Environment Work: Asian City

whats_true · Mar 2009

I really need fresh eyes on this. Been staring at it to long hehe.

The synopsis is, a "Shadow Bomb" just went off in a small city district of Japan. The bomb was sent by the United States of Korea (yes, they are united :P ), as a preliminary test weapon to use in full force against a more promising city. The bomb destroys the flesh, leaving a smoky ash residue behind (kinda like Abomb, but less messy). All other non living tissue are kept intact, leaving behind clothing articles, cigarette butts or newspapers.

Since I'm still in the heat of things, their is not a whole lot of this story presented in the piece itself other then the environment at hand. My main concern right now is to get these buildings done and reworking some some texture mistakes (yes, I'm looking at you curbs!), then next quarter texturing all of the props, and possible adding more.

So, the work flow is bigger forms first then the details.

Do I really need to say the UT3 characters aren't mine? lol

Anywho, this is my senior piece for college (graduate in one more quarter) so, feedback would be highly appreciated. If you want a better shot of something to, just hit me up and I'll try to get a better angle for yeah.

00Zero · Mar 2009

wow. im really liking the shapes and silhouettes (wow first time i spelled that correctly) of everything. especially that power transformer thingy on top of the poles.

the tan building with the tile looking material seems a bit strange, like those tiles dont really fit.

you can definitely make the lighting/atmosphere more moody, like something happened here but you cant quite put your finger on it. some kind of slight fog would definitely help.

im guessing thats gonna be a powerstation in the distance?

red brick building seems a bit too saturated now. maybe.

i really like the yellow building.

the sky doesnt match the lighting well. its dark like night, but the clouds are light up like its sunny. if its sunset, you need more of a gradient going from sunsetty colors to night.

a tiny bit more bounce light in certain places would also help.

overall really good.

bounchfx · Mar 2009

im sorry sir but the sky is fucking me up. the rest is looking sweet but that 256x256 sky texture is too distracting that I can't even comment or crit the rest of the work!

everything else I see looks nice, but damn

00Zero · Mar 2009

its not so much that its blurry. ...well , kinda. but it seems chunky. and like i said the colors are off.

rasmus · Mar 2009

Overall this is pretty good, but something about it doesn't quite feel like home

Ofcourse the sky and the lack of ambient stuff doesn't help, but I think it's the overall intensity of the textures that puts me off. I'm not one for desatured or monotonous color schemes, but you might wanna try toning some of them down or just try to get them to co-exist more peacefully. Especially garish are the yellow tiling concrete walls, the noisy light-grey dark-grey concrete in the BG of the first shot, the powerline-poles and the square white tiles you have on one of the buildings and at the base of another. I'm sure a slight global tint could help you here too without ruining their individuality, have you looked into the UE3 post FX stuff at all?

Also the sign on the (sort of out-of-place) red brick building is tilted 90 degrees

Other than that it is shaping up to capture a certain Tokyo-ness I'd say!

00Zero · Mar 2009

YES! thats what i was thinking but i guess skipped when i wrote. the colors are indeed a bit too vibrant.

easterislandnick · Mar 2009

Hi, Try putting some post processing on it with a post processing volume, a little bit of desaturation and some tweaking of the colour range (maybe slightly yellow?) will pull the colour palette together. Try a little depth of field too to focus on the foreground bits and keep it from looking so busy.

onionhead_o · Mar 2009

some of the words on the signs is placed wrong, the one on the building with red bricks.

whats_true · Mar 2009

So, would you work with the FX on while your still texturing, or leave it off and do the FX till the very end?

Here's my theory. Keep working the scene till everything is done, so that later on I'm able to readjust it and do changes to it when everything is in place and I can see, as a whole, what it will look like when it comes together.

Can anybody give me another way or explanation to this? I'm very skeptical about putting in Fog, atmosphere and the works, without having even everything textured yet. Seems to me like that's something that would be done last, not in the process? $:\$

And I try to mean that in a honest way :] Just want some questions answered that no ones told me yet.

The sky, yeah, I see your point. X[
I blurred it out intentionally so you wont know the low res of it (I did it using the Focus blur). I hear two comments on the thread to make it less bury, but then another that says the focus blur should be closer. Um...which would be better? I personally like it blurred out a little bit in the distance~ Any other opinion on this?

@00Zero
"im guessing thats gonna be a powerstation in the distance?"

What are you looking at mate?
Rest of your comments are noted though.

And the sign....Yeah. Guess I cannot get away with that then lol
Will change.

