Thanks Will, lookin' forward to seein' your project on here in the future! Hope the mech scene's going well, good solid start from what i saw weds.
*editing this in since i don't want to spam too much*
Lemme float a possible revision past you guys before i get knee deep in concepting.
Should i keep the simple "redneck meets alien" scene i was planning. It would be simple, have almost no backstory but be easily absorbed by the viewer. This stuff is redneck stuff, this stuff is alien...
or...
I was thinking of taking this thing in a whole new direction. Think 200 years in the future, this would be the residence of very religious "folk" who let great advances of mankind pass them over. Think "Amish" but they cling to our current technology level 200 years in the future. Lots of christian stuff, crosses, things like that.
Obviously there would be hints of high tech stuff here and there, Weird looking power lines in the background, maybe some high tech lamps, religious paraphenalia, and wind chimes. Just hints of techy stuff, mixed with what we mostly recognize today.
There would still be an alien invasion going on, probably caused by our new medeling with space, sending out signals and drawing them in, or maybe the popped out of mars, who knows. The people living in the house would be oblivious to what was going on, having cut themselves off with the society at large. Gettin' lots of ideas thinkin' about it that i can channel into cool art props.
Anyway, tell me what you guys think would do best as a portfolio piece. I'm a little more jazzed about the second idea which makes me think i would put out more and better art for it, but i think it might be a bit too ambitious for a single environment scene that's just a portfolio piece and nothing more.
Althoguh that would be a fun revision to the project, I tend to tend to gravitate toward "keep it simple, stupid"
you've got a strong start here, and it's solid - you'd be taking a huge chance by changing up the entire focus of your project right in the middle of making it.
finish your ship, and make it really good, then if you have time and still think it's a good idea - revise your scene then.
You probably shouldn't introduce two unfamiliar things at once (future amish/Evil aliens). I would probably have trouble figureing out what was sopposed to be there (human stuff) and what was alien. It could probably be done, but I can't picture it.
Stickin' with the recknecks and aliens. This is an art project after all, not some deep story piece
Got around to concepting how all these assets might go together as well as some new ideas going on. Jet trails that look like insect wings... An invasion from the moon that kinda looks like an angry bees nest. And some firefly's circlin' the redneck bug zapper that I thought might somehow justify the whole scene.
Some minor additions to the distance to add some scale to the scene, but also very easy to model. A distant granary and some beefed up power lines to go with the reckless use of electricity by the "rednecks".
Used pretty much the assets i have done already. Ditched the tree stump, trees, and alien feces.
Focusing on the redneck stuff and new trees in the future. Once i get those colors and everything locked in, the alien stuff should be easy to fit in. Going to try for some gnarly trees that have an alien/ insectiod type silhouette. I think those would look cool since i wont have any actual characters in the scene.
First pass on the redneck house and flora (lots of work to be done on both
First pass on revised ship (not too happy with the cockpit area) All high poly stuff.
Tried to make it as true to concept as i could at this point, mostly just for shits and giggles. Torn between getting this stuff into UT3 and doing more assets. I'm really missin' the flora tool in UT3 right now and want to try some stuff with texture instancing and flora to produce cool effects.
nfrrtycmplx: Yep, going to retool it though, too organic. Glad you like where this is going.
I decided to "bite the bullet" today and do some preview work in the UT3 editor with my assets. Max was starting to move at a crawl and i was afraid these assets would do the same in UT3.
To my surprise everything is slammin together with little to no hitch. I'm totally stoked right now! I've totally restructured my development from here on out to be tied to getting things into UT3.
I've also made up my mind to do a fully animated playable scene in UT3 that at the very least i can Fraps.
Performance test: Each fence is covered with tons of snails each comprised of 200 tris. UT3 is taking it without blinking.
Was worried the cattails wouldn't blend into the scene well. A few green/ lush plants littering the ground and i don't think they'll stick out too bad.
Using a stock UT sky just to save time. I'll be matte painting a custom sky to show the alien invasion.
Truly surprised how quickly this shaped up in UT3.
