Downtown Manhattan (UDK)
polycounter lvl 18
Hi there, here's a few pics from my first UDK environment.I wanted to try vertex blending
so thought this would be a good environment to use it.I'm a big fan of GTA and the upcoming
MAfia 2 so I used those games as a benchmark to aim for.
Everything was created in a modular/lego fashion.Lots of vertex blending for
the walls/road increased the poly count but that is offset by material and mesh instancing.
Mainly photo sourced texturing, only the lamp,hydrant and cobble road are Zbrushed.
I should have a portfolio/website ready in a week or two to show other work I've done.
Email address for work related matters - eagleleeds@googlemail.com
so thought this would be a good environment to use it.I'm a big fan of GTA and the upcoming
MAfia 2 so I used those games as a benchmark to aim for.
Everything was created in a modular/lego fashion.Lots of vertex blending for
the walls/road increased the poly count but that is offset by material and mesh instancing.
Mainly photo sourced texturing, only the lamp,hydrant and cobble road are Zbrushed.
I should have a portfolio/website ready in a week or two to show other work I've done.
Email address for work related matters - eagleleeds@googlemail.com
Replies
(FYI: If it matters, the doors on newspaper vending boxes face toward the sidewalk, not the street.)
How long did it take you? And how did you do the lighting?
Photosourced or not, the textures and lighting look great, and overall, it does look quite a bit like GTA 4.
At least one of those shots should have very very tall buildings in the background. And make one of them recognizable (Empire State Building, for example). You can't do a full 360 in NYC without catching a glimpse of the down-town core.
I would love to see a few things from you, if you don't mind? It's a very nice piece to look at, but I'm more interested in the construction than the final results now that we know its turned out so well.
Can we check out..
- An overhead shot, looking down? Show us the lay of the land, so to speak.
- Your lego pieces.
- Wire shots.
- Reference photos.
Since you've nailed the look down, it would be fantastic to show this in side of multiple atmospheres: Raining, night-time, a block away from 9/11, etc.Additionally, and if you'd like to push yourself, why not tell a bit of a story? Clearly you can build a convincing environment. I think you would really stand out from the crowd if something was going on within this NYC setting. (I'm pretty fond of the 9/11 idea now that I've written it. Falling ash, huge soot clouds, etc.)
When you see NYC pictures there's a certain attitude to the pictures... all of the pictures... that right now this is missing. Which is fine, because most of this attitude comes from the human element. And since this is an environment, its perfectly fine that humans themselves are missing. So, why not add in the human leftovers? Taxi's, delivery trucks, armoured bank vehicle, messenger bicycles, famous graffiti, hot-dog stands and so on are all things you can do to this to increase the human element while maintaining that its New York.
How do you feel about this environment right now, based on the references you've collected?
The Chuck E Cheese sign also breaks the realism a bit, it's just super saturated. The tarps without siding also appears a bit too flat killing the realism and the detailing within the arch of the street lights seems a little over the top, makes the lamp posts look out of place. Oh yeah, and find a higher res skybox texture! The scene is so crips but the sky seems a little too patchy. EDIT: oh, your shadows are also too hard, you should mess around with the shadow settings in your directional light/ lightmass settings to soften 'em up, shadow exponent i think is the main one.
Anyway, imma stop because this is an excellent piece and works really well as is, just some minor nitpicks! Welcome to PC
Take a look at some other urban skid rows for references and wouldn't hurt to try adding in other things to establish the mood like an airship in the distance. It's really vacant looking right now.
Here's someone you can check out.
http://stefan-morrell.com/
I might come back and edit in some crits but for now all that really jumps at me is the fact that you didn't make a environment map for this scene. It really is easy and would kill the need for most of the details that are popping up repeating in the shop windows. But if your not going to go that way at least kill all the things that really obviously repeat.
BTW great job on the signage! Its amazing how proper signage can bring a world to life!
