Request - Helder Pinto, Jordan Walker, Andrew Maximov and other Pros

TorQue[MoD]

Hey all,

So I've been using UDK for a few years on and off now and I'd say I'm fairly decent with the engine, however when I look at environments created by you Pros mentioned in the title, I'm absolutely blown away at the quality. And I'm not just talking about modeling skill (although you're obviously better than me at that too) but its more the Post FX and lighting.

Any chance one or some of you guys could make an advanced level design tutorial on how to get such amazing FX? I know I'd gladly pay for that as I'm sure a lot of others here would too.

Or at the very least, can you point me towards some advanced tutorials on this so I can attempt to push my skills farther?

Thanks! You guys are amazing!

r4ptur3

i don't want to sound like a walking advertisement, but these were pretty awesome:

http://eat3d.com/udk_modular

www.3dmotive.com


eat3d is pricey, but the quality is great. 3dmotive is just awesome ... but they recently cut down on UDK videos.

TorQue[MoD]

Not at all, that's exactly what I'm asking for.
Yeah I have a subscription to 3d motive as they are really good. That modular series looks great, but like I said, I'm looking for more Post FX/Advanced lighting tutorials. I guess the end of that video series does cover lighting but I'd rather buy an entire DVD on the subject that just the end.

I've just noticed that the lighting and post on maps shown off by the guys I mentioned are absolutely sublime and I'd love to learn how to do that in my own maps.

[HP]

Hey dude!

Well, it might sound obvious, but it's a combination of two things mainly, good artistic eye and good tech knowledge.

The way you develop good artist eye is by making art and by LOOKING at a lot of art. Get a tumblr and subscribe to "arty" blogs, visit cghub daily, basically surround yourself by good art. I know this sounds obvious, but many artist just focus themselves on their own art and forget to see what else is out there. Everything I do, is almost always a recycle of many things i take reference from.
Another thing that I found to be invaluable was photography. Taking photos, and bringing them in Lightroom and mess with the lighting, tone mapper and overall post process has taught me so much, and post is more or less done the same in games.
The way you develop good tech knowledge is by watching tutorials such as that udk modular one, it touches on the very principles of lighting. Second and most important one, reverse engineer other levels.
Open UDK levels, custom made or the ones that come with UDK utself and study how they made the lighting, and I mean study it really deep, all the way to how they make the little lens flare in the sun to how they make the clouds scroll in the skyboxes, how they add gradients in the post, etc. After that try and "mimic" the process in your own levels.

Rinse, repeat, and ultimately enjoy the process!

This is my opinion, and it's how my learning process works. Ever since I started level design back in 2002 with Max Payne I learnt by opening the game's levels and applying what I learned on my levels.

TorQue[MoD]

Cool man thanks for the advice. I've definitely spent hundred of hours looking at others' work so that should help. Sometimes its hard to really understand what someone is doing to get the effect they got while reverse engineering maps which is why I think it would be awesome to have a tutorial on the more advanced aspects. I'll definitely buy a copy of that Eat3D dvd then if you think it goes enough into detail on the process. Do you know if the UDK Lighting & Post Processing intro DVD is worth buying? It seems to be using a much older version of UDK and I'm not sure if all the info is still correct.

Thanks!

EarthQuake

Lighting and post processing are not about pushing buttons or having the latest software, they are artistic concepts that once you learn, you will be able to apply to any software. So I wouldn't worry if that DVD is using an older version.

passerby

ya even good lighting skills from the goldsrc and quake days translates to good lighting now, and a lot of the post processing is likely being driven by a lut.

[HP]

passerby wrote: »

and a lot of the post processing is likely being driven by a lut.

I actually don't agree funnily enough. LUT feels like cheating; a lot of people just rely on it too much, and it's so easy to just ruin the overall look than make it better with it, i'd say use LUT on the very last stages of the lighting process but be subtle with it, it should be used to unify the colors together a little bit more, not tint or smear the image. (Remember RAGE or Gears of War 1?)
I didn't even use a custom LUT at all on my two last scenes, as LUT tends to tint everything and I like natural colors.

passerby

@[HP] I keep all post processing off till the very final steps, and even will do my first lighting passes, before i got textures, just on my grey mats, and light mapped assets.

Was just mentioning that as far as this goes, it isn't using any new fancy tools, hell lighting in UDK with lightmass is pretty similar to using rad with Half-Life 1, not much has changed expect having to worry about specular highlights now

TorQue[MoD]

Cool guys thanks for all the feedback. I'll definitely pick up a few of those DVD on Eat 3D. Yeah I guess that makes sense with lighting that its more artistic than technical. Some things though seems really strange to me on the technical front. For example, with Jordan's E-Honda bath house scene, the back wall with the mural has this sort of translucent wall present in the foreground that is impossible to select in the 3D view (my guess is its using alpha) and I'm not sure what to make of it or what purpose it serves. I was hoping to get some insight on how to utilize those sort of post process effects. The more technical aspects of the engine. I'll definitely start with that modular DVD though.

[HP]

those are reflector planes, I used them everywhere on Arbor vitae.
You can just enable translucent selection to select them or go into wireframe mode alt+1 and select the edge to select the entity, I think it's typically a purple edge.
If you scale them or move them around, you'll need to recalculate the texture it's reflecting of course, by right click and selecting the option recalculate reflection, i think that's what it's called. Also you need dx11 render enabled in UDK for that to work.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1947869&postcount=20

have fun dude!

TorQue[MoD]

Awesome! Thank you HP. That's an amazing feature. A lot easier to set up than creating cubemaps etc. and looks pretty slick too!