channel of the smilie face, which is a white dot on a black background, to get the dark area around the final texture.
@theDEAD: Just like Scoan said, I tell UDK (in my case) which channel to use for the AO. This works for any channel.
In Photoshop, you can access the red, green, blue and alpha channels separately. I just take my AO (which is a grayscale image) and paste it in the blue channel.
I'm new to 3d modelling, this thread and polycount in general, but here is my blockout attempt. Like I said in the skype group, it looks a little low compared to the original, but I am happy with the proportions.
@Aerial_Knight: I am having the same deal with my floor spec. The way the light is coming in the scene it won't hit right. What I found that helps a bit if you make a reflection on it and use the spec as mask.
@Fizzly: Love the extra grunge and falling metal panels.
@Lilith: I like the models, the only thing is that the color on the benches are switched. In the reference the planter is a darker wood and the bench is lighter. But for all I know you are going for that look.
Here is my floor and Bench. I want to go back in real quick and add that grid pattern all over the floor.
I know I am a bit late compaired to some of you , nice progress !!
But this is my work so far ...
Next step : to put all my elements in the game engine and to start on my textures .
After doing some research/studying(messing with UDK), decided to trash all of my previous progress and start from scratch, so here's what i have now, around 9 hours of work, but i don't have that much modeling left to do..gonna add the extra things like wires ,magazines, etc, then move on to UV maps and Textures.....well off i go.
and the wireframe.
@Ssjtroll - Nice textures so far. The only thing I have to say is the lines on the bench seems to end abruptly off the edges. Maybe either continuing the edge lines all the way around or add some kind of edge trim to make the transition fall off a bit more convincing.
@RILKE - Normal map and shape seems cool so far. Can't wait to see what you do with it.
@Fizzly - Awesome texture/material work! I especially like the upper panel metal on the 2nd screenshot.
@Aerial_Knight - Nice job on the ceiling pieces, I like the lighting there. The rest looks good so far too. The only thing is for the upper wall panels, I'd try to ease up on the large broad scratches. Those large details can make your textures obviously repeat/reused once you place multiple pieces next to each other.
@ArtisticTiger - Looking good so far in UDK. Keep it up!
Here's my update for this week. Began some texturing work, but the tricky part for me is that I want to keep things looking "clean". I tried to add very subtle details and scratches here and there though. I'm totally open up to any advice. Also some things I will try to troubleshoot:
- Bench casting low quality nasty shadows.. but not sure why.
- My wall normal maps are causing seams and some issues with the faces. Those faces were copied and flipped horizontally before reattaching back to the main wall. The flipped faces seem to be causing the issue, but not sure how to fix it (You can see it to the left of the 3rd screenshot with the wall panel machine thing).
skyline5gtr I just inserted 2 edge loops going across(horizontal), near the top and bottom, then extruded/Scale the new faces created near the top and bottom(for front and back of the beam). Not sure how everyone else went about doing it though.
Here's a pic..Is this what you were talking about?
@theDead: In most cases, you won't do this. However, I'm trying to make the entire scene using 2 textures, so I'll need every bit of space inside those textures to get the most out of it. And since you can tell UDK to calculate the blue channel of the normal map in the shader, that leaves space for another grayscale image.
@inside: The drips are too strong. They also don't fit with the clean floors you have. Other than that, great job. @Xerafel: Damn, that looks great! As for the issues with the bench: Check the lightmaps on the floor. That may be the issue, since it seems to be wavy. As for the flipped normals, flip the UVs of those faces. Hope this helps. @Aerial_Knight: Lookin' good!
@Xerafel - dude, nice man- love the details you put on the ceiling and I like that light fixtures design. Oh man, I also liked what you did to the grilled floor- you added some alpha and added details underneath- nice!
