If you guys want I can make a small step by step on how I made the foliage later. Not that I did it in any special secret way. Hehe.
I'll check into it divi
The master plan (For the immediate future)
* Fix the trim/Ledge on the wall. (Last planned asset)
* Get the pillar in.
* Do the second brazier. Just a broken version of the first. Coal strewn about glowing in the dark.
* Do the final floor. (Yes, It's a temp. That's why it looks like balls and so boring )
* Fix the gate, Bars, Chains.
* Do a specular pass on everything. Nothing is popping right now.
* Detail normalmaps.
* Fix a light setup that works. For some reason i get very dim lights. I have upped the brightness and contrast in photoshop here.
* Add more effects and volumetrics.
* Final layout.
* Polish, Polish, Polish.
* Pray.
I want to give a huge thank you to "gamedev" for the material he made and published. I learnt a ton from it and was able to push my scene much further because of it. You can find it here http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=67059
The revised master plan
* Fix the trim and get the pillar in.
* Polish ground some more.
* Fix the gate, Bars, Chains.
* Do some more specular and material/detail tweaks.
* Continue with the light-setups.
* Reposition some items that are floating and break up the repeating patterns in flora.
* SECRET WEAPON!?
Looking great! I agree about the saturation and the chain in the foreground is looking kind of weak and blocky I don't know where you are at for tri budget but it could use some help.
The way the shot is comprised I'm drawn right to it, aweesome entr... wait a min... oh man poor chain...
coming together nicely. I think the entryway looks better the way it was lit in the images you posted on the 27th though. It almost disappears in the rest of the scene now.
One thing above all irks me: Why are you not getting more out of your leaf-normals? Just baking out normals from a sphere and overlaying them gently would give some bulge to how the individual leaves read - they look good but unnecessarily flat right now.
The problem is that it seems that unreal doesn't import the custom oriented normal, it always use the default face orientation and keep only the smoothing group (have the same problem in my scene xD)
holy balls! great stuff the only crit I have is that the ground looks a bit empty, maybe another static mesh to break it up. but other than that I got nothing. Great job you guys!
Spent some time trying to fix contrasts and colors. Don't know if I've headed the right way or in a completely opposite direction. Was a bit lost for awhile.
Rasmus: Didn't know about that technique. Tried it a little. Good stuff. Vig: Point taken. Dude: I'm planning on bringing in brick-meshes to poke through the dirt. TRI-wise I have shitloads left to spend (Another 100k)
To the rest: Thank you very much for your support. The revised master plan #2
* Get the pillar.
* Add bricks poking through the ground. Possibly add some variation or extra detail to the wall.
* Fix effects. (Moon, Moonrays, Fog, More particle effects.)
* Tweak postprocessing.
* Keep on tweaking lights, materials, specular and such until the very end.
PS: I'm having big issues with the fog. I'm not sure how to deal with it. I got the suggestion to use a plane but it didn't work very well since I ended up being below it when taking "the looking up"-screenshot and the height wasn't very high on it either so I didn't get the nice foliage/fog-effect.
Nice shot at the end here, you're getting some really nice contrast with your lighting/sky great job. would break up the ee_/\_/\/\ horizon with some of that' foliage or somethin
Not sure what you mean KP. The "ee_/\_/\/\" horizon...
Recent updates. I've decided to go for the UDK system. So I'll be tweaking the shit out of the lights the next coming days. Seeing how I got a week left and all assets are more or less done I can afford it.
This is just a quicky. I lost some assets and tweaks in the convert-process so I'll have to fix that. Nothing major though.
Random-overview-angle-from-editor.
Pillars have a temp texture so don't mind those hehe. Need to do some tweaks as you can see since the editors work differently from each other.
Bloom seems a bit high, and your colored lighting could use a bit more range i think. You've got some kick arse flora, lets get some light on it!
Oh and you could take bits and pieces from the base of the door and fill up a bit more of the scene, get a little more man made stuff to balance out the nature. Did a quick paintover while my UDK does a light bake:
Just a thought! Lookin' great, sure it'll get better.