To build upon what adam wrote and our off-form discussion, I feel the piece is lacking several very important things. Probably the most disappointing thing is that there is nothing decidedly New York City about this piece. I think the buildings in the background are a wasted opportunity at grounding this scene with a distinctly NYC feeling. Assuming this area is near Lower Manhattan, several distinct NYC skyscrapers should be visible that could really ground this location, such at the AIG building, Woolworth Building, One Chase Manhattan Plaza, Manhattan Municipal Building and possibly even 40 Wall Street, among many others.
There is also a lack of atmosphere, which addes a synthetic feeling to this environment. I think Andreas Feiningers New York photographs are a great reference point for achieving a sense of atmospheric depth to an otherwise sterile scene:
There are several parts to this scene I also feel are very contrived and clichéd; I really do not like that Chuck E Cheeses sign (Really? Chuck E Cheeses?). This brings back to my previous point of grounding the scene in a sense of reality. These cobblestone streets, European style street lamps, etc, remind me of Little Italy (or perhaps Greenwich Village?); wouldnt it be nicer and more appropriate to turn these restaurants into some sort of local Italian variety? New York City is known for its pizza, how about a nice local pizzeria as opposed to Chuck E Cheeses? I lived near NYC for 18 years and have visited it countless times, so I'm kind of looking for things that decidedly feel New Yorkian to me. Try to transport the viewer to Manhattan.
The dumpster and oil drums on the sidewalk, can anything get more clichéd? Stuff like that seems very lazy, and is bringing down an otherwise splendid piece of game art. I don't know how I feel about that warehouse-like building, NYC is a clusterfuck of different architectural periods and styles, but that building seems rather inappropriate for some reason. Not to mention those vents coming out of those windows? Maybe consider adding fire escapes to the facades of the buildings? Some of the textures, such as the street, seems too noisy and heavy for my tastes.
Otherwise I think this is a really strong peice; I'm always a sucker for a good urban environment.
If a Chuck E Cheese was in that neighborhood they'd have ripped out that storefront and put in a generic suburban front with giant lights. The store you have now looks like two small shops next to each other.
Looks great so far man!
1. Nothing is screaming NYC, its a game environment and I think it's ok to exxagerate a little bit. Get a prominent NYC building in the background to sell the city. Some taxi cabs or hot dog stands, things that would be common in Manhattan.
2. Textures - texture work is strong, although I think the sunbaked vertex paint is a bit overboard. You can break the variation with a lot more subtle techniques but I appreciate the fact that you paid close attention there in breaking it up.
3. Lighting - I think you could go bolder with the lighting. I like the cools in the shadows but some added warmth would be excellent in addition to more atmospheric perspective. Perhaps more haze or some early morning fog. Anything to help transition the clear view of the foreground, to your mid and background.
All in all, excellent job. The environment is very convincing. Post up some of your techniques, modular assets and textures!
About myself.I'm a games industy experienced artist (14 years) completely self taught (no degree) from sunny Leeds (UK).Currently out of work (like a lot of guys) I thought I'd put my idle time to good use and learn the Cryengine and UDK to create some portfolio worthy stuff.I specialise in environments but also do vehicles and weapons/props.I like to hipoly model/Zbrush when its appropriate but also enjoy the low poly stuff/texturing and lighting etc.
I'm currently looking for work in the games biz (fulltime/contract/offsite/onsite).
When my portfolio site is ready (probably Carbonmade) I'll post it here.
Okay, on with the answers!
Giacomo X - Thanks for the tip.I'll rotate them for my final portfolio shots.
BradMyers82 - I went for a slightly stylised,contrasty look to the weathering on the buildings and my moodboard does support that.When the buildings were more solid they became more dull.
snake85027 - Yes I used normal maps.Their subtle as I didn't want that shiny,sprayed with water look a lot of Unreal games have.Sometimes less is more.
rumblesushi - Took me around two months but you have to factor in learning the engine aswell.The shader part was the most difficult as its so different from its rivals like Cryengine.Also modelling in a very modular way was new to me to.Lighting wise I studied the Unreal levels especially the post processing,World and Direct light settings.The textures are modified and photo sourcing keeps things accurate and fast.
adam - Time constraints meant I had to focus on the foreground buildings not the background ones.Also in my head I surmised the viewer is looking *away* from the city not towards it.Artistic license!
