Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sky chase level in UDK

itsmadman

Well guys i had the crazy idea of paying homage to Sonic 2 Sky chase level. By creating a UDK level That has the feel a colors of the Sonic 2 game. It would have the sounds and colors with a brand new unreal 3 look. I thought the idea was great until I actually saw the level again after 10 years. then I remember how unimpressive old school graphics were but i was wondering what you guys think. Should I make a level with the sonic sky chase level in mind heres a link to the level

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtNe0nQE-j0[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRwX7ROsiBw&feature=related[/ame]

Im not trying to make a playable level. Just one you can walk around and enjoy the scenery. Overall its just to look good. And feel like something sonic could run around in. It well have painterly textures that fit the old school games but will not look any thing like the newer games with sonic

any thoughts

Needles

Do it just cause the world needs more old school level remakes >_>

A-N-P

I would love to see your rendition of Sonic Sky Chase. Do it!

JohnnySix

+1

Was one of the best bits of the game, would love to see it rendered in 3d.

itsmadman

I was thinking that the first level of sonic was more recognizable. Emerald Hill Zone, If I could combine these two levels and make it work. :poly142:

itsmadman

I found this on the net not entirely what im trying to do but still good for reference

The new Sonic 4 also has a flat interesting some what Ceil shaded feel to there textures


heres the most important reference but still not so pretty



the texturing style i want use needs to be simple but at the same time feel very next gen. One artist came to mind. He won the Unearthly challenge
Bram Eulaers. Ill give him credit because hes awesome and also i think his simple style for this building is perfect for the level




P.S. excuse the big post i kind of consider it my reference book

Laughing_Bun

I voted no, not because it couldn't work or because it's too old school. I just remember looking at your portfolio thread and I don't thing a project like this would be good for your portfolio. It could work and could be very cool if you were able to break it down and utilize the 3 dimensional space. However if its going to be very side Scroller like except in 3d it will just be boring. I imagine that the final product will turn out very visually confusing and your will have to label every image "SONIC RECREATION". I don't know if its the right direction for developing a portfolio. But something Sonic inspired that exists in a fully 3D realm is something I completely support.

Makkon

However if its going to be very side Scroller like except in 3d it will just be boring

http://trine-thegame.com/site/
http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/
http://www.udk.com/showcase-bounty-arms
I don't agree with you, there


@itsmadman: Loving the idea! Though I'd want to go with a more recognizable level, that's just me; I've never seen that level before, I don't know how many people are familiar with it.
Nevertheless, I say go for it!

easterislandnick

Laughing_Bun wrote: »

I voted no, not because it couldn't work or because it's too old school. I just remember looking at your portfolio thread and I don't thing a project like this would be good for your portfolio. It could work and could be very cool if you were able to break it down and utilize the 3 dimensional space. However if its going to be very side Scroller like except in 3d it will just be boring. I imagine that the final product will turn out very visually confusing and your will have to label every image "SONIC RECREATION". I don't know if its the right direction for developing a portfolio. But something Sonic inspired that exists in a fully 3D realm is something I completely support.

No way man, variety is the spice of life! There's loads of work on live games that are side scrollers, it will be hard to pull off but could look awesome! Do it!

ironbearxl

Don't forget Shadow Complex, GOTY!

itsmadman

Well i was never planing on making an actual game. Neither side scroller nor 3D, its just a level that reminds us of a sonic. The feel, the lighting, and definitely the colors. I have a job coding, When i come home i want to make art. I will not be making any thing playable. For the most part it will be 3D, while i do think making a money shoot to the side to give it the original old school look would definitely be something people would want to see

Purplepaint

Definately do it man, its always worth a shot!

itsmadman

I think that the level can have the sky fortress crashed on to the emerald zone level

MattQ86

itsmadman wrote: »

I think that the level can have the sky fortress crashed on to the emerald zone level

This. Maybe with some overgrowth.

itsmadman

Yeah in a way feeling like the sonic world has been neglected some what.

itsmadman

This is not finished so if any one thinks there should be changes made, im listening. I will add tails plane the "tornado" some where in the level i just dont know where. i will also be adding more debris from the sky fortress all around the level. For the most part im posting this to see what you think of the placement of things, and how i should move forward.