I think this Entry could really benefit from not beeing 90°. It is the same probleme with my entrie, but I recognized it too late.
The entrance and stuff really does look cool, but the surrounds are like 90°. Thats a thing you see on first sight but don't really recognize. It could really benefit by adding or leaving something in the wall at the left. Especially look at the fog on the ground. It is around 90° in the corner. That looks boring.
Your room is like:
________
|
|
Make it more like:
..........____________
......__|
..../
.|
/
|
And then add your pillar in the corner. That will add an extra interest.
I'm thinkin I've found a light setup I'm fairly happy with.
I don't know what's happening with the pillar. Last I heard was end of last week. Haven't seen him around but we'll see. Worst case scenario I'll whip something up.
TWEAKPHASE 2009!
Brighten the moon.
Tweak materials so they blend better. Gate is a bit overly bright.
Move around objects a little.
Make a nice presentation.
Add some effects (Particles and glow).
All of these should be done tomorrow. At least most of it.
You had gotten a lot of compliments on your last lighting setup, The ground really looked fantastic, but, chaning the light has changed the effect. I wouldn't change what's working, only change what needs to be improved but whatever process is natural for you.
KP: I fixed the lightsetup. I got the "old ground" back but with the new tweaks. Best of both worlds. It's only one light that really influences the ground so it was an easy fix.
Cheers dudes. Because of the deadline-extension I'm taking a day off. Hehe. I've also been thinking that maybe I should extend the scene or change the layout like suggested earlier but I'ma scared
I guess I shouldn't touch it much more. Maybe I'll break something. What do you think?
---
Not to spam but this is where it's at. Straight from the editor itself so no AA
Yay floating veggies on the top there.
It's looking great, but the walls really ruin the composition for me. It'd be much better if it was some sort of mountain pathway or something that leads to a mysterious gate that goes into a dungeon. Right now the flat walls completely ruin that type of feeling. It actually looks alright on the second screen from the ground up, so maybe showing a bit of the backdrop in the first screen would help that out.
I agree with you zip. I don't feel that It's as strong as it could be right now. I'm certainly gonna try a few things but honestly I'm getting kind of burned out on this. Quite a bit. I've been working on it every day since the start of unearthly. Since it's such a small area aswell.. well..
But yes. Very good point. I will certainly do more of the backdrop thing. Guaranteed.
Here's one i did just for fun really quickly. I'm not sticking with it. Will try more things.
I'm gonna tweak the light from inside if you deem this setup worthy. I'll also add some volumetrics shining/"fogging" out. I completely killed my darling here. Let's hope it was worth it. I totally really need your opinion so please, please don't just look and go. Was this a step forward or back? I don't want to polish something much shitier...
Oh burned-out-last-minute-shakey-uncertainty. How I love it....
EDIT: Forgot to fix the DOF so went over it a bit quickly with the blur tool. The moon is actually a bit more blurry in reality.
jesus! O_O I like.
one note you may know this but that moon is huge like harvest moon big and the light source would be off if the moon were there.
I think so anyways. Either way it's looking great and I am just nitpicking at it which is good!
Okay, you got rid of the right wall! Very nice! Would hint something in the dark, so the mind can built up something itself.
Second thing I thought when viewing. 'Blood... oh come on noe!' I really like this piece, so this perhaps sounds a bit offending, but I really like it. Blood is so stereotypish... It is so 'we need story, put blood in it'. I think it was nicer without blood. You are coming there thinking, 'oh, a broken door, okay, what is in there.' Blood makes it so obvious...
I liked it more without blood. However, Nice work!
Liking it a lot better now! The moon is way too big though! Size it down and change the angles of the light so it looks like it's coming from the moon.
haha, I cant believe my account still works! Its Markie here P.I.G....
I agree with the moon comments and the general rushed look of the background, sky and mountains,otherwise looks hot!Send this stuff over to me when your done, in reel form!!!
Well. I've rebuilt the scene more or less the way it was before. I think it's actually better now. Must have worked really badly yesterday. Just need to add some effects again and I'm golden.
