[UDK] Post Medieval Environment (student)

GrungyStudios

Hey guys, i'm new here and this is my first post. I was referred to this great site by one of my teachers. Here is a UDK environment i created for a final project for the first term of my second year at George Brown college. This is my first udk environment and it was actually really fun.

Everything you see here was created by me except for the skybox and smoke particles effects, they are just from UDK content. I am looking for some critiques! tell me what i did wrong and what i can improve on because it would help me as an artist and i would really appreciate it.

LMP

Overall, Not a bad start.

Do you have specular maps and have to done anything with the Specular Power on the materials?
Biggest thing at the moment I'd say would be that everything feels like it's the same kind of material surface. It's all just a little too constant with it's glossiness.

I'd also try to break up the total uniformity of the paved area, for example, notice in the second image with the gallows, where the grassy/dirt just hard edges meets the paved area, if you could blend some grassy/dirt into the [aved area there to soften the transition it would really help it feel more real.

You should also play with the lighting, to give it a more dramatic appearance, you don't need to go totally extreme with it though, some subtly goes a long way in lighting.

GrungyStudios

Thank you for the reply LMP. I must say, at this point i'm not in tune with the material editor in UDK much. When i bring in my spec maps, they seem to not even work, when i try to enhance them it ends up being way to specular. I don't have the controll over my materials that i want because the material editor seems confusing at times, but im going to focus more on understanding it. And that's a good point about breaking up the uniformity and ill set it to good use on my next project. I'm still practicing my lighting in UDK which is also one of my weak points. But thanks for the feedback it is appreciated

oxblood

really nice. But your stone on the floor doesn't look like its tiling properly. They could maybe be a bit bigger also and mabye try to add a parallax occlusion map ?

nufftalon

Really good work I really like how much you have going on here. The specular in udk this video should help with that to control it. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_m-C29HY90"]Unreal Development Kit UDK Tutorial - 28 - Specular Control - YouTube[/ame]

RailbladerX

Great start for a first (*cough second*) year! Lots of good work.

For future refs, I'd say work on better shadow composition, and watch the textures that cut off at 90 degree angles, like in your first pic on the roof to the right. It makes it look very funky and unrealistic.

but good stuff guy. Keep it up.


:Edited for herp-derpin - yea just saw the word "first", and it just stuck. XD

Boozebeard

^He said first term of second year. But yeah, still really good!

NomadSoul2501

A lot of really solid work
What I would throw in is a height fog to add some depth and atmosphere.
Nothing heavy, just to cover up those low hanging clouds.
Also, if it's a school project you may not be allowed to, but if you can break up that tiling cobbled floor texture with some dirt/grime/grass, something.
Everything seems to be floating off the ground because they are not grounded right now.

Keep it up, you have a great piece on your hands.

GrungyStudios

Thank you all for the great advice and kind words. You guys helped me consider some things that i never really looked at, and i'm going to be sure to implement the advice into my next project! I now wish i posted this before this assignment was due so i could make all the changes you guys suggested... but i definitely learned some things to look out for. Once again, thank you all and i feel at home on this forum already

krone128

Really, really awesome work