okno

This is a nice idea. You could perhaps make the wreckage more diagonal and embedded, maybe have some trees which were torn down by the impact etc.

itsmadman

So i updated my concept art. Again i wont be un-doing any thing but I am interested in what u guys think and also what changes I could make to the final 3-D rendition. all comments welcome

itsmadman

Any one have any ideas on how i should handle the grass in this

MattQ86

Well I think you try to match it to the rest of the scene. If you're going for a more realistic look like the first image you posted having really simplified and iconic shapes for the grass is going to look weird and the same is true of the opposite.

itsmadman

Yeah i think the grass worries me a little, so im going to put that on the back burner until i have other things in the level fleshed out.

itsmadman

sonic 2 had allot of geometric shapes. Simple shapes and colors were necessary back then. I kept the geometric shapes but gave them a stylized next gen feel. To create this I made modular geometric shapes similar to tetris blocks. Simple geometry with normal maps that are not too noisy or complex. These pieces can be placed differently to keep things from feeling too matchy
Heres how they look so far



Also finished the model of the crashed trade mark tornado plane

Szark

Will you be designing this level to be seen from a side-scrolling perspective? That's the one thing I see wrong with your concept, you haven't put much thought into what type of game the level will be for and as a result everything looks quite randomly placed and cluttered. Unless it's not meant to be your final level design?

Oh, and don't knock the old school graphics!

Keep it up!

itsmadman

well its not going to be playable. I could do that but dont want to be bothered with level mechanics or triggers. Its gust about looking good. So u think the concept is cluttered will keep that in mind when building the level. I really just wanted to make sure it looked like a crash site.

P.S. lol i love old school art style thats why im doing this. keeping the old school feel of sonic is very important to me

itsmadman

I dont know maybe the tileing on this guys should be higher any thoughts

itsmadman

Alright i got the 64 bit updated version of UDk. Wow i have not really checked it out yet but theres a big difference in my work with the import from the older UDK. See for your self

itsmadman

oops

itsmadman

Heres some more refrence

seforin

I would like to point you to this mod /new tech demo someone on the sonic retro forums is currently working on.

http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=19981&st=240

I think you can borrow alot of similar elements in which this tech demo is displaying,

I prefer the mixture of "chunky" style of 3D your doing as oppose to more natural overgrowth you see in here and in some examples.

I think some nice shader/rim lighting will also sell your work alot as you go further along!

itsmadman

Awesome. Yeah not to be cocky i think what im going for will be a little more polished then there level but i do have to give them allot of credit for making something playable. Mines not going to be. Thanks for showing me that its getting me even more excited. a friend of mine joked and said what i am doing feels like sonic was dipped in to gears of war and i really want to keep that feeling but you said "shader/rim lighting" could you explain more about what u mean.

Thanks agin

seforin

when you start getting into the materials Rim light is a technique for adding a soft white light to it, similar to the team fortress 2 look, this is also a common technique of many cartoony style games

look at the sonic thread I showed you , you can see it being done in there as well.

I will explain//show the technique when your at that point in your project, for now get block outs and layout's done. When you get to a point of detailing/materials I will give you a hand.

rawrsie

nothing says polish like DOF

itsmadman

Well i know its been a while. Hope u all are still interested. Been blocking the level out and Uving. Just about done with all of the modular pieces. Soon all will be needed is materials. So tell me what u all think so far







comments welcome

seforin

Looking good, I feel that right now its getting a good direction with block outs. Its probably to early but I suggest the areas where the plane has crashed etc, that you impact those areas some, it dosent have be alot in order to keep the same style//consistency you have for the chunky style you have here. But I really do suggest some deformation of a sort.

The lower areas how are you going to fill them? Water ? A terrain area?


something often overlooked in the sonic games I was a big fan of where those organic bouncey flower and right now I feel your scene could use alot of foilage (Im not sure if your still in a whiteboxing phaze right now or not)



The Crashed Tornado(tails plane) Is looking good. Overall it seems you need to bring your shadows tighter (But im assuming again once your past the white box phase that you will handle that)


The X Box beam inside of the airplane is why to squareish ,It should be bent up more maybe 1 of the bars bent completely. Remember sonic had a broad color pallet and much like the older games had a "Chunky" style to it, So dont make a whole bunch of small details but rather smaller Bolder bigger details.

In the case of sonic/megaman/mario less =more

odium

ATM I'm just not feeling it, theres a HELL of a lot of polygons that, to be fair, are doing 100% nothing... Its almost like you made a VERY basic shape and then just hit the mesh smooth. Those blocks that make up the sides, the modular pieces, they just have no real shape to them, and the design looks messy...? I can't comment on anything else as its all a bit too early for anything, other than the view really wont work if your going for a classic look to the scene...

Erm, yeah, like I said, way to early to comment on anything else, but its almost like your rushing into things your not ready for and leaving the very basic stuff behind...?

Just my 0.02c...

seforin

odium: Those extra verticies will be useful if he makes a shader that paints in a 2ndary texture per verticy in unreal. Basically multi texture painting per mesh calls for a bit of geo for it to look slightly correct.

In my opinion having the extra geo when used wisley within unreal is perfectly fine, in game development when working with unreal we rarley hit a "polygonal" limit now days, its mostly all texture call memory we hit, but again using your geo wisley is key here.

BlvdNights

Those block meshes feel way too gummy in terms of the texture.

itsmadman

I agree the blocks need a bit more definition. They need to feel more... blocky. Probably harden the normals. The high poly counts make for good normal maps, and help the lighting(in case i want to go per vertex in some places.) I was wondering if u guys noticed and recognized some of my meshes from the objects in the games. Yeah it looks messy particularly the trees. One reason why i was slow to put up a re-up but thats because the trees dont make much since with out alphas. so they look cluttered. Hopefully the materials will weight every thing done. still allot of work to do

itsmadman

odium i can see now why your giving it such a hard time looking at what this guy did i have my work cut out for me
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxXycBv3Rlk&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

ParoXum

I think you have to block the view you want to work from and take screenshots from in order to make this look more constructed and less random.

Are you doing a 3D remake of a 2D game keeping the camera style or just a regular 3D environment?

itsmadman

regular 3D environment, but honestly allot of things just don't make since without textures. People keep thinking that this is going to be 2.5-D its NOT. true it s inspired by something 2d which makes it hard to transfer some concepts to 3D, but i think i can make a 3D level that feels like sonic

itsmadman

Alright i think im done with my block in. Man i cant wait to pull that wacom tablet out. The first shoot is going to be over all beauty shot, but i feel that there will be a few spots that are going to be strong.
the trees look weird cus they dont have alphas yet, and one side of the normals is invisible, that container is the thing u jump on at the end of levels, while the little ship is Robotknicks boss shuttle





so do u think im ready to texture

itsmadman

what do u guys think

itsmadman

Well been polishing up my textures. Getting really exited. Im going in towards to more painterly style. Wondering how it will fare with sonic and unreal. But still wanted to know if i was going in the right direction with this first model



And heres a sneak peak of the rest of the level

itsmadman

so what do u guys think

Ged

lookin pretty cool to me, Im not a huge sonic fanboy so I dont know what flaws to look for

cholden

I like the modeling, though you may find the tetris pieces to be too dense. Texturing seems really sketchy, but within this style should appear cleaner. The lighting is also very dark for such a set.

cgorbit

i think its looking pretty good! I think you must define what your sonic level will look like. By that I mean through your perspective. I believe that this seems to be going in the right direction. I think that everyones view of sonic will be different. Good Work! Focus on a dedicated camera view to help you see it that way you want us to see it. Keep Going!!!!

cgorbit

i think its looking pretty good! I think you must define what your sonic level will look like. By that I mean through your perspective. I believe that this seems to be going in the right direction. I think that everyones view of sonic will be different. Good Work! Focus on a dedicated camera view to help you see it that way you want us to see it. Keep Going!!!!

itsmadman

Alright this first image is the money shoot of the level with the original concept art
that blue thing in the background is the soon to be waterfall


Heres a few more pics





Heres the tornado plane textured




The lighting has its issues, i still learning about light map uvs. hopefully with some good lighting and finishing off the textures this will be a solid piece;)

cholden

This presentation is pretty brutal. You're using UDK, act like it. This might help
http://www.chrisholden.net/tutor/ot_docs_02_setup02.htm