WIP Corridor environment - Critique needed

Choppz

Hey guys.

I've been trying to make realistic environments and learn new skills along the way. I've been messing around with the Quixel suite and been making steady progress, but I'm now starting to hit a bit of a brick wall. I'd truly appreciate some critique or advice for the project I'm working on now.

Its currently a pretty simple corridor and quite boring to look at. I'm looking at adding some more props to flesh it out, but in the meantime I would like to know what you guys think.

fhurtubise

Your scale, modeling and texturing are good. I would explore lighting options now, lighting is definitely the most "bland" thing about this scene and spicing it up could really help it come to life.

What I mean by bland is that all your lights are a white, neutral color, and the lighting is pretty even. You need more contrasts, both in actual light and shadow, and in light temperature (notice for example how the light from old lightbulbs tends to be a lot more red/orange in comparison to bluer light coming from the exterior). My best advice for this is to search for a lot of reference of similar environments (films are a good place to start) and try to copy elements from the lighting scheme.

If you wanna give the hallway a spooky, abandoned feel, I'd diminish the amount of ambient light in order to give the light cast by the lightbulbs more presence (make sure to keep a relatively sharp falloff so there can be shadow zones between the bulbs). Additionally, a bit of bloom on these bulbs could be nice, and you might want to add some glossy reflections to your floor planks (kinda like on the wall, it's a shame there's no reflections on the floor because it looks completely matte).

Choppz

Thanks fhurtubise for the feedback. I had a quick shot at messing with the lights this morning trying to remove some ambient lighting and add some more colour, what I've got now is a bit rough but I'll polish it tonight after work. Like you said, I'll tweak the roughness of the floors and also start collecting some lighting reference to work from too.

Heres what I've got now. Like I said, still rough but I hope its a step in the right direction, I'll post an update later tonight too.

Aboulicious

Hi Choppz,

the walls and the floor looking good, but what I'm missing is a more used look. It seems, that this building is abandoned. To get a more abandoned look i would like too see some mold and water strains in edges between wall and roof.

The poster on the wall has no thickness and looks more sprayed on and the roughness is to low.

Some destroyed wall, would be emphasize the old look.

praesidenter

I think what fhurtubise said about the lighting is right, though the update you posted is slightly better than the first version.
I like the light coming from the broken window in the back, but any interesting silhouette you could create with this is prevented by those two lights from the ceiling that have an equal intensity. Try to vary a bit with light intensities, maybe turn off one lightbulb. Identify a main light source (I'd choose the window) and build the scene to support that lighting. Also, just as an idea, the door could be open just a little bit, so some light comes in from there too.
Keep going, this could be a strong piece

Choppz

@Aboulicious Thanks for the feedback, I think I do need some stuff to help better break up the wall. I'll probably looks at making some more prominent leakage stains like in your paintover.

@praesidenter Thanks you for the input. I was playing around with the idea of having the door slightly open, but I think using that as a light source would be a great idea. I want to make the window my main light source, but I'm having some issues with getting some nice light/shadows from the directional light. When I make the boards on the windows cast shadow, it distorts and really mutes the light, I've been playing with lightmap resolutions and shadow settings from the light but having no luck fixing this. 



Heres my current light setup, I think its getting better, though im just wary of making it too dark.

Aboulicious

Take a look of this Picture from ResidentEvilVII



It's got a high density of an abandoned feeling.

Take Look at the rust, dripping from the doorhandle and the paint which is peeling off from the door. Especially the area where you gonna hit the door with your foot to kick the door open.

One thing what's disturbing me at the environment is.... why is everywhere this bags of garbage lying around?!

AgreeingMachine

More wear and tear couldn't hurt: tearing or peeling the poster, breaking the door in... is there any way you could push the story of who lived there, why they left, and how long ago?

Your project made me think of this "Abandoned Porn" blog, abandoned places, that is... probably good for inspiration!

ParksMarks

HI Choppz, I made a paintover. Not saying you should do it exactly, just tossing ideas around.
I added some blue daylight hints in the slightly ajar doors. I'm trying to sell sunlight coming through a dirty window near the back, so the yellow light is more diffused. I also dimmed the lightbulbs- I think seeing the filament makes it look more spooky and abandoned looking. Generally, I put most of the light towards the back, thinking that it would guide the viewer in that direction. Generally, your scene is looking great! I'm looking forward to seeing updates!

AndrewMKelley

Hey Choppz, this is looking good so far! Something I see with a lot of abandoned environments is trash/debris in the corners to push an aged look (if that's what you're going for) A slight volumetric fog will help push a dusty feel for this, and that will help bring out the window light. If your walls have wallpaper instead of paint, you could add subtle normal details to it (like the pic of re7 aboulicious posted) to really break up the walls and give them a warped feel. Also, some water damage from the pipes leaking on the right would add some interest and break up the walls as well.

MrVakoda

It looks really nice, but try seeing how it looks with minimal indoor lighting, and try to get more outdoor light to spill in. Isn't it a bit odd for an abandoned building to have perfectly functioning ceiling lights still?

Choppz

Hey guys, I've not had much of a chance to continue work on this scene recently, looking for a new job has thrown a spanner into the works. Thank you very much for all of you're responses and hopefully I can start posting some more substantial updates soon.

@Aboulicious Yeah that picture is great reference, especially with all the clutter on the floor. At some point I'll revisit the door mesh/texture and I'll add some more damage/decay similar to that picture. Thanks for sharing!

@AgreeingMachine That blog is really awesome, I'll take a good look through there to get some more reference. Yeah the poster is quite flat, its currently a decal but I think I will make it into a mesh to give it some depth. I will definitely try to give the scene some more narrative features as well because there is currently not a lot going on. I appreciate the feedback!

@ParksMarks That paintover is sweeeet! Its really inspired me. I'm really struggling to get the light to come through the window, but I really like the contrast from the light in your paintover so I've quickly done a rough blockout of that lighting setup and will iterate on it when i get more time. As you said, I'll try to get some yellow light coming through the window, but currently I've turned off the directional light until I can find a way to improve my current light setup. Also I do like what you've done with the lightbulbs, I will revisit them later on. Thank you very much!

@AndrewMKelley Yeah you're absolutely right, its definitely something I need to work on. I've quickly been messing around with dust vertex painting, which I've applied to the floor (with varying success). This is the first "realistic" scene I've worked on in a really long time and its the first time I've had to approach debris/clutter so I'm still figuring out the best way to go about it, but its the next thing on my task list to do after the lighting setup. I'll look at adding more fog to the scene as well as adding more substantial wear/tear to the walls too. Thank you for your feedback!

@MrVakoda I totally agree, I have now turned off one of the lights now that I've added a new light source to my scene. I really want to get some natural light coming into the environment, but currently had no luck with either a directional or spotlight. The light isn't flooding into the room and when I add supporting pointlights around the bed/boxes, it looks very fake. Its something I'll be looking further into though. Thanks for providing your input!

So here is the current screenshot of the lighting build. As mentioned I've been a bit busy, but hopefully you'll see some more updates soon.