Also I think that is one of the biggest downsides of modeling the lowpoly model before the highpoly. If you highpoly model it first, you can go crazy with the shapes making it a lot more interesting...
Acutally, we modeled quite a few of them as High poly so the normal maps would look great in the engine. With only a month to work on this project, we have to make some sacrifices. If you look at the film, most of the buildings are 90 degree angles.
Thanks a lot for the replies, i loled at the quotes ones! :P
Here's my first attempt to compare what we got, to the actual scene of the movie.
Oh, and I'm also studding possibilities for the second shot, where the APC will be the main piece, here's one of them, I liked this one, but most probably I'm gonna pick a spot in front of the North Lock door for the 2nd shot.
This stuff impresses me a lot. Its nice to see lighting, modeling and texturing all receiving the same amount of polish, looks very balanced.
If i'd comment on anything, maybe edit the ground terrain a bit to break it up a tad, introducing pools of water in potholes for instance could be a cool addition and break up the ground a bit as it looks a little repetitive right now.
really cool, I think the foreground could use more variation or focus - the ground is really flat although the texture is nice so I think you could have some variation to the ground some undulation and dirt/rubbish piles etc?
in terms of lighting, I can definitely see alot of details in the movie still which makes me think they had a stronger lights hitting the tops of buildings etc than what you have in your scene - this doesnt make sense as it is a night looking scene but it looks cool so thats what counts
looking seriously atmospheric, could push it a tad more by increasing the strength of the lights and darkening the fog (maybe up the strength of that too) this will give greater contrast in the foreground while washing out the background to the same effect. maybe a little more sturation in the fog aswell.
Thanks guys I'm unwrapping the last piece, the big side piece of the North Lock, then I start texturing. I'm happy we got an extension, so I can work on it next week, do some last minute touch ups
hobodactyl: yeah, it needed to be in there somewhere, wouldn't be Aliens without it.
Been a while we don't post anything. I've been very busy with some other stuff, but we're still in time to finish this! I'll submit out final entry next friday.
For now, here's a prop I've finished today, the windshield!
oh and here's the finished crane vehicle. unfortunately it was a bit rushed, still some smoothing groups error, and not very good texture but it will do.
Now that the noramls are being added this stuff is REALLY starting to shine like it should.
Theres a ton of potential in this one, excited to see the forms start popping so you can start glazing in some more super subtle bounce lights to pick out the forms in the dark areas just slightly.
Well, as you can see on post #64, the scene already has lot's of fog. The amount of fog has been increasing since the day we started working on the scene, thing is, the more fog the more atmosphere, but the less details you see. We'll see when we have everything in place, and I can start giving it the final details.
The only thing im wondering is how he will pull this off in the editor. Brilliant paintover i admit. Def the way to go. Will be interesting to see if he can get a similar result
I guess playing around with the light sources is the way to go. For example bringing down the global/ambient light and possibly some texture tweaks.
yeah!! the new screenshot is looking better in terms of contrast! certain spots in the image pop out more now and everything doesn't look as stale as it once did. in other words, there are points of interest in the scene that weren't there before due to the contrast issue but you put in some good work to fix that.
first of all awesome job so far ! It's really coming along nicely !!
My only concerns about your last shot are about the depth and the monochromatic feeling. Also, It would be cool to see more dramatic lighting. I know that the original image is pretty grey-ish but I still think it could be more interesting to emphasise one or two focus points in the image (which is still-image compared to a frameshot taken from a movie).
Here's my humble little paint-over to illustrate that. This is maybe too much, but my point was to add some depth, redifine a bit the light sources and break the monochromatic feeling.
Thanks all and Renaud in particular, that's what i'm trying to achieve atm but ce2 decided to not allow us use lights no more, they will simply turn on-off themselfs without notice :S
Yeah, I love the fact that the atmosphere processor isn't as obscured. Man, this project has really come a long way. Great job on capturing the feel of the movie.
It turned out that the lighting problem was due to dynamic lights on screen limit. I worked around it.
Anyways, I'm working on 'fake' skybox atm, the normal cubemap skybox would not satisfy me due to the fog which occludes it pretty much and i want to see atleast bit of it.
The other way to do it was by using volumetric clouds that ce2 supports, thats what we used so far but thats against the competition rules so i decided to fake them a bit using floating planes with transparent clouds :P
I've also redone most of the terrain (texturing mostly), for the good i hope.
