Italian Alley [WIP] [UE4]

sprawa

Hello. This is my first unreal engine project which i plan to post in my portfolio. Before i was doing only props, this is my 1st environment. Also a first project where i can learn unreal beside tutorials  
For now so far i have mostly 70% of models and from textures only foliage and cobblestone texture. If anything else has a texture then its just random smart material picked from substance painter just to see how the model look with it in unreal. 
So basically im quite far from the end, but i work on it everyday and very hard. 
Lightmaps are build with medium quality.
I post also my multi layer ground material , maybe someone will give me a tip about it. Because im not sure if my bump offset values are optimal for it ;P it also shines i think too much on the sun. .I think i might in the future go back to substance designer and change rougness little bit. I mixed it with same material but with dirt, with different variations. 
The lighting is directional light + sun skylight. 
I will place much more models here. There will be a restaurant on the first plan on the left, with chairs and tables. Behind it will be a cafe too, with some chairs and tables. On the right i plan to put one opened shop. Im not sure about the rest yet. I ll place more plants there. Mostly potted trees i think. And some other small assets, like bench , shop accesories, etc. 
So yes, this is my 1st unreal scene and also my 1st environment. I hope it will not end as crap because of that, but im ready to put a lot of work to it, to polish it. 
I will aprecciate any tips and critique with pleasure  

material

some of the references , but i also used google street view a lot 

sprawa

a little bit of update  
i've added tree, ivy, a lot of models and tweaked little bit ligjhting.
Still a lot of to be done

nicko_the_great

looking good

sprawa

Ok so the decision have been made - i needed other lighting that will be more appealing to the eye so i changed it completly. Some areas are still too dark but i think i will manage to light them easily. It will be brighter i think on the nest update. Especially i need to light better my fruit stand. They are too dark. Fruits in the bottom are not visible. Ill fix that hopefully  
This is still like a "level lighting preview" because buildings still have preview textures, most props still have preview textures too. What do u guys think? That lighting is better ? Any critique is welcome. 
I also ofc added these fruit stands and the jewerly shop , but its emty yet. Im gonna make some models for till next update here  
I also lowered cobblestone rougness so in that lighting it loooks better i think  

sprawa

Ok so i ve played with lighting little bit and thats what i got. Ill have both day and night versions. I think im almost satisfied with what night version offers. Ill makes final tweaks after ill work on texturres. And also i ll still have to add many models to the scene. Like a bike :P 
About day scene ill have to light dark areas too.

JamesRay

Woah! this is looking cool. Loving the materials so far and how they are giving so much silhouette, Also great composition. Good Job!

TheGabmeister

I was wondering why one of the buildings has saturated purple on it. Is this a placeholder material?

sprawa

TheGabmeister said:

I was wondering why one of the buildings has saturated purple on it. Is this a placeholder material?

Hello! This is my first unreal engine project and im beginner and i have my own begginer/shaky workflow. These buildings dont have materials. Two of them does, but they are only for preview. They have standard materials attached with just random color from 3ds max, when they got exported into unreal. I guess the proper workflow would be - go make all models, exported them into unreal and make greybox level, make textures - render. But i kind of blended everything together  for example flowers have final textures, the italian chef figure if finished too i think. Cobblestone i think is done, unless i will figure out something that i could improve in it. But almost everything else has just preview materials. 
 I allready started working on textures of buildings today. I think i might make next update in the beggining of next week with all buildings having final (assuming ofc)  textures. 
But i agree, that saturated purple doesnt look good. But im gonna make that textures until next update - at least for buildings. We will see  

JamesRay said:

Woah! this is looking cool. Loving the materials so far and how they are giving so much silhouette, Also great composition. Good Job!

Hello!    thank's ! Im really happy u like it  i hope when ill add textures u gonna like it even more ! 

sprawa

Ok time for the next update. I 've played more with lighting and made a textures for buildings . Keep in mind that textures on models like chair/lamp/bench etc arre still placeholders. 

Say what u like and dont like im opened to critique , even rough. 







and day 

pols_kulpt

The colors are looking AMAZING?? The lighting has improved. It's really cool to see the evolution of this, sprawa. Keep it up!!

An idea here: maybe you could have some gravel and dust collecting in the crevices on the floors against the walls. From far away, the streets seem to have clean tile stretched from left to right in nearly all of the places. Like up close I was able to see the variations but when it zooms out and shows the bigger scale, much of that detail phases out.

Maybe to make it more obvious you can have entire groups of tile like shifted around and pieces rotated out of their grooves, maybe some tile even completely kicked off from tourists walking through the alleyway. It might add some of that age and antique that you're looking for. Much like you have those groups of paint chipped off from the walls. Your attention to detail is really paying off!!

sprawa

Hello. I have updated my scene.The scene is still missing few models, and some decals. But like 90% of the work i think is done. From models im gonna add bike, jewerly shop furniture, and maybe something else. Night scene is baked on the high quality lighting, day scene is baked on the low quality lighting. I ve tweaked almost everything since last update. Im still not convinced if i want to shop only day scene, night scene or both. Night scene has better atmosphere, day scene's textures are better visible and look better. But both together this is too many renders i think. If i would post it on artstation all together, that many renders would be overwelhming i think. 
If someone has ANY critique for for this scene - i will take it. Please say whatever u think. I want to get better and i want to  make scene better too. If u like it or not, please say what u think  

Eric Chadwick

Hey this is looking great!

I'd love to see a bit of variation in your nighttime lighting colors. I think some color grading would also reduce the contrast and soften those deep black shadows.

Quick paintover:



The multicolor graffiti you have is more American style. Italian graffiti tends to be single color spray paint, from what I remember.



Keep it up, looking great!

oraeles77

@Eric Chadwick there is plenty of 'american style graffiti' in Italy.

sprawa

Next update. Probably one of the last updates. I think i allready have most of what i wanted. I still would appreciate any kind of critique. I got a lot of feedback , not only on polycount, and i tried to transform that to my scene. I still think its better than it was, but im not sure if im satisfied  
If u have antything positive/negative to say about my scene, dont hesitate i appreciaty all opinions  
Its all about becoming better 

Ashervisalis

There is this weird edge/horizontal corner on this wall and it looks really odd. Also, your clothes line looks incredibly flat, would be nice to see a few hanging items which were curled up or hanging awkwardly.



Aside from that, this looks great

sprawa

The scene has been finished. Thank you all that gave me critique and tips and comments  
Im sure i could still improve a lot. But it took me so far too long. And i feel like it is allready quite good. Time to jump on the new scene! 
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQ9G5e