I completely disagree ae. I think the sky is an awesome fit with the scene, the blue band gives it some great dramatic color contrast. Great work cholden, keep it up
the sky is blending too much with the structure itself specially the glowing one id make the orange part green or something to contrast. Also the main structure is emitting a strong orange light yes ? but the walls chains etc seem like they arent beeing affected by it
The lighting looks a bit flat, because it is almost even in the foreground, either make the middle orange light hotter or darken the surroundings. I would recommend brightening the middle a lot more. The really contrasty/bright will help sell that, that center piece is dangerous and unstable.
As for the sky I beleive if you had the blue almost all over in the back ground like the blue color on the bottom left corner of the scene behind the gate, it will make it a lot more dramatic. Make the light from outside hit the forground elements to show its structure better with the rim lighting.
Time for me is over. I want to thank everyone for all the feedback, and if I missed any of it I apologize or you were wrong (hey I can't be me if I don't say it). I'm now in the process of moving and have submitted my final. If you're reading this there's a good chance my computer is in a box.
Originally, I had ambitions of this being a fully playable level traversing the floating islands and so on. Then, according to timestamps, I had to stop due to art tests and interviews for pretty much all of the first contest month. That worked out for my career it's now moving forward, but put a huge dent in my development schedule.
With all bitching and moaning aside, I decided no matter what I was going to finish (dammit)! I reduced the scope to a scene composition, and my aspirations to "it doesn't matter if I win as long as it gets done." I did that, I'm happy with my outcome and looking forward to learning more about UDK in the coming months.
Now the contest gets an extension, and I have to pack up all my thinks and get the hell out of Dodge (Fairfax in this story). So to all you dirty deadline whores I say use your extra week wisely! Squeeze every drop out of it you can, because when I touchdown and get my computer unpacked I don't plan to do anything. See that was an empty threat to get everyone excited, and be anticlimactic. That kind of stuff is funny to me.
See you's all again soons. Oh, and here's all my final images
After converting over to UDK, I never got the time to really set things up properly within contest deadlines. My new goal is to rebuild all of this as a playable environment. So far I've recreated the materials and tinkered with the lighting.
let's see, what happened:
*deleted everything from scene (short of centerpiece)
*rebuilt walls
*deleted sky and imported sky_dome with temp gradient
*setup topdown layout for DM map
*initial item/spawn placement
what's left:
*create sky detail (dome, island, debris, chains)
*embellish surrounding rooms with depth and detail
Notorious P.I.G, those lightrays are oldschool smoke and mirrors. I just extruded edges out based on the brick, then applied a small orange gradient material. I did spice that up a bit with a few effects so it appears more dynamic in real time.
Replies
As for the sky I beleive if you had the blue almost all over in the back ground like the blue color on the bottom left corner of the scene behind the gate, it will make it a lot more dramatic. Make the light from outside hit the forground elements to show its structure better with the rim lighting.
Originally, I had ambitions of this being a fully playable level traversing the floating islands and so on. Then, according to timestamps, I had to stop due to art tests and interviews for pretty much all of the first contest month. That worked out for my career it's now moving forward, but put a huge dent in my development schedule.
With all bitching and moaning aside, I decided no matter what I was going to finish (dammit)! I reduced the scope to a scene composition, and my aspirations to "it doesn't matter if I win as long as it gets done." I did that, I'm happy with my outcome and looking forward to learning more about UDK in the coming months.
Now the contest gets an extension, and I have to pack up all my thinks and get the hell out of Dodge (Fairfax in this story). So to all you dirty deadline whores I say use your extra week wisely! Squeeze every drop out of it you can, because when I touchdown and get my computer unpacked I don't plan to do anything. See that was an empty threat to get everyone excited, and be anticlimactic. That kind of stuff is funny to me.
See you's all again soons. Oh, and here's all my final images
http://chrisholden.net/Unknown_ChrisHolden_Beauty02.jpg
http://chrisholden.net/Unknown_ChrisHolden_Concept.jpg
http://chrisholden.net/Unknown_ChrisHolden_Construction01.jpg
http://chrisholden.net/Unknown_ChrisHolden_Texture_Sheet01.jpg
http://chrisholden.net/Unknown_ChrisHolden_Texture_Sheet02.jpg
http://chrisholden.net/Unknown_ChrisHolden_Thumb.gif
Current
http://chrisholden.net/Unknown_ChrisHolden_Beauty03.jpg
lil' run around image
http://chrisholden.net/Unknown_ChrisHolden_Beauty03game.jpg
amazing job. i cant believe its in real time. it looks like a render that took hours. lol
*deleted everything from scene (short of centerpiece)
*rebuilt walls
*deleted sky and imported sky_dome with temp gradient
*setup topdown layout for DM map
*initial item/spawn placement
what's left:
*create sky detail (dome, island, debris, chains)
*embellish surrounding rooms with depth and detail
Notorious P.I.G, those lightrays are oldschool smoke and mirrors. I just extruded edges out based on the brick, then applied a small orange gradient material. I did spice that up a bit with a few effects so it appears more dynamic in real time.