[UE4] SciFi Deck

beefaroni

**FINAL**

I'm calling this finished. I need to start working on a new project to expand my portfolio before I graduate!!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsBe9NT0zHs"]Dandelion Observation Deck - YouTube[/ame]








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Hi everyone. I figure I'll make a WIP for this scene on here for parts that I run into problems with. Any suggestions are more than welcome. First time doing an env. based on concept!!

Concept (BY SAM BROWN!!: http://www.artstation.com/artwork/m-deck)


Blockins








Ref sheet for computer area. There is a curved area on the left; however, I'm going to leave both flat so I can put a lot of time into 1 and just repeat it 4 more times.

plastix

This might help you:

beefaroni

Holy shit!

Thank you!!!!!

Any critiques on block-out so far? I'm really really worried that I'll mess it up and end up with a sub-par environment as a result.

Edit: I reverse searched those images and came up with nothing. Where-ever you got them, thank you for posting

Edit 2: Maybe I should have looked at his portfolio online. Heh...

billymcguffin

http://sambrown36.tumblr.com

Blockout looks alright, it's kinda difficult to read because everything's a similar color. Keep going and make sure to work on lighting during the blockout as well.

plastix

beefaroni wrote: »

Edit: I reverse searched those images and came up with nothing. Where-ever you got them, thank you for posting

Edit 2: Maybe I should have looked at his portfolio online. Heh...

http://sambrown36.carbonmade.com/
http://sambrown36.tumblr.com/

PS. Also check this thread

Nintendo46

Hi beefaroni

Nice scene you got there, the blockout looks solid.

I have one question to you. How did you spawn the skeleton player meshes?

could you give me the command?

cheers Joel

beefaroni

@Billy - I did not think of adding lighting to the scene or some basic mats. I will have that for the next update.

@Plastix - Thank you for the thread. Really nice to see a breakdown like that.

@Nintendo46 - I started with the 3rd person example level with the example assets. In my game folder > character > HeroTPP

beefaroni

Hi guys. I bought the Hourences Solus Project and it's helped a lot with getting more familiar with UE4.

Anyways, I'm about to move on with the scene. I've really been trying to nail the blockout to ensure the rest of the scene comes together. Here are some images.

beefaroni

Just a small little update. Still working on this

billymcguffin

Chairs look pretty nice!

ScottHoneycutt

Yeah keep at it. The bevels on those chairs look good.

Teessider

this is turning out good man! I'm liking the chairs myself.

It's funny I'm doing this exact scene atm too! (although I'm probs going at a much slower pace lol and I need to make a thread too)

keep going and I look forward to the finished environment

beefaroni

Finished the floors (not pictured right now) and started working on the back table. Decided to take a break and learn Substance Designer though since I've wanted to start creating my own material library. Rubber with marble.

beefaroni

Working on some white plastic in Designer. Can decrease/increase the wear with sliders if needed.

beefaroni

Just working on materials in SD4

Hard Plastic


Latex


Painted Metal


Rubber


Marble

beefaroni

Edit: Never-mind, not important.

beefaroni

Wanted to try a video update. Hopefully you guys can find something useful in it and point out stuff that I can do better!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aDfIo7QJSM"]SciFi Deck Update #1 - YouTube[/ame]

ScottHoneycutt

Correct me if I'm wrong, what I'm guessing is that you create and define these materials separately on the box shapes with Substance. Then you place the materials in the scene as tiles as opposed to making textures individually onto each meshes UV layout? I'm interested in the workflow as I'm preparing to do an environment that would require modular pieces and tiles. I've only ever worked with a game environment by painting directing onto each piece's UV layout (which requires giant texture maps or low res quality). Could I see how the UVs on the ground look having such a tile placed?

beefaroni

Yea, that's what I'm shooting for. So basically, on the floor, there are just 4 divisions and the UV map is mirrored across horizontally and vertically. There is a unique normal map for that which is blended at the last step in UE4.

(pretend the red is a normal map)

ScottHoneycutt

@beefaroni: cool thanks.

beefaroni

A little bit of an update but really have a question.

