[UE4] Classroom [Finished]

lucim197

Hi 

I have been working on a game scene  i n Unreal Engine (an american '90s classroom) for my portfolio . 

I'm trying to improve my knowledge about 3D environments in a game engine (I want to practice more on lighting, color, composition, workflow, storytelling etc) so I want your feedback during this project.  

I started a week ago, so it is a very early stage. I gathered as many as references I could and I put them in PureRef, and I made the first blockout:

For now I use static lighting but I will try the real-time ray tracing system during this project to see how it works and if it will be better .

Now I have to finish my blockout and I will come with updates soon. 

Thank you. Any feedback or comment is highly appreciated

lucim197

A little update: I created more detailed blockouts for chiars and desks. I made them in Houdini to be easy to make more iteration; a big advantage was that I could always go back in the network and change a parameter of a node: 



The last render:

lucim197

Update: I added some blockout props and I made the parquet material in Substance Designer:


Substance material:
A close up:

The next steps: create materials for chairs and desks; create more blockout props (such as backpacks, crayons, skateboard, cabinets etc)

What do you think for now? Any feedback is highly appreciated. Thank you!

Dennis_Levi

Hey lucim,

it's looking rly nice so far! You have a rly good lighting and the mood is very cozy

It's a realy good start for the scene and I love to see how it will turn out after your added all the props.

btw... I usually do the complete blockout before setting up the light and running into details of seperate objects and materials.
Gives me a better over all feeling. 

lucim197

@Dennis_Levi thank you for your feedback, and yes, I think you are right, I will focus more on the blockout for now and after that i will go into details 

lucim197

I finished the blockout and I started to finish some of the props: 

Port-Seven

nice lighting!

lucim197

Hi,

Another update: I created some new props/materials and I tweaked some light  and post-processing parameters. Any feedback is highly appreciated  Thank you!

 

lucim197

After a little break, I am coming back with an update. I've worked on some new props or modifying the existing ones (flag, books, alarm, lamps, sprinklers, smoke detector etc.)
I've been learning a lot about Material Graph and now I use Master Materials in my scene, and for example, I have dirt parameters for each material. Also i made some lighting/ Post-processing changes. Any feedback is highly appreciated   Thank you!

TheGabmeister

Great progress. Just out of curiosity, what story-telling element do you have in mind for this scene? For me, the latest scene seems like it came from a war-torn version of America.

lucim197

@TheGabmeister Thank you! Yes, this is what I want, to be something like Dying Light/ Fallout 4/ Far cry Dawn, some post-apocalyptic world where the people still have hope and maybe not many years have passed since disaster/war. ( because I don't want to make the scene very messy/damaged.

Feurum

Great work!

JKNori

This is some fantastic work so far! I'd also add some bookbags/backpacks so we can see more of an identity of some of the students, some of them may have left them there in a panic or something like that. I really like how this is coming out so far though, excellent work.

lucim197

@Feurum Thank you!

@JKNori Thank you! Yes, I have this in plan, but I want to learn some Zbrush for backpacks, so.. I think I will make them at the end of project  

Mehran Khan

good work so far. I think one thing that is kinda making the whole scene monotonous, is that all the wood in the scene looks the same.
So try having different colored wood in there. for example : the cupboards can be polished red, the roof can be a brighter.
the seats can be darker with less apparent weave.

Mehran Khan

that metallinc cupboard (forgot what it's called) also needs better spec and albeido, it looks like blue rock right now.

lucim197

@Mehran Khan  Thank you for the feedback! I will try to apply it.  

The_Maw

Mehran Khan said:

good work so far. I think one thing that is kinda making the whole scene monotonous, is that all the wood in the scene looks the same.
So try having different colored wood in there. for example : the cupboards can be polished red, the roof can be a brighter.
the seats can be darker with less apparent weave.

This is some sound advice, but don't go overboard with it. The muted colours in a restricted colour pallet really help push the story you're trying to tell. I agree with changing the colours but try not to make it anything too vibrant.

Rurouni Strife

You mentioned a 90's classroom earlier. I would consider swapping out the wood floor for a tile one, as that is/was common in 90's class rooms (I know. I was in them). You can still keep the look I think as the atmosphere and general tonalities are working super well here.

Also get a proper holder for the flag pole!

Joopson

Rurouni Strife said:

You mentioned a 90's classroom earlier. I would consider swapping out the wood floor for a tile one, as that is/was common in 90's class rooms (I know. I was in them). 

The school I went to had a few wooden floored rooms, but 90% of them were just carpeted.

I think the wood looks great, I wouldn't personally change it. Classrooms come in all types, and reality is not always what looks best anyway.

lucim197

Thank all for your advice! I will try to change very subtle the color of cupboards.

