[WIP][UE4] Arizona Gas Station Environment

Rainy

Hello Polycount!

I am a freshly graduated environment artist from germany and am building up my portfolio so I can hopefully start working in the industry soon.
This gas station should be the main piece in my portfolio, among a small diorama and few materials. 

The main idea is that there is this gas station with an old man, who runs it, and his dog. And it doesn't get so much customers but it's the last thing this man has and he also lives there. He trys to offer as much service as he can and in the late afternoon he would sit with his dog in the small garden and play on his banjo.

So, for now I finished about half of the assets, made basic decals and placeholder plants, set up lighting and will continue to work on props and then the environment (grass, rocks, mountains etc.) Personally I think I struggle with proportions, lighting and presentation of the story. Since I have no precise concept for this piece and had to put together a lot of elements by myself, I'm not quite sure if things even make sense together.
 
This said, I will be glad to hear any feedback, critiques and what you think about it, all are welcome during this topic. Hit me 
Thanks for reading!



CURRENT STATE:

Rainy

more screenshots:




and some of the references (I use realtimeboard):

RustySpannerz

Looking nice so far! Your AO is looking too strong or the radius is too small, it makes it look kind of cartoony. As for lighting and telling the story, I would look towards cinema for some good inspiration. Films like Hell or High Water or No Country for Old Men seem like they're probably the correct atmosphere. 

Ashervisalis

Cool gas station for sure. I'm a bit confused why there is a power pole but no power lines attached. The table and bench also don't look as old or characteristic as the rest of the props. Those are my only critiques.

Rainy

@RustySpannerz Thank you for your advice! Now I can see it too, I cranked it up too much I guess. Also the movie tips are great, I don't know any of them so that's really helpful!

@Ashervisalis the power lines are not made yet and the table and benches are unfortunately also still blockouts. But thanks for your feedback and I'm glad you like the rest of the stuff

ChrisFraser

I feel like the decals and signs that are stuck to the building feel a little too perfectly placed. If the place was old and dilapidated, then the signs would be falling off or on angles, on the ground, maybe just leaning against the building, etc... right now, they seem like they were just put up yesterday with a level or something.

Looking online for reference, I see that a lot of the signage in similar buildings is overlapping and stuff like that. 

Hope that helps

Rainy

also to mention that there is a part to the gas station that I haven't screenshoted: a garden with a dog house, bowls and toys and an old chair with an music instrument. 

Rainy

*I can't figure out how to delete my own comment lol 

GunPowderTea

Hi Rainy,

digging the overall look of your Gasstation Scene!

Here are some things that i found odd and stuff that cought my eye.

Bathroom:

-The lamp by the bathroom is hanging at a low postion.

-The Door texture is looking somewhat flat, lacking depth, in comparison the the walls (See concept image you posted)

-The roof is slanted but seems to be missing its roofing (corrugated iron or shingels?)

Main Building:

-Love the used worn out wood textures for the beams and walls!

-Concrete seems too clean in comparisson to wood. Perhaps some vertex painting with a rougher/cracked concrete texture?

-You mentioned "with an old man, who runs it, and his dog". I can't find a single indicator that a dog lives at this station.

-You could have a Dog leash on one of the Wood Pillars + Drink/Eating Bowl

-Where the wood pillars conect to the concrete you could add some grime/dirt (Decal) for a more connected feel (same goes for wall to concrete)

-Agree with @ChrisFraser about the angles on the signs

-The Coke Fridge(seems it's still in progress ) & Gaspump seem a bit to pristine/inconsistent for the overall old used look

Overall really awesome Gasstation!!

Good composition. Most objects seem to belong/fit together well in regards to texture and the worn out look.

Keep it up and post you progress!

Hope the feedback helped

Rainy

GunPowderTea and ChrisFraser thank you guys so much for your feedback! It definetely helped and pointed out some weak spots. 
I'll keep working on it and update. Much love

Rainy

UPDATE:

So last week I got to meet Simon Fuchs from Blizzard and Martin Teichmann from Naughty Dog. Both of them gave me some nice feedback and kind of set me free from my strange stage of being stuck and unhappy about the scene, you know. After that I went to cut out some areas and combine some things, focusing on just 2-3 shot angles and trying out new colors shemes. 

I think on my paintover the scene feels much more natural, the colors are more seperated and highlighting the main building.
The dog house, which was hidden in the "garden" part, is now finally much more visible.
My lighting was criticized as well, but I couln'd find a way to improve it yet. So feel free to add any ideas you guys might have



After the overpaint I went back into my unreal project to change everything as close as I can get. This is how it looks like now:




The best thing is that I now have a bit more of a frame, where my work should begin and end. Before that I was just aimlessly doing this and that and overreacting about the unknown amount of work. So yeah thanks to both of the amazing artists! Also I've been practicing highpoly modelling which is even starting to be fun. It's easy stuff but still, I am working on it. 



Thank you for reading and again if you have any suggestions, opinions, anything, just hit me c:

IxenonI

Good progress, glad you took action on some of the feedback. It`s going in the right direction... Excited to see where this goes.

Highpolies look good too, just maek sure to overexxagerate those edges / bevels a little bit so that the normal map will actually pick them up.

Rainy

UPDATE:

Thanks IxenonI  for your compliment and advise, I kept that in mind while working on further highpolys and I also went back and exxagerated the edges/bevels. I hope it was enough. Anyway I modelled more tools and baked and finally textured them and put them in engine. his is how they look now. Also I realised that they will be barely visible in the scene (lol) but it was a really nice exercise and I really needed that.
I put everything on 1 uv map, using a 2048x2048 texture, is that like a ok thing to do?
Feedback and comments are always cool! 

Rainy

UPDATE:

Hello guys, it's been a while and I was doing lots and lots of highpolys for plants and it was really fun. Baking and texturing was nice as well. I modelled the foliage inside 3dsMax and zBrush, then polypainted it in zBrush also. Baking was done in Substance. I think I'm fairly relieved how my first plants turned out to be?







Also the level got a bit of tuning, and lighting changes. Also worked on new and older assets, it's a back and forth because my first assets just don't look good anymore haha. Also I took away quite some chunks of the level, thats less assets for me to do yay!
Of course, dust decals, tire tracks, some close up story telling stuff is coming up, I will definetely work on those.







 I feel like I really need some feedback here. About how the scene looks and feels like and whats good or bad at this point. Looking back at my progress pictures, it sure got a lot better, but I want it to be top notch! 
So everyone, every opinion/comment would make me so happy rightnow

Thanks for reading and have a nice day ♥