Thanks ALL of you guys. You peeps rock! Will get working on this as soon as I get the chance.

easterislandnick · Mar 2009

Hi, I normally fully block out a level fully then get a small area up to an almost finished level of quality as a proof of concept, including lighting/post processing. This means that very early on you have an idea if the level will work visually and means that all models and textures created after can be tailored to fit the scene, using the knowledge that you have got from the small finished section. Currently I think you textures are over saturated and have far too much contrast to them that a fist pass at post processing may help. If it looks good you know that the way you are working is okay, if it doesn't look good you know that you will have to rework the assets you have allready done but at least knowing this at an early stage stops you having to rework the entire level! Any way, just the way I do things, I'm sure others work differently.

Reich · Mar 2009

whats_true wrote: »

@00Zero
"im guessing thats gonna be a powerstation in the distance?"

What are you looking at mate?
Rest of your comments are noted though.

i do believe he is looking at the last pick at the unfinished buildings. they look roundish as if they will be water holding tanks for a power plant or something. I think its a good idea >.>

HAL · Mar 2009

Wow, you really captured that every-free-space-has-a-building feeling I get when I see pictures of tokyo.
Great work, it has an intense atmosphere.

Mark Dygert · Mar 2009

That's looking pretty awesome, you get that lighting under control and you'll be well past awesome, we'll come up with name for it once we get there, but this is a really great start. Keep going!

parasyte7 · Mar 2009

Looks great man.

StefanH · Mar 2009

Hey man nice scene you got there.

i did you a little overpaint which might help you with lighting the scene. its not great but it might give you a few hints.

-Stefan

imb3nt · Mar 2009

Really awesome work dude! I'm really digging the busy power lines going everywhere. Post more pictures soon, i'm gonna be watching this one. :thumbup: :thumbup:

timwiese · Mar 2009

It's looking awesome, you just need to get a high res sky texture in there, something a bit brighter. The lighting could also use some work, really push the lights and shadows of the scene. Another thing I think is a bit distracting is the tiling on the sidewalk. Awesome work so far though, I will def be watching this piece.

Vrav · Mar 2009

Man, I was just spacing out enjoying those pictures and didn't even realize what I was looking at. Very cool, I like the look of it. I'm not really getting that a bomb just went off from looking at it, but it's awesome anyway.

whats_true · Mar 2009

@Vrav
It's coming later one me hopes. Still in the texturing stage.

@timwiese
I don't like the side walk either. I think it's just grown on me and I never got around to changing it. Will give it a try.
Oh, and baking out the lighting is like, an all day even for me, so for me to do ANY color changes, garr....takes a while -_-

Just saying lol

@StefanH i
I took your paint over, and messed with the FX and Focus a little. The color adjustment is a bit foreign to me. I over all desaturated it to and added a little bit of Fog. I think your paint over looks like a dust boll has come in X] but i understand were your going.

@imb3nt & parasite7 & Vig
Thanks a whole lot mates! Appreciate it greatly.

@easterislandnick
That makes a lot of sense now that you mentioned it. Will take that into advise as I continue to fiddle with the FX.

@Reich
Hey, Steve!
Oh boy, that was never my intention. Was going to make it a round building $:\$ Got any refs of what your talking about so I can get an idea of it?

@HAL
That was what I was trying to hit on the most! Still think I have a lot more to go to really nail it.

00Zero · Mar 2009

yea, the round building at the end of that street made me think of a power station or something.

anyway, if youre having trouble baking the lighting, you could either bake only selected assets. or, you can seperate your level into different levels and then stream them in. that way you can bake a little section at a time.

Reich · Mar 2009

whats_true wrote: »

@Reich
Hey, Steve!
Oh boy, that was never my intention. Was going to make it a round building : Got any refs of what your talking about so I can get an idea of it?

Actually i live right next tot he Long beach DWP (Department of Water and power) So i'f you'd like i could head over and take some pics...not sure if I am allowed to...they might think im going to blow them up or something.

Oh and thanks to google i found some.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/30/long_beach_power_plant.jpg

http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/52198075.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939847EC77F5F8D1CED356CA562905904CA40A659CEC4C8CB6

http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/52205004.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939847EC77F5F8D1CEC231F0406DB4FCADA40A659CEC4C8CB6

I can go over and take more. But that's what it looks like.

deazar · Mar 2009

Nice overall texture work. I hope you'll take time to get a nice sky texture too as it's not as good as the rest of the scene.