In the concept, I am a bit unsure of how to do the center mid-wall piece and all of that detail. Do I model it out so that I can use specifically placed UVs to get those panels and bolts in, do I use decal actors in UE4, or do I just do custom bakes and mirror it horizontally/lengthwise

Anyways, a SS. Getting caught up in this technical stuff but I think once I get past it I can have more updates for you guys!! (Maybe something that looks cool too)

beefaroni

Hi guys. Another quick update. I'm heading out of town for a week so I won't be able to work on this too much. Anyways, wanted to get another video recorded before I left so I wouldn't forget what I was in the middle of. It's a bit basic but maybe a few of you will find it interesting

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qejbzR3tvUI"]SciFi Deck Update #2 - YouTube[/ame]

beefaroni

Update. Deviating from the concept a bit to make it more moody . I figure if it's an empty set maybe there should be some story behind it. Like mebe everyone is asleep for the night so they dimmed the lighting and the huge blue giant they're surveying is lighting the env.

Oh!!!

All objects use layered textures to save memory. Materials are still a bit placeholder.

Also: I can't take 100% credit for lighting. Alex Rodriguez suggested a darker lighting early and the image plastix posted helped as well!

beefaroni

So I got a few good crits from a friend. Darks are way too dark. The planet in the background commands a lot of attention but there isn't really anything to look at once the eye is there. Focus on where the lighting hits the objects and potentionally add more detail there for visual interest. Don't spend too much time on areas that won't be heavily lit or even scene (common sense but I already made this mistake..).

There is a bunch more but I'll just fix it an post in the next update.

beefaroni

A little update, received some more critique and added that as well.

beefaroni

AlexCatMasterSupreme

mm nice and clean. The lighting is really nice and soft too. You gunna put any human element to it? It would be cool to see maybe bigger more flowing shapes on the floor and roof, not a big fan of the segmented parts. Maybe get some more depth in both as well.

beefaroni

Yea for sure. I'm planning on some magazines or something on the front table. Maybe a photo or post it notes on the computer area. Some decals/logos that are missing currently.

Any other ideas off the top of your head?

There also is going to be a birthday scene as a bonus when I'm finished with a half-eaten cake on the front table, happy birthday sign, cups/water on the floor, and streamers. But that's after I finish

ZacD

Looks like a scene you'd see in Star Citizen. Not a huge fan of the material on the chairs though. I wish it looked either more leather or less like an inflatable raft.

wester

This is really cool! I'm excited to see where you take this!

THe one thing that sticks out to me is how alot of the detail seems very flat. Don't be afraid to model in as much detail as you need, and really push and pull that depth on the pieces. This will also help to break the sillouettes. Geometry, especially for portfolio pieces should never be a concern.

I would also make sense of how the geometry gets shoved into other pieces of geometry. GIve it some kind of information that helps to make sense of it. For example the part of the seats that connect to the floor, give it some kind of lip or "skirt" that makes sense on how they talk to one another. You have some pillars and other pieces of geometry up top that do the same thing.

beefaroni

HOLY Shit!!! Thank you all for taking the time to critique!!! Okay, so response time.

mm nice and clean. The lighting is really nice and soft too. You gunna put any human element to it? It would be cool to see maybe bigger more flowing shapes on the floor and roof, not a big fan of the segmented parts. Maybe get some more depth in both as well.

Ya, for sure. I wrote a bit in my last post. I'm sorry I guess I missed the second half of your post somehow!? Anyways, I will definitely get some depth going, which I assume you mean the fact that everything is pretty flat up top.

I'm a bit confused about the flowing shapes. I'm not sure exactly what you mean so I'm going to leave that alone for now.

Looks like a scene you'd see in Star Citizen. Not a huge fan of the material on the chairs though. I wish it looked either more leather or less like an inflatable raft.

Hmm. I do disagree but it's easy enough with my setup to adjust the roughness value in Substance Designer so I will give it a shot and compare both images. I kind of like the latex feel of the chairs but maybe when I change the roughness I will realize that what I have looks meh.

This is really cool! I'm excited to see where you take this!

THe one thing that sticks out to me is how alot of the detail seems very flat. Don't be afraid to model in as much detail as you need, and really push and pull that depth on the pieces. This will also help to break the sillouettes. Geometry, especially for portfolio pieces should never be a concern.

I would also make sense of how the geometry gets shoved into other pieces of geometry. GIve it some kind of information that helps to make sense of it. For example the part of the seats that connect to the floor, give it some kind of lip or "skirt" that makes sense on how they talk to one another. You have some pillars and other pieces of geometry up top that do the same thing.

Thank you. Hmm, the flatness echos what Alex was saying so it's definitely something I need to fix.