@Fizzly - awesome! love what you are doing with your scene in general- I liked the whole material definitions and I sure can't wait what you to do next for the next shots ;]
I have been busy lately so just minimal updates on my end. But I spend most of my time fixing problems, house file cleaning and organizing.
implemented
- new material shading and design detail on Walls panels
- window material shading
- re-exported all assets with " Obey hard edges " on this time ( all you kiddos starting UDK, remember to turn that on! classic rookie mistake for me )
- toned down lighting bounce
things to do
- refine material definitions in general
- still got two props to do; Locker,Raincoat set, and bench seat- still not settled for the color and style for it
- improve lighting maps- I'm starting to get some pixelation artifacts
( must do research on UDK lightmass )
- optimize level
- get some sleep.. then get back to work!
important things learned during production
- must follow UDK units no mater what, ( meters to UDK was a bit painful conversion )
- axmesh.mel always have " Obey Hard Edges " option on!
and here's a side note just wanted to share my reference material with you folks who are in this month's challenge- enjoy
@RILKE - Love your use of shapes and lines. looking forward to seeing it textured.
@Fizzly - Materials are looking fantastic.are you using gloss maps as well?
@Aerial_Knight - really liking your ceiling man, looks good. Your walls look good too, but i think the textures need some more love.
@Xerafel - Wow, love that your going for a clean look. Its really working for ya.Awesome textures, material work, and lighting.
@iniside - Looking good dude, just a couple of suggestions
And finally,
Heres my small progress for the week:
Ive just begun texturing the walls. I guess im going for a hard foam like material for the yellow part, and a some sort of metal..for the metal..
Critiques are definitely welcome. My texturing skills could surely use them.
Just saw your update serriffe, looking great. I like how your windows looks grungy/cloudy. Are you going to have any scenery? And those cables you added were a nice touch. really adds some life to the scene.
Replies
@RobertHedlund - I've just been using "render to texture" inside of 3ds max to bake the high poly mesh down to a low poly mesh, or down to a plane in some cases.
@Andre.Jonsson / @keosar - Very nice benches you two have there. I love your normals and texture keosar. The only thing that i would say is hurting it is your current in scene lighting.
the isolated view looks great though.
@Fizzly - awesome looking doors. normals on the right side door look different then the left side door though? Any reason why?
@Huw_Dawson - your hallway looks way to tight/narrow in my opinion. Other than that, looking good.
@Aerial_Knight - really liking your textures so far. Just a couple things that i think are bringing it down.
@serriffe - nitpicking : your support beams on the right side seam a little to plane and simple. everything else is looking awesome though.love the lighting.
*I hope the images worked in this post or else some of the crits wont make since d:
*Im not checking over this again, sorry if there's any errors or if im unclear on something.
keosar this is my spec map for the floor I dont think its doing much for me.
Fizzly - You think so? Thanks! I want to do a little more detail in the corner mesh before I move on. I'll post some more shots of it later to give people some ideas.
Huw_Dawson - Last month was my first time importing assets into UDK. Learning how to do it correctly hindered my progress a bit and I didn't complete the scene on time. However, now I know what to expect this time around, and I'm much more confident in my ability to complete this month's scene. We just gotta practice and we'll hit that high quality mark! Just for fun, this is what I used to learn the basics of UDK: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/cat_udk.php
@keosar - I only used photoshop and xnormal (the photoshop plugin) to create the normalmap. No baking.
@Aerial_Knight - The main problem with your (diffuse) texture is that it looks a bit too much like stone rather than metal. A bit too much grunge/noise. Your spec looks pretty good, just needs some more contrast I think. Try making the scratches a bit more white so they pop a bit more
@Cheathem - Well spotted! Thanks. I think it has something to do with the vertex normals. I did mirror the object, but didn't reset xforms. I'll look into it tonight
-I'm modeling in Maya
-Building everything modular on a UDK grid (using jbU3Grid.mel)
-I'd like to improve my skills with UV unwrapping, texturing, and UDK's material editor.
I will try to be as helpful as I can with my comments, and of course I appreciate any comments on my own work!
@InProgress - Your scale and colors looking pretty good so far!
@Keosar - Awesome work on the benches! I actually couldn't figure out the design from just the concept, but now that I look back on it after seeing yours, it's a lot more clear to me now.
@Aerial_Knight - Nice work on the textures so far. If anything, I would probably have to say that the scratches in the middle of the door look a little unnatural to me for some reason. The large stroke of scratches stand out a bit.
