Sci-Fi environment exercise

MingoXMX

Hi,

This is my first post here! I'm trying to expand my portfolio and most important improve my techniques and skills, so i tought i would post this work here to get some tips and expert suggestions from the awesome Polycount community.

The project is just a Sci-Fi style modular environment and it is in a really early stage.
Again, critiques and suggestion are highly appreciated.

shadacer

Hey Mingo,
Looks like you're off to a decent start. The first piece looks pretty promising, and in red, which is unconventional but could work really nicely.

Firstly, what engine are you rendering the corridor in? I see Marmoset 2 for the parts, but the lack of a logo on your composite shot makes me think UE4. If so, there's the metalness workflow you can look at - this will make your metallic surfaces pop with just a little masking. You can do it in Marmoset too.

Second, if you're not working from a concept, it may be worth looking around at ref to get a good feel for a sci-fi corridor. Right now, It looks pretty generic, so break it up with some lovely metal brackets around the shaft at intervals, and an awesome door at the end.
Lighting will play a key role once you have some reflectivity going, so come up with some light fixtures you can adorn the roof/walls with - you want to draw light to the focal point at the end of the corridor, as this is where the eye will be drawn to.

Hope that helps!

MingoXMX

Big thanks for the feedback Shadacer,
as you guessed the last shot is from UE4, I'm arleady using metallic maps but they don't really stand out yet because of the lighting i used in those shots I think.

I will update with new pics as soon as I achieve significant progress.

sziada

the repeating pattern on all the angles is very hard on the eyes, so maybe try adding a bit of variety to your walls, the floor is also a very good opportunity to make something cool.

amirabd2130

looks good, but I agree with sziadathat you should add some variations.

theblueturtle_

hey Mingo!

looks like you are off to a solid start. i do agree that the red is a nice change from the usual cooler color palettes more often associated with sci-fi hard surface stuff. i would suggest adding some slight variation to the red paint so that it's less uniform looking. judging from the wear marks the paint is probably old so it would have an uneven fade making some portions appear lighter/ darker.

the wear marks could also be tightened up a little more I think. right now everything seems to have the same lvl of wear and the damage is pretty evenly spread out across the model. i think if u made some areas more worn out than others it would looks nicer. good luck!

clinington

Off to a great start! The red is really nice and helps this stand out from other sc-fi corridors that I've seen. Got to agree with what others have said though, a little more variation in the textures and models would make the scene a lot stronger.

MingoXMX

Hey,
thank you all for the useful suggestions, the repeating pattern is definitely something i'm going to fix, aswell as some other things you pointed out.

I didn't have much time to work on this the last few days but i managed to model and texture some new parts, here are a couple of pics:




Still trying to figure how to light the scene, will keep this updated.

KonstantinL

Its a nice start, I do agree on adding a little bit more variation. I also think that this whole thing is looking a little bit too clean, especially with all of the wear and tear and pipes around. Maybe some sort of dirt pass would help it out a bit as well.

DanielR17

Hello,
I like it. Good start. You can add a new piece to break the corridor at some point. Maybe an entry/gate to a trash compactor (as in Star Wars) or an air vent.
You can use decals and small props.
Well, still plenty to do but the base you have is good. I agree for the red color, nice choice.

sziada

you could do heaps more with that floor, those shapes look really boring plus there is nothing that catches my eye in this scene, the image is literally leading my eyes anywhere you need to add a focal point.

If you want to make stuff look better here read this and analysis this and really think about what you are doing when you are designing your hallways.

http://www.autodestructdigital.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/wield-weld.html?zx=729179cd7cd69558

Whalebones

First off good looking hallway there dude, but I will also agree with literally everyone else here and say needs something to break it up a bit. Though I'm sure you know this haha.

Secondly how are you modelling this? High poly bake downs or are you just using Substance?

MingoXMX

Thanks to Sziada for the link, some really interesting and practical stuff there.
I'm going to add variety with new pieces and i will rethink and rework a lot of the scene.

To answer Whalebones, all the modeling is done in Max, normals are partially baked from high poly with xNormal but most of the details are achieved with NDO, textures have been hand drawn in Photoshop.

MingoXMX

Just a little delay from last update.I'm doing some new assets to use in the scene:

MingoXMX

Still a few placeholders and missing textures:

MingoXMX

Added and refined some textures, at this point i don't think i will spend a lot more time on this, i really want to move on something else.

Kyle KR

Very nice, I like the color mix and contrast.

Whalebones

This scene is really coming together! Still got the generic sci-fi corridor look about it, though it is a struggle to shake that with any environment of this sort. Though what would be really good to see would be something that is out of place or off putting so the scene has something more to show than just sci-fi. Warning lights going off, steam coming from pipes, graffiti on the walls, the scene needs a story.

MingoXMX

Hey thanks for the quick feedback guys, i'm looking forward to improve this but for now i need to move to something else, hopefully i will come back to this later.

Dklang

like it, especially the color scheme. and the glass does add variation. did you find it being modular easier or harder and how many textures did you use overall for this scene though? The only thing id suggest is for one side of the wall to be slightly different piece while also having same color scheme. And i think photobucket isnt the best site for image uploads.

MingoXMX

@Dklang
i can't say if modular was easier or harder than a different workflow, it surely can save some time and texturing work.
Regarding the textures i could have probably optimized them a lot more, there is a total of 7 materials in the scene.