[UE4] Mortal Kombat Inspired Acid Pitt

RogelioD

Hey everyone! Trying my hand at this environment made famous in MK II. 

Here is the concept I am working off of:



Should be noted that I am pretty loosely working from the concept as I feel that there are a few things I would like to expand upon; plus generally I feel as if it is always better to put your spin on things as an artist.

MOST CURRENT:




Still got a bunch to do but generally feeling good with the direction.

Notes:

• I tried to sculpt a reptile face a day or two ago... lets just so that it did not go as planned :P Right now that is the thing I'm struggling with the most, because well let's face it- characters are no my strong suit!

• The acid is very stand-in at the moment and will be getting some cool shader work later on

• Caustics are coming as part of a polish pass 

• I have no reference for what that chain crank thing is in the back so that has been tough to build actually... trying to find real world reference for something similar and not finding much

• Will try to break up the pit platform more later on

• Will possibly add a few local light sources as I am not very happy with the result just using ambient and sun source. Overall, lighting is suuuuper WIP

Anyways, still putting hours into this slowly but surely. Looking forward to seeing what will come of it!

Feel free to provide comments and crits- just keep in mind it is still fairly early!

Thanks!

-Rogelio

RogelioD

Some materials that are in the scene so far

3dReaper

Great work so far, Ill keep an eye on this!

Jeff Parrott

Looks good so far. Keep going!

RogelioD

Took a little break on this to start my new job with Monolith Productions! But now I'm back at it!

It's coming together but still got lots to do!

Coming up:

• Whole new lighting pass
• Acid Pass/Overhaul 
• Reptile Head Sculpt
• Breaking up the bridge with damage
• Animation on the chains
• Atmospherics

And if I have time:

• Flow map stuff
• Acid Waterfalls

Demomode

Looking Great!!

aaronhiggins

If feel like the green acid is just a little too green. A paler, slightly less saturated color might look better. Careful lighting would also give you the sort of glow the concept art has. 

RogelioD

@Demomode Thanks!

@aaronhiggins Thanks for the feedback. That's something I definitely plan to address in my next Acid pass.  

xChris

oh hey I worked on one of those games! haha, looking forward to seeing progress on this!

jose.fuentes

I love this! keep it going! can't wait to see more progress

RogelioD

Greetings!

Did some work on this when I could steal a few hours away from my 50+ hour weeks at work and semi-social life.

Finally feeling good about this scene!

May work on this some more this weekend, however I am trying to finish this because I am EXTREMELY excited for the idea for my next project and can't wait to start on that!

As always, C&C appreciated!

Thanks!

Changelog:

Materials:

Completely re-did the acid from scratch and simplified it.

Fixed a bug in which AO was not being calculated in my stone material making the entire ceiling black

Meshes:

Added First pass of the acid falls

Added Banners

Lighting and Atmospherics:

Tweaked lighting values

Added first pass of caustics

Added Light Shafts and Fog

Bumped up the Indirect Lighting Scale to 1.5

Added a LUT

cgtoolsmith

Very good to see your progress in this thread.  I really like the composition. And the hooks on the ceiling. ^^.

Now to make it even more awesome:
I think however you can improve the 'acid' effect, the water/acid currently looks a bit flat. It should reflect a bit more.
Play around in Unreal with your water material. I know water is tricky, but I think it is going to improve the look of your scene.
 
Quick tips in Unreal / Cool-tech-to-try-in-Unreal-list

Water / Acid

DepthFade
Look for the depthFade node in Unreal/Material editor, you can do cool things with fading the water material with meshes that collide with your water. That can help make it look more like a real fluid. Maybe you can do the same for the pipe on the left. Not sure because it flows in a different direction.



Refraction
Make it a bit translucent, so you can add real refraction to your fluid.  More info:  https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/Refraction/

Panners
Panners are awesome, they can animate your UVs! Look for a panner node in Unreal/Material editor. (Btw, I can't see if you are using them at the moment, haha, just adding it to the list.)



Tech artsy stuff (Maybe for another project, bigger subject )
Search online for Flow maps in Unreal, it is similar to a panner but it can flow around objects, like real water.
Check this doc from Valve if your interested:
http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2010/siggraph2010_vlachos_waterflow.pdf
Flow Unreal
Or: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15074979/Water Flow For UDK/Water Flow For UDK.pdf

Displacement / Vertex animation
You can offset / animate the vertices of your water mesh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ1M0Ejd_ts
May have a better example somewhere else.

LUT / Color Correct / Lighting / Post proces
Maybe make it a bit brighter, using your LUT


(Notice the possible depthFade area)

I have found some time to make a really quick example for you: ( simple basecolor texture / albedo, depthFade in the opacity slot, simple panner normal, quick refraction)




I will add more examples and links when I find them.

Goodluck! I really hope this will help you!!

Yvo

xChris

Its looking good, I think adding a mask to the edges of the water falling out of the sewers will push it further, and angling the mesh  in a V direction too + some splashes at the end, with flipbook if your thinking of making a video, or alpha cards if its just image renders. Also adding giblets/meat chunks, or bodies hanging around the chains and the edges of the platform would be dope, almost as if someone was panicking to get out of the acid, and when they reached the edge death slapped them in the face. Here's a predator head that was done for when reptile does his acid fatality on him by Solmon Gaitan, his face basically melts down on to itself. The banners could use some love too, sculpt some wrinkles into them

Nuclear Angel

You have already gotten some solid feedback, but I think the playable area is too dark. Try placing a character there to just see how a player character would be visible in the current lighting. As I feel right now the focal point lies more on the back-wall than on the playable bridge area, and the cross shadows from the bars on the roof creates a lot of noise on the playable area as well. Especially if you compare your lighting to the concepts. But great job so far, it will be fun to follow your progress. 

RogelioD

@vonBerg

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback! I am actually using the depth fade on my light rays but totally forgot to implement it in the water! Will definitely take all of that into consideration! Also, I like the idea of having a more opaque and cloudy Acid but I might look into the refraction idea too. I'm currently using two panners and normals with the acid- pretty standard water worflow 

As far as Flow Maps and Displacement go.... it might be on the chopping block for this scene... I'm not sure. For one of my last projects I made a pretty well developed ocean water... well, actually ti wound up coming out kind of like poop but the concepts are there haha  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUUEsu29i_s

Thanks again for all the detailed feedback- really appreciate it! 

@xChris

Thanks much for the feedback! All solid suggestions! I really like the idea of meat chunks and blood dripping from the hooks creating a pool of blood in the acid. Also, I'm finding that waterfalls are super tough. Going to look into how to develop it further. 

@Nuclear Angel

Thanks for the feedback! You gave me a great idea on how to make that playable area pop a but more- thanks and good catch!