Final Update for the day, skydome and water (just reused my dirt texture) are the weakest link link for now, need to jazz up the shoreline too:
New assets are the truck, small silo, and large silo:
Bug update:
Changing the rednecks from victims to hero's in the war against the aliens. loading up their trucks with home-made rockets and stuff, going for kind of a mad max feel.
Not many new assets, but TONS of tweaks made. (Sky is still from UT3)
Last update for the day, totally beat: Made some chairs and started on the fishing poles. Probably do some water next (in all honesty probably just do a tutorial online, there's so much amazing water out there it doesn't make any sense to make your own)
Wow, that's a lot of progress, great stuff! I'd say from about the nearest shack distance onward is excellent, but between it and the camera the composition gets very chaotic and difficult to read. Consider darkening the fences a bit or brightening up the ground near them. Maybe just go with unpainted water damaged wood for the fences? Glad you decided to replace the bug eyes for the cockpit, although I think if you're going for a vehicle vibe then you should go a bit further than that and do something major like fuse the head and body together with some continuous shapes. Maybe something like the covenant Halo vehicles:
To be honest though, you could even drop the idea of them being vehicles completely and it would work fine. Giant bug invasions are cool!
Ditched the shacks for better or worse, i want this to be a futuristic scene so i'm going to make some high tech doorways in the hills to represent human outposts. They'll be animated to open when you get near, and if i have time i can do a full interior scene with high tech human stuffs
While driving home it struck me how cool freeways were and simple they'd be to throw into a level, so... Shuzam! Thar they be. I can get kinda gnarley with 'em and fill up lots of the horizon. It also fits in with the nomadic vibe i'm going for (humans gotta stay mobile to stay alive while the insectiod machines ravage earth)
ZackF: I'm pretty stuck on the idea of mechanical bugs, i have some ideas for giant rocket powered beehives to litter the sky (lots of honeycomb geo and textures). We'll see how it goes , anything can happen! Might go for a cyborg vibe and have gnarley goo everywhere with the machine stuff, but I always end up getting carried away with my scope so i'm trying to control myself
P.S. Now that i'm taking the time to look at the scene, water and cattails don't make much sense, i can probably scrap 'em and just stop worrying about a water source all together. Lets me jump right into the high tech/ alien stuff.
Palm tree i made yesterday, just going to use flora from around here in san diego:
You started out in Louisiana, moved on to Kansas in your second concept. Now your in California. Your humans are seperated from rednecks by distance and time now, so it'll take some work to convice us that they are actually rednecks. I like the bug ship a lot though.
Yeah, i've kinda gotten all over the place :P, sorry for any confusion. This was an open project and one i've never had to tackle before (creating a universe from scratch and carrying it to a portfolio in 3d), so lots of exploring. I'm more settled into what i want to do now than before, but i'm sure things will continue to change. I like the combination of real word, future, and alien/tech, it's fun and applicable for getting a job at a range of companies. The old scene was too non-game. Took the story element too far and let the game element slip.
But that's how developement goes sometimes, as I explore the UT3 engine and the process of level design i've changed my concept big time. I've gone from doing a set peice that's meant to be seen only in max, to deciding i'm going to do a near full-on single player experience in UT3 with all kinds of bells and whistles. Sounds, animations, music, lots of kismet, all that jazz, might even throw in some gameplay for the hell of it.
And they're not really rednecks anymore, more like survivors who scrap stuff together to survive, be it "ancient" trucks, or high tech stuff.
someone mentioned redneck rampage... incase you didnt know.... BLIZZARD owns the rights to that game now.... so you know whats comin! world of rednecks! :P
Hmm, didn't know that... Could just be the want to corner the market on the redneck motif. They sure seemed prominent in the original starcraft universe.
First pass on door Model, UV. Texture very much in process (going to add stickers, numbers, grunge, all that mandatory stuff for worn down metal future props):
Lemme know if you guys have any suggestions for future props ! More options for the future the better
some forward progress on the doors. Just started on the round bits. Suggestions appreciated!