Shit.... You're 100% right. Yea, I was trying to keep it pretty light texture res/geo wise but it looks like I need to re-do some pieces and for-sure add in the parts where pieces connect/slot-in.


Thank you again everyone for the critiques. I'm hoping that this can be used as a solid portfolio piece when I graduate next year so any more input as I make the changes above is more than welcome.

ScottHoneycutt

ZacD wrote: »

....Not a huge fan of the material on the chairs though. I wish it looked either more leather or less like an inflatable raft.

Right now it looks like they would be sitting on some really hard/shiny bumps.

Other than that, it looks very good.

AlexCatMasterSupreme

I'll do a paintover. I was busy and wasn't clear. I'll try and do one... eventually. I have some more crits to for the composition and such.

beefaroni

AlexCatMasterSupreme wrote: »

I'll do a paintover. I was busy and wasn't clear. I'll try and do one... eventually. I have some more crits to for the composition and such.

Oh that would be sweeeet. There is plenty for me to fix in the mean-time .

Chase

Man this came together quick! Ill need to pick your brain on lighting. Looks great Chris

noscope

This came together very nicely, massive improvement. For me at the moment the image of the small blue sun or whatever outside feels like an image on a billboard which im sure it is. It just feels too obvious just now. The holograms are ace and the normals and shiz are all nice and clean. Well donez!

beefaroni

Yep, it's a billboard. I'll keep the stars a billboard but I'll actually model out the planet. Thanks for pointing that out.

AlexCatMasterSupreme

sorry I have had little time but im sick today so i had time. If you have any questions or want a better paintover let me know. you have too much attention grabbing elements.

Swarm22

Not sure if it's been suggested yet, but maybe try lighting up the background some more so that it's more visible?

beefaroni

Ah dude thanks for the paintover!! I actually just spend the past week re-doing a lot of the geometry as a result of the critiques, so I'm a little hesitant to re-do geometry again so soon. I want to try to wrap this up so I can get started on a new project. I think some props or something darker on the front table may pull the eye back to the front. We'll see..

I apologize that I won't be incorporating your crit fully. This project has been a lot of learning for me and I really need to finish it up/not burn out to apply what I have learned (and all of the critiques) to my next project.

@Swarm - Yea, I completely re-did the lighting this past week. I will post a new screenshot when I get the new assets textured agian.

beefaroni

Another update.

Things to do:
- Decals
- Geo around chairs and stuff to make them feel more grounded and like they actually intersect with the other pieces
- Maybe re-light again?
- Figure out how matinee works and how to render out a sequence.

Anyways..



And playing around with the lights flickering on in the beginning for that extra..

urgaffel

I would love to see a small detail with warm colours. Just something to offset the white/blue scheme. Could be a prop such as a glass with red/amber liquid, a toy, a moleskine, a gadget of some kind, a red planet... Something that can tell a story and also offer contrast

beefaroni

Hmm, will do! The front table needs some luvvvv anyways!

So I should have posted this last night when I finished it. Got a beautiful paint-over and I made the changes, I really like the results

The image has been polished more since then so there's still work to be done!!!

Lane

Awesome work, really digging the whole atmosphere.

urgaffel

I wish I could see the paintover but work blocks puu.sh

beefaroni

Ah, the image above is actually in engine!! Not a paintover! Anyways, still cracking on this. Working on the decals now as well as a couple of other issues with lighting, the skirts for objects, etc.

RobeOmega

I think he means AlexCatMasterSupreme's paintover.

Or at least that is my guess because he did not mention your images and I remember sometime AlexCatMasterSupreme using Puu.sh.

Anyway I am loving this so far keep it up!

urgaffel

Indeed, I can see your (beefaronis) pictures just fine and it's looking really good! but I can't see the paintover so I don't know what was pointed out and what was suggested. Looking forward to more updates though, that last update is lovely! (still waiting for something colourful :poly128: )

Lucas Annunziata

Oooo yes! This is looking much better with the larger planet in the background. Any plans to push a another color into the composition besides blue and white? It might be interesting to try having your planet be a warmer color?

beefaroni

Hmm. Yea, it's been a bit tough as another color on the larger objects really pulls the attention their way. I've tried the planet in an orange (trying to work with triad colors) but it completely dominates the scene. I'm working on adding some smaller props and decals with hints or orange and green right now. Hopefully that will help.

beefaroni

Video update, still not quite done.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_bSuEXII5E"]SciFi Deck (Rough Cut) - YouTube[/ame]