Taizy79 · Mar 2009

The lighting is coming along. Hopefully, like you mentioned you will have time to add in the story. The piece would have been better served if the story came first so it could be better unified into the overall design of the city.

Possibly have vehicles crashed off to the side. Ash residue permeating the air like show flakes. I would imagine that the power lines would have snapped from the force of the bomb. This is more a personal opinion because by snapping the power lines you could lose the look of Tokyo which you have depicted accurately.

I would add a fogVolumeActor in the scene if nothing else to soften the harshness of the sky texture. Even a height fog could with a brightness of like 0.5 or 0.3 could do the trick. The scene seems to lack a focal point of interest outside of the sky which robs the viewer of truly appreciating the environment. In the latest screenshot the fog doesn't add to the scene at all. Where have you place the fog?

nkoste · Mar 2009

Nice work whats_true. I does look nice. You got the wires spot on! I took this picture seing you have road cones maybe you could use it.
http://imageshack.dk//viewimage.php?file=/imagesfree/4Kq27956.jpg
May I suggest having flashy, neon signs that don't blend in as much as the ones you have. ...And vending machines, don't forget vending machines!

Here some more shots I took. Hope you dont mind.
http://imageshack.dk//viewimage.php?file=/imagesfree/LoX28760.jpg
http://imageshack.dk//viewimage.php?file=/imagesfree/fV628608.jpg
http://imageshack.dk//viewimage.php?file=/imagesfree/MhH29283.jpg

easterislandnick · Mar 2009

I think that lighting is way better and the post is bringing it all together a lot better. Can you post some of your textures, they look like that have too much shadow information in them but I'm not sure.

timwiese · Mar 2009

The post effects you added in the latest screenshot is bringing the scene together nicely. Great Work, I can't wait to see this finished

DEElekgolo · Mar 2009

Hey. If your looking for good sky bitmaps then I'm your man.
A good way to make skies is to use a tool like vue or terragen to make panoramas for the sky.
http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/7762/98698534kg0.png
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/7451/overcastms9.png

whats_true · Mar 2009

Changed a little bit more with the FX and Fog. Sky was changed slightly too. Still the same texture as before. Seeing if this works. If not, trashing it for sure.

Nuts, forgot about that concrete! Will get to it soon!

@00Zero
So far, I'm baking what I'm working on then moving on to the next piece. Levels would be ideal, but, it would take just as long. If it crashes though, then levels would be best, so I can do blocks at a time.

@Reich
Nice man. Thought you mean like, power plant or something. I think they are to close to the street for me to do that though. Will stick with a building, maybe an apartment or something. Just cannot envision it in that type of area.

@deazar
Yeah, the new picks are the same sky, but shaded differently. What do you think? I think if this doesn't work out, I'll stop beating the dead horse and just go for a new sky. Trying to make it work with what I got.

@Taizy79
I tried the fog, but, I just don't like it to be that foggy. If I turn up the density any higher, it gets to thick, and creates the wrong feeling I'm trying to go for. I like the fog volume idea. Haven't thought of that. Will have to figure out how to do that again.
I'll more then likely add a vehicle to the road. Right now, it's to straight of a line of sight. Need somthing to break that up. don't know if it will be crashed, but it will be their for certain.

@nkoste
Good to know that I'm on the right track then hehe. Cool cone!...but its as ugly as sin lol. I didn't want to go the whole "flashy" part of the Japan area, so purposefully omitted those neon signs and parts. It would take away from what I'm going for i think.
And I'm having a hard time with the vending machines haha. Trying to see were I can stack a dozen of them together like that. Had no idea when I was design this that they had so many.

@easterislandnick
Oh dude, you got to be more specific then that, cause I have a lot of them hehe.

@timwiese
^_^

@DEElekgolo
Cool! Thanks a ton! They are quite small though for this me thinks. and were can I find Vue or terragen?

Anyhow, thanks for the comments mates. On a side note, kineseology homework sucks. Just throwing that out their.

Matroskin · Mar 2009

ah, very cool now with updated lighting, looks way more unified than before

Generalvivi · Mar 2009

Me likes

!

MadnessArt · Mar 2009

Hey whats true.

Your environment is coming along really well, since the last time I saw it.

Given the scale and complexity of the entire city street, I would say you did a phenomenal job in putting everything together. (trust me, I know)

I like how you added the air conditions on the outside of the apartments, can't wait to see the textures on those things.

A quick feedback, the white tiles on this building doesn't seem to match too well. I am not too sure if they are bricks or actual mosaics that are used to overlay on the outer walls of the building (very prevalent on asian apartments).