Design is pretty cool, though the resolution doesn't seem to be holding up, especially if it is for fps. Maybe try breaking things up on separate t-pages or lerping textures?
Design is pretty cool, though the resolution doesn't seem to be holding up, especially if it is for fps. Maybe try breaking things up on separate t-pages or lerping textures?
Never really tried that before, i'll give it a shot when i get this guy into UT3. That'll also help with the mirrored texture i'm getting right now too.
Little tired of asset making, did some test compositing. Adjusted lots of lighting and textures, not trying to force a color scheme any more.
Going to tackle some futuristic tall buildings in the near future to add some vertical scale. No idea which direction this might take at the moment.
Made some alien Mother ships. Went for a kind of techno-beehive vibe. Slapped the door texture on it as a placeholder. Flashing lights and engine trails to come. As well as some slow moving orbital particle effects to make it look like bee fighter ships are circling around these bad boys.
I REALLY want to get started on the city, but i'd rather wait for the unearthly challenge which isn't too far off. Nothing like some competition to get the art flowin'.
It's looking very HalfLife1-ish but the architecture looks to be well-placed without too much open space in between with nothing to look at. Your work is very creative, I like it a lot.
As for suggestions, perhaps some roads, abandoned/blown up buildings. Add in some atmospheric stuff, cars, telephone poles, etc.
Thanks N88tr. I have drawn a lot of inspiration from valve. I like their method of developing high poly assets without over the top texture detail, seems to make sense on many levels. The assets may not look amazing in close ups but as for "getting it done" and having a scene that can actually be played on a realistic machine it works.
I will start adding some atmospheric type stuff soon, really need to break up that flat ground that extends into the distance. Major change in the direction of this project too... my instructor wants me to finish this scene up by the end of the quarter so i can start on another one to be finished in 2 quarters. It makes sense, since I don't see this scene taking me 3 quarters to finish.
Really torn on the buildings at this point. Not sure whether to do "blown up" stuff, or non blown up stuff.
Created a couple highway assets and totally redid the composition, not terribly happy with it but whatever, it's a little flat in the near ground and the truck needs a lot of love, not just with it composition. Probably going to overhaul the textures. I'm happy with how some quick cloud transparencies came out, though.
Future Plans: Shifting the project focus again. Rather than a full on level, just going to go for 3 compositions, ranging from a fishing hole, this shot, and a more techy shot with less terrain and sky.
its kinda cool, certainly a lot of assets, the motherships really look like placeholders though - like there should be something similar in shape but with more detail like engines and little lights and windows glowing etc
Yeah, I've got a boatload of cleanup in store. Those textures are actually from a door I made earlier on the spaceship :P.
I may need to throw away even more assets, or retool the colors, some things just aren't fitting in right now. The tires, trash bags, and barrels i'm happy with. I gotta sleep on it and look at this thing with fresh eyes tommorow.
Retooled it really quick, wasn't happy with some of the assets or the busy composition:
Might do some lighting setups in the future with the headlights.
Welp, i think I'm more or less done with this scene. It's not perfect, but I gotta let it go. I learned a sh*tton on the way to getting to this point, though. Started with a small redneck fishing hole in a swamp and ended up with a nomadic outland scene bordering on an MMO scale. I was planning on polishing damn near everything up, but that just doesn't make any sense. Better to move on to a new scene and start from the ground up with all the new knowledge I have.
Here's the final shot:
I already posted a lot of this in the general forums, but i wanted to lay out what I learned from working on my first real attempt at making a "pretty" game art scene. A lot of this is common sense, but it kicked my ass so back off!
ADVICE:
Decide on an environment that can get by largely on just a few high quality textures. Lots of planks, or lots of rock, metal, logs, trees, lots of SOMETHING. Totally nail this texture or flora. Then make sure this texture looks good paired up with your other major textures. Look at shots from the best of the best, gears of war, uncharted, anything, you'll notice they reuse LOTS of their textures, but they look really good! In fact the more they reuse the better textures, the better the shot looks. Lots of hard work diversifying doesn't always make a piece better! Work smarter not harder.
