[UE4] Japanese Inspired Street

nickcomeau

Most recent update:



https://youtu.be/SrHIYigmnAc
Hey Polycounters!

It's been a while since I've posted sadly because Senior Year is absolutely crazy but I'm trying to be better about getting my work back up on here. I have a couple projects that I'm working on at the same time for different classes, but this is the one I'm working on for my Game Environments class. It's based off of some concept art I found by Chong FeiGiap that I put together in this Mood Board.



Originally I had planned to go a bit bigger but after an amazing visit from two alumni working at Raven I've decided to keep it to one street level and get it more polished. Right now I have the majority of the big forms in there and am going to be working on texturing and populating the scene/humanizing it in the next week.



As for the style that I want to go with for the textures, I'm going to be shooting for a style very similar to Sunset Overdrive. I was looking into their "The Ultimate Trim" tutorial and there was a ton of awesome information in there but if anyone had any suggestions/tutorials to point me towards before I start texturing that would be super helpful. Also just any general critique/comments are much desired. 

zetheros

Looking good so far! The alleyway looks like it's meant to draw the audience's eyes to the end. Maybe add something flashy there, like a casino with neon lights?

nickcomeau

Thanks Zetheros! I was thinking of adding some signage around the scene I think some neon would be pretty awesome I'll try adding some and see how it look

Tim Lewis

The composition of the scene already looks pretty good and it also looks like you've got some cool concept art to draw inspiration from. Looking forward to your updates!

nickcomeau

I'm starting today to do the texture tests and this is the first iteration of the wall texture. I'll be UV mapping the rest of the building pieces today (hopefully) so I'll update later with how it looks when it's applied to everything. I'd love some feedback. Happy polycounting!

Nars

Seems like the concept for Big Hero 6 city.
Looks awesome  can't wait to see more progress.

nickcomeau

So I spent a while yesterday reading up on polypainting materials/figuring out how Sunset Overdrive was able to the style of their textures. This is my first take at it, still lots of tweaks to make but it's working so that's exciting. I've never done this before so it's a quite the learning process. I'm using material instancing for the different colors too so adjustments are going to be super easy down the line I hope. 

Thoughts so far? I already got the feedback to make the "damage"/splotches more meaningful. Any other tips?  

nickcomeau

So it's been a while since I've updated. Our semester got really busy with our Senior Capstone presentations so I was really focused on pushing that project and luckily it was worth it! My team made it through to second semester.  

As for this project, a bit of an update coming. I've got my building walls mapped/denser to be able to polypaint. That being said I haven't painted the materials on the buildings yet I just placed the instances of the materials with different colors around so that's going to be changed/worked on soon. I also added a few more bits and pieces to the buildings like shutters and shades.

Also, not sure why my lighting is baking so oddly, maybe I just need to make the lightmaps larger...? 

Would love some C&C

nickcomeau

I'm starting to get more into the scene to fill it out. Started adding some plants, street lights, pipes, boxes, etc. It's feeling more lived in for sure. I still have a good bit of texturing to do but it shouldn't be too too much I hope. Would love come C&C, project is due for the class next week but I am looking to make this a portfolio piece so I'll be working on it after the class deadline as well. Thanks

jacob thomas

Looks pretty solid. The one thing that stands out to me is the lack of form in your foliage, otherwise its coming together really well.

nickcomeau

Is there one specific plant that you're looking at when you say that? Or just all of the foliage in general?

nickcomeau

Did a bit more work today, and also made the street slightly narrower. I think it helps make it feel a bit more like a claustrophobic Japanese city block now. Thoughts?

One week left! If only I could only work on this for the whole next week but I think I'm on track to finish most of what I want on time.

 

nickcomeau

Still moving forward. I worked on the road/sidewalk today along with a few other random things like adding more decals to the boxes, adjusting the levels, adding a plant in the foreground, and a whole list of other random updates.
Would love some C&C as I try and finish the project this week Thanks!

Ged

its looking really good so far, I feel like there should be a bit more bounced light to bring back some colour to the shadowed parts of the street

nickcomeau

Thanks! Yeah I can definitely turn that up. I had just put in a reflectionCapture which made everything a lot darker I just realized.

Bedrock

Minor suggestions/thoughts:
Your composition is a bit messy and your focal point(s) are a little off. The primary focal point should be the little market place on the left side with the boxes, this is where you want people to look and where all the interesting detail should be. I'd look at it on a 3x3 grid and adjust the camera so that the center of this area is closer to the bottom left third point. This area could also use a little more detail, I'd probably go with smaller boxes, smaller plants and probably scale the four potato sacks to about 30-50%. Put some shelves in the interior and make some simple, colorful assets that you can populate the interior with. Think cans of food, more vegs/fruits (apples/oranges?), posters, anything. Right now the entire focus is on a bunch of massive boxes and the aforementioned potato sacks = not exciting.