Here's my update for the week. I'm a little slow at this because I'm trying to model high poly detail and baking it to low poly. I normally use nDO2 for hard surface stuff, but I wanted to expand my skills and knowledge into something new. This shot is taken in cryEngine3. I had all my modular pieces exported out as one group.
Ultimately I would like to export it out to UDK though and learn it. I'll probably have to approach UDK exporting differently since I have to take lightmap UVs in consideration. I tried to export out my scene as one group and have the lightmap UVs generated by the "generate unique UVs" tool (which I know is not as good as manually doing it) just to test, and it came out pretty badly. Also does anyone know what fov the editor perspective is set to by default?
I don't feel like I deserve to give crits..
This video helped me when I was getting familiar with ndo2. Basically you want to block out your shapes with solids and convert them to normals. If you meant you were converting your diffuse textures to normal, I would probably recommend against that. The results usually don't come out that well compared to the workflow in the vid (at least for me).
[ame="
@JaySmitt: Good start, the only thing that sticks out to me are the proportions of the control room sign.
@Xerafel: Very good blockout and lighting already. Curious to see what you can make of it in CE3.
@ArtisticTiger: For the pipes I think it'd be best to build small modular parts of pipes and reuse them often.
@Aerial_Knight: Nice progress there, though the floor is a bit too reflective for my tastes.
@modsoft: I like your structured, technical approach. Looks like it's going to pay off.
Anyway, here are some new props and my scene as it is right now. Trying to go through everything at a good pace to get it together, then do a polish pass later.
Tips and crits welcome, of course.
After quickly lighting the low poly scene here with just two lights, I've decided to go with a more scary and dark feeling to this environment. I hope that's not against the rules or anything, but it will be much more fun for me that way.
I'm also feeling pretty inspired by the halo 3 flood and doom 3 environments right now. Not sure how that will incorporate into this scene exactly, as i'm still trying to stick pretty close to the original concept.
I still have looooots to do and to figure out, but heres what i have of the low poly scene with just normal maps, specular, shadows, and AO.
with wire:
Once i get the rest of the low polys modeled and normal mapped, ill begin texturing ( which i will need tons of critiques on..).
Also: Awesome progress everyone, I hope you all are having a lot of fun doing this.
Now why didn't i think of that, thanks for the pointer. Already scrapped the whole project yesterday though, redoing it over from scratch starting Sunday. (finally learned how to import in UDK as well lol (Unity was too clunky)..oh and i really can't give out any advice to you..since I'm practically just starting, but everything seems to be on point so far love the texture work.
@keosar - thank you good sir!
@modsoft - geezus that looks dead on to the reference- man, I gotta try that sometime
@Cheathem - hey sure, I don't mind the knit pickin- I was actually just trying out the basic shapes first for the beam- actually for the whole texture in general for the other pieces as well. I was more curious first how it looks in the game engine before I go crazy on the detail- the shape and the colors to be exact and thank you
@Fizzly - done and done, changed the blue pipes to something more suitable color-- man I was getting use to that blue too :B
@someone- hopefully I didn't forget anyone?
I'm seeing a lot of cool stuff- awesome work everyone! Well folks here's another update- not much yet on the details for the pieces in general. I have been doing a lot of light testing and pushing UDK's Lightmass settings-- I got carried away- so- kinda not showing not a lot progress on this update. I'm gotta stop rendering stuff UDK XD
implemented
- added props; cables ( no textures ), added on touch screen module ( I think I should change it to orange ), heads up sign, light fixtures
- added outside box for lightmass leaks or bleeds
- points lights ( over head lights )
things to do
- add two more props ( rain coat set and locker )
- start 2nd passes on diffuse, specs, normal, emission maps detail in general
- stop messing with lighting, keep focus on other important things ( time consuming **render times**)
- keep working!
Aerial_Knight - Is that in engine? If so, how did you do the reflections
I think that your gloss value is too high. It barely shows anything of the spec map now. Also as Xerafel suggested; Try putting scratches on places where they make sense, where they get "touched" the most. For example on edges of panels, corners, around bolts/holes and such.
