The white writing is a nice touch, why don't bring some of those edge loops on the curved pipe closer to the corner to make it smoother? Could use some dents on the flat metal pieces, and random junk sitting on top of the flat parts.
looking good will, i like the white writing and ripped warning sticker. gives it some nice personality and character which I think is really the only thing every lacking in your work.
technically impressive as always just keep up this trend of adding character to your props so they feel real instead of just nice looking chucks of wood and metal
Thanks Adam! Hook me up a free trial of Champions will ya
Alright so more work, particularly the foliage. This is my first serious attempt at creating foliage so please bear with me, read up on some tuts and Earthquakes method of vines from a while back, etc. The plants and palm trees are hand painted. I wanted them to look more natural and soft vs the grungy hangar feel.
The lighting is abnormally brighter in the corners, just for viewing purposes until I get secondary lighting from maintenance lamps etc. I'm also going to change the texture values of the lockers and add some decals to them to break them up from the wall. Looking forward to bringing this into Unreal.
Looking good Will, great job. I think the look you went for on the foliage works well, but I think you could do a lot more with it, especially the vines. You already have plants growing up out of the concrete, through cracks or whatever, so why not have vines growing up out of them as well and essentially taking over parts of the stairs/office/cat walks. Vines are kinda like a weed, they just grow anywhere they can get a footing.
I guess it depends on how much you want to go for that "conquered by nature" look or not.
It's a good idea Mark, but i'm not too sure about it. I don't want the piece to be too overpowered by vines as it hasn't been abandoned entirely too long. There will still be operable maintenance lamps that are still running by an old generator. I might add some there to some specific locations however. Thanks.
Started bringing everything into UT3 to set up all the materials and lighting.I also still have some more props before the environment is completely finished, however I wanted to muscle through importing the materials and getting some shaders set up. Here's how it's looking thus far in Unreal.
this is turning out to be really good will. I find myself clicking on your link excitedly when i see that you've posted. It looks especially great in UT3
I can't wait for you to start pulling in more props and stuff. Keep it up man, i can't wai tto see more.
Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. GDC comes up in just a couple days here and I am wrapping up the environment the best as I could for my portfolio. It isn't finished without the Mech of course, however I will continue to post progress and work on this WIP until it is fully finished with the Mech.
Here are some more assets and my updated shots of the scene in UT3. Please let me know what you think, thanks!
Looking good dude. The lighting in the latest screens really brings the scene together. I really like the crates, they remind of halo for some reason. They could use more work in the spec department though, they are pretty dull/flat at the moment.
And random other crits: the barrel looks really nice but having the stickers and labels pop so much in the normal kinda takes away from it. Remove them almost completely from the normal map and you should be good.
The metal grate thing in the bottom right area of the first screen shot doesn't really fit, it looks like its floating right now. I would reposition it so its not tilted up and then move it into the light a bit so it catches some highlights and breaks away from being just pure black/brown.
Overall I think the scene looks great, and I can't wait to see the mech in there. Good luck at GDC.
I like the crates alot - I agree with Nrek about the spec however. The barrels are nice as well, maybe you would consider a couple damage/dented barrels.
The one thing that bugs me, is the level of damage the barrels they look like they went through a rock tumbler instead of sitting around for a few decades.
Appreciate the critiques guys and i'll tweak these minor changes, the crate spec can be adjusted in Unreal and i'll repaint the dents in the normals for my barrel instead of slapping it with a grunge brush lol. I just wanted to make sure my composition and lighting reads well as the original tiledshots of these are in print resolution. Thanks a ton for all your feedback!
Now to get everything printed out (just forked over 70$ for a portfolio), i'll be leaving for GDC tomorrow afternoon with Autocon, Wes, and couple other friends so tonight's going to be a pretty sleepless night.
Dude. This has turned out amazing Will. Wow. Haven't seen it in awhile and it has come along very nicely. The lighting is awesome. Can't wait to see the mech in there. Will add a lot to the vibe of the scene.
You know, I have to say, that grate thing towards the bottom-front of the scene doesn't look anywhere near as sexy as the first one you had. why did you switch it out?
