Nuclear Facility

Captain Narway

Hey everybody! I'm currently working on a scene based in a semi-futuristic nuclear facility. I'm trying to go for an industrial-futuristic feel with it, similar to some of the concept art done in the Halo franchise (hence the multiple halo images in my reference image wall). Lucky for me, polycount has been recently swamped with work from Reach, so I've got a lot of reference to work from there as well! The facility will consist of three floor. I've blocked out the general forms in Maya and done some high-poly work so far and imported some of the meshes into Unreal. I'm slowly learning Unreal as well, so the current lighting is just placeholder until I get farther along on the project. Comments and critiques always welcome!

Edit: I just realized the normals on some of the floor panels are reversed. I suppose I should fix that.

Captain Narway

So I ended up remodeling most of my scene to get more detail; still unfamiliar working with an engine capable of handling so much at once But anyway, redid a lot of the assets and have some base textures on (seams need fixing). I'm leaving baking out the normals until later on for now since I did it once before and it was more or less a waste of time. Still fiddling with lighting as well; the small lights going around the room will provide the primary source of light but I also want to have a blue light spilling out from under the glass and what will be the central grating. For now, I'm going over textures, finishing the stairs, and doing something about the floor-gap where the stairs go. Can't have lights just hanging off the floor halfway now can we?

Habboi

Lighting will really sell this piece so work hard. I am also working on a UDK piece and it is my second scene so I'm always learning. Really get to know the material editor because you can create some amazing textures using nothing but simple shades and complex material nodes.

P.S. Sorta reminds me of that basement in Dead Space 2 with the core that you have to extinguish.

Captain Narway

Thanks for the reply, Habboi! I started working out how to build a decent hologram shader and have been working off of jocose's material setup for his screens in his [thread=77052]Dead Space Hallway[/thread] as a jumping off point. I'm still learning the material editor though so I've run into a few hiccups, mainly the use of alphas in the shaders. I'm not sure whether or not I need alphas in my main textures or if that effect works better by just painting the sections black on a normal layer to give the alpha effect once in Unreal. The idea was that anything around the (placeholder) orange splotch is supposed to be completely transparent because of the alpha channel, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Habboi

I've yet to try alpha's properly but have you used a LERP that connects to your diffuse's alpha channel?

Captain Narway

So I figured out the issue with the material setup. I was under the impression that alphas would be required to make the hologram setup transparent, but in using jocose's hologram material setup, I found that no alphas were involved. Each texture was hooked into the Emissive slot, so I simply had to paint the transparent parts black in order to get the desired effect (if I had been paying more attention in the first place, this would have been incredibly obvious; oh well, ya live and ya learn). I put together a quick base texture for my stair case and made some rails as well for the scene today. Added some more pipes to fill the scene as well but haven't given them any textures yet.

Habboi

At the moment the grey walls and the red bumpy things scream Jedi Academy arena to me

I like the use of yellow on the stairs but I feel it doesn't go so well with the red behind it. At this moment anyway but I'm sure you can work with it and develop it.

But yeah carry on, can't see much more to crit as of yet.

Captain Narway

Update. Have this due for class on Thursday, still have a TON of texture work to do though, as well as finish up some control panels to fill out the scene. Holograms are currently placeholders while I whip up some variations of them for the control panels. I'm still messing with color layout as well, because as you said Habboi, the red and yellow clash pretty badly but I'm still exploring better variations in the scene. The harshest of critiques are absolutely welcome. I need 'em. And thanks for the replies Habboi!

Habboi

Sure, no problem, got nothing better to do

My honest opinion is that if you must keep that yellow then use only yellow and get rid of the red and blue.

Make the glass on the top level the same colour as the one at the bottom. Well I say that but in the second picture it looks different (good different) and that blue tint is letting it down.

All that yellow makes me think of the Hive in that Deus Ex 3 trailer. Maybe look that up. It has some neat glowing textures and shapes.

The scene could also use some post processing. Maybe some sort of smoke or steam coming out of machines. Some light fog maybe.

The ceiling (floor ceiling) could use something to make it less empty.

Watch this Dead Space 2 interview and skip to 1:39 and see how they did the atmosphere in that basement bit with the spinning orb.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQbRlNgLR9g&feature=related[/ame]

Might give you some ideas for some interesting lighting.

SouthpawSid

wow this is rally taking off. I am really liking the color scheme. This is going to turn out nicely!

Addieo

That railing and step colour is looking a bit to orangey at the moment, looks odd in that place imo. Liking the layout, I agree with others by saying that good lights could make or break this piece.

Captain Narway

Yeah I'm going to fiddle with the colors more once I get the rest of the base textures sorted out. I do want to keep the yellow though, since it's a nuclear facility (yellow fits with the scene), and there's going to be a lot of decals going up with the yellow/black striped taped around the area. I'm going to have to play a lot with the lighting, since blue light will be filtering up through part of the scene, but I can't have everything washed out by intense lighting or else the scene will just look really empty.
The Deus Ex 3 trailer was pretty sick, and I'll definitely refer to that and the Dead Space video some more. The glass on each level is the same color, but I think that I may have messed up part of the cubemap when I applied it; I'll be looking into some more post-processing effects in the next few days, as some steam would definitely add to the scene. I have some terminals and electrical wiring to still add to fill out the scene as more as well, so that should help a bit. Thanks for the crits guys!

Captain Narway

Minor update. Been going over textures and colors, as well as playing with the lighting a bit on each floor. I'll be adding some dimmer lights so the rest of the scene will show up, but for now I'm focusing on the areas of focus and the over all tone. Made some hologram panels as well to be added onto some terminals. The holograms could use some play with the contrast since they're pretty blown out at the moment. Calling it a night for now. C&C appreciated!

Lucas Annunziata

Those holograms are looking fantastic captain narwhal! This is really coming together. Keep it coming!

Cheese_Shinobi

Awesome stuff!
I got nothing to contribute really, except keep on going! Love the hologram too, gotto to one of those sometime.

On a sidenote, for a nitpicker like me, there are several images from your concept sheet that is from the LHC(Large Hadron Collider), which isn´t really a nuclear facility. But it suits your scene good!

Captain Narway

So this was due for class today and I didn't manage to fix everything that I wanted to in time, so I'm going to keep hacking away at it. Went over a couple of textures, fiddled with lighting some more among other things. I should probably give those railings some lovin' as well...

Haha yeah, some of the reference material is from... not so nuclear areas. I was just looking for random shapes and inspiration to get me going .

Habboi

That first picture makes me think of the Warp Core room from Star Trek Next Generation :P

You nailed the texture colours well. Perhaps add some poly's to the railings that go vertical. I can clearly see they're 8 sided. Maybe try changing the 02, 01 etc to the same yellow to keep consistency?