JoachimC - You have been busy! Nice prop models. Maybe add some small details on the information board like you did on the lockers (could be some simple bolts). I always find 'small' things enhancing the subject, it gives sense of scale
Cheathem - Nice work on your low poly. It was probably quite a challenge to bake out all of those HP's, well done
serriffe - Yellow pipe is much better
@Anyone who uses ndo2 - I do have ndo2 but I barely use it. Most of the time I use the xnormal photoshop filter, since it is faster/easy to use. Might not be as good as ndo2, but for me it is good enough. If you are having trouble getting any desired normals out of ndo2 the way you want it. I suggest to try the xnormal photoshop filter first
I've worked on all of my modular pieces; The floors, walls and ceiling. Modelled, unwrapped, created a basic texture for them and imported everything into unreal. Which was quite a challenge since I don't have that much experience with UE 3.0. I also decided to redo my diffuse texture, as it wasn't looking good in unreal.
This is what I got so far:
I only use a diffuse and normalmap currently. The diffuse is a flat grey with (fake) AO and a cavity map on top set to 'Overlay'.
I still need some unique pieces to fill up some of the corners.
Keep it up all, looking good! Now.. Back to work.. *Puts UT99 soundtrack back on*
@JoachimC - Nice work on the textures so far. I especially like the Information wall panel. The only thing I can say about that is bloody hand print looks too much like just a stamp. I think it could use a bit more of a smear to show the weight of the person struggling through to get by the area, trying to use the info panel as body weight support, or just simply collapsing down, etc. Small stuff like that can tell a lot of story.
@Seriffe - Lol
@Fizzly - I like the way the normals turned out. The modeling, shapes, and scale also turned out really nice, like in that corner piece. I like the details there.
Here's my quick update, which is blocking out solid colors. Also created and added in benches, which will need some foliage/plants on the end of the square block. TONS of work need to be done in general still.
@JoachimC - Nice textures! As someone said you should add some screws etc. I also don't know how I feel about the ceilingarch being that damaged.
I don't have any updates myself. Quite stressed out with school and work so I don't know if I'll be mange to complete this scene by the month. But I'll try.
@Xerafel - Thank you! Your scene is coming together nicely. Also nice colors. I like your yellow especially (hard color to choose, for me atleast). Good luck with the texture, looking forward to it
@Andre.Jonsson -
This morning I worked on the ceiling and wall textures. This is where I'm at now (Still using the old floor texture):
I also tried a quick specular map on the wall, but I think that it makes it look too grunged now. Will redo that.
@Serriffe: Don't have much to comment on, your progress looks great, I especially like the feel the ceiling lights give the scene.
@Fizzly: You're absolutely right, going to add more detail there. Good point about the scale. Also very nice progress with the normals, and I actually like the grungy feel you have now that there's specular on it.
@Xerafel: Thanks, you're right about the hand, I'm gonna change it to tell more of a story.
@Andre.Johnson: Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out just how worn/grungy I want everything to look. I may have overdone it a bit, but I do at least want to keep some of the damage.
As for myself, no update yet, but later today I'm continuing to fill out the scene and make some more props.
@Andre.Jonsson - thanks man! The cables, was just playing around with the shapes, initially- was thinking of doing something thin but my curiosity got the best of me
@Xerafel - thanks man- the cables u say, just felt like the floor looks empty
@Fizzly - u r welcome
some of my progress:
Hey man!
Nice blockout thus far... If you could do me a favor? Please explain what you mean exactly by storing that AO into the Alpha of the Normal Map? I mean, i understand generally what you're saying, but not quite sure on the process of doing this, and how it works in the engine?
Once you have your AO, how are you storing it into your Normal map? I assume its done in Photoshop - but, how are you telling the engine to read that?
Thanks in advance
In the material editor, you tell the engine to only use a specific channel of an image file for things. In this case, I imagine he's multiplying his diffuse map by the alpha channel of his normal map.
I'm multiplying my diffuse texture by the alpha channel of the smilie face, which is a white dot on a black background, to get the dark area around the final texture.
In Photoshop, you can access the red, green, blue and alpha channels separately. I just take my AO (which is a grayscale image) and paste it in the blue channel.
@Lilith - Nice and clean props, looks good! But isn't the bench a bit small compared to the lockers?
