Hi Polycounters, I'm working on a new personal project. My Idea is an ancient tomb scene with bright and warm colours and a lot of ancient props
I have no idea what I'm doing because my skill focus is making 3d assets and not complete scenes. But I want to step out of my comfort zone to become a better artist. So any help with smart leveldesign, modular assets, rock sculpting, procedural textures, or lighting etc would be awesome and is much appreciated.
The Image shows a few of my mood references, I want sandstone and maybe rough rock hallways.
Here we have scribbles of the scene and also the first blockouts within the engine. My Plan is to make 3 rooms. 1. bright open room with an handmade stoneplate on the ground and carvings 2. Tomb with mummys (darkest place in the level) 3. the biggest cave with the tomb of the king or whatever combined with altars and idol figures connected trough wooden bridges.
And here we have a few assets ready to be places Maybe It was a dumb idea to make this little things first but hey now I try to bring them all together
It's indeed a bit tricky to start with the small props first, not knowing how they will read with the rest of the scene and the bigger shapes. You can quite quickly loose sense of the scale and add too much details and colours.
Ok, I have an idea! I will create modular cave assets and the main textures will be driven by seamless maps and tesselation. I made for a test 3 materials ....
New pictures of my Level. I started to make a complete blockout mesh of the level and played with shapes. Some parts are still missing because I wanted to test this mesh first
Hi guys, It's been a while since my last post .... I made a few changes because my mayor idea is to big for my current skills So I reduced my idea and started now with a single grave chamber with modluar stones. I really enjoy the sculpting process of this nature elements. This is the new start for my chamber ...
Thanks guys, these were my first rocks with no bubblegum shapes I think my next step will be a clean retopo for the rocks I wanna try to catch more details with the mesh topology.
Thanks guys, these were my first rocks with no bubblegum shapes I think my next step will be a clean retopo for the rocks I wanna try to catch more details with the mesh topology.
When I first saw your sculpt (not textured) I was like, "Those look terrible." Then you did that quick texture and I'm like "Wtf, those are amazing!" Reminds me of Antelope Canyon -- dead on.
I think this is headed in a great direction! Your most recent posts have a sense of narrative that the earlier versions lacked. One thing that stands out to me is the candelabra -- the bottom of it seems to not be affected by the shadow it's over, which is weirding me out! One idea I had when I was thinking about that was, what if you set up the scene so that it was an archaeological dig, and the light was changed to be a dropped flashlight or industrial-looking light that I imagine would be used on a dig, maybe like this?
Also, I am really digging the stones with circles in them. Super cool.
-- the bottom of it seems to not be affected by the shadow it's over, which is weirding me out!
Yeah, I have still problems with the light and the AO settings because I have not enough experiences with UE4 The Archaelogical way is interesting, I will think about it, thanks for the input.
Post processing looks very nice and it´s coming along really well. Maybe add a cracked pot or vase or something to make it feel a bit older/more ancient.
Thanks Christian
The scene grows slowly but steady. A few broken things could be very nice. Also I want to work on a better transition between the sand ground and the rocks. I think the UE4 paint tools should be fine.
I want to make a transition between the object to create this kind of example .... I could use the UE4 vertex painting but this will only influence the materials and not the meshes right, I apreciate new ideas and toughts.
I want to make a transition between the object to create this kind of example .... I could use the UE4 vertex painting but this will only influence the materials and not the meshes right, I apreciate new ideas and toughts.
Use a skirt and just use a blend between your cement/sand materials to feather the transition, or just have it fade opacity on the edges. Like this:
Similarly you can use these skirts all around your objects to simulate sand piling up in corners.
But if I would use a skirt mesh I have to bes sure that all of my meshes are on the right place, so a scene building within the engine would be not possible right.
New Images .... I decided to make a complete cave mesh to have the full control about the texturing process The light is still a tough fight but I'm comming closer, with every build!
Maybe try using vertex offset in the material and vertex paint it the displacement around some the geo to smooth out the sand transition. Looking really nice otherwise. Keep going!
But if I would use a skirt mesh I have to bes sure that all of my meshes are on the right place, so a scene building within the engine would be not possible right.