So while it sucks and it feels like i lost alot of things... i think i'm fine.
ae. Not getting an error really. UDK just stops responding and crashes to desktop when i open the file.
This is really coming along! The new open background is much much cooler. DOF is a bit much for me as its washing out your sky (blurring it) and saturation levels are bit high as well. Personal taste on that one.
i love it P.I.G! the background looks uber better and moving the moon really made everything kind of fall into place with the lighting... can't wait to see it after you get said emissive scenario situated... rawk, on
i like the dof... it adds to the comp and draws you more to the center of interest, the door, like it should... it works... keep it.
Japhir: I try!
Crazy: Ayup. It's on. Shiver me timbers it pisses me off.
Gamedev: Hmm. I'll keep an eye on the saturation. So far I've only heard you say anything about it (It being to much at least. Before it was to desaturated hehe) so I'm a bit uncertain.
Fire: Thanks. I'll still tweak it a little bit though (But I like the blurry thing too).
Anyway. Today = Bugfixing and additional effects. I should be done with everything in a few days. Not working particularly hard right now. Heh.
Replies
If you guys want I can make a small step by step on how I made the foliage later. Not that I did it in any special secret way. Hehe.
I'll check into it divi
The master plan (For the immediate future)
* Fix the trim/Ledge on the wall. (Last planned asset)
* Get the pillar in.
* Do the second brazier. Just a broken version of the first. Coal strewn about glowing in the dark.
* Do the final floor. (Yes, It's a temp. That's why it looks like balls and so boring
* Fix the gate, Bars, Chains.
* Do a specular pass on everything. Nothing is popping right now.
* Detail normalmaps.
* Fix a light setup that works. For some reason i get very dim lights. I have upped the brightness and contrast in photoshop here.
* Add more effects and volumetrics.
* Final layout.
* Polish, Polish, Polish.
* Pray.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/469564/Unearthly2009/Screens/UnrealScreen1.jpg
The revised master plan
* Fix the trim and get the pillar in.
* Polish ground some more.
* Fix the gate, Bars, Chains.
* Do some more specular and material/detail tweaks.
* Continue with the light-setups.
* Reposition some items that are floating and break up the repeating patterns in flora.
* SECRET WEAPON!?
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/469564/Unearthly2009/Screens/UnrealScreen3A.jpg
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/469564/Unearthly2009/Screens/UnrealScreen3B.jpg
The way the shot is comprised I'm drawn right to it, aweesome entr... wait a min... oh man poor chain...
Rasmus: Didn't know about that technique. Tried it a little. Good stuff.
Vig: Point taken.
Dude: I'm planning on bringing in brick-meshes to poke through the dirt. TRI-wise I have shitloads left to spend (Another 100k)
To the rest: Thank you very much for your support.
The revised master plan #2
* Get the pillar.
* Add bricks poking through the ground. Possibly add some variation or extra detail to the wall.
* Fix effects. (Moon, Moonrays, Fog, More particle effects.)
* Tweak postprocessing.
* Keep on tweaking lights, materials, specular and such until the very end.
PS: I'm having big issues with the fog. I'm not sure how to deal with it. I got the suggestion to use a plane but it didn't work very well since I ended up being below it when taking "the looking up"-screenshot and the height wasn't very high on it either so I didn't get the nice foliage/fog-effect.
Recent updates.
I've decided to go for the UDK system. So I'll be tweaking the shit out of the lights the next coming days. Seeing how I got a week left and all assets are more or less done I can afford it.
This is just a quicky. I lost some assets and tweaks in the convert-process so I'll have to fix that. Nothing major though.
Random-overview-angle-from-editor.
Pillars have a temp texture so don't mind those hehe. Need to do some tweaks as you can see since the editors work differently from each other.
Bloom seems a bit high, and your colored lighting could use a bit more range i think. You've got some kick arse flora, lets get some light on it!
