Insurgence Sewers

Malatoar

This is the environment I worked on for Dan McGowan's Environment Mentorship at robotpencil.net.
the environment is based on my own concept, I used Maya, Photoshop, Unreal Engine, a little bit of zBrush, a little bit of Substance Painter, and a little bit of Marmoset.

All feedback is welcome, and I hope you enjoy.








Have a nice day!

Hupie

The environment looks cool and I really like your concept drawings! Are the images rendered in a game engine or pre-rendered with mental ray or something similar?

I think the lower part of your image looks a bit too dark and dull. I know you want to focus on the sci fi computer terminal but it would be nice if there are more interesting things to see in the bottom part. Maybe add some subtle lights like fire torches or small wall lamps.

Also the materials look quite flat with little specular/normal map effect going on, everything looks quite diffuse. I think better materials will improve your scene the most.

Malatoar

Thanks for your reply!

The environment shots are in Unreal Engine, the loose tower and texture plane are in Marmoset.

I agree about the bottom of those images being too dark. On my monitor at home the colors seem fine, but at my monitor at work it's almost completely black. I'll see what I can do about that!

Do you think the materials look flat in every shot? Or just in the texture plane render? I've got quite some things going on in my normal map, so it shouldn't read that flat. I'll check it out though. Thanks a lot!

Matt_Billeci

Definitely agree with Hupie. All of your materials are feeling flat in every shot. Even on your texture breakdown they are feeling flat. I also think your lights on the outside walkway are a little too bright. At this level of brightness, they feel as if they are fighting the focal point for attention.

Malatoar

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

Do you guys have any advice for me how to make the textures feel less flat? Do you think this is more of a lighting issue, or really an issue with my textures?

I made a small update to my hero render here

and I think the materials are already feeling a lot less flat. Is this better? Do you have any other feedback or advice?

I'll try to fix this single asset first, and take that advice to fix the rest of my scene as well.

Thanks for your time guys!

Matt_Billeci

Try messing with your roughness/metallic channels if youre using substance. Your metals all feel like plastic so definitely bump that gloss up.

Malatoar

hmmm.. I included a link to a Marmoset viewer of my trimsheet. The metal parts on this one don't read very plasticy to me. Maybe it's just bad (flat) lighting in my screenshot? Does it still read like plastic when you can move around it?

I don't know how to embed a Marmoset 3D viewer so here's a link to my artStation page instead

On the tower, I can see why some parts read like plastic, especially the base. I'll try to get that fixed.

Thanks again!

Matt_Billeci

They seem reading fine in the viewer. Its probably something to do with the lighting in your scene/the settings of said lights within the scene.

Malatoar

Oh, didn't see your reply!

I'll look into the lighting in my scene, see if I can fix that.

Thanks a lot!