If those are mosaic tiles, I would suggest you tone down the contrast (or normals)

Also. I noticed that the wording on one of the buildings are flipped. They are kanji(Chinese)

Overall, awesome progress. keep it up

StefanH · Mar 2009

hey nice improvement.. its getting there

i also think some fog would help. the goal is not really to make it foggy but to give some sense of distance. so if you make quite bright fog which is very subtle this would look cool i think.

kinda like here:

http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g71/147471/147471_1222710295_large.jpg

whats_true · Mar 2009

@MadnessArt
I think it might be the normals (i have them bumped up real high in the UT3 editor). Will relook at the texture map just to be sure.

I kinda didn't want any "real" Asian words tbh. I could have a sign that says "americans suck!" on a cross walk sign and not even know it $:\$
Any help from a gringo like me would be great.

@StefanH
OOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

*clicks*

THATS what you cats are talking about! Ok, will work more to get that type of feeling! Thanks for the ref mate!

DEElekgolo · Mar 2009

Imageshack resizes my big pictures. Here are some of the original highres versions you can use.
http://i44.tinypic.com/ibctuh.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/mm39g4.png
^This one I used in a halo map I made a while back. Your free to use it.

Vue can be found here. Its not free but I use it to make almost all my skies.
Terragen can be found here. This is free but a lot harder to use.

killingpeople · Mar 2009

The new warm lighting is looking much better imo, the textures seem much more harmonized and apart of the same scene.

whats_true · Mar 2009

It occurred to me, that it looks a bit more foggier in-game then in the renders~~?

mehh I say, MEHH!

Changed the sky texture all around. Its wayyyy bigger now with less cloud coverage. You can even see a sun!
Added that foggy depth of field thing. Desaturated it ever so slightly more. I kinda like it. What are your cats thoughts?

@DEElekgolo
Oh cool man, thanks!

@killingpeople
Thanks dude as well!

Reich · Mar 2009

Looking good bro.

I think the fog looks fine, not to thick but you can still notice it. And it probably looks more foggy in game because you have been moving around in it for god knows how long =P

As for the sky it looks much better maybe a very very desaturated purple overlay on it to give it that hazy doomy feel.

The shots where you don't see the blue sky feel right to what your going for , the one shot with the blue peeking through looks to much like a normal sunny day imo.

whats_true · Mar 2009

I'll try to get a few more shots of different angels then mate so you can tell what it looks like. Thanks mate.

(and what did you need help with in class today. Completely forgot you asked~)

ParoXum · Mar 2009

Feels much more consistent since the new sky. Keep up.

Btw, you lit your scene using lightmaps or dynamic shadows?

SHEPEIRO · Mar 2009

looks like there is alot of lighting in your diffuse, making details come out quite high contrast, but its hard to tell if its that or the lighting, could you chuck us an image with no diffuse, norms and lighting only.

if it is the diffuse lighting toning it down can help keep the detail, but allow the contrast to come from the larger shapes which helps it read well, a bounce light may be needed to help surfaces in shadow not appearing too flat

looks sweet btw

whats_true · Mar 2009

Thoughts Shepeiro?

Mazvix · Mar 2009

Hey Paul, that is much better man. I am definitely digging that building. Keep up the good work!

whats_true · May 2009

*cough*

74% done. Will be modeling buildings like a mo-fo this week. Then 3 days to UV them all. Then one week to texture them all. Then one week to "glamorize" it and adjust lighting (takes 51minutes to build~~). Then faint on the bed because it will be done, and so will school!!

Then repeat it all again on another scene ^_^
I'm thinking crysis engine this time.

acapulco · May 2009

This is coming out really awe-some! I love every part. Hope for a mapfile to look at it in editor.

/me is one of a big fan!

Cody · May 2009

Great work! I like the lived in feel of it all. Keep it up!

whats_true · May 2009

It might be this computer, but are the shadows coming out to dark? Cannot really tell anymore $:\$

And thanks chaps ^_^

AnimeAngel · May 2009

Very nice environment, shadows look fine to me here. Certainly looks and feels a lot like japan. The only thing that I see that doesn't make it feel very Japan'ish is that there is no greens. Japan is very humid all year round and as a result there are plants growing out of every crack and cranny. There is also alot of mildew, moss and water spots on walls and most hard surfaces as a result of the constant humidity. The japanese often have plants even growing on top of buildings and in the patio decks. Because Japan is so small and surrounded by ocean, the only way Japan could ever be without the green would be if the worlds oceans hard dried up and the planet was dead.