(WIP) Chernobyl

tomturner

Hey guys,

Here's one of the scenes i'm currently working on! Inspired by a recent trip to Chernobyl  
I had taken a number of photographs and captured some video so I have a fair bit of personal reference! Here's an overview of what I'm trying to create. 

and here's what I've got so far 


There's still a long way to go with this so I'd appreciate any feedback/advice! 
Thanks!

teodar23

Good start!
Im guessing textures and lighting are wip so i wont touch those.
Modeling looks solid although i see some sharp edges here and there...

tomturner

teodar23 said:

Good start!
Im guessing textures and lighting are wip so i wont touch those.
Modeling looks solid although i see some sharp edges here and there...

Hey Teodar!
Yeah both are WIP and should hopefully be improved a lot in the next couple of weeks! any obvious pointers are very much appreciated.

tomturner

I've given the diving boards a new texture. The main issue last time was that there was a seam running through one of the big damaged pieces. 

Ref

Actually - looking at these pictures, I'll definitely revisit the texture make it a bit dirtier/murkier, but I'm definitely happier with it than before

Also created some a modular piece for extra ceiling framework

Difficult to see in engine but it connects the roof to the framework. Will hopefully be more visible when post processing and lighting is played with a bit further 

tomturner

 I deleted all the lighting/post processing and started from scratch, deviating from my reference to make the scene more interesting. Much happier with how it looks although it's definitely not perfect.

I alos created some dirt piles to build up in some of the corners. I'll need to work on a smoother transition between those and the floor as there is a slight line.

Another addition today was some cloth that has essentially fallen from the ceiling framework, mainly for one of the camera angles. 

I'm gonna work on getting some reflections/roughness variations around the main areas of my composition soon to make it a bit more interesting 

Any feedback/critique is welcome  

teodar23

I think the wall tiles should be shinier than the ground ones because the dust and grime would naturally fall down and maybe some will get stuck on the walls but not as much as on the ground. Also, that sharp transition from wall tiles to ground dirt is not very pleasant, maybe add some edge decals that makes the transition a bit better.

tomturner

teodar23 said:

I think the wall tiles should be shinier than the ground ones because the dust and grime would naturally fall down and maybe some will get stuck on the walls but not as much as on the ground. Also, that sharp transition from wall tiles to ground dirt is not very pleasant, maybe add some edge decals that makes the transition a bit better.

Thanks for pointing that out! I had already applied a dirt decal around the outside of the pool where it meets the floor, but completely forgot to add it inside the pool!  

Also built up some dirt piles in some other areas, such as at the bottom of the pool slope, where dirt would roll down. There's a big colour difference between the dirt vertex painted on the floor and the dirt piles. I'm not too sure why as they're using the same base colour.

I started working on my own trees, but to get a grasp of what the scene would look like with them in, I copied some that were premade using Treeit so that I could see it with some variation. As I couldn't edit the model itself (even by exporting from Unreal), I added a completely transparent material to the leaves that they had.  I think I have 4 different Birch Trees in, with some height variation between those 4. I will hopefully be using my own trees by the end.

The scene overall lacks any strong colour, so I added a Ukrainian flag in the foreground. Once the lighting builds it get's darker as it's facing away from the light, but I think it adds a nice amount of colour.

Scene so far

Next Steps

iwant to work on that area by the clock on the left hand side, as the textures aren't looking very good with the new lighting. 

It'd be nice to add some more roughness variations/contrast in the pool. The tiles do reflect better than with the previous lighting, but it's still fairly uniform and uninteresting. I only really have the glass shards to add any reflectivity so far.

Finish my own trees and leaves for the ground (Autumn)

Feedback/critique is welcome  

FilmDirectorSciFi

I say just keep going. You seem to have the right approaches. Maybe one more pass with tiny models to flush it out, like the hook/rings below the top diving board - that sort of thing. Otherwise, awesome!

tomturner

FilmDirectorSciFi said:

I say just keep going. You seem to have the right approaches. Maybe one more pass with tiny models to flush it out, like the hook/rings below the top diving board - that sort of thing. Otherwise, awesome!

Thanks, glad you like it so far!

tomturner

I made the swimming team emblem for the left hand side of the room (in the main composition shot)

In the reference the letters would be actual geo, but as it's seen from a distance I've just kept them as normals.