I'm posting secondary shot and fixed cloth which somebody suggested ( i hope HP wont kill me for it).
Much better ! The first shot is looking sweet ! It would be cool to add some puddles here and there to really show that it's raining alot ! I also think that the terrain is a little bit too "flat" atm, adding some subtle noise would add alot (+ you'd have perfect spots for puddles )
Hey again, can you guys let me know whether or not i should keep the light beams & dust? I'm not sure if it would make sense with this kind of weather :S
Regarding puddles, yeah i tried to add them but the results were not good honestly. I've runned out of ideas for them.
edit: damn Renaud stop editing your post all the time haha :poly127:. Terrain's meant to be flat around the entrance since its ''pavement'' of some sort thats covered with mud, but yeah i'll add some more muddy mountains here and there.
Replies
Acutally, we modeled quite a few of them as High poly so the normal maps would look great in the engine. With only a month to work on this project, we have to make some sacrifices. If you look at the film, most of the buildings are 90 degree angles.
Update - 9 days remaining
Even if you don't finish in time, I think you owe it to yourselves to finish it when you can!
Looking good so far!
Here's my first attempt to compare what we got, to the actual scene of the movie.
Oh, and I'm also studding possibilities for the second shot, where the APC will be the main piece, here's one of them, I liked this one, but most probably I'm gonna pick a spot in front of the North Lock door for the 2nd shot.
Yep, We're well aware of this, still working on the contrast and saturation of the scene. :poly124:
If i'd comment on anything, maybe edit the ground terrain a bit to break it up a tad, introducing pools of water in potholes for instance could be a cool addition and break up the ground a bit as it looks a little repetitive right now.
other than that, great work
Awesome feedback lads, thanks!
in terms of lighting, I can definitely see alot of details in the movie still which makes me think they had a stronger lights hitting the tops of buildings etc than what you have in your scene - this doesnt make sense as it is a night looking scene but it looks cool so thats what counts
hobodactyl: yeah, it needed to be in there somewhere, wouldn't be Aliens without it.
For now, here's a prop I've finished today, the windshield!
oh and here's the finished crane vehicle. unfortunately it was a bit rushed, still some smoothing groups error, and not very good texture but it will do.
Theres a ton of potential in this one, excited to see the forms start popping so you can start glazing in some more super subtle bounce lights to pick out the forms in the dark areas just slightly.
You're going to add fog right ?
Well, as you can see on post #64, the scene already has lot's of fog. The amount of fog has been increasing since the day we started working on the scene, thing is, the more fog the more atmosphere, but the less details you see. We'll see when we have everything in place, and I can start giving it the final details.
We've imported some new objects and made further tweaks with the scene.
B&w only , just to concentrate on the values; img on the right uses wider range of values making it appear more dramatic and adds pockets of interest
Anyway looks really good, kinda makes me want to go and watch the movie again
thing i originally said how cool this was!
cant wait to se this done
I guess playing around with the light sources is the way to go. For example bringing down the global/ambient light and possibly some texture tweaks.
keep up the good work
first of all awesome job so far ! It's really coming along nicely !!
My only concerns about your last shot are about the depth and the monochromatic feeling. Also, It would be cool to see more dramatic lighting. I know that the original image is pretty grey-ish but I still think it could be more interesting to emphasise one or two focus points in the image (which is still-image compared to a frameshot taken from a movie).
Here's my humble little paint-over to illustrate that. This is maybe too much, but my point was to add some depth, redifine a bit the light sources and break the monochromatic feeling.
Just my 2 cents
animated gif
Keep up the good work !
-Renaud
Anyways, I'm working on 'fake' skybox atm, the normal cubemap skybox would not satisfy me due to the fog which occludes it pretty much and i want to see atleast bit of it.
The other way to do it was by using volumetric clouds that ce2 supports, thats what we used so far but thats against the competition rules so i decided to fake them a bit using floating planes with transparent clouds :P
I've also redone most of the terrain (texturing mostly), for the good i hope.
I'm posting secondary shot and fixed cloth which somebody suggested ( i hope HP wont kill me for it).
Nice work guys !
Regarding puddles, yeah i tried to add them but the results were not good honestly. I've runned out of ideas for them.
edit: damn Renaud stop editing your post all the time haha :poly127:. Terrain's meant to be flat around the entrance since its ''pavement'' of some sort thats covered with mud, but yeah i'll add some more muddy mountains here and there.