Frame your shot: Don't go totally open ended and create an entire world (unless your assets in the distance aren't meant to be seen close up and can be created easily). You're not designing a next gen MMO, you're creating a single scene to show you can pump out a few high quality assets that work well together. Narrow your scope. If you're worried about what brand of pen is sitting on a desk, chances are you're going to be so worried about the little things that the big picture will suffer.
Don't reinvent the wheel: Do barrels, do pipes, columns, do the things that work. Can't stress this enough. Yeah you're an artist, you want to be unique, do something that will "set you apart". What's going to set you apart is your execution, not unique hard to make assets. It's really easy to UV map cylenders and boxes. Make some really kick ass pipes and boxes and nail the textures, do maybe one or 2 really nice unique assets to show the skills necessary to create unique assets. Think of cool ways to use cylinders and boxes, think of cylinders and boxes that haven't been done before in arrangements that haven't been done before.
Repetitive Assets: If there was one area i goofed big time, this was it. You need assets that look really good when used with itself. Colums, shacks, pipes, an asset that we see next to itself A LOT. This is why barrels and boxes are so overdone, because they work. Oilfields would be a great idea, corn fields are big right now, trees, bushes. Yeah, it sounds obvious, but do not get caught up on unique assets (but don't discount how much 1 really awesome centerpiece can sell a scene). It's the objects that are used hundreds of times in the scene that makes it a winner.
Flora: Flora, like your textures, keep them limited. Do maybe 1 or 2, 3 tops. If you get a single type of flora really working, you can totally fill your scene in with it. Flora can also really pump up your scene and color pallete if you find it to be a little too bland when you're finished with minimal additions.
Terrain: Don't rely on terrain to sell your scene. I was really stoked with my terrain at first, i thought it looked great all by itself, rolling hills and such. Problem is, it's REALLY hard to get terrain to bleed into your other assets. You can't simply paint onto the terrain texture like you can static mesh assets to create oil stains, trash, puddles, etc. Use terrain sparingly, if at all. Also if you're relying on a terrain, there's a good chance the scope of your scene is too big. For portfolio pieces, i would just recommend not using one at all (not to mention getting spec on terrain materials is a pain in the butt, at least in UT3). You can just as easily make a terrain in max or maya and not have to go back and forth so much. Also look at the shot above... Notice the lack of shadow? This severly hurts your scene, do static meshes and enable light maps.
Get your stuff in engine: Sooner you do this, the sooner you see how your vision looks in game and can plan accordingly for the future to save time. It's also a great motivator to see your stuff in real time and keeps you pumped for the project.
Technical stuff: In the end, your piece is going to be a still shot from angles of your choosing. If you spend days optimizing things so it runs smoothly, or worry about high tri counts or texture sizes, you're losing time you could be spending on making things look better. Little blemishes and texture seems can be masked by lighting and assets and stuff. This isn't a game you're making, this is a portfolio piece, treat it as such. People are going to expect it to look better than what's possible in a game, so make it better, whether it looks good in real time or not, getting it in a game engine is enough for most as far as I've gathered.
Most of all, just keep plugin away, if the only thing that motivates you is doing something totally off the wall, do that. Make mistakes and look at them as learning experiences, the only way to make good art is to make a heck of a lot more bad art.
Edit: More than anything what i'm taking away from this project is you can't just try to think of assets that can go anywhere and expect to get a good composition of objects in the end. It's common sense, but just plan your stuff. The wholes gotta be greater than the sum of its parts. Having lots of random junk strewn about just doesn't look very good.
I know I said I was done, but I started to feel like i quit this scene too quick, might as well get some better comps and some portfolio pieces. Mostly, I got tired of waiting for Unearthly :P.
Replies
*editing this in since i don't want to spam too much*
Lemme float a possible revision past you guys before i get knee deep in concepting.
Should i keep the simple "redneck meets alien" scene i was planning. It would be simple, have almost no backstory but be easily absorbed by the viewer. This stuff is redneck stuff, this stuff is alien...
or...