I've also made the wall lights for the pillars, again not super noticeable but always good to get those finer details in.

After that I created some extra decals for missing tiles on the left of the shot, and also added dust particles 

tomturner

Small update today 

Started modelling the carriage for the ferris wheel earlier and lost it. I couldn't retrieve it so I've made it again this evening. 

It's unwrapped and ready for texturing. Will be seen from very far away (might even be baked to a plane), so chamferred edges wasn't necessary

tomturner

Finished the model for the ferris wheel and textured it. It's all quite modular so there're overlaps in the UV space, but it's going to be seen from quite a distance so the repeating patterns won't be visible

Where it is in Unreal will probably change, just trying to get a nice balance for the composition and not make it look too busy anywhere in particular. It's barely visible right now in the background. I'm struggle to make it very visible. I'm assuming it's because of the fog, which I intend to make lighter anyway. Any tips are appreciated  

teodar23

Yea the fog is too much. You could add a static cube surrounding the building and add a volumetric material to it. It will tank your performance but will look much better

tomturner

teodar23 said:

Yea the fog is too much. You could add a static cube surrounding the building and add a volumetric material to it. It will tank your performance but will look much better

Great, thanks Teodar! I’ll give that a try!

tomturner

Made some minor adjustments to the lighting/fog, and moved the ferris wheel.

Then made some modular drab buildings, referencing the ones found around Pripyat. They currently have a tileable texture with some discolouring applied via vertex paint . Further down the line I'll be adding damage decals and fake interiors, like in Watch Dogs/Spiderman. 

The Scene so Far

Critique welcome  

tomturner

Just a couple of changes today. Made some glass for the edges of the windows where the majority of it has been smashed. It didn't look right with refraction so I've removed it, but considering adding a tiny amount for some distortion. I've also done the 2nd pass on the flag texture, adding general dirt and tears. I've also desaturated it a bit in UE4 as I thought it clashed with the scene a bit too much.

Critique appreciated

teodar23

I suggest toning down the contrast between the lit and unlit areas. Maybe decrease the sun intensity. When the sun light goes through fog or clouds the light gets scattered in all direction and it reduces the number of light rays that reach the ground and also blurs the shadows a bit.

tomturner

teodar23 said:

I suggest toning down the contrast between the lit and unlit areas. Maybe decrease the sun intensity. When the sun light goes through fog or clouds the light gets scattered in all direction and it reduces the number of light rays that reach the ground and also blurs the shadows a bit.

Thanks! I'll play with that when I next work on this scene!  

I made some leaves for the scene. I used an image from online and produced the normal map and 5 different colours from that. Here's one of them.

they're going to be autumn colours so the five I currently have are a mix of oranges/reds/auburns/browns/yellows

I also used the Debris Maker MaxScript to generate some cinder blocks. I'll be putting 5 variants in the scene but here're two of them. i'll probably use the script again for corrugated metal and rubble/gravel, to accompany the meshes that I made.

My walls were also all missing backfaces so I took some time to go and add those in to avoid any lighting errors from this.

Currently having an issue with painting the leaves onto the trees with the foliage tool. The 'foliage' filter is checked but it's not happening, so that'll hopefully be in the next post once I figure that out! Should add some nice colour to the scene. 

The Scene

Next Steps

- Get the leaves on the trees

- finish and place cinderblocks

- changing room doors

tomturner

unfortunately all my lightmaps have been reset (I think from added additional geo to meshes) and the auto generated ones in UE4 were messed up so this picture has inaccurate lighting to where I'm currently at but here it is anyway.

Added leaves on the trees, painted them on in Max.

Made some minor lighting changes to reduce contrast between lit and unlit areas( although not really visible anymore)

Made some additional cinderblocks. The debris assets will be put into junk piles eventually. 

Made a start with fixing the lightmaps 

Not an ideal but set back but should be sorted soon!  

here're the leaves with more accurate lighting for reference.

tomturner

Never got around to posting this at the time but here is the finished version of this environment Thank you all so much for any advice/critique whilst I've been making this, it's been a massive help

switz

Awesome work! I'm sure this isn't the case irl but it'd be cool to see some mountains/landscapes out in the distance beyond the windows. Also some vegetation hanging down from the roof on the outside.