No update for me this post, I'm currently having lunchbreak at work
So far.
I'm mainly fiddling with creating basic materials.
here is my progress so far
@Fizzly: Love the extra grunge and falling metal panels.
@Lilith: I like the models, the only thing is that the color on the benches are switched. In the reference the planter is a darker wood and the bench is lighter. But for all I know you are going for that look.
Here is my floor and Bench. I want to go back in real quick and add that grid pattern all over the floor.
I know I am a bit late compaired to some of you , nice progress !!
But this is my work so far ...
Next step : to put all my elements in the game engine and to start on my textures .
I did some plumbing tonight. Not done yet but it is getting there I think. I also tweaked some of the specular maps.
Thanks!
and the wireframe.
@RILKE - Normal map and shape seems cool so far. Can't wait to see what you do with it.
@Fizzly - Awesome texture/material work! I especially like the upper panel metal on the 2nd screenshot.
@Aerial_Knight - Nice job on the ceiling pieces, I like the lighting there. The rest looks good so far too. The only thing is for the upper wall panels, I'd try to ease up on the large broad scratches. Those large details can make your textures obviously repeat/reused once you place multiple pieces next to each other.
@ArtisticTiger - Looking good so far in UDK. Keep it up!
Here's my update for this week. Began some texturing work, but the tricky part for me is that I want to keep things looking "clean". I tried to add very subtle details and scratches here and there though. I'm totally open up to any advice. Also some things I will try to troubleshoot:
- Bench casting low quality nasty shadows.. but not sure why.
- My wall normal maps are causing seams and some issues with the faces. Those faces were copied and flipped horizontally before reattaching back to the main wall. The flipped faces seem to be causing the issue, but not sure how to fix it (You can see it to the left of the 3rd screenshot with the wall panel machine thing).
Here's a pic..Is this what you were talking about?
@inside: The drips are too strong. They also don't fit with the clean floors you have. Other than that, great job.
@Xerafel: Damn, that looks great! As for the issues with the bench: Check the lightmaps on the floor. That may be the issue, since it seems to be wavy. As for the flipped normals, flip the UVs of those faces. Hope this helps.
@Aerial_Knight: Lookin' good!
However if you're going to use the AO as a mask for other effects within the shader it makes a lot of sense.
@Fizzly - awesome! love what you are doing with your scene in general- I liked the whole material definitions and I sure can't wait what you to do next for the next shots ;]
I have been busy lately so just minimal updates on my end. But I spend most of my time fixing problems, house file cleaning and organizing.
implemented
- new material shading and design detail on Walls panels
- window material shading
- re-exported all assets with " Obey hard edges " on this time
- toned down lighting bounce
things to do
- refine material definitions in general
- still got two props to do; Locker,Raincoat set, and bench seat- still not settled for the color and style for it
- improve lighting maps- I'm starting to get some pixelation artifacts
( must do research on UDK lightmass )
- optimize level
- get some sleep.. then get back to work!
important things learned during production
- must follow UDK units no mater what, ( meters to UDK was a bit painful conversion )
- axmesh.mel always have " Obey Hard Edges " option on!
and here's a side note just wanted to share my reference material with you folks who are in this month's challenge- enjoy
http://gryphart.com/deus-ex-3-the-missing-link-dlc
http://gryphart.com/deus-ex-human-revolution
http://www.coroflot.com/Trong_Nguyen/Game-industry-Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Part-1
http://www.coroflot.com/Trong_Nguyen/Game-industry-Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Part-2
@RILKE - Love your use of shapes and lines. looking forward to seeing it textured.
@Fizzly - Materials are looking fantastic.are you using gloss maps as well?
@Aerial_Knight - really liking your ceiling man, looks good. Your walls look good too, but i think the textures need some more love.
@Xerafel - Wow, love that your going for a clean look. Its really working for ya.Awesome textures, material work, and lighting.
@iniside - Looking good dude, just a couple of suggestions
And finally,
Heres my small progress for the week:
Ive just begun texturing the walls. I guess im going for a hard foam like material for the yellow part, and a some sort of metal..for the metal..
Critiques are definitely welcome. My texturing skills could surely use them.