I was thinking of taking this thing in a whole new direction. Think 200 years in the future, this would be the residence of very religious "folk" who let great advances of mankind pass them over. Think "Amish" but they cling to our current technology level 200 years in the future. Lots of christian stuff, crosses, things like that.
Obviously there would be hints of high tech stuff here and there, Weird looking power lines in the background, maybe some high tech lamps, religious paraphenalia, and wind chimes. Just hints of techy stuff, mixed with what we mostly recognize today.
There would still be an alien invasion going on, probably caused by our new medeling with space, sending out signals and drawing them in, or maybe the popped out of mars, who knows. The people living in the house would be oblivious to what was going on, having cut themselves off with the society at large. Gettin' lots of ideas thinkin' about it that i can channel into cool art props.
Anyway, tell me what you guys think would do best as a portfolio piece. I'm a little more jazzed about the second idea which makes me think i would put out more and better art for it, but i think it might be a bit too ambitious for a single environment scene that's just a portfolio piece and nothing more.
you've got a strong start here, and it's solid - you'd be taking a huge chance by changing up the entire focus of your project right in the middle of making it.
finish your ship, and make it really good, then if you have time and still think it's a good idea - revise your scene then.
just my thoughts!
Stickin' with the recknecks and aliens. This is an art project after all, not some deep story piece
Got around to concepting how all these assets might go together as well as some new ideas going on. Jet trails that look like insect wings... An invasion from the moon that kinda looks like an angry bees nest. And some firefly's circlin' the redneck bug zapper that I thought might somehow justify the whole scene.
Some minor additions to the distance to add some scale to the scene, but also very easy to model. A distant granary and some beefed up power lines to go with the reckless use of electricity by the "rednecks".
Used pretty much the assets i have done already. Ditched the tree stump, trees, and alien feces.
Focusing on the redneck stuff and new trees in the future. Once i get those colors and everything locked in, the alien stuff should be easy to fit in. Going to try for some gnarly trees that have an alien/ insectiod type silhouette. I think those would look cool since i wont have any actual characters in the scene.
Thinking of calling this "lunar landing".
Blockout in Max so far:
First pass on the redneck house and flora (lots of work to be done on both
First pass on revised ship (not too happy with the cockpit area) All high poly stuff.
Tried to make it as true to concept as i could at this point, mostly just for shits and giggles. Torn between getting this stuff into UT3 and doing more assets. I'm really missin' the flora tool in UT3 right now and want to try some stuff with texture instancing and flora to produce cool effects.
I like this much better than the previous version
I decided to "bite the bullet" today and do some preview work in the UT3 editor with my assets. Max was starting to move at a crawl and i was afraid these assets would do the same in UT3.
To my surprise everything is slammin together with little to no hitch. I'm totally stoked right now! I've totally restructured my development from here on out to be tied to getting things into UT3.
I've also made up my mind to do a fully animated playable scene in UT3 that at the very least i can Fraps.
Performance test: Each fence is covered with tons of snails each comprised of 200 tris. UT3 is taking it without blinking.
Was worried the cattails wouldn't blend into the scene well. A few green/ lush plants littering the ground and i don't think they'll stick out too bad.
Using a stock UT sky just to save time. I'll be matte painting a custom sky to show the alien invasion.
Truly surprised how quickly this shaped up in UT3.
Final Update for the day, skydome and water (just reused my dirt texture) are the weakest link link for now, need to jazz up the shoreline too:
New assets are the truck, small silo, and large silo:
Bug update:
Changing the rednecks from victims to hero's in the war against the aliens. loading up their trucks with home-made rockets and stuff, going for kind of a mad max feel.
The doctors told me I only have 2 months to live, and the only cure, is more UT3.
Last update for the day, totally beat: Made some chairs and started on the fishing poles. Probably do some water next (in all honesty probably just do a tutorial online, there's so much amazing water out there it doesn't make any sense to make your own)
The end result is fairly sweet, but something makes me want more of that concept you drew up there!
To be honest though, you could even drop the idea of them being vehicles completely and it would work fine. Giant bug invasions are cool!