Oh and you could take bits and pieces from the base of the door and fill up a bit more of the scene, get a little more man made stuff to balance out the nature. Did a quick paintover while my UDK does a light bake:
Just a thought! Lookin' great, sure it'll get better.
you know, the ee_/\_/\/\!!!
the ground is looking dooope
The entrance and stuff really does look cool, but the surrounds are like 90°. Thats a thing you see on first sight but don't really recognize. It could really benefit by adding or leaving something in the wall at the left. Especially look at the fog on the ground. It is around 90° in the corner. That looks boring.
Your room is like:
________
|
|
Make it more like:
..........____________
......__|
..../
.|
/
|
And then add your pillar in the corner. That will add an extra interest.
My 2 cents on this!
Your ground is f'n awesome! Great silhouette detail and just awesome!! Terrain or all meshes? Wires / texture flats? More updates!
acapulco: yeah i get what you're saying. Hmm.
kp: I seeee! I got some crazy ideas. Will see what i can do.
gamedev: Its terrain and meshes. Hope this gives you an idea. Will throw up a collection of stuff later.
Purdy
I don't know what's happening with the pillar. Last I heard was end of last week. Haven't seen him around but we'll see. Worst case scenario I'll whip something up.
TWEAKPHASE 2009!
Brighten the moon.
Tweak materials so they blend better. Gate is a bit overly bright.
Move around objects a little.
Make a nice presentation.
Add some effects (Particles and glow).
All of these should be done tomorrow. At least most of it.
love the gate door and the ground, so cool
I can totally see myself walking in there with either the torch or the gun equiped
being scared as hell
Cheers dudes. Because of the deadline-extension I'm taking a day off. Hehe. I've also been thinking that maybe I should extend the scene or change the layout like suggested earlier but I'ma scared
I guess I shouldn't touch it much more. Maybe I'll break something. What do you think?
---
Not to spam but this is where it's at. Straight from the editor itself so no AA
Yay floating veggies on the top there.
But yes. Very good point. I will certainly do more of the backdrop thing. Guaranteed.
Here's one i did just for fun really quickly. I'm not sticking with it. Will try more things.
Oh burned-out-last-minute-shakey-uncertainty. How I love it....
EDIT: Forgot to fix the DOF so went over it a bit quickly with the blur tool. The moon is actually a bit more blurry in reality.
one note you may know this but that moon is huge like harvest moon big and the light source would be off if the moon were there.
I think so anyways. Either way it's looking great and I am just nitpicking at it which is good!
Second thing I thought when viewing. 'Blood... oh come on noe!' I really like this piece, so this perhaps sounds a bit offending, but I really like it. Blood is so stereotypish... It is so 'we need story, put blood in it'. I think it was nicer without blood. You are coming there thinking, 'oh, a broken door, okay, what is in there.' Blood makes it so obvious...
I liked it more without blood. However, Nice work!
1 and 3 are my favies. i wanna see SOMETHING going on in that mountain in the bkgd. It is so flat.
Keep it up! Almost there!
I agree with the moon comments and the general rushed look of the background, sky and mountains,otherwise looks hot!Send this stuff over to me when your done, in reel form!!!
fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck
My scene crashes when i try to open it now. :S
What error are you getting?
So while it sucks and it feels like i lost alot of things... i think i'm fine.
ae. Not getting an error really. UDK just stops responding and crashes to desktop when i open the file.
Yes I know about the nasty seam. Will fix that but got more important things to worry about right now.
THIS IS FOR MY POLYCOUNT BROTHERS! ;O
i like the dof... it adds to the comp and draws you more to the center of interest, the door, like it should... it works... keep it.
Crazy: Ayup. It's on. Shiver me timbers it pisses me off.
Gamedev: Hmm. I'll keep an eye on the saturation. So far I've only heard you say anything about it (It being to much at least. Before it was to desaturated hehe) so I'm a bit uncertain.
Fire: Thanks. I'll still tweak it a little bit though (But I like the blurry thing too).
Anyway. Today = Bugfixing and additional effects. I should be done with everything in a few days. Not working particularly hard right now. Heh.