Hey Folks,
It's been a while but finally another update. There's been a big change in plans since I went to GDC Austin and had this work critiqued, primarily by Valve and a few others including Red Five. After much debate, i've decided to leave the mech out and wait on it for now. The primary reason is that i'm not experienced in vehicles enough and I wouldn't want to let the overall environment down. Instead i'm creating a Light Generator as a hero prop to fill in the space where the Maintainance pad is. I plan on working on the mech later on, but on the side and probably present it uniquely. As for the scene, I am cleaning it up and tweaking final details for the ol portfolio.
So here's my light tower generator thus far. Your feedback is much appreciated, thank you.
LowPoly
13k Tri's (I have yet to slim down the edges from the wires, Will optimize soon)
Looking good Will but 7k? For something like this that is not that complex seems way to high. For a prop like this I would expect it done in 3k or less easy. idk it is a folio piece so i guess its cool.
Hey everyone, i've finalized my finished shots and scene in UT3 and am going to wrap this up and move on. Thanks a ton for the feedback and help, and thanks again Vig for the resources you hooked me up with as well. Definitely life savers.
Replies
technically impressive as always just keep up this trend of adding character to your props so they feel real instead of just nice looking chucks of wood and metal
If you don't mind me asking, where is your portfolio?
Your website appears to be down.
http://wjkowach.net/
It's a WIP, should be up though.
Have you tried accessing your page from another computer system?
http://www.abandoned-places.com/
One of my favs
was having some issues, tried from different pc's with hard refresh. Was my provider, should be fixed.
Thanks a ton, nice image references there
Alright so more work, particularly the foliage. This is my first serious attempt at creating foliage so please bear with me, read up on some tuts and Earthquakes method of vines from a while back, etc. The plants and palm trees are hand painted. I wanted them to look more natural and soft vs the grungy hangar feel.
The lighting is abnormally brighter in the corners, just for viewing purposes until I get secondary lighting from maintenance lamps etc. I'm also going to change the texture values of the lockers and add some decals to them to break them up from the wall. Looking forward to bringing this into Unreal.
Advice and C&C are appreciated here, thanks guys.
I guess it depends on how much you want to go for that "conquered by nature" look or not.
I can't wait for you to start pulling in more props and stuff. Keep it up man, i can't wai tto see more.
Here are some more assets and my updated shots of the scene in UT3. Please let me know what you think, thanks!
And random other crits: the barrel looks really nice but having the stickers and labels pop so much in the normal kinda takes away from it. Remove them almost completely from the normal map and you should be good.
The metal grate thing in the bottom right area of the first screen shot doesn't really fit, it looks like its floating right now. I would reposition it so its not tilted up and then move it into the light a bit so it catches some highlights and breaks away from being just pure black/brown.
Overall I think the scene looks great, and I can't wait to see the mech in there. Good luck at GDC.
I like the crates alot - I agree with Nrek about the spec however. The barrels are nice as well, maybe you would consider a couple damage/dented barrels.
Can't wait to see more.
The one thing that bugs me, is the level of damage the barrels they look like they went through a rock tumbler instead of sitting around for a few decades.
Its a tiny beef, keep up the awesome work!
Now to get everything printed out (just forked over 70$ for a portfolio), i'll be leaving for GDC tomorrow afternoon with Autocon, Wes, and couple other friends so tonight's going to be a pretty sleepless night.
Wish me luck!
Great work. Best of luck at GDC.
anyway, looks amazing, I hate you.
love Nate
Nick
www.cgartist.tv
It's been a while but finally another update. There's been a big change in plans since I went to GDC Austin and had this work critiqued, primarily by Valve and a few others including Red Five. After much debate, i've decided to leave the mech out and wait on it for now. The primary reason is that i'm not experienced in vehicles enough and I wouldn't want to let the overall environment down. Instead i'm creating a Light Generator as a hero prop to fill in the space where the Maintainance pad is. I plan on working on the mech later on, but on the side and probably present it uniquely. As for the scene, I am cleaning it up and tweaking final details for the ol portfolio.
So here's my light tower generator thus far. Your feedback is much appreciated, thank you.
LowPoly
13k Tri's (I have yet to slim down the edges from the wires, Will optimize soon)
High Poly
Cheers, thanks for looking.
Finalized the textures and optimized. Time to bring it into Unreal and finalize my overall scene. 7325 tri's
Cant wait to see the scene all finished
The total scene tri count is 120,534 Tri's