You can export assets already placed in Unreal back into your modeling software. Then just model the skirt in place and import it in.
Those types of skirts are for after you have your modular objects in place, so you can blend them into the environment better at the end.
But if I would use a skirt mesh I have to bes sure that all of my meshes are on the right place, so a scene building within the engine would be not possible right.
You can export assets already placed in Unreal back into your modeling software. Then just model the skirt in place and import it in.
Those types of skirts are for after you have your modular objects in place, so you can blend them into the environment better at the end.
Thanks HEYEYE for the help I will try to work with skirt meshes.
But now .... I have these very very very shitty light problems and I don't know why. I made a new test scene with only the cave mesh, a directional light and no extra volumes. Bit these little white dots are there after I build the scene.
I made for each used object an vertex paint material and blended between the ground and the meshes. Additionally I placed more assets aroud the main grave. My next step would be footsteps or cave paintings Maybe the scene is complete I only tweak the lights and then I will start to make fancy pictures and a fly trough animation. Feedback is always welcome.
Looking much better (Y) it's definitely blending in better now.
Is this your final lighting atm? I find that the scene is far too red/orange... I'm more of a fan of neutral lighting and I would believe that in confined/isolated spaces like this the lighting would be a little cooler the deeper you get into the tomb?
Discard critique at will since it's just personal opinion. I did a small colour grade for you.
Replies
It's indeed a bit tricky to start with the small props first, not knowing how they will read with the rest of the scene and the bigger shapes. You can quite quickly loose sense of the scale and add too much details and colours.
Keep it up !
CREMUSS
I agree with you. I try to keep the scene at this point very simple to block out the main shapes.
STILOBIQUE
Yes, the assets were rendered with the Marmoset
Will be checking thios thread since it is an interesting subject : )
Here is an update .... shitty cave ahead!
I made for a test 3 materials ....
1. marmoset rendering
2. Ingame view
It's been a while since my last post ....
I made a few changes because my mayor idea is to big for my current skills
So I reduced my idea and started now with a single grave chamber with modluar stones. I really enjoy the sculpting process of this nature elements.
This is the new start for my chamber ...
I think my next step will be a clean retopo for the rocks I wanna try to catch more details with the mesh topology.
This Canyon is my inspiration for the setting
ROBOCHRISH
Yeah, the light is still a mess but it is on my to do list. Now I make a few little stones and rocks to create a more interesting cave.
I made two smaller stones and played with a new scene idea.
Also, I am really digging the stones with circles in them. Super cool.
I could use the UE4 vertex painting but this will only influence the materials and not the meshes right, I apreciate new ideas and toughts.
Similarly you can use these skirts all around your objects to simulate sand piling up in corners.
But if I would use a skirt mesh I have to bes sure that all of my meshes are on the right place, so a scene building within the engine would be not possible right.
I decided to make a complete cave mesh to have the full control about the texturing process
The light is still a tough fight but I'm comming closer, with every build!
It looks to redish during the UE4 screenshot tool, I will fix this. Next step variations of the mesh textures, I need more colours
Those types of skirts are for after you have your modular objects in place, so you can blend them into the environment better at the end.
Those types of skirts are for after you have your modular objects in place, so you can blend them into the environment better at the end.
But now .... I have these very very very shitty light problems and I don't know why. I made a new test scene with only the cave mesh, a directional light and no extra volumes. Bit these little white dots are there after I build the scene.
I made for each used object an vertex paint material and blended between the ground and the meshes. Additionally I placed more assets aroud the main grave. My next step would be footsteps or cave paintings Maybe the scene is complete I only tweak the lights and then I will start to make fancy pictures and a fly trough animation.
Feedback is always welcome.
Is this your final lighting atm? I find that the scene is far too red/orange... I'm more of a fan of neutral lighting and I would believe that in confined/isolated spaces like this the lighting would be a little cooler the deeper you get into the tomb?
Discard critique at will since it's just personal opinion. I did a small colour grade for you.
Hope this helps!
I like the new mood, now I must find a way to create a fade for the colours ....
I'working on a better light setup and I try to add a few cave paintings via decals, updates will coming soon.