Ditched the shacks for better or worse, i want this to be a futuristic scene so i'm going to make some high tech doorways in the hills to represent human outposts. They'll be animated to open when you get near, and if i have time i can do a full interior scene with high tech human stuffs
While driving home it struck me how cool freeways were and simple they'd be to throw into a level, so... Shuzam! Thar they be. I can get kinda gnarley with 'em and fill up lots of the horizon. It also fits in with the nomadic vibe i'm going for (humans gotta stay mobile to stay alive while the insectiod machines ravage earth)
ZackF: I'm pretty stuck on the idea of mechanical bugs, i have some ideas for giant rocket powered beehives to litter the sky (lots of honeycomb geo and textures). We'll see how it goes , anything can happen! Might go for a cyborg vibe and have gnarley goo everywhere with the machine stuff, but I always end up getting carried away with my scope so i'm trying to control myself
P.S. Now that i'm taking the time to look at the scene, water and cattails don't make much sense, i can probably scrap 'em and just stop worrying about a water source all together. Lets me jump right into the high tech/ alien stuff.
Palm tree i made yesterday, just going to use flora from around here in san diego:
But that's how developement goes sometimes, as I explore the UT3 engine and the process of level design i've changed my concept big time. I've gone from doing a set peice that's meant to be seen only in max, to deciding i'm going to do a near full-on single player experience in UT3 with all kinds of bells and whistles. Sounds, animations, music, lots of kismet, all that jazz, might even throw in some gameplay for the hell of it.
And they're not really rednecks anymore, more like survivors who scrap stuff together to survive, be it "ancient" trucks, or high tech stuff.
someone mentioned redneck rampage... incase you didnt know.... BLIZZARD owns the rights to that game now.... so you know whats comin! world of rednecks! :P
Lemme know if you guys have any suggestions for future props
Design is pretty cool, though the resolution doesn't seem to be holding up, especially if it is for fps. Maybe try breaking things up on separate t-pages or lerping textures?
Never really tried that before, i'll give it a shot when i get this guy into UT3. That'll also help with the mirrored texture i'm getting right now too.
The texture is completely temporary, just reusing the door mat to get a sense of how it compares to the door.
Crits appreciated, the wind turbine is supposed to fit with the style of the door kinda, still workin on it.
Gotta brush up on my zbrush skills too, this one'll be normal mapped.
Going to tackle some futuristic tall buildings in the near future to add some vertical scale. No idea which direction this might take at the moment.
I REALLY want to get started on the city, but i'd rather wait for the unearthly challenge which isn't too far off. Nothing like some competition to get the art flowin'.
Big camera techniques midterm due firday that i haven't started, so mandatory break till then.
As for suggestions, perhaps some roads, abandoned/blown up buildings. Add in some atmospheric stuff, cars, telephone poles, etc.
I will start adding some atmospheric type stuff soon, really need to break up that flat ground that extends into the distance. Major change in the direction of this project too... my instructor wants me to finish this scene up by the end of the quarter so i can start on another one to be finished in 2 quarters. It makes sense, since I don't see this scene taking me 3 quarters to finish.
Really torn on the buildings at this point. Not sure whether to do "blown up" stuff, or non blown up stuff.
Created a couple highway assets and totally redid the composition, not terribly happy with it but whatever, it's a little flat in the near ground and the truck needs a lot of love, not just with it composition. Probably going to overhaul the textures. I'm happy with how some quick cloud transparencies came out, though.
Future Plans: Shifting the project focus again. Rather than a full on level, just going to go for 3 compositions, ranging from a fishing hole, this shot, and a more techy shot with less terrain and sky.
Suggestions and crits appreciated as always...
I may need to throw away even more assets, or retool the colors, some things just aren't fitting in right now. The tires, trash bags, and barrels i'm happy with. I gotta sleep on it and look at this thing with fresh eyes tommorow.
Retooled it really quick, wasn't happy with some of the assets or the busy composition:
Might do some lighting setups in the future with the headlights.
Here's the final shot:
I already posted a lot of this in the general forums, but i wanted to lay out what I learned from working on my first real attempt at making a "pretty" game art scene. A lot of this is common sense, but it kicked my ass so back off!
