UC 2009 'END GAME' | Still Grinning | 3D
polycounter lvl 12
Team Name: Still Grinning (Tribute to one of my favorite game studios that shut down this year 
)
Overview:
Will be going it alone this year and hopefully be able to finish in time I have spent all day researching and looking at games and movies to see what i want to do in this challenge.
Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Applications used: 3ds Max 8, Photoshop cs2,Zbrush,Crazybump
Concept/Mood board:
I Decided to go for a more apocalyptic look for my piece everything is still up in the air but here are my initial ideas on what i want to incorporate in my scene, gonna be doing a lot of modular art assets this year to save time as i don't have that much of it :P
Links of interest :
www.aelevel.net
Recent Update:
)Overview:
Will be going it alone this year and hopefully be able to finish in time I have spent all day researching and looking at games and movies to see what i want to do in this challenge.
Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Applications used: 3ds Max 8, Photoshop cs2,Zbrush,Crazybump
Concept/Mood board:
I Decided to go for a more apocalyptic look for my piece everything is still up in the air but here are my initial ideas on what i want to incorporate in my scene, gonna be doing a lot of modular art assets this year to save time as i don't have that much of it :P
Links of interest :
www.aelevel.net
Recent Update:
Replies
Thanks for the comment i appreciate it.
Also updated first post with a concept.
I cant wait to see more though!
Thanks for all the support though
P.S the particle effects will look better than what i have going on in this concept blockout.
Yeah that left wall is just a placeholder BSP will be adding to it soon, thanks for the crit.
hope to get some more work done today after i get back from the doctors
I'm seeing this a lot on several peoples work... too much focus is on the individual elements of the scene instead of the scene as a whole.
I've also seen this done in production of an actual game... art directors looking at the smallest asset, over art directing it to the point that an artist spends 2 weeks making something that has about 2% impact on the entire scene.
Block in your entire level... then take the assets that actually need the detail and final textures to that level of quality.
Do more sketches and more lighting comps and figure out the camera angle of your shot... that will determine what you actually have to build.
The assets look good, but the developement of the scene is not focused... and the depth of field is killing your work.
Keep going and make this thing look badass... I really like the assets and would hate to see them go to waste in a scene that either doesn't make any sense, or has a terrible post process effect over the top of it.
awesome crit man! really appreciate it!
a couple things i totally agree about the DOF took that fucker out!
also the focus of the scene is the drop pod/asteroid(S) that is in the middle of the scene i have not yet decided if i want to make asteroids or drop pods
also i totally agree with you on lighting comps, been messing about that all day. ill have a new update tonight hopefully that fixes some issues.
Also with the update that's coming ill be sure to list what im currently working on and what needs fixing hopefuly ill get more crits like yours!
thanks again man :thumbup:
Things that need to be made and added:
Props:
- 2 building towers.
- Alien Drop Pod/Asteroid
- ATM
- Lamp Pole/Broken Lamp Pole
- building trim variant
- 2 building texture variants
- Signs
-Hologram projector
-Garbage on the ground
-impact crater
Decals:
-Grunge
-Paper
-damaged surface
- garbage
Particles:
-Variant smoke Smoke
-Variant fire
- Steaming drop pod heat wave
there might be things i have missed but for now that list is long enough!
things that are work in progress:
Mostly everything!
ill be starting the drop pod/asteroid concepting and modeling today so hopefully might have another update later tonight
The signs are really prominent at the moment, the emergency one fits in much better than the parking but as you said your working on everything so I thought i'd just chime in with the thing that caught my eye the most!
Question:
Is the center supposed to be a road? Right now it looks like a landing strip... which could be cool. But the scene doesn't suggest a lot of space ships will be coming in for a landing
Also, the camera being pointed down the center of the street makes the scene somewhat uninteresting.
I was watching a lot of Feng Z DVDs recently and a lot of it was on perspective and setting up your shot... One thing he pointed out is that it's a good idea to put the vanishing point off to one side. This will help with a scene like this. The forms of your structure will end up getting lost because of the current perspective (IMO).
