WIP Desert Environment

Polynurb

Well this is something I am working on right now. Much work to be done in refining, adding, taking away. I know you folks are some of the best in critiques for game environments and 3d in general...so go ahead and hit me hard with what honestly could use some loving on this.

Sage

It's reminds me of a fort in Cuba or Puerto Rico more than a desert. I think the pretty sky with puffy clouds say it's really hot there but over the wall there is a nice beach. Looks nice though. Maybe you can correct me on this, but are Palm trees common in the desert? I think the clouds look they they have too much water in them though.

Alex

adam

I was going write a bit but it'd be useless without knowing a few things...

1. Whats the goal of making this scene? Is it just porfolio fodder? Personal development?
2. What kind of game would it be in?
3. What's the story?
4. Tell us a bit about what we're seeing here as there's really no focus.

There really isn't much of a scene here really. Just some walls and a few palm tree's. I wouldn't mind learning about this a bit more.

Polynurb

Sorry guys your right about not having background on this. Well in all honesty I did want this to be an oasis type area...date palms and some walls and buildings as if this was some kind of middle class residence over in the Mideast. My end goal is to use this on a new demo reel as a background environment to place a US Marine character in. My goal was to have lots of detail in the scene....make it immersive so the camera can also show us the environment. It is my goal to have two part segment of showing the environment and then focusing on the character.

I see the point of this looking much nicer than a desert with the sunny and cloudy skies....does remind me of some place like cuba. To be honest...my goal is to make it appear to be a dangerous place...darker than it is now and really a place that was once nice, but was turned into a warzone over some time. Thank you for the comments.

whats_true

The scene in the back ground throws me off a bit. Not a typical vegetation you would see along with palm trees.

If your going for the warzone effect, it defiantly needs a tune up in the war part. I'm starting to get the hint with the bullet hole wall, but the ground looks like someone just cleaned up the place. Scrap parts, protruding surfaces, or some other thing that add the feel of war would be nice. It would also help break up the flat ground a little.

The trees seem a bit uniform also. That might just be me though.

pangarang

The wall - those bricks look as if they're sitting on top of the wall but I get the feeling your intention was to make them so they look like they're part of the wall. Transition needs to be more subtle. I like the broken railings in the background. But the gate - it doesn't make much sense that the walls would be all damaged but the gate's sitting pretty and pristine. I'm not much of a soldier, but if I had to break into a place, I'd fire at the gate first, before the wall. The window of the building in the far back is too sharp and clean, especially for a warzone. Nothing a normal map of a few extra polys can't fix though.

From texturing and rendering standpoint, I think this is awesome. My first thought was WOW. So good job.

Polynurb

Thanks for the critiques everyone. I am really going to get in there and "destroy" the environment more so it reflects the being war torn better...I think darkening the sky...smoke rising up from behind walls...damaged barrels and debris everywhere.....using a more desaturated color palette and breaking up the continuity of the image more. I plan on putting in some more ground vegetation like grasses and burnt up vegetation...so many things yet to do and lot's of good insights here on things that look odd in now.

Polynurb

Well made a rather different departure from before...but I am still working in all the critiques...

SuPa-

I'm just going to say what I think other people have already said xD. The issue with those bricks on that wall is that the actual wall does not look like it's made of bricks, but of something like solid concrete

Overall, it's nice, keep at it!

Polynurb

Yes sir. The area with the bricks isn't completed yet. The wall is a solid wall of mortar ...the bricks I put there were supposed to be roughly shaped pieces that aren't part of the wall...but to show someone was rebuilding that hole in the wall there and they had already smoothed the hole over and were putting in some pieces to rebuild it. Would be like that would be a repaired spot in the wall with brick and mortar whereas the rest of the wall was originally a solid wall. I am going to rework that are just so it reads better.

adam

The lighting is flat. You've got hardly any shadows in your scene and its not helping the realistic style you're going for. Those shrubs would cast shadows on the ground, the palm trees on to the wall, and so on. This scene is moon light with the occasional spotlight so the shadows won't be sharp or dark, but you do need some sort of shadows casting.

And, look in to setting up a render pass for ambient occlusion that you can composite on to your regular render in Max. Here's a Google search to get you started:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=ambient+occlusion+tutorial+maya&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

On the subject of lighting, you really need to pick a focus of this scene and use the light to show it. Right now the eye is drawn to the post of the hanging light which is not interesting at all. Not to mention its so far away from the camera. You've got so much wasted space with the open ground area there and all the details are in a back. I suggest you either think of an interesting story to tell in the ground area (crashed satelite, deactivated missle half way in the dirt, remains of the spaghetti monster,... ok maybe not the last one but you get it.)

