Valhalla Recreated in UE4
interpolator
Hey polycounters,
I decided to remake my personal favorite Halo 3 map (Valhalla) in the Unreal Engine 4 to balance out my portfolio (http://www.jackmckelvie.com/). I'm super excited about this one, and I'm shooting really high. I'm largely using the original for reference, but I'm still observing how 343 did their design for Valhalla. My goal is to remake the original with the graphical fidelity of 343's version some wild overgrowth seen in post apocalyptic games such as the last of us.
I created a mood board with a mixture of the original and 343's version. I also added several screens from the last of us to represent the overgrowth.
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I also did a basic breakdown of basic assets (red) and large bounding assets.
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My goal is to be finished with this map in three weeks (December 30th), and I'll be updating the thread in the next day or two with a whitebox.
I decided to remake my personal favorite Halo 3 map (Valhalla) in the Unreal Engine 4 to balance out my portfolio (http://www.jackmckelvie.com/). I'm super excited about this one, and I'm shooting really high. I'm largely using the original for reference, but I'm still observing how 343 did their design for Valhalla. My goal is to remake the original with the graphical fidelity of 343's version some wild overgrowth seen in post apocalyptic games such as the last of us.
I created a mood board with a mixture of the original and 343's version. I also added several screens from the last of us to represent the overgrowth.
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I also did a basic breakdown of basic assets (red) and large bounding assets.
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My goal is to be finished with this map in three weeks (December 30th), and I'll be updating the thread in the next day or two with a whitebox.
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since nov 15th it is permitted to show screens and talk about using UE4, the tools are not to be shown
On another note I'm hoping to have some WIP images up tonight. Yay
Actually Epic gave the tools to select teams/individuals. Or something along those lines.
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/977368-Unreal-Engine-4-Video-Collection
damn...
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I myself like the sculpt, but the thing I noticed immediately is the secondary rocks need to be bigger... I think rather than sheet rock I should be making something more in the vein of cliff rock.
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Done with finals tonight and I'm somewhat of a late night person so I'm hoping to get in full motion on this project tonight.
On another note, I have never actually modeled sci-fi before. I love it and have no idea why I haven't done it in the past, but here I am about to tackle some pretty sweet sci-fi stuff. If anyone has tips, tricks, zbrush hardsurface tips, or just some common mistakes to avoid please let me know. It will help me create a better environment more quickly.
Thanks everybody, and I hope to be updating very soon!
That said, if you are remaking Valhalla, there isn't a whole lot of uniquely unwrapped and modeled sub-d hard-surface assets to be made for that environment. What little there is (the bases and the metal wall) would be most easily made with tiling textures and some detailed blend shaders, at least with the traditional environment workflows. The ability to model and bake seamless tillable textures would be pretty important in that case, and IMO, it is far easier and more controllable to do this with a traditional sub-d poly pushing method than with just zBrush.
@ AlexCatMasterSupreme - I hope to please
@Computron - I feel for you man. Hopefully this environment can further tickle your interests in UE4.
In terms of organic sub-d vs. hardsurface there are many differences, but perhaps the more important workflow difference with this specific enviro is the one that arises out of your choice to use unique-prop/modular-instances or tiled texture sets and trims, because that will determine most of your workflow and how much actual work you can get away with.
If you are doing everything with tiled textures, you can use things like nDo/dDo and avoid modeling sub-d/hardsurface alltogether. This way you can avoid having to deal with a lot of the technical stuff and focus on the designs for the textures/patterns and materials, as well as making the low polygon models and cleverly wrapping the textures and trims onto them. That is the method used to create most of the environments for the Halo games, especially in the later 360 games, Reach and 4.
If you are thinking of doing things with the uniquely modeled mesh approach you might have to deal with a lot of the idiosyncrasies of modeling for normal map baking and rendering which can be very tough for beginners to deal with. Again, i'm not sure how much of this applies to you. There also isn't much that a modular environment set would do for this map for the obvious reason that there just isn't much hardsurface.
In either case, for Valhalla, I would recommend getting comfortable with tiling texture sets, trims, blend shaders and the like, at least to keep this project manageable and because its seems to be a better fit.
Perhaps your question was more geared toward the stylistic and design differences of Halo sci-fi style hardsurface. In that case, there are several well known halo mapping communities out there which have some very long and detailed posts deconstructing the aesthetic styles of forerunner and human architecture and scenery that might be interesting to read over. Its been a while since I was last on any of these sites, so you might just have to google for them.
Perhaps, using modular assets would save time and it would make better quality rocks.
I have a nice tutorial website which could be helpful for you.
http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/modular_rocks/modular_rocks.html
@sargentcrunch - Thanks man, I'm starting to think about how to break down the forerunner structures and I think you're right. There are only a few exceptions I can think of, but the 45 and 90 degree turns really makes things easier.
I now have the basic layout finished. I have a simple creek and ocean. I still need to add reflections and refractions to it but I can do that later. I have all of the base assets in the right places, and now I'm going to work on the verticality of the map as the depth is nonexistent as of yet. I've been playtesting it regularly and so far it feels good.
Following that I think I will make the four or five terrain textures to blend throughout the map.
After that i think I'm going to work on the giant forerunner wall as that will be an easier asset to make than the bases and I can do some learning on that one.
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All crits and questions welcome... by the way the material on the ground is a top down view of valhalla I found online from an old official game guide. That combined with a bunch of reference images really helped to get things in the right places with the right scale pretty quickly.
