Enviroment WIP - Warehouse district

IronHawk

Working on a warehouse scene. Building it to be game ready so i'll be experimenting with normal mapping. Most likely will render some shots with GI in MR as well.

Most of the details are low poly at the moment. I'll be creating the high poly versions once everything is blocked out.

Here is the current scene.

http://home.mn.rr.com/ihworkshop/wip3.jpg

- Jesse

adam

IronHawk, it's a little too early to give some critiques - especially without any shots of the wires of the scene. Or your target triangle count, etc. etc. I use to post entirely too early when I first started venturing in to environment art. Offer up some more information, it'll prove beneficial to you with future critiques.

Fishypants

I agree with AdamBrome. Looks like a good start but more info please.

IronHawk

This is for my demo reel so there isnt a specific engine im targeting. I've decided to use current engine performance BF2/Source as my guidlines. Really I dont have a set budget and am just trying to keep everything as optimal as possible using normal maps for small details.

Does anyone have any advice for using normal maps with GI rendering in MR? I've ran into problems in the past with indirect light not showing the map.

Updated shot...

http://home.mn.rr.com/ihworkshop/wip4.jpg

texturing this evening.

- Jesse

noritsune

There's a bunch of things here that I think you need to fix, even this early.

- The proportions of your architecture are screwy right now. Unless you have a specific photo that you are working from, I'd recommend adding a thick entablature (horiztonal trim at the top) to the building on the right. Just google entablature to see what I mean. If that's too much of a fancy or classical look, at least add some kind of horizontal trim to visually mark the top of the facade.
- Everything about the telephone poles is too large and horsey. Not only are the shapes ungraceful, they're making the buildings look dwarfed right now. Specifically, you need to make the poles thinner, the cylindrical elements smaller, and the lines themselves thinner. Moreover make sure that the lines join the poles in a realistic way; right now they're noticably floating.
- The street is very flat and plain. There are a couple things you could do. You could add a sidewalk and curb to give dimension that way, or, if the street is a flat paved area, model some cracks or loose concrete panels into it.
- Lastly, to the best of my knowledge normal maps will never be brought out by indirect lighting. If you want to see them in the areas outside of direct light, consider adding a weak directional light to your scene that doesn't cast shadows.

Are you going to bake a lightmap or just render right out of mental ray? best of luck!

IronHawk

Here is the reference

http://home.mn.rr.com/ihworkshop/demo_project%20032.jpg

Not doing an exact copy just using it to get the general idea of the scene. I also have some time contraints to contend with.

Still going to add more detail to the buildings. I like the tableture idea so I'll research that. The building is fairly accurate I think. I went 160 feet along the front elevation split it into 8 20 foot sections. The sections vertically go 16, 12, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10. However I think I needed to go 20 on the first section. Loading dock is 4 high on both buildings.

Power poles have an 8" radius. There holding up some big transformers in this area so they seemed right. I'll check some references and try to get it spot on. What is the diameter of a power line? I had 2" but dropped it to 1". I'm also adding hookups so there not floating. I was a bit premature in saying I'd be texturing soon.

Thanks for the crits!

- Jesse

r13

poles are actually trees, taper them slightly at the top. It's slight but it'll help.

IronHawk

here is some progress in texturing. crits are more then welcome. Textures on the left building ground and rear building are placeholders.

Got tired of texturing and wanted to see how the lighting solution would be.

http://home.mn.rr.com/ihworkshop/wip12.jpg