Changing the camera to not focus down the center will also allow you to focus your energy making One side of the environment look more badass (this depends on what your second beauty render is going to be... but something to think about.
On another note, the lighting seems a bit too high contrast and over saturated with no clear directional light coming from the sky. It looks like the structures are getting lit in the background, but it would probably help if your light was coming in from the back left and filling in the street a bit more... I would also pull back the intensity/amount on the fire/smoke. These buildings look like they're made out of metal... metal doesn't burn
Fire in the background/sky sure... but all up in the camera makes the the player want to look at the foreground... when setting up your scene you want to give the viewer a place to rest their eyes... the focal point. elipses elipses... jesus.
Foreground elements should be the darkest in value... and as you go back the scene should get lighter... in a scene with a lot of smoke, this is especially so.. the smoke will add a lot of depth by itself, but you should consider tweaking the values of the different elements in the scene as they gt further away from the camera.
Difficult to tell if this si at night/day currently... if it's night time the smoke should be illuminated more from below... if it's daylight it should have more of a translucent effect (explaining this poorly i know) and light should be transmitting from the directional light of the sun through the smoke... and some light should be effecting it from the flames... but during the day, fire doesn't really have a whole lot of impact on the lighting unless it's in extreme shadow... flame fire is not all that intense... so i would tone down the brightness of the fire light.
Hope this helps! keep it up bro!
Thanks for the feedback, the parking sign needs a little work, ODST is one of the things i got inspiration from if you check out the mood board you can see a ODST concept :P
@nfrrtycmplx:
Hey man love the crits your a machine ill take every point you made into consideration.
Concerning the road i don't think i made it clear but this is in the future, hover cars and so-on i might need to make a vehicle to make that clear.
Also the vocal point of the scene will be on the drop pod/asteroid look at the paint over below, another thing also with the view this is just a work in progress view it wont be the final view ill make sure to have the best view possible for the scene.
pod is the point of interest:
Pod/asteroid concept:
I don't doubt this will look cool in teh 3d model.
Cheers
might switch the rock pod with something more along the lines of my original concept like the missile :P
Haha, i'm just kiddin' AE, heck even my team's scene has a crashed airship in it
Lookin' good, i espeicially like your background elements. Those touches of green and blue really sell that sucker.
The foreground seems really dominated by red, and the pure white parking on the right side seems a little too cartoony, although i see that there is a style you're going for.
Another thing the scene really needs is a better sense of scale, anything immediatly recognizeable in the foreground would put all this mayhem in perspective and let us see just how epic this stuff is!
Keep it up dude
I'd break up the silhouette of this craft though, if for not only to get away from the rather phallic shape, but to also just give it a lot more character
I think the red lighting might be just a bit oversaturated right now, I'd try a few other settings with that before I committed to it fully
any similarities to odst are, in my opinion, cool. odst was gorgeous
keep on keepin on - diggin it!
Been staring at this level for a long time! trying to figure out what the crashed vessel should look like, heres one of the ideas i had something to contrast all the dark colors, Would love some feedback ASAP so i can finally wrap this scene up before deadline:
I was thinking to model the interior of the pod and using that as my second shot like the alien is looking outside? what you guys think?
As for the pod you should reallly give its crashsite an awesome crater , gotta love craters.
breakneck gets 10 points for bringing the LOL
Background buildings are reading really nicely!
Ok soo... like I said before, you gotta push that silhouette for the pod, more so because it IS your main focal point. I think you should also have it open (the hatch) and maybe smoking a bit... to make the viewer ask more question (who came out... why did they land here etc.). I think you should look at Adam's Teams ships they had sketched, check out how they handled the silhouette.
Basically man, you just need to make the ships overall form much more interesting, add bits and pieces here, maybe some antennas... maybe some sort of flaps that help slow down the pod, stuff like that.
I think the side buildings may have a bit too much red to them now, although it DOES help bring the eye to and around the focal point, maybe try messing around with some variations in colour to help ease it a bit.
Honestly man I think you're doing a great job, really inspiring!
Keep it up buddy!