Good luck, keep us posted with progress.

pliang

Again for an area within a warzone you'd find the trees almost taken down and perhaps dead looking vegetation....the ones you have looks kind of lush to be in that type of environment...

Do you also have like an asset list of what's really going ot be in the environment as opposed to just buildings, trees, barrels and the usual stuff you'd find ???

Just wondering.

Jesse Moody

Hmm pliang just cause it is a warzone doesn't mean that all the trees have been taken down and the vegetation is dead. Yes some plants are really dried out and dead but some of them are still nice and look decent.

It's important to have that mix and balance.

Here are some refs.

Polynurb

adam,

Thank you...I wasn't even thinking about doing the occlusion pass, but I do know how to do it and I think your right on the money that this would bring out detail big time. Yeah I haven't sorted out how to approach the shadows...need to look at some nighttime reference and see how the moon casts shadows. Your right I do need contact shadows on a lot of stuff here. I will work on that aspect definitely.

pliang,
You know I like your idea too...at least have a couple downed palm trees or ones with burnt up vegetation. I kind of envisioned this place as in a war zone, but not really totally destroyed or blasted. I see it as a spot that got some minor mortar and small arms fire. Moreso a place that troops would be unsure if it's a safe spot or if someone is indeed lurking behind one of those walls. I need to enhance that mystery some more in the scene.

jesse,

wow thank you so much for those images...I am going to incorporate some of the details from these images into my scene. I never noticed how much there are actual mounds of dirt pretty much everwhere....but it's clearly there. I love the small dead brush everywhere and I think I will also create some modular assets of that to sprinkle in this scene.

everyone,

I was actually modeling a new US Marine...a new character upgrade from my old demo reel and it was my intention to build an immersive environment around him. It seems though in my approach to build his environment first that I don't have a clear focus in this existing scene. Being at night too I am thinking it might not be the best scene to focus on a character.

In my mind I see a lot of work in After Effects in the comping and edit cuts to first show the full environment...camera moves through it and then to camera center onto the character and subdue the environment. I kind of thought I could put him under a street light and get some dramatic lighting on him too. I may have to do character variations so I could have more than one Marine in the scene...I dunno yet. All things I am considering and contemplating.

So far I am working this environment and modeling out a carbine M4 for him. I have the M9 Beretta from my old demo reel and other assets a Marine would need that can be reusable.

Thank all of you for your help with this.

adam

Nevermind my lighting critique, I wish I had just touched on your lack of subject matter and saved the lighting comments for a later time.

I'd honestly focus on.. a focus, heh, before continuing.

Polynurb

Yeah I agree...so I guess I will just make the focus of this environment as a backdrop for my character.

Polynurb

Sorry to bug everyone again. I am doing my occlusion pass to test it out and it seems rendering with software the occlusion pass isn't respecting my alpha masks and it's occluding the actual geometry. I know this is how it normally works, but is there a workaround? A way to get it to occlude the alpha masks on the geometry? I don't know if I am asking an insanely retarded question here or not?

Polynurb

Small update...got some shadows in there and moved some things around. Still need to add some brush variations and the other critique fixes.

Xaltar

OK, I'm going to pick on some of the individual assets here seeing as most of the composition areas I would have commented on have already been covered.

First off I think the shrubs look unrealistic, the leaves are all more or less straight, given the lack of water in an area like this I would expect to see some droopage of the leaves and some dead leaves both on the plants and laying around them.

Next I would seriously tone down the normal map on the trunks of your palm trees, it looks more like layered compacted mud than a date palm trunk. If memory serves date palms have fairly smooth looking trunks with the exception of the rings. Get some good reference shots of palm trunks and try and get closer to the real plant. There are so many types of palm and having a good idea of the location of the scene will help a lot in determining what type of palm to go for. It may seem like a lot of extra work for nothing but at the end of the day it all helps to immerse YOU into the scene thus enabling you to get a better feel for the scene and the story you want to tell with it. Also, again with the dead leaves, add some dead leaves to the palms as well as some browned tips etc.

Getting your assets closer to real will help a lot in making the scene pop. You are doing well so far, keep at it.

mttjss

Whats up James!
Looking good so far. I might suggest a little variance in the ground texture and maybe try and make the buildings and walls look a little damaged and eroded from years of weather damage.

Look forward to working with you soon. :poly004:



(Matt @ Firebrand Games)