U4 - 'Welcome to Campobasso' looking for feedback
polycounter lvl 10
Latest
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I would like to hear impressions regarding this scene. I've been looking at it too long so I'm not 100% regarding the light, colors, assets, etc.
It's kind of supposed to be more on the stylized, exaggerated side of things. Think Overwatch but not quite on that level of everything being bulky and modular. Also not sci fi.
Used Evgeny Lushpin's painting as a starting point for the composition and the setting, but I'm not trying to match it. The colorful buildings are inspired by Burano, a fancy looking fishing town in Italy. The real Campobasso actually looks pretty depressing in comparison.
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I would like to hear impressions regarding this scene. I've been looking at it too long so I'm not 100% regarding the light, colors, assets, etc.
It's kind of supposed to be more on the stylized, exaggerated side of things. Think Overwatch but not quite on that level of everything being bulky and modular. Also not sci fi.
Used Evgeny Lushpin's painting as a starting point for the composition and the setting, but I'm not trying to match it. The colorful buildings are inspired by Burano, a fancy looking fishing town in Italy. The real Campobasso actually looks pretty depressing in comparison.
Replies
I wouldnt mind more depth, the sky is looking a bit dark and it would be nice with some more detail on the streets. now all the rocks are normal mapped only. some small rocks, papers, things lying around could ad more life.
I would say that it needs to come alive. Right now the street looks dead. There are no signs of daily life or if you are going for abandoned you need things to populate. Right now you have a beautiful setting but I think you could make it tell a story by adding stuff to it.
Other than that I think you have done a great job and I love your use of color.
Cheers!
Setting bounces to 10+ would help, and pushing diffuse boost beyond 1 would really work with this art direction, allowing the bounce light to get pretty saturated.
Regarding the color scheme controversy I personally agree with @radiancef0rge and his adjustments, but nonetheless if the atmosphere you're trying to go for is sort of that lucid, dreamy feeling than the edits suggested by @PixelMasher would fit very nicely too. But personally I find the realistic yet vivid tone that you have now more intriguing to look at.
Really, this is a great work! I'd love to see this in real time or see characters playing in it.
One of the things I always do is to "flip" the image. It helps give you a better perspective and a new "eye" on the composition. One thing that immediately stands out is the lack of interest on the right side alleyway. There is a lack of foliage and life happening down there.
So I brought up the brightness a bit and punched up some of the color contrast. Added foliage in the alley as well as some "interesting" silhouettes at the bottom. Your scene is lacking in the beautiful red flowers dominant in your original reference image. I also didn't realize the center building was a Barbero until I zoomed in. So I made the door etching easily recognizable as well as painted the words in Barber "red".
I also opened the door on the right side a crack to add some intrigue. Maybe the person on the bike was in a rush to get home? Typical kid leaving the door ajar. Finally a small flock of birds to break up the composition.
Just a few suggestions. Hope they help. Lovely work and execution
-Michael
Progress: Spiced up the floor with some leafs, reflections, more normal map variety (got two materials blending). Added mail boxes, newspapers, birds and some sporadic detail. Going for a slightly more autumn/late summer theme with the colors.
@lotet
Agreed the floor is a bit barren. Considering this is my no1 problem with the scene I'm going to push more of an autumn theme and shower the floor in leaves. The streets IRL are just so clean there's no way I'm going to use trash
@hellokritty
I've got like a smooth/cracked vert paint going on with the floor but I wasn't making the best use of it. I actually reduced the normal strength on the smooth one that created a much better contrast on the floor.
@EricElwell
With the whole autumn thing going on I did bump up the warmth in the scene!
@David-J
I totally agree it's just a bit annoying when the real streets all look barren..
@PixelMasher
Can't really get more light bounce without making it look really fake. I can see that light setup working if it were more mid-day ish although it does look a little over the top.
@FreneticPonies
Already got bounce light at a 100 and I'm boosting bounce light to 5-6. At the end of the day though bounce light only travels so far. I'm overall pretty happy with the shadow though, I don't want the entire scene to pop.
@radiancef0rge
I was wondering if it's underexposed, photoshop told me it was but leveling it seemed too bright. I will level it a bit.
@polygonmonster
Glad you like it, I don't fancy using bloom much though. I think better light levels will help with the saturation.
@Doodlok
Well realistic but vivid is very much the goal here so it's good to hear it's coming together somewhat. I might make a video, getting a much better sense of scale and depth even with a tiny amount of camera movement.
@Michael_Ingrassia
Very good suggestions, adding detail to the alleyway is pretty difficult because the empty streets are kind of Italian characteristics, but in this case it does feel like it's working against the scene.
Red flowers work in the original concept but I have a much more contrasting scene and I need to juggle detail a lot more carefully. I want to keep the focal point on the orange building and adding a bunch of red everywhere would go against that. I had the same idea with the open door! And I do need birds.
@t_revan
Agreed and thanks!
love the atumn feeling and extra detail on the streets, the gloss variation is a nice touch as well, would still love to see some more depth in the ground texture. what I mean by that is maybe model out some of the stones or ad tessellation or something.
modeling out the manhole cover might be a good thing too.
The scene is looking really awesome! i love the use of colour and think the lighting is looking good.
Have you considered doing another version of the lighting (as well as this one) but setting it late evening/nightime?
Your initial concept looks like its set evening time and has some windows glowing and street lamps on. Applying these elements to your scene could be really interesting. i would have the windows softly glowing and the street lamp on. it would make this sleepy little town feel even more cosy!
I would do this as an addition to strong daytime lighting you have already. A nighttime version would give the scene a different focus as you would have more control over smaller local lighting than a strong directional one.
not as dark as this, but along these lines.
https://www.venetoinside.com/files/images/tours/veneto/shadows-of-venice-grand-tour-by-night/misteri-venezia.jpg
The scene is looking great though, cant wait to see more!
Yeah I've put the material on a sphere and in direct sunlight next to the main building and made a strip of the 99 99 99 going through it in photoshop to see how it blends. Long story short Unreal 4 did a good job with the auto exposure but it's still kind of dark for people so for a portfolio shot I think I will boost the light a bit.
@Scruffy606
Thanks! Yeah I'm planning to practice lighting on this map for a week or so. I don't think the geo needs changing at this point so I'll probably start today.
is that what you had in mind? or this is something i just tough? by the way, it looks great and don't think wrong because i liked!
I think it's as simple as opening the door to main yellowish building and parking the bike next to it, tell me a visual story.
At the end of the day it would've been just more work doing something that trades one thing for another rather than adding to the scene if that makes sense. Clarity and composition vs story and noise.
I could see the open door working nicely in a night scene because there's less visible detail/contrast and I'd have more control over the focal point. I will get around doing something like that but as far as my portfolio is concerned I need more sculpting done first.