Sorry about the low res images. I can't get them any higher.
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It's also worth noting that I have realtime reflections for the water, but it's still not looking great.
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In your first post you mention that you want to mix in some overgrowth....but I haven't seen much of that come through yet. What kind of things are you looking to do to get that across? I think it might be cool to leave some remnants of a past battle here, maybe some derelict warthogs/ghosts, something to add a little more story.
While I realize its early on, nothing I see supports the idea of an overgrowth version of valhalla...just looks like your doing an exact copy of it.
So far for the rock piece you showed, the sculpt looked a little blobby, your missing a lot of form. Notice especially in the halo4 version of valhalla, how the rocks have some nice, crispy edges and clearly defined forms, and the textured one you have doesn't really support the forms either...just looks like a tiled texture thrown onto it (maybe it is?)
The snow material is cool, I'm a sucker for the fancy vector blending stuff
For your blockout, I don't see any images that depict scale. Maybe drop a human sized object in here, or a vehicle sized one...I think it will help you get a better sense of space overall.
One more thing I just wanted to throw out there. Have you considered just doing a small portion of the map instead of the whole thing? I can see how the map wouldn't be too difficult to make, as you can reuse assets and such, but it might be easier and better for portfolio purposes to pick a spot, and really focus on nailing it and getting it to a high level, instead of kinda doing an ok job with a really large area. Especially with the overgrowth aspect. Then when you get that down, go back and reassess if you really want to do the whole thing.
Anyways, It looks like your still pretty early into the project, so well see how this goes. Good luck!
In regards to your second point I'm very glad it looks exactly like it. My plan is to recreate the overall map as a foundation to age it (which as of now I'm somewhat satisfied with the blockout)... if that makes sense. My thinking is that recreating the map will in the long run help make it feel aged, but still familiar. Ultimately this is just the blockout, and I'm planning on starting some foliage pretty soon (first I'm going to get the rocks right).
Looking more at the rocks, you're indeed right. I'm going to go back and make sure there is some real form in there. As it goes for the texture, it was all sculpted and baked down. I think a lot of the detail was lost simply because I made it all look the same in the sculpt. It was definitely the wrong way to go about making a mesh (however for a tiling texture it would work well I think). I'm still working on the crispness of the rocks, but I'm having somewhat of a hard time really getting those nice edges to come out in a texture. If you have any tips or tricks to getting those real crisp edges I'd love to know.
I think for the scale I'll work up a quick basemesh warthog to reference several areas of the map.
I think that's a great idea. I was thinking along those lines of working on the far side of the map (the base nearest the waterfall as both bases are centerpieces) to completion. It might be more interesting for you guys too as the progress for an entire map is kind of slow.
Thanks for the feedback, it was very helpful. If you or anyone else has tips, suggestions, crits, etc. Please, feel free to jump in. I can always use the advice.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=119041&page=2
http://www.polycount.com/2012/11/20/the-environment-art-of-halo-4/#start-reading
I did find this tutorial today: https://vimeo.com/54356327 So hopefully I'll be able to do something like that to replicate the style from Halo 4.
I also found one of the environment artists from Halo 4 and it appears that he uses a different technique than the one in the previous tutorial link I just posted (http://www.bosoldworld.net/BW_Halo4.html). I'm just a little befuddled on how to do the Halo 4 granite like rocks.
Any help would be great for hitting these rocks right, because I've been really racking my brain trying to figure this out with little to show for it.
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After that I'm going to give myself a break from the rocks and I'm going to model the base. Can't wait to give it a shot!
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For now I'm taking a break with the rocks and I'm going to make the forerunner base. This one's going to be really fun. I went ahead and did a basic breakdown just to start planning out the base.
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Forerunner stuff is generaly pretty clean, but can still be complex, especially those spires. It seems like the angles are pretty off too, I'd try going with a more 45 degree angle on the top area, and also have something at the bottom for a base.
I'd personally also not open up the middle like that and keep them pretty flat, also can we get a angle from the back as well? I'd like to be able to see whats going on with those sides + the back of the spire as well.
The natural stuff you have going is pretty slick and nice looking so far, keep up the great work!
The back still needs a lot of work (talking mainly about the middle spire connecting to the two outer ones).
I'm going to get to work on getting those 45 degree angles right, shrinking up the middle, and adding some more detail.
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Also you can do a basic layout and then do a quick paint over with ideas of what you want the environment to look like.
a little preplanning will go a long way.
Once I'm done with this base I'm going to block out the rest of the map before I begin any other sort of models to refocus my direction. It will improve direction and keep me focused.
Thanks again snake for the feedback.
As always it's hard to tell if this is a joke that no one got or if you have no clue what a rock actually looks like.
trimBorder with a square is what I use for granite to, it pretty awesome even though it takes time. I can recommend you playing with crumble when you've got your bigger clean shapes down with the trimBorder. Also, use trimBorder at different strengths.
If this actually is your final sculpt, you really need to go back and look at your reference. I'm not pointing out anything specific cause pretty much everything is off in your sculpt.
Keep it up!
I've got an entire library of references to come back to once I'm done with the base, but I just needed a break from the rocks.
Again thanks for the crit. If not for your crit I may have used the asset in scene Based on the lack of form, realism, and flow that would have been a mistake.
Also thanks for the encouragement