(Finished) [UE4] Alley in Siena Italy

tythomas063

Hello, everyone. I've chosen Krzysztof Maziarz's( https://www.artstation.com/krzymsky ) concept art to practice on making modular assets and learn how to use substance designer. I was hoping to improve my skills more overall in modeling, texturing, and lighting. This project will be a portfolio piece. 

Right now, I'm blocking out the scene in UE4 to get right scale and overall feeling. The white props are just a placeholder for now. The gray props are the one that I made in Maya including modular buildings. Next thing I'm going to do is to make a seamless texture for the plaster wall(maybe with brick behind it?) and texture the windows, wood, steps, and few other macro props.  

Any critiques on the modeling and scale would be very much appreciated.

Cheers! 

Concept Art: 


Blockout Scene: 


Modular Asset: 


Windows, wood boards, pipe hanger, and roof piece. (I put together the windows in Maya by using the assets below with some variation. These assets shared a UV map which I will texture it together.  Let me know if this is a bad practice since I'm new to this) 

tythomas063

Hey, everyone. Here is the update on my project.  I created material in substance designer for the walls which are plaster mixed with brick ( at least that's what I think it is in the concept art). After that, I textured the windows, roof, stones tiles, and stairs. I decided to adjust the lighting in this scene to make sure that the textures look good all together. It is not done but it is getting there. I will fix the lighting more once I add more props to this scene. 

I'm still learning how to use substance designer which has been a pretty awesome experience so far. Next thing I'm going to do is to create the AC unit, door, and metal sheets.

Any critiques would be very much appreciated. 

tythomas063

Hello, everyone! Hope Y'all are doing great. Over the past week, I have been creating more props which I still have a lot more to make. I also adjusted with the lighting which I'm pretty happy with it so far. Although I'm open to fixing the lighting from any critique if there is any.

I decided to use Matt Dixion's concept of the robot instead of having a broken fridge by the stair in order to have a little more story in this scene. The robot will be sitting by the wall as it was dumped by someone. Unless anyone has other suggestion for me to make something else on that spot? 

Here is a new screenshot of my project so far. Let me know if there is anything relating to lighting, texture, and prop placements that I need to fix. 

Any feedback will be very appreciated! Cheers! 

tythomas063

Hey, everyone. Hope everyone is doing well. 

I added a lot of new things to my project over past weeks which I'm pretty happy how it's looking so far. Right now, I'm trying to make the level feel "alive" by set dressing several props around to make it look like people lived in that city for a long time. 

One of the new tools I've learned from this project is for creating dirt around the walls by using the AO mask. I gotta said that it's a pretty awesome tool in UE4 especially it saves a lot of time. It's faster to use this tool than placing decals all over the walls.  More information can be found at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYvnQ5wzFmI

Here are the new screenshots of my project so far. Please let me know if there is anything that I should fix in this project especially on lighting, texture, and set dressing of the props. 

In the previous post, the camera's FOV was 68 because I was trying to match the perspective of the concept art but my professor said it doesn't look right. So I put FOV back to 97. What do you think? 

Cheers!









Comparison with FOV: 

Alex_J

in the reference, there are almost no parallel/perpendicular lines. Note the prominent building in the center.

it is subtle but none of those lines are parallel/perpendicular. Everything is a touch off. It changes the dynamic completely. The place becomes almost comical in its dilapidation. Without this subtle but thoughtful wonkiness, you are missing what I htink is a key element in the scene.

Also, I think those second story stairs add a lot to the scene.

For perspective and matching the feel of the reference i would go with a narrow FOV and see about actually increasing the size of the buildings and narrowing the width of the alleys. Your image is very spacious feeling compared to the reference. With add on stuff like ledges and pipes I would, almsot as rule, place them without snapping -- just eyeball everything. This kind of thing is not built in a perfect CG world and I think if you allow for all those tiny human errors to add up, it will make a more believable and interesting scene.

tythomas063

@BIGTIMEMASTER Thank you for your feedback. I'm really glad you captured that detail in the concept art.  I completely overlooked that part while comparing the concept art with my project. I agree that it is a key element in this scene that I should have in my project.  So I went ahead to crooked or move the buildings, windows, AC units, and other props in different angles. 


Hey, everyone. Hope all of you are having a good day.  Here are new screenshots below. 

My professor was telling me that I should add more grunge, dirt, and weeds around the floor and walls. So I decided to use a bunch of deferred decals around the scenes to add those details. 

The plant in the concept art looks similar to Firespire American hornbeam which influenced me to decide to make that type of plant.  I used one leaf, branch and a stem on a single UV map. Then I duplicated the leaf and branch a lot to make a plant. After that, I created a high poly of a leaf, branch, and stem in zbrush which eventually baked and textured in substance painter. The polygon count of the plant is pretty high. So I used LOD heavily in UE4 while using foliage tool with culling distance. 

The level around the scene still feels empty in my opinion. I probably will make posters, cans, and several other miscellaneous props to make the scene feel more "alive". 

Please let me know if decals look too much or if there is anything that I should fix or add. 

Any critiques will be very much appreciated. 

Cheers!



No Decals:

Alex_J

looking pretty awesome.

I think the material of the walls should be a bit more white though. Compared to the reference, you have much less contrast in colors and overall are quite brown/tan, versus a mostly white/off white with orange and red highlights.

It's certainly a trope but that drab tan color scheme makes me think of your stereotypical "middle eastern" environments you see in a lot of games.

wirrexx

The overall scene is looking to bland. Don't be afraid to add some colors to the walls and objects. The reference has a lot of bluish, purpleish colors going on with saturated reds. Experiment, you've got the scene almost done, small stones and rocks here and there should add more to the "dirtness". The Huge cables that is supposed to come towards us is getting lost in the picture ! . You are almost there!!! 

tythomas063

@BIGTIMEMASTER Thank you, Alex! Yeah, I agree with you. After reading your feedback, I went ahead and fix the color by reducing tan and add contrast colors to some of the buildings.

@wirrexx Thanks for your critique and photo breakdown! I completely agree with you that my scene looks kinda bland. So I went ahead and did what you suggest me to do. I'm starting to think that it looks a lot better now. I'm still going to add more small props like rocks, cans, and etc. 


Here are the new screenshots with the changes from critiques. 

Any critiques and feedbacks will be very much appreciated. 

Cheers!

tythomas063

Here are the new screenshots with the addition of changes(sand, cans, and adjusted the colors). 

I think I pretty much completed this project and I'm calling it done. Unless if anyone thinks I should fix something or add something to the scene? 

Any feedbacks or critiques would be very much appreciated. 

Hope all of you like this project. 

Cheers!  










Props that were used in the project: