Modular facade design (MEGA POST)
polycounter lvl 19
Hi 
So I went in to the latest challenge we had here at Polycount thinking I would actually finish it. My fiance was away for a few days, I didn't have to work over the weekend, no one was visiting us from out of town, it was perfect.... Long story short, I got caught up in playing videogames and taking some "me time" and totally neglected this piece.
But, here it is! She's finished! Ahem.. right.
I still want this piece to be as educational as its purpose was for the challenge so I've taken a bunch of pictures and will do my best to explain myself as I go.
Before we begin, you can check out the original thread to get caught up. I'll be stealing some text from my original post over there to paste over here as it'll save me time.
Overview & the Goal
The Goods!!
Beauty render:
Rendered completely in Unreal Ed 3 the final asset when it was all said and done came in at exactly 20,000 triangles. The buildings in the background were added in to round-out the scene and show it in something of a natural surrounding. Even though they're just copies of the original, I think it helps.
Choice close-ups, unlit and diffuse only:
I wanted to show some close-ups of the facade without any lighting or texture passes other than the diffuse. Hopefully, without those elements supporting it, the colorus compliment one another and the piece remains solid. This being my first "hand painted" piece of work, I pretty much second-guessed myself the entire time and am not sure if I pulled this particular goal off.
Here she is in full unlit, diffuse-only goodness:
Her wires:
Front & side silhouette:
One that will really add character to an object, regardless of its nature, is a strong silhouette. You'll notice that the side silhouette is a lot stronger than the front; more attention was given to the objects placed on the front of the building as I assumed that if this were in a game, the player would constantly be looking up at the building and having strong shapes emerge from there would be far beneficial than the side. If I didn't have a triangle constraint the sides would have had more thrown at them, c'est la vie.
The stars of the show:
Here's the entire building broken down to its bare minimum (although, to be honest, I may have missed 1 or 2 little things).
The texture sheet:
I'm pretty nervous about posting this. As I mentioned its the first time I tried to go for a 'painted' look and I think it could have been a lot better.
Things worth mentioning...
You may be wondering where the actual modularily is in this piece. Underneath all of those props is a core building created with modular design. On top of it were props used to dress the entire building core. Those props, to varying degress, were created with modular design. From the shanty balconies to the rusty liquid tanks to the way things were unwrapped this piece was made with one word in mind: reuse.
If I weren't focusing on such a large building within the constraints we had I would have preferred the core areas to use rolling UV's: Where one floor's textures can have their UV's rolled slightly so that its not a repeating pattern throughout. Earthquake's (failed!) entry was going to utilize this technique and I think its really smart.
One thing I could have done stronger was push the "techno junk" element a bit more. Gunnm does this exceptionally well and I think I failed in that respect. I do think it looks "other worldly", but in the end it wasn't exactly what I was after.
This was my first time touching Unreal 3 tech in nearly 2 years so I had a lot to learn there. Thanks to vahl and my buddy Shannon for teaching me a few things. I'm well aware that the grass isn't lighting properly
Stupid transparent objects. 
There's no light maps for this piece. I really wish I had the patients to get that to work in Unreal 3 but I wanted this to be finished and over with. I think the lighting it has holds up pretty strong so I didn't spend too much effort getting lightmaps setup. This piece even has its 2nd UV unwrapped and ready to go. I just couldn't be bothered to figure it out. Ah well, next time...
This was also the first time I never did any post work in Photoshop afterwards. Using an engine, compared to doing most of my stuff in Max than doing it's post work in Photoshop, allowed me to keep it local to 1 file. Pretty handy!
I listened to music while working on this that would 'put me in that spot'. I'm not sure what it was, but a few songs specifically had me feeling like I was thrown in universe similar to Gunnm. If you will, here's the soundtrack for this piece:
Crystal Castle's "Crimewave":
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXkQFjRcjC4[/ame]
Crystal Castle's "Untrust Us":
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGOiIfih8Ls[/ame]
Does It Offend You, Yeah?'s "Battle Royale"
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSAPkhZ--BY[/ame]
Ronald Jenkee's "Clutter":
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ3jVFReOHI[/ame]
So I went in to the latest challenge we had here at Polycount thinking I would actually finish it. My fiance was away for a few days, I didn't have to work over the weekend, no one was visiting us from out of town, it was perfect.... Long story short, I got caught up in playing videogames and taking some "me time" and totally neglected this piece.
But, here it is! She's finished! Ahem.. right.
I still want this piece to be as educational as its purpose was for the challenge so I've taken a bunch of pictures and will do my best to explain myself as I go.
Before we begin, you can check out the original thread to get caught up. I'll be stealing some text from my original post over there to paste over here as it'll save me time.
Overview & the Goal
I'm going to enter in this challenge with a piece that isn't "real world" and stretch myself from my comfort zone. The goal is to create a believable facade that'd exist in a world similar to that seen in Blade Runner or Gunnm.
I'm going to be working with a concept created by a friend & coworker, Cesar Rizo, specifically for this challenge.
To challenge myself personally, I'm going to hand paint the majority of the textures and, perhaps, try and do it in the style achieved by Valve with Team Fortress 2.
Rather than model a simple building facade with obvious modular pieces I'll be trying to elaborate on the idea of modular execution.
The Story
I'm going to be working with a concept created by a friend & coworker, Cesar Rizo, specifically for this challenge.
To challenge myself personally, I'm going to hand paint the majority of the textures and, perhaps, try and do it in the style achieved by Valve with Team Fortress 2.
Rather than model a simple building facade with obvious modular pieces I'll be trying to elaborate on the idea of modular execution.
.: Electronic Memory Imprint, World Date: 3030.
:Macro Cosmo - 4th Quarter, Upper West Tribune
:Macro Cosmo - 4th Quarter, Upper West Tribune
I can't remember the last time I sent in an EMI. If this is seen by anyone other myself than I fear I have finally fallen ill and the nano-vaccine no longer works.
If memory serves me right, its the year 3030. The corporations have ceased all further parts development and left us down here to carry on ourselves. They never gave a reason, I suppose they felt they didn't have to, but without any new parts being produced things have gotten especially frightening.
The technology here is aging. Hell, our entire world is aging. It's dirty. I don't leave it often, but whenever I peer through the glass at the front of the shop I see a world overrun with crime, make-shift mayhem, and suspended happiness. Ever since the last corporation left its been a who's-who war over ownership of the rarest parts. Humans destroying the robots. The robots murdering humans.
Except for me its different. I suppose I am lucky. I don't know why, but I don't get any trouble from anyone: Humans or robots a like. It's perplexing, but so long as I am alive I do not dare question this luck.
I've been running my shop now for nearly 120 years. No one can repair like I do. (Or so I like to believe, ha!) Specializing in rare augmentations by way of even rarer parts has helped my reputation around here. I'm up to three full recoveries a day. THREE! However, my rarities aren't arriving as much as they used to and I can't help but feel they will one day stop. The people here are too fickle to wait around for me to find a new source and if this happens business will slow down and I will quickly become nothing but a memory. At least a memory. I hope.
So please, accept this EMI as a tentative final EMI to be read by whomever ventures deep enough in the databank. Accept this EMI, as brief as it is, as testimony to the protests the corporations experienced when they threatened departure. You see, had they have stayed, I wouldn't have had to write this. My shop, no.. my life would have still flourished.
But alas, here it is.
Here is my life.
An image scan of my shop.
[IMAGE]
-MC
ReferencesIf memory serves me right, its the year 3030. The corporations have ceased all further parts development and left us down here to carry on ourselves. They never gave a reason, I suppose they felt they didn't have to, but without any new parts being produced things have gotten especially frightening.
The technology here is aging. Hell, our entire world is aging. It's dirty. I don't leave it often, but whenever I peer through the glass at the front of the shop I see a world overrun with crime, make-shift mayhem, and suspended happiness. Ever since the last corporation left its been a who's-who war over ownership of the rarest parts. Humans destroying the robots. The robots murdering humans.
Except for me its different. I suppose I am lucky. I don't know why, but I don't get any trouble from anyone: Humans or robots a like. It's perplexing, but so long as I am alive I do not dare question this luck.
I've been running my shop now for nearly 120 years. No one can repair like I do. (Or so I like to believe, ha!) Specializing in rare augmentations by way of even rarer parts has helped my reputation around here. I'm up to three full recoveries a day. THREE! However, my rarities aren't arriving as much as they used to and I can't help but feel they will one day stop. The people here are too fickle to wait around for me to find a new source and if this happens business will slow down and I will quickly become nothing but a memory. At least a memory. I hope.
So please, accept this EMI as a tentative final EMI to be read by whomever ventures deep enough in the databank. Accept this EMI, as brief as it is, as testimony to the protests the corporations experienced when they threatened departure. You see, had they have stayed, I wouldn't have had to write this. My shop, no.. my life would have still flourished.
But alas, here it is.
Here is my life.
An image scan of my shop.
[IMAGE]
-MC
- Reference 1 & 2
- Original concept (by Cesar Rizo)
- Final Concept (by Cesar Rizo)
The Goods!!
Beauty render:
Rendered completely in Unreal Ed 3 the final asset when it was all said and done came in at exactly 20,000 triangles. The buildings in the background were added in to round-out the scene and show it in something of a natural surrounding. Even though they're just copies of the original, I think it helps.
Choice close-ups, unlit and diffuse only:
I wanted to show some close-ups of the facade without any lighting or texture passes other than the diffuse. Hopefully, without those elements supporting it, the colorus compliment one another and the piece remains solid. This being my first "hand painted" piece of work, I pretty much second-guessed myself the entire time and am not sure if I pulled this particular goal off.
Here she is in full unlit, diffuse-only goodness:
Her wires:
Front & side silhouette:
One that will really add character to an object, regardless of its nature, is a strong silhouette. You'll notice that the side silhouette is a lot stronger than the front; more attention was given to the objects placed on the front of the building as I assumed that if this were in a game, the player would constantly be looking up at the building and having strong shapes emerge from there would be far beneficial than the side. If I didn't have a triangle constraint the sides would have had more thrown at them, c'est la vie.
The stars of the show:
Here's the entire building broken down to its bare minimum (although, to be honest, I may have missed 1 or 2 little things).
The texture sheet:
I'm pretty nervous about posting this. As I mentioned its the first time I tried to go for a 'painted' look and I think it could have been a lot better.
Things worth mentioning...
You may be wondering where the actual modularily is in this piece. Underneath all of those props is a core building created with modular design. On top of it were props used to dress the entire building core. Those props, to varying degress, were created with modular design. From the shanty balconies to the rusty liquid tanks to the way things were unwrapped this piece was made with one word in mind: reuse.
If I weren't focusing on such a large building within the constraints we had I would have preferred the core areas to use rolling UV's: Where one floor's textures can have their UV's rolled slightly so that its not a repeating pattern throughout. Earthquake's (failed!) entry was going to utilize this technique and I think its really smart.
One thing I could have done stronger was push the "techno junk" element a bit more. Gunnm does this exceptionally well and I think I failed in that respect. I do think it looks "other worldly", but in the end it wasn't exactly what I was after.
This was my first time touching Unreal 3 tech in nearly 2 years so I had a lot to learn there. Thanks to vahl and my buddy Shannon for teaching me a few things. I'm well aware that the grass isn't lighting properly
Stupid transparent objects. There's no light maps for this piece. I really wish I had the patients to get that to work in Unreal 3 but I wanted this to be finished and over with. I think the lighting it has holds up pretty strong so I didn't spend too much effort getting lightmaps setup. This piece even has its 2nd UV unwrapped and ready to go. I just couldn't be bothered to figure it out. Ah well, next time...
This was also the first time I never did any post work in Photoshop afterwards. Using an engine, compared to doing most of my stuff in Max than doing it's post work in Photoshop, allowed me to keep it local to 1 file. Pretty handy!
I listened to music while working on this that would 'put me in that spot'. I'm not sure what it was, but a few songs specifically had me feeling like I was thrown in universe similar to Gunnm. If you will, here's the soundtrack for this piece:
Crystal Castle's "Crimewave":
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXkQFjRcjC4[/ame]Crystal Castle's "Untrust Us":
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGOiIfih8Ls[/ame]Does It Offend You, Yeah?'s "Battle Royale"
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSAPkhZ--BY[/ame]Ronald Jenkee's "Clutter":
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ3jVFReOHI[/ame]
Replies
That being said, you're still late, and thus out of the competition. . .
On second thought, EricV is still going to kick all our asses, so feel free to enter it :P
"[00:10] MANCHiLD: EricV!
[00:10] MANCHiLD: Fuck that guy! :P
[00:11] MANCHiLD: hahaha
[00:11] Tumerboy: agreed
[00:11] MANCHiLD: IF IM ALLOWED TO ENTER I WILL CRUSH HIM
[00:11] MANCHiLD: AND HIS SOUL
[00:11] Tumerboy: and I'm telling him you said that
[00:11] MANCHiLD: tell him the above 2 lines
[00:11] MANCHiLD: in full capital letters
[00:11] MANCHiLD: underlined if possible"
Edit: Adam threatened me with beatings if I didn't convince you he was joking Eric. . . please believe me!
end of the post is a bit emo, though. BAI BAI !!!
Tinman - Ah, good point! I guess on my end I've always known them to be there so I didn't catch this sort of thing. When I wanted to paint 'rust on metal' I guess I had taken that idea a bit too far or exaggerated it a bit too much and ended up losing shape rather than adding information. I'll keep this in mind if I decide to go this route for next time. Thanks Tinman! UPDATE: One additional thing I was playing with for this piece in Unreal 3 was the idea of rim lighting. While I think that would help "pop" some objects out and show their silhouettes it is not a solution to the problem you've pointed out. Thanks again Tinman!
I'm curious to know what your Unreal setup was to get that nice soft shadow across the building without using a lightmap?
Just ur grass looks a bit off.
It is too bright on ur beauty render. It also looks like its a 32x32 texture. I would do it at least 64x64 or even 128x128 if it an FPS evniro.
thats it...you're DEAD Manchild! bookin' my flight to Vancouver asap
love the style and everything!
and it looks so efficient with the polycount and the texture space alloted etc
love it!
awesome work!
yeah, havent checked the thread since post 1 =/
I'd like to request a vertical beauty render since this is a vertical piece. Since most of the original beauty is blurry background, it kills my eyes to look at it long.