I had thought about doing a rainy night time shot (the cobbles would look sweet) but I have to start earning before I end up working at a Kwik-E-Mart.I'll post some making of stuff soon.
adam (2) - The scene is an anonymous area in that part of the city that maybe the tourists pass through onto somewhere more interesting!Sadly I don't have time for vehicles as they take a fair while and I've already built some (not suitable) ones for my portfolio.I thought of grafitti but (surprisingly) in my refs it was very rare.New Yorkers are proud of their streets!
pliang - Fair points.I suppose the down side to modularity is the repetition that is evident.
I used Stefan Morrels work for inspiration but I'd like to see his stuff run at 30fps on a xbox 360!
Thegodzero - THeir is some environment mapping in the windows but you only notice it when you move the camera.Its too subtle.Its an area I need to look into engine wise.
Eraserhead - The first shot is the master.I built the entire scene with a bookmarked camera at this point.The other shots are more minor and I did them for Polycount/Epic forums.Some may get into my portfolio.The scene is modern day New York not the 1930s so you get modern day signs mixing in with the old architecture.I liked the contrasts in that.The lamps and cobblestones are genuine New York,same goes for the vents just check my moodboard.My refs were 50/50 fire escapes so I cut them out for time reasons.Atmosphere wise you have an advantage on me living near NYC.I'm just a Brit from Leeds whose never even been to the USA!
Moodboard
"I am looking for contract work" should almost always be followed up with contact info of some sort, nay?
Its the little things that'll get you here. Crosswalk lights and garbage cans aren't anywhere to be found. Street signs,Village Voice boxes next to the newspaper boxes, etc.
The largest icon you'd be able to see looking out of the city from down there would be the new Jersey City/Hoboken developments, but you might not be able to see them over buildings that tall. Even that's a tough call.
What might make this easier since you've never been here would be to use Google's street view to grab a area in the village/SoHo/Little Italy ribbon to use as the basis of your piece. Right now it's like you're trying to render a portrait of a person you've never from images of similar people's facial features instead of a shot of the person's whole head.
My work email is eagleleeds@googlemail.com.I've updated my original post as well.
theground- kerbs/gutter need spec work, they look bland and blobby, maybe a couple of varieties and then dislodge the odd stone so theyre not perfectly straight. variation across the road surface deeper cracks towards the edge more smooth shine at the centre, pot holes missing stones, raised sections (roads are fucked). in general the cobbles are too light and not smooth and specular enough.
the windows- to light diffuse, get a dark image of some generic vagues interior on there, and lighten it up with spec and reflectionmapping
the white paint is too clean, and there isnt enough water damage around windows ledges etc etc
with these things sorted i think you will have a slightly better balanced scene
maybe all it needs is some iconic New YOrk building in the background....
Below is a wire view.A bit high polywise for buildings but if your texture blending they
are a must.Since the buildings are only a few floors high its acceptable.
Next is some grabs of my zbrush props.Just a few were necessary.Low poly built first and
then imported into ZB.No crazy detailing as the camera was never going to be close.Xnormal
for the AO\Normal maps and Njob for fine tuning.
Here's some textures.Most at 1024 some go down to 256.To get them onto this
texture sheet means they are not correctly scaled.
Lastly some tiles and prop meshes.Yes the road and pavement take up five sections.Blending
and modularity help!
Thanks for peoples suggestions but work takes priority over portfolio stuff so I'll be pausing anymore work on this scene for the time being.
I'd also like to thank the people in the polycount/UDK community for their generosity in sharing knowledge notably - hourences,laurens corijn,Chris Albeluhn and Waylon Brinck.
You control the blending between textures at the vertex point.More verts =better looking
blends.Best to read this thread for a better explanation.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=66952&highlight=uncharted