 To me the secondary focal point would be the far end of the street where vanishing point is. I'd try to position this area a little more to the right so it falls closer to the right-third of the image. Currently it's more in the center. This would also move the boring brown and green buildings that you see on the right out of the picture. It's good to have some uninteresting bits but right now it takes up one third of the screenshot. Detail wise I think the street looks pretty good.

Probably not feasible in your time frame but I'd consider moving the big horizontal building/bridge perhaps a block away. It's cool but I feel like it blocks too much from the view. Hard to tell without comparing the two.

Lastly I'd mix up the color of the buildings a bit more. In your refs there's a much better range of red, orange, blue, green etc. whilst you mainly have greens, blue and brown.

Quick mockup where I did a crop and minor color changes:

Jack M.

Personally I think you could stand to bump up the saturation a lot based on those references. I would also push the brightness of the scene up quite a bit. Other than those two things I think it's coming along quite nicely. 

nickcomeau

So I added some more saturation in a few areas, do you all think it should go up even more? And @Jack when you are talking about pushing the brightness, do you mean in the shadows, or where the sun hits? So basically, even it out a bit more or make it contrast more?

Also here's an update with some more textures in and a few other things changed!

Still trying to figure out something to do with the building on the left. Also am going to start on making the plant leaves look more like the same style as everything else.

theStoff

Looks really nice. One thing I feel is that the green wall on the left could use more wear similar to the one on the right. Especially around where the pipe connects.

nickcomeau

So it's been quite a while since I've posted an update. I took a break for a bit while I was on vacation but I'm back into my project. Here's where I'm at currently. I'm going to be trying to add some more props on the street especially farther back in the environment and I have a few other small plans but would love feedback on where I'm at currently. Thanks in advance  

nickcomeau

I've been adding some more props to the street. I'm going to be looking at more props I can add onto the street that'll fit into the environment and just keep adding more. I have about 3-4 more weeks that I want to be working on this project so I'll be able to add quite a bit more. If you all have any suggestions or critiques I'd love to hear them.

Carabiner

Just wanted to say that I'm really impressed by your progress since the December post! The lighting is looking really good now.

nickcomeau

I've got a bit of an update here. Thanks Carabiner for that. would love more feedback on where I'm at! Thanks everyone.

hmm_rock

This is looking wonderful! Very Sunset Overdrive and a great use of their techniques. The foremost street lamp is being lost to the windows in the background atm, I'd consider moving it so that the basket hits a more solid background (maybe closer to the bike altogether). I like the peak inside the room above the store, though I'm not sure why there would be blinds on the outside of the window ? Also, the scale of the hanging flaps is throwing off my sense of scale a bit, but that could just be my unfamiliarity with Japanese flappy-flags. Great work, looking forward to seeing more!

LexiWhite

Really nice composition! I feel like the road could also use a little more wear and tear, consider where tire wear-down would be. Also this might just be a camera issue, but the foremost boxes are really slanting. Good luck man!

nickcomeau

Thank you both for the feedback! I'll look to address those in my next update in the next couple of days. And thanks HMM_ROCK, I was trying to go for the Sunset Overdrive look, I love the art in their game (and I hope they like mine when I apply to them soon O.O).

Shrimp

So lovely man!!!Nice work!

meneer_batavia

Hello there, lovely render, i am a fans of FeiGiap's drawing too, you can also use Tekkon Kinkreet as your reference.
I think you need to put more red color in your scene, it gives the strong focus point to the viewer. Just my taste.

nickcomeau

Thank you both! A friend recently pointed me towards Tekkon Kinkreet recently so I've been looking at a lot of their art. I'll definitely experiment with adding some warmer colors into the scene. I still have a few more things planned to add to the scene but for now, here's an update. I'd be grateful for any feedback you may have, I'm always looking to improve my work. Thanks!

nickcomeau

I added a few more bits to the original shot and started working on the second image I want for the environment. I know I still need to change a few things around in this new shot and add more of the elements I have in the first image up into the second image for sure but I would love to know what you all think about where it's at now/if you have any ideas for if anything definitely isn't working or if you have any interesting ideas on things I could add. Thanks!

nickcomeau

I added in the cloth draped on the bridged building as well as some small particle effects. Do they look too much like snow right now...? Or are the fine? Do they look good in this image? Is there any way I should change them?

I'm trying to finish up this main angle this week so I can move onto the next angle (posted above) so I'd love some feedback on the piece as a whole as well. Thank you in advance!

nickcomeau

So I've done a few more updates like adding more wires and covering up the window on the left a bit. I've also started putting this together in a video for my Senior Show at the end of April. The video also doesn't have the most recent updates because I haven't gone back through and uploaded it with them yet but I'll get to that within the next few days. I know I still have a lot of work to do in the second perspective of the environment but I wanted to share and see what people thought about the video itself. Thanks!



https://youtu.be/SrHIYigmnAc

nickcomeau

@RICHAPOCALYPSE as odd as that sentence is I actually see what you mean lol

_Kratos_

Super nice work Nick! Love the palette and the overall feeling!

nickcomeau

@_Kratos_ Thank you ^_^