Sewer Environment [c/c]
polycounter lvl 17
Hey again everyone. Finally had some time and pushed this environment piece a little more. Really would like to get some crits on what everyone thinks.
-As it stands its under 8k polys
-Using small amount of fog effect and a few omni/spot lights
-Looking for c/c on lighting mostly but also on anything else you might see that needs to improve
Appreciate it all, thanks.
-As it stands its under 8k polys
-Using small amount of fog effect and a few omni/spot lights
-Looking for c/c on lighting mostly but also on anything else you might see that needs to improve
Appreciate it all, thanks.
Replies
The bricks and structure look fine, but the colors, lighting and composition need to be completely revamped. Also remove those weird hanging wires, and the purple pipes make no sene to me.
I go with wet brown and tan stone with green weatheration, fairly high saturations, and high contrast lighting. Such as, the lights being hot yellow/orange spots and the (unseen) water reflecting up a aqua/green color.
I'd also add skeletons, but there's no reason not to have foreground skeletons in any image. Try it, overlay skulls in the foreground of anything, +10 awesome.
Crits:
- Pipes and wires are all the same size, think about a sewer and what would be in it, besides poop and run off water. What kinds of things are you going to find? Storm pipes, steam pipes, electrical systems, natural gas and oil pipes for heating. I've found the Japanese flood prevention system an amazing source of inspiration. I'm sure the amazing interweb has many many more fascinating photos you can pillage for ideas.
- I doubt a sewer would be this well lit. You can go a long way in faking detail by implying it with shadows, dark areas and silhouettes. No need to have the place full bright and detail every last little corner. Darkness is your friend use your lighting sparingly but that doesn't mean forsake ambient lighting.
- Sewers are maintained by the city, cities are notoriously cheap and wouldn't haphazardly string miles of wire when a few feet would work. Not saying you can't have fun with the wire, but maybe not every piece needs to sag. I'm specifically looking at the top row. The bottom row is just about where you want it to be. The sag should be an anomaly not the rule.
- I think you can get some more dramatic lighting if you place the lights inside the overhang. It would allow you to use direct lights which use up less resources then omni lights, and are more dramatic. It would also make more sense because you want lighting next to the things you would be working on, the pipes and sewer systems. Why light the big boring area when what you're working on is in the shadows?
- Zero history or story to the scene. Repairs, floods, damage, old substructures? Dirt, grime, garbage water damage? Where are the big drain pipes oozing putrid water? Was this a subway station that was covered up and forgotten? Do bums live here? Does/did a gang call this place home? Was this place used as storage?
- Throw some color variation into the brick, its all just reading as brown.
- Offset your lights, the top row and the bottom row are just above each other, meaning they will cast similar shadows and light almost the same things, use your lights to their fullest. Personally I would take out the top row of lights and sparsely place the lights in the lower alcoves.
- Use different colored lights. Yellow #EBEAAB doesn't cut it. Lighting tellings so many things about a scene. It lets the mood, tells you if you're in danger and much more. When you're out of polys you can use lighting to fake a mother F-Ton of detail and imply things with shadows, use it, people will love you for it and it will save you time having to model a ton of stuff.
- I would say you're right at the perfect place to start doing lighting passes and figure out where you want your detail hotspots to be.
Suggested Lighting:
- Dark blue or purple ambient lighting. Just enough to show there are details there, but not so much that you're forced to detail every nook and cranny.
- Lighter blue overhead lighting that mimics natural moon light, as if there was an opening above. Helps remind the viewer they are underground as well as explain your ambient light, which you DON'T always have to do BTW, but is nice when it works its self out.
- Yellow/near white worker lights.
- Green midtone lighting to play off the blue and yellow and help give the look of grunge.
Paint Over:
Vig is a genius.
not that that is a bad thing
Where he said "Zero history or story to the scene.." I would take special note of that and work some props and details in there. Vigs paintover does wonders for what you have, but just think how much even MORE awesome it would be with some details and props to tell a story. That'll take it from cool looking architecture to full on environment.
Something I didn't mention earlier... create a tunnel in one of the alcoves, with some lighting at the end. It will give the viewer a sense that there is more to explore. And instead of a static shot looking at some interesting arches, it would be a snapshot taken while someone was exploring the sewers. It would also feel less like a dead end. Especially in games you need to give your players options, or at least the illusion they have options. It works out into art as well...
As a side note all the white in your portfolio is robbing the images of their detail. it feels like someone is shining a light in your eyes as they hold up a photo and ask "have you seen this guy before?" "Get the light out of my eyes and I'll be able to tell" Grey would be easier on the eyes or some other neutral color. Take a look at the brown detail on the torso of this character as the background changes color. Sample the colors they don't change, but the white forces your eye to adjust and it washes out the detail. The brown parts almost disappear when you're hit with the white.
Kudo's on the simple layout and the work you have up is showing promise too. Keep at it
I would really step back and look at vig's paintover and read the crits and help.
I had the advantage of using brushes and photoshop so don't be discouraged if you can't get it to look like my paint over, but you should be able to hit something somewhat closer. I'm not saying what you have isn't an improvement, it is, a big one.
I think you should try removing some of the lights to help darken things up. Try taking out all but two lights on the bottom and leave one on the top and see what it looks like. Also it looks like you turned a light into an ambient light which washes out the shadows. When I was talking about ambient light thats not what I had in mind sorry if I lead you down the wrong path. I meant the overall light color, I normally use a sky light for this should be a pretty dark color.
The pipes and wires are looking good, the colors a bit weird but something tells me those are temp? Don't forget brackets, how else would those pipes stay connected to the wall
Good modeling work, nice changes! The lighting is getting there keep playing with it and sooner or later it will start to pop. Normally that starts to happen when you start taking out lights and optimizing your lighting set up
By now it looks more like a water cavern.