I would consider swapping out the wood floor for a tile one

I chosen the wood floor because it's more "random", not monotonous, but maybe I will try it too, to see if it looks better.

Also get a proper holder for the flag pole!

Yes, you are right, now it looks weird 

lucim197

Update: 
-creating new books and put them on desks.
-finish desk calculator, globe, the holder for the flag pole.
-re-texture the blackboard.
-texturing debris/drawings (the right corner).
-creating a blueprint for the projection (with light function).
-base mesh(WIP): for the projector, cart's projector, teacher's desk.
-duct tape decals for posters.
-a subtle variation of the cupboards' color.(i will work more on this, i think i can make more tests on it)

What I have in plan to do: 
-finish projector, cart's projector, teacher's desk, projector "screen",bin.
-to create curtains, backpacks, teacher's chair,  door, other small props.
-retweak some roughness textures (ex filling cabinet, books).




It still looks monotonous, but I hope I will resolve that when I will add more small props(desk props/ backpacks/ cloths) , more subtle decals, and maybe I will try to push more the variation of the cupboards' color. Any kind of feedback is highly appreciated    Thank you!

JZAcH

Really coming out well here. I'm very happy to see your progress on this one. One thing I feel where you can spend some time on is on the mood and lighting. You're GI is a little bit dirty so that needs some experimenting. Or you can switch to movable directional light and skylight and fake it that way. 
The scene could also use some volumetric fog from the directional light and some mist particle fx (which you can borrow from any standard epic games demo scene) 

lucim197

@JZAcH thank you! Yes, you are right, at the final , i will improve the light baking settings because it costs a lot of time if i do this now (time to bake the lighting). I want to experimenting more on lighting and atmosphere at the end of the project because I can see better how it looks the entry scene, and because i have a bad habit to baking light pretty frequently 😄. Also, i want to make test on rtx technology, if it worths to use movable light with rtx GI.

Rurouni Strife

The commenter who mentioned carpet-that could be really interesting. Perhaps grab a quick mat from GameTextures or Substance Share or whatever to see if you like the look (then make your own) if you feel like testing. 

Speaking of the RTX GI, if you have an RTX card go for it. If not, it will murder your PC. To. The. Ground.

lucim197

@Rurouni Strife thank you for the feedback, i think it's a good ideea, it could break the monotonous atmoshere, an i have in plan to test it to see how it looks but i didn t have time last week for it.

About RTX, i have a gtx2080. For now , I think you can't use rtx technology without a rtx card. I hope it will work ok on my scene, because it's not very optimised; I want to optimize the scene better during this month.

Rurouni Strife

Nvidia released a driver a few weeks ago that lets you use Real Time Ray Tracing on GTX cards. It's slow though, the 1070 I have at work is crushed with anything more than reflections at 2 bounces.

lucim197

Oh, i heard that they have in plan to do this, but i didn't know it's already available.

wojtekfedunik

Great work.
Post Apocalypto.

lucim197

@wojtekfedunik thank you!

RAWconcrete

Looks stunning. One of the neons slightly detached perhaps, to balance out a bit the ceiling and the floor, which is messy to a degree. But, not that necessary, looks great as it is. 

pixelpatron

Amazing! No crits from me other than adding some character to the tops of the desks...scratches, and maybe some markings/carving. (some story telling).

lucim197

@RAWconcrete Thank you!   It's a good idea, definitely I will try this out! @pixelpatron Thank you!  Yes, I have in plan at the end to add more small decals ( and maybe some small props like shoes/ guitar/ phone/ backpacks etc, .. more personal stuff )  for story telling, thank you for suggestions!

lucim197

I didn't have too much time these days for this project, but i wanted to submit this wip for the rookies contest ( https://www.therookies.co/entries/2773 ) so i wanted to finish some principal objects.

Cinematic,  it's still WIP: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZDiFnZLo1E

Update: 
-door
-projector + cart + cable
-desk
-ceiling decals
-windows + exterior
-better volumetric fog

I still have a lot of things to do in plan, so any kind of feedback is highly appreciated  Thank you for your time!




Also, @Rurouni Strife I tried to use carpet insted of parquet but I think is too monoton so I think i will stick with the parquet, but maybe I will tweak the constrast and color.

Rurouni Strife

Yea I agree with you. The carpet also adds a ton of clashing noise to the floor if you ask me. 

CybranM

I think the floorboards stands out a bit too much in the pictures youve shown but I think if you tone the parquet down, like you suggested, its going to work well.
The atmosphere is already great and I think its only going to get better as you add backpacks and such

lucim197

Hi guys, I finally finish the scene, unfortunately, the time did not allow me to do everything I was in my head.. but I am pretty satisfied with the this result: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/v1B3yY  .
Thank you very much for every comment and suggestion that you made, it really helps me!