Wildcard Dive Bar Environment - 2nd Year Solo Creative Project - University of Hertfordshire

TheDawnfury

- Wildcard Dive Bar Environment -
Wildcard Dive Bar environment is a second year creative project that focuses on improving my environment art and lighting skills.  I am hoping this project will be a playable demo for the first person player to walk round (50%) and cinematic trailer to go with it (50%). This project will be included in my individual entry for The Rookies.

- Student (Individual Work) -
Alex Bush - 3D Environment Artist

- Main Goal -
To create a Wildcard Dive Bar Environment that aims towards industry standard or make a portfolio piece that shows my environment art skills. 

Wildcard Dive Bar Environment Art station link (Concept Art credited by Gadget - Bot Production) -https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lVJxG5

Wildcard Dive Bar Concept Art (Where I found the original concept art and credited the website) - http://www.gadget-bot.com/wild-card-1

Here are my renders for my student work that took nine weeks to do. All the modelling, texturing, lighting, assets and rendering is all my own work. Everything you see in my renders is what the student has done for the last two weeks. 





Hope you guys like my environment work I did and I will be uploading the game trailer or any more improvements in two weeks time. I wanted to show what I have done at university so far as a student. 

Feel free to leave positive or constructive feedback down below. I got two weeks of polishing to do, just to bare in mind.

Kind regards, Alex

pixelpatron

Cool subject matter, decent assets, but I think the thing for me is the lighting is a bit too by-the-numbers, Emissive on neon is cranked to the point of "hey lookie what I know how to do in Unreal" Bling!!!!  Not to say you can't have bright neon in the scene, but it should still be legible and given context/visual interest. Also I dunno if you have spent time doing a mood board or are working from a specific concept, but the interior seems really cramped and the ceilings appear to be too low. 

Examples of "dive bars" that still are legible visually, have strong focal points and the assets are still lit well. 






Good luck.

TheDawnfury

@pixelpatron

Thank you for giving me some constructive feedback. Really appreciate it!

I have only been focusing on the Gadget-Bot Production concept art reference for getting the right style on my environment.

I do agree with what you are saying when you stated 'interior seems really cramped and the ceilings appear to be too low'. I played the game level in Unreal Engine 4 and the environment did feel particularly cramped. I might be better of making the environment bigger and double checking the scale of the assets. You are definitely right, I do agree with what you are saying.

Kind regards,

Alex 

TheDawnfury

Update 2 - Wildcard Dive Bar Short Trailer + Rookies' Submission -

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is safe and well during these difficult times.

I have managed to submit my second year student work for The Rookies this year! Wildcard Dive Bar game environment is based off the concept art (credited) from Gadget - Bot Production 'Wild Card Dive Bar' Artstation page. The environment is rendered in Unreal Engine 4 and all the work created in the game engine is all credited by myself. It contains a short trailer, final renders, asset turntables and breakdown sheets of how I made the Wildcard Dive Bar game environment from scratch. It took me nine weeks to complete my second year solo creative project work. I have massively improved from my first year work that I submitted for The Rookies last year. I would like to thank everyone that has helped and supported me through second year. Hope you guys like my Rookies' entry this year!

Feel free to leave a like and a comment down below of what you think to my student work this year. High five on my Rookies' submission would be really appreciated!

The Rookies' Official Submission Link - https://www.therookies.co/entries/4284
Alex Bush Artstation Page - https://www.artstation.com/thedawnfury

Here is some of the work I have posted on The Rookies', as a short teaser.








Wildcard Dive Bar Short Trailer Video - https://vimeo.com/manage/418599581/general

Kind Regards,

Alex

mhofever

Not sure if you're stil considering on improving the scene after submitting it but thought I'd share something about this shot in particular.

I think I like this shot of all the shots I've seen because the lighting makes the most sense in this one and the highlights on the objects from the middle light is selling it to me more than in the other screenshots. It works because there is a main distinct light in the middle and there are secondary lights on the side. Your concept reference has two primary lighting areas : The booth area on the right and the pool table on the left. These areas seem to be the focal point of the concept while the rest are in background to support the scene.

I feel like in some of your other shots, a lot of lights are trying to compete with each other in being the primary light.



If I crop this area in particular, you can see how well balanced this feels with the lighting and models (the orange fog on the top right area is a bit too much though and if you slightly lower intensit value of the main light, it will let you see the surfaces of the models better).





What still currently breaks it for me though is your texel density. It looks way off on the ground and sceling and on the side beams compared to the foregrounded table or stool. If you focus on improving the textures , it will definitely make this shot a lot better.

TheDawnfury

@mhofever

Thank you for your constructive feedback. Really appreciate it!

I do agree with what you are saying about the texel density being off, it's still something I need to work on in my opinion. I am still 50/50 on whether I will improve the scene or just learn from it for next time. 

Kind regards,

Alex