ADVICE:
Decide on an environment that can get by largely on just a few high quality textures. Lots of planks, or lots of rock, metal, logs, trees, lots of SOMETHING. Totally nail this texture or flora. Then make sure this texture looks good paired up with your other major textures. Look at shots from the best of the best, gears of war, uncharted, anything, you'll notice they reuse LOTS of their textures, but they look really good! In fact the more they reuse the better textures, the better the shot looks. Lots of hard work diversifying doesn't always make a piece better! Work smarter not harder.
Frame your shot: Don't go totally open ended and create an entire world (unless your assets in the distance aren't meant to be seen close up and can be created easily). You're not designing a next gen MMO, you're creating a single scene to show you can pump out a few high quality assets that work well together. Narrow your scope. If you're worried about what brand of pen is sitting on a desk, chances are you're going to be so worried about the little things that the big picture will suffer.
Don't reinvent the wheel: Do barrels, do pipes, columns, do the things that work. Can't stress this enough. Yeah you're an artist, you want to be unique, do something that will "set you apart". What's going to set you apart is your execution, not unique hard to make assets. It's really easy to UV map cylenders and boxes. Make some really kick ass pipes and boxes and nail the textures, do maybe one or 2 really nice unique assets to show the skills necessary to create unique assets. Think of cool ways to use cylinders and boxes, think of cylinders and boxes that haven't been done before in arrangements that haven't been done before.
Repetitive Assets: If there was one area i goofed big time, this was it. You need assets that look really good when used with itself. Colums, shacks, pipes, an asset that we see next to itself A LOT. This is why barrels and boxes are so overdone, because they work. Oilfields would be a great idea, corn fields are big right now, trees, bushes. Yeah, it sounds obvious, but do not get caught up on unique assets (but don't discount how much 1 really awesome centerpiece can sell a scene). It's the objects that are used hundreds of times in the scene that makes it a winner.
Flora: Flora, like your textures, keep them limited. Do maybe 1 or 2, 3 tops. If you get a single type of flora really working, you can totally fill your scene in with it. Flora can also really pump up your scene and color pallete if you find it to be a little too bland when you're finished with minimal additions.
Terrain: Don't rely on terrain to sell your scene. I was really stoked with my terrain at first, i thought it looked great all by itself, rolling hills and such. Problem is, it's REALLY hard to get terrain to bleed into your other assets. You can't simply paint onto the terrain texture like you can static mesh assets to create oil stains, trash, puddles, etc. Use terrain sparingly, if at all. Also if you're relying on a terrain, there's a good chance the scope of your scene is too big. For portfolio pieces, i would just recommend not using one at all (not to mention getting spec on terrain materials is a pain in the butt, at least in UT3). You can just as easily make a terrain in max or maya and not have to go back and forth so much. Also look at the shot above... Notice the lack of shadow? This severly hurts your scene, do static meshes and enable light maps.
Get your stuff in engine: Sooner you do this, the sooner you see how your vision looks in game and can plan accordingly for the future to save time. It's also a great motivator to see your stuff in real time and keeps you pumped for the project.
Technical stuff: In the end, your piece is going to be a still shot from angles of your choosing. If you spend days optimizing things so it runs smoothly, or worry about high tri counts or texture sizes, you're losing time you could be spending on making things look better. Little blemishes and texture seems can be masked by lighting and assets and stuff. This isn't a game you're making, this is a portfolio piece, treat it as such. People are going to expect it to look better than what's possible in a game, so make it better, whether it looks good in real time or not, getting it in a game engine is enough for most as far as I've gathered.
Most of all, just keep plugin away, if the only thing that motivates you is doing something totally off the wall, do that. Make mistakes and look at them as learning experiences, the only way to make good art is to make a heck of a lot more bad art.
I know I said I was done, but I started to feel like i quit this scene too quick, might as well get some better comps and some portfolio pieces. Mostly, I got tired of waiting for Unearthly :P.
Few more shots:
And just for fun, a fog shot: