US Penitentiary Alcatraz (Environment)
polycounter lvl 9
Hey peoples,
This is my first ever project post on Polycount so please be nice! Only kidding, feel free to crit whatever I post on this thread as much as you like.
Summer is here and I currently have a few months of freedom to abuse, hopefully to bulk up my postfolio! So I thought I would have a crack at an environment that i haven't
really seen around, well not well anyways from what I have seen (you may quote me wrong).
ALCATRAZ! A location that held some of the most notorious men in history.
Visited the place a few months ago and was facinated with the place and that haunting sort of feel that lurks around. Luckily on my visit I collected tonnes of reference
images (Holiday snaps really) which will help thje production of the project. I've visited a few flickr profiles as well just to gather missing pieces that are needed to make
sense of a lot of things.
My plan is to model the main cell blocks first and then if I have time, make my way outside and model the Island down to the waters edge. That idea is only a concept at the
minute as I only have 2 or so months! Want to do other things in the mean times too.
I still need to start my block out stage (in UDK / Maya) but for now I'm going to post a few reference / mood sheets just to give an idea of what is to come. The reference is
a compliation of my own photography as well as others sourced on flickr (thus copyright free). The only things that would really help me right now would to have dimensions of
the building which are hard to find, so if anyone knows a place where I can get these that would be great... If not dont worry!
Reference:
Dining Hall and Kitchen
Cells Blocks and Library
Cell Blocks
Showers and Cells
Maps and Exterior
More Maps and Exterior (Detail)
Exterior Areas (Dock, Recreation Area, Towers ect)
I welcome ANY criticism and advice as I will admit I am still a rookie at all this! Only in my second year of university and still have lots to learn.
In the meantime, stand-by for block-outs!
This is my first ever project post on Polycount so please be nice! Only kidding, feel free to crit whatever I post on this thread as much as you like.
Summer is here and I currently have a few months of freedom to abuse, hopefully to bulk up my postfolio! So I thought I would have a crack at an environment that i haven't
really seen around, well not well anyways from what I have seen (you may quote me wrong).
ALCATRAZ! A location that held some of the most notorious men in history.
Visited the place a few months ago and was facinated with the place and that haunting sort of feel that lurks around. Luckily on my visit I collected tonnes of reference
images (Holiday snaps really) which will help thje production of the project. I've visited a few flickr profiles as well just to gather missing pieces that are needed to make
sense of a lot of things.
My plan is to model the main cell blocks first and then if I have time, make my way outside and model the Island down to the waters edge. That idea is only a concept at the
minute as I only have 2 or so months! Want to do other things in the mean times too.
I still need to start my block out stage (in UDK / Maya) but for now I'm going to post a few reference / mood sheets just to give an idea of what is to come. The reference is
a compliation of my own photography as well as others sourced on flickr (thus copyright free). The only things that would really help me right now would to have dimensions of
the building which are hard to find, so if anyone knows a place where I can get these that would be great... If not dont worry!
Reference:
Dining Hall and Kitchen
Cells Blocks and Library
Cell Blocks
Showers and Cells
Maps and Exterior
More Maps and Exterior (Detail)
Exterior Areas (Dock, Recreation Area, Towers ect)
I welcome ANY criticism and advice as I will admit I am still a rookie at all this! Only in my second year of university and still have lots to learn.
In the meantime, stand-by for block-outs!
Replies
Looks like a good project, but make sure you consider how yoru going to present it. It makes a big difference in how you build things. Having that kind of foresight can be really hard when your first starting out, but its a critical skill to develop.
If your unsure how its going to be presented it might pay to do a quick mockup of the scenes and test out some compositions. If you are just taking screen shots of this you can greatly limit the amount of work you have to do by figuring out exactly what will be on screen.
I think there will be a number of key focal points I want to have but I still need to put more though in to it as its early days yet. Mostly the main Cell Block Corridors (most likely the Isolation Cell Corridor) will be the main focal point as well as the Library.
I'll play around in the block out and work out where the key shots are once completed. Not only do I want to have good looking screen shots but also an ery real-time environment to give that haunting atmosphere Alcatraz is famed to have.
It seems like a bit of work if you're trying to squeeze through a timeline like that. Besides working out composition and putting together ideas, you may want to first nail down the asset and elements that would go into the scene to make it interesting/set up the back story.
Will the environments be playable too? It'd be rad to play this scene through.
Sorry for my absence recently but I've not had a very good week being that my cat of over 10 years died the other day so my spirits haven't been that high. I haven't been in a mood to do much but I've managed to get on with the block-out.
Things have perked up now and time for more ALCATRAZ!
Its all in the very early stages, trying to get scale nailed down and all the most important features nailed which should make the journey smoother further down the line. At the minute I've only blocked out the main cell blocks and corridoors with the balconies and railings. I've taken the time to make sure they are to scale and look right compared to photographic reference.
Please have a look through these early blockout screen shots and tell me what you think scale-wise. If you think I am doing something wrong or could be doing it better then tell me! I would love to know
Forgot to add! Those boxes you see in the last image are for height reference. The box closest is 5.5ft tall, the next one back is 6ft!
Reference image for scale:
Block-out shots:
AO shot just to help things if needed:
I'm getting on with blocking out the exterior walls and adding the library / isolation cell block now. Then move on to the dining hall / kitchen. Finally ending up with the recreation yard outside.
Hit me!