[CE3] Spaceballs: The Environment

Amatobahn

Hello Polycount Family,

I have been moving along [slowly] with an environment working in CryEngine 3. I would say this is my entry into this engine, but I have dabbled in it briefly. It is still new to me. So prepare for a block of text, because I want to be thorough.

The idea behind this environment isn't to be a typical Sci-Fi hallway. I told myself I wanted to stay away from what we already have seen countless times. This is where I decided to take it into a somewhat new direction with Spaceballs. I figured using the lore of the SB universe I could play off of a lot of science fiction themes and create extremely literal translations.

The plot / story behind this scene is based off a reference in the movie, where the title Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money was given. This is somewhat of the basis of the background on what I wanted to start from.

So in planning I thought of how Yogurt claimed he made his fortune off of movie merchandising. "Spaceballs the _______." So those from Spaceballs City set out to scavenge the planet at which Yogurt lived. [Desert, Barren] What would conspire from this is a temporary space-base, where the task at hand was to comb the desert for riches. Over time, they discover what seems to be an artifact of some sort—which is what a portion of the environment will showcase as it is enclosed within the space-base as a primary digging spot.

However come to find out over time, as they continued scooping the sand with their over-sized ice cream scoopers, they stumbled upon the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, triggering an event that ravaged the dig site, ending their search for more money.

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As far as art goes i have based the hallway portion from this concept from Mass Effect 3:


My initial blockout of the hallway and exterior:



I have since then pushed the blocking into CE3, and made a few design changes.

Question - Does it feel to narrow compared to the open space on the right of my initial blockout?





And a shot of the floor mesh (ao/cavity/normal only):



As I continue to flesh things out a bit I will update (hopefully on a regular basis). I plan on creating a detailed list of props/elements and posting those for you all to see.

I would love if you have any feedback or clever ideas, although it may be a bit early for that. I plan on focusing on each element carefully and involving my storyline from above as much as possible.

Cheers!:)

[HP]

Love it thus far, not much to point out other than you are already using way more high frequency / smaller details in your textures than the original concept piece, which may result in a noisier result and of course a lot more extra work.

Amatobahn

In my mind I was worried that following the concept will make it seem too much like what we'd see in mass effect and not what we would see in the SB universe. Something someone else mentioned to me was how bad of design the sets were on Spaceballs, and to maybe show a newer take on that—Spaceballs 2.0

I do see what you're saying though and I will be more aware of that when making the rest of the scene

reverendK

Oh man. Im overdue to rewatch spaceballs. You have reinvigorated my spirits sir.

Steve Schulze

I don't think the sets of Spaceballs are necessarily badly designed, but they're obviously done on a very small budget and look like they're cobbled together mostly from foam board and off the shelf bits and pieces. Beyond that they're not really very distinct. Beyond a few joke props, the sets really wouldn't look out of place in Star-wars or any other suitable sci-fi typed movie.

Transposing that to a scene might be tricky - You could certainly give it that angular boxy look with kitbashed pipes and blinky light panels glued on but showing that clunkiness off and having it look like it's by design rather than bad art is going to take some consideration.

Whatever you decide to do, don't forget to label any machines and consoles with "Mr."

I was going to suggest taking a look at the animated series for a broader look at the universe, but I just pulled up a couple of videos on Youtube and I couldn't in good conscience knowingly expose anyone to that horror.

Amatobahn

Thanks Jackabkade. Regarding your comment about looking out of place , and taking into consideration that it's by design, maybe I can do something that sells the clunky ness more—almost as if I made what we see a movie set itself. Where on the side facing camera is what we'd expect buts in reality it's framed and propped up by wood, and / or pulley system.

It's an idea that may solve the design vs bad art (we don't want that).

As a side note, Mr. Coffee and Mr. Radar [with jam] are planned haha.

Thanks for your input!

A-N-P

Glad to see you working on this man What you have so far looks great. I do agree with [HP] that you'll need to have areas where the eye can rest.

Great stuff so far, though

Amatobahn

I had planned on posting some updates today but we started crunch at work for the rest of the week, so it's on hold for the time being.

Thanks for the feedback so far!

Amatobahn

Hey all, getting off crunch today from work I just wanted to sit and watch the remainder of Breaking Bad but I did think about what to do next with my environment that may connect the theme better.

Based off of Jackablade's comment(s) I was thinking about encompassing the scene within a studio setting — that means each element is just a facade with wood framing, green screens, lighting equipment, cameras, etc. That way as a design decision the connections make more sense as to having big bulky flashing buttons and its overall clunkiness. I'm still wanting to play around with forms of each element but still wanting to use the concept as a general guide. Below I modified a piece from before to a blocked in "framed-out" piece.

What do you all think of the idea?

Polygoblin

Sounds like a nifty idea. It may make the Spaceballs theme easier to read if it were also readable as a movie set. I'm curious how you would show the "film" angle and the rear of the set and props in the same shot. I can imagine that right side being "off-set" and have lights and cameras pointing towards the window for your combing the desert gag. You may have space in the foreground for the rear of a prop, or perhaps a director's chair with Mel Brooks' name on it!

Looking forward to seeing where you go with it

Amatobahn

I was actually thinking of that. I think the goal in mind is to have it feel like it's the real thing, but then from a different perspective it unfolds as a studio set, maybe incorporate something as you were saying the view would be behind the scenes.

Amatobahn

Hey all, Back and working on a tiled wall texture based off of the interior of Spaceballs city.

Amatobahn

It has been a while, but I'm slowly updating piece by piece.

Here's the progress up to where I'm at now:

Amatobahn

Posting another Update. Theres a few texel-density issues i need to address, and base scene lighting to set up.