Ratchet and Clank - Environment 3D scene Fan Art

Lifezmusic

Hi guys !

I'm going to begin a new 3D environment project, I would like to reproduce an environment scene from Ratchet and Clank video game, the first game remastered in 2016 on PS4.

The scene will be finally rendered in Unreal Engine 4, modeled in Maya and textured in Substance Painter/Substance Designer.

I'll try to do it during 1 month, and i'll show you every step of the creation, hoping you'll help me to make it well with your advices and critics !

I'll begin to show you my reference :

You can see a bit more in detail the scene at : https://youtu.be/fnELS6OavSk?t=3870 (I set the link to begin when the player arrives in the area) !

Lifezmusic

I started to make a first Blockout on Unreal Engine 4 this morning, to have the right proportions (a bit), a loads of things will probably changed during the process (for example the size of the type of receptacle for trees and vegetations). You can have a better idea of the area i'll focus, so from the beginning of the level to the Arch.

I don't know yet what i'm going to do for everything out of the area but visible in the game, like the big city behind, buildings around.. If you have some tricks i'll enjoyed your advices !

Lifezmusic

Hi everyone,

I totally forgot to post what i've done the last time.

Well, I started to model the scene !
I did the floor and all the back part of the scene (modeled and unfolded). When I analized more in detail my references i've seen some elements I haven't seen before, like the last huge arch against the wall.
To optimise the floor for the UV, i made it with quarter circles :

It allows me to only take a quarter circle and duplicate it to constructed the base for the floor, and have only a quarter to unfold and repeat it.

Next step : to make the last things part of the building (plant pots, landing air, boxes, jar and the type of cylinder on the floor making the path going to the arch !

Lifezmusic

Hello guys !

I'm happy to show you what I've done with all the building part of the scene ! Currently the scene has 40192 triangles.
Everything is unfolded too, I currently have 5 different UVs for the all scene. Next week I'll start to model the foliage !

Cglewis

That last shot looks epic keep chipping away man looking forward to seeing this in engine 

Lifezmusic

Cglewis said:

That last shot looks epic keep chipping away man looking forward to seeing this in engine 

Thank you ! 
I’ll do my best to make this scene great ! 

Lifezmusic

Hey everyone !

I started to work on props textures. I thought it'll be easier to have the right saturation and color etc first before begin the foliage modelisation and texture.

For now, I have to change a bit the value of the roughness for the most of my materials, they are too much bright, and my high wall pillar are too white and 'cold' compared to the rest of the props. What do you think ?

Next time I work on the scene, I'll fix that, and make the ground texture probably on Substance Designer !

NB : I wait to put the foliage on the scene to know if I increase the amount of tris on some props because right now we really see every angles.
See you later and don't be shy to C&C !

Avenger84

nice progress, its looking really nice, the only critique I could say at this stage is to increase the polys on the centre cylinder, it looks to me from your wires a little less dense than the others around the sides, it just catches my eye from the shot from a distance, keep up the great work

Lifezmusic

Avenger84 said:

nice progress, its looking really nice, the only critique I could say at this stage is to increase the polys on the centre cylinder, it looks to me from your wires a little less dense than the others around the sides, it just catches my eye from the shot from a distance, keep up the great work

Thank you for the reply ! 
Yeah That's why i said in my previous post that i wait to see what it'll look like with the foliage ! but I totally agree with you ! 
Tahnk you again ! o\

garcellano

Nice start. I never played the games, but I love the curves. I don't know how to say this right, but I guess that's part of the look from the game. Barely anything straight. Alright, that's my two cents I don't know how to word this out
And, yeah I'd agree with @Avenger84 just add more edges or polys on the sides of the cylinders. Those read more then the edge loops around the cylinders.

Lifezmusic

Yeah ! I chose that scene because like you I really love the design, the curves. And also I love that vivid colors making all the scene really fantasist.
I will add some edges, promised ! 

Lifezmusic

Hi Guys !

It's been a long time since the last time I show you what I've done with the scene.
So as i said the last time, and with your comments, I increased the amount of tris on certains meshes like the type of plant plots and on the base of the scene.

I made the foliage, and began to place it, I think i'll have to change the saturation on some of it, like the grass for example. But I will wait until the lighting will be done to be sure it's necessary, as the global lighting is really warm/hot tone.

Currently I'm going to make the extra decoration around the scene to fake the fact it's litteraly flying in the void. I'm not totally sure of how I'll do that, if I try to put everything in a huge sphere with an image, or an fx of clouds, or both... If you have some ideas it could be helpful

jlazzaro

This is looking really cool! I also made a scene from this game, though the scene I made involved a lot more hard surface stuff and not very much organics and foliage. 

One critique I have, is your hard surface stuff is lacking the normal map bevels that Insomniac's ultimate trim technique provides. This allows them to keep the polycount relatively low, while making it look like all the hard surfaces have beveled edges.  I actually made a breakdown of this process if you'd like to check it out: 
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4b61l2

And if you'd like to check out the environment I made from this game:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/w86KWO

I'm really liking where things are going in your environment! Keep up the great work!

Avenger84

really  nice love that foliage

Lifezmusic

jlazzaro said:

This is looking really cool! I also made a scene from this game, though the scene I made involved a lot more hard surface stuff and not very much organics and foliage. 

One critique I have, is your hard surface stuff is lacking the normal map bevels that Insomniac's ultimate trim technique provides. This allows them to keep the polycount relatively low, while making it look like all the hard surfaces have beveled edges.  I actually made a breakdown of this process if you'd like to check it out: 
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4b61l2

And if you'd like to check out the environment I made from this game:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/w86KWO

I'm really liking where things are going in your environment! Keep up the great work!

Thank you for your comment ! I checked the links, it's really interesting to know and i think in the future i'll use this technic !
For now i don't know if i will adapt my scene with it, as i have less hard surface stuff and mostly hide by the foliage etc. But it's really cool and thank you for sharing this technic !

Avenger84 said:

really  nice love that foliage

Thank you ! I hope i'll succeed with the final rendering

Lifezmusic

Hi guys ! 

I began the lighting process but before i show you the final rendering I just wanted to show you a little thing i made to make the scene more "alive", just using the blueprint system of Unreal Engine 4 ! Furthermore, you can see that I used some wind effect for the foliage's shader. 



For the lighting/rendering, the most "complicated" thing to do is to approach as much as possible the real scene of Ratchet & Clank. However I think i'm not far away of it

Stanley3DArt

The area could use more rest inbetween foliage and groups of interest, think of sections which sell, smaller groups, mid groups and big groups which will help grab attention rather then so much detail everywhere. The entrance looks great and the foliage around it!

Lifezmusic

Alright Everyone !
There's the final render I've done with the scene !
I'm pretty glad of it, hope you like it too !

There's a short video to see a bit more in details every shader effects : https://youtu.be/WU_zs1uvK_c

Carabiner

Very nice work! I like your slow panning speed in the video, too.

Avenger84

great work the final result looks really nice

Lifezmusic

Carabiner said:

Very nice work! I like your slow panning speed in the video, too.

Avenger84 said:

great work the final result looks really nice

Thank you guys !